Micah 1–3

1The word of the Lord that came to Micah ^aof Moresheth ^bin the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw ^cconcerning ^dSamaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction

^2eHear, you peoples, all of you;¹

^fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,

and ^glet the Lord God be a witness against you,

^hthe Lord from his holy temple.

³For behold, ⁱthe Lord is coming out of ^jhis place,

and will come down and ^ktread upon the high places of the earth.

⁴And ^lthe mountains will melt under him,

and the valleys will split open,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

⁵All this is for ^mthe transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

ⁿWhat is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not ^dSamaria?

And what is ^othe high place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore I will make ^dSamaria ^pa heap in the open country,

a place for planting vineyards,

and I will pour down her stones ^qinto the valley

and ^runcover her foundations.

⁷All ^sher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,

^tall her wages shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste,

for from ^tthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,

and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

^8uFor this I will lament and wail;

I will go ^vstripped and naked;

I will make lamentation ^wlike the jackals,

and mourning ^xlike the ostriches.

^9yFor her wound is incurable,

and it has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

^10zTell it not in ^aGath;

weep not at all;

in Beth-le-aphrah

^broll yourselves in the dust.

¹¹Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir,

^cin nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

do not come out;

the lamentation of Beth-ezel

shall take away from you its standing place.

¹²For the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

because disaster has come down ^dfrom the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of ^eLachish;

it was the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

for in you were found

^fthe transgressions of Israel.

¹⁴Therefore you shall give parting gifts²

to ^gMoresheth-gath;

the houses of ^hAchzib shall be a deceitful thing

to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will again bring ⁱa conqueror to you,

inhabitants of ^hMareshah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to ^jAdullam.

^16kMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,

for the children of your delight;

^kmake yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they shall go from you into exile.

Woe to the Oppressors

2^lWoe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil ^mon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

²They covet fields and ⁿseize them,

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

³Therefore thus says the Lord:

behold, against ^othis family I am devising disaster,¹

from which you cannot remove your necks,

and you ^pshall not walk haughtily,

^qfor it will be a time of disaster.

⁴In that day ^rthey shall take up a taunt song against you

and moan bitterly,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

^she changes the portion of my people;

^show he removes it from me!

^tTo an apostate he allots our fields.”

⁵Therefore you will have none ^uto cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the Lord.

^6v“Do not preach”—thus they preach—

^w“one should not preach of such things;

^xdisgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

^vHas the Lord grown impatient?²

Are these his deeds?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

⁸But lately ^ymy people have risen up as an enemy;

you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.³

⁹The women of my people you drive out

from their delightful houses;

from their young children you take away

my splendor forever.

^10zArise and go,

for this is no ^aplace to rest,

because of ^buncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

¹¹If a man should go about and ^cutter wind and lies,

saying, “I will preach to you ^dof wine and strong drink,”

he would be the preacher for this people!

¹²I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;

^eI will gather ^fthe remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

^hlike a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

¹³ⁱHe who opens the breach goes up before them;

they break through and pass the gate,

^jgoing out by it.

Their king passes on before them,

^kthe Lord at their head.

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

3And I said:

^lHear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

^mIs it not for you to know justice?—

²you ⁿwho hate the good and love the evil,

^owho tear the skin from off my people¹

and their flesh from off their bones,

^3pwho eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces

and chop them up like meat in a pot,

like flesh in a cauldron.

^4qThen they will cry to the Lord,

but he will not answer them;

^rhe will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have made their deeds evil.

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning ^sthe prophets

who lead my people astray,

^twho cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

⁶Therefore ^uit shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without divination.

^vThe sun shall go down on the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

^7wthe seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

^xthey shall all cover their lips,

for ^ythere is no answer from God.

⁸But as for me, ^zI am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob ^ahis transgression

and to Israel his sin.

^9bHear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

^cwho detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight,

^10dwho build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with iniquity.

^11eIts heads give judgment for a bribe;

^fits priests teach for a price;

^gits prophets practice divination for money;

^hyet they lean on the Lord and ⁱsay,

“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?

^jNo disaster shall come upon us.”

¹²Therefore because of you

^kZion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem ^lshall become a heap of ruins,

and ^mthe mountain of the house ⁿa wooded height.