- 1Hear, all 2you people. Listen, O earth, and all that therein is. And let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3For behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. 5For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? 6Therefore, I will make Samaria as a heap of the field and as plantings of a vineyard. And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof. 7And all the engraved images thereof shall be beaten to pieces. And all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire. And all the idols thereof will I lay desolate. For she gathered it of the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot. 8Therefore, I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked. I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owls. 9For her wound is incurable, for it has come unto Judah; he has come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
- 10Declare it not at Gath. Weep not at all. In the house of Aphrah, roll yourself in the dust. 11Pass on your way, you inhabitant of Saphir, having your shame naked. The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel. He shall receive of you his standing. 12For the inhabitant of Maroth waited anxiously for good, but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem. 13O you inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast. She is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 14Therefore shall you give presents to Moresheth-Gath. The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. 15Yet will I bring an heir unto you, O inhabitant of Mareshah. He shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel. 16Make yourself bald and shave yourself for your delicate children. Enlarge your baldness as the eagle, for they are gone into captivity from you.
- 2Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds. When the morning is light, they practice it because it is in the power of their hand. 2And they covet fields and take them by violence, and houses, and take them away. So they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil from which you shall not remove your necks. Neither shall you go haughtily, for this time is evil.
- 4In that day shall one take up a parable against you and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We are utterly spoiled; he has changed the portion of my people. How has he removed it from me! Turning away, he has divided our fields. 5Therefore, you shall have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord. 6Prophesy not, say they to them that prophesy. They shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.
- 7O you that are named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord restricted? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly? 8Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy. You pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war. 9The women of my people have you cast out from their pleasant houses. From their children have you taken away my glory for ever. 10Arise and depart, for this is not your rest. Because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a severe destruction. 11If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto you of wine and of strong drink — he shall even be the prophet of this people.
- 12I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold. They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 13The breaker has come up before them; they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it. And their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.
- 3And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob and you princes of the house of Israel, is it not for you to know judgment? 2Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; 3who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them. And they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron. 4Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them. He will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.
- 5Thus says the Lord: Concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth and cry, Peace — and he that puts not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him — 6therefore, night shall be unto you, that you shall not have a vision. And it shall be dark unto you, that you shall not divine. And the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. 7Then shall the seers be ashamed and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer of God. 8But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. 9Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment and pervert all equity. 10They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? No evil can come upon us. 12Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
- 4But in the last days, it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. 2And many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore, 4but 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 it. 5For all people will walk everyone in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. 6In that day, says the Lord, will I assemble her that halts, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted. 7And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation. And the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. 8And you, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, even the first dominion. The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
- 9Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Is your counselor perished? For pangs have taken you as a woman in travail. 10Be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail. For now shall you go forth out of the city, and you shall dwell in the field. And you shall go even to Babylon. There shall you be delivered. There the Lord shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies. 11Now also many nations are gathered against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. 12But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel. For he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. 13Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hooves brass, and you shall beat in pieces many people. And I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
- 5Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. 2But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. 3Therefore will he give them up until the time that she which travails has brought forth. Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. 4And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall abide, for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. 5And this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land and when he shall tread in our palaces. Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men, 6and they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof. Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes into our land and when he treads within our borders.
- 7And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass that tarries not for man nor waits for the sons of men. 8And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the gentiles, in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep — who, if he go through, both treads down and tears in pieces, and none can deliver. 9Your hand shall be lifted up upon your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.
- 10And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that I will cut off your horses out of your midst, and I will destroy your chariots. 11And I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds. 12And I will cut off witchcrafts out of your hand. And you shall have no more fortune-tellers. 13Your engraved images also will I cut off and your standing images out of your midst. And you shall no more worship the work of your hands. 14And I will pluck up your groves out of your midst. So will I destroy your cities. 15And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
- 6Hear now what the Lord says: Arise, contend before the mountains and let the hills hear your voice. 2Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy, and you strong foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. 3O my people, what have I done unto you? And wherein have I wearied you? Testify against me. 4For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of servants. And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 5O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Shittim unto Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the Lord. 6With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
- 9The Lord’s voice cries unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see your name. Hear the rod and who has appointed it. 10Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? 11Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances and with the bag of deceitful weights? 12For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13Therefore also will I make you sick in smiting you, in making you desolate because of your sins. 14You shall eat, but not be satisfied. And your casting down shall be in your midst. And you shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and that which you deliver will I give up to the sword. 15You shall sow, but you shall not reap. You shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint yourself with oil, and sweet wine, but shall not drink wine. 16For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their counsels, that I should make you a desolation and the inhabitants thereof a hissing. Therefore, you shall bear the reproach of my people.
- 7Woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first ripe fruit. 2The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood. They hunt every man his brother with a net, 3that they may do evil with both hands earnestly. The prince asks and the judge asks for a reward. And the great man, he utters his mischievous desire, so they wrap it up. 4The best of them is as a brier. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen and your visitation comes. Now shall be their perplexity. 5Trust not in a friend. Put not confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom. 6For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies are the men of his own house. 7Therefore, I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
- 8Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. 9I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousness. 10Then she that is my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord your God? My eyes shall behold her. Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. 11In the day that your walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed. 12In that day also, he shall come even to you from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 13Notwithstanding, the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. 14Feed your people with your rod, the flock of your heritage which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old. 15According to the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvelous things. 16The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might. They shall lay their hand upon their mouth. Their ears shall be deaf. 17They shall lick the dust like a serpent. They shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God and shall fear because of you.
- 18Who is a God like unto you that pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not his anger for ever because he delights in mercy. 19He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities. And you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 20You will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
MICAH
1The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.