Micah 3-7

English Standard Version

Rulers and Prophets Denounced

3 And I said:
^(A)Hear, you heads of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel!
^(B)Is it not for you to know justice?—
²    you ^(C)who hate the good and love the evil,
^(D)who tear the skin from off my people^[a]
    and their flesh from off their bones,
³^(E)who eat the flesh of my people,
    and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
    and chop them up like meat in a pot,
    like flesh in a cauldron.

⁴^(F)Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
^(G)he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.

⁵Thus says the Lord concerning ^(H)the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
^(I)who cry “Peace”
    when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
    who puts nothing into their mouths.
⁶Therefore ^(J)it shall be night to you, without vision,
    and darkness to you, without divination.
^(K)The sun shall go down on the prophets,
    and the day shall be black over them;
⁷^(L)the seers shall be disgraced,
    and the diviners put to shame;
^(M)they shall all cover their lips,
    for ^(N)there is no answer from God.
⁸But as for me, ^(O)I am filled with power,
    with the Spirit of the Lord,
    and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob ^(P)his transgression
    and to Israel his sin.

⁹^(Q)Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
    and rulers of the house of Israel,
^(R)who detest justice
    and make crooked all that is straight,
¹⁰^(S)who build Zion with blood
    and Jerusalem with iniquity.
¹¹^(T)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
    ^(U)its priests teach for a price;
    ^(V)its prophets practice divination for money;
^(W)yet they lean on the Lord and ^(X)say,
    “Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
    ^(Y)No disaster shall come upon us.”
¹²Therefore because of you
    ^(Z)Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem ^(AA)shall become a heap of ruins,
    and ^(AB)the mountain of the house ^(AC)a wooded height.

The Mountain of the Lord

4 It shall come to pass ^(AD)in the latter days
    that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
    and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
²    and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,^[b]
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
³He shall judge between many peoples,
    and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away;
and they shall ^(AE)beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore;
⁴^(AF)but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
    ^(AG)and no one shall make them afraid,
    ^(AH)for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
⁵For ^(AI)all the peoples walk
    each in the name of its god,
but ^(AJ)we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
    forever and ever.

The Lord Shall Rescue Zion

⁶^(AK)In that day, declares the Lord,
    ^(AL)I will assemble the ^(AM)lame
and gather those who have been driven away
    and those whom I have afflicted;
⁷and the lame I will make ^(AN)the remnant,
    and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and ^(AO)the Lord will reign over them ^(AP)in Mount Zion
    from this time forth and forevermore.

⁸And you, O tower of the flock,
    hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
    the former dominion shall come,
    kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.

⁹Now why do you cry aloud?
    ^(AQ)Is there no king in you?
^(AR)Has your counselor perished,
    that ^(AS)pain seized you like a woman in labor?
¹⁰^(AT)Writhe and groan,^[c] O daughter of Zion,
    like a woman in labor,
for ^(AU)now you shall go out from the city
    and dwell in the open country;
    you ^(AV)shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
    ^(AW)there the Lord will redeem you
    from the hand of your enemies.

¹¹Now ^(AX)many nations
    are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
    and ^(AY)let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
¹²But ^(AZ)they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
    that ^(BA)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 I will make your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
    and ^(BB)shall devote^[d] ^(BC)their gain to the Lord,
    their wealth to ^(BD)the Lord of the whole earth.

The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem

5 ^[e] Now muster your troops, O daughter^[f] of troops;
    siege is laid against us;
with a rod ^(BE)they strike the judge of Israel
    on the cheek.
²^[g] ^(BF)But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of ^(BG)Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to be ^(BH)ruler in Israel,
^(BI)whose coming forth is ^(BJ)from of old,
    from ancient days.
³Therefore he shall give them up ^(BK)until the time
    when she who is in labor has given birth;
then ^(BL)the rest of his brothers shall return
    to the people of Israel.
⁴And he shall stand ^(BM)and shepherd his flock ^(BN)in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now ^(BO)he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
⁵And he shall be ^(BP)their peace.

^(BQ)When the Assyrian comes into our land
    and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven ^(BR)shepherds
    and eight princes of men;
⁶they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
    and the land of ^(BS)Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
    ^(BT)when he comes into our land
    and treads within our border.

A Remnant Shall Be Delivered

⁷Then ^(BU)the remnant of Jacob shall be
    in the midst of many peoples
like dew from the Lord,
    like showers on the grass,
which delay not for a man
    nor wait for the children of man.
⁸And ^(BV)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,
^(BW)which, when it goes through, treads down
    and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.
⁹Your hand shall ^(BX)be lifted up over your adversaries,
    and all your enemies shall be cut off.

