— select-a-version↑ 1.
1The word of Yahweh that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
8For this I will lament and wail;
I will go stripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and 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.
10Tell it not in Gath,
weep not at all;
in Beth-leaphrah
roll yourselves in the dust.
11Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come forth;
the wailing of Beth-ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
12For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because evil has come down from Yahweh
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
you were 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 be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
15I will again bring a conqueror upon you,
inhabitants 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 yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.
6"Do not preach"- thus they preach -
"one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us."
7Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Is the Spirit of Yahweh impatient?
Are these his doings?
Do not my words do good
to him who walks uprightly?
8But you rise against my people as an enemy;
you strip the robe from the peaceful,
from those who pass by
trustingly with no thought of war.
9The women of my people you drive out
from their pleasant houses;
from their young children you take away
my glory for ever.
10Arise and go,
for this is no place to rest;
because of uncleanness that destroys
with a grievous destruction.
11If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
saying, "I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,"
he would be the preacher for this people!
12I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob,
I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
a noisy multitude of men.
13He who opens the breach will go up before them;
they will break through and pass the gate,
going out by it.
Their king will pass on before them,
Yahweh at their head.
4Then they will cry to Yahweh,
but he will not answer them;
he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.
5Thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who cry "Peace"
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
6Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
The sun shall go down upon the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
7the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
for there is no answer from God.
8But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of Yahweh,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
and to Israel his sin.
9Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
who abhor justice and pervert all equity,
10who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with wrong.
11Its heads give judgment for a bribe,
its priests teach for hire,
its prophets divine for money;
yet they lean upon Yahweh and say,
"Is not Yahweh in the midst of us?
No evil shall come upon us."
12Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
6In that day, says Yahweh,
I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away,
and those whom I have afflicted;
7and the lame I will make the remnant;
and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and Yahweh will reign over them in Mount Zion
from this time forth and for evermore.
8And you, O tower of the flock,
hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
the former dominion shall come,
the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
9Now why do you cry aloud?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
that pangs have seized you like a woman in travail?
10Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in travail;
for now you shall go forth from the city
and dwell in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued,
there Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11Now many nations
are assembled against you,
saying, "Let her be profaned,
and let our eyes gaze upon Zion."
12But they do not know
the thoughts of Yahweh,
they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
13Arise and thresh,
O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron
and your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples,
and shall devote their gain to Yahweh,
their wealth to Yahweh of the whole earth. 1Now you are walled about with a wall;
seige is laid against us;
with a rod they strike upon the cheek
the ruler of Israel.
2But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
3Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in travail has brought forth;
then the rest of his brethren shall return
to the people of Israel.
4And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of Yahweh,
in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God.
And they shall dwell secure,
for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
5And this shall be peace,
when the Assyrian comes into our land
and treads upon our soil,
that we will raise against him seven shepherds
and eight princes of men;
6they shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword,
and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword;
and they shall deliver us from the Assyrian
when he comes into our land and treads within our border.
7Then the remnant of Jacob
shall be in the midst of many peoples
like dew from Yahweh,
like showers upon the grass,
which tarry not for men nor wait for the sons of men.
8And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,
in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
which, when it goes through,
treads down and tears in pieces,
and there is none to deliver.
9Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
and all your enemies shall be cut off.
10And in that day, says Yahweh,
I will cut off your horses from among you
and will destroy your chariots;
11and I will cut off the cities of your land
and throw down all your strongholds;
12and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
and you shall have no more soothsayers;
13and I will cut off your images
and your pillars from among you,
and you shall bow down no more
to the work of your hands;
14and I will root out your Asherim
from among you and destroy your cities.
15And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
upon the nations that did not obey.
3"O my people, what have I done to you?
In what have I wearied you?
Answer me!
4For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
and redeemed you from the house of bondage;
and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the saving acts of Yahweh."
6"With what shall I come before Yahweh,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
8He has showed you, O man, what is good;
and what does Yahweh require of you
but to do justice,
and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
9The voice of Yahweh cries to the city -
and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:
"Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!
10Can I forget the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and the scant measure that is accursed?
11Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales
and with a bag of deceitful weights?
12Your rich men are full of violence;
your inhabitants speak lies,
and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13Therefore I have begun to smite you,
making you desolate because of your sins.
14You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be hunger in your inward parts;
you shall put away, but not save,
and what you save I will give to the sword.
15You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
16For you have kept the statutes of Omri,
and all the works of the house of Ahab;
and you have walked in their counsels;
that I may make you a desolation,
and your inhabitants a hissing;
so you shall bear the scorn of the peoples."
8Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
Yahweh will be a light to me.
9I will bear the indignation of Yahweh
because I have sinned against him,
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me forth to the light;
I shall behold his deliverance.
10Then my enemy will see,
and shame will cover her who said to me,
"Where is Yahweh your God?"
My eyes will gloat over her;
now she will be trodden down
like the mire of the streets.
11A day for the building of your walls!
In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
12In that day they will come to you,
from Assyria to Egypt,
and from Egypt to the River,
from sea to sea
and from mountain to mountain.
13But the earth will be desolate
because of its inhabitants,
for the fruit of their doings.
14Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land;
let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
15As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt
I will show them marvelous things.
16The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf;
17they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds,
they shall turn in dread to Yahweh our God,
and they shall fear because of you.
18Who is a God like you,
pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger for ever
because he delights in steadfast love.
19He will again have compassion upon us,
he will tread our iniquities under foot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
20You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.