Beginning
1 The Word of the LORD that came to Micah the Moreshite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, all you people! Listen, O Earth, and all that therein is! And let the LORD God be Witness against you, the LORD from His Holy Temple.
3 For behold, the LORD comes out of His place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the Earth.
4 And the mountains shall melt under Him. So shall the valleys cling as wax before the fire, as the waters that are poured downward.
5 This is all because of the wickedness of Jacob, and for the sins of the House of Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 “Therefore, I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, for the planting of a vineyard. And I will make its stones tumble down into the valley. And I will uncover its foundations.
7 “And all its graven images shall be broken. And all its gifts shall be burnt with the fire. And I will destroy all its idols. For she gathered it from the hire of a harlot. And they shall return to the wages of a harlot.”
8 Therefore I will mourn and howl! I will go without clothes, naked. I will make lamentation like the dragons, and mourning as the ostriches.
9 For her plagues are grievous. For it has come into Judah, has come to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
10 Do not declare it at Gath, or weep. Roll yourself in the dust for the House of Aphrah.
11 You who dwell at Shaphir go together, naked with shame. She who dwells at Zaanan shall not come forth in the mourning of Beth Ezel. Your standing shall be taken from you.
12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited for good, but evil came from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 O you inhabitant of Lachish! Bind the chariot to the beasts of price. She is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion. For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
14 Therefore, you shall give presents to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib shall be as a lie to the kings of Israel.
15 Yet I will bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah. He, the glory of Israel, shall come to Adullam.
16 Make yourself bald and shave yourself for your delicate children. Enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they have gone into captivity from you.
2 Woe to those who imagine iniquity and work wickedness upon their beds! In the morning light they practice it, because their hand has power.
2 And they covet fields and houses and take them by violence and take them away. So, they oppress a man and his house, man and his heritage.
3 Therefore, thus says the LORD: “Behold, I have planned misery against this family, from which you cannot remove your necks. And you shall not go proudly; for this time shall be miserable.
4 “At that time, they shall take up a parable against you and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, ‘We are utterly destroyed! He has exchanged the portion of my people. How can He take it away! He has divided our fields!’
5 “Therefore, you shall have no one who shall cast a measuring line by lot in the Congregation of the LORD.
6 “Those who prophesy, do not prophesy. They shall not prophesy to them. Nor shall they take shame.
7 “O you who are named of the House of Jacob! Is the Spirit of the LORD shortened? Are these His works? Are not My works good to him who walks uprightly?
8 “But those who were My people yesterday have risen up on the other side, as against an enemy. They strip the beautiful garment from those who pass by peacefully, as though they returned from the war.
9 “You have cast out the women of My people from their pleasant houses. You have continually taken away My Glory from their children.
10 “Arise and depart! For this is not your rest. Because it is polluted, it shall be destroyed with a severe destruction.
11 “If a man walks in the spirit, and would lie falsely, saying, ‘I will prophesy to you of wine, and of strong drink,’ even he would be a ‘prophet’ of this people.
12 “I will surely gather you wholly, O Jacob. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold, full of the noise of men.
13 “The breaker shall come up before them. They shall break out and pass by the gate and go out by it. And their king shall go before them. And the LORD shall be upon their heads.”
3 “And I said, ‘Hear now, O heads of Jacob, and you princes of the House of Israel. Should not you know judgment?’
2 “They hate good and love evil. They strip their skin from them, and their flesh from their bones.
3 “And they also eat the flesh of My people, and strip off their skin from them. And they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as if for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.”
4 Then they shall cry to the LORD, but He will not hear them. He will hide His Face from them at that time, because they have done wickedly in their works.
5 Thus says the LORD: “Concerning the prophets who deceive My people, and bite them with their teeth, and cry, ‘Peace!’ But if a man puts nothing into their mouths, they prepare war against him.
6 “Therefore, night shall be to you for a vision, and darkness to you for a divination. And the Sun shall go down over the prophets. And the day shall be dark over them.
7 “Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the soothsayers confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for they have no answer from God.”
8 Yet indeed I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and of judgment, and of strength, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
9 Please hear this, you heads of the House of Jacob, and princes of the House of Israel. They abhor judgment and pervert all that is right.
10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 Their heads judge for rewards, and their priests teach for hire, and their prophets prophesy for money. Yet they will lean upon the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD among us? No evil can come upon us.”
12 Therefore, for your sake, shall Zion be plowed as a field. And Jerusalem shall be a heap and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
4 But in the last days it shall happen that the Mountain of the House of the LORD shall be prepared on the top of the mountains. And it shall be exalted above the hills. And people shall flow to it.
2 Yea, many nations shall come and say, “Come and let us go up to the Mountain of the LORD, and to the House of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us His ways. And we will walk in His paths.” For the Law shall go forth from Zion. And the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 And He shall judge among many people and rebuke mighty, far away nations. And they shall break their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation. Nor shall they learn to fight anymore.
4 But every man shall sit under his vine, and under his fig tree. And no one shall make them afraid. For the Mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken it.
5 For all people will walk, each in the name of his god. And we will walk in the Name of the LORD our God, forever and ever.
6 “At the same time,” says the LORD, “I will gather she who halts, and I will gather she who is cast out, and she whom I have afflicted.
7 “And I will make her who limps a remnant, and her who was cast far off a mighty nation. And the LORD shall reign over them on Mount Zion, from now until forever.
8 “And you, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter Zion! To you it shall come. The former dominion kingdom shall come to the daughter Jerusalem.”
