The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Moreshite—what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Hear, O peoples, all of you;
Listen closely, O earth and all that is in it,
And let the Lord God be witness [giving a testimony of the judgment] against you,
The Lord from His holy temple [in the heavens].

For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

Then shall the mountains be melted beneath him, and, the valleys, be cleft, - as wax before the fire, as waters poured out in a steep place.

For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for 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?

And I have set Samaria for a heap of the field, For plantations of a vineyard, And poured out into a valley her stones, And her foundations I uncover.

And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.

"Therefore I will cry out and grieve loudly; I will walk around stripped and naked. I will cry out like a jackal and mourn like a company of ostriches.

For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.

Pass over for thee, O inhabitant of Shaphir, Naked one of shame. Not gone out hath the inhabitant of Zaanan, The lamentation of Beth-Ezel doth take from you its standing.

For the inhabitant of Maroth (Bitterness)
Writhes in pain [at its losses] and waits anxiously for good,
Because a catastrophe has come down from the Lord
To the gate of Jerusalem.

Harness the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitants of Lachish; it [is] the beginning of sin for the daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

When they covet to have land, they take it by violence; they rob men of their houses. Thus they oppress a man for his house, and every man for his heritage.

Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.

In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath divided our fields.

Ye do not prophesy -- they do prophesy, They do not prophesy to these, It doth not remove shame.

Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the Spirit of Jehovah straitened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?

As for you, you have become haters of those who were at peace with you: you take the clothing of those who go by without fear, and make them prisoners of war.

The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.

Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.

“If a man walking after wind and falsehood
Had told lies and said,
‘I will speak out to you concerning wine and liquor,’
He would be spokesman to this people.

I do surely gather thee, O Jacob, all of thee, I surely bring together the remnant of Israel, Together I do set it as the flock of Bozrah, As a drove in the midst of its pasture, It maketh a noise because of man.

The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.

And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

yet you hate what is good, and love what is evil. You flay my people's skin and rip the flesh from their bones.

Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

This is what the Lord says
concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who proclaim peace
when they have food to sink their teeth into
but declare war against the one
who puts nothing in their mouths.

Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

And the seers will be shamed, and the readers of the future will be at a loss, all of them covering their lips; for there is no answer from God.

And yet I have been full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, And of judgment, and of might, To declare to Jacob his transgression, And to Israel his sin.

Then give ear to this, you heads of the children of Jacob, you rulers of the children of Israel, hating what is right, twisting what is straight.

The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.

Therefore shall Zion, for your sakes, be plowed like a field: Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones, and the hill of the temple shall be turned to a high wood.

But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem;

And he will judge between many peoples, and be umpire to strong nations far and wide, - and they will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, Nation - against nation - shall not lift up sword, neither shall they learn - any more - to make war.

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;

And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counseller perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.

Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

But they do not know what the Lord is planning; they do not understand his strategy. He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed at the threshing floor.

Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
for I will make your horns iron
and your hooves bronze,
so you can crush many peoples.
Then you will set apart their plunder
to the Lord for destruction,
their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Therefore he doth give them out till the time She who bringeth forth hath brought forth, And the remnant of his brethren return to the sons of Israel.

He will assume his post and shepherd the people by the Lord's strength, by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. They will live securely, for at that time he will be honored even in the distant regions of the earth.

And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

And they have afflicted the land of Asshur with the sword, And the land of Nimrod at its openings, And he hath delivered from Asshur when he doth come into our land, And when he treadeth in our borders.

And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from Jehovah, as showers upon the grass, that tarry not for man, nor wait for the sons of men.

Yea, the remnant of Jacob hath been among nations, In the midst of many peoples, As a lion among beasts of a forest, As a young lion among ranks of a flock, Which if it hath passed through, Hath both trodden down and hath torn, And there is no deliverer.

And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:

And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:

Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.

And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities.

Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

Listen to the Lord’s lawsuit,
you mountains and enduring foundations of the earth,
because the Lord has a case against His people,
and He will argue it against Israel.

O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.

For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the LORD.

With what do I come before Jehovah? Do I bow to God Most High? Do I come before Him with burnt-offerings? With calves -- sons of a year?

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

The LORD'S voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

Do I reckon it pure with balances of wickedness? And with a bag of deceitful stones?

For its men of wealth are cruel, and its people have said what is not true, and their tongue is false in their mouth.

Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.

Thou -- thou sowest, and thou dost not reap, Thou -- thou treadest the olive, And thou pourest not out oil, And new wine -- and thou drinkest not wine.

Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.

The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

The best of them is like a brier;
the most upright is worse than a hedge of thorns.
The day of your watchmen,
the day of your punishment, is coming;
at this time their panic is here.

Don't trust your friends, don't confide in a companion, watch what you say to your wife.

Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

O thou enemy of mine, rejoice not at my fall, for I shall get up again: and though I sit in darkness, yet the LORD is my light.

I will bear the rage of Yahweh, for I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes my justice. He will bring me out to the light; I will see his righteousness.

Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

A day for building your walls! in that day will your limits be stretched far and wide.

That day -- even unto thee it doth come in, From Asshur and the cities of the fortress, And from the fortress even unto the river, And from sea to sea, and mount to mount.

Yet shall the land be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.

The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

He will yet again have compassion on us, he will tread under foot our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.