He told you, O lowly man, what is good and what Jehovah requires of you. You should display justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God!

You Bethlehem Ephrathah who are little to be among the thousands of Judah. Out of you one will come to me who is to be ruler in Israel! His origin is from of old, from everlasting (days of antiquity) (ancient times).

It will happen in the last days! The mountain of the house of Jehovah will be established above the top of the mountains. It will be exalted above the hills. Peoples will flow to it.

They will rule the land of Assyria and the entrances to the land of Nimrod with the sword. When he comes to our land and treads inside our borders he will deliver us from the Assyrian.

Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for my sin?

Hear, all you peoples! Listen, O earth, and all who are in it! Let the Sovereign Lord Jehovah (YHWH) be a witness against you, Jehovah from his Holy Temple.

All the nations walk every one in the name of their god. We will walk in the name of Jehovah our God forever and ever.

Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? You do not keep your anger forever, because you delight in loving-kindness (unchanging love).

With what shall I come before Jehovah? Shall I bow down before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with year old calves?

They will cry to Jehovah but he will not answer them. In fact, he will hide his face from them at that time because they have done evil things.

He will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations far away. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks! Nation will not lift up sword against nation and they will not learn war any more!

For, behold, Jehovah comes out of his place! He comes down and treads upon the high places of the earth.

Jehovah spoke concerning the prophets: They make my people stray. They bite with their teeth and cry, Peace, but receive nothing in their mouths. They declare holy war on him.

Like dew from Jehovah the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples. It will be like showers upon the grass that do not wait for man or for sons of men.

The mountains melt under him. The valleys split like wax before the fire! Like waters poured down a steep place.

Therefore you will have night. You will have no vision! It will be dark to you. You will not perform divination. The sun will go down on the prophets and they will be in the dark.

In that day, said Jehovah, I will assemble the lame, and I will gather the outcasts, and those I have afflicted.

This is because of the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not [the idol worship of] Samaria? What is Judah's high place? Is it not Jerusalem?

All her images will be broken to pieces! All that she has earned will be burned with fire. I will destroy all her idols. She gathered them for the price of a prostitute and for the price of a prostitute they will return.

The voice of Jehovah calls to the city. The man of wisdom will see (respect) your name! Hear the rod and who appointed it.

I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the field. It will be a place for planting vineyards. I will tumble down her stones into the valley! I will uncover her foundations.

I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, because I have sinned against him. He will plead my cause, and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light and I will see his righteousness.

I [Micah] will lament and wail. I will go barefoot and naked. I will make a howling like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches.

Do not announce it at Gath, Philistia. Do not weep or show grief. At the house of Ophrah (house of dust) roll in the dust!

The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples. It will be like a lion among the beasts of the forest. Should he go through he will be like a young lion among the flocks of sheep. He treads down and tears to pieces. There is none to rescue.

Therefore Jehovah says: Behold, against this family I plan bad things, from which you will not remove the burden. You will not be able to show pride for it is an evil time.

Samaria's wound is incurable! It came as far as Judah. It even reached to the gate of my people, Jerusalem.

Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan has not come forth! The wailing of Bethezel takes away from you the place where it stands.

Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O lady inhabitant of Lachish! You were the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion. The transgressions of Israel were found in you.

The inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because bad came down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.

Therefore you should give a parting gift to (Micah's hometown) Moresheth-gath. The houses of Achzib shall be a place of deceit to the kings of Israel.

I will yet bring a conqueror against you, O inhabitant of Mareshah! He will possess you. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

Make yourself bald. Cut off your hair for the children of your delight! Enlarge your baldness as the eagle. For your children are gone into exile (captivity) from you.

You, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, it will come to you. The former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

Is there a depository of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short measure that is cursed?

My enemy will see it and she will be filled with shame. She will ask: Where is Jehovah your God? My eyes will look upon her and she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.

It will happen, said Jehovah: I will remove and destroy your horses and your chariots from among you.

Let your hand (power) be lifted up (exalted) above your adversaries, and let all your enemies be destroyed.

You will sow and not reap. You will tread the olives, but will not be anointed with oil! And you will grow the grapes but you will not drink the wine.

A day for building your walls! In that day the decree will be far removed.

I also struck you with a grievous wound. I made you desolate because of your sins.

I will make the lame a remnant and the outcast far off a strong nation. Jehovah will reign over them in mount Zion from now on and forever.

You will not have any who cast the measuring line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah.

Why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished? Has pain taken hold of you like a woman in childbirth?

In that day they will taunt you and speak mournfully with sorrow and much grief: 'We are utterly ruined! He exchanged the portion of my people and removed it from me. He divided our fields and gave them to the apostate.'

I will destroy the cities of your land, and I will throw down all your strongholds.

Can I be pure with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful stone weights?

The rich men are full of violence! Her inhabitants speak lies. Their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

The visionaries will be shamed. The diviners confounded! They will all cover their mouths for there is no answer from God.

Jehovah's Spirit fills me with power! I have judgment and mightiness to declare to Jacob, his evil behavior, to tell Israel about his sin!

