2 Woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they perform and practice it because it is in their power.

² They covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away; they oppress and crush a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.^(A)

³ Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, against this family I am planning a disaster from which you cannot remove your necks, nor will you be able to walk erect; for it will be an evil time.

⁴ In that day shall they take up a [taunting] parable against you and wail with a doleful and bitter lamentation and say, We are utterly ruined and laid waste! [God] changes the portion of my people. How He removes it from me! He divides our fields [to the rebellious, our captors].

⁵ Therefore you shall have no one to cast a line by lot upon a plot [of ground] in the assembly of the Lord.^(B)

⁶ Do not preach, say the prophesying false prophets; one should not babble and harp on such things; disgrace will not overtake us [the reviling has no end].

⁷ O house of Jacob, shall it be said, Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted, impatient, and shortened? Or are these [prophesied plagues] His doings? Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?

⁸ But lately (yesterday) My people have stood up as an enemy [and have made Me their antagonist]. Off from the garment you strip the cloak of those who pass by in secure confidence of safety and are averse to war.

⁹ The women of My people you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away My glory forever.

¹⁰ Arise and depart, for this is not the rest [which was promised to the righteous in Canaan], because of uncleanness that works destruction, even a sharp and grievous destruction.

¹¹ If a man walking in a spirit [of vanity] and in falsehood should lie and say, I will prophesy to you of wine and strong drink, O Israel, he would even be the acceptable prophet of this people!^(C)

¹² I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them [Israel] together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in the midst of their pasture. They [the fold and the pasture] shall swarm with men and hum with much noise.

¹³ The ^[a]Breaker [the Messiah] will go up before them. They will break through, pass in through the gate and go out through it, and their King will pass on before them, the Lord at their head.^(D)

3 And I [Micah] said, Hear, I pray you, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?—

² You who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck and steal the skin from off [My people] and their flesh from off their bones;

³ Yes, you who eat the flesh of my people and strip their skin from off them, who break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot, like meat in a big kettle.

⁴ Then will they cry to the Lord, but He will not answer them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.^(A)

⁵ Thus says the Lord: Concerning the false prophets who make My people err, when they have anything good to bite with their teeth they cry, Peace; and whoever gives them nothing to chew, against him they declare a sanctified war.

⁶ Therefore it shall be night to you, so that you shall have no vision; yes, it shall be dark to you without divination. And the sun shall go down over the false prophets, and the day shall be black over them.

⁷ And the seers shall be put to shame and the diviners shall blush and be confounded; yes, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.

⁸ But truly I [Micah] am full of power, of the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

⁹ Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor and reject justice and pervert all equity,

¹⁰ Who build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.

¹¹ Its heads judge for reward and a bribe and its priests teach for hire and its prophets divine for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? No evil can come upon us.^(B)

¹² Therefore shall Zion on your account be ^[a]plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps [of ruins], and the mountain of the house [of the Lord] like a densely wooded height.^(C)

²² And they came to Bethsaida. And [people] brought to Him a blind man and begged Him to touch him.

²³ And He ^[a]caught the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands upon him, He asked him, Do you [^[b]possibly] see anything?

²⁴ And he looked up and said, I see people, but [they look] like trees, walking.

²⁵ Then He put His hands on his eyes again; and the man looked intently [that is, fixed his eyes on definite objects], and he was restored and saw everything distinctly [even what was ^[c]at a distance].

²⁶ And He sent him away to his house, telling [him], Do not [even] enter the village ^[d]or tell anyone there.

²⁷ And Jesus went on with His disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He asked His disciples, Who do people say that I am?

²⁸ And they answered [Him], John the Baptist; and others [say], Elijah; but others, one of the prophets.

²⁹ And He asked them, But who do you yourselves say that I am? Peter replied to Him, You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

³⁰ And He charged them sharply to tell no one about Him.

³¹ And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must of necessity suffer many things and be tested and disapproved and rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be put to death, and after three days rise again [^[e]from death].

³² And He said this freely (frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable). And Peter took Him ^[f]by the hand and led Him aside and then [facing Him] began to rebuke Him.

³³ But turning around [His back to Peter] and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have a mind ^[g]intent on promoting what God wills, but what pleases men [you are not on God’s side, but that of men].

³⁴ And Jesus called [to Him] the throng with His disciples and said to them, If anyone intends to come after Me, let him deny himself [forget, ignore, disown, and ^[h]lose sight of himself and his own interests] and take up his cross, and [^[i]joining Me as a disciple and siding with My party] follow ^[j]with Me [continually, cleaving steadfastly to Me].

³⁵ For whoever wants to save his [^[k]higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the ^[l]lower, natural, temporal life ^[m]which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it [his ^[n]higher, spiritual life ^[o]in the eternal kingdom of God].

³⁶ For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life [^[p]in the eternal kingdom of God]?

³⁷ For what can a man give as an exchange (^[q]a compensation, a ransom, in return) for his [blessed] life [^[r]in the eternal kingdom of God]?

³⁸ For whoever ^[s]is ashamed [here and now] of Me and My words in this adulterous (unfaithful) and [preeminently] sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory (splendor and majesty) of His Father with the holy angels.

9 And Jesus said to them, Truly and solemnly I say to you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste death before they see the kingdom of God come in [its] power.

² Six days after this, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves. And He was transfigured before them and became resplendent with divine brightness.

³ And His garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller (cloth dresser, launderer) on earth could bleach them.

⁴ And Elijah appeared [there] to them, accompanied by Moses, and they were ^[a]holding [a protracted] conversation with Jesus.

⁵ And ^[b]Peter took up the conversation, saying, Master, it is good and suitable and beautiful for us to be here. Let us make three booths (tents)—one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.

⁶ For he did not [really] know what to say, for they were in a violent fright (^[c]aghast with dread).

⁷ And a cloud threw a shadow upon them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, the [^[d]most dearworthy] Beloved One. Be ^[e]constantly listening to and obeying Him!

⁸ And looking around, they suddenly no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus only.

⁹ And as they were coming back down the mountain, He admonished and ^[f]expressly ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man should rise from among the dead.

¹⁰ So they carefully and faithfully kept the matter to themselves, questioning and disputing with one another about what rising from among the dead meant.

¹¹ And they asked Him, Why do the scribes say that it is necessary for Elijah to come first?^(A)

¹² And He said to them, Elijah, it is true, does come first to restore all things and ^[g]set them to rights. And how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be utterly despised and be treated with contempt and rejected?^(B)

¹³ But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and [people] did to him whatever they desired, as it is written of him.