Micah 6-7

English Standard Version

The Indictment of the Lord

6 ^(A)Hear what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.
²^(B)Hear, you mountains, ^(C)the indictment of the Lord,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.

³“O my people, ^(D)what have I done to you?
    ^(E)How have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴For ^(F)I brought you up from the land of Egypt
    and ^(G)redeemed you from the house of slavery,
and I sent before you Moses,
    Aaron, and ^(H)Miriam.
⁵O my people, remember ^(I)what Balak king of Moab devised,
    and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from ^(J)Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know ^(K)the righteous acts of the Lord.”

What Does the Lord Require?

⁶^(L)“With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before ^(M)God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷^(N)Will the Lord be pleased with^[a] thousands of rams,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
^(O)Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
⁸He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and ^(P)what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,^[b]
    and to ^(Q)walk humbly with your God?

Destruction of the Wicked

⁹The voice of the Lord cries to the city—
    and it is sound wisdom to fear ^(R)your name:
“Hear of ^(S)the rod and of him who appointed it!^[c]
¹⁰    Can I forget any longer the treasures^[d] of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
    and the scant measure that is accursed?
¹¹Shall I acquit the man ^(T)with wicked scales
    and with a bag of deceitful weights?
¹²Your^[e] rich men are ^(U)full of violence;
    your inhabitants ^(V)speak lies,
    and ^(W)their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
¹³Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    ^(X)making you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴^(Y)You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
    and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
    and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
¹⁵^(Z)You shall sow, but not reap;
    you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
    you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
¹⁶For you have kept the statutes of ^(AA)Omri,^[f]
    and all the works of the house of ^(AB)Ahab;
    and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you ^(AC)a desolation, and your^[g] inhabitants ^(AD)a hissing;
    so you shall bear ^(AE)the scorn of my people.”

Wait for the God of Salvation

7 Woe is me! For I have become
    ^(AF)as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
    as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
    no ^(AG)first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
²^(AH)The godly has perished from the earth,
    and ^(AI)there is no one upright among mankind;
^(AJ)they all lie in wait for blood,
    and ^(AK)each hunts the other with a net.
³^(AL)Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
    ^(AM)the prince and ^(AN)the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
    thus they weave it together.
⁴The best of them is ^(AO)like a brier,
    the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of ^(AP)your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
    ^(AQ)now their confusion is at hand.
⁵^(AR)Put no trust in a neighbor;
    have no confidence in a friend;
guard ^(AS)the doors of your mouth
    from her who lies in your arms;^[h]
⁶for ^(AT)the son treats the father with contempt,
    the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
    ^(AU)a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
    ^(AV)I will wait for the God of my salvation;
    my God will hear me.

⁸^(AW)Rejoice not over me, O ^(AX)my enemy;
    ^(AY)when I fall, I shall rise;
^(AZ)when I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be a light to me.
⁹^(BA)I will bear the indignation of the Lord
    because I have sinned against him,
until ^(BB)he pleads my cause
    and executes judgment for me.
^(BC)He will bring me out to the light;
    I shall look upon his vindication.
¹⁰Then ^(BD)my enemy will see,
    and shame will cover her who ^(BE)said to me,
    “Where is the Lord your God?”
^(BF)My eyes will look upon her;
    now she will be trampled down
    ^(BG)like the mire of the streets.

¹¹^(BH)A day for the building of your walls!
    In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
¹²In that day they^[i] will come to you,
    ^(BI)from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to ^(BJ)the River,^[j]
    ^(BK)from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
¹³But ^(BL)the earth will be desolate
    because of its inhabitants,
    for the fruit of their deeds.

¹⁴^(BM)Shepherd your people ^(BN)with your staff,
    the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
    ^(BO)in the midst of ^(BP)a garden land;^[k]
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
    as in the days of old.
¹⁵^(BQ)As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
    I will show them^[l] marvelous things.
¹⁶^(BR)The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
^(BS)they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
    their ears shall be deaf;
¹⁷^(BT)they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
    like the crawling things of the earth;
^(BU)they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
    ^(BV)they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
    and they shall be in fear of you.

God's Steadfast Love and Compassion

¹⁸^(BW)Who is a God like you, ^(BX)pardoning iniquity
    and passing over transgression
    ^(BY)for the remnant of his inheritance?
^(BZ)He does not retain his anger forever,
    because he delights in steadfast love.
¹⁹He will ^(CA)again have compassion on us;
    ^(CB)he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
^(CC)You will cast all our^[m] sins
    into the depths of the sea.
²⁰^(CD)You will show faithfulness to Jacob
    and steadfast love to Abraham,
^(CE)as you have sworn to our fathers
    from the days of old.