Then they will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt. They will come from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

Do not prophesy to me. They prophesy. But they will not prophesy these things.

Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth! For now you will go out of the city and dwell in the field. You will go to Babylon where you will be rescued. Jehovah will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

I will remove witchcrafts from your hand. You will have no more magic practitioners.

The word of Jehovah that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. This is the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem:

The earth will become desolate because of the inhabitants and the fruit of their deeds.

Shepherd your people, the flock of your heritage, with your staff. They dwell alone in the forest in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

Please hear this you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel. You who abhor justice, and pervert honesty!

Many nations are assembled against you! They say: 'Let her be defiled, and let us gloat over it.'

I will show them marvelous things like the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt.

The leaders judge for a bribe, and the priests teach for wages! The prophets predict for money yet they rely on Jehovah when they say: Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? No evil will come upon us.

I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel! I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their pasture. They will make great noise because of the crowd of men.

Will it be said, O house of Jacob, 'Is the Spirit of Jehovah impatient? Are these his doings? Do my words not do good for he who walks uprightly?'

Lately my people have become an enemy! You strip the robe off the garment from passersby, from men returning from war.

I will remove your graven images and your sacred pillars from you. You will no longer worship the work of your hands.

It is your fault that Zion will be plowed like a field. Jerusalem will become heaps of ruin, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

I will remove your (godess) Astarte from your midst. I will destroy your cities.

In anger and rage I will execute vengeance on the nations that have not obeyed me.

You will eat and not be satisfied. Your stomach will still be empty. You will put away and yet will not save. That which you save I will give to the sword.

Hear Jehovah's indictment you mountains and you enduring foundations of the earth! Jehovah argues a case against his people. He will contend with Israel:

You will give truth to Jacob, and show loving-kindness (unchanging love) to Abraham. For you have sworn this to our fathers from the days of old.

Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion! I will make your horn like iron and I will make your hoofs like brass. You will pulverize many nations into pieces. I will devote their profit and wealth to Jehovah the Lord of the whole earth.

They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with immorality.

I said: Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not your responsibility to know justice?

They will lick up the dust like a serpent. They will come trembling out of their hole like crawling things of the earth. They will approach Jehovah our God with fear and be afraid because of you.

They do not know Jehovah's thoughts. Neither do they understand his counsel. He has gathered them like the sheaves of cut grain to the threshing floor.

You evict the women of my people from their pleasant houses. You remove the glory of their young children from generation to generation.

Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! When the morning comes they do it because they are able to (it is in the power of their hands).

Get up and go because this is not your resting-place. Uncleanness brings on destruction, a painful destruction.

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of Jehovah. They will abide in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God! Now he will be great to the ends of the earth.

If a man who is a constant liar tells a lie saying: 'I will prophesy to you about wine and of strong drink;' he would be the prophet of this people.

The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might! They will cover their mouth with their hand and their ears will be deaf.

The statutes of Omri and the works of the house of Ahab are observed. You walk in their counsels. I will make you desolation! The inhabitants will be hissed. You will bear the reproach of my people.

But as for me, I will look to Jehovah! I will wait for the God of my salvation! My God will hear me.

Each man will sit under his vine and under his fig tree. No one will make them afraid! The mouth of Jehovah of Hosts has spoken.

The breaker (one who opens the breach) (one that breaks through) has gone ahead of them. They will pass through the gate and go out by it. Their king will lead them with Jehovah at the head of them.

The son dishonors the father. The daughter rises up against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house.

He will give them up, until the time that she who is giving birth delivers. Then the remainder of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.

Too bad for me! For I am like the gathered summer fruit, as the grape gleanings of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat. I desire the first ripe fig.

They covet fields and seize them. They covet houses and confiscate them! They oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

I brought you out of the land of Egypt. I redeemed you out of the house of bondage. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

This man will be our peace. When the Assyrian invades our land and tramples our palaces we will raise against him seven shepherds, and eight leaders of men.

O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him. Remember from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of Jehovah.

You hate good and love evil! You rip off their skin and their flesh from off their bones!

You eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them! You break their bones, and chop them in pieces similar to the contents of a pot or a caldron.

Now you will gather in troops, O daughter of troops! He has attacked us. They will strike the judge of Israel on the cheek with a rod.

The godly (loyal) (holy) man has perished from the earth. There is none upright among men! They all lie in wait for blood. Every man hunts his own brother with a net.

Do not put your faith in your neighbor. Do not trust a friend! Guard your lips from her who lies in your bosom (is your intimate companion).

O my people, what have I done to you? How have I grieved you? Respond to me.

The best of them is as a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge! Your watchmen's day has come. Your visitation has come. Now you will be perplexed.

They diligently seek to do evil with their hands. The prince asks and the judge is ready for a bribe. The great man utters his own evil desire. They weave it together.

Listen to what Jehovah said: Arise, plead your case before the mountains. Let the hills hear your voice.

Many nations will come. They will say: Come you people, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths! For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our iniquities under foot. You will throw all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy! When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light to me.