Micah 4

English Standard Version

The Mountain of the Lord

4 It shall come to pass ^(A)in the latter days
    that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
    and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
²    and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,^[a]
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
³He shall judge between many peoples,
    and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall ^(B)beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore;
⁴^(C)but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
    ^(D)and no one shall make them afraid,
    ^(E)for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
⁵For ^(F)all the peoples walk
    each in the name of its god,
but ^(G)we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
    forever and ever.

The Lord Shall Rescue Zion

⁶^(H)In that day, declares the Lord,
    ^(I)I will assemble the ^(J)lame
and gather those who have been driven away
    and those whom I have afflicted;
⁷and the lame I will make ^(K)the remnant,
    and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and ^(L)the Lord will reign over them ^(M)in Mount Zion
    from this time forth and forevermore.

⁸And you, O tower of the flock,
    hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
    the former dominion shall come,
    kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

⁹Now why do you cry aloud?
    ^(N)Is there no king in you?
^(O)Has your counselor perished,
    that ^(P)pain seized you like a woman in labor?
¹⁰^(Q)Writhe and groan,^[b] O daughter of Zion,
    like a woman in labor,
for ^(R)now you shall go out from the city
    and dwell in the open country;
    you ^(S)shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
    ^(T)there the Lord will redeem you
    from the hand of your enemies.

¹¹Now ^(U)many nations
    are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
    and ^(V)let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
¹²But ^(W)they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
    that ^(X)he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
¹³Arise and thresh,
    O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
    and I will make your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
    and ^(Y)shall devote^[c] ^(Z)their gain to the Lord,
    their wealth to ^(AA)the Lord of the whole earth.

Footnotes

Micah 4:2 Or teaching
Micah 4:10 Or push
Micah 4:13 Hebrew devote to destruction

Micah 4

The Message

The Making of God’s People

4 ^1-4But when all is said and done,
    God’s Temple on the mountain,
Firmly fixed, will dominate all mountains,
    towering above surrounding hills.
People will stream to it
    and many nations set out for it,
Saying, “Come, let’s climb God’s mountain.
    Let’s go to the Temple of Jacob’s God.
He will teach us how to live.
    We’ll know how to live God’s way.”
True teaching will issue from Zion,
    God’s revelation from Jerusalem.
He’ll establish justice in the rabble of nations
    and settle disputes in faraway places.
They’ll trade in their swords for shovels,
    their spears for rakes and hoes.
Nations will quit fighting each other,
    quit learning how to kill one another.
Each man will sit under his own shade tree,
    each woman in safety will tend her own garden.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so,
    and he means what he says.

⁵Meanwhile, all the other people live however they wish,
picking and choosing their gods.
But we live honoring God,
and we’re loyal to our God forever and ever.

^6-7“On that great day,” God says,
    “I will round up all the hurt and homeless,
    everyone I have bruised or banished.
I will transform the battered into a company of the elite.
    I will make a strong nation out of the long lost,
A showcase exhibit of God’s rule in action,
    as I rule from Mount Zion, from here to eternity.

⁸“And you stragglers around Jerusalem,
eking out a living in shantytowns:
The glory that once was will be again.
Jerusalem’s daughter will be the kingdom center.”

* * *

^9-10So why the doomsday hysterics?
    You still have a king, don’t you?
But maybe he’s not doing his job
    and you’re panicked like a woman in labor.
Well, go ahead—twist and scream, Daughter Jerusalem.
    You are like a woman in childbirth.
You’ll soon be out of the city, on your way
    and camping in the open country.
And then you’ll arrive in Babylon.
    What you lost in Jerusalem will be found in Babylon.
God will give you new life again.
    He’ll redeem you from your enemies.

^11-12But for right now, they’re ganged up against you,
    many godless peoples, saying,
“Kick her when she’s down! Violate her!
    We want to see Zion grovel in the dirt.”
These blasphemers have no idea
    what God is thinking and doing in this.
They don’t know that this is the making of God’s people,
    that they are wheat being threshed, gold being refined.

¹³On your feet, Daughter of Zion! Be threshed of chaff,
    be refined of dross.
I’m remaking you into a people invincible,
    into God’s juggernaut to crush the godless peoples.
You’ll bring their plunder as holy offerings to God,
    their wealth to the Master of the earth.

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Message (MSG)

Micah 4 English Standard Version