Core Glossary
Core Glossary: Micah (French Destination Language)
Reused Romans-Baseline Terms (render exactly as recorded — no change)
| Term | French rendering | Risk (baseline) | Micah passages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| God (Elohim) | Dieu | Medium | 1:2-3; 6:8; 7:7, 17-18 | Reused from Romans baseline exactly. |
| sin (chatta’ah) | péché | Medium | 1:5; 3:8; 6:7, 13; 7:19 | Reused from Romans baseline exactly. |
| covenant (brit) | alliance | High | 7:20 (oath to Abraham) | Reused from Romans baseline exactly. |
| peace (shalom) | paix | Low/Medium | 4:3; 5:5 | Reused; note shalom’s broader “wholeness” sense vs. Romans’ relational peace-through-justification sense — same French word, different Testament nuance; flag for teaching context. |
| kingdom of God (imagery) | Royaume de Dieu | Medium | 4:1-8 (mountain of the LORD’s house, universal reign) | Reused doctrine label; Micah 4 supplies the OT background the Romans-only baseline lacked. |
| gentiles/nations (ethnē — contrast case) | (see new entry nations_goyim below — do NOT reuse “païens”) | High | 4:1-3 | Baseline “païens” (for NT ethnē) is explicitly NOT to be reused here; see new entry. |
New Terms Introduced by Micah (require new translation_memory.json / bible_term_registry.json entries)
| Term (concept) | Hebrew original | Transliteration | LXX Greek | French rendering | Doctrine | Risk | Primary passages | Alternatives rejected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lord_yhwh | יהוה | YHWH | κύριος | le SEIGNEUR (small caps) | True Worship versus Empty Ritual; all doctrines | Critical | throughout (~40x) | “l’Éternel” (Segond, archaic register clash w/ curriculum tone); “Yahvé” (BJ, feels academic/distancing) | Distinct from baseline “Seigneur” (κύριος/Christ, Romans 10:9). Typographic small caps preserves lexical continuity while distinguishing the divine-name occurrences. Must be locked before any Phase 2 work. |
| justice (mishpat) | מִשְׁפָּט | mishpat | κρίμα | justice | Justice, Mercy, and Humility | Critical | 3:1, 8-9; 6:8; 7:9 | none workable — no better single French word exists | Homonym collision with baseline “justice” = δικαιοσύνη (Romans, forensic righteousness). LXX itself used a different Greek word (κρίμα, not δικαιοσύνη) confirming this is a French-only collision. Every teaching use must distinguish the two senses explicitly. |
| mercy/lovingkindness (chesed) | חֶסֶד | chesed | ἔλεος | miséricorde | Justice, Mercy, and Humility | High | 6:8; 7:20 (context) | “fidélité” (NBS/TOB — loses warmth, collides with 7:20’s “fidélité” for emet); “bonté” (too weak); “piété” (BJ — skews to personal devotion) | Vertical/horizontal collision risk: French Catholic usage strongly associates “miséricorde” with God’s mercy received, while Micah demands mercy actively shown to others. Flag for gloss every occurrence. |
| walk humbly (hatznea lekhet) | הַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת | hatznea lekhet | ἕτοιμον εἶναι τοῦ πορεύεσθαι | marcher humblement | Justice, Mercy, and Humility | Medium | 6:8 | — | Risk of drift toward monastic/private-piety “humilité” rather than an ongoing public manner of relating to God and neighbor. |
| burnt offering (olah) | עוֹלָה | olah | ὁλοκαύτωμα | sacrifice entièrement brûlé / offrande consumée par le feu | True Worship versus Empty Ritual | Critical | 6:6 | ”holocauste” — explicitly forbidden | French “holocauste” now refers almost exclusively to the Shoah; using it for a Levitical sacrifice risks a jarring, unintended association absent from the text. Applies to any future OT sacrificial-system material, not just Micah. |
| firstborn (as offering) | בְּכוֹר | bekhor | πρωτότοκα | premier-né | True Worship versus Empty Ritual | High | 6:7 | — | Rhetorical hyperbole alluding to child sacrifice (Molech-style cult); must be glossed as rejected, not prescriptive. Do not cross-reference NT “firstborn” (Christ) titles without disclaimer. |
| transgression (pesha) | פֶּשַׁע | pesha | ἀσέβεια | transgression | Justice, Mercy, and Humility; True Worship versus Empty Ritual | Medium | 1:5; 3:8; 6:7 | ”révolte” (acceptable explanatory gloss) | Distinct from “péché” (chatta’ah); Micah piles up near-synonyms for guilt — do not flatten into one French word. |
| remnant (she’erit) | שְׁאֵרִית | she’erit | κατάλειμμα | reste | Hope of Restoration and Forgiveness | High | 2:12; 4:7; 5:3, 7-8; 7:18 | — | French “le reste” reads as mundane leftovers; requires a gloss (“le reste fidèle, préservé par Dieu”) to convey the covenant-preservation sense. |
| idols (pesilim) | פְּסִילִים | pesilim | γλυπτά | idoles | True Worship versus Empty Ritual; Judgment on Corrupt Leaders | Medium | 1:7; 5:13 | — | Secular French usage (“idole des jeunes,” pop-culture celebrity) risks trivializing covenant apostasy into harmless fandom language; clarify religious/cultic sense. |
| false prophets | נְבִיאֵי שָׁקֶר | nevi’ei sheqer | ψευδοπροφῆται | faux prophètes | Judgment on Corrupt Leaders | Medium | 2:11; 3:5, 11 | — | Contrast with Micah’s own Spirit-empowered true prophecy (3:8). |
| rulers/officials (sarim) | שָׂרִים | sarim | ἄρχοντες | chefs / dirigeants | Judgment on Corrupt Leaders | Medium | 3:1, 9; 7:3 | — | — |
| judges (shofetim) | שֹׁפְטִים | shofetim | κριταί | juges | Judgment on Corrupt Leaders | Medium | 3:1, 9, 11 | — | Same root as mishpat; their corrupted judgment directly inverts 6:8. |
