MICAH.
1 The word of Yahweh which came unto Micah the Morashtite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah kings of Judah,—of which he had vision concerning Samaria and Jerusalem:—
2 Hear, ye peoples all of you Hearken, O earth and the fulness thereof,—And let My Lord Yahweh be among you for a witness, My Lord out of his holy temple.
3 For lo! Yahweh coming forth out of his place,—That he may descend and march along upon the high places of the earth.
4 Then shall the mountains be melted beneath him, And the valleys be cleft,—As wax before the fire, As waters poured out in a steep place.
5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, And for the sin of the house of Israel,—Whose is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria’s? And whose is the sin of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem’s?
6 Therefore will I make of Samaria A heap in a field, The plantings in a vineyard,—And I will pour down into the valley her stones, And her foundations will I lay bare;
7 And all her images shall be beaten in pieces And all her rewards for unchastity shall be burned in the fire, And all her idols will I make a desolation,—For out of the reward of unchastity she gathered [them], And unto the reward of unchastity shall they return.
8 For this cause will I lament and howl, I will go stript and bare,—I will make a lamentation like the wild dogs, And a mourning like ostriches.
9 For dangerous are her wounds,—For she hath come as far as Judah, She hath reached as far as the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem.
10 In Gath do not tell, In Accho do not weep,—In Beth-l’aphrah roll yourselves in dust.
11 Pass thou over (for you), thou inhabitress of Shaphir, of disgraceful disclosure,—The inhabitress of Zaanan hath not gone forth, At the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall he take from you his station,
12 Though the inhabitress of Maroth waited for blessing,—Yet there came down calamity from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Bind the chariot to the steed, O inhabitress of Lachish,—The beginning of sin was she to the daughter of Zion, For in thee have been found the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore shalt thou give a dismission, against Moresheth-gath,—The houses of Achzib served for a deception to the kings of Israel.
15 The time shall yet be when the heir I will bring unto thee, O inhabitress of Mareshah,—As far as Adullam shall enter the glory of Israel.
16 Make thee bald and cut off thy hair, For the children of thy pleasures,—Enlarge thy baldness like a vulture, For they are exiled from thee.
2 Alas for them who devise iniquity and work wickedness upon their beds,—In the light of the morning they will execute it, for it is in the power of their hand.
2 Thus do they covet fields and seize them, And houses and take them away,—And so they oppress the master and his household, the man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore—Thus saith Yahweh, Behold me! devising against this family a calamity,—From which ye shall not remove your neck, Neither shall ye walk loftily, For a time of calamity shall it be.
4 In that day shall one Take up against you a by-word And lament a lamentable lamentation Saying—We are made utterly desolate, The portion of my people he passeth to others,—How doth he set me aside! To an apostate our fields doth he apportion.
5 Therefore shalt thou have none to throw a measuring-line by lot,—in the convocation of Yahweh.
6 Do not sputter—So they sputter! They must not sputter as to these things, Must he not put away reproaches?
7 O thou who art said to be the house of Jacob, Is the spirit of Yahweh impatient? Or are these his doings? Are not his words pleasant to him who is upright in his walk?
8 But against my people as an enemy he setteth himself, From off the robe they tear away the cloak,—From such as are passing by with confidence, as men averse from war.
9 The wives of my people ye do even drive out, each from the house of her darlings,—From over her children ye do take away mine ornament as long as life shall last.
10 Arise ye and depart, for this is not the place of rest,—Because it is defiled it shall make desolate with a desolation that is ruthless.
11 If there be a man Who goeth after wind And falsehood hath woven, [saying]—I will discourse to thee, concerning wine and strong drink Then shall he become a fountain of discourse unto this people.
12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel, At once will I make them like sheep in distress,—Like a flock in the midst of its pasture shall they hum with men,
13 One making a breach hath gone up before them, They have broken in and passed through, And by the gate have departed,—And their king hath passed through before them, with Yahweh at their head!
3 Then said I, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, And ye judges of the house of Israel,—Is it not yours to know justice?
2 Ye haters of right and lovers of wrong,—Tearing away their skin from off them, And their flesh from off their bones;
3 Who indeed have eaten the flesh of my people, And their skin from off them have stript And their bones have they broken in pieces,—And will spread them out as flesh with a fork, And as flesh in the midst of a pot.
4 Then shall they make outcry unto Yahweh, But he will not answer them,—That he may hide his face from them at that time, Even as they have made wicked their doings.
5 Thus saith Yahweh, Concerning the prophets who are leading astray my people,—Who bite with their teeth and then cry—Prosper! And whoso holdeth not to their mouth they hallow against him a war!
6 Therefore shall it be Night to you for lack of vision, And darkness to you for lack of divination,—And the sun shall go in over the prophets, And the day shall be overcast because of them;
7 And the men of vision shall turn pale And the diviners shall blush, And shall put a covering upon their lip all of them,—Because there is no answer of God.
