Micah 1
The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Moreshite — what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
COMING JUDGMENT ON ISRAEL
2 Listen, all you peoples;
pay attention, earth and everyone in it!
The Lord God will be a witness against you,
the Lord, from his holy temple.
3 Look, the Lord is leaving his place
and coming down to trample
the heights of the earth.
4 The mountains will melt beneath him,
and the valleys will split apart,
like wax near a fire,
like water cascading down a mountainside.
5 All this will happen because of Jacob’s rebellion
and the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the rebellion of Jacob?
Isn’t it Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Isn’t it Jerusalem?
6 Therefore, I will make Samaria
a heap of ruins in the countryside,
a planting area for a vineyard.
I will roll her stones into the valley
and expose her foundations.
7 All her carved images will be smashed to pieces;
all her wages will be burned in the fire,
and I will destroy all her idols.
Since she collected the wages of a prostitute,
they will be used again for a prostitute.
MICAH’S LAMENT
8 Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will walk barefoot and naked.
I will howl like the jackals
and mourn like ostriches.
9 For her wound is incurable
and has reached even Judah;
it has approached my people’s city gate,
as far as Jerusalem.
10 Don’t announce it in Gath,
don’t weep at all.
Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.
11 Depart in shameful nakedness,
you residents of Shaphir;
the residents of Zaanan will not come out.
Beth-ezel is lamenting;
its support is taken from you.
12 Though the residents of Maroth
anxiously wait for something good,
disaster has come from the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the horses to the chariot,
you residents of Lachish.
This was the beginning of sin for Daughter Zion
because Israel’s acts of rebellion can be traced to you.
14 Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib are a deception
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring a conqueror
against you who live in Mareshah.
The nobility of Israel will come to Adullam.
16 Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair
in sorrow for your precious children;
make yourselves as bald as an eagle,
for they have been taken from you into exile.
Micah 2
OPPRESSORS JUDGED
Woe to those who dream up wickedness
and prepare evil plans on their beds!
At morning light they accomplish it
because the power is in their hands.
2 They covet fields and seize them;
they also take houses.
They deprive a man of his home,
a person of his inheritance.
3 Therefore, the Lord says:
I am now planning a disaster
against this nation;
you cannot free your necks from it.
Then you will not walk so proudly
because it will be an evil time.
4 In that day one will take up a taunt against you
and lament mournfully, saying,
“We are totally ruined!
He measures out the allotted land of my people.
How he removes it from me!
He allots our fields to traitors.”
5 Therefore, there will be no one
in the assembly of the Lord
to divide the land by casting lots.
GOD’S WORD REJECTED
6 “Quit your preaching,” they preach.
“They should not preach these things;
shame will not overtake us.”
7 House of Jacob, should it be asked,
“Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?
Are these the things he does? ”
Don’t my words bring good
to the one who walks uprightly?
8 But recently my people have risen up
like an enemy:
You strip off the splendid robe
from those who are passing through confidently,
like those returning from war.
9 You force the women of my people
out of their comfortable homes,
and you take my blessing
from their children forever.
10 Get up and leave,
for this is not your place of rest
because defilement brings destruction —
a grievous destruction!
11 If a man comes
and utters empty lies —
“I will preach to you about wine and beer” —
he would be just the preacher for this people!
THE REMNANT REGATHERED
12 I will indeed gather all of you, Jacob;
I will collect the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
like a flock in the middle of its pasture.
It will be noisy with people.
13 One who breaks open the way
will advance before them;
they will break out, pass through the city gate,
and leave by it.
Their King will pass through before them,
the Lord as their leader.
Micah 3
UNJUST LEADERS JUDGED
Then I said, “Now listen, leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of the house of Israel.
Aren’t you supposed to know what is just?
2 You hate good and love evil.
You tear off people’s skin
and strip their flesh from their bones.
3 You eat the flesh of my people
after you strip their skin from them
and break their bones.
You chop them up
like flesh for the cooking pot,
like meat in a cauldron.”
4 Then they will cry out to the Lord,
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time
because of the crimes they have committed.
FALSE PROPHETS JUDGED
5 This is what the Lord says
concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who proclaim peace
when they have food to sink their teeth into
but declare war against the one
who puts nothing in their mouths.
6 Therefore, it will be night for you —
without visions;
it will grow dark for you —
without divination.
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn black over them.
7 Then the seers will be ashamed
and the diviners disappointed.
They will all cover their mouths
because there will be no answer from God.
8 As for me, however, I am filled with power
by the Spirit of the Lord,
with justice and courage,
to proclaim to Jacob his rebellion
and to Israel his sin.
ZION’S DESTRUCTION
9 Listen to this, leaders of the house of Jacob,
you rulers of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice
and pervert everything that is right,
10 who build Zion with bloodshed
and Jerusalem with injustice.
11 Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe,
her priests teach for payment,
and her prophets practice divination for silver.
Yet they lean on the Lord, saying,
“Isn’t the Lord among us?
No disaster will overtake us.”
12 Therefore, because of you,
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become ruins,
and the temple’s mountain
will be a high thicket.
Micah 4
THE LORD’S RULE FROM RESTORED ZION
In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s house
will be established
at the top of the mountains
and will be raised above the hills.
Peoples will stream to it,
2 and many nations will come and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about his ways
so we may walk in his paths.”
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He will settle disputes among many peoples
and provide arbitration for strong nations
that are far away.
They will beat their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nation will not take up the sword against nation,
and they will never again train for war.
4 But each person will sit under his grapevine
and under his fig tree
with no one to frighten him.
For the mouth of the Lord of Armies
has spoken.
5 Though all the peoples walk
in the name of their own gods,
we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever.
6 On that day —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
I will assemble the lame
and gather the scattered,
those I have injured.
7 I will make the lame into a remnant,
those far removed into a strong nation.
Then the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion
from this time on and forever.
8 And you, watchtower for the flock,
fortified hill of Daughter Zion,
the former rule will come to you;
sovereignty will come to Daughter Jerusalem.
FROM EXILE TO VICTORY
9 Now, why are you shouting loudly?
Is there no king with you?
Has your counselor perished
so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?
10 Writhe and cry out, Daughter Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you will leave the city
and camp in the open fields.
You will go to Babylon;
there you will be rescued;
there the Lord will redeem you
from the grasp of your enemies!
11 Many nations have now assembled against you;
they say, “Let her be defiled,
and let us feast our eyes on Zion.”
12 But they do not know the Lord’s intentions
or understand his plan,
that he has gathered them
like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
for I will make your horns iron
and your hooves bronze
so you can crush many peoples.
Then you will set apart their plunder
for the Lord,
their wealth for the Lord of the whole earth.
— Micah 1-4 (CSB)