Micah 1

¹ The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth
in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah,
which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

² Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, O earth and all that fills it!
Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.

³ For look—the LORD is coming out from his place;
he will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

⁴ The mountains will melt beneath him,
and the valleys will split open—
like wax before fire,
like waters poured down a slope.

⁵ All this is for the transgression of Jacob,
for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶ So I will make Samaria a heap of rubble in the open field,
a place for planting vineyards.
I will pour her stones down into the valley
and lay bare her foundations.

⁷ All her carved images will be smashed,
all her wages will be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will make desolate.
For from the wages of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the wages of a prostitute they will return.

⁸ Because of this I will lament and wail;
I will go barefoot and naked.
I will make a lament like the jackals
and a mourning cry like the ostriches.

⁹ For her wound is incurable;
it has come as far as Judah,
it reaches to the gate of my people,
even to Jerusalem.

¹⁰ Do not tell it in Gath;
do not weep at all.
In Beth-leaphrah,
roll yourself in the dust.

¹¹ Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir,
in nakedness and shame.
The inhabitants of Zaanan have not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
takes from you its standing ground.

¹² For the inhabitants of Maroth writhe in anguish,
because disaster has come down from the LORD
to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³ Harness the chariot to the swift steeds,
O inhabitants of Lachish!
She was the beginning of sin for Daughter Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.

¹⁴ Therefore you will give parting gifts
to Moresheth-gath.
The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵ I will again bring a conqueror against you,
O inhabitants of Mareshah.
The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

¹⁶ Make yourself bald and cut off your hair
for the children of your delight.
Make yourself as bald as the vulture,
for they have gone from you into exile.