Old/New Testament
This is the fourth time in Micah’s prophecy that the city leaders and general population of Judah are called to “listen up” (Micah 1:2; 3:1; 3:9; 6:1). Each time the prophet has something very important to say to those in Judah.
6 Listen to what the Eternal is saying.
People of Israel, stand up and plead your case to the mountains;
Let the hills hear what you have to say.
2 Listen, jury of mountains, to the complaint of the Eternal One;
listen, you enduring foundations of the earth,
For He brings a charge against His people and argues against Israel.
3 Eternal One: My people, what have I done against you?
How have I made you tired of Me? Answer Me!
4 I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, paid your ransom,
freed you from that place of slavery, and sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you.[a]
5 O My people, remember how King Balak of Moab plotted against you,
how Balaam (Beor’s son) answered him, refusing to curse you?[b]
Everything happened between Shittim and Gilgal
as you took possession of the lands I promised you,
So that you might remember all the saving acts of the Eternal.
6 Israel: What should I bring into the presence of the Eternal One
to pay homage to the God Most High?
Should I come into His presence with burnt offerings,
with year-old calves to sacrifice?
7 Would the Eternal be pleased by thousands of sacrificial rams,
by ten thousand swollen rivers of sweet olive oil?
Should I offer my oldest son for my wrongdoing,
the child of my body to cover the sins of my life?
8 No. He has told you, mortals, what is good in His sight.
What else does the Eternal ask of you
But to live justly and to love kindness
and to walk with your True God in all humility?
9 The voice of the Eternal cries out to the city of Jerusalem,
and the wise fear Your name.
Many Christians wonder what God wants from faithful followers. Does He want them to sacrifice everything for Him? Does He want them to keep strict codes of behavior—refuse to do this or always do that? People in the past and people today have all sorts of opinions about how the faithful should act; and in several other places in the Bible, all of the so-called laws, rules, regulations, and suggestions are boiled down to their simplest form: in order to make God happy, do what is right, love kindness, and live with compassion toward others; walk in right relation to the God of Abraham, and do so humbly. By doing these things, Micah says, God’s followers will please Him and live happy lives. In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus similarly says people are to worship only one God; to love that God with heart, mind, body, and soul; and to love their neighbors as themselves.
Eternal One: Listen, all of you gathered there, (tribe and people):[c]
10 Can I overlook the treasures of wickedness
Stored away in the house of the wicked,
the dishonest scales and measures that I hate?
11 Can I overlook the one who uses crooked scales
and bags of dishonest weights to cheat the innocent?
12 Her rich are filled with violence, her citizens speak lies,
and the words of their mouths can never be trusted.
13 That is why I will strike you down with disease,[d]
destroy you because of your wrongdoing.
14 You will eat, but you will never be satisfied;[e]
you will always feel the gnawing pangs of hunger.
You will store away but never keep safe;
what you have put aside I will destroy with the sword.
15 You will sow grain but never reap it;
you will plant olives but never anoint yourself with their sweet oil;
You will harvest vineyards for juice but never drink the wine.
16 For you have followed the ways of Omri
and all the works of the kingdom of Ahab,
And you have followed their paths of wickedness.
That is why I can justifiably decimate you.
Your citizens will be the subject of satire and mockery,
and you will bear the scorn My people deserve.[f]
From the descendants of Omri (his son Ahab, daughter-in-law Jezebel, and granddaughter Athaliah) come many of the sins of Israel.
7 Israel: I am filled with sadness, like one who, after the grapes have been gathered,
after all the summer fruit has been picked, can find nothing to eat,
Not a cluster of grapes, not even one of those early figs I love.
2 The faithful have disappeared from the land, and no one honest remains;
they are all alert for blood, hunting their neighbors with a net.
3 The hands of those who should know better are good at doing evil:
the ruler and the judge ask for bribes;
The people in power merely mention their deepest desires,
and the ruler and judge make sure they happen.
4 The best of them is as painful to deal with as a briar,
the most honest of them like a hedge heavy with thorns.
So the day your watchmen have awaited—
the day of your punishment—has come.
Now you will be confused and confounded.
5 Do not trust your neighbor or rely on a friend.
Do not tell your secrets even to the spouse who shares your bed,
6 For the son insults the father, the daughter rebels against the mother,
and the daughter-in-law rises up against the mother-in-law.
Your enemies can be found within your own household.
7 But as for me, I will look to the Eternal One, and my hope is in the True God
who will save me. My God will hear me.
8 Do not gloat at my fate, my enemy;
although I am down now, I will rise up.
Although I am in darkness now, the Eternal One will be my light.
9 I must bear His anger because I have sinned against Him
until He argues on my behalf and rights all my wrongs.
He will bring me out into the light,
and then I will see His saving justice.