Footnotes

Micah 6:7 Or Will the Lord accept
Micah 6:8 Or steadfast love
Micah 6:9 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
Micah 6:10 Or Are there still treasures
Micah 6:12 Hebrew whose
Micah 6:16 Hebrew For the statutes of Omri are kept
Micah 6:16 Hebrew its
Micah 7:5 Hebrew bosom
Micah 7:12 Hebrew he
Micah 7:12 That is, the Euphrates
Micah 7:14 Hebrew of Carmel
Micah 7:15 Hebrew him
Micah 7:19 Hebrew their

2 Chronicles 32:1-8

English Standard Version

Sennacherib Invades Judah

32 ^(A)After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself. ²And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight against Jerusalem, ³he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the springs that were outside the city; and they helped him. ⁴A great many people were gathered, and they stopped all the springs and ^(B)the brook that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?” ⁵He set to work resolutely and built up ^(C)all the wall that was broken down and raised towers upon it,^[a] and outside it he built another wall, and he strengthened the ^(D)Millo in the city of David. He also made weapons and shields in abundance. ⁶And he set combat commanders over the people and gathered them together to him in the square at the gate of the city and spoke ^(E)encouragingly to them, saying, ⁷^(F)“Be strong and courageous. ^(G)Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, ^(H)for there are more with us than with him. ⁸With him is ^(I)an arm of flesh, ^(J)but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

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Footnotes

2 Chronicles 32:5 Vulgate; Hebrew and raised upon the towers

2 Kings 18:13-18

English Standard Version

Sennacherib Attacks Judah

¹³^(A)In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. ¹⁴And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear.” ^(B)And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents^[a] of silver and thirty talents of gold. ¹⁵And Hezekiah ^(C)gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house. ¹⁶At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the doorposts that Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid and gave it to the king of Assyria. ¹⁷And the king of Assyria sent the ^(D)Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by ^(E)the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer's Field. ¹⁸And when they called for the king, there came out to them ^(F)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^(G)Shebnah the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

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Footnotes

2 Kings 18:14 A talent was about 75 pounds or 34 kilograms

Isaiah 36:1-3

English Standard Version

Sennacherib Invades Judah

36 ^(A)In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, ^(B)Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. ²^(C)And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh^[a] from ^(D)Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood ^(E)by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. ³And there came out to him ^(F)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and ^(G)Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

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Footnotes

Isaiah 36:2 Rabshakeh is the title of a high-ranking Assyrian military officer

2 Kings 18:19-37

English Standard Version

¹⁹And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? ²⁰Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? ²¹Behold, you are trusting now in Egypt, that broken reed of ^(A)a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ²²But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he ^(B)whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem”? ²³Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ²⁴How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ²⁵Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”

²⁶Then ^(C)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and ^(D)Shebnah, and Joah, said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in ^(E)Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ²⁷But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and to drink their own urine?”

²⁸Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! ²⁹Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my^[a] hand. ³⁰Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ ³¹Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me^[b] and come out to me. Then ^(F)each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, ³²until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, ^(G)a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and ^(H)honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” ³³^(I)Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? ³⁴^(J)Where are the gods of ^(K)Hamath and ^(L)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and ^(M)Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? ³⁵Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, ^(N)that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

³⁶But the people were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” ³⁷Then ^(O)Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah ^(P)with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

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Footnotes

2 Kings 18:29 Hebrew his
2 Kings 18:31 Hebrew Make a blessing with me

Isaiah 36:4-22

English Standard Version

⁴And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the ^(A)great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? ⁵Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? ⁶^(B)Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. ⁷But if you say to me, “We trust in the Lord our God,” is it not he ^(C)whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? ⁸Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. ⁹How then can you repulse ^(D)a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when ^(E)you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? ¹⁰Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have come up against this land to destroy it? ^(F)The Lord said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”

¹¹Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants ^(G)in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” ¹²But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”

¹³Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! ¹⁴Thus says the king: ^(H)‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. ¹⁵Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ¹⁶Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me^[a] and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, ¹⁷until ^(I)I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. ¹⁸Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹^(J)Where are the gods of ^(K)Hamath and ^(L)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? ^(M)Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? ²⁰^(N)Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”

²¹But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, “Do not answer him.” ²²^(O)Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

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