Micah*

1 The word of Jehovah* that occurred to Miʹcah+ of Moʹresh·eth,* in the days of Joʹtham,+ Aʹhaz,+ Hez·e·kiʹah,+ kings of Judah,+ that he visioned concerning Sa·marʹi·a+ and Jerusalem:+

2 “Hear, O YOU peoples, all of YOU; pay attention, O earth and what fills you,+ and let the Sovereign Lord Jehovah serve against YOU as a witness,+ Jehovah* from his holy temple.*+ 3 For, look! Jehovah* is going forth from his place,+ and he will certainly come down and tread upon earth’s high places.+ 4 And the mountains must melt under him,+ and the low plains themselves will split apart, like wax because of the fire,+ like waters being poured down a steep place.

5 “It is because of the revolt of Jacob that there is all this, even because of the sins of the house of Israel.+ What is the revolt of Jacob? Is it not Sa·marʹi·a?+ And what are the high places* of Judah?+ Are they not Jerusalem? 6 And I shall certainly make Sa·marʹi·a a heap of ruins of the field,+ the planting places of a vineyard; and I will pour down into the valley her stones, and her foundations I shall lay bare.+ 7 And her graven images will all be crushed to pieces,+ and all the gifts [made] to her as her hire will be burned in the fire;+ and all her idols I shall make a desolate waste. For from the things given as the hire of a prostitute she collected [them], and to the thing given as the hire of a prostitute they will return.”+

8 On this account I will wail and howl;+ I will walk barefoot and naked.+ I shall make a wailing like the jackals, and a mourning like female ostriches.* 9 For the stroke* upon her is unhealable;+ for it has come as far as Judah,+ [the] plague as far as the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem.+

10 “In Gath do not YOU men tell [it] out; positively do not weep.+

“In the house of Aphʹrah wallow in the very dust.+ 11 Make your way across, O inhabitress of Shaʹphir, in shameful nudity.+ The inhabitress of Zaʹa·nan has not gone forth. The wailing of Beth-eʹzel will take from YOU people its standing place. 12 For the inhabitress of Maʹroth has waited for good,+ but what is bad has come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.+ 13 Attach the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitress of Laʹchish.+ The beginning of sin was what she was to the daughter of Zion,+ for in you* the revolts of Israel have been found.+ 14 Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moʹresh·eth-gath.+ The houses of Achʹzib+ were as something deceitful to the kings of Israel. 15 The dispossessor* I shall yet bring to you,+ O inhabitress of Ma·reʹshah.+ As far as A·dulʹlam+ the glory of Israel will come. 16 Cause baldness, and shear [your hair] off on account of your sons of exquisite delight.+ Broaden out your baldness like [that of] the eagle, because they have gone away from you into exile.”+

2 “Woe to those who are scheming what is harmful, and to those practicing what is bad, upon their beds!+ By the light of the morning they proceed to do it,+ because it is in the power of their hand.+ 2 And they have desired fields and have seized [them];+ also houses, and have taken [them]; and they have defrauded an able-bodied man* and his household,+ a man* and his hereditary possession.+

3 “Therefore this is what Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am thinking up against this family+ a calamity+ from which YOU people will not remove YOUR necks,+ so that YOU will not walk haughtily;+ because it is a time of calamity.+ 4 In that day one will raise up concerning YOU people a proverbial saying+ and will certainly lament a lamentation, even a lamentation.+ One will have to say: “We have positively been despoiled!+ The very portion of my people he alters.+ How he removes [it] from me! To the unfaithful one he apportions out our own fields.” 5 Therefore you will come to have no one casting out the cord, by lot,+ in the congregation* of Jehovah. 6 Do not YOU people let [words] drop.+ They let [words] drop. They will not let [words] drop concerning these [things]. Humiliations will not move away.+

7 “‘Is it being said, O house of Jacob:+ “Has the spirit of Jehovah* become discontented, or are these his dealings?”+ Do not my own words do good+ in the case of the one walking uprightly?+

8 “‘And yesterday my own people proceeded to rise up as an outright enemy.+ From the front of a garment YOU men strip off the majestic ornament, from the ones passing by confidently, [like] those returning from war. 9 The women of my people YOU drive out from the house in which a woman* has exquisite delight. From off her children YOU take my splendor,+ to time indefinite.+ 10 Get up and go,+ because this is not a resting-place.+ Because of the fact that she has become unclean,+ there is a wrecking; and [the] wrecking work is painful.+ 11 If a man,* walking by wind* and falsehood, has told the lie:+ “I shall let [words] drop to you concerning wine and concerning intoxicating liquor,” he also will certainly become the one letting [words] drop for this people.+

