This verse repeats the accusation that the people have been disloyal to God, and it also repeats the threat that God will punish them.

Here the people’s sin is stated in terms of a historical example. They had “kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab” (Revised Standard Version). Omri was politically one of the most important kings of the northern kingdom of Israel. He ruled from 885 to 874 B.C. and was followed by his son Ahab from 874 to 853 B.C. The family of Omri held the throne longer than any other family in the northern kingdom, yet they were outstanding for their wickedness. Ahab encouraged people to worship foreign gods because he was under the influence of his pagan wife Jezebel. He is condemned especially for this in 1 Kgs 16.23-24; 21.25-26.

Notice how Good News Translation has built into its translation some of the information that is only implicit in the Hebrew. The words This will happen because link this verse with those that precede. In the rest of the sentence, you have followed the evil practices of King Omri and of his son, King Ahab, the words evil, King, and his son are all added to make explicit to the modern reader information that was already known to the original hearers or readers. Most translators will find it helpful to their readers if they do the same. Followed means “to do the same thing that someone else does,” or “to copy.” Evil practices could be translated as “the evil things they did.”

On the other hand, Good News Translation has translated the literal “of the house of Ahab” as of his son, King Ahab. “The house of Ahab” means Ahab and the others of his family who became kings. Ahab was followed as king first by one son, Ahaziah, then by another son, Joram or Jehoram. These were the last kings of Israel who came from the family of Omri and Ahab. Both Ahaziah and Joram are called evil kings (see 1 Kgs 22.52 and 2 Kgs 3.2). The whole line can be restructured as “you have done the same evil things that King Omri and his son King Ahab and the others of their family did.” Or it may be easier in some languages to say “… and his son King Ahab and his sons did.”

The people of Micah’s day, about 150 years later than Omri and Ahab, had followed the bad example of these kings and could thus be said to have continued their policies. Policies means “their usual way of acting.” Because of their evil deeds, the Lord would bring these people to ruin. This can be translated as “destroy your country.” The prophets probably thought that this would happen by sending an enemy army to conquer them. When this happened, all the neighboring nations would despise them. This is the meaning of the expression “make … your inhabitants a hissing” (Revised Standard Version). In places where hissing is used as a sign of scorn, translators may be able to mention hissing, but even then they will probably need to expand the sentence and say “I will make the people of other nations hiss at you.”

The last sentence of the verse repeats the sense of the previous one. Good News Translation has restructured the literal translation of Revised Standard Version into simple and natural modern English: People everywhere will treat you with contempt. People everywhere refers to “the people of other nations.” If this group has just been mentioned in the previous line, translators could just refer to them with a pronoun, “they,” or perhaps one could even combine the last two lines of this verse, since the meaning of the two is so similar.

As the footnotes in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation show, the reading “peoples” or People everywhere follows the ancient Greek translation. If the Hebrew text is followed, the meaning of the final line is as in Good News Translation‘s second footnote. The thought is then that the people of Israel deserve to be scorned by other nations, even though they are God’s people, because they have disobeyed him.

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 .