October 7

Micah 1:1 — 5:15

Micah

1 The word of Jehovah that occurred to Micah of Moresheth, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, that he visioned concerning Samaria and Jerusalem:

2 “Hear, O YOU peoples, all of YOU; pay attention, O earth and what fills you, and let the Sovereign Lord Jehovah serve against YOU as a witness, Jehovah from his holy temple. 3 For, look! Jehovah is going forth from his place, and he will certainly come down and tread upon earth’s high places. 4 And the mountains must melt under him, and the low plains themselves will split apart, like wax because of the fire, like waters being poured down a steep place.

5 “It is because of the revolt of Jacob that there is all this, even because of the sins of the house of Israel. What is the revolt of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? 6 And I shall certainly make Samaria a heap of ruins of the field, the planting places of a vineyard; and I will pour down into the valley her stones, and her foundations I shall lay bare. 7 And her graven images will all be crushed to pieces, and all the gifts [made] to her as her hire will be burned in the fire; and all her idols I shall make a desolate waste. For from the things given as the hire of a prostitute she collected [them], and to the thing given as the hire of a prostitute they will return.”

8 On this account I will wail and howl; I will walk barefoot and naked. I shall make a wailing like the jackals, and a mourning like female ostriches. 9 For the stroke upon her is unhealable; for it has come as far as Judah, [the] plague as far as the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem.

10 “In Gath do not YOU men tell [it] out; positively do not weep.

“In the house of Aphrah wallow in the very dust. 11 Make your way across, O inhabitress of Shaphir, in shameful nudity. The inhabitress of Zaanan has not gone forth. The wailing of Beth-ezel will take from YOU people its standing place. 12 For the inhabitress of Maroth has waited for good, but what is bad has come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem. 13 Attach the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitress of Lachish. The beginning of sin was what she was to the daughter of Zion, for in you the revolts of Israel have been found. 14 Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath. The houses of Achzib were as something deceitful to the kings of Israel. 15 The dispossessor I shall yet bring to you, O inhabitress of Mareshah. As far as Adullam the glory of Israel will come. 16 Cause baldness, and shear [your hair] off on account of your sons of exquisite delight. Broaden out your baldness like [that of] the eagle, because they have gone away from you into exile.”

2 “Woe to those who are scheming what is harmful, and to those practicing what is bad, upon their beds! By the light of the morning they proceed to do it, because it is in the power of their hand. 2 And they have desired fields and have seized [them]; also houses, and have taken [them]; and they have defrauded an able-bodied man and his household, a man and his hereditary possession.

3 “Therefore this is what Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am thinking up against this family a calamity from which YOU people will not remove YOUR necks, so that YOU will not walk haughtily; because it is a time of calamity. 4 In that day one will raise up concerning YOU people a proverbial saying and will certainly lament a lamentation, even a lamentation. One will have to say: “We have positively been despoiled! The very portion of my people he alters. How he removes [it] from me! To the unfaithful one he apportions out our own fields.” 5 Therefore you will come to have no one casting out the cord, by lot, in the congregation of Jehovah. 6 Do not YOU people let [words] drop. They let [words] drop. They will not let [words] drop concerning these [things]. Humiliations will not move away.

7 “‘Is it being said, O house of Jacob: “Has the spirit of Jehovah become discontented, or are these his dealings?” Do not my own words do good in the case of the one walking uprightly?

8 “‘And yesterday my own people proceeded to rise up as an outright enemy. From the front of a garment YOU men strip off the majestic ornament, from the ones passing by confidently, [like] those returning from war. 9 The women of my people YOU drive out from the house in which a woman has exquisite delight. From off her children YOU take my splendor, to time indefinite. 10 Get up and go, because this is not a resting-place. Because of the fact that she has become unclean, there is a wrecking; and [the] wrecking work is painful. 11 If a man, walking by wind and falsehood, has told the lie: “I shall let [words] drop to you concerning wine and concerning intoxicating liquor,” he also will certainly become the one letting [words] drop for this people.

12 “‘I shall positively gather Jacob, all of you; I shall without fail collect the remaining ones of Israel together. In unity I shall set them, like a flock in the pen, like a drove in the midst of its pasture; they will be noisy with men.’

13 “The one making a breakthrough will certainly come up before them: they will actually break through. And they will pass through a gate, and they will go out by it. And their king will pass through before them, with Jehovah at the head of them.”


3 And I proceeded to say: “Hear, please, YOU heads of Jacob and YOU commanders of the house of Israel. Is it not YOUR business to know justice? 2 YOU haters of what is good and lovers of badness, tearing off their skin from people and their organism from off their bones; 3 YOU the ones who have also eaten the organism of my people, and have stripped their very skin from off them, and smashed to pieces their very bones, and crushed [them] to pieces like what is in a widemouthed pot and like flesh in the midst of a cooking pot. 4 At that time they will call to Jehovah for aid, but he will not answer them. And he will conceal his face from them in that time, according as they committed badness in their dealings.

