The words of the Lord continue in this verse and the next. The argument proceeds by stating some of the ways in which the Lord had blessed his people and thus carried out his obligations to them under the covenant. The two statements I brought you out of Egypt and I rescued you from slavery are two ways of referring to the events of the exodus. These two expressions are often joined together (see Exo 13.3; Deut 5.6; 6.12; Jer 34.13). God’s covenant with the people of Israel was actually based on the fact that he had saved them from Egypt (Exo 20.2). The acts of mercy mentioned in this verse therefore occurred before the covenant itself, before the Lord had such formal obligations to the people.

Slavery is literally “the house of slaves,” which is a figurative way of talking about Egypt in terms of the experience of the Israelite people there. If there is no good term for slavery in a language, this may be translated “the place where we were forced to work very hard.” A term like “prison labor” may be correct in some languages. Translators should be sure that it is clear that the two expressions (brought you out of Egypt and rescued you from slavery) refer to the same act, not to two completely separate acts.

It is also important to be sure that the connection between verses 3 and 4 is clear. One suggestion about this was given at the end of the discussion on verse 3. Moffatt connects them by putting verse 4 in the form of rhetorical questions such as “Did I not bring you up from Egypt’s land?” Traduction œcuménique de la Bible uses ironical questions that ask “Did I trouble you by bringing you up from Egypt?” and so on. In Hebrew the word for “be a burden” in verse 3 also sounds very much like “bring you out” in verse 4, which helps to show the contrast between what the people seem to think God did and what he actually did for them. In some languages it may be effective to use words with similar sounds, as the Hebrew does.

Another thing that the Lord had done was to send Moses, Aaron, and Miriam as leaders of the people, at the time of the exodus and afterward. Aaron and Miriam are mentioned only here in the writings of the prophets. They were both older than Moses, and probably Miriam was the oldest of the three. Translators need to consider the rules of their languages and decide whether it will be more natural to list the most important first or the oldest first. In languages where it is the custom to mention the oldest of a family first, the translator may give the names in reverse order: Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. In Hebrew and English, Moses is mentioned first because he was the main leader of the people. I sent them to lead you may be translated as “I chose them as your leaders.”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on Micah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .