Micah 1
New American Standard Bible
Destruction in Israel and Judah
1 The (A)word of the Lord which came to (B)Micah of Moresheth in the days of (C)Jotham, (D)Ahaz, and (E)Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and which he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, you peoples, all of [a]you;
(F)Listen carefully, earth and [b]all it contains,
And may the Lord [c]God be a (G)witness against you,
The Lord from His holy temple.
3 For behold, the Lord is (H)coming forth from His place.
He will come down and (I)tread on the high places of the [d]earth.
4 (J)The mountains will melt under Him
And the valleys will be split,
Like wax before the fire,
Like water poured down a steep place.
5 All this is due to the [e]wrongdoing of Jacob
And the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the [f](K)wrongdoing of Jacob?
Is it not (L)Samaria?
What is the (M)high [g]place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6 For I will make Samaria a (N)heap of ruins [h]in the open country,
(O)Planting places for a vineyard.
I will (P)hurl her stones down into the valley,
And (Q)lay bare her foundations.
7 All of her (R)idols will be crushed,
All of her earnings will be burned with fire,
And all of her images I will make desolate;
For she collected them from a (S)prostitute’s earnings,
And to the earnings of a prostitute they will return.
8 Because of this I must mourn and wail,
I must go (T)barefoot and naked;
I must do mourning like the (U)jackals,
And a mourning like the ostriches.
9 For her (V)wound is incurable,
For (W)it has come to Judah;
It has reached the (X)gate of my people,
Even to Jerusalem.
10 (Y)Do not tell it in Gath,
Do not weep at all.
At [i]Beth-le-aphrah roll yourself in the dust in mourning.
11 [j]Go on your way, inhabitant of [k]Shaphir, in (Z)shameful nakedness.
The inhabitant of [l](AA)Zaanan does not [m]escape.
The mourning of [n]Beth-ezel: “He will take from you its [o]support.”
12 For the inhabitant of [p]Maroth
[q](AB)Waits for something good,
Because a disaster has come down from the Lord
To the (AC)gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the chariot to the team of horses,
You inhabitant of (AD)Lachish—
She was the beginning of sin
To the daughter of Zion—
Because in you were found
The (AE)rebellious acts of Israel.
14 Therefore you will give parting (AF)gifts
In behalf of Moresheth-gath;
The houses of (AG)Achzib will become a [r](AH)deception
To the kings of Israel.
15 Moreover, I will bring on you
The one who takes possession,
You inhabitant of [s](AI)Mareshah.
The glory of Israel will enter (AJ)Adullam.
16 Shave yourself (AK)bald, yes, cut off your hair,
Because of the children of your delight;
Extend your baldness like the eagle,
For they will (AL)go from you into exile.
Footnotes
- Micah 1:2 Lit them
- Micah 1:2 Lit its fullness
- Micah 1:2 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
- Micah 1:3 Or land
- Micah 1:5 Or rebellion
- Micah 1:5 Or rebellion
- Micah 1:5 Lit places
- Micah 1:6 Lit of the field
- Micah 1:10 I.e., house of dust
- Micah 1:11 I.e., Go into captivity
- Micah 1:11 I.e., pleasantness
- Micah 1:11 I.e., going out
- Micah 1:11 Lit go out
- Micah 1:11 I.e., the house beside
- Micah 1:11 Lit standing place
- Micah 1:12 I.e., bitterness
- Micah 1:12 Or possibly has been in agony for
- Micah 1:14 Heb achzab, wordplay on Achzib
- Micah 1:15 I.e., possession
Micah 1
Contemporary English Version
1 (A) I am Micah from Moresheth.[a] And this is the message about Samaria and Jerusalem[b] that the Lord gave to me when Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah[c] were the kings of Judah.
Judgment on Samaria
2 Listen, all of you!
Earth and everything on it,
pay close attention.
The Lord God accuses you
from his holy temple.[d]
3 And he will come down
to crush underfoot
every pagan altar.
4 Mountains will melt
beneath his feet
like wax beside a fire.
Valleys will vanish like water
rushing down a ravine.
5 This will happen because of
the terrible sins of Israel,
the descendants of Jacob.
Samaria has led Israel to sin,
and pagan altars at Jerusalem
have made Judah sin.
6 So the Lord will leave Samaria
in ruins—
merely an empty field
where vineyards are planted.
