1tn Heb heads.
2tn Heb house.
3tn Heb Should you not know justice? The rhetorical question expects the answer, Of course you should!
4tn Heb the ones who.
5tn Or good.
6tn Or evil.
7tn Heb their skin from upon them. The referent of the pronoun (my people, referring to Jacob and/or the house of Israel, with the Lord as the speaker) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
8tn Heb and their flesh from their bones.
sn Micah compares the social injustice perpetrated by the house of Jacob/Israel to cannibalism, because it threatens the very lives of the oppressed.
9tn Heb who.
10tc The MT reads and they chop up as in a pot. The translation assumes an emendation of rv#a&K^ (K^a&v#r, as) to ra@v=K! (like flesh).
11tn Heb then they will cry out to the Lord. The words Someday these sinners have been supplied in the translation for clarification.
12tn Heb concerning the prophets, those who mislead my people. The first person pronominal suffix is awkward in a quotation formula that introduces the words of the Lord. For this reason some prefer to begin the quotation after the Lord says (cf. NIV), but this leaves concerning the prophets hanging very awkwardly at the beginning of the quotation. It is preferable to add yoh (hoy, woe, ah) at the beginning of the quotation, right after the graphically similar hw`hy+ (y+hw`h; see D. Hillers, Micah, 44). The phrase lu^ yoh (hoy u^l, woe upon) occurs in Jer 50:27 and Ezek 13:3 (with the prophets following the preposition in the latter instance).
13tn Heb those who bite with their teeth and cry out, peace. The phrase bite with the teeth is taken here as idiomatic for eating. Apparently these prophets were driven by mercenary motives. If they were paid well, they gave positive oracles to their clients, but if someone could not afford to pay them, they were hostile and delivered oracles of doom.
14tn Heb but [as for the one] who does not place [food] in their mouths, they prepare for war against him.
15tn Heb it will be night for you without a vision.
sn The coming of night (and darkness in the following line) symbolizes the cessation of revelation.
16tn Heb it will be dark for you without divination.
sn The reading of omens (Heb divination) was forbidden in the law (Deut 18:10), so this probably reflects the prophets view of how they received divine revelation.
17tn Heb and the day will be dark over them.
18tn Or seers.
19tn Or the mustache, or perhaps the beard.
20tn Heb for there will be no answer from God.
21sn The prophet Micah speaks here and contrasts himself with the mercenaries just denounced by the Lord in the preceding verses.
22tn Heb am full of power, the Spirit of the Lord, and justice and strength. The appositional phrase the Spirit of the Lord explains the source of the prophets power. The phrase justice and strength is understood here as a hendiadys, referring to the prophets strong sense of justice.
23tn Heb to declare to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin. The words this enables me are supplied in the translation for clarification.
24tn Heb house.
25tn Heb house.
26tn Heb who. A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons (also at the beginning of v. 10).
27tn Heb who.
28tn Heb bloodshed.
29map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
30sn The pronoun Her refers to Jerusalem (note the previous line).
31tn Heb judge for a bribe.
32tn Heb they lean upon.
33tn Heb Is not the Lord in our midst? The rhetorical question expects the answer, Of course he is!
34tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.
35tn Or into (an adverbial accusative of result).
36tn Heb the mountain of the house.
37tn Heb a high place of overgrowth.