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J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible

Micah 4:11

Meanwhile, therefore, shall be gathered against thee many nations, - who are saying - Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Thompson Chain Reference - Alliances;   Evil;  

Dictionaries:

- Holman Bible Dictionary - Micah, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Kingdom of christ of heaven;   Kingdom of god;   Kingdom of heaven;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Micah (2);   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Shemoneh 'Esreh;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for December 10;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Many nations have now assembled against you;they say, “Let her be defiled,and let us feast our eyes on Zion.”
Hebrew Names Version
Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, 'Let her be defiled, And let our eye gloat over Tziyon.'
King James Version (1611)
Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, & let our eye look vpon Zion.
King James Version
Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
English Standard Version
Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, "Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion."
New American Standard Bible
"And now many nations have been assembled against you Who say, 'Let her be defiled, And let our eyes gloat over Zion!'
New Century Version
But now many nations have come to fight against you, saying, "Let's destroy Jerusalem. We will look at her and be glad we have defeated her."
Amplified Bible
"Now many [conquering] nations are assembled against you, Who say, 'Let her be profaned [through Gentile presence and the temple's destruction], And let our eyes gaze on and gloat over Zion.'
Geneva Bible (1587)
Nowe also many nations are gathered against thee, saying, Zion shalbe condemned and our eye shall looke vpon Zion.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"And now many nations have been assembled against you Who say, 'Let her be polluted, And let our eyes gloat over Zion.'
Legacy Standard Bible
But now many nations have been assembled against youWho say, ‘Let her be polluted,And let our eyes behold Zion in triumph.'
Berean Standard Bible
But now many nations have assembled against you, saying, "Let her be defiled, and let us feast our eyes on Zion."
Contemporary English Version
Zion, because of your sins you are surrounded by many nations who say, "We can hardly wait to see you disgraced."
Complete Jewish Bible
Now many nations have gathered against you; they say, "Let her be defiled, let's gloat over Tziyon."
Darby Translation
And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be profaned, and let our eye look upon Zion.
Easy-to-Read Version
Many nations have come to fight against you. They say, "Look, there is Zion! Let's attack her!"
George Lamsa Translation
Now many nations shall gather against you, who say, Let Zion be defiled, and let our eyes look upon it.
Good News Translation
Many nations have gathered to attack you. They say, "Jerusalem must be destroyed! We will see this city in ruins!"
Lexham English Bible
And now, many nations are gathered against you who are saying, ‘Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.'
Literal Translation
Now also many nations are gathered against you, saying, Let her be defiled, and let our eyes look on Zion.
American Standard Version
And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire upon Zion.
Bible in Basic English
And now a number of nations have come together against you, and they say, Let her be made unclean and let our eyes see the fate of Zion.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say: 'Let her be defiled, and let our eye gaze upon Zion.'
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Now also are there many people gathered together against thee, saying: Sion shalbe condempned, and our eye shall loke vpon Sion.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And now have many nations gathered against thee, saying, We will rejoice, and our eyes shall look upon Sion.
English Revised Version
And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see its desire upon Zion.
World English Bible
Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, 'Let her be defiled, And let our eye gloat over Zion.'
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And now many folkis ben gaderid on thee, whiche seien, Be it stonyd, and oure iye biholde in to Sion.
Update Bible Version
And now many nations are assembled against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see [our desire] on Zion.
Webster's Bible Translation
Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
New English Translation
Many nations have now assembled against you. They say, "Jerusalem must be desecrated, so we can gloat over Zion!"
New King James Version
Now also many nations have gathered against you, Who say, "Let her be defiled, And let our eye look upon Zion."
New Living Translation
Now many nations have gathered against you. "Let her be desecrated," they say. "Let us see the destruction of Jerusalem."
New Life Bible
"Now many nations are gathered against you. They say, ‘Let her be unclean. Let our eyes look on Zion.'
New Revised Standard
Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, "Let her be profaned, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion."
Douay-Rheims Bible
And now many nations are gathered together against thee, and they say: Let her be stoned: and let our eye look upon Sion.
Revised Standard Version
Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, "Let her be profaned, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion."
Young's Literal Translation
And now, gathered against thee have been many nations, who are saying: `Let her be defiled, and our eyes look on Zion.'
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Now also are there many people gathered together agaynst the, sayenge: what, Sion is cursed, we shall se oure lust vpon her.
THE MESSAGE
But for right now, they're ganged up against you, many godless peoples, saying, "Kick her when she's down! Violate her! We want to see Zion grovel in the dirt." These blasphemers have no idea what God is thinking and doing in this. They don't know that this is the making of God 's people, that they are wheat being threshed, gold being refined.

