Judgment on Israel and Judah

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

The Coming Judgment on Israel

Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, O earth, and all that is in it!
Let the Lord God be a witness against you,
The Lord from (C)His holy temple.

For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth.
(D)The mountains will melt under Him,
And the valleys will split
Like wax before the fire,
Like waters poured down a steep place.
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 are the (E)high places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?

“Therefore I will make Samaria (F)a heap of ruins in the field,
Places for planting a vineyard;
I will pour down her stones into the valley,
And I will (G)uncover her foundations.
All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
And all her (H)pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire;
All her idols I will lay desolate,
For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot,
And they shall return to the (I)pay of a harlot.”

Mourning for Israel and Judah

Therefore I will wail and howl,
I will go stripped and naked;
(J)I will make a wailing like the jackals
And a mourning like the ostriches,
For her wounds are incurable.
For (K)it has come to Judah;
It has come to the gate of My people—
To Jerusalem.

10 (L)Tell it not in Gath,
Weep not at all;
In [a]Beth Aphrah
Roll yourself in the dust.
11 Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of [b]Shaphir;
The inhabitant of [c]Zaanan does not go out.
Beth Ezel mourns;
Its place to stand is taken away from you.

12 For the inhabitant of [d]Maroth [e]pined for good,
But (M)disaster came down from the Lord
To the gate of Jerusalem.
13 O inhabitant of (N)Lachish,
Harness the chariot to the swift steeds
(She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion),
For the transgressions of Israel were (O)found in you.

14 Therefore you shall (P)give presents to [f]Moresheth Gath;
The houses of (Q)Achzib[g] shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
15 I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of (R)Mareshah;[h]
The glory of Israel shall come to (S)Adullam.[i]
16 Make yourself (T)bald and cut off your hair,
Because of your (U)precious children;
Enlarge your baldness like an eagle,
For they shall go from you into (V)captivity.

Woe to Evildoers

Woe to those who devise iniquity,
And [j]work out evil on their beds!
At (W)morning light they practice it,
Because it is in the power of their hand.
They (X)covet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.

Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, against this (Y)family I am devising (Z)disaster,
From which you cannot remove your necks;
Nor shall you walk haughtily,
For this is an evil time.
In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,
And (AA)lament with a bitter lamentation, saying:
‘We are utterly destroyed!
He has changed the [k]heritage of my people;
How He has removed it from me!
To [l]a turncoat He has divided our fields.’ ”

Therefore you will have no [m]one to determine boundaries by lot
In the assembly of the Lord.

Lying Prophets

“Do not prattle,” you say to those who [n]prophesy.
So they shall not prophesy [o]to you;
[p]They shall not return insult for insult.
You who 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 who walks uprightly?

“Lately My people have risen up as an enemy—
You pull off the robe with the garment
From those who trust you, as they pass by,
Like men returned from war.
The women of My people you cast out
From their pleasant houses;
From their children
You have taken away My glory forever.

10 “Arise and depart,
For this is not your (AB)rest;
Because it is (AC)defiled, it shall destroy,
Yes, with utter destruction.
11 If a man should walk in a false spirit
And speak a lie, saying,
‘I will [q]prophesy to you [r]of wine and drink,’
Even he would be the (AD)prattler of this people.

Israel Restored

12 “I(AE) will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob,
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together (AF)like sheep of [s]the fold,
Like a flock in the midst of their pasture;
(AG)They shall make a loud noise because of so many people.
13 The one who breaks open will come up before them;
They will break out,
Pass through the gate,
And go out by it;
(AH)Their king will pass before them,
(AI)With the Lord at their head.”

Wicked Rulers and Prophets

And I said:

“Hear now, O heads of Jacob,
And you (AJ)rulers of the house of Israel:
(AK)Is it not for you to know justice?
You who hate good and love evil;
Who strip the skin from [t]My people,
And the flesh from their bones;
Who also (AL)eat the flesh of My people,
Flay their skin from them,
Break their bones,
And chop them in pieces
Like meat for the pot,
(AM)Like flesh in the caldron.”

Then (AN)they will cry to the Lord,
But He will not hear them;
He will even hide His face from them at that time,
Because they have been evil in their deeds.

Thus says the Lord (AO)concerning the prophets
Who make my people stray;
Who chant [u]“Peace”
[v]While they (AP)chew with their teeth,
But who prepare war against him
(AQ)Who puts nothing into their mouths:
“Therefore(AR) you shall have night without [w]vision,
And you shall have darkness without divination;
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
And the day shall be dark for (AS)them.
So the seers shall be ashamed,
And the diviners abashed;
Indeed they shall all cover their lips;
(AT)For there is no answer from God.”

But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,
And of justice and might,
(AU)To declare to Jacob his transgression
And to Israel his sin.
Now hear this,
You heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice
And [x]pervert all equity,
10 (AV)Who build up Zion with (AW)bloodshed
And Jerusalem with iniquity:
11 (AX)Her heads judge for a bribe,
(AY)Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for [y]money.
(AZ)Yet they lean on the Lord, and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No harm can come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
Zion shall be (BA)plowed like a field,
(BB)Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And (BC)the mountain of the [z]temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.

Footnotes

  1. Micah 1:10 Lit. House of Dust
  2. Micah 1:11 Lit. Beautiful
  3. Micah 1:11 Lit. Going Out
  4. Micah 1:12 Lit. Bitterness
  5. Micah 1:12 Lit. was sick
  6. Micah 1:14 Lit. Possession of Gath
  7. Micah 1:14 Lit. Lie
  8. Micah 1:15 Lit. Inheritance
  9. Micah 1:15 Lit. Refuge
  10. Micah 2:1 Plan
  11. Micah 2:4 Lit. portion
  12. Micah 2:4 Lit. one turning back, an apostate
  13. Micah 2:5 Lit. one casting a surveyor’s line
  14. Micah 2:6 Or preach, lit. drip words
  15. Micah 2:6 Lit. to these
  16. Micah 2:6 Vg. He shall not take shame
  17. Micah 2:11 Or preach, lit. drip
  18. Micah 2:11 concerning
  19. Micah 2:12 Heb. Bozrah
  20. Micah 3:2 Lit. them
  21. Micah 3:5 All is well
  22. Micah 3:5 For those who feed them
  23. Micah 3:6 Prophetic revelation
  24. Micah 3:9 Lit. twist
  25. Micah 3:11 Lit. silver
  26. Micah 3:12 Lit. house

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