Micah 3–6

1I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?

2You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;

3who also eat the flesh of my people, and peel their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as meat within the cauldron.

4Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”

5Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray—for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t provide for their mouths, they prepare war against him:

6“Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them.

7The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.”

8But as for me, I am full of power by Yahweh’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin.

9Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity,

10who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money; yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

12Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.

1But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of Yahweh’s temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it.

2Many nations will go and say, “Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of Yahweh, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem;

3and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more.

4But every man will sit under his vine and under his fig tree. No one will make them afraid, for the mouth of Yahweh of Armies has spoken.

5Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods, but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever.

6“In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted;

7and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and Yahweh will reign over them on Mount Zion from then on, even forever.”

8You, tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come. Yes, the former dominion will come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

9Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?

10Be in pain, and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

11Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion.”

12But they don’t know the thoughts of Yahweh, neither do they understand his counsel; for he has gathered them like the sheaves to the threshing floor.

13Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze. You will beat in pieces many peoples. I will devote their gain to Yahweh, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.

1Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

2But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times.

3Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.

4He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God. They will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.

5He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land and when he marches through our fortresses, then we will raise against him seven shepherds, and eight leaders of men.

6They will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in its gates. He will deliver us from the Assyrian, when he invades our land, and when he marches within our border.

7The remnant of Jacob will be among many peoples like dew from Yahweh, like showers on the grass, that don’t wait for man nor wait for the sons of men.

8The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, among many peoples, like a lion among the animals of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is no one to deliver.

9Let your hand be lifted up above your adversaries, and let all of your enemies be cut off.

10“It will happen in that day”, says Yahweh, “that I will cut off your horses from among you and will destroy your chariots.

11I will cut off the cities of your land and will tear down all your strongholds.

12I will destroy witchcraft from your hand. You shall have no soothsayers.

13I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars from among you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.

14I will uproot your Asherah poles from among you; and I will destroy your cities.

15I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations that didn’t listen.”

1Listen now to what Yahweh says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.

2Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s indictment, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a case against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

3My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me!

4For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

5My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of Yahweh.”

6How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

7Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

9Yahweh’s voice calls to the city— and wisdom fears your name— “Listen to the rod, and he who appointed it.

10Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed?

11Shall I tolerate dishonest scales, and a bag of deceitful weights?

12Her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.

13Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.

14You shall eat, but not be satisfied. Your hunger will be within you. You will store up, but not save, and that which you save I will give up to the sword.

15You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.

16For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of Ahab’s house. You walk in their counsels, that I may make you a ruin, and your inhabitants a hissing. You will bear the reproach of my people.”