Micah 1:1–5:4

*The word of the Lord that came to aMicah bthe Morasthite cin the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw dconcerning eSamaria and Jerusalem.

2  †fHear, all ye people;

gHearken, O earth, and †all that therein is:

And hlet the Lord God be witness against you,

iThe Lord from khis holy temple.

3  lFor, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of lmhis place,

And will come down, and notread nupon the high places of the earth.

4  And pthe mountains shall be molten under him,

And the valleys shall be cleft,

qAs wax before the fire,

And as the waters that are rpoured down †a steep place.

5  For rrthe transgression of Jacob is all this,

And for rrthe sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not eSamaria?

And what are sthe high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

6  Therefore I will make eSamaria tas an heap of the field,

And as plantings of a vineyard:

And I will rpour down the stones thereof uinto the valley,

And vI will discover the foundations thereof.

7  And all the graven images thereof wshall be beaten to pieces,

And all xthe hires thereof shall be burned with the fire,

And all the idols thereof will I lay desolate:

For she gathered it xof the hire of an harlot,

And they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

8  yTherefore I will zwail and howl,

I will go astripped and bnaked:

I will make a wailing like cdthe dragons,

And mourning as cethe †owls.

9  For ||fher wound is incurable;

For it is come unto Judah;

gHe is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

10  hDeclare ye it not at iGath, weep ye not at all:

In the house of ||kAphrah lroll thyself in the dust.

11  Pass ye away, ||thou †inhabitant of Saphir, nhaving thy shame naked:

The †inhabitant of ||Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of ||Beth-ezel;

He shall receive of you his standing.

12  For the †inhabitant of pMaroth ||qwaited carefully for good:

But revil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem.

13  O thou †inhabitant of sLachish, bind the chariot to tthe swift beast:

She is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion:

For uthe transgressions of Israel were found in thee.

14  Therefore shalt thou give vpresents ||to wMoresheth-gath:

The houses of ||xAchzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

15  xxYet will I bring an heir unto thee, O †inhabitant of xMareshah:

||He shall come unto yAdullam the glory of Israel.

16  zMake thee bald, and apoll thee for bthy delicate children;

zEnlarge thy baldness cas the eagle;

For dthey are gone into captivity from thee.

2 *Woe to them athat devise iniquity, and work evil aupon their beds!

When the morning is light, they practise it,

Because bit is in the power of their hand.

2  And they covet cfields, and take them by violence;

And chouses, and take them away:

So they ||oppress a man and his house,

Even a man and his heritage.

3  Therefore thus saith the Lord;

Behold, against dthis family edo I devise an evil,

fFrom which ye shall not remove your necks;

Neither shall ye go haughtily:

gFor this time is evil.

4  In that day shall one htake up ia parable against you,

And lament †with a doleful lamentation,

And say, We be utterly spoiled:

kHe hath changed the portion of my people:

kHow hath he removed it from me!

||lTurning away he hath divided our fields.

5  Therefore thou shalt have none that shall mcast a cord nby lot

In the congregation of the Lord.

6  ||†oProphesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy:

pThey shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.

7  O thou that art named the house of Jacob,

Is the spirit of the Lord ||straitened?

qAre these his doings?

Do not my words do good to him that walketh †uprightly?

8  sEven †of late my people is risen up as an enemy:

Ye pull off rvthe robe †with the garment

sFrom them that pass by securely as men averse from war.

9  sThe ||women of my people have ye cast out from their upleasant houses;

sFrom their children have ye taken away vmy glory for ever.

10  Arise ye, and depart; for this is not wyour rest:

Because xit is polluted, it shall ydestroy you, even with a zsore destruction.

11  If a man ||bwalking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, csaying,

I will dprophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink;

eHe shall even be dthe prophet of this people.

12  fI will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee;

fI will surely ggather hthe remnant of Israel;

I will put them together as the sheep of iBozrah,

As gthe flock in the midst of jtheir fold:

kThey shall lmake great noise by reason of the multitude of kmen.

13  mThe breaker is come up before them:

They have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it:

And ntheir king shall pass before them,

And othe Lord on the head of them.

3 *And I said, aHear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob,

aAnd ye bprinces of the house of Israel;

cIs it not for you dto know judgment?

