1:1 The word of the Lord which came to Micah the Morashtite, in

the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: his

vision about Samaria and Jerusalem.

1:2 Give ear, you peoples, all of you; give attention, O earth

and everything in it: let the Lord God be witness against you,

the Lord from his holy Temple.

1:3 For see, the Lord is coming out from his place, and will

come down, stepping on the high places of the earth.

1:4 And the mountains will be turned to water under him, and the

deep valleys will be broken open, like wax before the fire,

like waters flowing down a slope.

1:5 All this is because of the wrongdoing of Jacob and the sins

of the children of Israel. What is the wrongdoing of Jacob? is

it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they

not Jerusalem?

1:6 So I will make Samaria into a field and the plantings of a

vine-garden: I will send its stones falling down into the

valley, uncovering its bases.

1:7 And all her pictured images will be hammered into bits, and

all the payments for her loose ways will be burned with fire,

and all the images of her gods I will make waste: for with the

price of a loose woman she got them together, and as the price

of a loose woman will they be given back.

1:8 For this I will be full of sorrow and give cries of grief; I

will go uncovered and unclothed: I will give cries of grief

like the jackals and will be in sorrow like the ostriches.

1:9 For her wounds may not be made well: for it has come even to

Judah, stretching up to the doorway of my people, even to

Jerusalem.

1:10 Give no word of it in Gath, let there be no weeping at all:

at Beth-le-aphrah be rolling in the dust.

1:11 Be uncovered and go away, you who are living in Shaphir:

the one living in Zaanan has not come out of her town;

Beth-ezel is taken away from its base, even from its

resting-place.

1:12 For the one living in Maroth is waiting for good: for evil

has come down from the Lord to the doorways of Jerusalem.

1:13 Let the war-carriage be yoked to the quick-running horse,

you who are living in Lachish: she was the first cause of sin

to the daughter of Zion; for the wrongdoings of Israel were

seen in you.

1:14 For this cause give a parting offering to Moresheth-gath:

the daughter of Achzib will be a deceit to the king of Israel.

1:15 Even now will the taker of your heritage come to you, you

who are living in Mareshah: the glory of Israel will come to

destruction for ever.

1:16 Let your head be uncovered and your hair cut off in sorrow

for the children of your delight: let the hair be pulled from

your head like an eagle's; for they have been taken away from

you as prisoners.

2:1 A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in

the morning light they do it, because it is in their power.

2:2 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.

2:3 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.

2:4 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.

2:5 For this cause you will have no one to make the decision by

the measuring line in the meeting of the Lord.

2:6 Let not words like these be dropped, they say: Shame and the

curse will not come to the family of Jacob!

2:7 Is the Lord quickly made angry? are these his doings? do not

his words do good to his people Israel?

2:8 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.

2:9 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.

2:10 Up! and go; for this is not your rest: because it has been

made unclean, the destruction ordered will come on you.

2:11 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.

2:12 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.

2:13 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.

3:1 And I said, Give ear, now, you heads of Jacob and rulers of

the people of Israel: is it not for you to have knowledge of

what is right?

3:2 You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off

their skin from them and their flesh from their bones;

3:3 Like meat they take the flesh of my people for their food,

skinning them and crushing their bones, yes, cutting them up as

if for the pot, like flesh inside the cooking-pot.

3:4 Then they will be crying to the Lord for help, but he will

not give them an answer: yes, he will keep his face veiled from

them at that time, because their acts have been evil.

3:5 This is what the Lord has said about the prophets by whom my

people have been turned from the right way; who, biting with

their teeth, say, Peace; and if anyone puts nothing in their

mouths they make ready for war against him.

3:6 For this cause it will be night for you, without a vision;

and it will be dark for you, without knowledge of the future;

the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will be

black over them.

3:7 And the seers will be shamed, and the readers of the future

will be at a loss, all of them covering their lips; for there

is no answer from God.

3:8 But I truly am full of the spirit of the Lord, with power of

judging and with strength to make clear to Jacob his wrongdoing

and to Israel his sin.

3:9 Then give ear to this, you heads of the children of Jacob,

you rulers of the children of Israel, hating what is right,

twisting what is straight.

3:10 They are building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with

evil-doing.

