This message from the LORD came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of the Judean kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah concerning the vision he saw about Samaria and Jerusalem:

All this comes about due to the transgression of Jacob, and due to the sins of the house of Israel. What is Jacob's sin? It's Samaria, isn't it? And what's Judah's high place? It's Jerusalem, isn't it?

"Therefore this is what the LORD says, "I'm crafting evil against this family, from which you can't escape. You won't strut around arrogantly, because the times are evil.'

"When this happens, someone will compose a proverb about you, lamenting sorrowfully, "We are completely ruined! He has given my people's heritage to others. How he has removed it from me, dividing up our fields!'

"This is why there will not be left even a single person to settle boundary disputes in the LORD's community.

"It is said, house of Jacob, "The Spirit of the LORD is limited, if he acts this way, is he not?' "But my words benefit those who live righteously, do they not?

Suppose a man who keeps company with a deceiving spirit prophesies like this: "Drink wine and strong drink!' Won't the people accept him as a prophet?"

"This is what the LORD says about the prophets who are causing my people to go astray, who are calling out "Peace' when they're being fed, but who declare war against those who won't feed them:

Please listen to this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you officials of the house of Israel, you who hate administering justice, who pervert the very meaning of equity,

The shepherds will devastate the land of Assyria with the sword, along with the entrances to the land of Nimrod. "This is how he will vanquish Assyria when he invades our land, trampling within our borders: