1And a word of the Lord came to Micah, the inhabitant of Moresheth, in the days of Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, on behalf of whom he saw concerning Samaria and concerning Jerusalem. 2 Hear the words, O people, and let the earth and all those in it pay attention, and the lord Lord will be among you for a testimony, the Lord out of his sacred house. 3 For look, the Lord is going out from his place, and he will step down upon the heights of the earth. 4 And the mountains will be shaken underneath him, and the valleys will melt like wax from the face of fire, and like water being brought into a precipice. 5 All these things are because of the impiety of Jacob, and because of the sin of the house of Israel. What is the impiety of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6 So I will make Samaria into the garden-watcher’s hut in a field, and into a plantation of a vineyard, and I will pull down her stones into a chasm, and I will uncover her foundations. 7 And all her carved images will be cut in pieces, and all her wages will be set on fire, and all her idols I will appoint unto destruction, because from the wages of prostitution she gathered, and from the wages of prostitution she amassed wealth. 8 On account of this she will beat herself and lament; she will go barefoot and naked; she will make lamentation like serpents and mourning like the daughters of sirens. 9 Because her blow has prevailed, because it has come as far as Judah and has kindled as far as the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem. 10 You who are in Gath, do not boast; you who are in Akim, do not rebuild from the house in derision; sprinkle yourself with the dirt of your derision. 11 While inhabiting well in her cities she did not go out, while living in Zaanan to lament her neighboring house; she will receive from you a painful blow. 12 Who has begun for good for she who inhabits pain? Because evil came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem, 13 the sound of chariots and of horsemen. She who inhabits Lachish, she is the originator of sin for the daughter of Zion, because in you were found the impieties of Israel. 14 On account of this he will give expelled ones useless houses, as far as the inheritance of Moresheth-gath. They have come to vanity for the kings of Israel. 15 Until they bring the heirs, O she who inhabits the inheritance of Lachish, the glory of the daughter of Israel will be present as far as Adullam.
2Shave and cut your hair for your delicate children; widen your widowhood like an eagle, because they were taken prisoner from you. 2 They came reckoning troubles, and working at evil deeds in their beds, and in the daytime they accomplished the things, since they did not raise their hands toward God. 2 And they used to desire fields, and take orphans as plunder, and take over houses, and take a man and his house as plunder, and a man and his inheritance. 3 On account of this the Lord says these things, “Look, I am reckoning evil deeds against this tribe, because of which you shall not raise up your necks, and you will not walk upright all of a sudden, because it is an evil time. 4 In that day a proverb will be taken up against you, and a lamentation will be wailed in song, saying, ‘We suffered distress by distress, the portion of my people was measured by rope, and there was not one who was hindering in order to turn him back. Our fields were divided. 5 On account of this, you will have no one throwing a rope in a lot in the assembly of the Lord. 6 Do not weep tears, nor let them weep over these things, for he will not dismiss censures. 7 The one who says, ‘The house of Jacob provoked the spirit of the Lord.’ If these are his practices, aren’t his words beautiful with him And have they not gone on rightly? 8 And earlier, my people resisted in enmity; contrary to his time of peace they stripped off his skin, in order to take away hope with reference to the crushing of war. 9 Leaders of my people will be cast out of their houses of luxury. They were forced out because of their evil practices. You approached the eternal mountains. 10 Rise and go, because this rest is not for you, On account of uncleanliness, you were utterly destroyed by depravity. 11 You were pursued, although no one was pursuing. A spirit established a lie. It dripped for you as wine and an intoxicating drink. And it will be that from the drop of this people, 12 while being gathered together, Jacob will be gathered together with everyone. While receiving, I will receive the ones left remaining of Israel; at the same time I will appoint his return. Like sheep in affliction, like a flock in the middle of their fold, they will leap forth from humans. 13 They cut through the breach before their face, and they went through the gate and went out through it. And their king went out before their face, but the Lord will go before them.”
