Micah 2 New International Reader's Version

People’s Plans and God’s Plans

2 How terrible it will be for those
    who plan to harm others!
How terrible for those who make evil plans
    before they even get out of bed!
As soon as daylight comes,
    they carry out their plans.
    That’s because they have the power to do it.
²If they want fields or houses,
    they take them.
They cheat people out of their homes.
    They rob them of their property.

³So the Lord says to them,

“I am planning to send trouble on you.
    You will not be able to save yourselves from it.
You will not live so proudly anymore.
    It will be a time of trouble.
⁴At that time people will make fun of you.
    They will tease you by singing a song of sadness.
    They will pretend to be you and say,
‘We are totally destroyed.
    Our enemies have divided up our land.
The Lord has taken it away from us!
    He has given our fields to those
    who turned against us.’ ”

⁵So you won’t even have anyone left
in the Lord’s community
who can divide up the land for you.

Some Prophets Aren’t Really Prophets at All

⁶“Don’t prophesy,” the people’s prophets say.
    “Don’t prophesy about bad things.
    Nothing shameful is going to happen to us.”
⁷People of Jacob, should anyone say,
    “The Lord is patient,
    so he wouldn’t do things like that”?

The Lord replies, “What I promise brings good things
    to those who lead honest lives.
⁸But lately my people have attacked one another
    as if they were enemies.
You strip off the rich robes
    from those who happen to pass by.
They thought they were as safe as men
    returning from a battle they had won.
⁹You drive the women among my people
    out of their pleasant homes.
You take away my blessing
    from their children forever.
¹⁰Get up! Leave this land!
    It is no longer your resting place.
You have made it ‘unclean.’
    You have completely destroyed it.
¹¹Suppose a prophet goes around telling lies.
    And he prophesies that you will have
    plenty of wine and beer.
Then that kind of prophet would be
    just right for this nation!

The Lord Promises to Save His People

¹²“People of Jacob, I will gather all of you.
    I will bring together
    you who are still left alive in Israel.
I will gather you together like sheep in a pen.
    You will be like a flock in its grasslands.
    Your country will be filled with people.
¹³I will open the way for you to return.
    I will march in front of you.
    You will break through the city gates and go free.
I am your King. I will pass through the gates
    in front of you.
    I, the Lord, will lead the way.”