8 But in very deed I am full of vigour With the spirit of Yahweh, And of justice and of valour,—To declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel, his sin.
9 Hear this, I pray you, Ye heads of the house of Jacob, and Ye judges of the house of Israel,—Who abhor justice, And all right do pervert:
10 Building Zion with deeds of blood,—And Jerusalem with perversity.
11 Her heads for a bribe pronounce sentence And her priests for a price give direction, And her prophets for silver divine,—Yet on Yahweh they lean saying, Is not Yahweh in our midst? There shall not come upon us calamity.
12 Wherefore for your sake Zion as a field shall be ploughed, And Jerusalem unto heaps of ruins shall be turned,—And the mountain of the house shall [be] like mounds in a jungle.
4 But it shall come to pass in the afterpart of the days That the mountain of the house of Yahweh Shall be set up as the head of the mountains, And exalted shall it be above the hills,—And peoples shall stream thereunto;
2 Yea many nations shall go and say—Come ye and let us ascend Unto the mountain of Yahweh and Unto the house of the God of Jacob, That he may teach us of his ways And we may walk in his paths,—For out of Zion shall go forth a law, And the word of Yahweh out of Jerusalem;
3 And he will judge between many peoples, And be umpire to strong nations far and wide,—And they will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, Nation—against nation—shall not lift up sword Neither shall they learn—any more—to make war.
4 And they shall dwell—every man—Under his own vine and Under his own fig-tree With none to make them afraid,—For the mouth of Yahweh of hosts hath spoken.
5 For all the peoples walk, every man in the name of his god,—We therefore will walk in the name of Yahweh our God to times age-abiding and beyond.
6 In that day Declareth Yahweh, Will I take up her that is lame, And her that hath been an outcast will I carry,—Even whomsoever I have afflicted;
7 And will make of her that was lame a residue, And of her that was removed far away a strong nation,—And Yahweh shall be king over them in Mount Zion, From henceforth even unto times age-abiding.
8 Thou therefore O Migdal-eder Mound of the daughter of Zion, As far as thee shall it come,—So shall arrive the chief dominion, The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
9 Meanwhile wherefore shouldst thou cry out aloud? King is there none within thee? Or hath thy counsellor perished? For labour hath seized thee as a woman in child-birth:—
10 Be in labour and bear, O daughter of Zion, as a woman in child-birth,—For meanwhile shalt thou go forth out of the city And dwell in the field And shalt come as far as Babylon There shalt thou be delivered, There will Yahweh redeem thee out of the grasp of thine enemies.
11 Meanwhile therefore shall be gathered against thee many nations,—Who are saying—Let her be defiled, And let our eyes gaze upon Zion.
12 But they know not the purposes of Yahweh, Neither have they discerned his counsel,—For he hath gathered them as sheaves to a threshing-floor.
13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, For thy horn will I make to be iron And thy hoofs will I make to be bronze, So shalt thou beat in pieces many peoples,—And shalt devote to Yahweh their unrighteous gain, And their substance to the Lord of all the earth.
5 Meanwhile shalt thou gather together in troops, thou daughter of a troop, Siege hath he laid against us,—With a sceptre will they smite on the cheek the judge of Israel!
2 Thou therefore Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though little to be among the thousands of Judah Out of thee shall Mine come forth, to be ruler in Israel,—Whose comings forth have been from of old, from the days of age-past time.
3 Therefore will he give them up, Until the time when one who is to bring forth hath brought forth,—And the remainder of his brethren return unto the sons of Israel.
4 Then shall he stand, and tend his flock in the strength of Yahweh, In the excellency of the name of Yahweh his God have they endured,—For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth;
5 So shall this one be Prosperity. As for Assyria—When he shall enter our land and When he shall tread down in our palaces Then will we raise up against him Seven shepherds, and Eight princes of mankind.
6 Then shall they shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, And the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof,—So shall he deliver from Assyria, When he shall enter our land and When he shall tread down within our bounds.
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, As dew from Yahweh, As myriad drops on plants,—Which tarrieth not for man, Nor waiteth for the sons of Adam.
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be Among the nations, In the midst of many peoples, As a lion among the beasts of the jungle, As a young lion among flocks of sheep,—Who if he passeth by Both treadeth down—And teareth in pieces And none can deliver.
9 Let thy hand be uplifted against thine adversaries,—And all thine enemies shall be cut off.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day Declareth Yahweh, That I will cut off thy horses out of thy midst,—And will destroy thy chariots;
11 And will cut off the cities of thy land,—And will pull down all thy fortresses;
12 And will cut off incantations out of thy hand,—And users of hidden arts shalt thou not have;
13 And I will cut off thine images and thy pillars out of thy midst,—And thou shalt not bow thyself down any more to the work of thine own hands;
14 And I will uproot thy Sacred Stems out of thy midst,—And will destroy thy cities:
15 Then will I execute With anger and with indignation Vengeance upon the nations,—Of which they have not heard.
6 Hear, I pray you, what Yahweh is saying,—Arise thou, maintain thy controversy before the mountains, And let the hills hear thy voice:—
2 Hear, ye mountains, the controversy of Yahweh, And ye lasting rocks, the foundations of the earth,—For a controversy hath Yahweh with his people, And with Israel will he dispute.
