Micah 2

English Standard Version

Woe to the Oppressors

2 ^(A)Woe to those who devise wickedness
    and work evil ^(B)on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
    because it is in the power of their hand.
²They covet fields and ^(C)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 ^(D)this family I am devising disaster,^[a]
    from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you ^(E)shall not walk haughtily,
    ^(F)for it will be a time of disaster.
⁴In that day ^(G)they shall take up a taunt song against you
    and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
    ^(H)he changes the portion of my people;
^(I)how he removes it from me!
    ^(J)To an apostate he allots our fields.”
⁵Therefore you will have none ^(K)to cast the line by lot
    in the assembly of the Lord.

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

Footnotes

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

English Standard Version

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

3 And I said:
^(A)Hear, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
^(B)Is it not for you to know justice?—
²    you ^(C)who hate the good and love the evil,
^(D)who tear the skin from off my people^[a]
    and their flesh from off their bones,
³^(E)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^(F)Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
^(G)he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.

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

⁹^(Q)Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel,
^(R)who detest justice
    and make crooked all that is straight,
¹⁰^(S)who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with iniquity.
¹¹^(T)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
    ^(U)its priests teach for a price;
    ^(V)its prophets practice divination for money;
^(W)yet they lean on the Lord and ^(X)say,
    “Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
    ^(Y)No disaster shall come upon us.”
¹²Therefore because of you
    ^(Z)Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem ^(AA)shall become a heap of ruins,
    and ^(AB)the mountain of the house ^(AC)a wooded height.

Footnotes

Micah 3:2 Hebrew from off them

Micah 6

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.”