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The Lord is coming!
1 The Lord’s word that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Judah’s Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem:
2 Listen, all you peoples!
Pay attention, earth, and all that fills it!
May the Lord God be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
3 Look! The Lord is coming out from his place;
he will go down and tread on the shrines of the earth.
4 Then the mountains will melt under him;
the valleys will split apart,
like wax yielding to the fire,
like waters poured down a slope.
5 All this is for the crime of Jacob
and the sins of the house of Israel.
Who is responsible for the crime of Jacob?[a]
Isn’t it Samaria?
Who is responsible for[b] the shrines of Judah?
Isn’t it Jerusalem?
6 So I will make Samaria a pile of rubble in the open field,
a place for planting vineyards.
I will pour her stones into the valley;
her foundations I will lay bare.
7 All her images will be beaten to pieces;
all her wages will be burned;
I will make all her idols worthless.
Since she gathered them from the wages of a prostitute,
they will again become wages of a prostitute.
8 On account of this, I will cry out and howl;
I will go about barefoot and stripped.
I will cry out like the jackals,
and mourn like the ostriches.
Destruction looms
9 Indeed, Zion has been weakened by her wounds!
It has come as far as Judah;
he has struck as far as the gate of my people,
as far as Jerusalem.
10 In Gath tell it not; no need to weep there![c]
In Beth-le-aphrah, roll yourself in the dust!
11 Pass by (for your sake),[d] inhabitants of Shaphir!
In nakedness and shame she will not go out, inhabitants of Zaanan.
The cry of Beth-ezel
will take away from you[e] any place to stand.
12 How she longs for good, inhabitants of Maroth!
Calamity has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the horses to the chariot, inhabitants of Lachish!
It was the beginning of sin for Daughter Zion;
the crimes of Israel have been found in you.
14 Therefore, you will give good-bye gifts to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib have become a deception for the kings of Israel.
15 Again I will bring to you the one who conquers, inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel will come as far as Adullam.
16 Make yourself bald and cut off your hair
because of your cherished children!
Make yourself as bald as the vulture,
for they have gone from you into exile.
Oppressors will themselves be ruined
2 Doom to those who devise wickedness,
to those who plan evil when they are in bed.
By the light of morning they do it,
for they are very powerful.
2 They covet fields and seize them,
houses and take them away.
They oppress a householder and those in his house,
a man and his estate.
3 Therefore, the Lord proclaims:
I myself am devising an evil against this family
from which you will not be able to remove your necks!
You will no longer be able to go about arrogantly,
for it will be an evil time.
4 On that day, a taunt will be raised against you;
someone will wail bitterly:
“We are utterly destroyed!
He exchanges the portion of my people;
he removes what belongs to me;
he gives away our fields to a rebel.”
5 Therefore, you will have no one to set boundary lines
by lot in the Lord’s assembly.
Leaders unwilling to hear God’s word
6 “They mustn’t preach!” so they preach.
“They mustn’t preach of such things!
Disgrace won’t overtake us.”
7 (Should this be said, house of Jacob?)
“Is the Lord’s patience cut short? Are these his deeds?”
Don’t my words help the one who behaves righteously?
8 But yesterday, my people, the Lord rose up as an enemy.[f]
You strip off the glorious clothes[g]
from trusting passersby, those who reject war.
9 You drive out the women of my people,
each from her cherished house;
from their young children
you take away my splendor forever.
10 Rise up and go! This can’t be the resting place;
because of its uncleanness,
it destroys and the destruction is horrific.
11 If someone were to go about inspired and say deceitfully:
“I will preach to you for wine and liquor,”
such a one would be the preacher for this people!
The false prophet’s “peace” will be destruction
12 I’ll surely gather Jacob—all of you!
I’ll surely assemble you, those who are left of Israel!
I’ll put them together like sheep in Bozrah,[h]
like a flock in its pen,
noisy with people.
13 The one who breaks out will go before them;
they will break out and pass through the gate;
they will leave by it.
They will pass on,
their king before them,
the Lord at their head.
Micah justifies the coming destruction
3 But I said:
Hear, leaders of Jacob,
rulers of the house of Israel!
Isn’t it your job to know justice?—
2 you who hate good and love evil,
who tear the skin off them, and the flesh off their bones,
3 who devour the flesh of my people,
tear off their skin,
break their bones in pieces,
and spread them out as if in a pot,
like meat in a kettle.
4 Then they will cry out to the Lord,
but he won’t answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time,
because of their evil deeds.
5 The Lord proclaims concerning the prophets,
those who lead my people astray,
those who chew with their teeth
and then proclaim “Peace!”
but stir up war against the one who puts nothing in their mouths:
6 Therefore, it will become night for you,
without vision, only darkness
without divination!
