Micah
Micah 1
The Lord Comes Against Samaria and Jerusalem
1 The word of the Lord came to Micah the Moreshethite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. He saw this concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Listen to these words, you peoples!
Earth, pay attention, with everyone in you.
The Lord will be a witness among you,
the Lord from his holy dwelling.
3 Look, the Lord is coming out from his place.
He will come down
and tread on the heights of the earth.
4 The mountains will shake beneath him,
and the valleys will melt
like wax before fire,
like water rushing down a slope.
5 All this is because of Jacob’s ungodliness
and the sin of the house of Israel.
What is Jacob’s ungodliness? Is it not Samaria?
And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 “So I will make Samaria
a storehouse for produce in the field,
a place for planting a vineyard.
I will tear down her stones into the valley
and expose her foundations.
7 They will smash all her carved images.
They will burn all her wages in the fire,
and I will completely destroy all her idols.
She gathered them from the wages of prostitution,
and from the wages of prostitution she heaped them up.”
Micah’s Lament
8 Because of this she will mourn and wail.
She will go barefoot and naked.
She will cry out like serpents
and mourn like daughters of sirens.
9 Her wound is severe;
it has reached as far as Judah.
It has come to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
10 Those in Gath, do not exalt yourselves.
You in Akim, do not rebuild from a house in mockery.
Sprinkle dust where you once laughed.
11 The inhabitant of Sennaan,
though living beautifully in her cities,
did not come out to mourn for the neighboring house.
She will receive a blow of grief from you.
12 Who has begun to do good
for the one who lives in sorrow?
For disasters have come down from the Lord
upon Jerusalem’s gates—
13 the sound of chariots and horsemen.
Inhabitant of Lachish,
she is the head of sin for daughter Zion,
for Israel’s ungodly acts were found in you.
14 Therefore you will send people away
as far as the inheritance of Gath.
Its empty houses have become emptiness
for the kings of Israel,
15 until I bring the heirs to you, inhabitant of Lachish.
The inheritance will reach Adullam,
the glory of the daughter of Israel.
16 Shave your hair; cut it off
for your cherished children.
Widen your widowhood like an eagle’s,
for they have been taken captive from you.