When the Lord begins to work miracles for his people again, his activity will have a dramatic effect on the heathen nations around them, just as it did on the Egyptians at the time of the exodus. Many translators may need to refer to these nations as “other nations,” since the nation of Israel is not included. Or, to prepare for the references to mouths and ears later, it may even be best to say “the people of other nations.” They will see this and will be frustrated in spite of all their strength. This understanding seems to fit the context better than the “be ashamed of all their might” of Revised Standard Version, and it is also followed by Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible.

Frustrated may be a difficult word to translate. The idea is that when they see the mighty acts that God is doing, they will realize how weak they really are. In many languages “ashamed” (Revised Standard Version) may give the right meaning. It may also be necessary to restructure here and say “Even though they are so strong, the nations will be ashamed when they see these things that God is doing.” The other understanding of this line, “ashamed of all their might” (Revised Standard Version), is actually very similar in meaning. The nations, who thought they were so strong, will realize that their strength is nothing compared to God’s power, and they will be ashamed of their strength instead of being proud of it.

The nations are pictured as reacting to what they see with symbolic gestures. “They shall lay their hands on their mouths” (Revised Standard Version) because they are too amazed to speak. Also “their ears shall be deaf” (Revised Standard Version). Perhaps this is because of the thunder of the Lord’s voice, as Jerusalem Bible seems to imply with “their ears will be deafened by it.” However, Good News Translation appears to understand that the hands are placed over the ears as well as over the mouth, and translates they will close their mouths and cover their ears. The meaning of these gestures is conveyed in Good News Translation by the addition of the words in dismay, and many translators will also need to include something similar in order to explain the actions described. It is possible that translators who follow the Good News Translation understanding may meet with difficulty on the grounds that it would require three hands to cover both mouth and ears! In that case it is probably best to follow the meaning of Revised Standard Version. But it is also possible just to drop the reference to the actions and express the meaning in plainer language by saying “They will be so dismayed that they can neither speak nor hear.”

It is possible to understand verses 16 and 17 as a request rather than as a prediction, and this is the way that New English Bible and some other versions translate it. If this understanding is followed, the basic concepts are not changed, but the verbs will be. “The nations will see this” will become “May the nations see this” or “Let the nations see this,” and the same kind of change will apply to all the verbs in the two verses.

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 description of the heathen nations’ reaction to the Lord’s miracles continues, and again symbolic actions are used. The first two lines of Revised Standard Version, “they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth,” are two parallel lines expressing a single idea. Good News Translation unites them into a single clause, They will crawl in the dust like snakes. This picture is meant to show the humiliation of the nations, and if this meaning will not be clear, it should be made explicit. One way to express this may be “They will lie with their faces in the dust (like snakes) to show that they are weak and unimportant people.”

In the rest of the verse, Revised Standard Version gives the order of elements as they occur in the Hebrew. Good News Translation reorders the lines to cut down the repetition and to give a smoother style in English. In they will come from their fortresses, trembling and afraid, the word afraid represents what is a whole line in Revised Standard Version, “and they shall fear because of thee.” Thus the nations will acknowledge their defeat and will turn in fear to the LORD our God. Fortresses here refers to places that can be easily defended, where people go to be safe from their enemies. They are not necessarily towns, but it is all right to translate it as “strong town” if no better term seems to be available. Trembling and afraid can also be expressed as “trembling with fear” or “so much afraid that they are trembling.”

The expression turn … to … God is sometimes used in English to refer to people giving up their old ways and becoming true followers of God. The Hebrew includes the idea of somehow turning to God, but the major emphasis is that these heathen nations are afraid of the LORD our God and recognize him as great and powerful. Good News Translation has tried to express both the fear and the idea of yielding to God in They will turn in fear to…. If it is too difficult to express both ideas, it may be enough to express the idea simply as “they will come out from their fortresses, trembling and afraid before you, the Lord our God” (compare Bible de Jérusalem, Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, and New English Bible). Note that Good News Translation does not make explicit that these words are addressed to God as “you,” but there is no reason why this should not be included.

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 .

We have come to the last paragraph in the book, a prayer or hymn of praise to God. Verse 18 opens with a question, “Who is a God like thee…?” (Revised Standard Version). The answer expected is clearly that there is no one like God, and so Good News Translation restructures the question as a negative statement, There is no other god like you, and adds O LORD, to show who is being spoken to. No matter how this is expressed, some translators may be hesitant to allow people to think that there are any other gods at all, even if they are not like the Lord. The problems in 4.5 are somewhat similar to this, and it may be useful to reread the discussion there on how to talk about the “gods” of other nations. As for this verse, we should note that in many languages these words would not be understood as saying that other gods do exist. It may be just a way of speaking, looking at the situation from the point of view of other peoples. Therefore it would seem best to follow the Hebrew wording here if at all possible. But if a translation will definitely suggest to the readers that the prophet is stating that other gods exist, then a translator should try to find some others way of expressing this idea. In that case, something like “No other god like you exists” or “There is no one like you, O God” may be a possibility.