3:11 Its heads take rewards for judging, and the priests take

payment for teaching, and the prophets get silver for reading

the future: but still, supporting themselves on the Lord, they

say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil will overtake us.

3:12 For this reason, Zion will be ploughed like a field because

of you, and Jerusalem will become a mass of broken walls, and

the mountain of the house like a high place in the woods.

4:1 But in the last days it will come about that the mountain of

the Lord's house will be placed on the top of the mountains,

and be lifted up over the hills; and peoples will be flowing to

it.

4:2 And a number of nations will go 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 give us knowledge of his ways and we will be

guided by his word: for from Zion the law will go out, and the

word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4:3 And he will be judge between great peoples, and strong

nations far away will be ruled by his decisions; their swords

will be hammered into plough-blades and their spears into

vine-knives: nations will no longer be lifting up their swords

against one another, and knowledge of war will have gone for

ever.

4:4 But every man will be seated under his vine and under his

fig-tree, and no one will be a cause of fear to them: for the

mouth of the Lord of armies has said it.

4:5 For all the peoples will be walking, every one in the name

of his god, and we will be walking in the name of the Lord our

God for ever and ever.

4:6 In that day, says the Lord, I will get together her who goes

with uncertain steps, I will get together her who has been sent

away, and her on whom I have sent evil;

4:7 And I will make her whose steps were uncertain a small band,

and her who was feeble a strong nation: and the Lord will be

their King in Mount Zion from now and for ever.

4:8 And you, O tower of the flock, Ophel of the daughter of

Zion, to you it will come, even the earlier authority, the

kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

4:9 Now why are you crying so loudly? is there no king in you?

has destruction come on your wise helper? so that pains have

taken you like the pains of a woman in childbirth:

4:10 Be in pain, make sounds of grief, O daughter of Zion, like

a woman in childbirth: for now you will go out of the town,

living in the open country, and will come even to Babylon;

there you will have salvation; there the Lord will make you

free from the hands of your haters.

4:11 And now a number of nations have come together against you,

and they say, Let her be made unclean and let our eyes see the

fate of Zion.

4:12 But they have no knowledge of the thoughts of the Lord,

their minds are not able to see his purpose: for he has got

them together like stems of grain to the crushing-floor.

4:13 Up! and let the grain be crushed, O daughter of Zion, for I

will make your horn iron and your feet brass, and a number of

peoples will be broken by you, and you will give up their

increase to the Lord and their wealth to the Lord of all the

earth.

5:1 Now you will give yourselves deep wounds for grief; they

will put up a wall round us: they will give the judge of Israel

a blow on the face with a rod.

5:2 And you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, the least among the families

of Judah, out of you one will come to me who is to be ruler in

Israel; whose going out has been purposed from time past, from

the eternal days.

5:3 For this cause he will give them up till the time when she

who is with child has given birth: then the rest of his

brothers will come back to the children of Israel.

5:4 And he will take his place and give food to his flock in the

strength of the Lord, in the glory of the name of the Lord his

God; and their resting-place will be safe: for now he will be

great to the ends of the earth.

5:5 And this will be our peace: when the Assyrian comes into our

country and his feet are in our land, then we will put up

against him seven keepers of the flocks and eight chiefs among

men.

5:6 And they will make waste the land of Assyria with the sword,

and the land of Nimrod with the edge of the sword: he will give

us salvation from the Assyrian when he comes into our country,

when his feet come inside the limit of our land.

5:7 And the rest of Jacob will be among the mass of peoples like

dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which may not be

kept back by man, or be waiting for the sons of men.

5:8 And the rest of Jacob will be among the nations, in the

middle of the mass of peoples, like a lion among the beasts of

the woods, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep: if he

goes through, they will be crushed under foot and pulled to

bits, and there will be no saviour.

5:9 Your hand is lifted up against those who are against you,

and all your haters will be cut off.

5:10 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that I

will take away your horses from you, and will give your

war-carriages to destruction:

5:11 I will have the towns of your land cut off and all your

strong places pulled down:

5:12 I will put an end to your use of secret arts, and you will

have no more readers of signs:

5:13 And I will have your images and your pillars cut off from

you; and you will no longer give worship to the work of your

hands.

5:14 I will have your Asherahs pulled up from among you: and I

will send destruction on your images.

