Micah

Chapter 1

1 And the word of the Lord came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, concerning the things he saw about Samaria and about Jerusalem.

2 Hear, O peoples, these words, and let the earth give heed, and all who are in it; and the Lord shall be among you for a testimony, the Lord from his holy house.

3 For behold, the Lord goes forth from his place, and he will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth,

4 and the mountains shall be shaken beneath him, and the valleys shall melt like wax before the face of fire, and like water rushing down a slope.

5 All these things are because of the impiety of Jacob and because of the sin of the house of Israel. What is the impiety of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

6 And I will make Samaria a hut for keeping fruit in a field and a planting of a vineyard, and I will pull down her stones into a chasm and I will lay bare her foundations.

7 And all her carved images they will cut to pieces, and all her hire they will burn with fire, and all her idols I will make a desolation; for she gathered them from the hire of harlotry, and from the hire of harlotry she amassed them.

8 For this cause she shall lament and wail; she shall go barefoot and naked; she shall make lamentation like the serpents, and mourning like the daughters of sirens.

9 For her wound has prevailed, for it has come as far as Judah and has touched even the gate of my people, even Jerusalem.

10 You in Gath, do not magnify yourselves; you in Akim, do not rebuild out of a house in mockery; sprinkle earth upon yourselves for your mockery.

11 She who dwells well in her cities has not come forth; she who dwells in Sennaan, to mourn a house adjoining her, shall receive from you a wound of grief.

12 Who has begun with good things for her who dwells in griefs? For evils have come down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem,

13 a rattling of chariots and of horsemen. O inhabitant of Lachish, she is the leader of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the impieties of Israel.

14 Therefore you shall give men sent forth as far as the inheritance of Gath, vain houses; they came to nothing for the kings of Israel.

15 Until I bring the heirs to you, O inhabitant of Lachish, an inheritance; the glory of the daughter of Israel shall come as far as Adullam.

16 Shave yourself and cut off your hair for your tender children; enlarge your widowhood like an eagle, for they have been carried away captive from you.

Chapter 2

1 They devised troubles and worked evil upon their beds, and at daybreak they carried them out, because they did not lift up their hands to God.

2 And they coveted fields and plundered orphans and oppressed households, and they plundered a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising evils against this tribe, from which you shall by no means lift your necks, nor shall you walk upright suddenly, for it is an evil time.

4 In that day a parable shall be taken up against you, and a lamentation shall be wailed in song, saying: We are utterly miserable; the portion of my people has been measured out with a line, and there was no one to hinder him so as to turn him back; our fields have been divided.

5 Therefore you shall have no one casting a line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

6 Do not weep with tears, neither let them shed tears over these things; for he will not cast off reproaches.

7 He who says, The house of Jacob has provoked the Spirit of the Lord—are these his practices? Are not his words good with him, and have they not walked upright?

8 But formerly my people stood up in enmity; over against his peace they stripped off his skin, to take away hope in the crushing of war.

9 Therefore the leaders of my people shall be cast out from their houses of luxury; because of their evil practices they were thrust out. Draw near to the everlasting mountains.

10 Arise and go, for this is not your rest, because of uncleanness. You were corrupted with corruption;

11 you were pursued with no one pursuing. A spirit set up a lie; it dripped for you unto wine and strong drink. And it shall come to pass from the drop of this people

12 that Jacob shall surely be gathered together with all; I will surely receive the remnant of Israel; I will set their return in one place: like sheep in distress, like a flock in the midst of their fold, they shall leap forth from among men.

13 Through the breach before their face they broke through and passed through the gate and went out through it, and their king went out before their face, and the Lord shall lead them.

Chapter 3

1 And he shall say: Hear now these things, you rulers of the house of Jacob and you remnant of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know judgment?

2 You who hate good things and seek evil things, tearing their skins from off them and their flesh from their bones.

3 Even as they devoured the flesh of my people, and flayed their skins from off their bones, and crushed their bones, and cut them in pieces as flesh for a cauldron and as meat for a pot,

4 so shall they cry out to the Lord, and he will not hear them; and he will turn away his face from them at that time, because they did wickedly in their practices against them.

