Micah 1:1–2:13
1 The word of the Lord that came to aMicah of Moresheth in the days of bJotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, O earth, and all that is in it!
Let the Lord God be a witness against you,
The Lord from cHis holy temple.
3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth.
4 dThe mountains will melt under Him,
And the valleys will split
Like wax before the fire,
Like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob
And for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what are the ehigh places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?
6 “Therefore I will make Samaria fa heap of ruins in the field,
Places for planting a vineyard;
I will pour down her stones into the valley,
And I will guncover her foundations.
7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
And all her hpay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire;
All her idols I will lay desolate,
For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot,
And they shall return to the ipay of a harlot.”
8 Therefore I will wail and howl,
I will go stripped and naked;
jI will make a wailing like the jackals
And a mourning like the ostriches,
9 For her wounds are incurable.
For kit has come to Judah;
It has come to the gate of My people—
To Jerusalem.
10 lTell it not in Gath,
Weep not at all;
In 1Beth Aphrah
Roll yourself in the dust.
11 Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of 2Shaphir;
The inhabitant of 3Zaanan does not go out.
Beth Ezel mourns;
Its place to stand is taken away from you.
12 For the inhabitant of 4Maroth 5pined for good,
But mdisaster came down from the Lord
To the gate of Jerusalem.
13 O inhabitant of nLachish,
Harness the chariot to the swift steeds
(She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion),
For the transgressions of Israel were ofound in you.
14 Therefore you shall pgive presents to 6Moresheth Gath;
The houses of qAchzib 7shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
15 I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of rMareshah; 8
The glory of Israel shall come to sAdullam. 9
16 Make yourself tbald and cut off your hair,
Because of your uprecious children;
Enlarge your baldness like an eagle,
For they shall go from you into vcaptivity.
2 Woe to those who devise iniquity,
And 1work out evil on their beds!
At amorning light they practice it,
Because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They bcovet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
“Behold, against this cfamily I am devising ddisaster,
From which you cannot remove your necks;
Nor shall you walk haughtily,
For this is an evil time.
4 In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,
And elament with a bitter lamentation, saying:
‘We are utterly destroyed!
He has changed the 2heritage of my people;
How He has removed it from me!
To 3a turncoat He has divided our fields.’ ”
5 Therefore you will have no 4one to determine boundaries by lot
In the assembly of the Lord.
6 “Do not prattle,” you say to those who 5prophesy.
So they shall not prophesy 6to you;
7They shall not return insult for insult.
7 You who are named the house of Jacob:
“Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted?
Are these His doings?
Do not My words do good
To him who walks uprightly?
8 “Lately My people have risen up as an enemy—
You pull off the robe with the garment
From those who trust you, as they pass by,
Like men returned from war.
9 The women of My people you cast out
From their pleasant houses;
From their children
You have taken away My glory forever.
For this is not your frest;
Because it is gdefiled, it shall destroy,
Yes, with utter destruction.
11 If a man should walk in a false spirit
And speak a lie, saying,
‘I will 8prophesy to you 9of wine and drink,’
Even he would be the hprattler of this people.
12 “I iwill surely assemble all of you, O Jacob,
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together jlike sheep of 1the fold,
Like a flock in the midst of their pasture;
kThey shall make a loud noise because of so many people.
13 The one who breaks open will come up before them;
They will break out,
Pass through the gate,
And go out by it;
lTheir king will pass before them,
mWith the Lord at their head.”