Chapter 7

The Prophet Acknowledges

1 Woe is me! For I am

Like the fruit pickers, like the agrape gatherers.

There is not a cluster of grapes to eat,

Or a bfirst-ripe fig which 1I crave.

2 The 1godly person has aperished from the land,

And there is no upright person among men.

All of them lie in wait for bbloodshed;

Each of them hunts the other with a cnet.

3 Concerning evil, both hands do it awell.

The prince asks, also the judge, for a bbribe,

And a great man speaks the desire of his soul;

So they weave it together.

4 The best of them is like a abriar,

The most upright like a bthorn hedge.

The day when you post your watchmen,

Your cpunishment will come.

Then their dconfusion will occur.

5 Do not atrust in a neighbor;

Do not have confidence in a friend.

From her who lies in your bosom

Guard 1your lips.

6 For ason treats father contemptuously,

Daughter rises up against her mother,

Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

bA man’s enemies are the men of his own household.

God Is the Source of Salvation and Light

7 But as for me, I will awatch expectantly for the Lord;

I will bwait for the God of my salvation.

My cGod will hear me.

8 aDo not rejoice over me, O bmy enemy.

Though I fall I will crise;

Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a dlight for me.

9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord

Because I have sinned against Him,

Until He apleads my case and executes justice for me.

He will bring me out to the blight,

And I will see His 1crighteousness.

10 Then my enemy will see,

And shame will cover her who asaid to me,

“Where is the Lord your God?”

My eyes will look on her;

1At that time she will 2be btrampled down

Like mire of the streets.

11 It will be a day for abuilding your walls.

On that day will your boundary be extended.

12 It will be a day when 1they will acome to you

From Assyria and the cities of Egypt,

From Egypt even to the 2Euphrates,

Even from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

13 And the earth will become adesolate because of her inhabitants,

On account of the bfruit of their deeds.

14 aShepherd Your people with Your bscepter,

The flock of Your 1possession

Which dwells by itself in the woodland,

In the midst of 2a fruitful field.

Let them feed in cBashan and Gilead

dAs in the days of old.

15 “As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt,

I will show 1ayou miracles.”

16 Nations awill see and be ashamed

Of all their might.

They will bput their hand on their mouth,

Their ears will be deaf.

17 They will alick the dust like a serpent,

Like breptiles of the earth.

They will come ctrembling out of their 1fortresses;

To the Lord our God they will come in ddread

And they will be afraid before You.

18 Who is a God like You, who apardons iniquity

And passes over the rebellious act of the bremnant of His 1possession?

He does not cretain His anger forever,

Because He ddelights in 2unchanging love.

19 He will again have compassion on us;

aHe will tread our iniquities under foot.

Yes, You will bcast all 1their sins

Into the depths of the sea.

20 You will give 1atruth to Jacob

And 2unchanging love to Abraham,

Which You bswore to our forefathers

From the days of old.

Chapter 1

Destruction in Israel and Judah

1 The aword of the Lord which came to bMicah of Moresheth in the days of cJotham, dAhaz and eHezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

2 Hear, O peoples, all of 1you;

aListen, O earth and 2all it contains,

And let the Lord 3God be a bwitness against you,

The Lord from His holy temple.

3 For behold, the Lord is acoming forth from His place.

He will come down and btread on the high places of the 1earth.

4 aThe mountains will melt under Him

And the valleys will be split,

Like wax before the fire,

Like water poured down a steep place.

5 All this is for the rebellion of Jacob

And for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the arebellion of Jacob?

Is it not bSamaria?

What is the chigh 1place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

6 For I will make Samaria a aheap of ruins 1in the open country,

bPlanting places for a vineyard.

I will cpour her stones down into the valley

And will dlay bare her foundations.

7 All of her aidols will be smashed,

All of her earnings will be burned with fire

And all of her images I will make desolate,

For she collected them from a bharlot’s earnings,

And to the earnings of a harlot they will return.

8 Because of this I must lament and wail,

I must go abarefoot and naked;

I must make a lament like the bjackals

And a mourning like the ostriches.

9 For her 1awound is incurable,

For bit has come to Judah;

It has reached the cgate of my people,

Even to Jerusalem.

10 aTell it not in Gath,

Weep not at all.

At 1Beth-le-aphrah roll yourself in the dust.

11 1Go on your way, inhabitant of 2Shaphir, in ashameful nakedness.

The inhabitant of 3bZaanan does not 4escape.

The lamentation of 5Beth-ezel: “He will take from you its 6support.”

12 For the inhabitant of 1Maroth

Becomes weak awaiting for good,

Because a calamity has come down from the Lord

To the bgate of Jerusalem.

13 Harness the chariot to the team of horses,

O inhabitant of aLachish—

She was the beginning of sin

To the daughter of Zion—

Because in you were found

The brebellious acts of Israel.

14 Therefore you will give parting agifts

On behalf of Moresheth-gath;

The houses of bAchzib will become a cdeception

To the kings of Israel.

15 Moreover, I will bring on you

The one who takes possession,

O inhabitant of 1aMareshah.

The glory of Israel will enter bAdullam.

16 Make yourself abald and cut off your hair,

Because of the children of your delight;

Extend your baldness like the eagle,

For they will bgo from you into exile.

Chapter 2

Woe to Oppressors

1 Woe to those who ascheme iniquity,

Who work out evil on their beds!

1bWhen morning comes, they do it,

For it is in the cpower of their hands.

2 They acovet fields and then bseize them,

And houses, and take them away.

They 1crob a man and his house,

A man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the Lord,

“Behold, I am aplanning against this bfamily a calamity

From which you ccannot remove your necks;

And you will not walk dhaughtily,

For it will be an eevil time.

4 “On that day they will atake up against you a 1taunt

And 2butter a bitter lamentation and say,

‘We are completely cdestroyed!

He exchanges the portion of my people;

How He removes it from me!

To the apostate He dapportions our fields.’

5 “Therefore you will have no one 1astretching a measuring line

For you by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

6 ‘aDo not 1speak out,’ so they 1speak out.

But if 2they do bnot 1speak out concerning these things,

cReproaches will not be turned back.

7 “Is it being said, O house of Jacob:

‘Is the Spirit of the Lord aimpatient?

Are these His doings?’

Do not My words bdo good

To the one cwalking uprightly?

8 “1Recently My people have arisen as an aenemy—

You bstrip the 2robe off the garment

From cunsuspecting passers-by,

From those returned from war.

9 “The women of My people you aevict,

Each one from her pleasant house.

From her children you take My bsplendor forever.

10 “Arise and go,

For this is no place aof rest

Because of the buncleanness that brings on destruction,

A painful destruction.

11 “If a man walking after wind and afalsehood

Had told lies and said,

‘I will 1speak out to you concerning bwine and liquor,’

He would be 2spokesman to cthis people.

12 “I will surely aassemble all of you, Jacob,

I will surely gather the bremnant of Israel.

I will put them together like sheep in the fold;

Like a flock in the midst of its pasture

They will be noisy with men.

13 “The breaker goes up before them;

They break out, pass through the gate and go out by it.

So their king goes on before them,

And the Lord at their head.”

Chapter 3

Rulers Denounced

1 And I said,

“aHear now, heads of Jacob

And rulers of the house of Israel.

Is it not for you to bknow justice?

2 “You who hate good and love evil,

Who atear off their skin from them

And their flesh from their bones,

3 Who aeat the flesh of my people,

Strip off their skin from them,

Break their bones

And bchop them up as for the pot

And as meat in a kettle.”

4 Then they will acry out to the Lord,

But He will not answer them.

Instead, He