[1] The word of the LORD 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 ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and
let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
[3] For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come
down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
[4] And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall
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
[6] Therefore I will make
[7] And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all
the hires thereof shall 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 shall
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
[10] Declare ye it not at
[11] Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked:
the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall
receive of you his standing.
[12] For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil
came down from the LORD unto the gate of
[13] O thou inhabitant of
[14] Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of
Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of
[15] Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he
shall come unto Adullam the glory of
[16] Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge
thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
[1] 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 saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I
devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go
haughtily: for this time is evil.
[4] In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with
a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the
portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! turning away he hath
divided our fields.
[5] Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the
congregation of the LORD.
[6] Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy: they shall not
prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.
[7] O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD
straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh
uprightly?
[8] Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye 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 ye cast out from their pleasant houses;
from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.
[10] Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is
polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.
[11] If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will
prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of
this people.
[12] I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather
the remnant of
[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 shall pass
before them, and the LORD on the head of them.
[1] And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob,
and ye princes of the house of
[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 shall they cry unto the LORD, 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 saith the LORD 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 shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision;
and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go
down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
[7] Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea,
they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.
[8] But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of
judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to
[9] Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes
of the house of
[10] They build up
[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
the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
[12] Therefore shall
[1] But in the last days it shall come to pass, that
the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains,
and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
[2] And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the
mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach
us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of
Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
[3] And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar
off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more.
[4] But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree;
and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken
it.
[5] For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we
will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
[6] In that day, saith the LORD, 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 the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from
henceforth, even for ever.
[8] And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of
[9] Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy
counseller perished? for pangs have taken thee 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 shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt
dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be
delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
[11] Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her
be defiled, and let our eye look upon
[12] But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they
his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
[13] Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn
iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many
people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance
unto the Lord of the whole earth.
[1] Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of
troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel
with a rod upon the cheek.
[2] But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall 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 hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return
unto the children of Israel.
[4] And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the
majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he
be great unto the ends of the earth.
[5] And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into
our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against
him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
[6] And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the
land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall 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 shall be in the midst of many people as a
dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man,
nor waiteth for the sons of men.
[8] And the remnant of Jacob shall 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] Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine
enemies shall be cut off.
[10] And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will
cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:
[11] And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy
strong holds:
[12] And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt
have no more soothsayers:
[13] Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out
of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
[14] And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I
destroy thy cities.
[15] And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen,
such as they have not heard.
[1] Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise, contend
thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.
[2] Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD's controversy, and ye strong
foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and
he will plead with
[3] O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied
thee? testify against me.
[4] For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee
out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
[5] O my people, remember now what Balak king of
[6] Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the
high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year
old?
[7] Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten
thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the
fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
[8] He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD
require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God?
[9] The LORD's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall
see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.
[10] Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the
wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?
[11] Shall 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 thee sick in smiting thee, in making
thee desolate because of thy sins.
[14] Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be
in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that
which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.
[15] Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the
olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not
drink wine.
[16] For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house
of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation,
and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of
my people.
[1] 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 thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be
their perplexity.
[5] Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the
doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy 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 the LORD; I will wait for the God of my
salvation: my God will hear me.
[8] Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise;
when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
[9] I will bear the indignation of the LORD, 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 shall behold his righteousness.
[10] Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her
which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now
shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
[11] In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the
decree be far removed.
[12] In that day also he shall come even to thee from
[13] Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that
dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
[14] Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which
dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of
[15] According to the days of thy coming out of the
[16] The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they
shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
[17] They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of
their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God,
and shall fear because of thee.
[18] Who is a God like unto thee, 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 thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
[20] Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham,
which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.