"FROM EDOM HE WENT UP . .": SOME REMARKS ON THE TEXT AND INTERPRETATION OF MICAH II 12-13

The grammar, syntax and meaning of Micah ii 12-13 are puzzling. The origin of the puzzle may be found in a faulty division of vv. 12-13, in which the initial word of v. 13 has been erroneously taken with v. 12. Verse 13 may originally have been a note from an editor, who confirmed the return of exiles from 'Edom': 'From Edom (mēʿedōm) the "breaker" went up'. The note may have been inspired by the misinterpretation of the word bṣrh in the preceding Oracle of Salvation ('I will put them together like a flock in the fold [baṣṣīrāh]'), as a reference to the Edomite capital 'Bozrah': 'I will put them together like the flocks of Bozrah (bǒṣrāh)'. Once mēʿedōm was taken with the Oracle of Salvation, it was read as mēʿādām and interpreted as a reference to the fold: 'they will buzz with men (mēʿādām)'. The misinterpretation 'Bozrah' in v. 12, however, has survived in the text until this day.