Micah Chapters

1 | ¹This is the word of the Lord which came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. These are his visions concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Against Samaria and Jerusalem

•  ²Hear, all you peoples, let the earth, and all who are in it, listen. For the Lord is witnessing against you from his holy temple.

³The Lord has come forth from his place; he comes down and treads upon the heights of the earth. ⁴Beneath him, mountains collapse, and valleys melt, like wax before the fire, as torrents pour down the hillside.

⁵All this for the crime of Jacob, for the sin of the nation of Judah. What is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? What is the sin of the nation of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore, I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, a place for planting vineyards. I will scatter her stones into the valley and lay her foundations bare.

⁷All her carved images will be dashed to pieces, and her filthy idols will be burnt by fire. I will make a waste heap of all her idols, for they were made with a harlot’s wages, and to the harlot’s wages, they will return.

⁸For this reason, I lament and wail, go barefoot and naked. I shall howl like a jackal and wail like an ostrich. ⁹Her wound cannot be healed; it has come to Judah. It has reached the capital of my people, Jerusalem.

¹⁰Exult not in Gath; break down and weep in Acco. Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphra. ¹¹Sound the bugle, O people of Shaphir, and do not let the dwellers in Zaanan come forth. Mourn greatly, Beth-ezel: your treasures are taken away.

¹²Surely they trembled, the people in Maroth when calamity came down from the Lord to the gates of Jerusalem.

¹³Hitch the horses to the chariot, citizens of Lachish. In you, the rebellions of Israel were found, and because of you, Zion began to sin. ¹⁴Therefore, you must give redress to Moresheth-Gath. The houses of Achzib have become deceitful to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵Again, I will bring the conqueror to you, people of Maresha, and the elite of Israel will leave forever. ¹⁶Shave your hair for your delightful children. Make yourself bald as an eagle, for they have been deported far from you.

Against the Rich

2 | •  ¹Woe to those who plot wickedness and plan evil even on their beds! When morning comes, they do it as soon as it is within reach.

²If they covet fields, they seize them. Do they like houses? They take them. They seize the owner and his household, both the man and his property.

³This is why the Lord says, “I am plotting evil against this brood, from which your necks cannot escape. No more shall you walk with head held high, for it will be an evil time.”

⁴On that day, they will sing a taunting song against you, and a bitter lamentation will be heard, “We have been stripped of our property in our homeland. Who will free us from the wicked who allots our fields.” ⁵Truly, no one will be found in the assembly of the Lord to keep a field for you.

⁶What will you say to that? For there is no reply. Disgrace will not pass away; these words will strike the nation of Jacob.

⁷They answer, “Is the might of the Lord weakened? Is this his way of working things out? Has he not good words for his people of Israel?”

⁸But it is you who oppress my people and are his enemies. You strip off the garments of those who pass by confidently; ⁹you drive the women of my people from the home they love; you rob my blessing from their children forever.

¹⁰Get up! Away with you! There is no resting place for you here! Because of your uncleanness, you will be roped up.

¹¹If a deceiver were to come and say, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the prophet for this people.

A comforting word

¹²I shall assemble you, nation of Jacob, and gather the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together, like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture. ¹³They have a leader in their midst. See: their king goes before them; the Lord is heading them!

Leaders and Prophets Oppress the People

3 | •  ¹Then I said, “You rulers of the house of Israel, is it not your duty to know what is right? ²Yet, you hate good and love evil; you tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones.

³Those who eat my people’s flesh and break their bones to pieces, who chop them up like meat for the pan and share them like flesh for the pot, ⁴when they cry, the Lord will not answer. He will hide his face from them because of their evil deeds.”

⁵This is what the Lord says of the prophets who lead my people astray:

“You cry ‘Peace’ when you have something to eat, but to anyone with nothing for your mouths, it is ‘War’ that you declare. ⁶So night will come to you, without vision; and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will be dark.

