Micah 1-5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.(A)
Judgment Pronounced against Samaria
2 Hear, you peoples, all of you;
listen, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord God be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.(B)
3 For the Lord is coming out of his place
and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.(C)
4 Then the mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will burst open
like wax near the fire,
like waters poured down a slope.(D)
5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place[a] of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?(E)
6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards.
I will pour down her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations.(F)
7 All her images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste;
for as the wages of a prostitute she gathered them,
and as the wages of a prostitute they shall again be used.(G)
The Doom of the Cities of Judah
8 For this I will lament and wail;
I will go barefoot and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals
and mourning like the ostriches.(H)
9 For her wound[b] is incurable.
It has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.(I)
10 Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all;
in Beth-leaphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.(J)
11 Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come forth;
Beth-ezel is wailing
and shall remove its support from you.(K)
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
yet disaster has come down from the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.(L)
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to daughter Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.(M)
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts
to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deception
to the kings of Israel.(N)
15 I will again bring a conqueror upon you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.(O)
16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair
for your pampered children;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they have gone from you into exile.(P)
Social Evils Denounced
2 Woe to those who devise wickedness
and evil deeds[c] on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in their power.(Q)
2 They covet fields and seize them,
houses and take them away;
they oppress householder and house,
people and their inheritance.(R)
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
Now, I am devising against this family an evil
from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk arrogantly,
for it will be an evil time.(S)
4 On that day they shall take up a taunt song against you
and wail with bitter lamentation
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
the Lord[d] alters the inheritance of my people;
how he removes it from me!
Among our captors[e] he parcels out our fields.”(T)
5 Therefore you will have no one in the Lord’s assembly
to allot you a piece of land.(U)
6 “Do not preach”—thus they preach—
“one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us.”(V)
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Is the Lord’s patience exhausted?
Are these his doings?
Do not my words do good
to one who walks uprightly?
8 But you rise up against my people[f] as an enemy;
you strip the robe from the peaceful,[g]
from those who pass by trustingly
with no thought of war.
9 The women of my people you drive out
from their pleasant houses;
from their young children you take away
my glory forever.
10 Arise and go,
for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys
with a violent destruction.(W)
11 If someone were to go about uttering empty falsehoods,
saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
such a one would be the preacher for this people!(X)
A Promise for the Remnant of Israel
12 I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob;
I will gather the survivors of Israel;
I will set them together
like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture;
it will resound with people.(Y)
13 The one who breaks out will go up before them;
they will break through and pass the gate,
going out by it.
Their king will pass on before them,
the Lord at their head.(Z)
Wicked Rulers and Prophets
3 And I said:
Listen, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Should you not know justice?—(AA)
2 you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin off my people[h]
and the flesh off their bones,(AB)
3 who eat the flesh of my people,
flay their skin off them,
break their bones in pieces,
and chop them up like meat[i] in a kettle,
like flesh in a caldron.(AC)
4 Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time
because they have acted wickedly.(AD)
5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who cry “Peace”
when they have something to eat
but declare war against those
who put nothing into their mouths.(AE)
6 Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without revelation.
The sun shall go down upon the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;(AF)
7 the seers shall be disgraced
and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
for there is no answer from God.(AG)
8 But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
and to Israel his sin.(AH)
9 Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob
and chiefs of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
and pervert all equity,(AI)
10 who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with wrong!(AJ)
11 Its rulers give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
“Surely the Lord is with us!
No harm shall come upon us.”(AK)
12 Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the temple a wooded height.(AL)
Peace and Security through Obedience
4 In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s temple
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
and shall be raised up above the hills.
Peoples shall stream to it,(AM)
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 instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.(AN)
3 He shall judge between many peoples
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more;(AO)
4 but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.(AP)
5 For all the peoples walk,
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever.(AQ)
Restoration Promised after Exile
6 On that day, says the Lord,
I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
and those whom I have afflicted.(AR)
7 The lame I will make the remnant,
and those who were cast off, a strong nation,
and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion
now and forevermore.(AS)
8 And you, O tower of the flock,
hill of daughter Zion,
to you it shall come,
the former dominion shall come,
the sovereignty of daughter Jerusalem.(AT)
9 Now why do you cry aloud?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor?(AU)
10 Writhe and groan,[j] O daughter Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you shall go forth from the city
and camp in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
there the Lord will redeem you
from the hands of your enemies.(AV)
11 Now many nations
are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be profaned,
and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”(AW)
12 But they do not know
the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.(AX)
13 Arise and thresh,
O daughter Zion,
for I will make your horn iron
and your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples
and shall[k] devote their gain to the Lord,
their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.(AY)
5 [l]Now you are walled around with a wall;[m]
siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel
upon the cheek.(AZ)
The Ruler from Bethlehem
2 [n]But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.(BA)
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.(BB)
4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth,(BC)
5 and he shall be the one of peace.
If the Assyrians come into our land
and tread upon our soil,[o]
we will raise against them seven shepherds
and eight rulers.(BD)
6 They shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword
and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword;[p]
they[q] shall rescue us from the Assyrians
if they come into our land
or tread within our border.(BE)
The Future Role of the Remnant
7 Then the remnant of Jacob,
surrounded by many peoples,
shall be like dew from the Lord,
like showers on the grass,
which do not depend upon people
or wait for any mortal.(BF)
8 And among the nations the remnant of Jacob,
surrounded by many peoples,
shall be like a lion among the animals of the forest,
like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
which, when it goes through, treads down
and tears in pieces, with no one to deliver.(BG)
9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
and all your enemies shall be cut off.(BH)
10 On that day, says the Lord,
I will cut off your horses from among you
and will destroy your chariots;(BI)
11 and I will cut off the cities of your land
and destroy all your strongholds;(BJ)
12 and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
and you shall have no more soothsayers;(BK)
13 and I will cut off your images
and your pillars from among you,
and you shall bow down no more
to the work of your hands;
14 and I will uproot your sacred poles[r] from among you
and destroy your towns.(BL)
15 And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
on the nations that did not obey.(BM)
Footnotes
- 1.5 Heb what are the high places
- 1.9 Gk Syr Vg: Heb wounds
- 2.1 Cn: Heb work evil
- 2.4 Heb he
- 2.4 Cn: Heb the rebellious
- 2.8 Cn: Heb But yesterday my people rose
- 2.8 Cn: Heb from before a garment
- 3.2 Heb from them
- 3.3 Gk: Heb as
- 4.10 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 4.13 Gk Syr Tg: Heb and I will
- 5.1 4.14 in Heb
- 5.1 Cn Compare Gk: Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 5.2 5.1 in Heb
- 5.5 Gk: Heb in our palaces
- 5.6 Cn: Heb in its entrances
- 5.6 Heb he
- 5.14 Or Asherahs
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.