12 “‘I shall positively gather Jacob, all of you;+ I shall without fail collect the remaining ones* of Israel together.+ In unity I shall set them, like a flock in the pen,* like a drove in the midst of its pasture;+ they will be noisy with men.’*+

13 “The one making a breakthrough will certainly come up before them:+ they will actually break through. And they will pass through a gate, and they will go out by it.+ And their king will pass through before them, with Jehovah at the head of them.”+

3 And I proceeded to say: “Hear, please, YOU heads of Jacob and YOU commanders of the house of Israel.+ Is it not YOUR business to know justice?+ 2 YOU haters of what is good+ and lovers of badness,+ tearing off their skin from people and their organism from off their bones;+ 3 YOU the ones who have also eaten the organism of my people,+ and have stripped their very skin from off them, and smashed to pieces their very bones, and crushed [them] to pieces like what is in a widemouthed pot and like flesh in the midst of a cooking pot.+ 4 At that time they will call to Jehovah for aid, but he will not answer them.+ And he will conceal his face from them in that time,+ according as they committed badness in their dealings.+

5 “This is what Jehovah has said against the prophets that are causing my people to wander,*+ that are biting with their teeth+ and that actually call out, ‘Peace!’+ that, when anyone does not put [something] into their mouths, also actually sanctify war against him,+ 6 ‘Therefore YOU men will have night,+ so that there will be no vision;+ and darkness YOU will have, so as not to practice divination. And the sun will certainly set upon the prophets, and the day must get dark upon them.+ 7 And the visionaries+ will have to be ashamed,+ and the diviners+ will certainly be disappointed. And they will have to cover over the mustache,+ all of them, for there is no answer from God.’”*+

8 And, on the other hand, I myself have become full of power, with the spirit of Jehovah, and of justice and mightiness,+ in order to tell to Jacob his revolt and to Israel his sin.+

9 Hear, please, this, YOU head ones of the house of Jacob and YOU commanders of the house of Israel,+ the ones detesting justice and the ones who make even everything that is straight crooked;+ 10 building Zion with acts of bloodshed and Jerusalem with unrighteousness.+ 11 Her own head ones judge merely for a bribe,+ and her own priests instruct just for a price,+ and her own prophets practice divination simply for money;*+ yet upon Jehovah they keep supporting themselves, saying: “Is not Jehovah in the midst of us?+ There will come upon us no calamity.”+ 12 Therefore on account of YOU men Zion will be plowed up as a mere field, and Jerusalem herself will become mere heaps of ruins,+ and the mountain of the house will be as the high places of a forest.

4 And it must occur in the final part of the days+ [that] the mountain+ of the house+ of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills;+ and to it peoples must stream.+ 2 And many nations will certainly go and say: “Come,+ YOU people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah and to the house of the God of Jacob;+ and he will instruct us about his ways,+ and we will walk* in his paths.”+ For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem.+ 3 And he will certainly render judgment among many peoples,+ and set matters straight+ respecting mighty nations far away.+ And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears.+ They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.+ 4 And they will actually sit,* each one* under his vine and under his fig tree,+ and there will be no one making [them] tremble;+ for the very mouth of Jehovah* of armies* has spoken [it].+

5 For all the peoples, for their part, will walk each one in the name of its god;*+ but we, for our part, shall walk in the name of Jehovah* our God*+ to time indefinite, even forever.*+

6 “In that day,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “I will gather her that was limping;+ and her that was dispersed I will collect together,+ even her whom I have treated badly. 7 And I shall certainly make her that was limping a remnant,+ and her that was removed far off a mighty nation;+ and Jehovah* will actually rule as king over them in Mount Zion, from now on and into time indefinite.+

8 “And as for you,* O tower of the drove,* the mound* of the daughter of Zion,+ as far as to you it will come, yes, the first* dominion will certainly come,+ the kingdom belonging to the daughter of Jerusalem.+

9 “Now why is it that you* keep shouting loudly?+ Is there no king in you, or has your own counselor perished, so that pangs like those of a woman giving birth have grabbed hold of you?+ 10 Be in severe pains and burst forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman giving birth,+ for now you will go forth from a town, and you will have to reside in the field.+ And you will have to come as far as to Babylon.*+ There you will be delivered.+ There Jehovah will buy you back out of the palm of your enemies.+

