The Aaron Papers  www.the-aaron-papers.net 

  Micah

1 The word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. ²Hear, you peoples, all of you: hearken, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. ³For, behold, Jehovah comes forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. ⁴And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as become before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place. ⁵For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? ⁶Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof. ⁷And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate; for of the hire of a harlot has she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot shall they return.

⁸For this will I lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches. ⁹For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even unto Judah; it reaches unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. ¹⁰Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all: at Beth-le-aphrah have I rolled myself in the dust. ¹¹Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame: the inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth; the wailing of Beth-ezel shall take from you the stay thereof. ¹²For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil is come down from Jehovah unto the gate of Jerusalem. ¹³Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish: she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. ¹⁴Therefore shall you give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing unto the kings of Israel. ¹⁵I will yet bring unto you, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him that shall possess you: the glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam. ¹⁶Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight: enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from you.

2 Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. ²And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. ³Therefore this says Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which you shall not remove your necks, neither shall you walk haughtily; for it is an evil time. ⁴In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We are utterly ruined: he changed the portion of my people: how does he remove it from me! to the rebellious he divides our fields. ⁵Therefore you shall have none that shall cast the line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah.

⁶Do not prophesy, this they prophesy. They shall not prophesy to these: reproaches shall not depart. ⁷Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the Spirit of Jehovah straitened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly? ⁸But of late my people is risen up as an enemy: you strip the robe from off the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war. ⁹The women of my people you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my glory for ever. ¹⁰Arise, and depart; for this is not your resting-place; because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction. ¹¹If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood does lie, saying, I will prophesy unto you of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

¹²I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. ¹³The breaker is gone up before them: they have broken forth and passed on to the gate, and are gone out by it; and their king is passed on before them, and Jehovah at the head of them.

3 And I said, Hear, I pray you, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice? ²you who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; ³who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. ⁴Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer them; yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings. ⁵This says Jehovah concerning the prophets that make my people to err; that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; while they chew with their teeth, they even prepare war against him: ⁶Therefore it shall be night unto you, that you shall have no vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that you shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them. ⁷And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

⁸But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin. ⁹Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that despise justice, and pervert all equity. ¹⁰They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us. ¹²Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

4 But in the latter days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of Jehovah’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it. ²And many nations shall go and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, 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 out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem; ³and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ⁴But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts has spoken it. ⁵For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. ⁶In that day, says Jehovah, will I 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 Jehovah will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever.

⁸And you, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, yes, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. ⁹Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you, is your counselor perished, that pangs have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail? ¹⁰Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shall you go forth out of the city, and shall dwell in the field, and shall come even unto Babylon: there shall you be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem you from the hand of your enemies. ¹¹And now many nations are assembled against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire upon Zion. ¹²But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, neither do they understand his counsel; for he has gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing-floor. ¹³Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you shall beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain unto Jehovah, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

5 Now shall you gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops: he has laid siege against us; they shall strike the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. ²But you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which are little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of you shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. ³Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she who travails has brought forth: then the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. ⁴And he shall stand, and shall feed his flock in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God: and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. ⁵And this man shall be our peace. When the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men. ⁶And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he treads within our border.

⁷And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from Jehovah, as showers upon the grass, that tarry not for man, nor wait for the sons of men. ⁸And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. ⁹Let your hand be lifted up above your adversaries, and let all your enemies be cut off. ¹⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, says Jehovah, that I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and will destroy your chariots: ¹¹and I will cut off the cities of your land, and will throw down all your strongholds. ¹²And I will cut off witchcrafts out of your hand; and you shall have no more soothsayers: ¹³and I will cut off your graven images and your pillars out of the midst of you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands; ¹⁴and I will pluck up your shrines out of the midst of you; and I will destroy your cities. ¹⁵And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations which hearkened not.

6 Hear now what Jehovah says: Arise, contend before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. ²Hear, O you mountains, Jehovah’s controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Jehovah has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. ³O my people, what have I done unto you? and wherein have I wearied you? testify against me. ⁴For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. ⁵O my people, remember now what Balak king of Mo-ab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; remember from Shittim unto Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of Jehovah.

⁶Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old? ⁷will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ⁸He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does Jehovah require of you, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

⁹The voice of Jehovah cries unto the city, and the man of wisdom will see your name: hear the rod, and who has appointed it. ¹⁰Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a scant measure that is abominable? ¹¹Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights? ¹²For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. ¹³Therefore I also have affected you with a grievous wound; I have made you desolate because of your sins. ¹⁴You shall eat, but not be satisfied; and your humiliation shall be in the midst of you: and you shall put away, but shall not save; and that which you saved will I give up to the sword. ¹⁵You shall sow, but shall not reap; you shall tread the olives, but shall not anoint you with oil; and the vintage, but shall not drink the wine. ¹⁶For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their counsels; that I may make you a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing: and you shall bear the reproach of my people.

7 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desires the first-ripe fig. ²The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. ³Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asks, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he utters the evil desire of his soul: thus they weave it together. ⁴The best of them is as a brier; the most upright is worse than a thorn hedge: the day of your watchmen, even your visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity. ⁵Trust not in a neighbor; nor put your confidence in a friend; keep the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom. ⁶For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

⁷But as for me, I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. ⁸Rejoice not against me, O my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me. ⁹I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. ¹⁰Then my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said unto me, Where is Jehovah your God? my eyes shall see my desire upon her; now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. ¹¹A day for building your walls! in that day shall the decree be far removed. ¹²In that day shall they come unto you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. ¹³Yet shall the land be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.