Micah 2:1-4:9
English Standard Version
Woe to the Oppressors
2 (A)Woe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil (B)on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and (C)seize them,
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
behold, against (D)this family I am devising disaster,[a]
from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you (E)shall not walk haughtily,
(F)for it will be a time of disaster.
4 In that day (G)they shall take up a taunt song against you
and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
(H)he changes the portion of my people;
(I)how he removes it from me!
(J)To an apostate he allots our fields.”
5 Therefore you will have none (K)to cast the line by lot
in the assembly of the Lord.
6 (L)“Do not preach”—thus they preach—
(M)“one should not preach of such things;
(N)disgrace will not overtake us.”
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
(O)Has the Lord grown impatient?[b]
Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
to him who walks uprightly?
8 But lately (P)my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
with no thought of war.[c]
9 The women of my people you drive out
from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
my splendor forever.
10 (Q)Arise and go,
for this is no (R)place to rest,
because of (S)uncleanness that destroys
with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man should go about and (T)utter wind and lies,
saying, “I will preach to you (U)of wine and strong drink,”
he would be the preacher for this people!
12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
(V)I will gather (W)the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
like sheep in a fold,
(X)like a flock in its pasture,
a noisy multitude of men.
13 (Y)He who opens the breach goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate,
(Z)going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
(AA)the Lord at their head.
Rulers and Prophets Denounced
3 And I said:
(AB)Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
(AC)Is it not for you to know justice?—
2 you (AD)who hate the good and love the evil,
(AE)who tear the skin from off my people[d]
and their flesh from off their bones,
3 (AF)who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.
4 (AG)Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
(AH)he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus says the Lord concerning (AI)the prophets
who lead my people astray,
(AJ)who cry “Peace”
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore (AK)it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
(AL)The sun shall go down on the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
7 (AM)the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
(AN)they shall all cover their lips,
for (AO)there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, (AP)I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob (AQ)his transgression
and to Israel his sin.
9 (AR)Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
(AS)who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10 (AT)who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 (AU)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
(AV)its priests teach for a price;
(AW)its prophets practice divination for money;
(AX)yet they lean on the Lord and (AY)say,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
(AZ)No disaster shall come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
(BA)Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem (BB)shall become a heap of ruins,
and (BC)the mountain of the house (BD)a wooded height.
The Mountain of the Lord
4 It shall come to pass (BE)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,[e]
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall (BF)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 (BG)but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
(BH)and no one shall make them afraid,
(BI)for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
5 For (BJ)all the peoples walk
each in the name of its god,
but (BK)we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever.
The Lord Shall Rescue Zion
6 (BL)In that day, declares the Lord,
(BM)I will assemble the (BN)lame
and gather those who have been driven away
and those whom I have afflicted;
7 and the lame I will make (BO)the remnant,
and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and (BP)the Lord will reign over them (BQ)in Mount Zion
from this time forth and forevermore.
8 And 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.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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