Old/New Testament
Introduction
1 This is the Lord’s message that came to Micah of Moresheth during the time of[a] Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
The Judge is Coming
2 Listen, all you nations![b]
Pay attention, all inhabitants of earth![c]
The Sovereign Lord will act[d] as a witness against you;
the Lord will accuse you[e] from his majestic palace.[f]
3 Look,[g] the Lord is coming out of his dwelling place!
He will descend and march on the earth’s mountaintops![h]
4 The mountains will crumble[i] beneath him,
and the valleys will split apart[j]
like wax before a fire,
like water dumped down a steep slope.
5 All this is because of Jacob’s[k] rebellion
and[l] the sins of the nation[m] of Israel.
And just what is Jacob’s rebellion?
Isn’t it Samaria’s doings?[n]
And what is Judah’s sin?[o]
Isn’t it Jerusalem’s doings?[p]
6 “I will turn Samaria into a heap of ruins in an open field,
into a place for planting vineyards.
I will dump the rubble of her walls[q] down into the valley
and lay bare her foundations.[r]
7 All her carved idols will be smashed to pieces;
all her metal cult statues will be destroyed by fire.[s]
I will make a waste heap[t] of all her images.
Since[u] she gathered the metal[v] as a prostitute collects her wages,
the idols will become a prostitute’s wages again.”[w]
8 For this reason I[x] will mourn and wail;
I will walk around barefoot[y] and without my outer garments.[z]
I will howl[aa] like a wild dog,[ab]
and screech[ac] like an owl.[ad]
9 For Samaria’s[ae] disease[af] is incurable.
It has infected[ag] Judah;
it has spread to[ah] the leadership[ai] of my people
and even to Jerusalem!
10 Don’t spread the news in Gath.[aj]
Don’t shed even a single tear.[ak]
In Beth Leaphrah roll about in mourning in the dust![al]
11 Residents[am] of Shaphir,[an] pass by in nakedness and humiliation!
The residents of Zaanan have not escaped.[ao]
Beth Ezel[ap] mourns,[aq]
“He takes from you what he desires.”[ar]
12 Indeed, the residents of Maroth[as] hope for something good to happen,[at]
though the Lord has sent disaster against the city of Jerusalem.[au]
13 Residents of Lachish,[av] hitch the horses to the chariots!
You[aw] influenced Daughter Zion[ax] to sin,[ay]
for Israel’s rebellious deeds can be traced back[az] to you!
14 Therefore you[ba] will have to say farewell[bb] to Moresheth Gath.
The residents[bc] of Achzib[bd] will be as disappointing
as a dried up well[be] to the kings of Israel.[bf]
15 Residents of Mareshah,[bg] a conqueror will attack you;[bh]
the leaders of Israel shall flee to Adullam.[bi]
16 Shave your heads bald as you mourn for the children you love;[bj]
shave your foreheads as bald[bk] as an eagle,[bl]
for they are taken from you into exile.
Land Robbers Will Lose Their Land
2 Beware wicked schemers,[bm]
those who devise calamity as they lie in bed.[bn]
As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans,[bo]
because they have the power to do so.
2 They confiscate the fields they desire
and seize the houses they want.[bp]
They defraud people of their homes[bq]
and deprive people of the land they have inherited.[br]
3 Therefore the Lord says this:
“Look, I am devising disaster for this nation![bs]
It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck.[bt]
You will no longer[bu] walk proudly,
for it will be a time of catastrophe.
4 In that day people will sing this taunt song to you—
they will mock you with this lament:[bv]
‘We are completely destroyed;
they sell off[bw] the property of my people.
How they remove it from me![bx]
They assign our fields to the conqueror.’”[by]
5 Therefore no one will assign you land in the Lord’s community.[bz]
6 “Don’t preach with such impassioned rhetoric,” they say excitedly.[ca]
“These prophets should not preach of such things;
we will not be overtaken by humiliation.”[cb]
7 Does the family[cc] of Jacob say,[cd]
“The Lord’s patience[ce] can’t be exhausted—
he would never do such things”?[cf]
To be sure, my commands bring a reward
for those who obey them,[cg]
8 but you rise up as an enemy against my people.[ch]
You steal a robe from a friend,[ci]
from those who pass by peacefully as if returning from a war.[cj]
9 You wrongly evict widows[ck] among my people from their cherished homes.
You defraud their children[cl] of their prized inheritance.[cm]
10 But you are the ones who will be forced to leave![cn]
For this land is not secure;[co]
sin will thoroughly destroy it![cp]
11 If a lying windbag should come and say,[cq]
‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’[cr]
he would be just the right preacher for these people![cs]
The Lord Will Restore His People
12 “I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob,
I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain.[ct]
I will bring them together like sheep in a fold,[cu]
like a flock in the middle of a pasture;[cv]
they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise.[cw]
13 The one who can break through barriers will lead them out;[cx]
they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave.[cy]
Their king will advance[cz] before them;
the Lord himself will lead them.”[da]
God Will Judge Judah’s Sinful Leaders
3 I said,
“Listen, you leaders[db] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[dc] of Israel!
