弥迦书 1
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
1 犹大王约坦、亚哈斯和希西迦执政期间，耶和华把祂的话传给了摩利沙人弥迦。他看到了有关撒玛利亚和耶路撒冷的异象。
审判将临
2 万民啊，
你们都要听！
大地和地上的万物啊，
你们要侧耳倾听！
主耶和华从祂的圣殿里作证指控你们。
3 看啊，耶和华离开祂的居所，
从天降临，
脚踏大地的高处。
4 群山在祂脚下熔化，
犹如火中的蜡；
山谷崩裂，
岩石如水沿山坡倾泻。
5 这一切都是因为雅各的叛逆，
以色列家的罪恶。
雅各的叛逆在哪里呢？
岂不是在撒玛利亚吗？
犹大的丘坛在哪里呢？
岂不是在耶路撒冷吗？
6 “所以，我耶和华要使撒玛利亚沦为荒野的废墟，
成为种葡萄的地方。
我要把她的石头抛进山谷，
直到露出她的根基。
7 她所有的神像都要被打碎，
她所得的淫资都要化为灰烬；
我要毁灭她的一切偶像。
她以淫资得来的偶像，
也要被用作妓女的淫资。”
先知的哀伤
8 为此，我要痛哭哀号，
我要赤身光脚而行，
像豺狼哀嚎，
如鸵鸟悲鸣。
9 因为撒玛利亚的创伤无法救治，
已经祸及犹大，
直逼我百姓的城门，直逼耶路撒冷。
10 不要在迦特宣扬，
也不要哭泣，
要在伯·亚弗拉的灰尘中打滚。
11 沙斐的居民啊，
你们将赤身露体，
被羞辱地掳去。
撒南的居民不敢出城，
伯·以薛在痛哭，
你们已失去它的庇护。
12 玛律的居民痛苦不堪，
渴望得到拯救，
因为耶和华已把灾难降到耶路撒冷的城门。
13 拉吉的居民啊，
用骏马套车逃命吧！
是你们首先唆使锡安城犯罪，
在你们身上看到了以色列的罪恶。
14 去向摩利设·迦特赠送告别礼物吧！
亚革悉人必令以色列诸王受骗上当。
15 玛利沙的居民啊，
我要使征服者到你们那里。
以色列的领袖[a]要躲到亚杜兰。
16 犹大人啊，你们要剃光头发，
为你们所爱的儿女悲伤；
要剃得如秃鹰一样光秃，
因为他们要被掳到远方。
Footnotes
- 1:15 “以色列的领袖”希伯来文是“以色列的荣耀”。
Micah 1
EasyEnglish Bible
God will destroy the city of Samaria
1 These are the messages that the Lord gave to Micah.[a] Then Micah told them to the people during the times that Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah ruled the country called Judah. Micah was born in a small town called Moresheth. God showed Micah about what would happen to the cities called Samaria and Jerusalem.[b]
2 Listen, all of you people everywhere!
Hear this, everyone who lives on the earth!
The Lord God will speak against you.
You have done what is wrong. That is why he will speak against you.
He will speak from his special house.
3 Look! The Lord is leaving his place and he is coming down to the earth.
He will come to the high places (where you worship false gods).
He will destroy those places when he comes.
4 The mountains will melt when he comes,
like wax melts near a fire.
The valleys will also break into pieces.
They will move like water when it rushes down a hill.
5 All these bad things will happen because Jacob's people have refused to obey God.
These things will happen because Israel's people have done wrong things.
You may ask who has caused this.
It is the leaders in your capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem.
They have kept the high places there for people to offer gifts to false gods.
6 So God says to you:
‘I will destroy Samaria so that just a few stones are lying in the fields there.[c]
Then people will plant vines in that place.[d]
I will throw the stones from the city down into the valley,
when I completely destroy all the buildings.
7 I will break all the false gods into pieces and I will destroy them.
I will burn all the gifts that the people brought for those false gods.
The people have paid so that they could have sex with bad women in those places.
Your enemies will come and they will take away this money.
They will give it to their gods in the same way.’
Micah is sad for the people in Israel and Judah
8 Because of what God has said, I will cry aloud. And I will weep.
I will walk about without shoes or clothes.
I will scream like a wild dog,
and I will cry like a bird in the night.
9 Because Samaria has such bad wounds it can never get well.
And the same will happen also to Judah's people.
The enemies have already reached the gates of my people, that is, Jerusalem itself.
10 Do not talk about this in the city of Gath.
Do not even weep there.
But you people at Beth-Leaphrah,
roll on the ground to show how sad you are.
11 You people who live in Shaphir, go on your way.
Your enemies will not let you wear any clothes while they take you away.
So you will be ashamed.
The people who live in Zaanan will be afraid to leave their city.
The people at Beth-Ezel will cry because nobody comes to help them.
12 The people at Maroth are in pain while they wait.
They were waiting and hoping for something good.
But the Lord sent only something bad.
He brought trouble even to the gates of Jerusalem.
