Micah 1
1 The Lord’s message which came to Micah of Morsheth in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The visions he saw about Samaria and Jerusalem.
A word of YHWH that has been to Micah the Morashite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, that he has seen concerning Samaria and Jerusalem:
2 Listen, all you peoples! Pay attention, all you inhabitants of the earth! For the Lord God will be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple!
Hear, O peoples, all of them! Attend, O earth, and its fullness, And Lord YHWH is against you for a witness, The Lord from His holy temple.
3 The Lord is coming from his holy place, he descends and treads on the heights of the earth,
For behold, YHWH is going out from His place, And He has come down, And has trodden on high places of earth.
4 so that the mountains melt beneath like wax in the presence of the fire, and the valleys break apart like water poured down a steep descent.
The mountains have been melted under Him, And the valleys split themselves, As wax from the presence of fire, As waters cast down by a slope.
5 All this is because of the crime of Jacob, and for the sin of the house of Israel. What was the crime of Jacob? Was it not Samaria? What is the sin of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
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 the high places of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 ‘I will make Samaria a ruin in an open field, and a place where a vineyard is planted, I will hurl down her stones into the valley, and lay bare her foundations.
“And I have set Samaria for a heap of the field, For plantations of a vineyard, And poured out into a valley her stones, And her foundations I uncover.
7 ‘All her images will be shattered, and all her statues will be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay in ruins. For they were acquired by prostitution, and to prostitution they will return.’
And all her carved images are beaten down, And all her wages are burned with fire, And all her idols I make a desolation, For from the wage of a harlot she gathered, and to the wage of a harlot they return.”
8 This is why I will mourn and wail, I will go barefoot and naked, I will howl like the jackals and mourn like the desert owl.
For this I lament and howl, I go spoiled and naked, I make a lamentation like dragons, And a mourning like daughters of an ostrich.
9 For the blow that Samaria has received is incurable. It has spread over Judah, it extends even to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
For mortal [are] her wounds, For it has come to Judah, It has come to a gate of My people—to Jerusalem.
10 Don’t tell this in Gath! Don’t even cry – but sit in the dust at Beth-leaphrah.
In Gath do not tell—in Acco do not weep, In Beth-Aphrah, roll yourself in dust.
11 Pass by, inhabitants of Shaphir, naked and ashamed! The inhabitants of Zaanan cannot leave their city. Beth-ezel laments and removes its support from you.
Pass over for you, O inhabitant of Shaphir, Naked one of shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan has not gone out, The lamentation of Beth-Ezel takes from you its standing.
12 The inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good! But the Lord has sent disaster to the gates of Jerusalem.
For the inhabitant of Maroth has stayed for good, For calamity has come down from YHWH to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the horse to the chariot, inhabitants of Lachish. You led the daughter of Zion, Jerusalem, into sin, in you are found the crimes of Israel.
Bind the chariot to a swift beast, O inhabitant of Lachish, The beginning of sin [is] she to the daughter of Zion, For in you have been found the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you must give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath. Beth-achzib will betray the kings of Israel.
Therefore you give presents to Moresheth-Gath, The houses of Achzib become a lying thing to the kings of Israel.
15 I will hand you to a conqueror, people of Mareshah, the leaders of Israel will hide in Adullam Cave!
Yet I bring the possessor to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah, The glory of Israel comes to Adullam.
16 Shave your head in mourning for the children you love, until you are bald as vultures, because they have left you for exile.
Make bald and shave, for your delightful sons, Enlarge your baldness as an eagle, For they have removed from you!