| priests (kohanim) | כֹּהֲנִים | kohanim | ἱερεῖς | sacrificateurs | Judgment on Corrupt Leaders | High | 3:11 | ”prêtres" | "Prêtres” primarily denotes ordained Catholic clergy today; “sacrificateurs” preserves the OT Levitical office distinct from later institutional priesthood, echoing the same class of risk as baseline “Église”/“saints.” |
| ruler (moshel, Bethlehem) | מוֹשֵׁל | moshel | ἄρχων | souverain | The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem | Critical | 5:2 | ”chef politique” (flattens Messianic sense) | Must not be reduced to a mere political administrator; feeds baseline messianic_promise and davidic_covenant doctrines. |
| goings forth from days of eternity | מוֹצָאֹתָיו מִקֶּדֶם מִימֵי עוֹלָם | motza’otav miqedem mi-yemei olam | ἔξοδοι αὐτοῦ ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς ἐξ ἡμερῶν αἰῶνος | dont les origines remontent aux temps anciens, aux jours d’éternité | The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem; Deity of Christ; Sonship of Christ | Critical | 5:2 | ”dont la famille est très ancienne” (loses eternity sense) | Feeds baseline deity_of_christ/sonship_of_christ (both Critical); route every occurrence to human theologian review. |
| Bethlehem Ephrathah | בֵּית־לֶחֶם אֶפְרָתָה | Beit-Lechem Efratah | Βηθλεέμ Ἐφραθᾶ | Bethléem Éphrata | The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem; Davidic Covenant | Low (proper noun) / Critical (doctrinal weight) | 5:2 | — | Cited verbatim in Matthew 2:6; keep the compound form, do not shorten to “Bethléem” alone in doctrinal contexts. |
| shepherd (ro’eh) | רָעָה | ro’eh | ποιμήν | berger | The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem | Medium | 5:4; 7:14 | — | Pastoral care combined with royal rule; avoid flattening to a purely occupational sense. |
| nations (goyim, positive-inclusion sense) | גּוֹיִם / עַמִּים | goyim / amim | ἔθνη / λαοί | nations | Kingdom Mission; Hope of Restoration | High | 4:1-3 | ”païens” (explicitly rejected here) | Positive worship-inclusion context, unlike baseline NT ethnē usage; do not import the baseline’s pejorative-drift caution for “païens” into this passage. |
| mountain of the LORD’s house | הַר בֵּית־יְהוָה | har beit-YHWH | τὸ ὄρος οἴκου κυρίου | la montagne de la maison du SEIGNEUR | The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem; Kingdom Mission | Medium | 4:1-2 | — | Ties Zion/Temple imagery to universal future worship. |
| swords into plowshares | חֲרָבוֹת לְאִתִּים | charavot le’itim | τὰς μαχαίρας… εἰς ἄροτρα | ils changeront leurs épées en socs de charrue | The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem; Kingdom Mission | High | 4:3 | — | Widely known as a secular UN/disarmament slogan in French public discourse; must be re-anchored to God’s reign in teaching contexts. |
| daughter of Zion | בַּת־צִיּוֹן | bat-Tziyon | θύγατηρ Σιών | fille de Sion | Hope of Restoration and Forgiveness | Medium | 4:8, 10, 13 | — | Figurative personification (labor pains before deliverance); do not literalize. |
| covenant lawsuit (riv) | רִיב | riv | κρίσις | le procès du SEIGNEUR / la plainte du SEIGNEUR | True Worship versus Empty Ritual; Justice, Mercy, and Humility | High | 6:1-2 | ”dispute,” “conflit” (too weak, loses legal-genre force) | Frames ch. 6 as YHWH’s formal covenant claim; if rendered too colloquially, the legal-covenant genre is lost. |
| witnesses (mountains/hills) | הָרִים / גְּבָעוֹת | harim / gevaot | ὄρη / βουνοί | témoins (les montagnes, témoins) | True Worship versus Empty Ritual | Medium | 6:1-2 | — | Ancient Near Eastern covenant-lawsuit convention; needs brief cultural-background note for readers. |
| deceitful scales | מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה | mozenei mirmah | ζυγὸς ἄδικος | balances trompeuses | Justice, Mercy, and Humility; Judgment on Corrupt Leaders | Medium | 6:10-11 | — | Concrete economic-justice violation illustrating the mishpat demand of 6:8. |
| violence (chamas) | חָמָס | chamas | ἀδικία | violence | Judgment on Corrupt Leaders | Low | 6:12 | — | Lexical note only: Hebrew chamas (“violence”) is the etymological root of the modern organization name “Hamas.” No textual risk, but translators should be aware the transliteration may momentarily distract readers; the French rendering “violence” carries no such association and is unaffected. |
| pardoning iniquity | נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן | nose avon | ἀφαιρέων ἀδικίας / ἀφιείς ἀνομίας | pardonner l’iniquité | Hope of Restoration and Forgiveness | High | 7:18-19 | — | Resolves 6:7’s despair; must not be read as merit-based, sacramental-only, or conditional forgiveness — echoes the baseline’s “grace ≠ merit” caution. |
| compassion (rachamim) | רַחֲמִים | rachamim | οἰκτιρμοί | compassion | Hope of Restoration and Forgiveness | Medium | 7:19 | — | Distinct nuance from chesed: tender, parental-toned mercy (root shared with “womb”). |
| God’s covenant faithfulness (emet) | אֱמֶת | emet | ἀλήθεια | fidélité | Hope of Restoration and Forgiveness; Davidic Covenant | High | 7:20 | — | Polysemy flag: do not confuse with “miséricorde” (chesed, 6:8) — both could be rendered “fidélité,” but this curriculum reserves that French word for emet only, to avoid a many-to-one collision. |
| Who is like YHWH (name pun) | מִי־כָמוֹךָ אֵל / מִיכָה | mi-kamokha El / Mikhah | τίς ὥς σύ, ὁ θεός | Qui est Dieu comme toi / Michée (proper noun) | Hope of Restoration and Forgiveness; True Worship versus Empty Ritual | Medium | 1:1; 7:18 | — | Untranslatable wordplay between the prophet’s name and the book’s climactic question; requires a translator’s note tying 7:18 back to 1:1. |
