This verse concludes the first unit by announcing the punishment coming to the nation’s leaders because of their cruel and selfish behavior. It may be helpful to identify the you here as “you rulers,” to make it clear that the same people are being addressed as in verse 1. Their punishment is that they will cut themselves off from God by their sins. The rulers will cry out to the LORD in prayer for him to help, but he will not answer you.

“Then” (Revised Standard Version) refers to the time when God will punish these leaders. Good News Translation translates this as The time is coming, which implies that this will happen soon. Many translators may prefer to use an expression meaning “soon.”

Micah refers to the leaders in the third person in this verse, as can be seen in Revised Standard Version and most other translations. But this sounds to many readers as though the verse is continuing to talk about the leaders’ victims rather than about the leaders themselves. So Good News Translation has made the meaning clear by using you instead of “them.” Another way of solving this problem is to make clear who is being talked about here; for example, “Soon these leaders will cry out….”

Something will happen (Micah does not say exactly what) that will force these unjust leaders to cry out to the LORD for help. It may be necessary in some languages to make clear why they are crying out. Also, if there is no good expression for cry out, an expression like “praying strongly” may be easier.

He will not listen to your prayers: the third clause in the verse says essentially the same thing again, but in Hebrew it does so by means of a figure of speech that pictures God with human features. This is retained in the literal rendering of Revised Standard Version, “he will hide his face from them,” and this may be natural and vivid in many receptor languages.

Other languages may have equivalent figures of speech such as “he will turn his back on you.” Some translators may prefer to follow the example of Good News Translation in dropping the figure of speech and expressing its meaning in plain language, He will not listen to your prayers. The reason for this punishment and rejection by God is restated in summary form at the end of the verse, for you have done evil. Or, because these are people in authority, “for you have misused your power.”

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 .