Micah 2:1–4:13
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.
2 They covet fields and nseize them,
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore 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.
4 In 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.”
5 Therefore you will have none uto cast the line by lot
in the assembly of the Lord.
6 v“Do not preach”—thus they preach—
w“one should not preach of such things;
xdisgrace will not overtake us.”
7 Should 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?
8 But 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
9 The women of my people you drive out
from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
my splendor forever.
10 zArise and go,
for this is no aplace to rest,
because of buncleanness that destroys
with a grievous destruction.
11 If 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!
12 I 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.
13 iHe 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.
3 And I said:
lHear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
mIs it not for you to know justice?—
2 you nwho hate the good and love the evil,
owho tear the skin from off my people1
and their flesh from off their bones,
3 pwho 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.
4 qThen 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.
5 Thus 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.
6 Therefore 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;
7 wthe seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
xthey shall all cover their lips,
for ythere is no answer from God.
8 But 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.
9 bHear 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,
10 dwho build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 eIts 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.”
kZion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem lshall become a heap of ruins,
and mthe mountain of the house na wooded height.
4 It shall come to pass oin the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
2 and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,1
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall pbeat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore;
4 qbut they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
rand no one shall make them afraid,
sfor the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
5 For tall the peoples walk
each in the name of its god,
but uwe will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever.
6 vIn that day, declares the Lord,
and gather those who have been driven away
and those whom I have afflicted;
7 and the lame I will make ythe remnant,
and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and zthe Lord will reign over them ain Mount Zion
from this time forth and forevermore.
8 And you, O tower of the flock,
hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
the former dominion shall come,
kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.
bIs there no king in you?
cHas your counselor perished,
that dpain seized you like a woman in labor?
10 eWrithe and groan,2 O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for fnow you shall go out from the city
and dwell in the open country;
you gshall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
hthere the Lord will redeem you
from the hand of your enemies.
11 Now imany nations
are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
and jlet our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
12 But kthey do not know
the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
that lhe has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
and I will make your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
and mshall devote3 ntheir gain to the Lord,
their wealth to othe Lord of the whole earth.