1 The word of the Lord that came to aMicah of Moresheth in the days of bJotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Judgment on Israel

2 Hear, all you peoples!

Listen, O earth, and all that is in it!

Let the Lord God be a witness against you,

The Lord from cHis holy temple.

3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place;

He will come down

And tread on the high places of the earth.

4 dThe mountains will melt under Him,

And the valleys will split

Like wax before the fire,

Like waters poured down a steep place.

5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob

And for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not Samaria?

And what are the ehigh places of Judah?

Are they not Jerusalem?

6 “Therefore I will make Samaria fa heap of ruins in the field,

Places for planting a vineyard;

I will pour down her stones into the valley,

And I will guncover her foundations.

7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,

And all her hpay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire;

All her idols I will lay desolate,

For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot,

And they shall return to the ipay of a harlot.”

Mourning for Israel and Judah

8 Therefore I will wail and howl,

I will go stripped and naked;

jI will make a wailing like the jackals

And a mourning like the ostriches,

9 For her wounds are incurable.

For kit has come to Judah;

It has come to the gate of My people—

To Jerusalem.

10 lTell it not in Gath,

Weep not at all;

In 1Beth Aphrah

Roll yourself in the dust.

11 Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of 2Shaphir;

The inhabitant of 3Zaanan does not go out.

Beth Ezel mourns;

Its place to stand is taken away from you.

12 For the inhabitant of 4Maroth 5pined for good,

But mdisaster came down from the Lord

To the gate of Jerusalem.

13 O inhabitant of nLachish,

Harness the chariot to the swift steeds

(She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion),

For the transgressions of Israel were ofound in you.

14 Therefore you shall pgive presents to 6Moresheth Gath;

The houses of qAchzib 7shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

15 I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of rMareshah; 8

The glory of Israel shall come to sAdullam. 9

16 Make yourself tbald and cut off your hair,

Because of your uprecious children;

Enlarge your baldness like an eagle,

For they shall go from you into vcaptivity.

Woe to Evildoers

2 Woe to those who devise iniquity,

And 1work out evil on their beds!

At amorning light they practice it,

Because it is in the power of their hand.

2 They bcovet fields and take them by violence,

Also houses, and seize them.

So they oppress a man and his house,

A man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, against this cfamily I am devising ddisaster,

From which you cannot remove your necks;

Nor shall you walk haughtily,

For this is an evil time.

4 In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,

And elament with a bitter lamentation, saying:

‘We are utterly destroyed!

He has changed the 2heritage of my people;

How He has removed it from me!

To 3a turncoat He has divided our fields.’ ”

5 Therefore you will have no 4one to determine boundaries by lot

In the assembly of the Lord.

Lying Prophets

6 “Do not prattle,” you say to those who 5prophesy.

So they shall not prophesy 6to you;

7They shall not return insult for insult.

7 You who are named the house of Jacob:

“Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted?

Are these His doings?

Do not My words do good

To him who walks uprightly?

8 “Lately My people have risen up as an enemy—

You pull off the robe with the garment

From those who trust you, as they pass by,

Like men returned from war.

9 The women of My people you cast out

From their pleasant houses;

From their children

You have taken away My glory forever.

10 “Arise and depart,

For this is not your frest;

Because it is gdefiled, it shall destroy,

Yes, with utter destruction.

11 If a man should walk in a false spirit

And speak a lie, saying,

‘I will 8prophesy to you 9of wine and drink,’

Even he would be the hprattler of this people.

Israel Restored

12 “I iwill surely assemble all of you, O Jacob,

I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;

I will put them together jlike sheep of 1the fold,

Like a flock in the midst of their pasture;

kThey shall make a loud noise because of so many people.

13 The one who breaks open will come up before them;

They will break out,

Pass through the gate,

And go out by it;

lTheir king will pass before them,

mWith the Lord at their head.”

Wicked Rulers and Prophets

3 And I said:

“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,

And you arulers of the house of Israel:

bIs it not for you to know justice?

2 You who hate good and love evil;

Who strip the skin from 1My people,

And the flesh from their bones;

3 Who also ceat the flesh of My people,

Flay their skin from them,

Break their bones,

And chop them in pieces

Like meat for the pot,

dLike flesh in the caldron.”

4 Then ethey will cry to the Lord,

But He will not hear them;

He will even hide His face from them at that time,

Because they have been evil in their deeds.

5 Thus says the Lord fconcerning the prophets

Who make my people stray;

Who chant 2“Peace”

3While they gchew with their teeth,

But who prepare war against him

hWho puts nothing into their mouths:

6 “Therefore iyou shall have night without 4vision,

And you shall have darkness without divination;

The sun shall go down on the prophets,

And the day shall be dark for jthem.

