Micah 4 (NET)

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

1 In the future1 the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all;2

it will be more prominent than other hills.3

People will stream to it.

2 Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple4 of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands5

and we can live by his laws.”6

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem.7

3 He will arbitrate8 between many peoples

and settle disputes between many9 distant nations.10

They will beat their swords into plowshares,11

and their spears into pruning hooks.12

Nations will not use weapons13 against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

4 Each will sit under his own grapevine

or under his own fig tree without any fear.14

The Lord who commands armies has decreed it.15

5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods,16

we will follow17 the Lord our God forever.

Restoration Will Follow Crisis

6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,

and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.18

7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,19

and those far off20 into a mighty nation.

The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,

from that day forward and forevermore.”21

8 As for you, watchtower for the flock,22

fortress of Daughter Zion23 –

your former dominion will be restored,24

the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.

9 Jerusalem, why are you25 now shouting so loudly?26

Has your king disappeared?27

Has your wise leader28 been destroyed?

Is this why29 pain grips30 you as if you were a woman in labor?

10 Twist and strain,31 Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!

For you will leave the city

and live in the open field.

You will go to Babylon,

but there you will be rescued.

There the Lord will deliver32 you

from the power33 of your enemies.

11 Many nations have now assembled against you.

They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated,34

so we can gloat over Zion!”35

12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;

they do not understand his strategy.

He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed36 at the threshing floor.

13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!

For I will give you iron horns;37

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.”38

You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler39 of the whole earth.40

1tn Heb “at the end of days.” 2tn Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.” 3tn Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.” 4tn Heb “house.” 5tn Heb “ways.” 6tn Heb “and we can walk in his paths.” 7tn Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4. 8tn Or “judge.” 9tn Or “mighty” (NASB); KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “strong”; TEV “among the great powers.” 10tn Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.” 11sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow. 12sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle. 13tn Heb “take up the sword.” 14tn Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.” 15tn Heb “for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.” 16tn Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life. 17tn Heb “walk in the name of.” 18sn The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep. 19tn Heb “make the lame into a remnant.” 20tn The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (hala’, “to be far off”; see BDB 229 s.v.), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannil’ah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (la’ah). 21tn Heb “from now until forever.” 22tn Heb “Migdal-eder.” Some English versions transliterate this phrase, apparently because they view it as a place name (cf. NAB). 23sn The city of David, located within Jerusalem, is addressed as Daughter Zion. As the home of the Davidic king, who was Israel’s shepherd (Ps 78:70-72), the royal citadel could be viewed metaphorically as the watchtower of the flock. 24tn Heb “to you it will come, the former dominion will arrive.” 25tn The Hebrew form is feminine singular, indicating that Jerusalem, personified as a young woman, is now addressed (see v. 10). In v. 8 the tower/fortress was addressed with masculine forms, so there is clearly a shift in addressee here. “Jerusalem” has been supplied in the translation at the beginning of v. 9 to make this shift apparent. 26tn Heb “Now why are you shouting [with] a shout.” 27tn Heb “Is there no king over you?” 28tn Traditionally, “counselor” (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This refers to the king mentioned in the previous line; the title points to the king’s roles as chief strategist and policy maker, both of which required extraordinary wisdom. 29tn Heb “that.” The Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) is used here in a resultative sense; for this use see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450. 30tn Heb “grabs hold of, seizes.” 31tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.” 32tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). 33tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control. 34tn Heb “let her be desecrated.” the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity. 35tn Heb “and let our eye look upon Zion.” 36tn The words “to be threshed” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the Lord is planning to enable “Daughter Zion” to “thresh” her enemies. 37tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.” 38sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves. 39tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.” 40tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.sn In vv. 11-13 the prophet jumps from the present crisis (which will result in exile, v. 10) to a time beyond the restoration of the exiles when God will protect his city from invaders. The Lord’s victory over the Assyrian armies in 701 b.c. foreshadowed this.