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Micah 3-4
Contemporary English Version
Micah 3-4
Contemporary English Version
Evil Rulers and Lying Prophets
3 Listen to me,
you rulers of Israel!
You know right from wrong,
2 but 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.
4 Someday you will beg the Lord
to help you,
but he will turn away
because of your sins.
5 You 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.
7 You prophets and fortunetellers
will all be disgraced,
with no message from me.”
8 But 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.
9 So listen to my message,
you rulers of Israel!
You hate justice
and twist the truth.
10 You make cruelty and murder
a way of life in Jerusalem.
11 You 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.
2 People 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.
5 Others may follow their gods,
but we will always follow
the Lord our God.
The Lord Will Lead His People Home
6 The 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.
7 Then 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.
8 Mount Zion in Jerusalem,
guardian of my people,
you will rule again.
9 Jerusalem, why are you crying?
Don't you have a king?
Have your advisors gone?
Are you suffering
like a woman in childbirth?
10 Keep 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.
11 Zion, because of your sins
you are surrounded
by many nations who say,
“We can hardly wait
to see you disgraced.”[a]
12 But they don't know
that I, the Lord,
have gathered them here
to grind them like grain.
13 Smash 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.
Footnotes
- 4.11 We … disgraced: Or “We'll pull up your skirt and expose your nakedness!”
Micah 3-4
New International Version
Micah 3-4
New International Version
Leaders and Prophets Rebuked
3 Then I said,
“Listen, you leaders(A) of Jacob,
you rulers of Israel.
Should you not embrace justice,
2 you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people
and the flesh from their bones;(B)
3 who eat my people’s flesh,(C)
strip off their skin
and break their bones in pieces;(D)
who chop(E) them up like meat for the pan,
like flesh for the pot?(F)”
4 Then they will cry out to the Lord,
but he will not answer them.(G)
At that time he will hide his face(H) from them
because of the evil they have done.(I)
5 This is what the Lord says:
“As for the prophets
who lead my people astray,(J)
they proclaim ‘peace’(K)
if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
who refuses to feed them.
6 Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
and darkness, without divination.(L)
The sun will set for the prophets,(M)
and the day will go dark for them.(N)
7 The seers will be ashamed(O)
and the diviners disgraced.(P)
They will all cover(Q) their faces(R)
because there is no answer from God.(S)”
8 But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression,
to Israel his sin.(T)
9 Hear this, you leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of Israel,
who despise justice
and distort all that is right;(U)
10 who build(V) Zion with bloodshed,(W)
and Jerusalem with wickedness.(X)
11 Her leaders judge for a bribe,(Y)
her priests teach for a price,(Z)
and her prophets tell fortunes for money.(AA)
Yet they look(AB) for the Lord’s support and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No disaster will come upon us.”(AC)
12 Therefore because of you,
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,(AD)
the temple(AE) hill a mound overgrown with thickets.(AF)
The Mountain of the Lord(AG)
4 In the last days
the mountain(AH) of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,(AI)
and peoples will stream to it.(AJ)
2 Many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,(AK)
to the temple of the God of Jacob.(AL)
He will teach us(AM) his ways,(AN)
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law(AO) will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He will judge between many peoples
and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.(AP)
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.(AQ)
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war(AR) anymore.(AS)
4 Everyone will sit under their own vine
and under their own fig tree,(AT)
and no one will make them afraid,(AU)
for the Lord Almighty has spoken.(AV)
5 All the nations may walk
in the name of their gods,(AW)
but we will walk in the name of the Lord
our God for ever and ever.(AX)
The Lord’s Plan
6 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
“I will gather the lame;(AY)
I will assemble the exiles(AZ)
and those I have brought to grief.(BA)
7 I will make the lame my remnant,(BB)
those driven away a strong nation.(BC)
The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion(BD)
from that day and forever.(BE)
8 As for you, watchtower of the flock,
stronghold[a] of Daughter Zion,
the former dominion will be restored(BF) to you;
kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.(BG)”
9 Why do you now cry aloud—
have you no king[b](BH)?
Has your ruler[c] perished,
that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?(BI)
10 Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you must leave the city
to camp in the open field.
You will go to Babylon;(BJ)
there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will redeem(BK) you
out of the hand of your enemies.
11 But now many nations
are gathered against you.
They say, “Let her be defiled,
let our eyes gloat(BL) over Zion!”
12 But they do not know
the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,(BM)
that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 “Rise and thresh,(BN) Daughter Zion,
for I will give you horns of iron;
I will give you hooves of bronze,
and you will break to pieces many nations.”(BO)
You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord,(BP)
their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
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New International Version (NIV) 
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