The characteristic of God that marks him off as unique is here stated as his ability and willingness to forgive sin. In the Hebrew in this verse and the next, three common terms for sin are used (Revised Standard Version “iniquity” and “transgression” in verse 18, and “iniquities” and “sins” in verse 19). This has the effect of emphasizing the completeness of God’s ability to forgive all kinds of sin. If a translator has several words available in his language for sin in its different aspects, it would be good to use a variety in this passage. Good News Translation uses only the word sins in both verses, partly because the other terms available in English are less commonly known and therefore more difficult to the reader. Good News Translation also cuts out the parallel expressions “pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression” (Revised Standard Version), combining these statements into a single one, you forgive the sins of your people.

This experience of forgiven sin is for “the remnant of his inheritance” (Revised Standard Version), that is to say, those of God’s people who are still alive after the nation has been punished. Good News Translation expresses this as your people who have survived. The Hebrew word that is used for “inheritance” is the same term that occurred in verse 14, and it is represented by the words your people in Good News Translation. In some languages it may be necessary to make explicit what it is that the people have survived. One can say something like “your people who are still alive after we have been punished” or “those of your people whom our enemies have not destroyed.” It may also be confusing in some languages for the people to refer to themselves simply as your people, as though they were speaking about someone other than themselves. It may be better to use an expression like “us, who are your people.”

In Hebrew the second half of verse 18 and the first half of verse 19 are in the third person, whereas the beginning of verse 18, the end of verse 19, and the whole of verse 20 are in the second person. Some scholars think that this indicates that these verses were used for responsive reading or chanting. For many translators the change from second person to third person and back to second is very awkward and interrupts the flow of the sense. A number of modern English translations (Good News Translation, Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, New International Version, and Moffatt) keep the second person throughout the three verses, and most translators will prefer to do the same.

God may be angry with his people when they provoke him by their sins, but once they have been punished, he does not stay angry forever but takes pleasure in showing … constant love. Constant love is the quality that God has always shown toward his people in fulfillment of his covenant relationship with them. It is the quality that he expected his people to show toward him in return. At the opening of the court scene in 6.1-5, the Lord charged his people with failing to fulfill their side of the covenant, and in 6.8 the requirement of constant love was again emphasized. The same Hebrew root occurred again in 7.2, where the prophet complained of the lack of people “loyal to God.” Despite this he retains his assurance that the constant love of the Lord never changes, and that it is the basis for his willingness to forgive his people for their sins. The recurrence of this theme is one of the unifying factors in chapters 6 and 7, and it will be useful if translators can find some word or expression in their own language that may be used in all four places. However, this should not be done if there is no expression that sounds natural in all these contexts.

Note that Good News Translation makes explicit the objects of God’s constant love by including the word us. It may be necessary to restructure the last clause of this verse, since many languages may express these ideas in quite different ways. One possibility may be “you always love us faithfully.” There is a difference in emphasis between Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation in the way they relate the two clauses of this sentence. Revised Standard Version says that God does not stay angry “because” of his love. Good News Translation connects the two parts with the word but, simply contrasting the two attitudes. Translators may feel free to use whichever relationship sounds best in their languages.

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 outburst of praise continues in verse 19 along the same lines. First is the general statement that the Lord will be merciful to us once again. Be merciful or “have compassion” (Revised Standard Version) refers to the concern and care that a person gives to someone weaker than he is, someone for whom he feels responsible. In many languages the usual word for “love” often has a meaning quite close to this. Once again refers back to the time before God began to punish Israel for their sins, when he had been merciful to them as he will be again.

Then come further pictures of how he forgives sins and removes them completely. The first picture says that the Lord will trample our sins underfoot. This action demonstrates his complete victory over our sin. The theme recalls the treatment of the enemies of God’s people in verse 10, though the words used here are different. The symbolic meaning of the treading will probably be clear in most languages. If it is not, it can be made clearer by turning the metaphor into a simile and saying “You will conquer our sins as if you trampled them underfoot.” Some languages will have a single word that means “trample underfoot.”

The second picture speaks of sins being “cast … into the depths of the sea” (Revised Standard Version). The point is that sins are totally and permanently removed. Again, the meaning should be clear, but if necessary the metaphor can be turned into a simile. A translation base may be “You will remove our sins as if you dropped them to the bottom of the sea.”

The themes of verses 18 and 19 recur in the form of a simple pattern. This is shown as follows, quoting the keywords from Revised Standard Version:

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 this verse Abraham and Jacob are ancestors of the nation, but their names are used to represent their descendants, and Good News Translation makes the relationship explicit. The opening part of the verse uses typical Hebrew parallelism (Revised Standard Version “faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham”). Good News Translation retains all the elements of this parallelism but expresses them in an order that is more natural for English: You will show your faithfulness and constant love to your people, the descendants of Abraham and of Jacob. Notice that the names here occur in the order opposite to that in the Hebrew. This is because English prefers to follow the chronological order and mention the earlier ancestor first. Many translators will wish to do the same.

The Lord’s faithfulness and constant love are the proof that he observes his side of the covenant that he promised our ancestors long ago. Thus the Book of Micah, despite its threats of punishment in the earlier chapters, ends on a note of joy and confidence that the nation will eventually enjoy a restored relationship with the Lord. The ancestors referred to here are primarily Abraham and Jacob but could include all the ancestors alive at the time the covenant was made at Sinai. Constant love is the same expression as that used in verse 18. Faithfulness is a word used here as a parallel term for constant love, bringing out the part of the meaning already expressed by constant in Good News Translation. As long as translators use an expression that includes this meaning, there is no need to try to find two separate expressions in this verse.

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 .