This verse and the next give a series of statements parallel in structure. Each statement has two lines, or clauses, in the Hebrew. The first line describes some normal activity of the people, and the second line describes how the usual expected result of that activity will not happen. In these ways the people will be punished for their sins.
The main aspect of the punishment is hunger. The people will eat, but not be satisfied. Satisfied refers to the feeling of having had enough to eat. In some languages not be satisfied can be expressed as “you will still feel hungry.” In that case, this clause and the next will probably have to be combined.
The implication is that there will not be enough food, so that they will still be hungry. This second clause contains a word of unknown meaning. Revised Standard Version “hunger” and Good News Translation hungry are both guesses based on the context, and they fit the context well. New English Bible “your food shall lie heavy on your stomach” suggests indigestion rather than hunger, and matches neither the opening line nor the statements that follow.
The people will carry things off, but … will not be able to save them. The Hebrew does not indicate what kind of things are in mind. However, life in Micah’s day was mainly agricultural, and the references in the following verse are to farming, so that the things may refer to normal farm produce. If the people manage to keep anything long enough to save it, the Lord will destroy it in war. This is the meaning of the Hebrew “I will give to the sword” (Revised Standard Version). Such an expression usually refers to the killing of people, but it can also have an extended sense and refer to the destruction of property. This is the way Good News Translation seems to take it, and it fits with the suggestion above that the things in mind are the agricultural products of verse 15. This second half of verse 14 is then a general statement to which verse 15 adds specific examples. Carry … off is probably best understood as meaning “carrying away so that the things can be stored for future use,” as one might do with certain crops, for example.
The purpose of putting these things away is to save them, but something will happen to the things, and the people will not be able to save them. This seems to contradict the next statement, anything you do save, but it is a typical Hebrew way of speaking (compare 1.7). This contradiction may not bother readers in many languages, but if it is a problem, the translator can make some small adjustment. For example, one can say “You will hardly be able to save any of these things, and the things you do save I will destroy in war.” I will destroy in war can be translated as “I will send your enemies to destroy.”
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 .