The opening expression In days to come occurs frequently in the Old Testament. Generally, as here, it refers to the fairly distant future, especially the time when the Messiah will come (see Hos 3.5; Dan 10.14). One may translate it as “The time will come when…” or simply “In the future.” The prophets often connected this future time with changes in the shape of the land, especially the land in the Jerusalem area (see Isa 40.4; Zech 14.5-10). It is not clear whether the prophets themselves regarded these statements as literal or figurative, but they are certainly not standard literary figures of speech. Therefore they should be translated literally in order to retain the possibility of a literal interpretation.

The fact that the mountain where the Temple stands will be the highest one of all undoubtedly has a spiritual significance and reflects the preeminence of the Lord, in whose honor the Temple was built. The expression towering above all the hills is rather idiomatic in English and may need to be put more plainly in other languages as “it will be much higher than the other hills.” The meaning here may perhaps be that this mountain will be the highest in the world, not merely the highest of all the mountains in the area. Just how this could happen is not explained here in detail, but the main picture is that this mountain is raised up (see Revised Standard Version) higher than it now is. In similar passages there is also talk of other mountains being leveled (as in Isa 40.4).

Because of the prominence of the Temple and of the Lord whom it represented, Many nations will come streaming to it. Many nations means of course “the people of many nations” and may need to be expressed in this fuller form. In the word streaming, Good News Translation is able to retain a figure of speech very similar to that in the Hebrew, which is literally “they will flow toward it.” If this metaphor is unnatural to a translator, he could either change it to a simile and say “Many nations will come toward it just as a river flows along,” or else change to some other metaphor that is more appropriate to his language. Among English translators, Knox has changed the metaphor by saying “the nations will flock there together.” If no suitable alternative figure of speech can be found, the plain meaning is simply “Many nations will keep coming toward it.”

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 .

In verse 7 the offerings suggested gradually increase in size and value until they reach a climax that is both horrifying and self-defeating. It was quite beyond the ability of the ordinary Israelite to offer thousands of sheep, though on rare state occasions such huge offerings were made (1 Kgs 8.63; 2 Chr 30.24; 35.7). Some translators may need to express the sex of the sheep. As Revised Standard Version “rams” indicates, they were males. Be pleased here means that the Lord will consider that the offering is a good one and will accept it, and therefore he will accept and be happy with the one who brings it.

The next suggestion the worshiper makes is literally “ten thousands of rivers of oil” (Revised Standard Version). The numeral is not meant literally and simply stands for a very large number. Good News Translation expresses this well with its endless streams. Good News Translation also makes it explicit that the kind of oil was the olive oil that was required to accompany grain offerings (compare 6.15; see, for example, Lev 2). Endless streams of olive oil would therefore imply grain offerings vast beyond imagination. Translators should find a good expression in their own language to suggest a huge amount of liquid. It is not likely that endless streams will be the right solution in many languages. In languages where the olive or olive oil is not known, the word chosen for oil should suggest cooking oil. Olives are a kind of fruit that grows on a tree. Another possibility is to say “enough oil to go with huge grain offerings.”

In the last part of verse 7 the speaker seems to realize that all his suggestions are futile. At the climax of the list he suggests something that was forbidden in Israel, namely, child sacrifice. Although this practice was forbidden, it was nevertheless sometimes carried out, as for instance by King Ahaz in 2 Kgs 16.3. Perhaps some reference to this event is intended here.

In the Hebrew this suggestion is made in two parallel clauses (see Revised Standard Version), with synonyms for child (“my first-born” and “the fruit of my body”) and for sin (“transgression” and “sin”). In Good News Translation Shall I offer him my first-born child to pay for my sins? this parallelism is combined into a single clause, and there is no repetition of synonyms. Many translators will find this shorter form of expression more natural in their own languages. First-born means oldest. The Revised Standard Version phrase “the sin of my soul” probably means “my own personal sin” and is adequately conveyed by my sins of Good News Translation. The intended purpose of the child sacrifice was to remove sin, and this is made explicit in to pay for of Good News Translation. Of course, the killing of one’s child counted as murder, and if carried out it would in fact increase the sin of the speaker, not remove it. The sacrifice of the highest possible value is thus shown to be useless in pleasing God. In this way the speaker is partially prepared for the answer that comes from the prophet in the next verse, which ignores the sacrificial system entirely (compare Heb 10.4).

Because human sacrifice is so opposed to the teaching of the Bible, many readers may not realize that this is the meaning here unless it is made very clear. It may be expressed as “Shall I kill my first-born child as an offering?” To pay for may cause problems for some translators. If there is a word to express the payment or other action that is required by the law in order to put right the bad effects of a crime, this can perhaps be used here. In some languages it may be necessary to mention these events in the order in which they occurred and say something like “I have sinned, so should I sacrifice my child to God to pay for my sins?”

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 .

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 .