Contextual Overview

8 Thou, therefore, O Migdal-eder, mound of the daughter of Zion, as far as thee, shall it come, - so shall arrive the chief dominion, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. 9 Meanwhile, wherefore shouldst thou cry out aloud? King, is there none within thee? or hath, thy counselor, perished? for labour, hath seized thee, as a woman in child-birth: - 10 Be in labour, and bear, O daughter of Zion, as a woman in child-birth, - for, meanwhile, shalt thou go forth out of the city, and dwell in the field, and shalt come as far as Babylon, there, shalt thou be delivered, there, will Yahweh, redeem thee, out of the grasp of thine enemies. 11 Meanwhile, therefore, shall be gathered against thee many nations, - who are saying - Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion. 12 But, they, know not the purposes of Yahweh, neither have they discerned his counsel, - for he hath gathered them, as sheaves, to a threshing-floor. 13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for, thy horn, will I make to be iron, and, thy hoofs, will I make to he bronze, so shalt thou beat in pieces many peoples, - and shalt devote to Yahweh their unrighteous gain, and their substance, to the Lord of all the earth.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

many: Isaiah 5:25-30, Isaiah 8:7, Isaiah 8:8, Jeremiah 52:4, Lamentations 2:15, Lamentations 2:16, Joel 3:2-15

let our: Micah 7:10, Obadiah 1:12

Reciprocal: Exodus 15:7 - them that Numbers 35:33 - it defileth 2 Samuel 10:15 - gathered 1 Chronicles 19:16 - and drew Isaiah 8:9 - Associate Isaiah 10:7 - he meaneth Jeremiah 30:16 - General Lamentations 1:7 - the adversaries Ezekiel 26:3 - many Habakkuk 2:8 - the violence Zephaniah 3:8 - to gather Zechariah 2:8 - the nations Zechariah 12:3 - though Zechariah 14:12 - the plague wherewith

Cross-References

Genesis 3:14
Then said Yahweh God unto the serpent - Because thou hast done this, Accursed, art thou above every tame-beast, and above every wild-beast of the field, - on thy belly, shall thou go, and dust, shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.
Genesis 4:14
Lo! thou has driven me out, this day, from off the face of the ground And from thy face, shall I be hid, So shall I become a wanderer and a fugitive in the earth. And it shall come to pass, whosoever findeth me, will slay me.
Genesis 4:15
And Yahweh said to him - Not so, whosoever slayeth Cain seven - fold, shall it be avenged. So Yahweh set, for Cain, a sign, that none finding him should smite him.
Genesis 4:16
So Cain went forth from the presence of Yahweh, - and dwelt in the land of Nod, eastward of Eden.
Genesis 4:19
And Lamech took to himself two wives, - the name of the one, was Adah, and, the name of the second Zillah.
Genesis 4:20
And Adah bare Jabal, - he, was father of such as dwell in tents, and have cattle;
Genesis 4:21
and, the name of his brother, was Jubal, - he, was father of everyone handling lyre and flute,
Genesis 4:26
And to Seth - to him also, was born a son, and he called his name Enosh, - then, was a beginning made, to call on the name of Yahweh.
Job 16:18
O earth! do not cover my blood, and let there be no place for mine outcry.
Isaiah 26:21
For lo! Yahweh, is coming forth out of his place, To visit the iniquity of earths inhabitant upon him, - Therefore shall the earth unveil her shed-blood, And throw a covering, no longer over her slain.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now also many nations are gathered against thee,.... Which is to be understood, not of Sennacherib's army invading Judea, and besieging Jerusalem, in Hezekiah's time; for that was not threshed, as the phrase is afterwards used, or destroyed by the daughter of Zion, but by an angel from heaven: nor of the Babylonians or Chaldeans, since they succeeded in their attempt, and were the conquerors, and not conquered: rather this respects the times of the Maccabees, as the series of prophecy and history agreeing together shows; in which times many of the neighbouring nations of the Jews gave them a great deal of trouble, and especially Antiochus king of Syria; and many and mighty armies sent by him. The Jews, as Kimchi, Aben Ezra, and Abarbinel z, interpret this of the armies of Gog and Magog, in the times of their vainly expected Messiah. Some Christian interpreters, with much more probability, understand this passage of the first times of the Gospel, and the opposition made to that and the Christian church, which yet in the issue prevailed; and perhaps it may have reference to the last times, and receive its full accomplishment in the battle at Armageddon,

