Verses 3-4 say more about the Lord’s disapproval of the evil rich and about the form their punishment will take. Verse 3 echoes the very words of verse 1, as the Lord says that he is planning … disaster (verse 3) for those who plan evil (verse 1). The Hebrew verb for plan is the same in both places, and the two nouns evil and disaster are formed from the same root. English requires two different words according to the two contexts, but in other languages there may be a single term that fits both. If such a term can be found, its use will serve to emphasize the way verse 3 is related to verse 1.
In the Hebrew the Lord’s speech begins with the word translated “Behold” (Revised Standard Version). This is a way of showing that something new and unexpected is about to happen. It is not an easy term to translate into English, but translators in languages that have an appropriate expression of this sort should use it here. Jerusalem Bible here has “Now it is I who plot,” which gives something of the force of “Behold,” as well as helping to draw attention to the fact that the Lord is acting toward the evil men as they have acted toward others.
On you: the first line of the Lord’s speech refers to the evildoers as “this family” (Revised Standard Version), which may be an insulting way of talking about them. In the rest of the speech, however, the Lord addresses them directly as “you” (plural), and Good News Translation felt that it is clearer to use you at the beginning as well. Many translators will want to keep the same form of address throughout, but if there is a somewhat insulting form of “you” that will be all right for God to use, it may be appropriate here. A possibility in English may be “you gang” or “you crew.”
The disaster that the Lord will bring will be such that the rich will not be able to escape it. Here there is in the Hebrew a metaphor of an ox yoke that will be put on the rich, and from which “you cannot remove your necks” (Revised Standard Version). In cultures where plowing with oxen is familiar, it may be more vivid to retain the metaphor as long as it sounds natural in the language. New English Bible links the metaphor with the clause that follows it by translating “whose yoke you cannot shake from your necks and walk upright.” Other major English versions take the “upright” as a figurative expression representing arrogance, and render “haughtily” (Revised Standard Version) or “proudly” (Jerusalem Bible, New International Version). Good News Translation follows this interpretation and also reorders the last two clauses of the verse to put the reason (You are going to find yourselves in trouble) before the result (and then you will not walk so proudly any more). Translators should follow the clause order that is most natural in the receptor language.
The most natural expression in many languages may be closer to “it will be an evil time” (Revised Standard Version) than to You are going to find yourselves in trouble, but the meaning is the same, and translators should not necessarily try to follow either English expression exactly.
Although Good News Translation has dropped the reference to the yoke on the necks, it has kept the figurative expression, walk so proudly. This refers to the proud attitude of the evildoers, and some translators may need to use a more general term that does not mention walking.
Any more has been added by Good News Translation to show that, up until this time when God punished them, these people have been walking proudly. Other languages may have quite different ways of conveying this same idea, or it may be correct to leave it implicit, as it is in the Hebrew.
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 .