Micah 1:1–5:1
The Impending Doom of Samaria and Jerusalem
1 The word of Yahweh that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah, that he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem:
give heed, O earth and its fullness.
And let the Lord Yahweh be against you as a witness,
the Lord from ⌊his holy temple⌋.a
3 For behold, Yahweh is coming out from his place,
and he will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4 The mountains will melt under him
and the valleys will burst open,
like wax before the fire,
like water rushing down a slope.
5 All this is for the rebellion of Jacob,
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the rebellion of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what are the high places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?
6 So I will make Samaria as a heap of rubble in the field,
a place for planting a vineyard.
And I will pour down her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations.
7 Then all her idols will be broken in pieces,
and all her prostitution wages will be burned in the fire,
and all her idols I will make a desolation,
For from the wage of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the wage of a prostitute they will return.
8 On account of this I will lament and wail.
I will go about barefoot and naked.
I will make a lamentation like the jackals,
and a mourning ceremony like the ⌊ostriches⌋.b
9 For her wounds are incurable,
because it has come to Judah.
It has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
you must not weep at all.
In Beth-le-Aphrah
roll yourself in dust.
11 Pass on, you inhabitants of Shaphir,
in naked shame.
The inhabitants of Zaanan do not come forth;
the wailing of Beth-ha-Ezel will take its protection from you.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
writhed for good,
because disaster has come down from Yahweh
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the chariot to the team of horses,
O inhabitants of Lachish;
it is the beginning of sin
for the daughter of Zion,
for the transgressions of Israel
were found in you.
14 Therefore you will give parting gifts
to Moresheth-Gath;
the houses of Achzib will be a deception
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring the conqueror upon you,
O inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
will come to Adullam.
and cut off your hair
for the children of your pleasure.
Expand your baldness as the eagle,
for they will go into exile away from you.
Woe to the Oppressors of God’s People
2 Woe to those who plan wickedness
and evil deeds upon their beds!
In the light of the morning they did it,
because they have power in their hands.
2 They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and they take them away.
They oppress a man and his house;
a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore, thus says Yahweh: Look! I am planning disaster against this family from which you will not be able to remove your necks. You will not walk proudly, for it is a time of disaster.
4 In that day they will raise a proverb against you,
and will wail a bitter wailing, saying,
“We are utterly ruined;
he exchanges the portion of my people.
How he removes it from me;
he apportions our field to an apostate.”
5 Therefore you will have no one casting a line by lot
in the assembly of Yahweh.
6 “Do not preach!” they are preaching.
They should not preach to these;
disgrace will not overtake us.
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Is the patiencea of Yahweh shortened?
Are these his deeds?
Are my words not pleasing
to him who walks upright?
8 But ⌊recently⌋b my people have risen up as an enemy;
from before the cloak you strip off the robe
from those passing by in confidence,
returning from war.
9 You have driven out the women of my people
from the houses of theirc pleasure.
From theird children you have taken away
my glory forever.
for this is no resting place,
on account of uncleanness that destroys
with painful destruction.
11 If a man walks about in a spirit of deception and lies,
saying “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
then he would be a preacher for this people!
12 I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob;
I will surely gather together the remainder of Israel.
I will set them like sheep of Bozrah.
Like a herd in the midst of their pasture
they will be in tumult from people.
13 The one who breaks out before them goes up;
they break through and pass the gate,
going out through it.
Their king passes before them,
Yahweh at their head.
3 And I said,
“Listen, O heads of Jacob
and leaders of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?
2 Those of you who are haters of good
and lovers of evil,
who tear their skin from them
and their flesh from their bones,
3 and who eat the flesh of my people,
and strip their skin from them,
and break their bones,
and chop them like meat in the pot,
and like flesh in the midst of a cooking pot.”
4 Then they will cry to Yahweh,
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time,
when they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets
who are leading my people astray,
who are biting with their teeth
and proclaim, “Peace,”
but whoever puts nothing into their mouths
they declare war against.
6 Therefore it will be as night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
And the sun will set on the prophets,
and the day will grow dark over them.
7 Then the seers will be disgraced,
and those practicing divination will be put to shame.
All of them will cover their lips,
for there is no reply from God.
8 But I, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of Yahweh,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his rebellion,
and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, O rulers of the house of Jacob
and leaders of the house of Israel,
those detesting justice
and perverting all that is right,
10 he who builds Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with wickedness.
11 Its rulers judge for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets practice divination for money.
But they lean on Yahweh, saying,
“Is not Yahweh in our midst?
Disaster will not come upon us.”
12 Therefore on account of you
Zion will be plowed as a field,
and Jerusalem will be a heap of rubble,
and ⌊the temple mount⌋a as a high place in a forest.
4 And it will be that at the end of those days,
the mountain of the house of Yahweh
will be established as the highest of the mountains,
and it will be lifted up above the hills,
and people will stream to it.
2 And many nations will come and say,
“Come! Let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
and to the ⌊temple⌋a of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways,
and that we may walk in his paths,”
for the law will go out from Zion,
and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
3 And he will judge between many peoples
and will arbitrate for strong nations far away;
and they will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation will not lift up a sword against a nation,
and they will no longer learn war.
4 But they will sit, each under his vine
and under his fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
for the mouth of Yahweh of hosts has spoken.
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God,
forever and ever.
6 “In that day,” ⌊declares Yahweh,⌋b
“I will assemble the one who limps,
and I will gather the one who has been scattered,
and those whom I have mistreated.
7 And I will make the one who limps a remnant,
and the one driven far away a strong nation,
and Yahweh will reign over them on Mount Zion
from now to forever.
8 And you, O Migdal-Eder,c
hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you it will come,
and the former dominion will come,
the reign of the daughter of Jerusalem.
9 So then, why do you shout a loud shout?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished
that pangs like a woman in labor have seized you?
10 Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in labor.
For now you will go forth from the city,
and you will camp in the field;
you will go to Babylon.
There you will be rescued;
there Yahweh will redeem you
from the hand of your enemies.
11 And now, many nations are gathered against you
who are saying, ‘Let her be defiled,
and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.’
12 But they do not know the thoughts of Yahweh,
and they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them as sheaves
to his threshing floor.
13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion,
for your horn I will make as iron
and your hooves as bronze.
And you will break many peoples in pieces,
and their gain you will devote to destruction to Yahweh,
and their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.”
5 a Now muster troops, O daughter of troops;
a siege he puts against us.
They strike the ruler of Israel
with a rod on the cheek.