3And he will say, “Hear now these things, O rulers of the house of Jacob, and the rest of the house of Israel. Is it not for you to know the judgment? 2 You who hate the beautiful things and seek the evil things, who snatch away their skins from them, and their flesh from their bones. 3 The way they devoured the flesh of my people, and stripped off their skins from them, and crushed their bones, and they cut them in pieces like pieces of flesh in a cauldron, and like meat for a pot for boiling.” 4 So they will cry to the Lord, and he will not listen to them, and he will turn away his face from them in that time, because they acted wickedly in their practices against them. 5 This says the Lord against the prophets who are leading my people astray, who are biting with their teeth and proclaiming upon him peace, and it was not given into their mouth; they stirred up war against him. 6 Because of this, it will be night for you, without vision, and it will be darkness for you, without divination, and the sun will set upon the prophets, and the day will grow quite dark upon them. 7 And those seeing dreams will be disgraced, and the diviners will be laughed at, and all of them will speak against them, because there will be no one listening to them. 8 Otherwise I will fill full my strength by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of lordship, so that I might explain to Jacob his ungodliness, and to Israel his sins. 9 Hear now these things, O leaders of the house of Jacob, and you who are left remaining of the house of Israel, who feel a loathing for judgment, and pervert all upright things, 10 who are building Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with injustice. 11 Her leaders used to judge in exchange for gifts, and her priests used to answer in exchange for a wage, and her prophets used to divine in exchange for silver, and they rested upon the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord among us? Evil things will not come upon us.” 12 Because of this, because of you Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will be like a garden-watcher’s hut, and the mountain of the house will be turned into a grove of thicket.
4And it will be at the last of days, that the mountain of the Lord will be visible, prepared on the tops of the mountains, and it will be raised above the hills, and people will hasten toward it. 2 And many nations will go and say, “Come! Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and into the house of the God of Jacob, and they will show us his way, and we will walk in his paths.” Because from Zion the law will come out, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3 And he will judge between many peoples, and he will convict strong nations even far away, and they will cut up their swords into plows and their spears into sickles, and a nation will no longer raise a sword against a nation, and they will no longer learn to make war. 4 And each one will rest under his vine, and each one under his fig tree, and there will be no one who frightens them, because the mouth of the Lord Almighty has spoken these things. 5 Because all the peoples will go, each one his way, but we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God, into eternity and beyond. 6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather together she who is crushed, and I will receive she who is banished and those whom I rejected, 7 and I will make she who is crushed into a remnant, and she who is rejected into a strong nation. And the Lord will be king over them on the mountain of Zion, from the present until for eternity. 8 And you, O dry tower of a flock, the daughter of Zion, to you will come and will enter the first ruler, a kingdom out of Babylon, for the daughter of Jerusalem. 9 And now for what purpose did you learn evil things? Was there no king for you? Or was your will destroyed because pains of childbirth overcame you like a woman giving birth? 10 Be in labor, and be valiant, and draw near, O daughter of Zion, like a woman giving birth, because now you will go out of the city, and you will settle in a plain, and you will come as far as Babylon; from there the Lord, your God, will rescue you from the hand of your enemies. 11 And now many nations have gathered together against you, who are saying, ‘We will rejoice, and our eyes will look upon Zion. 12 They did not know the reasoning of the Lord, and they did not understand his will, that he gathered them like sheaves of a threshing floor. 13 Rise, and thresh them, O daughter of Zion, because I will make your horns iron, and I will make your hooves copper, and you will exterminate many peoples, and you will dedicate to the Lord the multitude of them, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth.
5aNow the daughter will be stopped by a barrier. He arranged a siege against you. With a rod he will strike upon the cheek, the gate of Israel. 2 And you, O Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, you are very small to be in the thousands of Judah, from which for me one will come out to be for a ruler of Israel, and his goings out are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.” 3 On account of this, he will give them up until the time when her laboring will bring forth a child, and those remaining of their brothers will return to the sons of Israel. 4 And he will stop and look and will shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, and they will exist in the glory of the name of the Lord, their God, because now it will be made great to the extremities of the earth. 5 And this will be a time of peace. When Assyria comes upon your land, and when he treads upon your territory, that seven shepherds will rise up against him, and eight stings of people. 6 And they will shepherd Assyria with a sword, and the land of Nimrod with its ditch, and he will rescue from the Assyrians, whenever he comes upon your land, and whenever he treads upon your borders. 7 And the remainder of Jacob will be among the nations, in the middle of many peoples, like dew falling from the Lord, and like lambs upon grass, in order that nobody may assemble, nor resist among the sons of humans. 8 And the remnant of Jacob among the nations, in the middle of many peoples, will be like a lion among livestock in the thicket, and like a cub among flocks of sheep, just like when it goes through and, after separating one out, he snatches it away, and one who delivers does not exist. 9 Your hand will be lifted up over those who are afflicting you, and all your enemies will be utterly destroyed. 10 “And it will be in that day,” says the Lord, “I will utterly destroy the horses from your midst, and I will destroy your chariots. 11 And I will utterly destroy the cities of your land, and I will remove all your strongholds, 12 and I will utterly destroy your magical potions from your hands, and there will be no soothsayers among you. 13 And I will utterly destroy your carved images, and your pillars from the middle of you, and you will no longer worship the works of your hands. 14 And I will cut down groves from the middle of you, and remove your cities. 15 And I will bring to pass vengeance in anger and in wrath on the nations, because they did not listen.”
