The word of Jehovah which came to  ¹Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

 ¹Hear, 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.

For Jehovah is about to come forth from His place,
And He will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

And the mountains will be melted under Him,
And the valleys will be cleft,
Like wax before fire,
Like water poured down a slope.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Do not declare it in Gath;
Do not weep at all.
In Beth-le-aphrah
I rolled myself in the dust.

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.

For the inhabitress of Maroth
Waits in pain for good,
For evil has come down from Jehovah
To the gate of Jerusalem.

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.

Therefore you will give a parting gift
To Moresheth-gath:
The houses of Achzib will be a deception
To the kings of Israel.

Further, I will bring upon you the possessor,
O inhabitress of Mareshah;
The glory of Israel will come
As far as Adullam.

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.

Woe to those who devise wickedness
And who prepare evil upon their beds!
In the light of the morning they do it
Because  ¹it is in the power of their hand to do so.

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.

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.

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.

Therefore you will have no one who casts the line by lot
In the congregation of Jehovah.

Do not prophesy, they prophesy.
If the true prophets do not prophesy concerning these things,
The reproaches will not be turned back.

Will it be said, O house of Jacob,
Is the Spirit of Jehovah  ¹hasty?
Are these His doings?
Do not My words benefit
Him who walks uprightly?

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.

The women of My people you cast out,
From their pleasant houses;
From their young children you take away
My splendor forever.

Arise and go,
For this is not your resting place,
Because of the uncleanness
That brings destruction, indeed grievous destruction.

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.

I will surely  ¹gather 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.

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.

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?

You who hate good
And love evil,
You who tear away their skin from off them
And their flesh from off their bones,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

Who build Zion by bloodshed
And Jerusalem by iniquity.

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.

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.

 ¹But 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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;

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.

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.

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?

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.

And now many nations
Are gathered against you,
They who say, Let her be profaned,
And let our eyes gaze on Zion.

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.

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.

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.

(But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
So little to be among the thousands of Judah,
From you there will  ¹come forth to Me
He who is to be  ²Ruler in Israel;
And His goings forth are from ancient times,
From the days of eternity.)

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.

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.

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.

And they will waste the land of Assyria with the sword
And the land of Nimrod at its entrances.
And  ¹He will save us from Assyria,
When he comes into our land
And when he treads in our border.

And the  ¹remnant 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.

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.

Your hand will be raised up against your adversaries,
And all your enemies will be cut off.

In that  ¹day,
Declares Jehovah,
I will cut off your horses from the midst of you
And will destroy your chariots.

And I will cut off the cities of your land
And will throw down all your strongholds.

And I will cut off the sorceries from your hand,
And you will not have soothsayers.

And I will cut off your idols
And your pillars from your midst;
And you will no longer worship
The work of your hands.

And I will pluck up your Asherahs from your midst,
And I will destroy your cities.

And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath
Upon the nations that have not listened.

Hear now what Jehovah says:
Arise, contend before the mountains,
And let the hills hear your voice.

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.

O My people, what have I done to You?
And with what have I wearied you? Testify against Me.

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.

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.

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?

Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams,
With tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my  ¹firstborn for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has declared to you, O man, what is good; And what does Jehovah require of you,
 ¹But that you would execute justice and love mercy
And walk humbly with your God?

The voice of Jehovah cries out to the city,
And wisdom looks upon Your name.
Hear the rod and Him who appointed it.

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

Shall I be pure with wicked balances
And with a bag of deceitful weights?

For the rich men of  ¹the city are full of violence,
And those who inhabit it speak falsehood,
And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

Thus I also have made you sick by striking you;
I have made you desolate because of your sins.

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.

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.

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.

Woe is me! For I am like a gathering of summer fruit
And like a gleaning of the vintage;
There is no cluster to eat,
Nor first-ripe fig, which my soul desires.

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.

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.

The best one among them is like a briar;
The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, your visitation, has come;
Now will be their confounding.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

A day for building your walls!
In that day the decree will be far away;

In that day they will come even unto you
From Assyria and from the cities of Egypt,
And from Egypt even to the  ¹River,
And from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

But the land will become desolate
Because of the inhabitants in it, due to the fruit of their doings.

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.

As in the days of your going forth out from the land of Egypt,
I will show  ¹you wonders.

The nations will see and be ashamed
Of all their might;
They will put the hand over the mouth;
Their ears will be deaf.

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.

Who is a God like You,
 ¹Pardoning iniquity
And passing over the transgression
Of the remnant of His inheritance?
He does not retain His anger forever,
For He delights in lovingkindness.

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.

You will perform truth to Jacob,
And lovingkindness to Abraham,
Which You have sworn to our fathers
From the days of old.