Micah 3:1–5:15
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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 against your adversaries,
And all your enemies shall be 6cut off.
10 “And it shall be in that day,” says the Lord,
“That I will rcut 7off your shorses from your midst
And destroy your tchariots.
11 I will cut off the cities of your land
And throw down all your strongholds.
12 I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
And you shall have no usoothsayers.
13 vYour carved images I will also cut off,
And your sacred pillars from your midst;
You shall wno more worship the work of your hands;
14 I will pluck your 8wooden images from your midst;
Thus I will destroy your cities.
15 And I will xexecute vengeance in anger and fury
On the nations that have not 9heard.”