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Micah

About this book
Chapter 4

1 And in future days the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; it will be more prominent than other hills. People will stream to it.⁠ 2 Many nations will come, saying, “Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of Jacob’s God, so he can teach us his ways and we can live by his laws.”⁠ For instruction will proceed from Zion, the Lord’s message from Jerusalem. 3 He will arbitrate between many peoples and settle disputes between many distant nations. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not use weapons against other nations, and they will no longer train for war.⁠ 4 Each will sit under his own grapevine or under his own fig tree without any fear.⁠ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed it. 5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, we will follow the Lord our God forever.⁠ 6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame and assemble the outcasts whom I injured. 7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation and those far off into a mighty nation. The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion, from that day forward and forevermore. 8 As for you, watchtower for the flock, fortress of Daughter Zion—your former dominion will be restored, the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.”⁠ 9 Jerusalem, why are you now shouting so loudly? Has your king disappeared? Has your wise leader been destroyed? Is this why pain grips you as if you were a woman in labor?⁠ 10 Twist and strain, Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor! For you will leave the city and live in the open field. You will go to Babylon, but there you will be rescued. There the Lord will deliver you from the power of your enemies. 11 Many nations have now assembled against you. They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, so we can gloat over Zion!” 12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning; they do not understand his strategy. He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed at the threshing floor. 13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion! For I will give you iron horns; I will give you bronze hooves, and you will crush many nations.” You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler of the whole earth.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Micah 4:9 and LXX Micah 4:9

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Micah asks “why are you now shouting so loudly?” addressing a present crisis. The Greek Septuagint changes this to “why did you learn evil things?” shifting the question from a present battle cry to a past accusation of sin.

Passages

Micah 4:9

Hebrew Bible
8 As for you, watchtower for the flock, fortress of Daughter Zion—your former dominion will be restored, the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.” 9 Jerusalem, why are you now shouting so loudly? Has your king disappeared? Has your wise leader been destroyed? Is this why pain grips you as if you were a woman in labor? 10 Twist and strain, Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor! For you will leave the city and live in the open field. You will go to Babylon, but there you will be rescued. There the Lord will deliver you from the power of your enemies.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Micah

LXX Micah 4:9

Septuagint
8 And you, dark tower of the flock, daughter of Zion, on you the dominion shall come and enter in, even the first kingdom from Babylon to the daughter of Jerusalem. 9 And now, why have you known evil things? was there not a king to you? or has your counsel perished that pangs as of a woman in labor have seized upon you? 10 Be in pain, and strengthen yourself, and draw near, daughter of Zion, as a woman in labor: for now you shall go forth out of the city, and shall lodge in the plain, and shall reach even to Babylon: from there the Lord your God shall deliver you, and from there he shall redeem you out of the hand of your enemies.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Micah

References

"... The translator read תֵּדְעִי “you will know” or הוֹדִיעִי “you will make known” for תָּרִיעִי “raise a shout” (common resh/dalet confusion in the Assyrian square script or paleo-Hebrew script and missed yod or added waw). This mistake was likely influenced by reading רַע “evil, bad” for רֵעַ “a shout.” The two qatals אָבַד “he perished” and הֶחֱזִיקָךְ “it has seized you” influenced how the translator rendered tense in ἔγνως “you knew” and μὴ βασιλεὺς οὐκ ἦν σοι “was there no king for you?” Though the adverb of negation אֵין “there is/was not” can be used for past time, in the context the Hebrew would be most naturally understood in present time. However, the translator took advantage of the grammatical ambiguity to clarify the time reference for the target audience ..."
Steve Modugno, “Translation Shifts in LXX-Micah as Clues to its Theology and Ideology,” in Construction, Coherence and Connotations: Studies on the Septuagint, Apocryphal and Cognate Literature, ed. Johann Cook and Hermann-Josef Stipp (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2016), 178.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Micah 4:9 and LXX Micah 4:9

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