Micah 1

The witness against the cities

1The word of the LORD came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—what he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, earth and everything in it!
Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple. 3Look, the LORD is coming out of his place.
He will come down
and tread the heights of the earth. 4The mountains will melt beneath him
and the valleys split apart,
like wax before fire,
like water pouring down a slope. 5All this is because of Jacob’s rebellion
and the sins of the house of Israel.
What is Jacob’s rebellion? Is it not Samaria?
What are Judah’s high places? Are they not Jerusalem? 6“I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards.
I will pour her stones into the valley
and lay her foundations bare. 7All her carved images will be smashed;
all her prostitute’s wages burned with fire.
I will devastate all her idols,
for she gathered them from a prostitute’s wages,
and to a prostitute’s wages they will return.”

A lament for the towns

8Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked.
I will lament like jackals
and mourn like ostriches. 9Her wound is incurable.
It has reached Judah;
it has touched the gate of my people,
Jerusalem itself. 10Do not tell it in Gath;
do not weep at all.
In Beth-leaphrah, roll yourself in dust. 11Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir,
naked and shamed.
The inhabitant of Zaanan has not come out.
Beth-ezel’s mourning takes away its support from you. 12The inhabitant of Maroth writhes for good,
for disaster has come down from the LORD
to Jerusalem’s gate. 13Harness the chariot to the team, inhabitant of Lachish!
She was the beginning of sin for daughter Zion,
for Israel’s rebellions were found in you. 14So you will give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath.
The houses of Achzib will be a deception
to the kings of Israel. 15I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitant of Mareshah.
Israel’s glory will come to Adullam. 16Shave your head and cut off your hair
for the children you cherish.
Make your baldness wide as a vulture’s,
for they have gone into exile away from you.