Micah 1

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.^*