Micah 1

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.