Micah

The Book of

Micah

Chapter 1

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

2 Hear, you peoples, all of you;

hearken, O earth, and all that is in it;

and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,

the Lord from his holy temple.

3 For behold, the Lord is coming forth out of his place,

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

4 And the mountains will melt under him

and the valleys will be cleft,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

5 All 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 sin of the housea of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

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

a place for planting vineyards;

and I will pour down her stones into the valley,

and uncover her foundations.

7 All her images shall be beaten to pieces,

all her hires shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste;

for from the hire of a harlot she gathered them,

and to the hire of a harlot they shall return.

8 For this I will lament and wail;

I will go stripped and naked;

I will make lamentation like the jackals,

and mourning like the ostriches.

9 For her woundb is incurable;

and it has come to Judah,

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

10 Tell it not in Gath,

weep not at all;

in Beth-le-aphrah

roll yourselves in the dust.

11 Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir,

in nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

do not come forth;

the wailing of Beth-ezel

shall take away from you its standing place.

12 For the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

because evil has come down from the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.

13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of Lachish;

you werec the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

for in you were found

the transgressions of Israel.

14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts

to Moresheth-gath;

the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing

to the kings of Israel.

15 I will again bring a conqueror upon you,

inhabitants of Mareshah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to Adullam.

16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,

for the children of your delight;

make yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they shall go from you into exile.

Chapter 2

1 Woe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil upon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

2 They covet fields, and seize them;

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the Lord:

Behold, against this family I am devising evil,

from which you cannot remove your necks;

and you shall not walk haughtily,

for it will be an evil time.

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

and wail with bitter lamentation,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

he changes the portion of my people;

how he removes it from me!

Among our captorsd he divides our fields.”

5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the Lord.

6 “Do not preach”—thus they preach—

“one should not preach of such things;

disgrace will not overtake us.”

7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?

Are these his doings?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

8 But you rise against my peoplee as an enemy;

you strip the robe from the peaceful,f

from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.

9 The women of my people you drive out

from their pleasant houses;

from their young children you take away

my glory for ever.

10 Arise and go,

for this is no place to rest;

because of uncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,

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

he would be the preacher for this people!

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

I will gather the remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

13 He who opens the breach 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.

Chapter 3

1 And I said:

Hear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

Is it not for you to know justice?—

2 you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin from off my people,

and their flesh from off their bones;

3 who eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces,

and chop them up like meat* in a kettle,

like flesh in a caldron.

4 Then 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 made their deeds evil.

5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets

who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

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

and darkness to you, without divination.

The sun shall go down upon the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

7 the seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

for there is no answer from God.

8 But 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.

9 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

who abhor justice

and pervert all equity,

10 who build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with wrong.

11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe,

its priests teach for hire,

its prophets divine for money;

yet they lean upon the Lord and say,

“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?

No evil shall come upon us.”

12 Therefore because of you

Zion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Chapter 4

1 It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised up above the hills;

and peoples shall flow to it,

2 and many nations shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways

and we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3 He shall judge between many peoples,

and shall decide for strong nations afar off;

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more;

4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,

and none shall make them afraid;

for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

5 For all the peoples walk

each in the name of its god,

but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God

for ever and ever.

6 In that day, says the Lord,

I will assemble the lame

and gather those who have been driven away,

and those whom I have afflicted;

7 and the lame I will make the remnant;

and those who were cast off, a strong nation;

and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion

from this time forth and for evermore.

8 And you, O tower of the flock,

hill of the daughter of Zion,

to you shall it come,

the former dominion shall come,

the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why do you cry aloud?

Is there no king in you?

Has your counselor perished,

that pangs have seized you like a woman in travail?

10 Writhe and groan,h O daughter of Zion,

like a woman in travail;

for now you shall go forth from the city

and dwell in the open country;

you shall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued,

there the Lord will redeem you

from the hand of your enemies.

11 Now many nations

are assembled against you,

saying, “Let her be profaned,

and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”

12 But they do not know

the thoughts of the Lord,

they do not understand his plan,

that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

13 Arise and thresh,

O daughter of Zion,

for I will make your horn iron

and your hoofs bronze;

you shall beat in pieces many peoples,

and shalli devote their gain to the Lord,

their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

Chapter 5*

1 Now you are walled about with a wall;k

siege is laid against us;

with a rod they strike upon the cheek

the ruler of Israel.

2 But you, O Bethlehem* Ephrathah,

who are little to be among the clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be ruler in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,

from ancient days.

3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time

when she who is in travail has brought forth;

then the rest of his brethren shall return

to the people of Israel.

4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,

in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great

to the ends of the earth.

5 And this shall be peace,

when the Assyrian comes into our land

and treads upon our soil,m

that we will raise against him seven shepherds

and eight princes of men;

6 they shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword,

and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword;n

and they* shall deliver us from the Assyrian

when he comes into our land

and treads within our border.

7 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be

in the midst of many peoples

like dew from the Lord,

like showers upon the grass,

which tarry not for men

nor wait for the sons of men.

8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples,

like a lion among the beasts of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which, when it goes through, treads down

and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,

and all your …