Add parallel Print Page Options

Micah Is Asked Not to Prophesy

The ·prophets [or preachers] say, “Don’t ·prophesy [or preach] to us!
    Don’t ·prophesy [preach] about these things!
    ·Nothing to make us feel bad will happen [L Disgrace/Humiliation will not overtake us]!”
But I must say this, ·people [L house] of Jacob:
    ·The Lord is becoming angry [or Does not the Lord grow impatient…?] about what you have done.
·My words are welcome [or Are not my words good…?]
    to the person who ·does what is right [L walks uprightly].
But ·you are fighting against my people like an enemy [or my people have risen up against me as an enemy].
    You ·take the coats [strip off the rich robe] from people who pass by peacefully;
    ·you plan war [or …like men returning from war].
You have ·forced [cast out; evicted] the women of my people
    from their ·nice [pleasant] houses;
you have taken my glory
    from their children forever.
10 ·Get up [Arise] and leave.
    This is not your place of rest anymore.
You have made this place ·unclean [defiled],
    and it is doomed to destruction.
11 ·But you people want a false prophet
    who will tell you nothing but lies
[L If a man, coming as wind/spirit and lies,
    should lie to you…].
You want one who ·promises to prophesy good things for you
    if you give him wine and beer [or will prophesy wine and beer for you].
He’s just the prophet for you.

Read full chapter


‘Do not speak out,’ so they speak out.
But if they do not speak out concerning these things,
Reproaches will not be turned back.

“Is it being said, O house of Jacob:
‘Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?
Or are these [prophesied judgments] His doings?’
Do not My words do good
To the one walking uprightly?

“But lately My people have stood up as an enemy [and have made Me their antagonist].
You strip the ornaments off the garment
Of those unsuspecting passers-by,
Like those returned from war.

“You evict the women (widows) of My people,
Each one from her pleasant house;
From her [young, fatherless] children you take away My splendor and blessing forever [by putting them among the pagans, away from Me].
10 
“Arise and depart [because the captivity is inevitable],
For this [land] is not the place of rest
Because of the defilement that brings destruction,
A painful and terrible destruction.
11 
“If a man walking in a false spirit [spouting deception]
Should lie and say,
‘I will prophesy to you [O Israel] of wine and liquor (greed, sensual pleasure),’
He would be the acceptable spokesman of this people.(A)

Read full chapter