11 “And now there will certainly be gathered against you many nations, those who are saying, ‘Let her be polluted, and may our eyes look upon Zion.’+ 12 But as for them, they have not come to know the thoughts of Jehovah, and they have not come to understand his counsel;+ because he will certainly collect them together like a row of newly cut grain to the threshing floor.+

13 “Get up and thresh, O daughter of Zion;+ for your horn I shall change into iron, and your hoofs I shall change into copper, and you will certainly pulverize many peoples;+ and by a ban you will actually devote to Jehovah their unjust profit,+ and their resources to the [true] Lord* of the whole earth.”+

5 “At this time you make cuttings upon yourself,+ O daughter of an invasion; a siege he has laid against us.+ With the rod they will strike upon the cheek the judge of Israel.*+

2 “And you, O Bethʹle·hem* Ephʹra·thah,+ the one too little to get to be among the thousands of Judah,+ from you*+ there will come out to me the one who is to become ruler in Israel,+ whose origin* is from early times, from the days of time indefinite.+

3 “Therefore he will give them up+ until the time that she who is giving birth actually gives birth.+ And the rest of his brothers will return to the sons of Israel.

4 “And he will certainly stand and do shepherding in the strength of Jehovah,*+ in the superiority of the name of Jehovah* his God.+ And they will certainly keep dwelling,+ for now he will be great as far as the ends* of the earth.+ 5 And this one must become peace.+ As for the As·syrʹi·an, when he comes into our land and when he treads upon our dwelling towers,*+ we shall also have to raise up against him seven shepherds, yes, eight dukes of mankind.* 6 And they will actually shepherd the land of As·syrʹi·a with the sword,+ and the land of Nimʹrod+ in its entrances. And he will certainly bring about deliverance from the As·syrʹi·an,+ when he comes into our land and when he treads upon our territory.

7 “And the remaining ones* of Jacob+ must become in the midst of many peoples like dew from Jehovah,+ like copious showers upon vegetation,+ that does not hope for man* or wait for the sons of earthling man.*+ 8 And the remaining ones of Jacob must become among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of a forest, like a maned young lion among droves of sheep, which, when it actually passes through, certainly both tramples down and tears in pieces;+ and there is no deliverer. 9 Your* hand will be high above your adversaries,+ and all enemies of yours will be cut off.”+

10 “And it must occur in that day,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “that I will cut off your horses from the midst of you and destroy your chariots.+ 11 And I will cut off the cities of your land and tear down all your fortified places.+ 12 And I will cut off sorceries out of your hand, and no practicers of magic will you continue to have.+ 13 And I will cut off your graven images and your pillars from the midst of you, and you will no more bow down to the work of your hands.+ 14 And I will uproot your sacred poles*+ from the midst of you and annihilate your cities. 15 And in anger and in rage I will execute vengeance upon the nations that have not obeyed.”+

6 Hear, please, YOU people, what Jehovah is saying.*+ Get up, conduct a legal case with the mountains, and may the hills hear your voice.+ 2 Hear, O YOU mountains, the legal case of Jehovah, also YOU durable objects, YOU foundations of [the] earth;+ for Jehovah has a legal case with his people, and it is with Israel that he will argue:+

3 “O my people,+ what have I done to you? And in what way have I tired you out?+ Testify against me.+ 4 For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,+ and from the house of slaves I redeemed you;+ and I proceeded to send before you Moses, Aaron and Mirʹi·am.+ 5 O my people, remember,+ please, what Baʹlak the king of Moʹab counseled,+ and what Baʹlaam the son of Beʹor answered him.+ From Shitʹtim*+ it was, all the way to Gilʹgal,+ to the intent that the righteous acts of Jehovah might be known.”+

6 With what shall I confront+ Jehovah? [With what] shall I bow myself to God on high?+ Shall I confront him with whole burnt offerings,+ with calves a year old? 7 Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of torrents of oil?+ Shall I give my firstborn son for my revolt, the fruitage of my belly for the sin of my soul?+ 8 He has told you, O earthling man,* what is good.+ And what is Jehovah asking back from you but to exercise justice+ and to love kindness*+ and to be modest+ in walking with your God?+

