Micah 1-2

New King James Version

Judgment on Israel and Judah

1 The word of the Lord that came to ^(A)Micah of Moresheth in the days of ^(B)Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Judgment on Israel

²Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, O earth, and all that is in it!
Let the Lord God be a witness against you,
The Lord from ^(C)His holy temple.

³For behold, the Lord is coming out of His place;
He will come down
And tread on the high places of the earth.
⁴^(D)The mountains will melt under Him,
And the valleys will split
Like wax before the fire,
Like waters poured down a steep place.
⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob
And for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what are the ^(E)high places of Judah?
Are they not Jerusalem?

⁶“Therefore I will make Samaria ^(F)a heap of ruins in the field,
Places for planting a vineyard;
I will pour down her stones into the valley,
And I will ^(G)uncover her foundations.
⁷All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
And all her ^(H)pay as a harlot shall be burned with the fire;
All her idols I will lay desolate,
For she gathered it from the pay of a harlot,
And they shall return to the ^(I)pay of a harlot.”

Mourning for Israel and Judah

⁸Therefore I will wail and howl,
I will go stripped and naked;
^(J)I will make a wailing like the jackals
And a mourning like the ostriches,
⁹For her wounds are incurable.
For ^(K)it has come to Judah;
It has come to the gate of My people—
To Jerusalem.

¹⁰^(L)Tell it not in Gath,
Weep not at all;
In ^[a]Beth Aphrah
Roll yourself in the dust.
¹¹Pass by in naked shame, you inhabitant of ^[b]Shaphir;
The inhabitant of ^[c]Zaanan does not go out.
Beth Ezel mourns;
Its place to stand is taken away from you.

¹²For the inhabitant of ^[d]Maroth ^[e]pined for good,
But ^(M)disaster came down from the Lord
To the gate of Jerusalem.
¹³O inhabitant of ^(N)Lachish,
Harness the chariot to the swift steeds
(She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion),
For the transgressions of Israel were ^(O)found in you.

¹⁴Therefore you shall ^(P)give presents to ^[f]Moresheth Gath;
The houses of ^(Q)Achzib^[g] shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
¹⁵I will yet bring an heir to you, O inhabitant of ^(R)Mareshah;^[h]
The glory of Israel shall come to ^(S)Adullam.^[i]
¹⁶Make yourself ^(T)bald and cut off your hair,
Because of your ^(U)precious children;
Enlarge your baldness like an eagle,
For they shall go from you into ^(V)captivity.

Woe to Evildoers

2 Woe to those who devise iniquity,
And ^[j]work out evil on their beds!
At ^(W)morning light they practice it,
Because it is in the power of their hand.
²They ^(X)covet fields and take them by violence,
Also houses, and seize them.
So they oppress a man and his house,
A man and his inheritance.

³Therefore thus says the Lord:

“Behold, against this ^(Y)family I am devising ^(Z)disaster,
From which you cannot remove your necks;
Nor shall you walk haughtily,
For this is an evil time.
⁴In that day one shall take up a proverb against you,
And ^(AA)lament with a bitter lamentation, saying:
‘We are utterly destroyed!
He has changed the ^[k]heritage of my people;
How He has removed it from me!
To ^[l]a turncoat He has divided our fields.’ ”

⁵Therefore you will have no ^[m]one to determine boundaries by lot
In the assembly of the Lord.

Lying Prophets

⁶“Do not prattle,” you say to those who ^[n]prophesy.
So they shall not prophesy ^[o]to you;
^[p]They shall not return insult for insult.
⁷You who are named the house of Jacob:
“Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted?
Are these His doings?
Do not My words do good
To him who walks uprightly?

⁸“Lately My people have risen up as an enemy—
You pull off the robe with the garment
From those who trust you, as they pass by,
Like men returned from war.
⁹The women of My people you cast out
From their pleasant houses;
From their children
You have taken away My glory forever.

¹⁰“Arise and depart,
For this is not your ^(AB)rest;
Because it is ^(AC)defiled, it shall destroy,
Yes, with utter destruction.
¹¹If a man should walk in a false spirit
And speak a lie, saying,
‘I will ^[q]prophesy to you ^[r]of wine and drink,’
Even he would be the ^(AD)prattler of this people.

Israel Restored

¹²“I^(AE) will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob,
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together ^(AF)like sheep of ^[s]the fold,
Like a flock in the midst of their pasture;
^(AG)They shall make a loud noise because of so many people.
¹³The one who breaks open will come up before them;
They will break out,
Pass through the gate,
And go out by it;
^(AH)Their king will pass before them,
^(AI)With the Lord at their head.”