Micah 2
1 Woe [to] those devising iniquity, And working evil on their beds, In the morning light they do it, For their hand is—to God.
A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in the morning light they do it, because it is in their power.
2 And they have desired fields, And they have taken violently, And houses, and they have taken away, And have oppressed a man and his house, Even a man and his inheritance.
They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his family, even to a man and his heritage.
3 Therefore, thus said YHWH: “Behold, I am devising against this family calamity, From which you do not remove your necks, Nor walk loftily, for it [is] a time of evil.
For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it is an evil time.
4 In that day [one] takes up for you an allegory, And he has wailed a wailing of woe, He has said, We have been utterly spoiled, The portion of my people He changes, How He moves toward me! To the backslider our fields He apportions.
In that day this saying will be said about you, and this song of grief will be made: The heritage of my people is measured out, and there is no one to give it back; those who have made us prisoners have taken our fields from us, and complete destruction has come to us.
5 Therefore, you have no caster of a line by lot In the assembly of YHWH.
For this cause you will have no one to make the decision by the measuring line in the meeting of the Lord.
6 You do not prophesy—they prophesy, They do not prophesy to these, It does not remove shame.
Let not words like these be dropped, they say: Shame and the curse will not come to the family of Jacob!
7 [Those] named the house of Jacob: Has the Spirit of YHWH been shortened? Are these His doings? Do My words not benefit the people that are walking uprightly?
Is the Lord quickly made angry? are these his doings? do not his words do good to his people Israel?
8 And recently My people raise up as an enemy, You strip off the honorable ornament from the outer garment, From the confident passers by, You who are turning back from war.
As for you, you have become haters of those who were at peace with you: you take the clothing of those who go by without fear, and make them prisoners of war.
9 The women of My people you cast out from its delightful house, From its sucklings you take away My honor for all time.
The women of my people you have been driving away from their dearly loved children; from their young ones you are taking my glory for ever.
10 Rise and go, for this [is] not the rest, Because of uncleanness it corrupts, And corruption is powerful.
Up! and go; for this is not your rest: because it has been made unclean, the destruction ordered will come on you.
11 If one is going [with] the wind, And [with] falsehood has lied: I prophesy to you of wine, and of strong drink, He has been the prophet of this people!
If a man came with a false spirit of deceit, saying, I will be a prophet to you of wine and strong drink: he would be the sort of prophet for this people.
12 I surely gather you, O Jacob, all of you, I surely bring together the remnant of Israel, Together I set it as the flock of Bozrah, As a drove in the midst of its pasture, It makes a noise because of man.
I will certainly make all of you, O Jacob, come together; I will get together the rest of Israel; I will put them together like the sheep in their circle: like a flock in their green field; they will be full of the noise of men.
13 The breaker has gone up before them, They have broken through, Indeed, they pass through the gate, Indeed, they go out through it, And their king passes on before them, And YHWH at their head!”
The opener of the way will go up before them: forcing their way out they will go on to the doorway and out through it: their king will go on before them, and the Lord at their head.
