Micah 1–3

¹The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.^*

Judgment Pronounced against Samaria

²Hear, you peoples, all of you;

listen, O earth, and all that is in it,

and let the Lord God be a witness against you,

the Lord from his holy temple.^*

³For the Lord is coming out of his place

and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.^*

⁴Then the mountains will melt under him,

and the valleys will burst open

like wax near the fire,

like waters poured down a slope.^*

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 is the high place^a of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?^*

⁶Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,

a place for planting vineyards.

I will pour down her stones into the valley

and uncover her foundations.^*

⁷All her images shall be beaten to pieces,

all her wages shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste;

for as the wages of a prostitute she gathered them,

and as the wages of a prostitute they shall again be used.^*

The Doom of the Cities of Judah

⁸For this I will lament and wail;

I will go barefoot and naked;

I will make lamentation like the jackals

and mourning like the ostriches.^*

⁹For her wound^b is incurable.

It has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.^*

¹⁰Tell it not in Gath;

weep not at all;

in Beth-leaphrah

roll yourselves in the dust.^*

¹¹Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir,

in nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

do not come forth;

Beth-ezel is wailing

and shall remove its support from you.^*

¹²For the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

yet disaster has come down from the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.^*

¹³Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of Lachish;

it was the beginning of sin

to daughter Zion,

for in you were found

the transgressions of Israel.^*

¹⁴Therefore you shall give parting gifts

to Moresheth-gath;

the houses of Achzib shall be a deception

to the kings of Israel.^*

¹⁵I will again bring a conqueror upon you,

inhabitants of Mareshah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to Adullam.^*

¹⁶Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair

for your pampered children;

make yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they have gone from you into exile.^*

Social Evils Denounced

²Woe to those who devise wickedness

and evil deeds^c on their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in their power.^*

²They covet fields and seize them,

houses and take them away;

they oppress householder and house,

people and their inheritance.^*

³Therefore thus says the Lord:

Now, I am devising against this family an evil

from which you cannot remove your necks,

and you shall not walk arrogantly,

for it will be an evil time.^*

⁴On that day they shall take up a taunt song against you

and wail with bitter lamentation

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

the Lord^d alters the inheritance of my people;

how he removes it from me!

Among our captors^e he parcels out our fields.”^*

⁵Therefore you will have no one in the Lord’s assembly

to allot you a piece of land.^*

⁶“Do not preach”—thus they preach—

“one should not preach of such things;

disgrace will not overtake us.”^*

⁷Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

Is the Lord’s patience exhausted?

Are these his doings?

Do not my words do good

to one who walks uprightly?

⁸But you rise up against my people^f as an enemy;

you strip the robe from the peaceful,^g

from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.

⁹The women of my people you drive out

from their pleasant houses;

from their young children you take away

my glory forever.

¹⁰Arise and go,

for this is no place to rest,

because of uncleanness that destroys

with a violent destruction.^*

¹¹If someone were to go about uttering empty falsehoods,

saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”

such a one would be the preacher for this people!^*

A Promise for the Remnant of Israel

¹²I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob;

I will gather the survivors of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture;

it will resound with people.^*

¹³The one who breaks out will go up before them;

they will break through and pass the gate,

going out by it.

Their king will pass on before them,

the Lord at their head.^*

Wicked Rulers and Prophets

³And I said:

Listen, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

Should you not know justice?—^*

²you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin off my people^h

and the flesh off their bones,^*

³who eat the flesh of my people,

flay their skin off them,

break their bones in pieces,

and chop them up like meatⁱ in a kettle,

like flesh in a caldron.^*

⁴Then they will cry to the Lord,

but he will not answer them;

he will hide his face from them at that time

because they have acted wickedly.^*

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets

who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat

but declare war against those

who put nothing into their mouths.^*

⁶Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without revelation.

The sun shall go down upon the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;^*

⁷the seers shall be disgraced

and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

for there is no answer from God.^*

⁸But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the spirit of the Lord,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.^*

⁹Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob

and chiefs of the house of Israel,

who abhor justice

and pervert all equity,^*

¹⁰who build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with wrong!^*

¹¹Its rulers give judgment for a bribe;

its priests teach for a price;

its prophets give oracles for money;

yet they lean upon the Lord and say,

“Surely the Lord is with us!

No harm shall come upon us.”^*

¹²Therefore because of you

Zion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

and the mountain of the temple a wooded height.^*