The Living Bible (522 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
1:5
the people of Syria shall return to Kir.
Decreeing that the Syrians should go back to Kir as slaves was like saying to the Israelites that they must go back to Egypt as slaves, for the Syrians had made their exodus from Kir and now were free; see 9:7.
1:12
Teman . . . Bozrah.
Teman was in the north of Edom and Bozrah in the south. The entire country was to be devastated.
2:11
to be Nazirites,
see Numbers 6.
1:1
Edom.
A nation southeast of Israel including Petra, the city hewn from rocks; her southern boundary was on the Gulf of Aqaba.
1:9-10
I am a Jew,
literally, “I am a Hebrew.”
3:3
so large that it would take three days to walk through it.
The Hebrew text makes no distinction between the city proper—the walls of which were only about eight miles in circumference, accommodating a population of about 175,000 persons—and the administrative district of Nineveh, which was about thirty to sixty miles across.
3:4-5
the rough, coarse garments worn at times of mourning,
implied.
4:3
when nothing that I told them happens,
implied.
4:5
sat sulking,
implied.
4:11
with its 120,000 people in utter spiritual darkness,
or “with its 120,000 children who don’t know their right hands from their left.”
1:7
will all be burned,
literally, “they shall return to the hire of a harlot.”
1:11
There go the people of Shaphir.
In the Hebrew there is frequent wordplay in vv. 10-14. Micah bitterly declaims each town, demonstrating by the use of puns their failures.
Shaphir
sounds like the Hebrew word for “beauty,” here contrasted with their shame;
Zaanan
sounds like the verb meaning “to go forth,” here contrasted with the fear of its inhabitants to venture outside;
Beth-ezel
sounds like a word for “foundation,” which had been taken away from them.
1:14
Moresheth,
Micah’s hometown (1:1).
2:13
The Messiah,
literally, “He who opens the breach.”
5:5
the Assyrian.
The area of ancient Assyria is now known as Iraq.
6:14
See Haggai 1:6.
7:13
But first comes terrible destruction to Israel,
literally, “But the land will be desolate because of its inhabitants.”
1:1
Nineveh
was the capital of Assyria.
1:11
Who is this king,
implied in vv. 1 and 13, also in 3:18.
2:1
Nineveh, you are finished!
This chapter predicts the events of the year 612
B.C.
when the combined armies of the Babylonians and Medes sacked the impregnable Nineveh.
3:4
then taught them all to worship her false gods,
literally, “who betrays nations with her harlotries.”
3:8
Are you any better than Thebes?
Thebes was conquered by the Assyrians fifty-one years before this prophecy.
1:6
the Chaldeans,
a tribe of Semites living between Babylon and the Persian Gulf, who began to assert themselves against the Assyrians around 630
B.C.
and twenty-five years later had mastered most of the Near East.
1:11
The Hebrew text of this verse is very uncertain.
2:2
on a billboard,
literally, “on the tablets.”
2:3
If it seems slow,
or “If he seems slow.”
2:4
as these Chaldeans do,
implied.
the righteous man trusts in me and lives,
or “the righteous shall live by his faith.”
3:1
of triumph,
literally, “according to Shigionoth”—thought by some to mean a mournful dirge.
3:3
from Mount Sinai,
literally, “from Teman . . . from Mount Paran.”
3:4
He rejoices in his awesome power,
or “He veils his power.”
3:8-9
Literally, “Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? Were you angry with them? Was your wrath against their sin that you rode upon your horses? Your chariots were salvation. Your bow was pulled from its sheath and you put arrows to the string. You ribboned the earth with rivers.”
3:10
announcing its surrender to the Lord,
literally, “and lifts high its hands.”
1:1
The Great Revival under King Josiah followed about ten years after this prophecy, and then, a dozen years later, the deportation and exile. The prophet Jeremiah was active during this same period.
1:7
has chosen their executioners,
literally, “has prepared a sacrifice and sanctified his guests.”
1:8
wearing heathen clothing,
i.e., showing their desire for foreign gods and foreign ways and their contempt for the Lord.
1:18
You cannot ransom yourselves with it,
implied.
2:5
Philistines,
literally, “Cherethites [or Cretans].” With the Philistines, they were part of a great wave of immigrants to the southern coast of Palestine around 1200
B.C.
2:15
will mock or shake his head in disbelief.
“Nothing seemed more improbable than that the capital of so vast an empire, a city of sixty miles around with walls 100 feet high and so thick that three chariots could go abreast on them, and with 1500 towers, should be so totally destroyed that its site is with difficulty discovered.”—Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary.
3:9
I will change the speech of my returning people to pure Hebrew,
literally, “I will change the speech of the peoples to a pure speech.” See Isaiah 19:18.
3:10
in the Sudan,
implied.
1:1
for it was addressed to them,
that is, to the exiles who had returned from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem.
2:7
the Desire of All Nations,
i.e., Christ the Messiah, literally, “the Treasures” or “that which is choice.” But many commentators prefer this rendering: “the treasures of the nations will pour into this Temple, and I will fill it with splendor.”
2:8-9
I will give peace,
i.e., peace with God through Christ who, 500 years later, came often to this Temple.
2:18-19
24th day of the month,
i.e., of Kislev, which is early in December, according to our calendar.
1:8
each with its rider,
implied.
2:8
This passage evidently refers to the Messiah, here seen as one of the Godhead.
3:2
I reject your accusations, Satan,
literally, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan.”
3:8
the Branch,
i.e., the Messiah, Christ.
3:9
I will engrave this inscription on it seven times,
literally, “See the stone with seven facets I have set before Joshua, and I will engrave its inscription.”
4:6
to Zerubbabel,
Governor of Judah, who was given the responsibility for rebuilding the Temple. See Haggai 1:1; 2:23, etc.
4:7
Zerubbabel will finish building this Temple,
literally, “he will bring forth the capstone.”
declaring that all was done by grace alone,
or “with mighty shouts, ‘How beautiful it is!’” or “‘The Lord bless it!’”
5:11
To Babylon
(the land of Shinar). By the time of Zechariah, Babylon had become a symbol, the center of world idolatry and wickedness.
6:6
will follow it there,
or “will go west.”
6:7
red,
implied.
6:8
Those who went north have executed my judgment,
implied.
6:12
he will grow up from himself,
literally, “he will grow up in his place.”
8:8
just and true and yet forgiving them their sins,
literally, “in truth and in righteousness.”
8:19
July, August, October, and January,
literally, “fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months” of the Hebrew calendar.
9:1
for the Lord is closely watching all mankind, as well as Israel,
or “for the cities of Syria belong to the Lord, as much as do the tribes of Israel.”
9:10
from the river to the ends of the earth,
or “to the ends of the land” of Palestine. Either interpretation is possible from the Hebrew text, but many other passages indicate Christ’s universal rule.
10:4
the Ruler over all the earth,
i.e., the Messiah.
10:11
the sea of distress,
or “the Sea of Egypt,” referring to the Red Sea, which the people of Israel were miraculously brought through when God delivered them out of slavery the first time.
11:1
to judgment,
implied.
11:12
thirty little silver coins,
the price of a slave; see Exodus 21:32 and Matthew 27:3-9.