9 To the city the very voice of Jehovah calls out,+ and [the person of] practical wisdom will fear your name.+ Hear [the] rod and who it was that designated it,*+ O YOU people. 10 Do there yet exist [in] the house of a wicked one the treasures of wickedness,+ and the scrimped eʹphah measure that is denounced? 11 Can I be [morally] clean with wicked scales and with a bag of deceptive stone weights?+ 12 For her own rich men have become full of violence, and her own inhabitants have spoken falsehood,+ and their tongue is tricky in their mouth.+

13 “And I also, for my part, shall certainly make [you] sick by striking you;+ there will be a desolating [of you], on account of your sins.+ 14 You, for your part, will eat and not get satisfied, and your emptiness will be in the midst of you.*+ And you will remove [things], but you will not carry [them] safely away; and whatever you would carry away safely, I shall give to the sword itself.+ 15 You, for your part, will sow seed, but you will not reap. You, for your part, will tread olives, but you will not grease yourself with oil; also sweet wine, but you will not drink wine.+ 16 And the statutes of Omʹri+ and all the work of the house of Aʹhab are observed,+ and YOU people walk in their counsels;+ to the end that I may make you an object of astonishment and her inhabitants something to be whistled at;+ and the reproach of peoples* YOU men will bear.”+

7 Too bad for me,+ for I have become like the gatherings of summer fruit, like the gleaning of a grape gathering!+ There is no grape cluster to eat, no early fig, that my soul would desire!+ 2 The loyal one* has perished from the earth,* and among mankind* there is no upright one.+ All of them, for bloodshed they lie in wait.+ They hunt, everyone his own brother, with a dragnet.+ 3 [Their] hands are upon what is bad, to do [it] well;+ the prince is asking [for something], and the one who is judging [does so] for the reward,+ and the great one is speaking forth the craving of his soul, his very own;+ and they interweave it. 4 Their best one is like a brier, [their] most upright one is worse than a thorn hedge.+ The day of your watchmen, [of] your being given attention, must come.+ Now will occur the confounding of them.+

5 Do not put YOUR faith in a companion. Do not put YOUR trust in a confidential friend.+ From her who is lying in your bosom guard the openings of your mouth.+ 6 For a son is despising a father; a daughter is rising up against her mother;+ a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;+ a man’s enemies are the men* of his household.+

7 But as for me, it is for Jehovah that I shall keep on the lookout.+ I will show a waiting attitude for the God of my salvation.+ My God will hear me.+

8 Do not rejoice over me, O you woman enemy of mine.+ Although I have fallen, I shall certainly rise up;+ although I dwell in the darkness,+ Jehovah will be a light to me.+ 9 The raging of Jehovah I shall bear—for I have sinned against him+—until he conducts my legal case and actually executes justice for me.+ He will bring me forth to the light; I shall look upon his righteousness.+ 10 And my enemy will see, and shame will cover her,+ who was saying to me: “Where is he, Jehovah your God?”+ My own eyes will look upon her.+ Now she will become a place of trampling, like the mire of streets.+

11 The day for building your* stone walls, at that day [the] decree* will be far away.+ 12 At that day even all the way to you they* will come from As·syrʹi·a and the cities of Egypt,* and from Egypt even all the way to [the] River;+ and from sea to sea, and [from] mountain to the mountain.+ 13 And the land must become a desolate waste on account of its inhabitants, because of the fruit of their dealings.+

14 Shepherd your* people with your staff,+ the flock of your inheritance, the one who was residing alone in a forest—in the midst of an orchard.+ Let them feed on Baʹshan and Gilʹe·ad+ as in the days of a long time ago.+

15 “As in the days of your coming forth from the land of Egypt I shall show him wonderful things.+ 16 Nations will see and become ashamed of all their mightiness.+ They will put [their] hand upon [their] mouth;+ their very ears will become deaf. 17 They will lick up dust like the serpents;+ like reptiles of [the] earth they will come in agitation out of their bulwarks.+ To Jehovah our God* they will come quivering, and they will be afraid of you.”+

18 Who is a God* like you,+ one pardoning error and passing over transgression+ of the remnant of his inheritance?+ He will certainly not hold onto his anger forever, for he is delighting in loving-kindness.*+ 19 He will again show us mercy;+ he will subject our errors.+ And you will throw into the depths of [the] sea all their* sins.+ 20 You will give [the] trueness [given] to Jacob, [the] loving-kindness [given] to Abraham, which you swore to our forefathers from the days of long ago.+