Micah 3-4

Contemporary English Version

Evil Rulers and Lying Prophets

3 Listen to me,
    you rulers of Israel!
You know right from wrong,
²but you prefer to do evil
    instead of what is right.
You skin my people alive.
You strip off their flesh,
³    break their bones,
    cook it all in a pot,
    and gulp it down.

⁴Someday you will beg the Lord
to help you,
but he will turn away
because of your sins.

⁵You lying prophets promise
security for anyone
    who gives you food,
but disaster for anyone
    who refuses to feed you.
Here is what the Lord says
    to you prophets:
⁶“You will live in the dark,
far from the sight of the sun,
    with no message from me.
⁷You prophets and fortunetellers
will all be disgraced,
    with no message from me.”

⁸But the Lord has filled me
    with power and his Spirit.
I have been given the courage
    to speak about justice
and to tell you people of Israel
    that you have sinned.
⁹So listen to my message,
    you rulers of Israel!
You hate justice
    and twist the truth.
¹⁰You make cruelty and murder
    a way of life in Jerusalem.
¹¹You leaders accept bribes
    for dishonest decisions.
You priests and prophets
teach and preach,
    but only for money.

Then you say,
“The Lord is on our side.
    No harm will come to us.”
¹²^(A) And so, because of you,
Jerusalem will be plowed under
    and left in ruins.
Thorns will cover the mountain
    where the temple now stands.

Peace and Prosperity

4 In the future, the mountain
with the Lord's temple
    will be the highest of all.
It will reach above the hills,
and every nation
    will rush to it.
²People of many nations
    will come and say,
“Let's go up to the mountain
of the Lord God of Jacob
    and worship in his temple.”

The Lord will teach us his Law
from Jerusalem,
    and we will obey him.
³^(B) He will settle arguments
between distant
    and powerful nations.
They will pound their swords
and their spears
    into rakes and shovels;
they will never again make war
    or attack one another.
⁴^(C) Everyone will find rest
beneath their own fig trees
    or grape vines,
and they will live in peace.
This is a solemn promise
    of the Lord All-Powerful.

⁵Others may follow their gods,
but we will always follow
the Lord our God.

The Lord Will Lead His People Home

⁶The Lord said:
At that time
    I will gather my people—
the lame and the outcasts,
and all others into whose lives
    I have brought sorrow.
⁷Then the lame and the outcasts
will belong to my people
    and become a strong nation.
I, the Lord, will rule them
    from Mount Zion forever.
⁸Mount Zion in Jerusalem,
guardian of my people,
    you will rule again.

⁹Jerusalem, why are you crying?
Don't you have a king?
    Have your advisors gone?
Are you suffering
    like a woman in childbirth?
¹⁰Keep on groaning with pain,
    you people of Jerusalem!
If you escape from your city
    to the countryside,
you will still be taken
    as prisoners to Babylonia.
But later I will rescue you
    from your enemies.

¹¹Zion, because of your sins
you are surrounded
    by many nations who say,
“We can hardly wait
    to see you disgraced.”^[a]
¹²But they don't know
    that I, the Lord,
have gathered them here
    to grind them like grain.
¹³Smash them to pieces, Zion!
I'll let you be like a bull
    with iron horns
    and bronze hoofs.
Crush those nations
and bring their wealth to me,
    the Lord of the earth.