This is the word of the LORD, that came to Micah the Morasthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: which was showed him upon Samaria and Jerusalem.

Hear all ye people, mark this well, O earth, and all that therein is: Yea, the LORD God himself be witness among you, even the Lord from his holy temple.

The mountains shall consume under him, and the valleys shall cleave asunder: like as wax consumeth at the fire, and as the waters run downward.

And all this shall be for the wickedness of Jacob, and the sins of the house of Israel. But what is the wickedness of Jacob? Is not Samaria? Which are the high places of Judah? Is not Jerusalem?

Wherefore I will mourn and make lamentation, bare and naked will I go: I must mourn like the dragons, and take sorrow as the ostriches:

For their wound is past remedy. And why? It is come into Judah, and hath touched the port of my people at Jerusalem already.

The great noise of the chariots shall fear them that dwell at Lachish, which is an occasion of the sin of the daughter of Zion, for in thee came up the wickedness of Israel.

Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath; the houses of Achzib shall be as a lie to the kings of Israel.

And as for thee, O thou that dwellest at Mareshah, I shall bring a possession upon thee, and the plague of Israel shall reach unto Adullam.

Make thee bald, and shave thee, because of thy tender children: Make thee clean bald as an Eagle, for they shall be carried away captive from thee.

Woe unto them that imagine to do harm, and devise ungraciousness upon their beds, to perform it in the clear day: for their power is against God.

In that day shall this term be used, and a mourning shall be made over you on this manner, "We be utterly desolate, the portion of my people is translated. When will he part unto us the land, that he hath taken from us?"

sayeth the house of Jacob. Is the spirit of the LORD so clean away? Or is he so minded? Truth it is, my words are friendly unto them that live right:

But I will gather thee indeed, O Jacob, and drive the remnant of Israel all together. I shall carry them one with another, as a flock in the fold, and as the cattle in their stalls, that they may be disquieted of other men.

Whoso breaketh the gap, he shall go before. They shall break up the port, and go in and out at it. Their king shall go before them, and the LORD shall be upon the head of them.

ye eat the flesh of my people, and flay of their skin; ye break their bones, ye chop them in pieces as it were into a cauldron, and as flesh into a pot.

And as concerning the prophets that deceive my people, thus the LORD sayeth against them: When they have any thing to bite upon, then they preach that all shall be well. But if a man put not some thing in to their mouths, they preach of war against him.

As for me, I am full of strength, and of the spirit of the LORD; full of judgment and boldness, to show the house of Jacob their wickedness, and the house of Israel their sin.

O hear this, ye rulers of the house of Jacob, and ye judges of the house of Israel: ye that abhor the thing that is lawful, and wrest aside the thing that is straight;

O ye judges, ye give sentence for gifts; O ye priests, ye teach for lucre; O ye prophets, ye prophesy for money. Yet will they be taken as those that hold upon God, and say, "Is not the LORD among us? Tush, there can no misfortune happen us."

and the multitude of the Gentiles shall haste them thither, saying, "Come, let us go up to the hill of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob: that he may teach us his way, and that we may walk in his paths." For the law shall come out of Zion, and the word of God from Jerusalem;

At the same time, sayeth the LORD, will I gather up the lame and the outcasts, and such as I have chastened;

Why then art thou now so heavy? Is there no king in thee? Are thy counselors away that thou art so pained, as a woman in her travail?

And now, O thou daughter Zion, be sorry: let it grieve thee as a wife labouring with child. For now must thou get thee out of the city, and dwell upon the plain field: Yea, unto Babylon shalt thou go, there shalt thou be delivered, and there the LORD shall loose thee from the hand of thine enemies.

Now also are there many people gathered together against thee, saying that Zion is cursed: "We shall see our lust upon her."

But they know not the thoughts of the LORD; they understand not his counsel, that shall gather them together as the sheaves in the barn.

After that shalt thou be robbed thyself, O thou robber's daughter: they shall lay siege against us, and smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

And thou Bethlehem Ephrata, art little among the thousands of Judah: Out of thee shall come one, unto me, which shall be the governour in Israel: whose outgoing hath been from the beginning, and from everlasting.

these shall subdue the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with their naked weapons. Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh within our land, and setteth his foot within our borders.

And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the multitude of people, as the dew of the LORD, and as the drops upon the grass, that tarrieth for no man, and waiteth of nobody.

Yea, the residue of Jacob shall be among the gentiles and the multitude of people, as the lion among the beasts of the wood, and as the Lion's whelps among a flock of sheep: which, when he goeth through, treadeth down, teareth in pieces, and there is no man that can help.

I will show thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requireth of thee: Namely, to do right, to have pleasure in loving-kindness, to be lowly, and to walk with thy God.

Should I not be displeased, for the unrighteous good in the houses of the wicked and because the measure is diminished?

Woe is me! I am become as one that goeth a gleaning in the harvest. There are no more grapes to eat, yet would I fain, with all my heart, have of the best fruit.

There is not a godly man upon earth, there is not one righteous among men. They labour all to shed blood, and every man hunteth his brother to death:

yet they say they do well when they do evil. As the prince will, so sayeth the judge: that he may do him a pleasure again. The great man speaketh what his heart desireth; and the hearers allow him.

The best of them is but as a thistle, and the most righteous of them is but as a brier in the hedge. But when the day of thy preachers cometh, that thou shalt be visited: then shall they be wasted away.

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.

She that is mine enemy shall look upon it, and be confounded, which now sayeth, "Where is thy LORD God?" Mine eyes shall behold her, when she shall be trodden down, as the clay in the streets.

Therefore feed thy people with thy rod; the flock of thine heritage which dwell desolate in the wood: that they may be fed upon the mount of Carmel, Bashan and Gilead as afore time.

Marvelous things will I show them, like as when they came out of Egypt.

They shall lick the dust like a serpent, as the worms of the earth, that tremble in their holes. They shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and they shall fear thee.

Where is there such a God as thou? That pardonest wickedness, and forgivest the offenses of the remnant of thine heritage? He keepeth not his wrath for ever. And why? His delight is to have compassion.

He shall turn again, and be merciful to us: he shall put down our wickednesses, and cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea.

Thou shalt keep thy trust with Jacob, and thy mercy for Abraham, like as thou hast sworn unto our fathers long ago.