5:15 And my punishment will be effected on the nations with such

burning wrath as they have not had word of.

6:1 Give ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward your

cause before the mountains, let your voice be sounding among

the hills.

6:2 Give ear, O you mountains, to the Lord's cause, and take

note, you bases of the earth: for the Lord has a cause against

his people, and he will take it up with Israel.

6:3 O my people, what have I done to you? how have I been a

weariness to you? give answer against me.

6:4 For I took you up out of the land of Egypt and made you free

from the prison-house; I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and

Miriam.

6:5 O my people, keep in mind now what was designed by Balak,

king of Moab, and the answer which Balaam, son of Beor, gave

him; the events, from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may be

certain of the upright acts of the Lord.

6:6 With what am I to come before the Lord and go with bent head

before the high God? am I to come before him with burned

offerings, with young oxen a year old?

6:7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of sheep or with ten

thousand rivers of oil? am I to give my first child for my

wrongdoing, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

6:8 He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is

desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and

loving mercy, and walking without pride before your God.

6:9 The voice of the Lord is crying out to the town: Give ear,

you tribes and the meeting of the town.

6:10 Am I to let the stores of the evil-doer go out of my

memory, and the short measure, which is cursed?

6:11 Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag of

false weights go without punishment?

6:12 For its men of wealth are cruel, and its people have said

what is not true, and their tongue is false in their mouth.

6:13 So I have made a start with your punishment; I have made

you waste because of your sins.

6:14 You will have food, but not enough; your shame will be ever

with you: you will get your goods moved, but you will not take

them away safely; and what you do take away I will give to the

sword.

6:15 You will put in seed, but you will not get in the grain;

you will be crushing olives, but your bodies will not be rubbed

with the oil; and you will get in the grapes, but you will have

no wine.

6:16 For you have kept the laws of Omri and all the works of the

family of Ahab, and you have been guided by their designs: so

that I might make you a cause of wonder and your people a cause

of hisses; and the shame of my people will be on you.

7:1 Sorrow is mine! for I am as when they have got in the summer

fruits, like the last of the grapes: there is nothing for food,

not even an early fig for my desire.

7:2 The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one upright

among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood, every man

is going after his brother with a net.

7:3 Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes

requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and

the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is

twisted.

7:4 The best of them is like a waste plant, and their upright

ones are like a wall of thorns. Sorrow! the day of their fate

has come; now will trouble come on them.

7:5 Put no faith in a friend, do not let your hope be placed in

a relation: keep watch on the doors of your mouth against her

who is resting on your breast.

7:6 For the son puts shame on his father, the daughter goes

against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her

mother-in-law; and a man's haters are those of his family.

7:7 But as for me, I am looking to the Lord; I am waiting for

the God of my salvation: the ears of my God will be open to me.

7:8 Do not be glad because of my sorrow, O my hater: after my

fall I will be lifted up; when I am seated in the dark, the

Lord will be a light to me.

7:9 I will undergo the wrath of the Lord, because of my sin

against him; till he takes up my cause and does what is right

for me: when he makes me come out into the light, I will see

his righteousness;

7:10 And my hater will see it and be covered with shame; she who

said to me, Where is the Lord your God? my eyes will see their

desire effected on her, now she will be crushed under foot like

the dust of the streets.

7:11 A day for building your walls! in that day will your limits

be stretched far and wide.

7:12 In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the

towns of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea

to sea and from mountain to mountain.

7:13 But the land will become a waste because of its people, as

the fruit of their works.

7:14 Keep your people safe with your rod, the flock of your

heritage, living by themselves in the woods in the middle of

Carmel: let them get their food in Bashan and Gilead as in the

past.

7:15 As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt,

let us see things of wonder.

7:16 The nations will see and be shamed because of all their

strength; they will put their hands on their mouths, their ears

will be stopped.

7:17 They will take dust as their food like a snake, like the

things which go flat on the earth; they will come shaking with

fear out of their secret places: they will come with fear to

the Lord our God, full of fear because of you.

7:18 Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for evil-doing

and overlooking the sins of the rest of his heritage? he does

not keep his wrath for ever, because his delight is in mercy.

7:19 He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under

his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of

the sea.

7:20 You will make clear your good faith to Jacob and your mercy

to Abraham, as you gave your oath to our fathers from times

long past.