The word of the Lord that came to Micah (A)of Moresheth (B)in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw (C)concerning (D)Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction

(E)Hear, you peoples, all of you;[a]
    (F)pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and (G)let the Lord God be a witness against you,
    (H)the Lord from his holy temple.
For behold, (I)the Lord is coming out of (J)his place,
    and will come down and (K)tread upon the high places of the earth.
And (L)the mountains will melt under him,
    and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
    like waters poured down a steep place.
All this is for (M)the transgression of Jacob
    and for the sins of the house of Israel.
(N)What is the transgression of Jacob?
    Is it not (O)Samaria?
And what is (P)the high place of Judah?
    Is it not Jerusalem?
Therefore I will make (Q)Samaria (R)a heap in the open country,
    a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones (S)into the valley
    and (T)uncover her foundations.
All (U)her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
    (V)all her wages shall be burned with fire,
    and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from (W)the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
    and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

(X)For this I will lament and wail;
    I will go (Y)stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation (Z)like the jackals,
    and mourning (AA)like the ostriches.
(AB)For her wound is incurable,
    and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
    to Jerusalem.

10 (AC)Tell it not in (AD)Gath;
    weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
    (AE)roll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way,
    inhabitants of Shaphir,
    (AF)in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
    do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
    shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
    wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down (AG)from the Lord
    to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
    inhabitants of (AH)Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
    to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
    (AI)the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts[b]
    to (AJ)Moresheth-gath;
the houses of (AK)Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
    to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring (AL)a conqueror to you,
    inhabitants of (AM)Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
    shall come to (AN)Adullam.
16 (AO)Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
    for the children of your delight;
(AP)make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
    for they shall go from you into exile.

Footnotes

  1. Micah 1:2 Hebrew all of them
  2. Micah 1:14 Or give dowry

Job Laments His Birth

After this Job (A)opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:

(B)“Let the day perish on which I was born,
    and the night that said,
    ‘A man is conceived.’
Let that day be darkness!
    May God above not seek it,
    nor light shine upon it.
Let gloom and (C)deep darkness claim it.
    Let clouds dwell upon it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.
That night—let thick darkness seize it!
    Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
    let it not come into the number of the months.
Behold, let that night be barren;
    let no joyful cry enter it.
Let those curse it who curse the day,
    who are ready to rouse up (D)Leviathan.
Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
    let it hope for light, but have none,
    nor see (E)the eyelids of the morning,
10 because it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb,
    nor hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why (F)did I not die at birth,
    come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did (G)the knees receive me?
    Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
    I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
    who (H)rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold,
    who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden (I)stillborn child,
    as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
    and there the weary are at (J)rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
    they hear not the voice of (K)the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
    and the slave is free from his master.

20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
    and life to (L)the bitter in soul,
21 who (M)long for death, but it comes not,
    and dig for it more than for (N)hidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly
    and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose (O)way is hidden,
    whom God has (P)hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes (Q)instead of[a] my bread,
    and my (R)groanings are poured out like water.
25 (S)For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
    and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
    I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

Footnotes

  1. Job 3:24 Or like; Hebrew before

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