As the people of the nations travel, they speak to each other and give the reason for their journey. This is recorded as direct speech and is formed with pairs of parallel clauses. The first two clauses are not exactly parallel, however. The second clause is an expansion of the latter part of the first, and the verb is left implicit in the second clause. The first clause says Let us go up the hill of the LORD, giving the general direction of the journey. The second makes the destination more precise by adding to the Temple of Israel’s God. For translators who want to have two clauses, such a structure is not usually difficult to translate, though it may sound better in some languages to repeat the verb in the second clause. Other translators may prefer to combine all this information into one clause. The final phrase is literally “the God of Jacob” as in Revised Standard Version. “Jacob” here stands for the whole nation, not just the northern kingdom (which had ended before the time of this passage); it is thus translated Israel in Good News Translation. Note in Revised Standard Version that this speech literally begins “Come, let us go.” This sort of wording may sound very natural in some languages.
The third and fourth clauses of the people’s words are more closely parallel with each other than the first two clauses are. They are complementary, or reciprocal, in meaning. The Lord, on the one hand, will teach us what he wants us to do. The people, on the other hand, will walk in the paths he has chosen, responding completely to what the Lord has taught them. Revised Standard Version shows the literal wording of the Hebrew: “that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths.” In many languages the use of words like “way” and “path” to mean “customs” or “teachings” is quite natural. In such cases there may be no need to express the meaning in plain language, as Good News Translation does when it says what he wants us to do for “his ways.” The paths he has chosen could also be understood as “the paths he has shown us.” If the figurative language of “paths” is not possible in a language, these two clauses may become simply “he will teach us what he wants us to do, and we will do it.”
The last two clauses of verse 2 are also parallel to each other. It is not certain whether they continue the words of the people who are going up to Jerusalem, or are the beginning of a further comment by the prophet. Good News Translation and Jerusalem Bible regard them as part of the direct quotation, while Revised Standard Version, Moffatt, New American Bible, New English Bible, and New International Version do not. The meaning is the same no matter which form of punctuation is chosen. However, the words seem to fit the context better if they are regarded as the last part of the direct quotation, for they then give the reason for the journey to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the center and source of the LORD’s teaching, and this is why people from other nations go there. The Hebrew word translated teaching is the general word for law. It came to mean in particular the Law or Moses, which was the central and most important part of the LORD’s teaching for the Jews.
The parallel clause (“the word of the LORD from Jerusalem,” as in Revised Standard Version) is expressed in Good News Translation in a verbal rather than a nominal form, and thus it becomes from Zion he speaks to his people. Note that Good News Translation has added the words to his people, to show whom the Lord is speaking to. It may be necessary in some languages to say whom he is speaking to, but some readers might understand his people to refer primarily to the people of Israel. The people referred to in these verses are mainly people of other nations, so it may be clearer to say something like “he speaks to those who want to follow him (or, obey him).”
In the Hebrew the term Zion appears in the first clause and Jerusalem in the second. Other English versions retain this order, but Good News Translation reverses the order of the terms, presumably so as to put the more familiar term Jerusalem first. The translator may or may not wish to follow this example. These two clauses, too, can be combined if for any reason the parallel expression will be awkward, or if a translator prefers not to refer to Jerusalem by two names. They may then become “From Jerusalem the Lord speaks and teaches his law.”
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 .