13 You people who live in Lachish, get your chariots and horses ready to go!
You were the first people in Judah to do what is wrong.
You are exactly like Israel's people, because, like them, you refused to obey God.
14 You will need to give gifts to the people in Moresheth Gath,
because they must go away.
The houses in Akzib town will disappoint the kings of Israel.[e]
15 People in Mareshah, I (God) will bring an army against you,
to fight your town. And it will win.
And Israel's leaders will need to hide at Adullam.[f]
16 People in Judah, cut off all your hair.[g]
Make yourselves bald like vultures,[h]
because you will be very sad.
Your enemies will take your children away.
They will take your children, whom you love so much, away to another country!
Footnotes
- 1:1 When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as ‘Yahweh’, or as ‘Jehovah’. It is his own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there.
- 1:1 Israel's capital city was Samaria, and Judah's capital city was Jerusalem.
- 1:6 Verses 1-7 We think that Micah spoke these words at some time before 722 BC. In that year, enemies from the country called Assyria destroyed Samaria exactly as Micah had told the people earlier.
- 1:6 Vines or grapevines are plants that climb. They have small, sweet fruits called grapes.
- 1:14 The kings of Israel will get no help from Akzib town, because enemies will destroy the town.
- 1:15 Verses 10-15 In these verses, Micah says the names of towns and villages near his home, Moresheth Gath. Enemies from another country will come and fight against them. These verses may tell how Assyria's people attacked Judah's people in the year 701 BC.
- 1:16 In those days, people often cut off all their hair to show that they were very sad.
- 1:16 Vultures are large birds with bald heads.
Micah 1
The Voice
1 These are the words of the Eternal One and the visions about the two capital cities of Israel and Judah, Samaria and Jerusalem, that were given to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah over Judah.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel, sometimes called Samaria after its capital city, was conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 722 b.c. The Southern Kingdom of Judah, where Micah lives and speaks, has been spared that fate, but at a high price: the people have lost the power to govern themselves, pay huge tributes to the Assyrians, and allow the corruption of their religious practices because of the Assyrians’ influence. All Israelites suffer under these conditions, but Micah’s attention is drawn especially to the poor and dispossessed; somehow, as often happens in wartime, rich people manage to get richer while the poor are exploited, and Micah is outraged at the way the rulers of Judah have taken advantage of those who had little—and now have less.
2 Listen, all of you people![a]
Pay attention, earth and all upon it!
The Eternal Lord gives evidence against you;
the Lord speaks from His holy temple.
3 Look at this: the Eternal is leaving His home in heaven,
and He is coming down to walk[b] over the high places of the earth.
4 The mountains will melt beneath His feet;
the valleys will burst open,
Like wax next to a raging fire,
as water pours from the heights.
5 Eternal One: All of this is happening because of the crimes of Jacob,
the wrongdoings of the people of Israel.
And what is the crime of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah? Isn’t it Jerusalem?
6 And so I will turn Samaria into a pile of ruins in an open field.
To make her properly into a place to plant a vineyard,
I will roll her stones into the valley
and bare her foundations for all to see.
7 I will shatter her images and burn her immoral riches with fire,
and all her idols I will break down.
They came from the earning of prostitutes, servants of other gods,
and they will be used again to pay the wages of another prostitute.
8 Because of this, I will howl and wail;
this is why I will go barefoot and naked,
Why I will scream like the jackals
and screech like the ostriches as if in mourning.
9 Eternal One: For her wounds cannot be cured because Samaria’s transgression has reached Judah.
It now has reached the gate of My people, even in Jerusalem.
This listing of 11 conquered Israelite cities begins with David’s quote about Gath when he was lamenting the deaths of Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:20).
10 Do not tell this in Gath. Do not weep even a little.[c]
In Beth-le-aphrah, wallow in the dust as you mourn.
11 Travel on, you who live in Shaphir, no longer beautiful but naked and ashamed.
You who live in Zaanan, do not come out when the enemy approaches.
Beth-ezel is weeping, “He is tearing you away from His foundations,”
and she won’t be there to support her neighbors.
12 Those who live in Maroth wait anxiously for good news;
the Eternal sends disaster down to the gates of Jerusalem.
13 Harness your horses to the chariots, you who live in the stronghold called Lachish;
in you are the seeds of the sin of My daughter Zion;
in you are the crimes of Israel.
14 That is why you will pay a dowry to Moresheth-gath
when Israel departs for exile.
The houses of Achzib will deceive and disappoint the kings of Israel.
15 I will send a conqueror again to all of you living in Mareshah,
and the glory of Israel, her treasures and leaders, will come to Adullam for refuge as David once did.
The list of cities given here matches the path Sennacherib took when he marched against Jerusalem in 701 b.c.
16 Cut off your hair and shave your heads. Prepare yourselves for slavery
on account of the children whom you pampered and privileged.
Make yourself as bald as an eagle,
for they have been removed from you into exile.
Chinese Contemporary Bible Copyright © 1979, 2005, 2007, 2011 by Biblica® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.