The second paragraph in this section consists of verses 5-7. Verse 5 consists of four elements, the second parallel to the first, and the fourth parallel to the third. In the first pair the meanings of the two elements are synonymous and repetitive, as the Revised Standard Version text shows. Good News Translation has therefore dropped the parallel form and repetition of meaning, and expressed the total meaning in a single sentence with the two verbs sinned and rebelled. The double mention of “Jacob” and “the house of Israel” is combined into a single term the people of Israel. As the second half of the verse shows by mentioning both Samaria and Jerusalem, the prophet has both northern and southern kingdoms in mind.
All this refers to the terrible events described in verses 2-4. Whether the translator says will happen or “is happening” depends on whether “come down” in verse 3 (as well as the rest of verses 3 and 4) was translated as a future event, or as a present event that the people could actually see happening.
The rest of the sentence in Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version gives the reason why God is doing (or, will do) these things. It is because the people of Israel have sinned and rebelled. “To sin” is “to do bad things” or “to do things God does not like.” “To rebel” is “to refuse to obey God.” However, these two words are saying almost the same thing in this verse, so it is not necessary for a translator to use two terms. The word translated “rebel” is sometimes translated “to commit a crime.”
The meanings of the second pair of elements in verse 5 are not synonymous, and they are therefore kept as separate units in Good News Translation. In Hebrew each element consists of a rhetorical question, followed by a second question that is in fact the answer to the first. These second questions are translated as statements in Good News Translation in order to make clear that they do indeed serve as answers and are not really further questions. The first question asks Who is to blame for Israel’s rebellion? and thus takes up the verb rebelled from the first part of the verse. The answer, that Samaria is responsible, would have been unexpected and unwelcome to its inhabitants because, as Good News Translation makes explicit, it was the capital city of the northern kingdom. Samaria had become a center for the worship of the fertility gods Baal and Asherah after Jezebel, the pagan wife of King Ahab (874-853 B.C.), started this worship there. See 1 Kgs 16.29-33. Samaria thus became a major source of religious corruption for the whole of Israel, and in due course for Judah also, as is implied in verse 9. Samaria here stands for its inhabitants, and this may need to be made clear in some languages.
The literal meaning in the first question is simply “What is the transgression (or rebellion, or crime) of the northern kingdom?” We might expect a particular evil act to be mentioned as an answer. But the answer is given as Samaria itself. The people of Samaria are not a sin, however, but the cause of sins, or the ones who do sins. Good News Translation has tried to give this idea by asking the question as Who is to blame for Israel’s rebellion?
Who is to blame…? may be translated as “Who is the cause of…?” or “Who is it that has led the people of Israel to rebel?”
The answer is literally a rhetorical question, “Is it not Samaria?” (Revised Standard Version). If a language has a way of putting a question so that the answer is obviously “Yes,” then this can be used here. If there is any danger that a question used as an answer will sound like a real question, it is better to make the answer a statement, as in Good News Translation. The full form of the answer may be stated as “The people of Samaria, the capital city of Israel, are to blame.” But in many languages it will be better to leave out part of this, as it will sound more natural and will still be understood.
The second question in the verse is parallel to the first one. It asks who is responsible for idolatry in Judah, and the second answer is also parallel—it is Jerusalem. It may be necessary in some translations to state again that this is the capital city and that the city stands for its inhabitants. In the second question, Revised Standard Version with its “What is the sin of the house of Judah?” is not translating the Hebrew text but is following the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament begun in the third century B.C. The Hebrew literally asks “What are the high places of Judah?” (King James Version [King James Version]). “High places” is a common Old Testament name for the sites where idolatrous worship was practiced. The meaning of the question is thus “Who is to blame for the high places where the people of Judah go to worship idols?” or “Who is it in Judah who is guilty of going to high places to worship idols?” The main point is of course the idolatry and not the place where it was practiced, and Good News Translation has preferred not to mention the high places themselves. Many translators will prefer to follow the example of Good News Translation, but if the “high places” are mentioned, they can be translated as “hilltops.” However, this should not imply that they are the peaks of high mountains.
“Idols” are “false gods” or “statues.” Idolatry means the worship of idols.
The full form of the answer to this question may be stated as “It is the people of Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah, who worship idols” or “… who are to blame for the idolatry of Judah.”
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 .