Revelation 16:14;

that say, let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion; either defiled with sin; so the Targum,

"that say, when will she sin, and our eye shall behold the fall of Zion?''

as the effect of her sin: or, as others, "let her play the hypocrite" a; and be condemned as such: or rather, be defiled with slaughter and bloodshed, that they might be delighted with so pleasing a sight, and their eyes might feed with pleasure on an object so agreeable to their wishes.

z Mashmiah Jeshuah, fol. 62. 1. a תחנף "hypocrita fuit", Tigurine version; velut hypocrita damnatur", Tarnovius; "hypocrisi contaminabitur, Cocceius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Now also - (And now.) The prophet had already spoken of the future before them, with this word Now. Then, he distinctly prophesied the captivity to Babylon. Twice more he begins anew; as Holy Scripture, so often, in a mystery, whether speaking of evil or of good, of deliverance or of punishment, uses a threefold form. In these two, no mention is made of the enemy, and so there is some uncertainty. But the course must apparently be either backward or forward. They must either be two nearer futures before the Captivity, or two more distant after it. This second gathering might, in itself, either be that of the Assyrian hosts under Sennacherib out of all the nations subject to him; or that of the many petty nations in the time of the Maccabees, who took advantage of the Syrians’ oppression, to combine to eradicate the Jews (1 Macc. 5:1, 2). If understood of Sennacherib, the prophet, having foretold the entire captivity of the whole people to Babylon, would have prophesied the sudden destruction of a nearer enemy, whose miraculous and instantaneous overthrow should be the earnest of the destruction of Babylon and of their deliverance from it. This would suit well with the description, “He shall gather them as sheaves to the floor,” and would correspond well with the descriptions in Isaiah. On the other hand, whereas this description would suit any other event, in which man gathered his strength against God and was overthrown, the following words, “Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion,” etc., fit better with the victories of the Maccabees, in which Israel was active, than with the overthrow of Sennacherib, in which they were wholly passive, and God did all for them, as Isaiah and Nahum foretell the same overthrow Isaiah 10:24-34; Isaiah 14:24, Isaiah 14:5; Isaiah 17:12-14; Isaiah 29:7-8; Nahum 1:10-13. Then also, if the course of the description was backward:

1) the captivity in Babylon

2) the destruction of Sennacherib

There is no earlier event to correspond with “the smiting of the judge of Israel on the cheek” (Micah 5:1-4 in Hebrew). The malice also of the nations gathered against Zion suits better with the abiding character of the petty nations, and of their hereditary envy against Israel and its high claims. To Nineveh and Babylon, Israel was but one little corner of ground, which rounded their territory and connected them with Egypt. They disdained them, even while they sought to subdue them. Micah describes the exultation of petty gratified rivalry.

That say, let her be defiled - The bad have a keen eye for the haltings and inconsistencies and falls of God’s people, for which they are ever on the watch. Like Satan, they are first tempters, then the accusers; first desecrators, then sanctimonious justiciaries. God, in His judgment, leaves what has been inwardly defiled to be outwardly profaned. “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple are ye” 1 Corinthians 3:17. “The faithful city had become a harlot” Isaiah 1:21. “The land had become polluted by its inhabitants” Jeremiah 3:9; Psalms 106:38; Isaiah 24:5. Now it was to be polluted by the enemy. Its seducers ask for the judgment of God. “It has become like us in its deeds; let it no more be distinguished from us by the name of the people of God.”

And let our eye look upon Zion - With pleasure upon its desolation, and feed itself with its misery. : “Where the eye, there love; where the hand, there pain.” “They opened their mouth wide against me: they said, Aha, Aha, our eye hath seen” Psalms 35:21. The world hates the Church; Edom, Israel; it cannot be satisfied with beholding its chastisements Micah 7:10; Obadiah 1:12. The sufferings of the Martyrs were the choice spectacle of the pagan.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Micah 4:11. Many nations are gathered against thee — The Chaldeans, who were composed of many nations. And, we may add, all the surrounding nations were their enemies; and rejoiced when the Chaldean army had overthrown Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and led the people away captive.

Let her be defiled — This was their cry and their wish: Let Jerusalem be laid as low as she can be, like a thing defiled and cast away with abhorrence; that their eyes might look upon Zion with scorn, contempt, and exultation.


 
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