3 O my people! what have I done to thee? And wherein have I wearied thee? Testify thou against me!
4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, And out of the house of slaves I ransomed thee,—And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam.
5 O my people! remember, I pray you, What Balak king of Moab counselled, and What Balaam son of Beor answered him,—From the Acacias as far as Gilgal, That ye may know the righteousness of Yahweh.
6 Wherewith shall I come before Yahweh? bow myself to God on high? Shall I come before him with ascending-sacrifices? with calves of a year old?
7 Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? with myriads of torrents of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression? the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He hath told thee, O son of earth, what is good,—What then is Yahweh seeking of thee But To do justice, To delight in lovingkindness, And humbly to walk with thy God?
9 The voice of Yahweh to the city crieth out, With safety for him who regardeth his name,—Hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it.
10 Even yet are there in the house of the lawless one the treasures of lawlessness,—and the scant measure—accurst?
11 Shall I be pure with lawless balances? or with a bag of deceitful weights?
12 For her rich men are full of violence, And her inhabitants have spoken falsehood,—And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
13 Moreover also I have made thee sick with smiting thee,—Laying thee waste because of thy sins.
14 Thou shalt eat—And not be satisfied, But be shrunk with hunger within thee,—Though thou remove yet shalt thou not set in safety, And what thou dost set in safety to the sword will I deliver.
15 Thou shalt sow but shalt not reap,—Thou shalt tread the olive but shalt not anoint thee with oil, Also the grape but shalt not drink the wine.
16 For strictly observed are The statutes of Omri And every doing of the house of Ahab, And ye have walked in their counsels,—To the end I may give thee up to desolation And her inhabitants to hissing, That the reproach of peoples ye may bear.
7 Alas for me! for I am become As gatherings of summer fruit, As gleaning-grapes in harvest, There is no cluster to eat, The first ripe fruit my soul craved.
2 Perished is the man of lovingkindness out of the earth, And upright among men is there none,—They all for bloodshed lie in wait. Every man—for his brother do they hunt as for one devoted to destruction.
3 Of wickedness with both hands to make sure The ruler doth make demand—And the judge—for a recompense,—And as for the great man he is putting into words the desire of his soul So have they woven the net!
4 The best of them is as a sharp briar, And the most upright worse than a thorn hedge, The day of thy watchmen—of thy visitation hath come, Now shall be their confusion!
5 Do not trust in a friend, Do not put confidence in an associate,—From her that lieth in thy bosom keep thou the doors of thy mouth;
6 For the son treateth as foolish the father, And the daughter riseth up against her mother, The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,—The foes of a man are the men of his own house.
7 But I for Yahweh will watch, I will wait for the God of my salvation,—My God will hear me.
8 Do not rejoice, O mine enemy, against me, Though I fall I shall rise again! Though I sit in darkness Yahweh is a light to me.
9 The indignation of Yahweh will I bear, For I have sinned against him,—Until he take up my controversy Then will he do me justice, He will bring me forth to the light I shall behold his righteousness.
10 So shall she who had been mine enemy fear And shame shall cover her, Who used to say unto me—Where is Yahweh thy God? Mine own eyes shall look upon her, Now shall she become one to be trodden down like the mire of the lanes.
11 On the day for building thy walls—On that day far away shall be thy boundary:
12 The very day that against thee shall one come from Assyria and [from] the cities of Egypt; Yea from Egypt even unto the River, And from sea to sea And from mountain to mountain:
13 Though the land become a desolation Because of them that dwell therein,—By reason of the fruit of their doings.
14 Shepherd thou thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine inheritance, Dwell thou alone a jungle in the midst of a fruitful field,—Let them feed in Bashan and in Gilead As in the days of age-past times.
15 As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt Will I shew him wonders.
16 Nations shall see that they may turn pale at all their valour,—They shall lay hand on mouth, Their ears shall be silent:
17 They shall lick the dust like the serpent, Like the crawlers of the earth shall they come quaking out of their fastnesses,—Towards Yahweh our God Shall they pay adoration, And shall fear because of thee.
18 Who is a God like unto thee Taking away the iniquity—And passing over the transgression—Of the remnant of his inheritance? He hath not held fast perpetually his anger, For One who delighteth in lovingkindness is he!
19 He will again have compassion upon us, He will subdue our iniquities,—Thou wilt cast—into the depths of the sea—all their sins.
20 Thou wilt grant—The faithfulness to Jacob, The lovingkindness to Abraham,—Which thou didst swear to our fathers From the days of ancient time.