The sun will set on the prophets;
the day will be dark upon them.
7 Those seeing visions will be ashamed,
and the diviners disgraced;
they will all cover their upper lips,[i]
for there will be no answer from God.
8 But me! I am filled with power,
with the spirit of the Lord,
with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his wrongdoing and to Israel his sin!
9 Hear this, leaders of the house of Jacob,
rulers of the house of Israel,
you who reject justice and make crooked all that is straight,
10 who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with injustice!
11 Her officials give justice for a bribe,
and her priests teach for hire.
Her prophets offer divination for silver,
yet they rely on the Lord, saying,
“Isn’t the Lord in our midst?
Evil won’t come upon us!”
12 Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become piles of rubble,
and the temple mount will become an overgrown mound.
A peaceable world
4 But in the days to come,
the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be the highest of the mountains;
it will be lifted above the hills;
peoples will stream to it.
2 Many nations will go and say:
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of Jacob’s God,
so that he may teach us his ways
and we may walk in God’s paths!”
Instruction will come from Zion
and the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.
3 God will judge between the nations
and settle disputes of mighty nations,
which are far away.
They will beat their swords into iron plows
and their spears into pruning tools.
Nation will not take up sword against nation;
they will no longer learn how to make war.
4 All will sit underneath their own grapevines,
under their own fig trees.
There will be no one to terrify them;
for the mouth of the Lord of heavenly forces has spoken.
An assertion of enduring loyalty
5 Each of the peoples walks in the name of their own god;
but as for us, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and always.
Dominion in Zion
6 On that day, says the Lord,
I will gather the lame;
I will assemble those who were driven away
and those whom I have harmed.
7 I will make the lame into survivors,
those driven away into a mighty nation.
The Lord will rule over them on Mount Zion
from now on and forever.
8 As for you, Tower of Eder,[j] hill of Daughter Zion,
as for you it will come,
the former dominion will come,
the royal power belonging to Daughter Zion.
God is in control
9 Now why do you cry out so loudly?
Isn’t the king in you?
Or has your counselor perished,
so that pain has seized you like that of a woman in labor?
10 Writhe and scream, Daughter Zion, like a woman in labor!
Now you will leave the city and dwell in the open field;
you will go to Babylon.
There you will be rescued;
there the Lord will redeem you from the power of your enemies.
11 Now many nations may gather against you;
they say, “Let her be defiled,”
or “Let our eyes look with desire at Zion.”
12 But they don’t know the plans of the Lord;
they can’t understand his scheme,
namely, that he will bring them like grain to the threshing floor!
13 Arise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
for I will make your horn out of iron;
your hooves I will make out of bronze.
You will crush many peoples;
you will dedicate their ill-gotten gains to the Lord,
their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
Opening the first six seals
6 Then I looked on as the Lamb opened one of the seven seals. I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 So I looked, and there was a white horse. Its rider held a bow and was given a crown. And he went forth from victory to victory.
3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Out came another horse, fiery red. Its rider was allowed to take peace from the earth so that people would kill each other. He was given a large sword.
5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” So I looked, and there was a black horse. Its rider held a balance for weighing in his hand. 6 I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures. It said, “A quart of wheat for a denarion,[a] and three quarts of barley for a denarion, but don’t damage the olive oil and the wine.”
7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 So I looked, and there was a pale green horse. Its rider’s name was Death, and the Grave was following right behind. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill by sword, famine, disease, and the wild animals of the earth.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar those who had been slaughtered on account of the word of God and the witness they had given. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “Holy and true Master, how long will you wait before you pass judgment? How long before you require justice for our blood, which was shed by those who live on earth?” 11 Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest a little longer, until their fellow servants and brothers and sisters—who were about to be killed as they were—were finished.
12 I looked on as he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as funeral clothing, and the entire moon turned red as blood. 13 The stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its fruit when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The sky disappeared like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth, the officials and the generals, the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in caves and in the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the Lamb’s wrath! 17 The great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Psalm 134
A pilgrimage song.
134 All you who serve the Lord: bless the Lord right now!
All you who minister in the Lord’s house at night: bless God!
2 Lift up your hands to the sanctuary
and bless the Lord!
3 May the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth,
bless you from Zion.
Words of Agur
30 The words of Agur, Jakeh’s son, from Massa.
The man declares: I’m tired, God;
I’m tired, God, and I’m exhausted.
2 Actually, I’m too stupid to be human,
a man without understanding.
3 I haven’t learned wisdom,
nor do I have knowledge of the holy one.
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind by the handful?
Who has bound up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is this person’s name and the name of this person’s child—
if you know it?
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible