Micah 1

The Word of the LORD to Micah

1The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The LORD Comes in Judgment

2Hear, all you peoples;
give attention, O earth and all that fills it.
And let the Lord GOD be witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.

3For behold,
the LORD is coming out from his place.
He will come down
and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4The mountains will melt beneath him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.

5All this is because of the transgression of Jacob
and because of the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?

6Therefore I will make Samaria
a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards.
I will pour her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations. 7All her carved images shall be shattered,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will make desolate.
For from the wages of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the wages of a prostitute they shall return.

Micah Laments

8Because of this I will lament and wail.
I will go barefoot and naked.
I will make a lament like the jackals
and a mourning like the ostriches. 9For her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah.
It has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.

Judgment Reaches Judah

10Tell it not in Gath;
weep not at all.
At Beth-leaphrah
roll yourselves in the dust. 11Pass on your way,
inhabitant of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame.
The inhabitant of Zaanan
does not come out.
The lamentation of Beth-ezel
takes away from you its standing place.

12For the inhabitant of Maroth
waits anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down from the LORD
to the gate of Jerusalem. 13Harness the chariot to the swift steeds,
inhabitant of Lachish.
She was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.

14Therefore you shall give parting gifts
to Moresheth-gath.
The houses of Achzib
shall prove deceptive
to the kings of Israel. 15I will again bring a conqueror to you,
inhabitant of Mareshah.
The glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.

16Make yourselves bald
and cut off your hair
for the children of your delight.
Make your baldness as broad as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.