Micah 2
1 Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.
Woe to those that devise wickedness, and resolve on evil upon their couches! by the first light of the morning they execute it, if they have it in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.
And they covet fields, and rob them; and houses, and take them away: so they defraud the master and his house, and the man and his heritage.
3 Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.
Therefore thus hath said the Lord, Behold, I will devise against this family an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; nor shall ye go erect; for it is an evil time.
4 In that day they will take up a proverb against you and taunt you with this bitter lamentation: ‘We are utterly ruined! He has changed the portion of my people. How He has removed it from me! He has allotted our fields to traitors.’”
On that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a mournful lamentation, and say, “We are utterly wasted: the portion of my people hath he exchanged; how hath he removed it from me! instead of restoring [them to us] he divideth our fields.”
5 Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot.
Therefore shalt thou have none that shall draw the [measuring] cord in [his] lot in the congregation of the Lord.
6 “Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”
“Preach not;” [but] they shall preach: they shall not preach [indeed] to these, that reproach may not overtake them.
7 Should it be said, O house of Jacob, “Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things He does?” Do not My words bring good to him who walks uprightly?
Shall it be said [in] the house of Jacob, Is the spirit of the Lord straightened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
8 But of late My people have risen up like an enemy: You strip off the splendid robe from unsuspecting passersby like men returning from battle.
But long since is my people risen up as an enemy: from the garment do you pull off the ornament; of those that pass by securely [ye make] men returned from war.
9 You drive the women of My people from their pleasant homes. You take away My blessing from their children forever.
The wives of my people do you drive out of their delightful houses; from their children do ye take away my ornament for ever.
10 Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction— a grievous destruction!
Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place; because it is polluted, it shall destroy [you], even with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people!
If a man that goeth after wind and lieth with falsehood [should say], “I will preach unto thee of wine and of strong drink:” he would be a preacher for this people.
12 I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of its pasture— a noisy throng.
I will [once] surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather up the remnant of Israel; I will place them together as flocks in the fold, as droves in the midst of their pen: they shall be crowded with men.
13 One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the LORD as their leader.
The wall-breaker cometh up before them; they break in and pass through the gate, and go out by it: and their king passeth on before them, and the Lord at their head.