The heathen armies may intend to capture the city, but verse 12 tells us that these nations do not know what is in the LORD’s mind. His intention is the exact opposite of theirs. They thought that they could destroy Jerusalem, but the Lord has actually brought them together in order to destroy them. What is in the LORD’s mind is Good News Translation‘s way of expressing what is more literally “the thoughts of the LORD” and “his plan” (Revised Standard Version). Translators may use either of these ideas, or both of them. One possible way of expressing the sense is “they do not know what the Lord is planning to do (to them).”

The destruction of the nations is described by a comparison with grain (“corn” in the British edition), which is brought in sheaves or bundles “to the threshing floor” (Revised Standard Version) to be threshed, that is, beaten in order to separate the ears, or heads, from the stalks. Just as grain is gathered together from the fields in order to be threshed, so the nations have been gathered together. This implies something that the Hebrew makes explicit, namely, that the Lord is the one who gathered them. In many languages it will be necessary to state clearly that the Lord is the actor. The reason that the Lord has brought these nations together is so that they can be punished. The punishment means that these nations will suffer the defeat they intended to inflict on Jerusalem.

A popular way of threshing in Old Testament times was to have cattle pull a threshing machine over the wheat. These machines had sharp stones or metal on the bottom, and this was an effective picture of how the nations were to be punished. This verse does not say just what method of threshing the prophet had in mind, though verse 13 does suggest that cattle were involved in some way. If a person is translating for a culture that has any kind of threshing, the ordinary term for it should be acceptable as long as the comparison of threshing to punishment will be understood by the readers. If threshing is not known, it may be possible to drop the comparison to threshing and to say simply “the Lord has gathered them together in order to punish them.” However, even in this case it may be possible to use a descriptive phrase to try to keep the comparison. One suggestion may be “just as farmers bring their wheat together in order to beat it and separate the part that is eaten.”

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 .

This verse and those that follow give the explanation of the figurative language in verse 1. The fruit that the prophet was looking for is identified as people who are honest and loyal to God. The word translated loyal to God (“godly” in Revised Standard Version) is a form of the same Hebrew root translated as “constant love” in 6.8 and 7.18. Honest can be translated as “someone who does what is right.” Loyal here means “always obedient to God,” or “always doing what God wants,” and it includes the idea of acting right toward others, which is one of the main things God wants (6.8). The prophet says that there is no such person left in the land. Land is better than the “earth” of Revised Standard Version, since the prophet is concerned with his own nation in particular rather than the whole world.

The people are pictured as being so bad that everyone is waiting for a chance to commit murder. This is the plain meaning of “lie in wait for blood” (Revised Standard Version). Commit murder may be simply “kill other people” in many languages.

Everyone hunts down his fellow countryman is an expansion of the same idea. The word translated “brother” in Revised Standard Version has a sense here that is wider than “member of the same family,” and so Good News Translation says fellow countryman. The Hebrew, followed by Revised Standard Version, mentions the method of hunting as “with a net.” In areas where this method is known and used, translators may wish to include a reference to it, but where it is not known, translators may prefer to use a general term, such as hunts down in Good News Translation. This is of course only a figurative expression, and it should not be used at all if readers will think it literally describes the way the murder was done. It is a picture of how each person was eagerly searching for ways to take advantage of other people, and how everyone was eager to harm others if he thought he could help himself by doing so.

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 .

Verse 11 continues on the same theme, with a further threat to destroy the cities in your land and tear down all your defenses. It may be that this verse is really using a double expression to speak of a single object: cities and defenses together may simply mean “fortified cities.” The word translated defenses means any place that has been fortified or strengthened to make it easy to defend against an enemy army. It can refer both to places in the mountains that have been fortified, and to fortified cities.

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 .

This verse gives something of a contrast with the two previous verses. Whereas they spoke of the restoration of Jerusalem and its people, this one speaks of the punishment of the enemy nations. They may have been used as God’s instruments for disciplining his people in the past, but they did this work in such a way as to increase their own sins. Therefore the earth, that is, those parts of it outside the territory of the Lord’s people, will become a desert.

To make clear what is meant here by the earth, many translators may want to say something like “the rest of the earth.”

Desert is literally “desolate” (Revised Standard Version). This means an area that has been destroyed, as if by an invading army. If translators cannot find a suitable term, it is possible to say “The earth will become barren” or “The earth will be spoiled.”

The reason why this will happen is clearly given: because of the wickedness of those who live on it. However, it may be clearer in some languages to say “as punishment for the wickedness of those who live on it.” If it is necessary to say who punishes, the Lord can be mentioned here. In 6.16 Jerusalem was an island of ruin amidst a sea of scornful enemies. Here the picture is reversed, and it is an island of blessing amidst a sea of desolation.

Wickedness is literally “the fruit of their doings” (Revised Standard Version). This metaphor is unnatural in English, and Good News Translation has expressed its meaning in plain language. Many translators will need to do the same.

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 .