9 Now, why do you cry out with lamentation? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished? For sorrow has taken you, as a woman in labor.
10 Sorrow and mourn, O daughter Zion, like a woman in labor! For now, you shall go forth from the city and dwell in the field and shall go into Babel. There you shall be delivered. There the LORD shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11 Also now, many nations are gathered against you, saying, “Zion shall be condemned!” and “Our eye shall look upon Zion!”
12 But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD. They do not understand His counsel. For He shall gather them as the sheaves in the barn.
13 “Arise and thresh, O daughter Zion! For I will make your horn iron. And I will make your hooves bronze. And you shall break many people in pieces. And I will consecrate their riches to the LORD, and their substance to the Ruler of the whole world.”
5 Now assemble your garrisons, O daughter of garrisons. He has laid siege against us. They shall strike the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
2 “And you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, are small among the thousands of Judah. Yet out of you shall He come forth to Me Who shall be the Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from the beginning, from everlasting.”
3 Therefore, He will give them up until the time that she who shall bear has given birth. Then the remnant of their brethren shall return to the children of Israel.
4 And He shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the Name of the LORD his God. And they shall abide. For now shall He be magnified to the ends of the world.
5 And He shall be our peace when Assyria shall come into our land. When He shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise seven shepherds against him, and eight principal men.
6 And they shall destroy Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with their swords. Thus shall He deliver us from Assyria when He comes into our land, and when He shall tread within our borders.
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among many people, as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass that neither wait for man nor hope in the sons of Adam.
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many people, as the lion among the beasts of the forest, as the lion whelp among the flocks of sheep, who when he goes through treads down and tears in pieces. And no one can deliver.
9 Your Hand shall be lifted up upon your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.
10 “And it shall happen at that time,” says the LORD, “that I will cut off your horses from your midst. And I will destroy your chariots.
11 “And I will cut off the cities of your land and overthrow all your strongholds.
12 “And I will cut off your sorceries from your hand. And you shall have no more soothsayers.
13 “I will also cut off your idols, and your images from your midst. And you shall no longer worship the work of your hands.
14 “And I will uproot your asherim from your midst. So will I destroy your enemies.
15 “And I will execute a vengeance in wrath and indignation upon the heathen which they have not heard.”
6 Listen now to what the LORD says: “Arise! Plead before the mountains! And let the hills hear your voice!”
2 Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s quarrel, and you mighty foundations of the Earth! For the LORD has a quarrel against His people. And He will dispute with Israel.
3 “O My people! What have I done to you? Or in what have I grieved you? Testify against Me.
4 “Surely, I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of servants. And I have sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you.”
5 O My people! Remember now what Balak, king of Moab, had devised, and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may know the righteousness of the LORD.
6 With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with Burnt Offerings, with calves of a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O man, what is good and what the LORD requires of you: surely to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
9 The LORD’s voice cries to the city! And the man of wisdom shall see Your Name. “Hear the rod and Who has appointed it!
10 “Are the treasures of wickedness still in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
11 “Shall I justify the wicked balances, and the bag of deceitful weights?
12 “For their rich men are full of cruelty. And their inhabitants have spoken lies. And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 “Therefore, I will also make you sick by striking you, by making you desolate because of your sins.
14 “You shall eat and not be satisfied. And your casting down shall be in the midst of you. And you shall take hold but shall not deliver. And that which you do deliver, I will give up to the sword.
15 “You shall sow, but not reap. You shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint yourself with oil and sweet wine, and shall not drink wine.
16 “For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the House of Ahab. And you walk in their counsels, so that I should make you a desolation and your inhabitants a hissing. Therefore, you shall bear the reproach of My people.”
7 Woe is me, for I am as the summer gatherings, as the grapes of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat. My soul desired the first ripe fruits.
2 The good man has perished from the Earth, and there is no one righteous among men. They all lie in wait for blood. Every man hunts his brother with a net.
3 To make good for the evil of both their hands, the prince asks and the judge judges for a reward. And the great man speaks out the corruption of his soul. So they weave it together.
4 The best of them is as a brier. And the most righteous of them is sharper than a thorn-hedge. The day of your watchmen and your visitation comes. Then shall be their confusion.
5 Do not trust in a friend, or put confidence in a counselor. Keep the doors of your mouth from she who lies in your bosom.
6 For the son reviles the father. The daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
7 Therefore, I will look to the LORD. I will wait for God my Savior. My God will hear me.
8 Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy! Though I fall, I shall rise. When I shall sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light to me.
9 I will bear the wrath of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light. And I shall see His righteousness.
10 Then she who is my enemy shall look upon it. And shame shall cover her who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes shall behold her. Now she shall be trampled down as the mire of the streets.
11 This is the day that your walls shall be built. This day shall drive the decree far away.
12 Also at this time they shall come to you from Assyria and the strong cities, and from the strongholds to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
13 Nevertheless, the land shall be desolate because of those who dwell in it, for the fruits of their inventions.
14 Feed Your people with Your rod, the flock of Your heritage (who dwell solitarily in the forest) in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in days of old.
15 “According to the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt, I will show to him marvelous things.”
16 The nations shall see and be confounded for all their power. They shall lay their hand upon their mouth. Their ears shall be deaf.
17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent. They shall move out of their holes like worms. They shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of You.
18 Who is a God like You, Who takes away iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage! He does not retain His wrath forever, because mercy pleases Him.
19 He will turn again and have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities and cast all their sins into the bottom of the sea.
20 You will perform truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as You have sworn to our fathers in days of old.
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