Micah 1-4

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.

²Hear, 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.
³For 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.
⁵All this is due to the ^[e]wrongdoing of Jacob
And the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the ^(K)^[f]wrongdoing of Jacob?
Is it not ^(L)Samaria?
What is the ^(M)high ^[g]place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
⁶For 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.
⁷All 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.

⁸Because 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.
⁹For 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.”
¹²For 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.
¹³Harness 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.
¹⁴Therefore 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.
¹⁵Moreover, I will bring on you
The one who takes possession,
You inhabitant of ^[s]^(AI)Mareshah.
The glory of Israel will enter ^(AJ)Adullam.
¹⁶Shave 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.

Woe to Oppressors

2 Woe to those who ^(AM)devise wrongdoing,
Who practice evil on their beds!
^[t]^(AN)When morning comes, they do it,
Because it is in the ^(AO)power of their hands.
²They ^(AP)covet fields, so they ^(AQ)seize them;
And houses, so they take them.
They ^[u]^(AR)exploit a man and his house,
A person and his inheritance.

³Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“Behold, I am ^(AS)planning against this ^(AT)family a catastrophe
From which you ^(AU)cannot remove your necks;
And you will not walk ^(AV)haughtily,
For it will be an ^(AW)evil time.
⁴On that day they will ^(AX)take up against you a ^[v]song of mocking
And ^[w]^(AY)utter a song of mourning and say,
‘We are completely ^(AZ)destroyed!
He exchanges the share of my people;
How He removes it from me!
To the apostate He ^(BA)apportions our fields.’
⁵Therefore you will have no one ^[x]^(BB)applying a measuring line
For you by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶‘^(BC)Do not prophesy,’ so they prophesy.
But if ^[y]they do ^(BD)not prophesy about these things,
^(BE)Insults will not be turned back.
⁷Is it being said, house of Jacob:
‘Is the Spirit of the Lord ^(BF)impatient?
Are these His works?’
Do My words not ^(BG)do good
For the one ^(BH)walking rightly?
⁸^[z]Recently My people have arisen as an ^(BI)enemy—
You ^(BJ)strip the robe off the garment
From ^(BK)unsuspecting passers-by,
From those returned from war.
⁹You ^(BL)evict the women of My people,
Each one from her pleasant house.
From her children you take My ^(BM)splendor forever.
¹⁰Arise and go,
For this is no place ^(BN)of rest
Because of the ^(BO)uncleanness that brings on destruction,
A painful destruction.
¹¹If someone walking after wind and ^(BP)falsehood
Had lied and said,
‘I will prophesy to you about ^(BQ)wine and liquor,’
He would become a prophet to ^(BR)this people.

¹²“I will certainly ^(BS)assemble all of you, Jacob,
I will certainly gather the ^(BT)remnant of Israel.
I will put them together like sheep in the fold;
Like a flock in the midst of its pasture
They will be noisy with people.
¹³The one who breaks through goes up before them;
They break through, pass through the gate, and go out by it.
So their king passes on before them,
And the Lord at their head.”

Rulers Denounced

3 And I said,

“^(BU)Hear now, you ^[aa]leaders of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel:
Is it not for you to ^(BV)know justice?
²You who hate good and love evil,
Who ^(BW)tear off their skin from them
And their flesh from their bones,
³Who ^(BX)eat the flesh of my people,
Strip off their skin from them,
Smash their bones,
And ^(BY)chop them up as for the pot,
And as meat in a cauldron!”
⁴Then they will ^(BZ)cry out to the Lord,
But He will not answer them.
Instead, He will ^(CA)hide His face from them at that time
Because they have ^(CB)practiced evil deeds.

⁵This is what the Lord says concerning the prophets who ^(CC)lead my people astray:

When they have something to bite with their teeth,
They ^(CD)cry out, “Peace!”
But against him who puts nothing in their mouths
They declare holy war.
⁶Therefore it will be ^(CE)night for you—without vision,
And darkness for you—without divination.
The ^(CF)sun will go down on the prophets,
And the day will become dark over them.
⁷The seers will be ^(CG)put to shame,
And the ^(CH)diviners will be ashamed.
Indeed, they will all ^(CI)cover their ^[ab]lips
Because there is ^(CJ)no answer from God.
⁸On the other hand, ^(CK)I am filled with power—
With the Spirit of the Lord—
And with justice and courage
To ^(CL)make known to Jacob his rebellious act,
And to Israel his sin.
⁹Now hear this, you ^(CM)heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who ^(CN)despise justice
And twist everything that is straight,
¹⁰Who ^(CO)build Zion with bloodshed,
And Jerusalem with malice.
¹¹Her leaders pronounce ^(CP)judgment for a bribe,
Her ^(CQ)priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord, saying,
“^(CR)Is the Lord not in our midst?
Catastrophe will not come upon us.”
¹²Therefore on account of you,
^(CS)Zion will be plowed like a field,
^(CT)Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
And the ^(CU)mountain of the ^[ac]temple will become high places of a forest.

Peaceful Latter Days

4 And it will come about in the ^(CV)last days
That the ^(CW)mountain of the house of the Lord
Will be established ^[ad]as the chief of the mountains.
It will be raised above the hills,
And the ^(CX)peoples will stream to it.
²^(CY)Many nations will come and say,
“^(CZ)Come and let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord
And to the house of the God of Jacob,
So that ^(DA)He may teach us about His ways,
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For ^(DB)from Zion will go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
³And He will ^(DC)judge between many peoples
And render decisions for mighty, ^[ae]distant nations.
Then they will beat their swords ^(DD)into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation will not lift a sword against nation,
And never again will they ^[af]train for war.
⁴Instead, each of them will ^(DE)sit under his vine
And under his fig tree,
With ^(DF)no one to make them afraid,
Because the ^(DG)mouth of the Lord of armies has spoken.
⁵Though all the peoples walk,
Each in the ^(DH)name of his god,
As for us, ^(DI)we will walk
In the name of the ^(DJ)Lord our God forever and ever.

⁶“On that day,” declares the Lord,
“I will assemble those who ^(DK)limp
And ^(DL)gather the scattered,
Those whom I have afflicted.
⁷I will make those who limp a ^(DM)remnant,
And those who ^[ag]have strayed a mighty nation,
And the ^(DN)Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion
From now on and forever.
⁸As for you, ^[ah]^(DO)tower of the flock,
^[ai]Hill of the daughter of Zion,
To you it will come—
Yes, the ^(DP)former dominion will come,
The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

⁹“Now, why do you ^(DQ)cry out loudly?
Is there no king among you,
Or has your ^(DR)counselor perished,
That agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth?
¹⁰^(DS)Writhe and scream,
Daughter of Zion,
Like a woman in childbirth;
For now you will ^(DT)go out of the city,
Live in the field,
And go to Babylon.
^(DU)There you will be rescued,
^(DV)There the Lord will redeem you
From the hand of your enemies.
¹¹And now ^(DW)many nations have been assembled against you
Who say, ‘Let her be defiled,
And let our eyes ^[aj]gloat over Zion!’
¹²But they do not ^(DX)know the thoughts of the Lord,
And they do not understand His plan;
For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
¹³Arise and ^(DY)thresh, daughter of Zion,
For I will make your horn iron,
And I will make your hoofs bronze,
So that you may ^(DZ)pulverize many peoples,
And ^(EA)dedicate to the Lord their unjust profit,
And their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.