What Does Micah 7:17 Mean?
They will lick dust like the serpent; they will tremble out of their enclosures like creeping things of the earth. They will stand in awe of the LORD our God, and be startled because of you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.THE KEY
Those who seem to tower over you are reduced to mouths in the dust and bodies trembling before the LORD.
THE MEANING
The forces that threaten you are pictured licking the dust and trembling as they emerge from their hiding places. Their dread is directed toward the LORD, and the verse ends with awe before him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The ones who frighten you can stay safely hidden beyond the LORD’s reach; here, they tremble as they come out before him.
THE ROOT
יִרְגְּזוּ
yirgəzu
GROWS FROM
רגז
R-G-Z
To tremble, quake, or become agitated.
“tremble out” in this verse is yirgəzu. The movement from their holes carries the root’s sense of trembling: they are not only emerging but quaking as they do. The image makes their retreat bodily and involuntary.
ALSO GROWS
ragaz: To tremble, quake, or become agitated.
רָגַז
This verb’s shaking gives the movement out of the holes an added sense of fear in the body.
rogez: Agitation, trembling, or turmoil.
רֹגֶז
The related noun names the inner disturbance that surfaces in their trembling.
יִרְאוּ
yir'u
GROWS FROM
ירא
Y-R-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“stand in awe” in this verse is yir'u. The verse ends with a form of yare, whose sense includes awe when the LORD is the one feared. Their fear is more than alarm: it recognizes the one before whom they tremble.
ALSO GROWS
yir'ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun carries the same range of reverent fear that closes the verse.
nora': Awe-inspiring or fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This related form describes the presence that calls forth awe.
THE PATTERN
When the LORD’s presence becomes undeniable, the response is bodily: hiding, trembling, or worship with trembling.
And they shall enter the caves of the rock, and the hollows of the dust, from the dread of the LORD and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to make the earth tremble.Serve the LORD in awe, and leap with trembling.You trust that there is one God; you do well. The demons also trust, and shudder.THE THREAD
This day I begin to set your dread and your fear upon the face of the peoples under all the heavens, who will hear of you, and will tremble, and writhe because of you.The word translated “shall tremble” comes from the same Hebrew root, ragaz, as Micah’s “move out.” In both verses, nations who might seem powerful are described through the bodily signs of dread before the LORD.
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