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Micah 1
The word of Yahweh that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and all that in it is: and let the Sovereign Yahweh be witness against you, Yahweh from his holy temple. 3 For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall split themselves, as wax before the fire, as 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 Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? 6 Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down the stones of it into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations of it. 7 And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate; for of the hire of a harlot has she gathered them, and to the hire of a harlot shall they return.
8 For this will I lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches. 9 For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah; it reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10 Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all: at Beth-le-aphrah have I rolled myself in the dust. 11 Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame: the inhabitant of Zaanan has not come forth; the wailing of Beth-ezel shall take from you the stay of it. 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem. 13 Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish: she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 14 Therefore shall you give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. 15 I will yet bring to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him that shall possess you: the glory of Israel shall come even to Adullam. 16 Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight: enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they have gone into captivity from you.
Micah 2
Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 3 Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which you shall not remove your necks, neither shall you walk haughtily; for it is an evil time. 4 In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We are utterly ruined: he changes the portion of my people: how does he remove it from me! To the rebellious he divides our fields. 5 Therefore you shall have no one that shall cast the line by lot in the assembly of Yahweh.
6 Prophesy not, thus they prophesy. They shall not prophesy to these: reproaches shall not depart. 7 Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the Spirit of Yahweh straitened? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly? 8 But of late my people has risen up as an enemy: you strip the robe from off the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war. 9 The women of my people you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my glory forever. 10 Arise, and depart; for this is not your resting place; because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction. 11 If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies, saying, I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.
12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the middle of their pasture; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 13 The breaker has gone up before them: they have broken forth and passed on to the gate, and have gone out by it: and their king has passed on before them, and Yahweh at the head of them.
Micah 3
And I said, Hear, I pray you, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice? 2 You 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 break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. 4 Then shall they cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them; yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have worked evil in their doings.
5 In this manner says Yahweh concerning the prophets that make my people to err; that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and whoever puts not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him: 6 Therefore it shall be night to you, that you shall have no vision; and it shall be dark to you, that you shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them. 7 And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of Elohim. 8 But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of Yahweh, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that abhor justice, and pervert all equity. 10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 11 The heads of it judge for reward, and the priests of it teach for hire, and the prophets of it divine for money: yet they lean upon Yahweh, and say, Is not Yahweh in the middle of us? No evil shall come upon us. 12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
