Old/New Testament
Chapter 1
1 The word of the Lord which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
I. Oracles of Punishment
2 Hear, O peoples, all of you,
give heed, O earth, and all that is in it!(A)
Let the Lord God be witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple![a]
3 For see, the Lord goes out from his place(B)
and descending, treads upon the heights of the earth.[b]
4 The mountains melt under him
and the valleys split open,
Like wax before the fire,
like water poured down a slope.
5 All this is for the crime of Jacob,
for the sins of the house of Israel.[c]
What is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria?
And what is the sin of the house of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6 So I will make Samaria a ruin in the field,
a place to plant vineyards;
I will throw its stones into the valley,
and lay bare its foundations.[d]
7 All its carved figures shall be broken to pieces,(C)
all its wages shall be burned in the fire,
and all its idols I will destroy.
As the wages of a prostitute[e] it gathered them,
and to the wages of a prostitute they shall return.
8 [f]For this I will lament and wail,
go barefoot and naked;
I will utter lamentation like the jackals,
mourning like the ostriches,(D)
9 For her wound is incurable;
it has come even to Judah.
It has reached to the gate of my people,
even to Jerusalem.
10 [g]Do not announce it in Gath,
do not weep at all;
In Beth-leaphrah
roll in the dust.(E)
11 Pass by,
you who dwell in Shaphir!
The inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come forth from their city.
There is lamentation in Beth-ezel.
It will withdraw its support from you.
12 The inhabitants of Maroth
hope for good,
But evil has come down from the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
You are the beginning of sin
for daughter Zion,
For in you were found
the crimes of Israel.
14 Therefore you must give back the dowry
to Moresheth-gath;
The houses of Achzib[h] are a dry stream bed
to the kings of Israel.
15 Again I will bring the conqueror to you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
The glory of Israel shall come
even to Adullam.
16 Make yourself bald, cut off your hair,
for the children whom you cherish;
Make yourself bald as a vulture,
for they are taken from you into exile.[i]
Chapter 2
1 [j]Ah! you plotters of iniquity,
who work out evil on your beds!
In the morning light you carry it out
for it lies within your power.
2 [k]You covet fields, and seize them;
houses, and take them;
You cheat owners of their houses,
people of their inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
Look, I am planning against this family an evil
from which you cannot free your necks;
Nor shall you walk with head held high,
for it will be an evil time.
4 On that day you shall be mocked,
and there will be bitter lament:
“Our ruin is complete,
our fields are divided among our captors,
The fields of my people are measured out,
and no one can get them back!”[l]
5 Thus you shall have no one
in the assembly of the Lord
to allot to you a share of land.
6 [m]“Do not preach,” they preach,
“no one should preach of these things!
Shame will not overtake us.”
7 How can it be said, house of Jacob,
“Is the Lord short of patience;
are these the Lord’s deeds?”
Do not my words promise good
to the one who walks in justice?
8 But you rise up against my people as an enemy:
you have stripped off the garment from the peaceful,
From those who go their way in confidence,
as though it were spoils of war.
9 The women of my people you drive out
from their pleasant houses;
From their children you take away
forever the honor I gave them.
10 [n]“Get up! Leave,
this is no place to rest”;
Because of uncleanness that destroys
with terrible destruction.
11 If one possessed of a lying spirit(F)
speaks deceitfully, saying,
“I will preach to you wine and strong drink,”
that one would be the preacher for this people.
12 [o]I will gather you, Jacob, each and every one,
I will assemble all the remnant of Israel;
I will group them like a flock in the fold,
like a herd in its pasture;
the noise of the people will resound.
13 The one who makes a breach goes up before them;
they make a breach and pass through the gate;
Their king shall go through before them,
the Lord at their head.
Chapter 3
1 [p]And I said:
Hear, you leaders of Jacob,
rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not your duty to know what is right,
2 you who hate what is good, and love evil?
You who tear their skin from them,
and their flesh from their bones;(G)
3 Who eat the flesh of my people,
flay their skin from them,
and break their bones;
Who chop them in pieces like flesh in a kettle,
like meat in a pot.
4 When they cry to the Lord,
he will not answer them;
He will hide his face from them at that time,
because of the evil they have done.
5 [q]Thus says the Lord regarding the prophets:
O you who lead my people astray,
When your teeth have something to bite
you announce peace,
But proclaim war against the one
who fails to put something in your mouth.(H)
6 Therefore you shall have night, not vision,
darkness, not divination;
The sun shall go down upon the prophets,
and the day shall be dark for them.(I)
7 Then the seers shall be put to shame,
and the diviners confounded;
They shall all cover their lips,
because there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the spirit of the Lord,
with justice and with might;
To declare to Jacob his crimes
and to Israel his sins.
9 [r]Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob,
you rulers of the house of Israel!
You who abhor justice,
and pervert all that is right;
10 Who build up Zion with bloodshed,
and Jerusalem with wickedness!
11 Its leaders render judgment for a bribe,
the priests teach for pay,
the prophets divine for money,
While they rely on the Lord, saying,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No evil can come upon us!”(J)
12 Therefore, because of you,
Zion shall be plowed like a field,
and Jerusalem reduced to rubble,
And the mount of the temple
to a forest ridge.(K)
Chapter 11
The Two Witnesses. 1 [a](A)Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and I was told, “Come and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count those who are worshiping in it. 2 But exclude the outer court[b] of the temple; do not measure it, for it has been handed over to the Gentiles, who will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 I will commission my two witnesses[c] to prophesy for those twelve hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth.” 4 (B)These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands[d] that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 [e]If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. 6 They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish.(C)
7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss[f] will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them.(D) 8 Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city,[g] which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. 9 [h]Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them.(E) 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on.(F) 13 At that moment there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell in ruins. Seven thousand people[i] were killed during the earthquake; the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed, but the third is coming soon.
The Seventh Trumpet.[j] 15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet. There were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world now belongs to our Lord and to his Anointed, and he will reign forever and ever.” 16 The twenty-four elders who sat on their thrones before God prostrated themselves and worshiped God 17 and said:
“We give thanks to you, Lord God almighty,
who are and who were.
For you have assumed your great power
and have established your reign.
18 The nations raged,
but your wrath has come,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and to recompense your servants, the prophets,
and the holy ones and those who fear your name,
the small and the great alike,
and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”(G)
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.