Proper Nouns (Low risk, established French Bible forms)
| English | French | Passages |
|---|---|---|
| Micah | Michée | 1:1 |
| Samaria | Samarie | 1:1, 5-6 |
| Judah | Juda | 1:1, 5, 9 |
| Jerusalem | Jérusalem | 1:1, 5, 9, 12; 3:10, 12; 4:2 |
| Zion | Sion | 3:10, 12; 4:2, 7-8, 11, 13 |
| Jacob | Jacob | 1:5; 2:7; 3:1, 8-9; 4:2; 5:7-8; 7:20 |
| Israel | Israël | 1:13-15; 3:1, 9; 5:1-3 (reuse baseline israel term) |
| Bethlehem Ephrathah | Bethléem Éphrata | 5:2 |
| Assyria | Assyrie | 5:5-6; 7:12 |
| Egypt | Égypte | 6:4; 7:15 |
| Balaam | Balaam | 6:5 |
| Balak | Balak | 6:5 |
| Omri | Omri | 6:16 |
| Abraham | Abraham | 7:20 (reuse baseline established form) |
Risk Summary (New Micah Terms)
| Risk tier | Count | Review routing |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | 5 | Human theologian review (lord_yhwh, justice/mishpat, burnt offering/olah, ruler/moshel, goings forth from days of eternity) |
| High | 10 | Human theologian review (mercy/chesed, firstborn, remnant, priests, nations/goyim, swords into plowshares, covenant lawsuit, pardoning iniquity, God’s covenant faithfulness/emet, idols borderline — see notes) |
| Medium | 13 | Native speaker review |
| Low | 3 + proper nouns | Automated review |
All 7 chapters of Micah have been surveyed; no chapter is silently omitted. Chapters 1-3 and 6-7 introduce the largest concentrations of new load-bearing vocabulary; chapters 4-5 concentrate the curriculum’s Critical-risk Messianic terms.
Critical Risk Terms
Justification
Approved rendering: justification
Transliteration: justification
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: sanctification (conflation), salut (too generic)
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Not itself a Micah term, but retained here because comparative-theology review (04_comparative_theology.md) notes Catholic/Reformed readers may import the Trent-vs-Reformation forensic/infused debate into Micah 6:6-8 and 7:18-19; this entry anchors that this curriculum’s Micah material must not be read as reopening or resolving the Romans-scoped justification debate.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice imputée
Transliteration: justice imputée
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: justice méritée
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Retained for cross-reference: Micah 6:6-8’s rejection of ritual payment and 7:18-19’s free pardon both echo (without using this precise Pauline category) the same grace-not-merit logic; do not let ‘justice imputée’ terminology bleed into Micah’s own text, but use it in teaching commentary to show doctrinal continuity.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Fils de Dieu
Transliteration: Fils de Dieu
Doctrine: Deity and Eternal Pre-existence of the Coming Ruler
Rejected alternatives: envoyé de Dieu, homme divin
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Micah 5:2’s ‘ruler…whose goings forth are from of old, from ancient days’ is the Old Testament anchor text feeding this Critical baseline doctrine (previously scoped only to Romans). Full phrase required wherever the NT fulfillment is discussed alongside Micah 5:2; conveys eternal, unique Sonship, not a divinely inspired man.
Lord Yhwh
Approved rendering: le SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: YHWH
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Lawsuit Against His People
Rejected alternatives: l’Éternel (Segond, archaic register clash), Yahvé (Bible de Jérusalem, academically distancing)
Original: יהוה
Category: God
The personal, covenant name of Israel’s God (tetragrammaton), by which he identifies himself as plaintiff in the covenant lawsuit of Michée 6:1-8 and throughout the book’s ~40 occurrences of the divine name. Render in small capitals ‘le SEIGNEUR’ per the TOB/NBS ecumenical convention. Distinct from the baseline’s ordinary ‘Seigneur’ (κύριος, Christ’s Lordship, Romans 10:9) — the typographic small-caps fence must be preserved in every format (print, digital, audio-script cueing). Locked before Phase 2 begins; apply with total consistency to every occurrence.
Justice Mishpat
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: mishpat
Doctrine: Justice (Mishpat) as Covenant Obligation
Original: מִשְׁפָּט
Category: Justice
The practical, ethical demand to render right judgment and fair dealing in daily social, economic, and judicial life, especially toward the vulnerable — not a forensic status (Michée 3:1, 8-9; 6:8; 7:9). CRITICAL homonym collision with the baseline’s ‘justice’ = δικαιοσύνη (see ‘righteousness’ above); the LXX itself renders mishpat as κρίμα, not δικαιοσύνη, confirming the collision is French-only. No better single French word exists, so ‘justice’ is retained, but every teaching context introducing Michée 6:8 alongside Romans material must explicitly distinguish the two senses.
Burnt Offering
Approved rendering: sacrifice entièrement brûlé
Transliteration: olah
Doctrine: True Worship versus Empty Ritual
Rejected alternatives: holocauste (FORBIDDEN — now denotes the Shoah in contemporary French)
Original: עוֹלָה
Category: Worship
The whole-burnt sacrifice of Leviticus 1, the first rung of Micah’s rhetorical escalation of futile ritual offers (Michée 6:6). NEVER render as ‘holocauste’; use ‘sacrifice entièrement brûlé’ or ‘offrande consumée par le feu’. Applies to all future Old Testament sacrificial-system material in this curriculum family, not Micah alone.
