Micah 1–3

Chapter 1

¹The word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. ²Hear, ye peoples, all of you; hearken, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple! ³For behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. ⁴And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters poured down a steep place. ⁵For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. Whence is the transgression of Jacob? is it not from Samaria? And whence are the high places of Judah? are they not from Jerusalem? ⁶Therefore will I make Samaria as a heap of the field, as plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will lay bare the foundations thereof. ⁷And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her harlot-gifts shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I make a desolation; for of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, and to a harlot’s hire shall they return.

⁸For this will I lament, and I will howl; I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches. ⁹For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even unto Judah, it reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. ¹⁰Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all; at Beth-le-aphrah roll thyself in the dust. ¹¹Pass away, inhabitress of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitress of Zaanan is not come forth for the lamentation of Beth-ezel: he will take from you its shelter. ¹²For the inhabitress of Maroth waited anxiously for good; but evil hath come down from Jehovah unto the gate of Jerusalem. ¹³Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitress of Lachish: she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for in thee were found the transgressions of Israel. ¹⁴Therefore shalt thou give parting-gifts to Moresheth-Gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. ¹⁵I will yet bring unto thee an heir, O inhabitress of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam. ¹⁶Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy delights; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, for they are gone into captivity from thee.

Chapter 2

¹Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand. ²And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away; and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. ³Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye walk haughtily: for it is an evil time. ⁴In that day shall they take up a proverb concerning you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We are utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! He hath distributed our fields to the rebellious. ⁵Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the measuring line upon a lot, in the congregation of Jehovah.

⁶Prophesy ye not, they prophesy. If they do not prophesy to these, the ignominy will not depart. ⁷O thou that art named the house of Jacob, Is Jehovah impatient? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? ⁸But of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye strip off the mantle with the garment from them that pass by securely, that are averse from war. ⁹The women of my people do ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children do ye take away my magnificence for ever. ¹⁰Arise ye, and depart; for this is not the resting-place, because of defilement that bringeth destruction, even a grievous destruction. ¹¹If a man walking in wind and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink, he shall be the prophet of this people.

¹²I will surely assemble, O Jacob, the whole of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their pasture: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. ¹³One that breaketh through is gone up before them: they have broken forth, and have passed on to the gate, and are gone out by it; and their king passeth on before them, and Jehovah at the head of them.

Chapter 3

¹And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment? ²Ye who hate the good, and love evil; who pluck off their skin from them, and their flesh from off their bones; ³and who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron. ⁴Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer them; and he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings. ⁵Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that cause my people to err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace! but whoso putteth not into their mouths they prepare war against him: ⁶therefore ye shall have night without a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, without divination; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them. ⁷And the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; and they shall all cover their lips, for there will be no answer of God.

⁸But truly I am filled with power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and with judgment and with might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. ⁹Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity, ¹⁰that build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with unrighteousness. ¹¹The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet do they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us. ¹²Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.