Micah 6 - Nahum 3
Easy-to-Read Version
The Lord’s Complaint
6 Now hear what the Lord says:
“Present your argument to the mountains.
Let the hills hear your story.[a]
2 The Lord has a complaint against his people.
Mountains, listen to the Lord’s complaint.
Foundations of the earth, hear the Lord.
He will prove that Israel is wrong!”
3 He says, “My people, tell me what I did!
Did I do something wrong against you?
Did I make life too hard for you?
4 I will tell you what I did.
I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to you.
I brought you from the land of Egypt.
I freed you from slavery.
5 My people, remember the evil plans of Balak king of Moab.
Remember what Balaam son of Beor said to Balak.
Remember what happened from Acacia to Gilgal,[b]
and you will know the Lord is right!”
What Does God Want From Us?
6 What must I bring when I come to meet with the Lord?
What must I do when I bow down to God above?
Should I come to him with burnt offerings
and a year-old calf?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with a thousand rams
or with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Should I offer him my first child to pay for my wrongs?
Should I sacrifice my very own child for my sins?
8 Human, the Lord has told you what goodness is.
This is what he wants from you:
Be fair to other people.
Love kindness and loyalty,
and humbly obey your God.
What Were the Israelites Doing?
9 The Lord shouts to the city:
“A wise person respects the Lord’s name.[c]
So pay attention to the punishing rod and to the one who uses it![d]
10 Do the wicked still hide treasures
that they have stolen?
Do they still cheat people
with baskets that are too small?[e]
Yes, all of this is still happening!
11 Some people carry special weights
that they use to cheat people when they weigh their goods.
Should I pardon them?
12 The rich in that city are still cruel.
The people there still tell lies.
Yes, they tell their lies.
13 So I have begun to punish you.
I will destroy you because of your sins.
14 You will eat, but you will not become full.
You will still be hungry and empty.[f]
You will try to bring people to safety,
but people with swords will kill the people you rescued.
15 You will plant your seeds,
but you will not gather food.
You will try to squeeze oil from your olives,
but you will not get any oil.
You will crush your grapes,
but you will not get enough juice to have wine to drink.
16 This is because you obey the laws of Omri.[g]
You do all the evil things that Ahab’s family does.
You follow their teachings,
so I will let you be destroyed.
People will whistle in amazement
when they see your destroyed city.
Then you will bear the shame
that the other nations bring to you.”[h]
Micah Is Upset at the Evil People Do
7 I am upset because I am like fruit that has been gathered,
like grapes that have already been picked.
There are no grapes left to eat.
There are none of the early figs that I love.
2 By this I mean that all the faithful people are gone.
There are no good people left.
Everyone is planning to kill someone.
Everyone is trying to trap their brother.
3 People are good at doing bad things with both hands.
Officials ask for bribes.
Judges take money to change their decisions in court.
“Important leaders” do whatever they want to do.
4 Even the best of them is as crooked
as a tangled thornbush.
The Day of Punishment Is Coming
Your prophets said this day would come,
and the day of your watchmen[i] has come.
Now you will be punished.
Now you will be confused!
5 Don’t trust your neighbor
or trust a friend!
Don’t even speak freely
with your wife.
6 Your enemies will be the people in your own house.
A son will not honor his father.
A daughter will turn against her mother.
A daughter-in-law will turn against her mother-in-law.
The Lord Is the Savior
7 So I will look to the Lord for help.
I will wait for God to save me.
My God will hear me.
8 I have fallen, but enemy, don’t laugh at me!
I will get up again.
I sit in darkness now,
but the Lord will be a light for me.
The Lord Forgives
9 I sinned against the Lord,
so he was angry with me.
But he will argue my case for me in court.
He will do what is right for me.
Then he will bring me out into the light,
and I will see that he is right.
10 My enemy said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
But my enemy will see this,
and she will be ashamed.
At that time I will laugh at her.[j]
People will walk over her,[k] like mud in the streets.
The Jews to Return
11 The time will come when your walls will be rebuilt.
At that time the country will grow.
12 Your people will come back to your land.
They will come back from Assyria and from the cities of Egypt.
They will come from Egypt
and from the other side of the Euphrates River.
They will come from the sea in the west
and from the mountains in the east.
13 The land was ruined by the people
who lived there and by what they did.
14 So rule your people with your rod.
Rule the flock of people who belong to you.
That flock lives alone in the woods
and up on Mount Carmel.
That flock lives in Bashan and Gilead
as they did in the past.
Israel Will Defeat Its Enemies
15 I did many miracles when I took you out of Egypt.
I will let you see more miracles like that.
16 The nations will see those miracles,
and they will be ashamed.
They will see that their “power”
is nothing compared to mine.
