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Call to arms; the future is secure

[a] Now muster your troops, Daughter Troop![b]
        They have laid siege against us;
        with a rod they will strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.
As for you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah,
    though you are the least significant of Judah’s forces,
        one who is to be a ruler in Israel on my behalf will come out from you.
    His origin is from remote times, from ancient days.
Therefore, he will give them up
        until the time when she who is in labor gives birth.
        The rest of his kin will return to the people of Israel.
He will stand and shepherd his flock[c] in the strength of the Lord,
        in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
        They will dwell secure,
        because he will surely become great throughout the earth;
        he will become one of peace.[d]
When Assyria invades our land and treads down our fortresses,
        then we will raise up against him seven shepherds and eight human princes.
They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
        the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword.
    He will rescue us from Assyria
        when he invades our land
            and treads within our territory.
Then the few remaining in Jacob will be amid many peoples
        like dew from the Lord,
        like spring showers upon the grass,
            which does not hope for humans or wait for human ones.
Then the few remaining in Jacob will be among the nations,
            amid many peoples,
        like a lion among the creatures of the forest,
        like a young lion among flocks
            of sheep, which when it passes by, tramples and tears to pieces
                with no one to deliver.
Your hand will be lifted over your foes;
        all your enemies will be cut off.

Doom for Israel’s enemies

10 On that day—says the Lord
        I will cut down your horses in your midst;
        I will destroy your chariots!
11 I will cut down the cities of your land;
        I will tear down your defenses!
12 I will demolish the sorceries you perform;
        you will have no more diviners!
13 I will cut down your images
        and your sacred pillars in your midst.
        You will no longer bow down to the works of your hands!
14 I will tear down your sacred poles[e] in your midst;
        I will destroy your cities!
15 I will exact vengeance in anger
        and in wrath on the nations that don’t obey!

God’s dispute with Israel

Hear what the Lord is saying:
Arise, lay out the lawsuit before the mountains;
        let the hills hear your voice!
Hear, mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord!
        Hear, eternal foundations of the earth!
The Lord has a lawsuit against his people;
        with Israel he will argue.
“My people, what did I ever do to you?
        How have I wearied you? Answer me!
I brought you up out of the land of Egypt;
        I redeemed you from the house of slavery.
        I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you.
My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned,
        and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him!
        Remember everything[f] from Shittim to Gilgal,
        that you might learn to recognize the righteous acts of the Lord!”

What does the Lord require?

With what should I approach the Lord
        and bow down before God on high?
Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings,
        with year-old calves?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
        with many torrents of oil?
Should I give my oldest child for my crime;
        the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit?
He has told you, human one, what is good and
        what the Lord requires from you:
            to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.

Punishment is near

The voice of the Lord calls out to the city;
        wisdom appears when one fears your name.[g]
        Hear, tribe, and who appointed her![h]
10 Are the treasures of wickedness still in the house of wickedness,
        while the shorted basket[i] is denounced?[j]
11 Can I approve wicked scales and a bag of false weights
12     in a city[k] whose wealthy are full of violence
        and whose inhabitants speak falsehood
            with lying tongues in their mouths?
13 So I have made you sick by striking you!
        I have struck you because of your sins.
14 You devour, but you aren’t satisfied;
        a gnawing emptiness is within you.
    You put something aside,
        but you don’t keep it safe.
        That which you do try to keep safe,
            I will give to the sword.
15 You sow, but you don’t gather.
    You tread down olives, but you don’t anoint with oil;
        you tread grapes, but don’t drink wine.
16 Yet you[l] have kept the policies of Omri,
        all the practices of the house of Ahab;
    you have followed their counsels.
    Therefore, I will make you a sign of destruction,
            your[m] inhabitants an object of hissing!
You must bear the reproach of my people.

Footnotes

  1. Micah 5:1 4:14 in Heb
  2. Micah 5:1 Heb uncertain
  3. Micah 5:4 Heb lacks his flock.
  4. Micah 5:5 Or this will ensure peace.
  5. Micah 5:14 Heb asherim
  6. Micah 6:5 Heb lacks everything.
  7. Micah 6:9 Heb uncertain
  8. Micah 6:9 Heb uncertain
  9. Micah 6:10 Or ephah, approximately twenty quarts of grain
  10. Micah 6:10 Heb uncertain
  11. Micah 6:12 Heb lacks in a city.
  12. Micah 6:16 Or he
  13. Micah 6:16 Or her

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