Micah 1–3

1The 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

²Hear, 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.

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

He will come down

And tread on the high places of the earth.

^4dThe mountains will melt under Him,

And the valleys will split

Like wax before the fire,

Like waters poured down a steep place.

⁵All 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.

⁷All 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

⁸Therefore 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,

⁹For her wounds are incurable.

For ^kit has come to Judah;

It has come to the gate of My people—

To Jerusalem.

^10lTell it not in Gath,

Weep not at all;

In ¹Beth Aphrah

Roll yourself in the dust.

¹¹Pass 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.

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

But ^mdisaster came down from the Lord

To the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³O 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.

¹⁴Therefore you shall ^pgive presents to ⁶Moresheth Gath;

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

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

The glory of Israel shall come to ^sAdullam. ⁹

¹⁶Make 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

2Woe 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.

²They ^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.

³Therefore 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.

⁴In 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.’ ”

⁵Therefore 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.

⁷You 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.

⁹The 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.

¹¹If 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.

¹³The 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

3And I said:

“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,

And you ^arulers of the house of Israel:

^bIs it not for you to know justice?

²You who hate good and love evil;

Who strip the skin from ¹My people,

And the flesh from their bones;

³Who 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.”

⁴Then ^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.

⁵Thus 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.

⁷So the seers shall be ashamed,

And the diviners abashed;

Indeed they shall all cover their lips;

^kFor there is no answer from God.”

⁸But 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.

⁹Now hear this,

You heads of the house of Jacob

And rulers of the house of Israel,

Who abhor justice

And ⁵pervert all equity,

^10mWho build up Zion with ⁿbloodshed

And Jerusalem with iniquity:

^11oHer 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.”

¹²Therefore 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.