Micah

1

¹ The word of Jehovah which came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
² Hear, all you peoples, / And give heed, O earth and its fullness; / And let the Lord Jehovah be a witness against you, / The Lord from His holy temple.
³ For Jehovah is about to come forth from His place, / And He will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
⁴ And the mountains will be melted under Him, / And the valleys will be cleft, / Like wax before fire, / Like water poured down a slope.
⁵ All this is because of the transgression of Jacob / And because of the sins of the house of Israel. / What is the transgression of Jacob? / Is it not Samaria? / And what are the high places of Judah? / Are they not Jerusalem?
⁶ Therefore I will make Samaria / A heap of ruins in a field, / Places for the planting of vineyards; / And I will pour her stones down into the valley / And uncover her foundations.
⁷ And all her engraved idols will be smashed, / And all her gifts for harlotry will be burned with fire, / And all her images I will make a desolation; / For from the harlot’s hire she has gathered them, / And unto the harlot’s hire they will return.
⁸ Because of this I will wail and howl; / I will go about barefoot and naked. / I will make a wailing like the jackals / And a lamentation like the ostriches.
⁹ For her wound is incurable, / For it has come as far as Judah; / It reaches as far as the gate of my people, / As far as Jerusalem.
¹⁰ Do not declare it in Gath; / Do not weep at all. / In Beth-le-aphrah / I rolled myself in the dust.
¹¹ Pass away on your own, / O inhabitress of Shaphir, / In shameful nakedness; / The inhabitress of Zaanan / Has not gone forth; / There is lamentation in Beth-ezel; / It will take from you its support.
¹² For the inhabitress of Maroth / Waits in pain for good, / For evil has come down from Jehovah / To the gate of Jerusalem.
¹³ Bind the chariot to the steeds, O inhabitress of Lachish. / She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, / For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
¹⁴ Therefore you will give a parting gift / To Moresheth-gath: / The houses of Achzib will be a deception / To the kings of Israel.
¹⁵ Further, I will bring upon you the possessor, / O inhabitress of Mareshah; / The glory of Israel will come / As far as Adullam.
¹⁶ Shave yourself and cut off your hair / For the children of your delights; / Enlarge your baldness like an eagle, / For they have gone from you into captivity.

2

¹ Woe to those who devise wickedness / And who prepare evil upon their beds! / In the light of the morning they do it / Because it is in the power of their hand to do so.
² And they covet fields and seize them, / And houses, and take them away; / And they oppress a person and his house, / And a man and his inheritance.
³ Therefore thus says Jehovah, / I am now devising evil against this family, / From which you will not remove your necks; / And you will not go about haughtily, / For it is an evil time.
⁴ In that day they will take up a proverb concerning you, / And they will lament a lamenting lament; they will say, / We are utterly ruined; / He has changed the portion of my people. / How He removes it from me! / He has apportioned our fields to the rebellious.
⁵ Therefore you will have no one who casts the line by lot / In the congregation of Jehovah.
⁶ Do not prophesy, they prophesy. / If the true prophets do not prophesy concerning these things, / The reproaches will not be turned back.
⁷ Will it be said, O house of Jacob, / Is the Spirit of Jehovah hasty? / Are these His doings? / Do not My words benefit / Him who walks uprightly?
⁸ But recently My people / Have risen up as an enemy; / You strip away the mantle / From off the garment / Of those who pass by securely, / Those who turn away from conflict.
⁹ The women of My people you cast out, / From their pleasant houses; / From their young children you take away / My splendor forever.
¹⁰ Arise and go, / For this is not your resting place, / Because of the uncleanness / That brings destruction, indeed grievous destruction.
¹¹ If a man going about / After wind and falsehood lies, saying, / I will prophesy to you / Concerning wine and liquor; / He would indeed become a prophet of this people.
¹² I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; / I will surely assemble the remnant of Israel. / I will place them together like the sheep of Bozrah, / Like the flock in the midst of its pasture; / They will make much noise because of the many men.
¹³ He who breaks through goes up before them; / They break through and pass through the gate, / And they go forth through it. / And their King goes forth before them; / Indeed Jehovah is at their head.