Ruler Bethlehem
Approved rendering: souverain
Transliteration: moshel
Doctrine: The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem (Messianic Promise)
Rejected alternatives: chef politique (flattens the messianic sense)
Original: מוֹשֵׁל
Category: Christology
The future Davidic king from Bethlehem Ephrathah who fulfills the messianic promise, cited verbatim in Matthieu 2:6 (Michée 5:2). Must not be flattened to a merely political administrator. Feeds the baseline’s Critical-risk messianic_promise and davidic_covenant doctrines, for which this verse is the primary Old Testament source text.
Goings Forth Eternity
Approved rendering: dont les origines remontent aux temps anciens, aux jours d’éternité
Transliteration: motza’otav miqedem mi-yemei olam
Doctrine: Deity and Eternal Pre-existence of the Coming Ruler
Rejected alternatives: dont la famille est très ancienne (loses the eternity sense entirely)
Original: מוֹצָאֹתָיו מִקֶּדֶם מִימֵי עוֹלָם
Category: Christology
‘Whose origins are from of old, from ancient days’ — textually ambiguous between ancient Davidic lineage and the Ruler’s own eternal pre-existence (Michée 5:2); the historic Christian reading, supported by Matthieu 2’s use of this verse, affirms the latter. Must preserve the ‘days of eternity’ sense; never compress. Carries the same weight as the baseline’s Critical deity_of_christ and sonship_of_christ entries; route every occurrence to human theologian review. Note the Jewish interpretive tradition reads this poetically of the antiquity of the Davidic line, not literal personal pre-existence — a divergence to flag for reviewers, not erase.
High Risk Terms
Covenant
Approved rendering: alliance
Transliteration: alliance
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Faithfulness to the Patriarchs
Rejected alternatives: contrat
Original: בְּרִית / אֱמֶת
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Renders the covenant bond sworn to Abraham and confirmed to Jacob, grounding all restoration hope (Michée 7:20). Relational covenant bond, more than a legal contract; ‘alliance’ also usefully evokes the wedding ring in French, a helpful relational resonance carried over into Micah’s restoration promise.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justice
Transliteration: justice (de Dieu)
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: vertu, droiture
Inherited from Romans package exactly. CRITICAL CROSS-CURRICULUM COLLISION: this is the exact French word (‘justice’) also required for Micah’s mishpat (see new term ‘justice_mishpat’ below), a distinct ethical/social-justice concept. The LXX itself uses different Greek words (δικαιοσύνη here vs. κρίμα for mishpat), confirming the collision is a French-vocabulary artifact. Every joint Romans+Micah teaching context must explicitly distinguish ‘la justice de Dieu’ (forensic, gift-status, Romans) from ‘la justice qu’il exige’ (ethical, social, Micah).
Grace
Approved rendering: grâce
Transliteration: grâce
Doctrine: Hope of Forgiveness and Pardon
Rejected alternatives: faveur, mérite
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Applied in this curriculum to Micah 7:18-19’s ‘pardonner l’iniquité’: God’s free pardon is not earned by the escalating sacrifices rhetorically proposed and rejected in 6:6-7. Must render as wholly unmerited, echoing the baseline’s grace-versus-merit caution.
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Inherited from Romans package exactly. CONTRAST CASE FOR MICAH: reserved exclusively for the confessed Lordship of Christ (κύριος, Romans 10:9). Micah’s ~40 occurrences of the divine name YHWH must NEVER use this ordinary ‘Seigneur’ rendering; see the new Critical term ‘lord_yhwh’ (‘le SEIGNEUR’, small caps) below. The typographic small-caps fence between the two is mandatory throughout this curriculum.
Mercy Chesed
Approved rendering: miséricorde
Transliteration: chesed
Doctrine: Mercy / Steadfast Love (Chesed) Shown to Others
Rejected alternatives: fidélité (loses warmth, collides with 7:20’s fidélité for emet), bonté (too weak), piété (skews to personal devotion)
Original: חֶסֶד
Category: Justice
Steadfast covenant loyalty combining love, kindness, and faithful commitment, to be actively SHOWN to others, not merely received (Michée 6:8). French Catholic devotional culture ties ‘miséricorde’ overwhelmingly to God’s mercy received (vertical: Année de la Miséricorde, ‘Seigneur, prends pitié’); Micah’s chesed is a horizontal demand. Retain ‘miséricorde’ for register consistency, but flag every occurrence for a clarifying gloss reorienting the direction of the mercy.
Firstborn Offering
Approved rendering: premier-né
Transliteration: bekhor
Doctrine: True Worship versus Empty Ritual
Original: בְּכוֹר
Category: Worship
Rhetorical climax of Micah’s escalation, alluding to Canaanite child sacrifice (Molech-style cult) as the ultimate — and rejected — form of ritual payment (Michée 6:7). Must be glossed as rhetorical hyperbole and rejected practice, not a live cultic option. Do not cross-reference the NT honorific ‘firstborn’ (Christ, Romans 8:29) without a clear disclaimer — no doctrinal connection here.
Idols
Approved rendering: idoles
Transliteration: pesilim
Doctrine: Idolatry as Covenant Betrayal
Original: פְּסִילִים
Category: Worship
Carved cultic images, concrete objects of covenant unfaithfulness targeted for destruction (Michée 1:7; 5:13). Contemporary secular French usage (‘idole des jeunes’, celebrity fandom) risks trivializing covenant-breaking cultic worship into harmless pop-culture language; the religious, cultic sense must be made explicit at first occurrence per teaching unit.
