Micah 1:1–7:20
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,
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.
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.
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.”
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 will bhide His face from them at that time
Because they have cpracticed evil deeds.
5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who alead my people astray;
When they have something to bite with their teeth,
They bcry, “Peace,”
But against him who puts nothing in their mouths
They declare holy war.
6 Therefore it will be anight for you—without vision,
And darkness for you—without divination.
The bsun will go down on the prophets,
And the day will become dark over them.
7 The seers will be aashamed
And the bdiviners will be embarrassed.
Indeed, they will all ccover their 1mouths
Because there is dno answer from God.
8 On the other hand aI am filled with power—
With the Spirit of the Lord—
And with justice and courage
To bmake known to Jacob his rebellious act,
Even to Israel his sin.
9 Now hear this, aheads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who babhor justice
And twist everything that is straight,
10 Who abuild Zion with bloodshed
And Jerusalem with violent injustice.
11 Her leaders pronounce ajudgment for a bribe,
Her bpriests instruct for a price
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord saying,
“cIs not the Lord in our midst?
Calamity will not come upon us.”
12 Therefore, on account of you
aZion will be plowed as a field,
bJerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
And the cmountain of the 1temple will become high places of a forest.
1 And it will come about in the alast days
That the bmountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established 1as the chief of the mountains.
It will be raised above the hills,
And the cpeoples will stream to it.
2 aMany nations will come and say,
“bCome and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord
And to the house of the God of Jacob,
That cHe may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For dfrom Zion will go forth the law,
Even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 And He will ajudge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, 1distant nations.
Then they will hammer their swords binto plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,
And never again will they 2train for war.
4 Each of them will asit under his vine
And under his fig tree,
With bno one to make them afraid,
For the cmouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
Each in the aname of his god,
As for us, bwe will walk
In the name of the cLord our God forever and ever.
6 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
“I will assemble the alame
And bgather the outcasts,
Even those whom I have afflicted.
7 “I will make the lame a aremnant
And the outcasts a strong nation,
And the bLord will reign over them in Mount Zion
From now on and forever.
8 “As for you, 1atower of the flock,
2Hill of the daughter of Zion,
To you it will come—
Even the bformer dominion will come,
The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
9 “Now, why do you acry out loudly?
Is there no king among you,
Or has your bcounselor perished,
That agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth?
10 “aWrithe and labor to give birth,
Daughter of Zion,
Like a woman in childbirth;
For now you will bgo out of the city,
Dwell in the field,
And go to Babylon.
cThere you will be rescued;
dThere the Lord will redeem you
From the hand of your enemies.
11 “And now amany nations have been assembled against you
Who say, ‘Let her be polluted,
And let our eyes 1gloat over Zion.’
12 “But they do not aknow the thoughts of the Lord,
And they do not understand His purpose;
For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 “Arise and athresh, daughter of Zion,
For your horn I will make iron
And your hoofs I will make bronze,
That you may bpulverize many peoples,
That you may cdevote to the Lord their unjust gain
And their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
Birth of the King in Bethlehem
1 “1Now muster yourselves in troops, daughter of troops;
2They have laid siege against us;
With a rod they will asmite the judge of Israel on the cheek.
2 “1But as for ayou, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From byou One will go forth for Me to be cruler in Israel.
2His goings forth are dfrom long ago,
From the days of eternity.”
3 Therefore He will agive them up until the time
When she bwho is in labor has borne a child.
Then the cremainder of His brethren
Will return to the sons of Israel.
4 And He will arise and ashepherd His flock
In the strength of the Lord,
In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.
And they will 1remain,
Because 2at that time He will be great
To the bends of the earth.
5 This One awill be our peace.
When the bAssyrian invades our land,
When he tramples on our 1citadels,
Then we will raise against him
Seven shepherds and eight leaders of men.
6 They will ashepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
The land of bNimrod at its entrances;
And He will cdeliver us from the Assyrian
When he attacks our land
And when he tramples our territory.
7 Then the aremnant of Jacob
Will be among many peoples
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