3

¹ And I said, / Hear now, you heads of Jacob / And you rulers of the house of Israel: / Is it not for you / To know justice?
² You who hate good / And love evil, / You who tear away their skin from off them / And their flesh from off their bones,
³ And who devour the flesh of My people / And strip off their skin from off them / And break their bones in pieces / And chop them as for the pot / And like meat in a cauldron.
⁴ Then they will cry out to Jehovah, / But He will not answer them; / Indeed He will hide His face from them at that time, / Just as they were evil in their doings.
⁵ Thus says Jehovah concerning the prophets / Who cause My people to err, / Who, when they have something to bite with their teeth, / Cry, Peace, / But if there is one who does not give something for their mouths, / They prepare for war against him.
⁶ Therefore there will be night to you, without vision, / And darkness to you, without divination. / And the sun will go down on the prophets, / And the day will be black over them.
⁷ And the seers will be put to shame, / And the diviners will be ashamed; / And they will all cover their mouths, / For there will be no answer from God.
⁸ But as for me, I am full / Of power, with the Spirit of Jehovah, and of justice and might, / To declare to Jacob his transgression / And to Israel his sin.
⁹ Hear now this, you heads of the house of Jacob / And you rulers of the house of Israel: / You who abhor justice / And pervert all uprightness,
¹⁰ Who build Zion by bloodshed / And Jerusalem by iniquity.
¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe, / And her priests teach for hire, / And her prophets divine for money; / But they lean on Jehovah, saying, / Is not Jehovah in our midst? / Evil will not come upon us.
¹² Therefore on account of you / Zion will be plowed as a field, / And Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, / And the mountain of the house will become the high places of a forest.

4

¹ But in the last days / The mountain of the house of Jehovah / Will be established on the top of the mountains; / And it will be lifted up above the hills; / And the peoples will stream to it.
² And many nations will come and say, / Come and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah / And to the house of the God of Jacob; / That He may instruct us in His ways, / And that we may walk in His paths; / For from Zion will go forth instruction, / And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.
³ And He will judge between many peoples / And will decide matters for numerous nations from afar. / And they will beat their swords into plowshares / And their spears into pruning knives; / Nation will not lift up sword against nation, / Nor will they learn war anymore.
⁴ And they will each sit underneath his vine / And underneath his fig tree, / And no one will disturb them; / For the mouth of Jehovah of hosts has spoken.
⁵ For all the peoples will walk, / Each in the name of his god; / But we will walk / In the name of Jehovah our God / Forever and ever.
⁶ In that day, / Declares Jehovah, / I will gather her that limps, / And her that has been driven out I will collect, / As well as her that I have afflicted;
⁷ And I will make her that limps a remnant, / And her that has been cast far away a mighty nation; / And Jehovah will reign over them in Mount Zion / From then on, and even forever.
⁸ And you, O tower of the flock, / O hill of the daughter of Zion, / To you will it come, / Indeed the first dominion will come, / The kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem.
⁹ Why do you now cry out aloud? / Is there no king among you? / Has your counselor perished, / That pain has seized you like a woman delivering a child?
¹⁰ Suffer the pain and thrust forth, / O daughter of Zion, like a woman delivering a child. / For now you will go forth from the city / And dwell in the field; / And you will go into Babylon. / And there you will be delivered; / There Jehovah will redeem you / From the hand of your enemies.
¹¹ And now many nations / Are gathered against you, / They who say, Let her be profaned, / And let our eyes gaze on Zion.
¹² But they do not know / The thoughts of Jehovah, / And they do not understand His counsel; / For He has gathered them like sheaves for the threshing floor.
¹³ Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; / For I will make your horn iron, / And I will make your hooves bronze; / And you will crush many peoples to powder. / And I will devote their profit to Jehovah, / And their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.

5

¹ Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops; / He has laid a siege against us. / With a rod they strike on the cheek / The Judge of Israel.
² (But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, / So little to be among the thousands of Judah, / From you there will come forth to Me / He who is to be Ruler in Israel; / And His goings forth are from ancient times, / From the days of eternity.)
³ Therefore He will give them up until the time / When she who is in labor delivers the child; / Then the remainder of His brothers will return, / Along with the children of Israel.
⁴ And He will stand and feed His flock in the strength of Jehovah, / In the majesty of the name of Jehovah His God; / And they will abide, for now He will be great / Unto the ends of the earth.
⁵ And this One will be the peace. / When Assyria comes into our land / And when he treads in our palaces, / We will raise up against him seven shepherds / And eight princes of men.
⁶ And they will waste the land of Assyria with the sword / And the land of Nimrod at its entrances. / And He will save us from Assyria, / When he comes into our land / And when he treads in our border.
⁷ And the remnant of Jacob will be / In the midst of many peoples / Like dew from Jehovah, / Like abundant showers upon the herbage, / Which do not tarry for man / And do not wait for the sons of men.
⁸ And the remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, / In the midst of many peoples, / Like a lion among the beasts of the forest, / Like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, / Who, if he should pass through, tramples under / And tears up, and there is none to deliver from him.
⁹ Your hand will be raised up against your adversaries, / And all your enemies will be cut off.
¹⁰ In that day, / Declares Jehovah, / I will cut off your horses from the midst of you / And will destroy your chariots.
¹¹ And I will cut off the cities of your land / And will throw down all your strongholds.
¹² And I will cut off the sorceries from your hand, / And you will not have soothsayers.
¹³ And I will cut off your idols / And your pillars from your midst; / And you will no longer worship / The work of your hands.
¹⁴ And I will pluck up your Asherahs from your midst, / And I will destroy your cities.
¹⁵ And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath / Upon the nations that have not listened.