5 Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who bite with their teeth and proclaim peace upon it, and it was not given into their mouth, they raised up war against it:

6 therefore night shall be to you instead of vision, and darkness shall be to you instead of divination; and the sun shall set upon the prophets, and the day shall grow dark upon them.

7 And those who see dreams shall be put to shame, and the diviners shall be laughed to scorn, and they shall all speak against them, because there shall be none to hear them.

8 Unless I fill myself with strength by the Spirit of the Lord, and with judgment and power, to declare to Jacob his impieties and to Israel his sins.

9 Hear now these things, you leaders of the house of Jacob and you remnant of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all that is upright,

10 who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquities.

11 Her leaders judged for gifts, and her priests answered for hire, and her prophets divined for silver; and they rested upon the Lord, saying, Is not the Lord among us? No evils shall come upon us.

12 Therefore on your account Zion shall be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall be as a garden-watcher's hut, and the mountain of the house as a grove of the forest.

Chapter 4

1 And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established upon the tops of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall hasten to it,

2 and many nations shall go and shall say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and they will show us his way, and we will walk in his paths"; for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

3 And he shall judge between many peoples and shall convict strong nations even unto a far land; and they shall beat their swords into plows and their spears into sickles, and nation shall no more lift up sword against nation, and they shall no more learn to make war.

4 And each one shall rest under his vine, and each under his fig tree, and there shall be none to frighten them, for the mouth of the Lord Almighty has spoken these things.

5 For all the peoples shall walk each in his own way, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and beyond.

6 In that day, says the Lord, I will gather her that is crushed, and I will receive her that is cast out, and those whom I rejected;

7 and I will make her that was crushed into a remnant, and her that was rejected into a strong nation, and the Lord shall reign over them on Mount Zion from now and even for ever.

8 And you, O squalid tower of the flock, daughter of Zion, upon you shall come and shall enter the former dominion, a kingdom out of Babylon for the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 And now, why have you known evils? Was there no king for you? Or has your counsel perished, that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor?

10 Be in pain, and be strong, and draw near, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor; for now you shall go forth out of the city and shall encamp in the plain and shall come as far as Babylon; from there the Lord your God shall rescue you, and from there he shall redeem you out of the hand of your enemies.

11 And now many nations are gathered against you, saying, "We shall rejoice, and our eyes shall look upon Zion."

12 But they did not know the reasoning of the Lord, and they did not understand his counsel, that he gathered them like sheaves of the threshing floor.

13 Arise and thresh them, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horns iron and I will make your hoofs bronze, and you shall grind nations to nothing with them, and you shall pulverize many peoples, and you shall dedicate their multitude to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth.

14 Now the daughter of Ephraim shall be blocked up with a barrier; he has appointed distress against us; with a rod they shall smite the tribes of Israel upon the cheek.

Chapter 5

1 And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephratha, are few in number to be among the thousands of Judah; from you shall come forth for me one who is to be a ruler in Israel, and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

2 Therefore he will give them up until the time when she who is in labor shall bring forth, and the remnant of their brothers shall return to the sons of Israel.

3 And he shall stand and see and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, and in the glory of the name of the Lord their God they shall abide; for now he shall be magnified to the ends of the earth.

4 And this shall be peace: when the Assyrian comes upon your land and when he sets foot upon your country, then seven shepherds and eight attacks of men shall be raised up against him;

5 and they shall shepherd Assur with the sword, and the land of Nebrod within its trench; and he shall deliver from Assur, when he comes upon your land and when he sets foot upon your borders.

6 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like dew falling from the Lord and like lambs upon the grass, so that no one may gather together nor stand among the sons of men.

7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among cattle in the forest and like a young lion among flocks of sheep, just as when he passes through and, having separated, seizes, and there is none to rescue.

8 Your hand shall be lifted up over those who afflict you, and all your enemies shall be utterly destroyed.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, I will utterly destroy your horses from your midst and will destroy your chariots,

10 and I will utterly destroy the cities of your land and remove all your strongholds;

11 and I will remove your sorceries from your hands, and there shall be no soothsayers among you;

12 and I will utterly destroy your carved images and your pillars from your midst, and you shall no longer worship the works of your hands;

13 and I will cut down your groves from your midst and destroy your cities;

14 and in anger and in wrath I will execute vengeance upon the nations, because they did not listen.