5 “This is what Jehovah has said against the prophets that are causing my people to wander, that are biting with their teeth and that actually call out, ‘Peace!’ that, when anyone does not put [something] into their mouths, also actually sanctify war against him, 6 ‘Therefore YOU men will have night, so that there will be no vision; and darkness YOU will have, so as not to practice divination. And the sun will certainly set upon the prophets, and the day must get dark upon them. 7 And the visionaries will have to be ashamed, and the diviners will certainly be disappointed. And they will have to cover over the mustache, all of them, for there is no answer from God.’”

8 And, on the other hand, I myself have become full of power, with the spirit of Jehovah, and of justice and mightiness, in order to tell to Jacob his revolt and to Israel his sin.

9 Hear, please, this, YOU head ones of the house of Jacob and YOU commanders of the house of Israel, the ones detesting justice and the ones who make even everything that is straight crooked; 10 building Zion with acts of bloodshed and Jerusalem with unrighteousness. 11 Her own head ones judge merely for a bribe, and her own priests instruct just for a price, and her own prophets practice divination simply for money; yet upon Jehovah they keep supporting themselves, saying: “Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? There will come upon us no calamity.” 12 Therefore on account of YOU men Zion will be plowed up as a mere field, and Jerusalem herself will become mere heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house will be as the high places of a forest.

4 And it must occur in the final part of the days [that] the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills; and to it peoples must stream. 2 And many nations will certainly go and say: “Come, YOU people, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will instruct us about his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem. 3 And he will certainly render judgment among many peoples, and set matters straight respecting mighty nations far away. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. They will not lift up sword, nation against nation, neither will they learn war anymore. 4 And they will actually sit, each one under his vine and under his fig tree, and there will be no one making [them] tremble; for the very mouth of Jehovah of armies has spoken [it].

5 For all the peoples, for their part, will walk each one in the name of its god; but we, for our part, shall walk in the name of Jehovah our God to time indefinite, even forever.

6 “In that day,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “I will gather her that was limping; and her that was dispersed I will collect together, even her whom I have treated badly. 7 And I shall certainly make her that was limping a remnant, and her that was removed far off a mighty nation; and Jehovah will actually rule as king over them in Mount Zion, from now on and into time indefinite.

8 “And as for you, O tower of the drove, the mound of the daughter of Zion, as far as to you it will come, yes, the first dominion will certainly come, the kingdom belonging to the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 “Now why is it that you keep shouting loudly? Is there no king in you, or has your own counselor perished, so that pangs like those of a woman giving birth have grabbed hold of you? 10 Be in severe pains and burst forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman giving birth, for now you will go forth from a town, and you will have to reside in the field. And you will have to come as far as to Babylon. There you will be delivered. There Jehovah will buy you back out of the palm of your enemies.

11 “And now there will certainly be gathered against you many nations, those who are saying, ‘Let her be polluted, and may our eyes look upon Zion.’ 12 But as for them, they have not come to know the thoughts of Jehovah, and they have not come to understand his counsel; because he will certainly collect them together like a row of newly cut grain to the threshing floor.

13 “Get up and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for your horn I shall change into iron, and your hoofs I shall change into copper, and you will certainly pulverize many peoples; and by a ban you will actually devote to Jehovah their unjust profit, and their resources to the [true] Lord of the whole earth.”

5 “At this time you make cuttings upon yourself, O daughter of an invasion; a siege he has laid against us. With the rod they will strike upon the cheek the judge of Israel.

2 “And you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, the one too little to get to be among the thousands of Judah, from you there will come out to me the one who is to become ruler in Israel, whose origin is from early times, from the days of time indefinite.

3 “Therefore he will give them up until the time that she who is giving birth actually gives birth. And the rest of his brothers will return to the sons of Israel.

4 “And he will certainly stand and do shepherding in the strength of Jehovah, in the superiority of the name of Jehovah his God. And they will certainly keep dwelling, for now he will be great as far as the ends of the earth. 5 And this one must become peace. As for the Assyrian, when he comes into our land and when he treads upon our dwelling towers, we shall also have to raise up against him seven shepherds, yes, eight dukes of mankind. 6 And they will actually shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its entrances. And he will certainly bring about deliverance from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land and when he treads upon our territory.

7 “And the remaining ones of Jacob must become in the midst of many peoples like dew from Jehovah, like copious showers upon vegetation, that does not hope for man or wait for the sons of earthling man. 8 And the remaining ones of Jacob must become among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of a forest, like a maned young lion among droves of sheep, which, when it actually passes through, certainly both tramples down and tears in pieces; and there is no deliverer. 9 Your hand will be high above your adversaries, and all enemies of yours will be cut off.”

10 “And it must occur in that day,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “that I will cut off your horses from the midst of you and destroy your chariots. 11 And I will cut off the cities of your land and tear down all your fortified places. 12 And I will cut off sorceries out of your hand, and no practicers of magic will you continue to have. 13 And I will cut off your graven images and your pillars from the midst of you, and you will no more bow down to the work of your hands. 14 And I will uproot your sacred poles from the midst of you and annihilate your cities. 15 And in anger and in rage I will execute vengeance upon the nations that have not obeyed.”