Yahweh’s voice calls to the city, and wisdom sees your name: “Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it.
Parallel translations
- KJV The LORD’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.
- BSB The voice of the LORD calls out to the city (and it is sound wisdom to fear Your name): “Heed the rod and the One who ordained it.
- NKJV The Lord’s voice cries to the city— Wisdom shall see Your name: “Hear the rod! Who has appointed it?
- NASB ¶The voice of the Lord will call to the city— And it is sound wisdom to fear Your name: “Hear, you tribe. Who has designated its time?
- NLT Fear the Lord if you are wise! His voice calls to everyone in Jerusalem: “The armies of destruction are coming; the Lord is sending them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The LORD's voice cries out to the city, and the wise will heed the disciplining rod and the One who appointed it. It calls people to listen to God's corrective judgment.
Overview
God addresses Jerusalem, and true wisdom consists in fearing His name and submitting to the "rod" of coming chastisement, recognizing that He has appointed it. The Hebrew of this verse is difficult and translations vary, but its thrust is a summons to reverent attention. Discipline from God is an act of fatherly love meant to turn His people back, a theme the New Testament applies to believers as well.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 38
- Hos 14:9Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; But the rebellious stumble in them.
- Rev 3:19As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent.
- Isa 30:27Behold, Yahweh’s name comes from far away, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire.
- Zeph 3:2She didn’t obey the voice. She didn’t receive correction. She didn’t trust in Yahweh. She didn’t draw near to her God.
- Lam 3:39–42Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
- Isa 40:6–8The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
- Ps 83:18that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth.
- Job 10:2I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me.
- Jer 26:18“Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “‘Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’
- Exod 34:5–7Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name.
- Amos 2:5But I will send a fire on Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”
- Joel 2:11–18Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?
- Amos 4:6–12“I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says Yahweh.
- Amos 3:8–15The lion has roared. Who will not fear? The Lord Yahweh has spoken. Who can but prophesy?
- Jer 19:11–13and shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that can’t be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.
- Isa 24:10–12The confused city is broken down. Every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
- Jonah 3:4–10Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
- Ps 107:43Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things. They will consider the loving kindnesses of Yahweh.
- Isa 27:10For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.
- Isa 10:5–6Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
- Prov 22:3A prudent man sees danger, and hides himself; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.
- Mic 3:12Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
- Amos 6:1Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!
- 2 Sam 21:1There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
- Job 5:17“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
- Jer 37:8–10The Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city; and they shall take it, and burn it with fire.”’
- Ps 9:16Yahweh has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands. Meditation. Selah.
- Jer 26:6then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.”’”
- Isa 66:6A voice of tumult from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of Yahweh that repays his enemies what they deserve.
- Isa 26:11Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don’t see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.
- Ps 48:10As is your name, God, so is your praise to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness.
- 2 Kgs 22:11–20When the king had heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.
- Hag 1:5–7Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways.
- Jer 14:18–22If I go out into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! If I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.’”
- Isa 9:13Yet the people have not turned to him who struck them, neither have they sought Yahweh of Armies.
- Job 5:6–8For affliction doesn’t come out of the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground;
- Hos 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
- Isa 32:13–14Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.
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Christ at the center
Micah names the town — 'But you, Bethlehem... from you shall come forth one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origins are from of old' — the birthplace of the eternal King.
How Micah 6:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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