They will be amazed
and put their hands over their mouths.
They will cover their ears
and refuse to listen.
17 They will crawl in the dust like a snake.
They will shake with fear.
They will be like insects crawling
from their holes in the ground
and coming to the Lord our God.
God, they will fear and respect you!
Praise for the Lord
18 There is no God like you.
You take away people’s guilt.
God will forgive his people who survive.
He will not stay angry with them forever,
because he enjoys being kind.
19 He will come back and comfort us again.
He will throw all our sins into the deep sea.
20 God, please be true to Jacob.
Be kind and loyal to Abraham,[l] as you promised our ancestors long ago.
1 This book is the vision of Nahum from Elkosh. This is the sad message about the city of Nineveh.[m]
The Lord Is Angry at Nineveh
2 The Lord is a jealous God.
The Lord punishes the guilty,
and he is very angry.
The Lord punishes his enemies,
and he stays angry with them.
3 The Lord is patient,
but he is also very powerful!
The Lord will punish the guilty;
he will not let them go free.
He will use whirlwinds and storms to show his power.
People walk on the dusty ground, but he walks on the clouds.
4 He will speak harshly to the sea, and it will become dry.
He will dry up all the rivers.
The rich lands of Bashan and Carmel become dry and dead.
The flowers in Lebanon fade away.
5 The Lord will come,
and the mountains will shake
and the hills will melt away.
He will come,
and the earth will shake with fear.
The earth and everyone on it
will shake with fear.
6 No one can stand against his great anger.
No one can endure his terrible anger.
His anger will burn like fire.
The rocks will shatter when he comes.
7 The Lord is good.
He is a safe place to go to in times of trouble.
He takes care of those who trust him.
8 But he will completely destroy his enemies.
He will wash them away like a flood
and chase them into the darkness.
9 Why are you making plans against the Lord?
He will bring complete destruction,
so you will not cause trouble again.
10 You will be destroyed completely
like thornbushes burning under a pot.
You will be destroyed
like dry weeds that burn quickly.
11 Someone from Nineveh is making evil plans against the Lord.
That advisor is a worthless troublemaker.
12 This is what the Lord said:
“The people of Assyria are at full strength.
They have many soldiers, but they will all be cut down.
They will all be finished.
My people, I made you suffer,
but I will make you suffer no more.
13 Now I will set you free from the power of Assyria.
I will take the yoke off your neck
and tear away the chains holding you.”
14 King of Assyria, the Lord gave this command about you:
“You will not have any descendants to wear your name.
I will destroy your carved idols
and metal statues that are in the temple of your gods.
I am preparing your grave,
because your end is coming soon![n]”
15 Judah, look!
There, coming over the mountains, is a messenger bringing good news!
He says there is peace.
Judah, celebrate your special festivals
and do what you promised.
Those worthless troublemakers will not come through and attack you again.
They have all been destroyed.
Nineveh Will Be Destroyed
2 An enemy is coming to attack you,
so guard the strong places of your city.
Watch the road.
Get ready for war.
Prepare for battle!
2 Yes, the Lord changed Jacob’s pride.
He made it like Israel’s pride.
The enemy destroyed them
and ruined their grapevines.
3 The shields of his soldiers are red.
Their uniforms are bright red.
Their chariots are shining like flames of fire
and are lined up for battle.
Their horses are ready to go.
4 The chariots race wildly through the streets
and rush back and forth through the square.
They look like burning torches,
like lightning flashing from place to place!
5 The enemy calls for his best soldiers.
They stumble as they rush ahead.
They run to the wall
and set up their shield over the battering ram.
6 But the gates by the rivers are open,
and the enemy comes flooding in and destroys the king’s palace.
7 The enemy takes away the queen,
and her slave girls moan sadly like doves.
They beat their breasts to show their sadness.
8 Nineveh is like a pool whose water
is draining away.
People yell, “Stop! Stop running away!”
But it does not do any good.
9 Take the silver!
Take the gold!
There are many things to take.
There are many treasures.
10 Now Nineveh is empty.
Everything is stolen.
The city is ruined.
People have lost their courage,
their hearts melt with fear,
their knees knock together,
their bodies shake,
and their faces turn pale.
11 Where is that great city now?
It was like a den where the lions feed their young.
It was a place where people felt safe,
like lions in a cave with no one there to harm them.
12 The lion was able to catch plenty of food
to feed his cubs and his mate.
He filled his cave with the animals he killed.
He filled his den with the meat he gathered.
13 The Lord All-Powerful says,
“I am against you, Nineveh.
I will burn your chariots
and kill your ‘young lions’ in battle.
You will not hunt anyone on earth again.
People will never again hear bad news
from your messengers.”
