Micah 1-3

English Standard Version

1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah ^(A)of Moresheth ^(B)in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw ^(C)concerning ^(D)Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction

²^(E)Hear, you peoples, all of you;^[a]
    ^(F)pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and ^(G)let the Lord God be a witness against you,
    ^(H)the Lord from his holy temple.
³For behold, ^(I)the Lord is coming out of ^(J)his place,
    and will come down and ^(K)tread upon the high places of the earth.
⁴And ^(L)the mountains will melt under him,
    and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
    like waters poured down a steep place.
⁵All this is for ^(M)the transgression of Jacob
    and for the sins of the house of Israel.
^(N)What is the transgression of Jacob?
    Is it not ^(O)Samaria?
And what is ^(P)the high place of Judah?
    Is it not Jerusalem?
⁶Therefore I will make ^(Q)Samaria ^(R)a heap in the open country,
    a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones ^(S)into the valley
    and ^(T)uncover her foundations.
⁷All ^(U)her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
    ^(V)all her wages shall be burned with fire,
    and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from ^(W)the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
    and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

⁸^(X)For this I will lament and wail;
    I will go ^(Y)stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation ^(Z)like the jackals,
    and mourning ^(AA)like the ostriches.
⁹^(AB)For her wound is incurable,
    and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
    to Jerusalem.

¹⁰^(AC)Tell it not in ^(AD)Gath;
    weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
    ^(AE)roll yourselves in the dust.
¹¹Pass on your way,
    inhabitants of Shaphir,
    ^(AF)in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
    do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
    shall take away from you its standing place.
¹²For the inhabitants of Maroth
    wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down ^(AG)from the Lord
    to the gate of Jerusalem.
¹³Harness the steeds to the chariots,
    inhabitants of ^(AH)Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
    to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
    ^(AI)the transgressions of Israel.
¹⁴Therefore you shall give parting gifts^[b]
    to ^(AJ)Moresheth-gath;
the houses of ^(AK)Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
    to the kings of Israel.
¹⁵I will again bring ^(AL)a conqueror to you,
    inhabitants of ^(AM)Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
    shall come to ^(AN)Adullam.
¹⁶^(AO)Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
    for the children of your delight;
^(AP)make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
    for they shall go from you into exile.

Woe to the Oppressors

2 ^(AQ)Woe to those who devise wickedness
    and work evil ^(AR)on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
    because it is in the power of their hand.
²They covet fields and ^(AS)seize them,
    and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
    a man and his inheritance.
³Therefore thus says the Lord:
behold, against ^(AT)this family I am devising disaster,^[c]
    from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you ^(AU)shall not walk haughtily,
    ^(AV)for it will be a time of disaster.
⁴In that day ^(AW)they shall take up a taunt song against you
    and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
    ^(AX)he changes the portion of my people;
^(AY)how he removes it from me!
    ^(AZ)To an apostate he allots our fields.”
⁵Therefore you will have none ^(BA)to cast the line by lot
    in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶^(BB)“Do not preach”—thus they preach—
    ^(BC)“one should not preach of such things;
    ^(BD)disgrace will not overtake us.”
⁷Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
    ^(BE)Has the Lord grown impatient?^[d]
    Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
    to him who walks uprightly?
⁸But lately ^(BF)my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
    with no thought of war.^[e]
⁹The women of my people you drive out
    from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
    my splendor forever.
¹⁰^(BG)Arise and go,
    for this is no ^(BH)place to rest,
because of ^(BI)uncleanness that destroys
    with a grievous destruction.
¹¹If a man should go about and ^(BJ)utter wind and lies,
    saying, “I will preach to you ^(BK)of wine and strong drink,”
    he would be the preacher for this people!
¹²I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
    ^(BL)I will gather ^(BM)the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
    like sheep in a fold,
^(BN)like a flock in its pasture,
    a noisy multitude of men.
¹³^(BO)He who opens the breach goes up before them;
    they break through and pass the gate,
    ^(BP)going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
    ^(BQ)the Lord at their head.

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

3 And I said:
^(BR)Hear, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
^(BS)Is it not for you to know justice?—
²    you ^(BT)who hate the good and love the evil,
^(BU)who tear the skin from off my people^[f]
    and their flesh from off their bones,
³^(BV)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 pot,
    like flesh in a cauldron.

⁴^(BW)Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
^(BX)he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning ^(BY)the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
^(BZ)who cry “Peace”
    when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
    who puts nothing into their mouths.
⁶Therefore ^(CA)it shall be night to you, without vision,
    and darkness to you, without divination.
^(CB)The sun shall go down on the prophets,
    and the day shall be black over them;
⁷^(CC)the seers shall be disgraced,
    and the diviners put to shame;
^(CD)they shall all cover their lips,
    for ^(CE)there is no answer from God.
⁸But as for me, ^(CF)I am filled with power,
    with the Spirit of the Lord,
    and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob ^(CG)his transgression
    and to Israel his sin.

⁹^(CH)Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel,
^(CI)who detest justice
    and make crooked all that is straight,
¹⁰^(CJ)who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with iniquity.
¹¹^(CK)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
    ^(CL)its priests teach for a price;
    ^(CM)its prophets practice divination for money;
^(CN)yet they lean on the Lord and ^(CO)say,
    “Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
    ^(CP)No disaster shall come upon us.”
¹²Therefore because of you
    ^(CQ)Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem ^(CR)shall become a heap of ruins,
    and ^(CS)the mountain of the house ^(CT)a wooded height.

Footnotes

Micah 1:2 Hebrew all of them
Micah 1:14 Or give dowry
Micah 2:3 The same Hebrew word can mean evil or disaster, depending on the context
Micah 2:7 Hebrew Has the spirit of the Lord grown short?
Micah 2:8 Or returning from war
Micah 3:2 Hebrew from off them