Covenant Lawsuit
Approved rendering: le procès du SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: riv
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Lawsuit Against His People
Rejected alternatives: dispute, conflit (both too weak, lose the legal-covenant genre force)
Original: רִיב
Category: Covenant
A formal Ancient Near Eastern covenant-lawsuit genre in which YHWH summons witnesses and states his legal case against his people (Michée 6:1-2), framing the entire chapter — including the core passage 6:6-8 — as God’s own formal covenant claim, not Micah’s private complaint.
Priests Kohanim
Approved rendering: sacrificateurs
Transliteration: kohanim
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Rejected alternatives: prêtres
Original: כֹּהֲנִים
Category: Leadership
Levitical/Aaronic cultic officials, indicted for ‘teaching for a price,’ a sacred office corrupted by profit (Michée 3:11). French ‘prêtres’ today denotes primarily ordained Catholic/Orthodox clergy; use ‘sacrificateurs’ (older French Protestant convention, per Segond/Darby) throughout to preserve the distinct OT Levitical office and avoid importing institutional-Catholic-priesthood associations — the same class of risk the baseline documents for ‘Église’/‘saints’. Note contemporary sensitivity: recent French clergy-abuse reckoning (CIASE/Sauvé report) means readers may still hear an unintended contemporary echo even with ‘sacrificateurs’; keep the OT referent explicit in teaching.
Remnant
Approved rendering: reste
Transliteration: she’erit
Doctrine: Remnant Preserved by God
Original: שְׁאֵרִית
Category: Restoration
The surviving, God-preserved covenant-faithful minority who carry forward God’s promises through and beyond judgment (Michée 2:12; 4:7; 5:3, 7-8; 7:18). French ‘le reste’ in ordinary usage denotes mundane leftovers (‘le reste du repas’); every occurrence should carry or be near a gloss such as ‘le reste fidèle, préservé par Dieu’ to prevent a flattened reading.
Bethlehem Ephrathah
Approved rendering: Bethléem Éphrata
Transliteration: Beit-Lechem Efratah
Doctrine: The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem (Messianic Promise)
Original: בֵּית־לֶחֶם אֶפְרָתָה
Category: Covenant
The small, seemingly insignificant Judean town, David’s birthplace, from which the coming Ruler emerges — a deliberate contrast of greatness from insignificance (Michée 5:2). Cited verbatim in Matthieu 2:6. Keep the full compound form; do not shorten to ‘Bethléem’ alone in doctrinal contexts, as the compound form carries the specific prophetic identification.
Nations Goyim
Approved rendering: nations
Transliteration: goyim / amim
Doctrine: Nations Streaming to Worship the LORD
Rejected alternatives: païens (explicitly rejected here)
Original: גּוֹיִם / עַמִּים
Category: Kingdom
All peoples of the earth drawn to stream toward Zion in joyful worship inclusion, a positive future vision (Michée 4:1-3). Do NOT use the baseline’s ‘païens’ (fixed for NT ethnē with its documented pejorative modern-French drift); this is a positive, worship-inclusion context, not a category needing evangelistic outreach despite otherness.
Swords Into Plowshares
Approved rendering: ils changeront leurs épées en socs de charrue
Transliteration: charavot le’itim
Doctrine: Eschatological Peace and Disarmament under God’s Reign
Original: חֲרָבוֹת לְאִתִּים
Category: Kingdom
Eschatological disarmament as a fruit of universal submission to God’s rule (Michée 4:3), shared verbatim with Isaiah 2:4. Widely recognized in French media/diplomatic discourse as a secular UN disarmament slogan (inscribed on the UN’s Isaiah Wall, New York); teaching contexts must explicitly reconnect the phrase to God’s own eschatological reign rather than leaving it a free-standing humanist ideal.
Pardoning Iniquity
Approved rendering: pardonner l’iniquité
Transliteration: nose avon
Doctrine: Hope of Forgiveness and Pardon
Original: נֹשֵׂא עָוֹן
Category: Restoration
Forgiveness as active removal of guilt — God himself lifts away iniquity, resolving 6:7’s rhetorical despair that no sacrifice could achieve this (Michée 7:18-19). Must not be read as merit-based, sacramental-only, or conditional forgiveness; echoes the baseline’s grace-versus-merit caution.
Covenant Faithfulness Emet
Approved rendering: fidélité
Transliteration: emet
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Faithfulness to the Patriarchs
Original: אֱמֶת
Category: Restoration
God’s own covenant-keeping truthfulness/reliability, sworn to Abraham and confirmed to Jacob, grounding all restoration hope (Michée 7:20). POLYSEMY FENCE: French ‘fidélité’ here renders emet, not chesed (rendered ‘miséricorde’ at 6:8, see mercy_chesed); reviewers must not assume every French ‘fidélité’ occurrence maps to the same underlying Hebrew word.
Medium Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Original: אֱלֹהִים
Category: God
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Secularization risk (‘Mon Dieu!’ interjection, deist abstraction) applies identically in Micah. Distinct from the covenant name YHWH (‘le SEIGNEUR’, see lord_yhwh below) though referring to the same Person; Micah 6:8’s ‘ton Dieu’ and 7:7’s ‘Dieu de mon salut’ both use this generic term.
Sin
Approved rendering: péché
Transliteration: péché
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: חַטָּאת
Category: Sin
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Colloquial French trivialization risk (‘péché mignon’) applies identically here. Renders Hebrew chatta’ah (Micah 6:7; 7:19), paired in synonymous parallelism with the new term ‘transgression’ (pesha) — do not collapse the two into one French word; Micah’s argument depends on the accumulation of near-synonyms for guilt.