2  Who hate the good, and love the evil;

eWho pluck off their skin from off them,

And their flesh from off their bones;

3  eWho also feat the flesh of my people,

And flay their skin from off them;

And gthey break their bones,

And hchop them in pieces, as for the pot,

And ias flesh within kthe caldron.

4  lThen shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them:

mHe will even hide his face from them at that time,

As they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

5  Thus saith the Lord concerning nothe prophets that make my people err,

pThat bite with their teeth, and nqcry, Peace;

And rhe that putteth not into their mouths,

They even sprepare war against him.

6  Therefore tnight shall be unto you, u†that ye shall not have a vision;

And uit shall be dark unto you, t†that ye shall not vdivine;

And wthe sun shall go down over the prophets,

And wthe day shall be dark over them.

7  Then shall the seers xbe ashamed, and vxthe diviners xconfounded:

Yea, they shall all ycover their †lips;

For zthere is no answer of God.

8  But truly aI am full of power by the spirit of the Lord,

And of judgment, and of might,

bTo declare unto Jacob his transgression,

bAnd to Israel his sin.

9  cHear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob,

cAnd princes of the house of Israel,

That abhor judgment, and dpervert all equity.

10  eThey build up Zion fwith †blood,

And Jerusalem with iniquity.

11  gThe heads thereof judge for reward,

And hthe priests thereof teach for hire,

And hithe prophets thereof vdivine for money:

Yet will they klean upon the Lord, †and say,

lIs not the Lord among us?

mNone evil can come upon us.

12  Therefore nshall Zion nnfor your sake be plowed as a field,

noAnd Jerusalem shall become heaps,

nAnd pthe mountain of the house qas the high places of the forest.

4 aBut in the last days it shall come to pass,

That the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains,

And it shall be exalted above the hills;

And people shall flow unto it.

2  And many nations shall come, and say,

Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

And to the house of the God of Jacob;

And he will teach us of his ways,

And we will walk in his paths:

For the law shall go forth of Zion,

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3  And bhe shall judge among many people,

And rebuke cstrong nations afar off;

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

And their spears into ||pruninghooks:

Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,

Neither shall they learn war any more.

4  dBut they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree;

eAnd none shall make them afraid:

fFor the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

5  For gall people will walk every one in the name of his god,

And hwe will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.

6  iIn that day, saith the Lord, kwill I assemble lmher that halteth,

And klI will gather nher that is driven out,

And her that I have afflicted;

7  And I will make lmher that halted oa remnant,

And her that was cast far off ca strong nation:

And prthe Lord shall reign over them qin mount Zion

rFrom henceforth, even for ever.

8  And thou, O tower of ||sthe flock,

tThe strong hold of the daughter of Zion,

Unto thee shall it come, even uthe first dominion;

The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

9  Now why dost thou cry out valoud?

wIs there no king in thee?

xIs thy counseller perished?

For ypangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.

10  zBe in pain, and alabour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, ylike a woman in travail:

For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field,

And bthou shalt go even to Babylon; cthere shalt thou be delivered;

cThere the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

11  Now also ccmany nations are gathered against thee,

That say, dLet her be defiled, and elet our eye look upon Zion.

12  But fthey know not the thoughts of the Lord,

Neither understand they his counsel:

For ghe shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

13  Arise and hithresh, O daughter of Zion:

For I will make jthine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass:

And thou shalt ikbeat in pieces many people:

And I will lconsecrate mtheir gain unto the Lord,

And ntheir substance unto othe Lord of the whole earth.

5 Now agather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops:

He hath laid bsiege against us:

cThey shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod cupon the cheek.

2  dBut thou, eBeth-lehem Ephratah,

Though thou be little among fthe thousands of gJudah,

Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be hruler in Israel;

Whose igoings forth have been kfrom of old, kfrom †everlasting.

3  Therefore will he give them up,

Until the time that lshe which travaileth hath brought forth:

Then mthe remnant of his brethren nshall return unto the children of Israel.

4  And khe shall stand and ||ofeed in the strength of the Lord,

In the majesty of the name of the Lord his God;

And they shall abide:

For now pqshall he be great unto rthe ends of the earth.