You ought to know what is just,[dd]
2 yet you[de] hate what is good[df]
and love what is evil.[dg]
You flay my people’s skin[dh]
and rip the flesh from their bones.[di]
3 You[dj] devour my people’s flesh,
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot[dk]—
like meat in a kettle.
4 Someday these sinful leaders[dl] will cry to the Lord for help,
but he will not answer them.
He will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have done such wicked deeds.”
5 This is what the Lord has said about the prophets who mislead my people,[dm]
“If someone gives them enough to eat,
they offer an oracle of peace.[dn]
But if someone does not give them food,
they are ready to declare war on him.[do]
6 Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions;[dp]
it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens.[dq]
The sun will set on these prophets,
and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads.[dr]
7 The prophets[ds] will be ashamed;
the omen readers will be humiliated.
All of them will cover their mouths,[dt]
for they will receive no divine oracles.”[du]
8 But I[dv] am full of the courage that the Lord’s Spirit gives
and have a strong commitment to justice.[dw]
This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion
and Israel with its sin.[dx]
9 Listen to this, you leaders of the family[dy] of Jacob,
you rulers of the nation[dz] of Israel!
You[ea] hate justice
and pervert all that is right.
10 You[eb] build Zion through bloody crimes,[ec]
Jerusalem through unjust violence.
11 Her[ed] leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases,[ee]
her priests proclaim rulings for profit,
and her prophets read omens for pay.
Yet they claim to trust[ef] the Lord and say,
“The Lord is among us.[eg]
Disaster will not overtake[eh] us!”
12 Therefore, because of you,[ei] Zion will be plowed up like[ej] a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,
and the Temple Mount[ek] will become a hill overgrown with brush![el]
The Fate of the Two Witnesses
11 Then[a] a measuring rod[b] like a staff was given to me, and I was told,[c] “Get up and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and the ones who worship there. 2 But[d] do not measure the outer courtyard[e] of the temple; leave it out,[f] because it has been given to the Gentiles,[g] and they will trample on the holy city[h] for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant my two witnesses authority[i] to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth.” 4 (These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.)[j] 5 If[k] anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths[l] and completely consumes[m] their enemies. If[n] anyone wants to harm them, they must be killed this way. 6 These two have the power[o] to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time[p] they are prophesying. They[q] have power[r] to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want. 7 When[s] they have completed their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will make war on them and conquer[t] them and kill them. 8 Their[u] corpses will lie in the street[v] of the great city that is symbolically[w] called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was also crucified. 9 For three and a half days those from every[x] people, tribe,[y] nation, and language will look at their corpses, because they will not permit them to be placed in a tomb.[z] 10 And those who live on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate, even sending gifts to each other, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. 11 But[aa] after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized[ab] those who were watching them. 12 Then[ac] they[ad] heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!” So the two prophets[ae] went up to heaven in a cloud while[af] their enemies stared at them. 13 Just then[ag] a major earthquake took place and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand people[ah] were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has come and gone;[ai] the third is coming quickly.
The Seventh Trumpet
15 Then[aj] the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:
“The kingdom of the world
has become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Christ,[ak]
and he will reign for ever and ever.”
16 Then[al] the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God threw themselves down with their faces to the ground[am] and worshiped God 17 with these words:[an]
“We give you thanks, Lord God, the All-Powerful,[ao]
the one who is and who was,
because you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.[ap]
18 The[aq] nations[ar] were enraged,
but[as] your wrath has come,
and the time has come for the dead to be judged,
and the time has come to give to your servants,[at]
the prophets, their reward,
as well as to the saints
and to those who revere[au] your name, both small and great,
and the time has come[av] to destroy those who destroy[aw] the earth.”
19 Then[ax] the temple of God in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was visible within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, roaring,[ay] crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.[az]
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