6

¹ Hear now what Jehovah says: / Arise, contend before the mountains, / And let the hills hear your voice.
² Hear, O mountains, Jehovah’s contention, / And you enduring foundations of the earth; / For Jehovah has a contention with His people, / And with Israel He will dispute.
³ O My people, what have I done to You? / And with what have I wearied you? Testify against Me.
⁴ For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, / And from the slave house I redeemed you; / And I sent before you Moses, / Aaron, and Miriam.
⁵ O My people, remember now what Balak the king of Moab counseled, / And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, / From Shittim to Gilgal, / That you may know the righteous acts of Jehovah.
⁶ With what shall I come before Jehovah / And bow myself before the high God? / Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, / With one-year-old calves?
⁷ Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, / With tens of thousands of 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 declared to you, O man, what is good; / And what does Jehovah require of you, / But that you would execute justice and love mercy / And walk humbly with your God?
⁹ The voice of Jehovah cries out to the city, / And wisdom looks upon Your name. / Hear the rod and Him who appointed it.
¹⁰ Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, / And a scant measure that is abominable?
¹¹ Shall I be pure with wicked balances / And with a bag of deceitful weights?
¹² For the rich men of the city are full of violence, / And those who inhabit it speak falsehood, / And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
¹³ Thus I also have made you sick by striking you; / I have made you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴ You will eat, but you will not be satisfied; / And your emptiness will remain in the midst of you; / And you will take away, / But you will not rescue, / And what you rescue I will give up to the sword.
¹⁵ You will sow, / But you will not reap; / You will tread olives, / But you will not anoint yourself with oil, / And the new wine, / But you will 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, / That I may make you a desolation, / And the inhabitants of the city a hissing; / And you will bear the reproach of My people.

7

¹ Woe is me! For I am like gatherings of summer fruit / And like gleanings of the vintage; / There is no cluster to eat, / Nor first-ripe fig, which my soul desires.
² The godly man has perished from the land, / And there is none upright among men; / They all lie in wait for bloodshed; / They each hunt their brother with a net.
³ Both hands are set upon evil, to do it well: / The prince asks for it, / And the judge agrees, for a reward, / And the great man, he utters the evil desire of his soul, / And they weave it together.
⁴ The best one among them is like a brier; / The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. / The day of your watchmen, your visitation, has come; / Now will be their confounding.
⁵ Do not trust in a neighbor; / Do not put your confidence in a friend; / Keep the doors of your mouth / From her who lies in your bosom.
⁶ For the son treats the father like a fool; / 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 But as for me, I will look for Jehovah; / I will wait for the God of my salvation; / My God will hear me.
⁸ Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy; / When I fall, I will rise up; / When I sit in the darkness, / Jehovah will be a light to me.
⁹ I will bear the indignation of Jehovah — / For I have sinned against Him — / Until He plead my cause / And execute justice for me; / He will bring me forth into the light; / I will see His righteousness.
¹⁰ Then my enemy will see / And shame will cover / Her who said to me, / Where is Jehovah your God? / My eyes will see her: / At that time she will become trampled / Like mud in the streets.
¹¹ A day for building your walls! / In that day the decree will be far away;
¹² In that day they will come even unto you / From Assyria and from the cities of Egypt, / And from Egypt even to the River, / And from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.
¹³ But the land will become desolate / Because of the inhabitants in it, due to the fruit of their doings.
¹⁴ Shepherd Your people with Your rod, / The flock of Your inheritance, / Who dwell alone in the forest / In the midst of Carmel; / Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead / As in the days of old.
¹⁵ As in the days of your going forth out from the land of Egypt, / I will show you wonders.
¹⁶ The nations will see and be ashamed / Of all their might; / They will put the hand over the mouth; / Their ears will be deaf.
¹⁷ They will lick the dust like a serpent; / Like crawling things of the earth, / They will come quivering from their enclosed places; / To Jehovah our God / They will turn in fear and be afraid because of You.
¹⁸ Who is a God like You, / Pardoning iniquity / And passing over the transgression / Of the remnant of His inheritance? / He does not retain His anger forever, / For He delights in lovingkindness.
¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us; / He will tread our iniquities underfoot. / And You will cast into the depths of the sea / All their sins.
²⁰ You will perform truth to Jacob, / And lovingkindness to Abraham, / Which You have sworn to our fathers / From the days of old.