Chapter 6

1 Hear now the word of the Lord: the Lord said, Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

2 Hear, O hills, the judgment of the Lord, and you ravines, foundations of the earth; for the Lord has a case against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

3 O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I grieved you, or how have I troubled you? Answer me.

4 For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, and I sent before your face Moses and Aaron and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled against you, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from the reeds to Gilgal, that the righteousness of the Lord might be known.

6 With what shall I lay hold of the Lord, shall I take hold of my God most high? Shall I lay hold of him with whole burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

7 Will the Lord accept thousands of rams, or ten thousands of streams of fatlings? Shall I give my firstborn for ungodliness, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8 Has it not been told you, O man, what is good? Or what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?

9 The voice of the Lord shall be invoked upon the city, and he shall save those who fear his name. Hear, O tribe: and who shall set the city in order?

10 Is there not fire, and the house of the lawless man storing up lawless treasures, and injustice with insolence?

11 Shall the lawless man be justified with a balance, and deceitful weights in a bag?

12 Whereby they have filled up their wealth with ungodliness, and those who dwell in her have spoken lies, and their tongue has been exalted in their mouth.

13 And I will begin to strike you; I will destroy you for your sins.

14 You shall eat and shall not be satisfied; and there shall be darkness in you, and he shall turn aside, and you shall not escape; and as many as escape shall be delivered over to the sword.

15 You shall sow and shall not reap; you shall press the olive and shall not anoint yourself with oil; and wine and you shall not drink it; and the ordinances of my people shall be utterly destroyed.

16 And you have kept the statutes of Zimri and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their counsels, so that I might deliver you up to destruction, and those who dwell in her to hissing; and you shall receive the reproaches of peoples.

Chapter 7

1 Woe is me! For I have become as one gathering stubble in the harvest, and as gleanings in the vintage, when there is no cluster of grapes to eat the firstfruits. Woe is me, O my soul,

2 for the godly one has perished from the earth, and there is none among men who does right; all litigate unto blood; each one grievously oppresses his neighbor.

3 They prepare their hands for evil; the ruler asks, and the judge has spoken words of peace; it is the desire of his soul. And I will take away

4 their good things as a moth devouring, and as one walking upon a straight rule in the day of watching. Woe, woe! Your punishments have come; now shall be their weepings.

5 Do not put trust in friends, and do not hope in leaders; from her who lies in your bosom keep guard, so as not to confide anything to her;

6 for a son dishonors his father, a daughter shall rise up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are all the men in his own house.

7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait upon God my savior; my God will hear me.

8 Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy, because I have fallen; for I shall arise; for though I sit in darkness, the Lord will give me light.

9 I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he vindicates my cause; and he will execute my judgment and bring me out into the light; I shall see his righteousness.

10 And my enemy shall see it and shall be clothed with shame, she who says to me, "Where is the Lord your God?" My eyes shall look upon her; now she shall be for trampling like mire in the streets,

11 in the day of the smearing of brick. That day shall be your effacement, and that day shall wipe away your ordinances;

12 and your cities shall come to leveling and to a portioning of the Assyrians, and your fortified cities to a portioning from Tyre to the river of Syria, a day of water and of tumult;

13 and the land shall be for destruction, together with those who dwell in it, because of the fruits of their doings.

14 Shepherd your people with your rod, the sheep of your inheritance, dwelling by themselves in a forest in the midst of Carmel; they shall feed in Bashan and in Gilead as in the days of old.

15 And according to the days of your exodus from Egypt you shall see wondrous things.

16 Nations shall see and be put to shame for all their strength; they shall lay their hands upon their mouths; their ears shall be made deaf.

17 They shall lick the dust like serpents crawling on the earth; they shall be confounded in their confinement; they shall be amazed at the Lord our God, and they shall be afraid of you.

18 What God is like you? Removing iniquities and passing over the impieties of the remnant of his inheritance; and he has not retained his wrath for a testimony, for he is a willer of mercy.

19 He will turn again and have compassion on us; he will sink our iniquities, and all our sins shall be cast into the depths of the sea.

20 You will give truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as you swore to our fathers in the days of old.