7 So the seers shall be ashamed,

And the diviners abashed;

Indeed they shall all cover their lips;

kFor there is no answer from God.”

8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,

And of justice and might,

lTo declare to Jacob his transgression

And to Israel his sin.

9 Now hear this,

You heads of the house of Jacob

And rulers of the house of Israel,

Who abhor justice

And 5pervert all equity,

10 mWho build up Zion with nbloodshed

And Jerusalem with iniquity:

11 oHer heads judge for a bribe,

pHer priests teach for pay,

And her prophets divine for 6money.

qYet they lean on the Lord, and say,

“Is not the Lord among us?

No harm can come upon us.”

12 Therefore because of you

Zion shall be rplowed like a field,

sJerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,

And tthe mountain of the 7temple

Like the bare hills of the forest.

The Lord’s Reign in Zion

4 Now ait shall come to pass in the latter days

That the mountain of the Lord’s house

Shall be established on the top of the mountains,

And shall be exalted above the hills;

And peoples shall flow to it.

2 Many nations shall come and say,

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

To the house of the God of Jacob;

He will teach us His ways,

And we shall walk in His paths.”

For out of Zion the law shall go forth,

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3 He shall judge between many peoples,

And rebuke strong nations afar off;

They shall beat their swords into bplowshares,

And their spears into 1pruning hooks;

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

cNeither shall they learn war anymore.

4 dBut everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree,

And no one shall make them afraid;

For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

5 For all people walk each in the name of his god,

But ewe will walk in the name of the Lord our God

Forever and ever.

Zion’s Future Triumph

6 “In that day,” says the Lord,

f“I will assemble the lame,

gI will gather the outcast

And those whom I have afflicted;

7 I will make the lame ha remnant,

And the outcast a strong nation;

So the Lord iwill reign over them in Mount Zion

From now on, even forever.

8 And you, O tower of the flock,

The stronghold of the daughter of Zion,

To you shall it come,

Even the former dominion shall come,

The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.”

9 Now why do you cry aloud?

jIs there no king in your midst?

Has your counselor perished?

For kpangs have seized you like a woman in 2labor.

10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth,

O daughter of Zion,

Like a woman in birth pangs.

For now you shall go forth from the city,

You shall dwell in the field,

And to lBabylon you shall go.

There you shall be delivered;

There the mLord will nredeem you

From the hand of your enemies.

11 oNow also many nations have gathered against you,

Who say, “Let her be defiled,

And let our eye plook upon Zion.”

12 But they do not know qthe thoughts of the Lord,

Nor do they understand His counsel;

For He will gather them rlike sheaves to the threshing floor.

13 “Arise sand tthresh, O daughter of Zion;

For I will make your horn iron,

And I will make your hooves bronze;

You shall ubeat in pieces many peoples;

vI will consecrate their gain to the Lord,

And their substance to wthe Lord of the whole earth.”

5 Now gather yourself in troops,

O daughter of troops;

He has laid siege against us;

They will astrike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

The Coming Messiah

2 “But you, bBethlehem cEphrathah,

Though you are little damong the ethousands of Judah,

Yet out of you shall come forth to Me

The One to be fRuler in Israel,

gWhose goings forth are from of old,

From 1everlasting.”

3 Therefore He shall give them up,

Until the time that hshe who is in labor has given birth;

Then ithe remnant of His brethren

Shall return to the children of Israel.

4 And He shall stand and jfeed 2His flock

In the strength of the Lord,

In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God;

And they shall abide,

For now He kshall be great

To the ends of the earth;

5 And this One lshall be peace.

Judgment on Israel’s Enemies

When the Assyrian comes into our land,

And when he treads in our palaces,

Then we will raise against him

Seven shepherds and eight princely men.

6 They shall 3waste with the sword the land of Assyria,

And the land of mNimrod at its entrances;

Thus He shall ndeliver us from the Assyrian,

When he comes into our land

And when he treads within our borders.

7 Then othe remnant of Jacob

Shall be in the midst of many peoples,

pLike dew from the Lord,

Like showers on the grass,

That 4tarry for no man

Nor 5wait for the sons of men.

8 And the remnant of Jacob

Shall be among the Gentiles,

In the midst of many peoples,

Like a qlion among the beasts of the forest,

Like a young lion among flocks of sheep,

Who, if he passes through,

Both treads down and tears in pieces,

And none can deliver.

9 Your hand shall be lifted …