THE BOOK OF MICAH

CHAPTER 1

THE word of Yahowah that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

2 Hear, all You people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let Adonai Yahowah be witness against you, Yahowah from his holy temple.

3 For, behold, Yahowah cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

4 And the mountains will be molten under him, and the valleys will be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.

7 And all the graven images thereof will be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof will be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they will return to the hire of an harlot.

8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

9 For her wound is incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

10 Declare You it not at Gath, weep You not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.

11 Pass You away, you inhabitant of Saphir, having Your shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he will receive of you his standing.

12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from Yahowah unto the gate of Jerusalem.

13 O you inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

14 Therefore will you give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib will be a lie to the kings of Israel.

15 Yet will I bring an heir unto you, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he will come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

16 Make you bald, and poll you for Your delicate children; enlarge Your baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from you.

CHAPTER 2

WOE to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

2 And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

3 Therefore thus says Yahowah; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which You will not remove your necks; neither will You go haughtily: for this time is evil.

4 In that day will one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he has changed the portion of my people: how has he removed it from me! turning away he has divided our fields.

5 Therefore you will have none that will cast a cord by lot in the congregation of Yahowah.

6 Prophesy You not, say they to them that prophesy: they will not prophesy to them, that they will not take shame.

7 O you that are named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of Yahowah straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly?

8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: You pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.

9 The women of my people have You cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have You taken away my glory for ever.

10 Arise You, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it will destroy you, even with a sore destruction.

11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto you of wine and of strong drink; he will even be the prophet of this people.

12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they will make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.

13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king will pass before them, and Yahowah on the head of them.

CHAPTER 3

AND I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and You princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?

2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

4 Then will they cry unto Yahowah, but he will not hear them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.

5 Thus says Yahowah concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

6 Therefore night will be unto you, that You will not have a vision; and it will be dark unto you, that You will not divine; and the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will be dark over them.

7 Then will the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they will all cover their lips; for there is no answer of Elohim.

8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of Yahowah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, I pray you, You heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon Yahowah, and say, Is not Yahowah among us? none evil can come upon us.

12 Therefore will Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

CHAPTER 4

BUT in the last days it will come to pass, that the mountain of the house of Yahowah will be established in the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and people will flow unto it.

2 And many nations will come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahowah, and to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law will go forth of Zion, and the word of Yahowah from Jerusalem.

3 And he will judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation will not lift up a sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.

4 But they will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none will make them afraid: for the mouth of Yahowah of hosts has spoken it.

5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of Yahowah our Elohim for ever and ever.

6 In that day, says Yahowah, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;

7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and Yahowah will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.

8 And you, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto you will it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom will come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why dost you cry out aloud? is there no king in you? is Your counseller perished? for pangs have taken you as a woman in travail.

10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now will you go forth out of the city, and you will dwell in the field, and you will go even to Babylon; there will you be delivered; there Yahowah will redeem you from the hand of yours enemies.

11 Now also many nations are gathered against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.

12 But they know not the thoughts of Yahowah, neither understand they his counsel: for he will gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make yours horn iron, and I will make Your hoofs brass: and you will beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto Yahowah, and their substance unto Yahowah of the whole earth.

CHAPTER 5

NOW gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he has laid siege against us: they will smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

2 But you, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you will he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth has brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren will return unto the children of Israel.

4 And he will stand and feed in the strength of Yahowah, in the majesty of the name of Yahowah his Elohim; and they will abide: for now will he be great unto the ends of the earth.

5 And this man will be the peace, when the Assyrian will come into our land: and when he will tread in our palaces, then will we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

6 And they will waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus will he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

7 And the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many people as a dew from Yahowah, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

8 And the remnant of Jacob will be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.

9 your hand will be lifted up upon yours adversaries, and all yours enemies will be cut off.

10 And it will come to pass in that day, says Yahowah, that I will cut off Your horses out of the midst of you, and I will destroy Your chariots:

11 And I will cut off the cities of Your land, and throw down all Your strong holds:

12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of yours hand; and you will have no more soothsayers:

13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and Your standing images out of the midst of you; and you will no more worship the work of yours hands.

14 And I will pluck up Your groves out of the midst of you: so will I destroy Your cities.

15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

CHAPTER 6

HEAR You now what Yahowah says; Arise, contend you before the mountains, and let the hills hear Your voice.

2 Hear You, O mountains, Yahowah’s controversy, and You strong foundations of the earth: for Yahowah has a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

3 O my people, what have I done unto you? and wherein have I wearied you? testify against me.

4 For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that You may know the righteousness of Yahowah.

6 Wherewith will I come before Yahowah, and bow myself before the high Elohim? will I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

7 Will Yahowah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? will I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8 He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does Yahowah require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Your Elohim?

9 Yahowah’s voice cries unto the city, and the man of wisdom will see Your name: hear You the rod, and who has appointed it.

10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

11 Will I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights?

12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

13 Therefore also will I make you sick in smiting you, in making you desolate because of Your sins.

14 You will eat, but not be satisfied; and Your casting down will be in the midst of you; and you will take hold, but will not deliver; and that which you deliverest will I give up to the sword.

15 You will sow, but you will not reap; you will tread the olives, but you will not anoint you with oil; and sweet wine, but will not drink wine.

16 For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and You walk in their counsels; that I should make you a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore You will bear the reproach of my people.

CHAPTER 7

WOE is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.

2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of Your watchmen and Your visitation cometh; now will be their perplexity.

5 Trust You not in a friend, put You not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of Your mouth from her that lieth in Your bosom.

6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

7 Therefore I will look unto Yahowah; I will wait for the Elohim of my salvation: my Elohim will hear me.

8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I will arise; when I sit in darkness, Yahowah will be a light unto me.

9 I will bear the indignation of Yahowah, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I will behold his righteousness.

10 Then she that is mine enemy will see it, and shame will cover her which said unto me, Where is Yahowah Your Elohim? mine eyes will behold her: now will she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

11 In the day that Your walls are to be built, in that day will the decree be far removed.

12 In that day also he will come even to you from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

13 Notwithstanding the land will be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

14 Feed Your people with Your rod, the flock of yours heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

15 According to the days of Your coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.

16 The nations will see and be confounded at all their might: they will lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears will be deaf.

17 They will lick the dust like a serpent, they will move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they will be afraid of Yahowah our Elohim, and will fear because of you.

18 Who is a Elohim like unto you, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

20 You will perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.