Peace
Approved rendering: paix
Transliteration: paix
Doctrine: Eschatological Peace and Disarmament under God’s Reign
Original: שָׁלוֹם
Category: Salvation
Inherited from Romans package exactly. In Romans 5:1, relational peace with God through justification; in Micah 4:3 and 5:5, the broader OT shalom sense of comprehensive covenant well-being/security secured by the coming Ruler. Same French word, broader OT nuance — flag for teaching context so students do not retroject the narrower NT-forensic sense backward onto Micah.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Royaume de Dieu
Transliteration: Royaume de Dieu
Doctrine: Future Restoration and the Kingdom of God among the Nations
Original: (implied) מַלְכוּת יהוה
Category: Kingdom
Inherited from Romans package exactly. God’s sovereign reign; distinguish from any political kingdom association. Micah 4:1-8’s mountain-of-the-LORD’s-house vision supplies the Old Testament background image the Romans-only baseline lacked; treat Micah 4 as historically prior source material feeding this doctrine, not as fully identical to the NT usage without this layering.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: païens
Transliteration: païens
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: étrangers
Inherited from Romans package exactly. CONTRAST CASE FOR MICAH: this baseline rendering must NOT be reused for Micah 4:1-3’s goyim/amim, which appear in a positive, worship-inclusion context (all peoples streaming toward God), not the NT ethnē’s evangelistic-outreach-to-outsiders framing this baseline word carries. See the new term ‘nations_goyim’ below, which uses plain ‘nations’ instead.
Faith
Approved rendering: foi
Transliteration: foi
Doctrine: Inspiration of True Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: croyance, religion
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Applied to Micah 7:7’s ‘je regarderai vers le SEIGNEUR, je l’attendrai’ (see new term ‘wait_for_the_lord’): active, personal trust in YHWH, not generic religiosity or passive resignation.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: incarnation
Transliteration: incarnation
Doctrine: The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem (Messianic Promise)
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Retained for cross-reference: Micah 5:2-3 (the Ruler born at Bethlehem, ‘until she who is in labor has given birth’) is the Old Testament prophetic background for the doctrine of the Incarnation later confirmed in Matthieu 1-2 and Romans 1:3, 8:3. Risk of secular flattening via ‘incarner’ (to embody a role) applies identically.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messie
Transliteration: Messie
Doctrine: The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem (Messianic Promise)
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Micah 5:2’s ‘souverain’ (see new term ‘ruler_bethlehem’) is a primary Old Testament source text for this title; keep the referent the specific, exclusive Jewish OT figure fulfilled in Jesus, not one wise-teacher figure among several.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: descendance de David
Transliteration: descendance de David
Doctrine: The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem (Messianic Promise)
Rejected alternatives: semence de David (archaic)
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Micah 5:2’s Bethlehem-Ephrathah/Davidic-line prophecy is the primary Old Testament anchor for this Romans 1:3 term; keep ‘descendance’, never the now-archaic/clinical ‘semence’.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Faithfulness to the Patriarchs
Original: יִשְׂרָאֵל
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Same caution applies: keep the referent historical/theological (the covenant people descended from Jacob, Michée 1:13-15; 3:1, 9; 5:1-3), distinct from the modern nation-state, especially given contemporary Middle East politics and France’s significant Jewish community.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Esprit Saint
Transliteration: Esprit Saint
Doctrine: Inspiration of True Prophecy
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Micah 3:8 (‘mais moi, je suis rempli de force, de l’Esprit du SEIGNEUR, de justice et de courage’) uses the Hebrew phrase ‘Spirit of the LORD’ (ruach YHWH) rather than the NT’s fuller trinitarian ‘Holy Spirit’ phrase; render as ‘l’Esprit du SEIGNEUR’ at 3:8 specifically (retaining the small-caps SEIGNEUR/YHWH convention) rather than ‘Esprit Saint’, while treating both as referring to the same personal, divine Spirit for doctrinal-continuity teaching purposes.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salut
Transliteration: salut
Doctrine: Hope of Forgiveness and Pardon
Rejected alternatives: délivrance
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Applies to Michée 7:7’s ‘Dieu de mon salut’; ground salvation explicitly in God’s own initiative and character, not institutional mediation, consistent with the baseline’s caution.
Walk Humbly
Approved rendering: marcher humblement
Transliteration: hatznea lekhet
Doctrine: Humble Walk with God
Original: הַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת
Category: Justice
An ongoing, modest, dependent posture of everyday life lived before God (Michée 6:8), the opposite of self-important public display. French ‘humilité’ alone risks a monastic/ascetic-withdrawal reading in popular Catholic piety; retain the verb phrase ‘marcher humblement avec ton Dieu’ rather than a bare noun to keep the public, continuous, relational sense.
Transgression
Approved rendering: transgression
Transliteration: pesha
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Original: פֶּשַׁע
Category: Sin
Willful, relational rebellion against rightful covenant authority (Michée 1:5; 3:8; 6:7), distinct from but paired in parallelism with ‘péché’ (chatta’ah). Must not be flattened into the same French word as ‘péché’; Micah’s rhetorical force depends on the piling-up of near-synonyms for guilt.
Witnesses Mountains
Approved rendering: témoins
Transliteration: harim / gevaot
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Lawsuit Against His People
Original: הָרִים / גְּבָעוֹת
Category: Worship
The mountains and hills summoned as impartial legal witnesses to the covenant lawsuit, per Ancient Near Eastern legal convention (Michée 6:1-2). Requires a brief cultural-background note or the imagery reads as merely poetic rather than legally functional.
Deceitful Scales
Approved rendering: balances trompeuses
Transliteration: mozenei mirmah
Doctrine: Social and Economic Justice in Daily Dealings
Original: מֹאזְנֵי מִרְמָה
Category: Justice
Rigged commercial weights used to defraud customers, a concrete economic-justice violation of the mishpat demanded in 6:8 (Michée 6:10-11). Should be explicitly tied back to the core mishpat doctrine or it reads as a merely historical/economic detail.