Bad News for Nineveh
3 It will be very bad for that city of murderers.
Nineveh is a city full of lies.
It is filled with things taken from other countries.
It is filled with plenty of people that it hunted and killed.
2 You can hear the sounds of whips
and the noise of wheels.
You can hear horses galloping
and chariots bouncing along!
3 Soldiers on horses are attacking,
their swords are shining,
their spears are gleaming!
There are many dead people.
Dead bodies are piled up—too many bodies to count.
People are tripping over the dead bodies.
4 All this happened because of Nineveh.
Nineveh is like a prostitute who could never get enough.
She wanted more and more.
She sold herself to many nations,
and she used her magic to make them her slaves.
5 The Lord All-Powerful says,
“I am against you, Nineveh.
I will pull your dress[o] up over your face.
I will let the nations see your naked body.
The kingdoms will see your shame.
6 I will throw dirty things on you
and treat you in a hateful way.
People will look at you and laugh.
7 Everyone who sees you will be shocked.
They will say, ‘Nineveh is destroyed.
Who will cry for her?’
I know I cannot find anyone to comfort you, Nineveh.”
8 Nineveh, are you better than Thebes[p] on the Nile River? Thebes also had water all around her to protect herself from enemies. She used that water like a wall too. 9 Ethiopia and Egypt made Thebes strong. Libya and the Sudan supported her, 10 but Thebes was defeated. Her people were taken away as prisoners to a foreign country. Soldiers beat her small children to death at every street corner. They threw lots to see who got to keep the important people as slaves. They put chains on all the important men of Thebes.
11 So, Nineveh, you will also fall like a drunk. You will try to hide. You will look for a safe place away from the enemy. 12 But Nineveh, all your strong places will be like fig trees. When new figs become ripe, people come and shake the tree. The figs fall into their mouths. They eat them, and the figs are gone.
13 Nineveh, your people are all like women—and the enemy soldiers are ready to take them. The gates of your land are open wide for your enemies to come in. Fire has destroyed the wooden bars across the gates.
14 Get water and store it inside your city, because the enemy soldiers will surround your city. Make your defenses strong! Get clay to make more bricks and mix the mortar. Get the molds for making bricks. 15 You can do all these things, but the fire will still destroy you completely. And the sword will kill you. Your land will look like a swarm of grasshoppers came and ate everything.
Nineveh, you grew and grew. You became like a swarm of grasshoppers. You were like a swarm of locusts. 16 You have many traders who go places and buy things. They are as many as the stars in the sky. They are like locusts that come and eat until everything is gone and then leave. 17 And your government officials are also like locusts that settle on a stone wall on a cold day. But when the sun comes up, the rocks become warm, and the locusts all fly away. And no one knows where.
18 King of Assyria, your shepherds fell asleep. These powerful men are sleeping. And now your sheep have wandered away on the mountains. There is no one to bring them back. 19 Nineveh, you have been hurt badly, and nothing can heal your wound. Everyone who hears the news of your destruction claps their hands. They are all happy, because they all felt the pain you caused again and again.
Footnotes
- Micah 6:1 This is like a court case. The mountains and hills are the judge and jury.
- Micah 6:5 Acacia to Gilgal This story is found in Num. 22-25.
- Micah 6:9 the Lord’s name Literally, “your name.”
- Micah 6:9 So pay attention … uses it The Hebrew text here is hard to understand.
- Micah 6:10 baskets … too small Literally, “short ephahs.” An ephah is about 1/2 bushel.
- Micah 6:14 You … empty The Hebrew text here is unclear.
- Micah 6:16 Omri A king of Israel who led his nation to worship false gods. See 1 Kings 16:21-26.
- Micah 6:16 Then … you Or “My people’s shame will be taken away.”
- Micah 7:4 watchmen Another name for prophets. This shows that the prophets were like guards who stood on a city’s wall and watched for trouble coming from far away.
- Micah 7:10 laugh at her Literally, “my eyes will stare at her.”
- Micah 7:10 enemy, laugh at her, walk over her This probably refers to an enemy city, such as the capital of Edom.
- Micah 7:20 Abraham Here, Abraham is used to mean all the people of Israel. See “Abraham” in the Word List.
- Nahum 1:1 Nineveh The capital city of the country of Assyria. Assyria destroyed Israel in 722–721 B.C.
- Nahum 1:14 because your end is coming soon Or “you are not important” or “you are so hated.”
- Nahum 3:5 pull your dress This is a wordplay in Hebrew. The Hebrew word also means “to destroy a country and take its people away as prisoners to other nations.”
- Nahum 3:8 Thebes A great city in Egypt. It was destroyed in 663 B.C. by the Assyrian army.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International
Bible Gateway Recommends
