MICAH
Micah 1
1 The word of Yahweh that came to Micah the Morasthite
in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of
Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the
Lord Yahweh be witness against you, Yahweh from His holy temple.
3 For, behold, Yahweh cometh forth out of His place, and will come down, and
tread upon the high places of the earth.
4 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.
5 For the transgression of Jacob [is] all this, and for the sins of the house
of
6 Therefore I will make
7 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.
8 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.
9 For her wound [is] incurable; for it is come unto
10 Declare ye [it] not at
11 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.
12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for
good: but evil came down from Yahweh unto the gate of
13 O thou inhabitant of
14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath:
the houses of Achzib [shall be] a lie to the kings of
15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah:
he shall come unto Adullam the glory of
16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy
baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
1 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.
2 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.
3 Therefore thus saith Yahweh; 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.
4 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.
5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the
congregation of Yahweh.
6 Prophesy ye not, [say they to them that] prophesy: they shall not prophesy to
them, [that] they shall not take shame.
7 O [thou that art] named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of Yahweh straitened?
[are] these His doings? do
not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
8 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.
9 The women of My people have ye cast out from their
pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away My glory for ever.
10 Arise ye, and depart; for this [is] not [your] rest: because it is polluted,
it shall destroy [you], even with a sore destruction.
11 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.
12 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.
13 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 Yahweh on the head of them.
1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the
house of
2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them,
and their flesh from off their bones;
3 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.
4 Then shall they cry unto Yahweh, 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.
5 Thus saith Yahweh 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.
6 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.
7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall
all cover their lips; for [there is] no answer of God.
8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of Yahweh, and of judgment, and of
might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to
9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the
house of
10 They build up
11 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 Yahweh, and say, [Is] not Yahweh among us? none
evil can come upon us.
12 Therefore shall
1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, [that] the mountain of the
house of Yahweh shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall
be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain
of Yahweh, 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 Yahweh from Jerusalem.
3 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.
4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none
shall make [them] afraid: for the mouth of Yahweh of hosts hath spoken [it].
5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk
in the name of Yahweh our God for ever and ever.
6 In that day, saith Yahweh, will I assemble her that halteth,
and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;
7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a
strong nation: and Yahweh shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth,
even for ever.
8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of
9 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.
10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter
of
11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be
defiled, and let our eye look upon
12 But they know not the thoughts of Yahweh, neither understand they His
counsel: for He shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of
1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of
troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of
2 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.
3 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
4 And He shall stand and feed in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the
name of Yahweh His God; and they shall abide: for now shall He be great unto
the ends of the earth.
5 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.
6 And they shall waste the
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from Yahweh, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth
for the sons of men.
8 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.
9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies
shall be cut off.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Yahweh, that I will cut off thy
horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:
11 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong
holds:
12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no
[more] soothsayers:
13 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.
14 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy
thy cities.
15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as
they have not heard.
1 Hear ye now what Yahweh saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains,
and let the hills hear thy voice.
2 Hear ye, O mountains, Yahweh's controversy, and ye
strong foundations of the earth: for Yahweh hath a controversy with His people,
and He will plead with
3 O My people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein
have I wearied thee? testify against
4 For I brought thee up out of the
5 O My people, remember now what Balak king of
6 Wherewith shall I come before Yahweh, [and] bow myself before the high God? shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of
a year old?
7 Will Yahweh 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?
8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth Yahweh require of
thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
9 Yahweh's voice crieth unto the city,
and [the man of] wisdom shall see Thy name: hear ye the rod, and [Him] Who hath
appointed it.
10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and
the scant measure [that is] abominable?
11 Shall I count [them] pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of
deceitful weights?
12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof
have spoken lies, and their tongue [is] deceitful in their mouth.
13 Therefore also will I make [thee] sick in smiting thee, in making [thee]
desolate because of thy sins.
14 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.
15 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.
16 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.
1 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.
2 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.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 Therefore I will look unto Yahweh; I will wait for the God of my salvation:
my God will hear me.
8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit
in darkness, Yahweh [shall be] a light unto me.
9 I will bear the indignation of Yahweh, 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.
10 Then [she that is] mine enemy shall see [it], and shame shall cover her
which said unto me, Where is Yahweh thy God? mine eyes
shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
11 [In] the day that thy walls are to be built, [in] that day shall the decree
be far removed.
12 [In] that day [also] he shall come even to thee from
13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell
therein, for the fruit of their doings.
14 Feed Thy people with Thy rod, the flock of Thine heritage, which dwell
solitarily [in] the wood, in the midst of
15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew
unto him marvellous [things].
16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay
[their] hand upon [their] mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
17 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 Yahweh our God, and shall fear
because of Thee.
18 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.
19 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.
20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, [and] the mercy to Abraham, which Thou
hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.