⁷Then the seers will be disgraced and the diviners put to shame. They will all cover their faces because no answer will come from God. ⁸But as for me, I am filled with might, with the spirit of the Lord, with justice and courage, to declare to Jacob his transgressions, to Israel his sins.

⁹Hear this, leaders of the nation of Jacob, rulers of the house of Israel, you who despise justice and pervert what is right, ¹⁰you who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with crime. ¹¹Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests prophesy for money, and yet they rely on the Lord and say, ‘Is the Lord not in our midst? No evil, then, will come upon us.’ ¹²Therefore, because of you, Zion will become a field; Jerusalem will be a heap of ruins, and the temple mount, a forest with sacred stones.”

4 | •  ¹In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be set over the highest mountains and will tower over the hills. ²All the nations will stream to it, saying, “Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; so he may teach us his ways, and we may walk in his paths. For the teaching comes from Zion and Jerusalem, the word of the Lord.”

³He will rule over the nations and settle disputes for many people. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not raise the sword against nation; neither will they train for war anymore. ⁴But each one will sit in peace and freedom, under a fig tree or a vine of his own, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

⁵While peoples walk, each in the name of his god, we shall walk in the name of the Lord, our God, forever and ever.

⁶The Lord declares, “On that day, I will assemble the lame and gather the banished, those whom I have afflicted. ⁷I will make the lame a remnant and those driven out a mighty nation. The Lord will reign over them in Zion from now and forever.

⁸As for you, O watchtower of the flock, O city of Zion, city of the king, your former dominion will be restored; it will be the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

⁹Now, why do you wail? Would it be that you have no king, and your counselor has perished? Why are you in anguish like a woman in labor? ¹⁰Writhe and howl, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor; for now, you must leave the city and camp in the open country. To Babylon, you must go; there, you shall be rescued, and the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

¹¹But now, many nations are massed against you; they say, “Let Jerusalem be defiled; let our eyes gloat over Zion.” ¹²But they do not know the Lord’s thoughts or understand his purpose: that he has gathered them like sheaves on the threshing floor.

¹³Arise and thresh, O Zion, for I will give you horns of iron and hooves of bronze, and you shall crush many peoples. You shall devote their plundered wealth to the Lord, their treasures, to the Lord of the whole earth.

¹⁴Strengthen the walls of your fortress, for they have laid siege against us. With a rod, they want to strike the cheek of Israel’s ruler.

But You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah

5 | •  ¹But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah, so small that you are hardly named among the clans of Judah; from you shall I raise the one who is to rule over Israel; for he comes forth from old, from the ancient times.

²The Lord, therefore, will abandon Israel until the time when she, who is to give birth, has given birth. Then, the rest of his deported brothers will return to the people of Israel.

³He will stand and shepherd his flock with the strength of the Lord, in the glorious Name of the Lord, his God. They will live safely while he wins renown to the ends of the earth. ⁴He shall be peace.

When the Assyrians invade our land

and sets foot on our territory,

we will raise against him

not one, but seven shepherds;

eight warlords.

⁵They will rule Assyria with the sword,

and Babylonia with the bared blade.

He will deliver us from the Assyrians

when they come into our land,

when they set foot within our borders.

⁶Then the remnant of Jacob will be

among many people,

like dew dropping down from the Lord,

like showers falling upon the grass.

For they do not put their hope in man

or expect anything from mortals.

⁷The remnant of Jacob will then be

among many people,

like a lion among the beasts of the forest,

like a young lion in a flock of sheep,

trampling down as it goes,

mangling its prey, and no rescuer in sight.

⁸May your hand be raised high over your foes,

and all your enemies perish.

⁹“On that day—the Lord speaks—

I will drive away your horses;

I will wreck your chariots,

¹⁰I will demolish your cities

and tear down your strongholds.

¹¹I will do away with your witchcraft

and rid you of soothsayers.

¹²I will abolish your carved images,

the sacred stones from your midst,

so that you no longer worship the work of your hands.

¹³I will pull down your sacred poles

and destroy all your idols.

