Three of the main products of the land are mentioned. First, the people will sow grain, but not harvest the crop. Thus there will be no flour to make bread, and the staple element of their diet will be missing. Sow means to plant by scattering on the ground, but the form of planting is not really important here, and it can be translated simply by the general word for “plant.” Not harvest the crop can mean either that someone else will harvest the crop, or that something will happen to the crop before harvest time and no one will harvest it. If a translator cannot use a general term, either one of these possibilities is acceptable.

Second, the people will press oil from olives, but never get to use it (British edition “never be able to use it”). Olive oil was used for cooking, for burning in oil lamps, and for anointing the body; its loss would be a severe hardship. There were various ways to press oil, and the one actually mentioned here was for people to walk on the olives. Here, too, a general term is quite acceptable, and some translators may need to say simply “make oil from olives.” The Hebrew here mentions only one way to use the oil, pouring it on the body (“anoint yourselves” in Revised Standard Version). If olive oil is used this way in a particular culture, it may be good to mention such a specific use in a translation. Otherwise a more general expression like Good News Translation‘s can be used.

Third, the people will make wine, but never drink it. Wine was a normal daily drink and was very important in a country where water supplies were scarce and often impure. The way to make wine was also by walking or treading on the grapes. When this process was finished, the juice (or new wine) would have to ferment for some time before it became good wine. In areas where winemaking is known, and there are terms for the different stages in the process, translators may be able to follow the Hebrew closely and say “You will tread out the juice from the grapes, but never drink the wine.”

The reason why the people would not harvest the grain, use the oil, or drink the wine is not stated, but in the light of verse 14 it seems most probable that an enemy army would come and either destroy these things or take them for themselves.

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 .