¹⁰And ^(BY)in that day, declares the Lord,
    ^(BZ)I will cut off your horses from among you
    and will destroy your chariots;
¹¹^(CA)and I will cut off the cities of your land
    and throw down all your strongholds;
¹²and I will cut off ^(CB)sorceries from your hand,
    and ^(CC)you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;
¹³and ^(CD)I will cut off your carved images
    and ^(CE)your pillars from among you,
^(CF)and you shall bow down no more
    to the work of your hands;
¹⁴and I will root out your ^(CG)Asherah images from among you
    ^(CH)and destroy your cities.
¹⁵And in anger and wrath ^(CI)I will execute vengeance
    on the nations that did not obey.

The Indictment of the Lord

6 ^(CJ)Hear what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.
²^(CK)Hear, you mountains, ^(CL)the indictment of the Lord,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.

³“O my people, ^(CM)what have I done to you?
    ^(CN)How have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴For ^(CO)I brought you up from the land of Egypt
    and ^(CP)redeemed you from the house of slavery,
and I sent before you Moses,
    Aaron, and ^(CQ)Miriam.
⁵O my people, remember ^(CR)what Balak king of Moab devised,
    and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from ^(CS)Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know ^(CT)the righteous acts of the Lord.”

What Does the Lord Require?

⁶^(CU)“With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before ^(CV)God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷^(CW)Will the Lord be pleased with^[h] thousands of rams,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
^(CX)Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
⁸He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and ^(CY)what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,^[i]
    and to ^(CZ)walk humbly with your God?

Destruction of the Wicked

⁹The voice of the Lord cries to the city—
    and it is sound wisdom to fear ^(DA)your name:
“Hear of ^(DB)the rod and of him who appointed it!^[j]
¹⁰    Can I forget any longer the treasures^[k] of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
    and the scant measure that is accursed?
¹¹Shall I acquit the man ^(DC)with wicked scales
    and with a bag of deceitful weights?
¹²Your^[l] rich men are ^(DD)full of violence;
    your inhabitants ^(DE)speak lies,
    and ^(DF)their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
¹³Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    ^(DG)making you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴^(DH)You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
    and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
    and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
¹⁵^(DI)You 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 ^(DJ)Omri,^[m]
    and all the works of the house of ^(DK)Ahab;
    and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you ^(DL)a desolation, and your^[n] inhabitants ^(DM)a hissing;
    so you shall bear ^(DN)the scorn of my people.”

Wait for the God of Salvation

7 Woe is me! For I have become
    ^(DO)as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
    as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
    no ^(DP)first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
²^(DQ)The godly has perished from the earth,
    and ^(DR)there is no one upright among mankind;
^(DS)they all lie in wait for blood,
    and ^(DT)each hunts the other with a net.
³^(DU)Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
    ^(DV)the prince and ^(DW)the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
    thus they weave it together.
⁴The best of them is ^(DX)like a brier,
    the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of ^(DY)your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
    ^(DZ)now their confusion is at hand.
⁵^(EA)Put no trust in a neighbor;
    have no confidence in a friend;
guard ^(EB)the doors of your mouth
    from her who lies in your arms;^[o]
⁶for ^(EC)the son treats the father with contempt,
    the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
    ^(ED)a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
    ^(EE)I will wait for the God of my salvation;
    my God will hear me.

⁸^(EF)Rejoice not over me, O ^(EG)my enemy;
    ^(EH)when I fall, I shall rise;
^(EI)when I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be a light to me.
⁹^(EJ)I will bear the indignation of the Lord
    because I have sinned against him,
until ^(EK)he pleads my cause
    and executes judgment for me.
^(EL)He will bring me out to the light;
    I shall look upon his vindication.
¹⁰Then ^(EM)my enemy will see,
    and shame will cover her who ^(EN)said to me,
    “Where is the Lord your God?”
^(EO)My eyes will look upon her;
    now she will be trampled down
    ^(EP)like the mire of the streets.

¹¹^(EQ)A day for the building of your walls!
    In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
¹²In that day they^[p] will come to you,
    ^(ER)from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to ^(ES)the River,^[q]
    ^(ET)from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
¹³But ^(EU)the earth will be desolate
    because of its inhabitants,
    for the fruit of their deeds.

¹⁴^(EV)Shepherd your people ^(EW)with your staff,
    the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
    ^(EX)in the midst of ^(EY)a garden land;^[r]
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
    as in the days of old.
¹⁵^(EZ)As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
    I will show them^[s] marvelous things.
¹⁶^(FA)The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
^(FB)they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
    their ears shall be deaf;
¹⁷^(FC)they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
    like the crawling things of the earth;
^(FD)they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
    ^(FE)they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
    and they shall be in fear of you.

God's Steadfast Love and Compassion

¹⁸^(FF)Who is a God like you, ^(FG)pardoning iniquity
    and passing over transgression
    ^(FH)for the remnant of his inheritance?
^(FI)He does not retain his anger forever,
    because he delights in steadfast love.
¹⁹He will ^(FJ)again have compassion on us;
    ^(FK)he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
^(FL)You will cast all our^[t] sins
    into the depths of the sea.
²⁰^(FM)You will show faithfulness to Jacob
    and steadfast love to Abraham,
^(FN)as you have sworn to our fathers
    from the days of old.