10 When my enemy sees that God has rescued me,
then shame will wash over her
Because she sneered to me, “Where is the Eternal your God?”
It will be my turn to watch when she is trampled,
Walked on like mud in the street.
11 Israel, that will be the day for building your city walls;
that will be the day to expand your national boundaries.
12 In that day, people will come to you
from everywhere: from Assyria to cities in Egypt,
From Egypt to the Euphrates River,
from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 The earth will become a desert because those who live on it
will produce no fruit from their labors.
14 God, with Your shepherd’s staff lead Your people to pasture;
lead the flock that belongs to You
And grazes alone in the forest surrounded by garden lands.
Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as they used to do, long ago.
15 I will show you[g] wonders
as you saw in the days when you came out of Egypt;
16 The nations will see and be ashamed, despite all their might.
With their hands over their mouths and ears they will hear nothing.
17 They will lick dust like the snakes of the earth crawling across the dirt.
They will creep out of their holes, shivering in terror because of You.
They turn to the Eternal, our True God, filled with dread,
and they stand in awe of You.
18 Is there any other God like You, who forgives evil
and passes over the transgressions done by Yours who remain?
He does not hold onto His anger forever
because He delights in showing love and kindness.
19 He will take pity on us again, will tread our wrongdoing underfoot.
He will cast all our sins down to the bottom of the sea.
20 Show Your faithfulness to Jacob and show Your faithful love to Abraham
As You swore to our ancestors in the days long ago.
13 I saw a beast with ten horns and seven heads rising out of the blackness of the sea. On its horns hung ten crowns, and on its heads were inscribed blasphemous names. 2 This beast was like a leopard, its feet were like the claws of a bear, and its mouth was like the jaws of a lion. The dragon bestowed it with his power and his throne and his great authority. 3 One of the beast’s heads appeared to have suffered a fatal blow, but its mortal wound had somehow been healed. Amazed at the miracle and its power, all the earth followed the beast. 4 People worshiped the dragon because he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast because of its power.
Earth: Who can match the beast? Who can fight against it?
The beast emerges from the murky waters resembling the dragon; but it has other features, too, that resemble the four beasts as described in Daniel 7. Daniel, in his visions, learns that the beasts represent the empires that terrorized Israel and the rest of the world: the Babylonians, Persians, Medes, and Greeks. Prophetic images are difficult to identify. The beast in John’s vision could be none other than the Roman Empire or another empire to come later. Rome has its own beastly authority, the Caesar, who demands worship. “Caesar is Lord,” they dare to claim. But John knows better. In every generation, powerful people and institutions arise—political predators that demand loyalty, sometimes even worship.
5 And the beast was given a mouth that bellowed arrogant boasts and uttered great blasphemies, and it was permitted to do what it willed for 42 months. 6 Its mouth opened with a stream of insults against God, blaspheming His name, cursing His dwelling and those who live in heaven. 7 Also it received permission to declare war against the saints and conquer them. Not a single nation, people, language, or ethnicity could escape its dominion. 8 The inhabitants of the earth will worship it, that is, all those whose names have not been recorded before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.
9 Let the person who is able to hear, listen carefully.
10 If someone is destined for captivity,
a captive he will be.
If someone is destined [to die][a] by the sword,
by the sword he will die.
The endurance and faithfulness of the saints will be tested here.
11 As I watched, I saw a second beast, this one rising up from the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it was speaking with the voice of a dragon.
The second beast, which later becomes “the false prophet,” has horns like the lamb; but its true nature is revealed in its dragon-like voice. Many pretenders and posers exist in the spiritual world. This new beast wants the world to believe it represents the True God, the only King worthy of worship. But it’s a deceiver, a counterfeit of the true King; it steals devotion away from the one true God, producing signs to dazzle the inhabitants of the earth.
12 This earth-beast exercises all of the authority given to it by the first beast, and it forces the earth and all its inhabitants to bow down and worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. 13 And the earth-beast performs fantastic miracles. Like Elijah on Mount Carmel, it even causes fire to blaze down from heaven to earth for all to see. 14 Since it is allowed to perform these miracles in the presence of the first beast, the earth-beast deceives the inhabitants of the earth, commanding them to make an image of the first beast that had survived the mortal wound inflicted by the sword. 15 And the earth-beast was granted permission to breathe into the image and to animate it so that it could even speak. It decreed that those who refuse to worship the image of the first beast must be killed, 16 and the earth-beast mandates that all humans must carry a mark on their right hands or foreheads: both great and small, both rich and poor, both free and slave.
The beast demands worship and requires all to carry its mark. Those who don’t face severe punishment.
17 Those who do not carry this mark, that is, those who do not have the name of the first beast or the number representing its name inscribed on them, are not allowed to sell their wares or buy in the market.
18 Here is divine wisdom: let anyone who understands these mysteries figure out the number of the beast because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.[b]
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.