The word of the LORD that came to Micah the
Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and
all that therein is: and let the Lord GOD be witness against you,
the LORD from his holy temple.
For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his
place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the
earth.
And the mountains shall be molten under him,
and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the
waters that are poured down 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?
Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of
the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the
stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations
thereof.
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 wail and howl, I will go
stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and
mourning as the owls.
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 ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir,
having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in
the mourning of Bethezel; he shall receive of you his
standing.
For the inhabitant of Maroth waited
carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate
of Jerusalem.
O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the
chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the
daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in
thee.
Therefore shalt thou give presents to
Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of
Israel.
Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O
inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of
Israel.
Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy
delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are
gone into captivity from thee.
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.
And they covet fields, and take them by
violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and
his house, even a man and his heritage.
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold,
against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not
remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is
evil.
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.
Therefore thou shalt have none that shall
cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.
Prophesy ye not, say they to them that
prophesy: they shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take
shame.
O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is
the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my
words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
Even of late my people is risen up as an
enemy: ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by
securely as men averse from 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 in the spirit and falsehood
do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong
drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.
I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of
thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them
together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their
fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of
men.
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?
Who hate the good, and love the evil; who
pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off 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.
Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets
that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry,
Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare
war against him.
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.
Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the
diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for
there is no answer of God.
But truly I am full of power by the spirit of
the LORD, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his
transgression, and to Israel his sin.
Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house
of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment,
and pervert all equity.
They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem
with iniquity.
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 sake be plowed
as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of
the house as the high places of the forest.
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 come, and say, Come,
and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, 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 the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word
of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among many people, and
rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall
not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more.
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.
For all people will walk every one in the
name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
for ever and ever.
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 I will make her that halted a remnant,
and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the LORD shall
reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.
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 counsellor 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.
Now also many nations are gathered against
thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon
Zion.
But they know not the thoughts of the LORD,
neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as
the sheaves into the floor.
Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I
will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and
thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their
gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole
earth.
Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of
troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge
of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
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 will he give them up, until the
time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant
of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
And he shall stand and feed in the strength
of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and
they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends 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 shall waste the land of Assyria with
the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus
shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our
land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the
midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon
the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of
men.
And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the
Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of
the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he
go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can
deliver.
Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine
adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.
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 the cities of thy land,
and throw down all thy strong holds:
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.
And I will execute vengeance in anger and
fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise,
contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy
voice.
Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD's controversy,
and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a
controversy with his people, and he will plead with 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.
Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and
bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt
offerings, with calves of a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of
rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my
firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of
my soul?
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?
Shall I count them pure with the wicked
balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?
For the rich men thereof are full of
violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their
tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
Therefore also will I make thee sick in
smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.
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 shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap;
thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with
oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.
For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all
the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that
I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an
hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.
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 as a brier: the most
upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and
thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.
Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not
confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that
lieth in thy bosom.
For the son dishonoureth the father, the
daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against
her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own
house.
Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will
wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I
fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a
light unto me.
I will bear the indignation of the LORD,
because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and
execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I
shall behold 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.
In the day that thy walls are to be built,
in that day shall the decree be far removed.
In that day also he shall come even to thee
from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress
even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to
mountain.
Notwithstanding the land shall 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.
Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth
iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his
heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he
delighteth in mercy.
He will turn again, he will have compassion
upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all
their sins into the depths of the sea.
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and
the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from
the days of old.