In Micah’s day, society was mainly agricultural, and wealth was therefore mainly in the form of land. Each family had its own ancestral land, which had originally been distributed by lot after the conquest under Joshua. It had been intended that this family land would never change owners but would remain in the possession of the family forever (see, for instance, Lev 25.23-28; Num 27.1-11; 33.54; 36.1-12). As long as each family did have its own land, the standard of living everyone enjoyed was about the same throughout the community. But after the monarchy was established, the people of the towns and especially of the court began to grow richer than the people of the rural areas. Farmers often did not have enough wealth to enable them to survive a series of bad harvests. They had to sell their ancestral land, which in this way would pass to the rich. It soon happened that the rich were no longer content to wait for misfortune to compel the poor people to sell their land; they would devise ways of forcing them to sell, and would even steal the land if necessary (see Isa 5.8). The courts were in the power of the same rich people (see Micah 3.11; 7.3), and there was no justice for the poor (Amos 5.10-12). The outstanding example of this kind of behavior is recorded in 1 Kings 21, where Ahab and Jezebel had Naboth murdered in order to take over his vineyard. This crime earned God’s judgment, proclaimed through the prophet Elijah.
This oracle of Micah opens quite abruptly with the announcement that those who do … evil to others will soon have the same thing done to them. If the rich could not sleep at night, they would lie awake and plan evil (compare Psa 36.4) instead of thinking about God as the psalmist did (Psa 63.6). During the daylight they would put their plans into effect as soon as they have the chance.
How terrible …: in Hebrew this word is used when expressing great sorrow because someone has died. The Good News Translation translation gives the meaning better than Revised Standard Version, because Revised Standard Version “Woe to” can easily be misunderstood as a wish that evil may come to someone. The Hebrew prophets took this expression, which was usually used at funerals, and used it to make their messages more vivid. God had showed them what was going to happen to the people who did evil. When the prophets cried out, using this word, they were acting as though this punishment had already happened and the sinners were already dead. Many languages have words that are used to express sorrow for someone who has died, and it may be very effective to use these words here. In other languages translators could try to find an expression like Good News Translation‘s How terrible, which will sound as though the prophet is crying out because he has just seen something very bad happen to the people.
The main reason these people are criticized is of course that they plan evil, and not that they lie awake. Their thoughts are so full of their evil plans that they cannot even sleep. Plan evil means to “think of bad things to do to other people.” In some languages it may be necessary to say that this is at night, during the time that they should be sleeping.
It may be necessary for some translators to describe these evil people first, and then to say “Woe to them” at the end of the sentence.
These people can hardly wait for morning to come, so they can do the evil they have planned. The Good News Translation clause as soon as they have the chance fits well into this meaning and is certainly not wrong. The idea is that they may not always be able to carry out their plans immediately. They may have to wait for just the right moment, but they will do these evil things as soon as they can.
However, this clause is translated by Revised Standard Version as “because it is in the power of their hand,” and most other English translations interpret this clause in basically this same way. This is probably a reference to the fact that these rich people are in a position to do whatever they want. No one can or will stop them. This may be translated as “because they can do whatever they want to do,” or as New English Bible says, “knowing that they have the power.”
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 .