He will scatter its stones
and destroy its foundations.
7 Samaria's idols will be smashed,
and the wages
of temple prostitutes[e]
will be destroyed by fire.
Silver and gold from those idols
will then be used by foreigners
as payment for prostitutes.
Judah Is Doomed
8 Because of this tragedy,[f]
I go barefoot and naked.
My crying and weeping
sound like howling wolves
or ostriches.
9 The nation is fatally wounded.
Judah is doomed.
Jerusalem will fall.
10 Don't tell it in Gath!
Don't even cry.
Instead, roll in the dust
at Beth-Leaphrah.[g]
11 Depart naked and ashamed,
you people of Shaphir.[h]
The town of Bethezel[i] mourns
because no one from Zaanan[j]
went out to help.[k]
12 Everyone in Maroth[l]
hoped for the best,
but the Lord sent disaster
down on Jerusalem.
13 Get the war chariots ready,
you people of Lachish.[m]
You led Jerusalem into sin,
just as Israel did.[n]
14 Now you will have to give
a going-away gift[o]
to Moresheth.[p]
Israel's kings will discover
that they cannot trust
the town of Achzib.[q]
15 People of Mareshah,[r]
the Lord will send someone
to capture your town.
Then Israel's glorious king
will be forced to hide
in Adullam Cave.[s]
16 Judah, shave your head
as bald as a vulture
and start mourning.
Your precious children[t]
will be dragged off
to a foreign country.
Footnotes
- 1.1 Moresheth: A town in southern Judah not far from Gath. In verse 14 it is called Moresheth-Gath.
- 1.1 Samaria and Jerusalem: Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom (Israel), and Jerusalem was the capital of the southern kingdom (Judah).
- 1.1 Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah: Jotham, the son of Uzziah, ruled Judah 740–736 b.c.; Ahaz, the son of Jotham, ruled 736–716 b.c.; Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, ruled 716–687 b.c.
- 1.2 holy temple: Possibly the one in heaven, though it may be the Jerusalem temple.
- 1.7 wages of temple prostitutes: At pagan temples, people had sex with prostitutes as a way of worshiping the idols, and the money earned in this way was used to support the pagan religion.
- 1.8 this tragedy: Either the destruction of Samaria (verses 6,7) or the coming destruction of Judah and Jerusalem.
- 1.10 Gath … Beth-Leaphrah: Gath was a Philistine city; Beth-Leaphrah is unknown, but in Hebrew it sounds like “House of Dust.”
- 1.11 Shaphir: Mentioned only here in the Old Testament; in Hebrew “Shaphir” means “beautiful.”
- 1.11 Bethezel: Mentioned only here in the Old Testament; in Hebrew “Bethezel” means “house next door.”
- 1.11 Zaanan: Mentioned only here in the Old Testament; in Hebrew “Zaanan” means “one who goes out.”
- 1.11 The town … help: Or “No one from Zaanan refused to desert their town, and Bethezel mourns because it is left undefended.”
- 1.12 Maroth: Mentioned only here in the Old Testament; in Hebrew “Maroth” means “bitter.”
- 1.13 Lachish: The chief city of southwest Judah, about 48 kilometers from Jerusalem.
- 1.13 led … sin … did: Or “You led Jerusalem and Israel into sin.” In Hebrew “Lachish” sounds like “a team of horses (that pulls a war chariot).” And the sin may be that Lachish led the nation to trust the power of war chariots instead of the Lord. But the sin could be idolatry or some false teachings that were brought in from Egypt by way of Lachish.
- 1.14 going-away gift: The gift (dowry) that a bride's father gave her when she left the home of her parents to live with the family of her husband. In Hebrew the word for “bride” or “fiancee” sounds like “Moresheth.”
- 1.14 Moresheth: Hebrew “Moresheth-Gath”; the home of Micah (see verse 1).
- 1.14 Achzib: Meaning “lie” or “deception” was near Adullam Cave (verse 15), where David hid from King Saul (see 1 Samuel 22.1,2). Micah probably means that the people of Israel (including their king) will have to run for their lives, but will find that all hope for escape is merely a “lie” (see verse 15).
- 1.15 Mareshah: Sounds something like the Hebrew word for “conqueror” and was only a few kilometers northeast of Lachish.
- 1.15 Adullam Cave: See the note at 1.14.
- 1.16 precious children: The towns mentioned in verses 10-15.
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