¹⁴In raging fury, I will take vengeance

upon the nations that have not obeyed me.”

O My People, What Have I Done To You?

6 | •  ¹Listen to what the Lord said to me, “Stand up, let the mountains hear your claim, and the hills listen to your plea.”

²Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s complaint! Foundations of the earth, pay attention! The Lord has a case against his people and will argue it with Israel.

³“O my people, what have I done to you? In what way have I been a burden to you? Answer me.

⁴I brought you out of Egypt, rescued you from the land of bondage, and sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to lead you.

⁵O my people, remember what Balak, king of Moab, plotted and what Balaam, son of Beor, answered him. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal and how you have learned the Lord’s righteous paths.”

⁶“What shall I bring when I come to the Lord and bow down before God the most high? Shall I come with burnt offerings, with sacrifices of yearling calves? ⁷Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with an overabundance of oil libations? Should I offer my firstborn for my sins, the fruit of my body for my wrongdoing?”

⁸“You have been told, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

⁹The voice of the Lord calls to the city to save those who fear his Name.

¹⁰“Is there still within you unjust wealth and accursed short measure? ¹¹Shall I approve your false scales and bags of false weights?

¹²O city, whose rich are full of violence, whose citizens speak falsehood, people of the deceitful tongue! ¹³See, I am striking you a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. ¹⁴You shall eat but not be satisfied, and your insides will go on crying.

What you overtake, you will not carry off, and those who escape, I will hand them over to the sword. ¹⁵You shall sow but not reap. You shall tread your olives but not anoint yourselves with the oil. You shall tread the grapes but not drink the wine.

¹⁶You keep the rules of Omri and follow the examples of Ahab’s court. So I will give you up to devastation so your citizens become an object of ridicule. You shall bear the scorn of the peoples.”

7 | ¹How I sorrow! For I am like the gatherer of summer fruit, like the gleaner of the vintage, when there are no grapes to eat, none of the early figs I crave.

²The godly have vanished from the earth, and not one upright man is to be found. All lie in ambush to shed blood, and one hunts another with a net. ³Their hands are skilled at doing evil. The official demands a bribe, the judge judges for a price, and the mighty decides as he pleases.

⁴Their kindness is like a brier, their justice worse than a thorn hedge. But the time of punishment has come, and now is the time of confusion.

⁵Do not rely on a friend nor trust an intimate companion. Be guarded in speech with the woman who shares your bed. ⁶For son treats father like a fool, daughter rebels against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law. The enemies of each one are those of his household.

⁷I will watch expectantly for the Lord, waiting hopefully for the God who saves me. My God will hear me.

Poem of Exile—Jerusalem Will Rise

⁸Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; though I have fallen, I will rise again. Though I now dwell in darkness, the Lord is my light.

⁹I will bear the wrath of the Lord—for I have sinned against him—while he examines my cause and defends my rights. Then he will bring me to the light, and I shall probe his justice.

¹⁰Then my enemy shall also see, and shame will cover her. Did she not say, “Where is the Lord, your God?” My eyes, then, shall rejoice: See how she is trampled like mud in the street!

¹¹The day is coming when your walls will be rebuilt and your boundaries extended. ¹²On that day, they will come to you from Assyria to Egypt, from Tyre to the Euphrates, from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain, ¹³while the earth will remain desolate because of its citizens and deeds.

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff, shepherd the flock of your inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, amid fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead ¹⁵as in the old days when you left Egypt.

Show us your wonders. ¹⁶On seeing this, the nations will be ashamed amid all their might. People will lay their hands upon their mouths and not believe the news.

¹⁷They shall lick the dust like snakes, like creatures that crawl upon the ground. They will come, trembling out of their strongholds; they will be in fear of you.

¹⁸Who is a God like you, who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of his inheritance?

Who is like you, whose anger does not last? For you delight in merciful forgiveness.

¹⁹Once again, you will show us your loving kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea.

²⁰Show faithfulness to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the old days.