6Hear now a word. The lord Lord said, “Stand up! Contend with the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice! 2 Hear, O people, the judgment of the Lord, and O ravines, the foundations of the earth, because the Lord has a judgment against his people, and he will argue a case with Israel. 3 O my people, what have I done to you? Or how did I grieve you? Or how did I annoy you? Answer me! 4 Because I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of slavery, I ransomed you, and sent forth before your face Moses and Aaron and Miriam. 5 O my people, remember now how Balak, king of Moab, planned against you, and what Balaam, son of Beor, answered him from the reeds as far as Gilgal, in order that the righteousness of the Lord might be known.” 6 With what should I take hold of the Lord? Will I devote myself to my God Most High, if I take hold of him with whole burnt-offerings, with year-old calves? 7 Will the Lord accept among thousands of rams, or among ten thousands of swollen brooks? Should I give my firstborns for impiety, the fruit of my belly for the sin of my soul? 8 Has it been reported to you, O human, what is beautiful, or what the Lord seeks from you, but to make judgment, and to love mercy, and to be prepared to go with the Lord, your God? 9 The voice of the Lord will be invoked for the city, and he will save those fearing his name. “Hear, O tribe, and who will arrange the city? 10 Does fire and a lawless house store up lawless treasure and injustice with insolence? 11 Will a lawless person be justified by a scale, or weights of deceit by a bag? 12 From which things they filled their wealth with impiety. And those who are dwelling in her used to speak lies, and their tongue you shall raise up in their mouth. 13 So I will begin to strike you. I will destroy you with your sins. 14 You will eat, and you will not be filled, and it will grow dark in you, and you will turn aside, and you will not escape; and however many escape, they will be given over to a sword. 15 You will sow and you will not reap, you will press the olive and not anoint yourself with olive oil, and wine and not drink, and my people’s customs will be removed. 16 And you guarded the duties of Zimri, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walked in their ways, that I might hand you over to destruction and her inhabitants to hissing, and you will receive the reproaches of peoples.”
7Woe is me, because I was born like one gathering a stalk of corn at harvest time and like a gleaning at vintage, without there being a cluster to eat the firstfruits. Woe is me, O soul, 2 because the pious one was destroyed from the land, and one who is upright among humans does not exist. All go to court for blood; each one afflicts his neighbor with affliction. 3 They prepare their hands for evil; the ruler asks, and the judge spoke peaceful words. It is in the thought of his soul, and I will take away their good things 4 like your devouring and walking upon a rod on a day of watch. Woe, woe, your vengeance has come; now their weepings will be. 5 Do not trust in friends, and do not hope upon leaders; guard yourself from your bed-partner, from communicating anything to her. 6 Because a son dishonors a father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a bride against her mother-in-law; the enemies of a man are all who are in his house. 7 I will look upon the Lord; I will wait upon God, my savior. My God will listen to me. 8 Do not rejoice for me, my hatred, because I fell and I will rise, because if I sit in the darkness, the Lord will give light to me. 9 I will endure the anger of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he issues my penalty, and he will execute my judgment and lead me out into the light; I will see his righteousness. 10 And my hatred will see, and she who says to me, “Where is the Lord, your God?” She will clothe herself with shame. My eyes will look upon her; now she will be for trampling like clay in the roads 11 during a day of plastering of brick. That day will be your blotting out, and that day will get rid of your customs. 12 And your cities will give way to be leveled and to a division of Assyria, and your secure cities to a division from Tyre, as far as the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. 13 And the land will be for destruction together with its inhabitants, from the fruits of their practices. 14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the sheep of your inheritance, who are settling by themselves in a thicket, in the middle of Carmel; they will pasture the Bashan and the Gilead, like the days of eternity. 15 And like the days of your exodus from Egypt, you will see wonders. 16 Nations will see and be ashamed, because of all their strength. They will lay hands upon their mouth, their ears will become deaf. 17 They will lick up dust like serpents crawling on the earth; they will be confounded in their enclosure; they will be astonished because of the Lord, your God, and they will be frightened of you. 18 What God is like you, removing lawless acts and overlooking the impiety of the remnant of his inheritance? And he did not hold onto his anger as a testimony, because he is one who wishes compassion. 19 He will turn and have pity upon us. He will dismiss our injustices and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 20 He will give truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as you swore to our fathers during former days.