False Prophets
Approved rendering: faux prophètes
Transliteration: nevi’ei sheqer
Doctrine: False Prophecy versus True Prophetic Word
Original: נְבִיאֵי שָׁקֶר
Category: Leadership
Prophets who deceive for personal gain, prophesying favorably ‘for wine and strong drink,’ contrasted with Micah’s own Spirit-empowered, costly true prophecy (Michée 2:11; 3:5, 8, 11). Secular French readers may flatten ‘prophète’ into a generic visionary/commentator role, losing the sharp text-internal contrast.
Rulers Officials
Approved rendering: chefs / dirigeants
Transliteration: sarim
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Original: שָׂרִים
Category: Leadership
Civic and tribal leaders/officials indicted for ‘hating good and loving evil,’ the direct inversion of Michée 6:8’s demand (3:1, 9; 7:3). Keep tied explicitly to the 6:1-2 covenant-lawsuit frame in teaching material so it does not read as generic political commentary.
Judges
Approved rendering: juges
Transliteration: shofetim
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Original: שֹׁפְטִים
Category: Leadership
Judicial officials sharing the same Hebrew root as mishpat (justice), whose corrupted judgment directly violates Micah’s standard (Michée 3:1, 9, 11). The wordplay linking ‘judges’ to ‘justice’ is not reproducible in French; supply a translator’s note connecting ‘juges’ explicitly to the mishpat doctrine.
Shepherd
Approved rendering: berger
Transliteration: ro’eh
Doctrine: Shepherd-King Rule
Original: רָעָה
Category: Christology
Pastoral care combined with royal rule, cf. David as shepherd-king (Michée 5:4; 7:14). Anchor to the established French Bible tradition of ‘le Bon Berger’ (Jean 10) to avoid drift toward a purely occupational, rural sense divorced from royal authority.
Mountain Of The Lords House
Approved rendering: la montagne de la maison du SEIGNEUR
Transliteration: har beit-YHWH
Doctrine: Future Restoration and the Kingdom of God among the Nations
Original: הַר בֵּית־יְהוָה
Category: Kingdom
Zion/Temple pictured as the future center of universal worship, drawing all nations (Michée 4:1-2). Should be explicitly tied to the Royaume de Dieu doctrine rather than left as an isolated Zion image. Uses the ‘SEIGNEUR’ small-caps convention since it embeds the tetragrammaton.
Latter Days
Approved rendering: les derniers jours
Transliteration: be’acharit hayamim
Doctrine: Future Restoration and the Kingdom of God among the Nations
Original: בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים
Category: Eschatology
Eschatological, future-oriented time marker framing Michée 4:1-5 as final, climactic restoration, not merely a better future era.
Daughter Of Zion
Approved rendering: fille de Sion
Transliteration: bat-Tziyon
Doctrine: Remnant Preserved by God
Original: בַּת־צִיּוֹן
Category: Restoration
Personification of Jerusalem/the covenant people as a woman in labor, reframing present distress (exile) as birth pangs preceding deliverance (Michée 4:8, 10, 13). Figurative; must not be literalized.
Compassion Rachamim
Approved rendering: compassion
Transliteration: rachamim
Doctrine: Divine Compassion
Original: רַחֲמִים
Category: Restoration
Tender, parental-toned mercy (root shared with ‘womb’), distinct in nuance from chesed’s covenant loyalty (Michée 7:19). Adequate in French but risks reading as generic sympathy unless anchored to its immediate restoration context.
Who Is Like Yhwh
Approved rendering: Qui est Dieu comme toi
Transliteration: mi-kamokha El
Doctrine: Inspiration of True Prophecy
Original: מִי־כָמוֹךָ אֵל
Category: Worship
Rhetorical question of incomparability, a direct wordplay on the prophet’s own name (Mikhah, ‘Who is like YHWH?’), climactically resolving the book’s opening pun (Michée 7:18; cf. 1:1). Untranslatable wordplay; requires a translator’s note at first occurrence tying 7:18 back to 1:1.
The Breaker
Approved rendering: celui qui ouvre la brèche
Transliteration: haporetz
Doctrine: Remnant Preserved by God
Original: הַפֹּרֵץ
Category: Christology
‘The one who breaks open [a way]’ — royal/messianic deliverer imagery of God leading the remnant out to freedom, anticipating the coming Ruler of chapter 5 (Michée 2:13). Ensure it is not read as a merely military or generic-hero title.
Seize Fields
Approved rendering: convoiter, s’approprier par la violence
Transliteration: chamad / gazal
Doctrine: Social and Economic Justice in Daily Dealings
Original: חָמַד / גָּזַל
Category: Justice
Greedy coveting and violent seizure of land, an economic-oppression violation of inheritance law (Michée 2:1-2). Should be linked explicitly to the mishpat doctrine as one of its concrete violations.
Zion Built With Blood
Approved rendering: bâtir Sion dans le sang
Transliteration: banah Tziyon bedamim
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Original: בָּנָה צִיּוֹן בְּדָמִים
Category: Leadership
Using violent/exploitative gain to fund civic or religious building projects, directly linking social injustice to hollow civic/religious pride (Michée 3:10). Ensure the causal link between injustice and false religious pride remains visible.
Godly One Perished
Approved rendering: l’homme fidèle a disparu
Transliteration: avad chasid
Doctrine: Hope of Forgiveness and Pardon
Original: אָבַד חָסִיד
Category: Restoration
Societal collapse of covenant loyalty (‘the faithful/loyal one has perished’, sharing the chesed root), setting up the personal lament preceding chapter 7’s turn to hope (Michée 7:2). Should be understood as societal collapse of covenant loyalty, not merely individual piety.
Wait For The Lord
Approved rendering: je regarderai vers le SEIGNEUR, je l’attendrai
Transliteration: ani la-YHWH atzapeh
Doctrine: Inspiration of True Prophecy
Original: אֲנִי לַיהוָה אֲצַפֶּה
Category: Faith
Active, expectant hope in God, modeling the personal-faith response appropriate after national judgment (Michée 7:7). Must convey active watching/expectation, not passive resignation. Uses the small-caps SEIGNEUR convention since it embeds the tetragrammaton.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration of True Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: voyant
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Applies to Micah himself (1:1) and to the book’s sharp true/false prophetic contrast (3:5-8 vs. 2:6-11, 3:11); avoid ‘voyant’ (fortune-teller connotation) so the Spirit-empowered, covenant-lawsuit-announcing role is preserved.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Inspiration of True Prophecy
Inherited from Romans package exactly. God-inspired declaration, not astrological prediction; secular French academic readings of Micah as purely literary/socio-political critique must not displace this sense.
David
Approved rendering: David
Transliteration: David
Doctrine: The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem (Messianic Promise)
Original: דָּוִד
Category: Covenant
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Proper name; David’s birthplace Bethlehem Ephrathah (Michée 5:2) is the specific link to the coming Ruler.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jésus
Transliteration: Jésus
Doctrine: The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem (Messianic Promise)
Inherited from Romans package exactly. Not itself a Micah-text term, but required in all teaching material connecting Michée 5:2 to its verbatim citation in Matthieu 2:6 as fulfilled in Jésus; stable across all French traditions.
Violence Chamas
Approved rendering: violence
Transliteration: chamas
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Original: חָמָס
Category: Justice
Violence/injustice named among the sins of the wicked house (Michée 6:12). Lexical note only: the Hebrew root is the etymological source of the modern organization name ‘Hamas’; the French rendering ‘violence’ carries no such association and is unaffected.
Vine And Fig Tree
Approved rendering: chacun sous sa vigne et son figuier
Transliteration: ish tachat gafno ve-tachat te’enato
Doctrine: Future Restoration and the Kingdom of God among the Nations
Original: אִישׁ תַּחַת גַּפְנוֹ וְתַחַת תְּאֵנָתוֹ
Category: Kingdom
Idiom for secure, peaceful, settled prosperity — the concrete image of covenant shalom fulfilled (Michée 4:4). No significant translation risk.
Micah Prophet
Approved rendering: Michée
Transliteration: Mikhah
Doctrine: Inspiration of True Prophecy
Original: מִיכָה
Category: Covenant
The prophet’s proper name, a theological pun meaning ‘Who is like YHWH?’, resolved climactically in 7:18 (Michée 1:1). Proper-noun rendering is Low risk; the embedded wordplay itself is Medium risk and untranslatable — flag for a translator’s note at first occurrence.
Samaria
Approved rendering: Samarie
Transliteration: Shomron
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Original: שֹׁמְרוֹן
Category: Covenant
Capital of the northern kingdom (Israel), whose coming ruin previews Judah’s danger (Michée 1:1, 5-6). Standard proper name form.
Judah
Approved rendering: Juda
Transliteration: Yehudah
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Original: יְהוּדָה
Category: Covenant
The southern kingdom, principal addressee of Micah’s oracles (Michée 1:1, 5, 9). Standard proper name form.
Jerusalem
Approved rendering: Jérusalem
Transliteration: Yerushalayim
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Original: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Category: Covenant
Judah’s capital, site of the temple, central to both judgment (1-3) and restoration (4) themes. Standard proper name form.
Zion
Approved rendering: Sion
Transliteration: Tziyon
Doctrine: Future Restoration and the Kingdom of God among the Nations
Original: צִיּוֹן
Category: Covenant
The temple mount/covenant capital, central to both indictment (3:10, 12) and restoration (4:2, 7-8) themes. Low translation risk, but High doctrinal weight given its role across the whole book.
Jacob
Approved rendering: Jacob
Transliteration: Ya’akov
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Faithfulness to the Patriarchs
Original: יַעֲקֹב
Category: Covenant
The patriarch, used metonymically for the covenant people (Michée 1:5; 2:7; 3:1, 8-9; 4:2; 5:7-8; 7:20). Standard proper name form.
Assyria
Approved rendering: Assyrie
Transliteration: Ashur
Doctrine: The Coming Ruler from Bethlehem (Messianic Promise)
Original: אַשּׁוּר
Category: Covenant
The dominant regional imperial threat of Micah’s era, from whom the coming Ruler delivers his people (Michée 5:5-6; 7:12). Standard proper name form.
Egypt
Approved rendering: Égypte
Transliteration: Mitzrayim
Doctrine: Recollection of God’s Past Saving Acts
Original: מִצְרַיִם
Category: Covenant
Site of Israel’s foundational deliverance, recalled as evidentiary basis for the covenant lawsuit (Michée 6:4; 7:15). Standard proper name form.
Balaam
Approved rendering: Balaam
Transliteration: Bil’am
Doctrine: Recollection of God’s Past Saving Acts
Original: בִּלְעָם
Category: Covenant
Figure from Numbers 22-24, recalled to show God’s past faithfulness in delivering Israel despite a hired curse (Michée 6:5). Standard proper name form.
Balak
Approved rendering: Balak
Transliteration: Balak
Doctrine: Recollection of God’s Past Saving Acts
Original: בָּלָק
Category: Covenant
The Moabite king who hired Balaam to curse Israel (Michée 6:5). Standard proper name form.
Omri
Approved rendering: Omri
Transliteration: Omri
Doctrine: Judgment on Corrupt Leaders
Original: עֹמְרִי
Category: Covenant
A historically wicked northern-kingdom dynasty (1 Kings 16) whose corrupt customs Judah is charged with imitating (Michée 6:16). Standard proper name reference.
Abraham
Approved rendering: Abraham
Transliteration: Avraham
Doctrine: God’s Covenant Faithfulness to the Patriarchs
Original: אַבְרָהָם
Category: Covenant
The patriarch to whom God swore the covenant oath now confirmed as fulfilled in Israel’s restoration (Michée 7:20). Not previously in the Romans baseline registry; use the established French Bible-translation form.
Referenced passages