Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition

THE BOOK OF MICAH

Prophecy concerning Samaria and Judah

1 *The word of the LORD that came to Mi'cah of Mo'resheth in the days of Jo'tham, A'haz, and Hezeki'ah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samar'ia and Jerusalem.

²Hear, you peoples, all of you;

listen, O earth, and all that is in it;

and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,

the Lord from his holy temple.

³For behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place,

and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

⁴And the mountains will melt under him

and the valleys will be cleft,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not Samar'ia?

And what is the sin of the house^a of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore I will make Samar'ia a heap in the open country,

a place for planting vineyards;

and I will pour down her stones into the valley,

and uncover her foundations.

⁷All her images shall be beaten to pieces,

all her hires shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste;

for from the hire of a harlot she gathered them,

and to the hire of a harlot they shall return.

⁸For this I will lament and wail;

I will go stripped and naked;

I will make lamentation like the jackals,

and mourning like the ostriches.

⁹For her wound^b is incurable;

and it has come to Judah,

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

¹⁰Tell it not in Gath,

weep not at all;

in Beth''-le-aph'rah

roll yourselves in the dust.

¹¹Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Sha'phir,

in nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Za'anan

do not come forth;

the wailing of Beth-e'zel

shall take away from you its standing place.

¹²For the inhabitants of Ma'roth

wait anxiously for good,

because evil has come down from the LORD

to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of La'chish;

you were^c the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

for in you were found

the transgressions of Israel.

¹⁴Therefore you shall give parting gifts

to Mo'resheth-gath;

the houses of Ach'zib shall be a deceitful thing

to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will again bring a conqueror upon you,

inhabitants of Mare'shah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to Adul'lam.

¹⁶Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,

for the children of your delight;

make yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they shall go from you into exile.

Evils of the People Denounced but a Remnant Will Be Gathered

2 Woe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil upon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

²They covet fields, and seize them;

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

³Therefore thus says the LORD:

Behold, against this family I am devising evil,

from which you cannot remove your necks;

and you shall not walk haughtily,

for it will be an evil time.

⁴In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you,

and wail with bitter lamentation,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

he changes the portion of my people;

how he removes it from me!

Among our captors^d he divides our fields.”

⁵Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the LORD.

⁶"Do not preach”—thus they preach—

“one should not preach of such things;

disgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient?

Are these his doings?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

⁸But you rise against my people^e as an enemy;

you strip the robe from the peaceful,^f

from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.

⁹The women of my people you drive out

from their pleasant houses;

from their young children you take away

my glory for ever.

¹⁰Arise and go,

for this is no place to rest;

because of uncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

¹¹If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,

saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”

he would be the preacher for this people!

¹²I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will gather the remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

¹³He who opens the breach will go up before them;

they will break through and pass the gate,

going out by it.

Their king will pass on before them,

the LORD at their head.

Evil Rulers and Prophets

3 And I said:

Hear, you heads of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel!

Is it not for you to know justice?—

² you who hate the good and love the evil,

who tear the skin from off my people,

and their flesh from off their bones;

³who eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones in pieces,

and chop them up like meat^g in a kettle,

like flesh in a caldron.

⁴Then they will cry to the LORD,

but he will not answer them;

he will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have made their deeds evil.

⁵Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets

who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace”

when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

who puts nothing into their mouths.

⁶Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,

and darkness to you, without divination.

The sun shall go down upon the prophets,

and the day shall be black over them;

⁷the seers shall be disgraced,

and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

for there is no answer from God.

⁸But as for me, I am filled with power,

with the Spirit of the LORD,

and with justice and might,

to declare to Jacob his transgression

and to Israel his sin.

⁹Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

and rulers of the house of Israel,

who abhor justice

and pervert all equity,

¹⁰who build Zion with blood

and Jerusalem with wrong.

¹¹Its heads give judgment for a bribe,

its priests teach for hire,

its prophets divine for money;

yet they lean upon the LORD and say,

“Is not the LORD in the midst of us?

No evil shall come upon us.”

¹²Therefore because of you

Zion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

Prophecy of Restoration of Zion

4 It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the LORD

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised up above the hills;

and peoples shall flow to it,

² and many nations shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that he may teach us his ways

and we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

³He shall judge between many peoples,

and shall decide for 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 the LORD of hosts has spoken.

⁵For all the peoples walk

each in the name of its god,

but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God

for ever and ever.

⁶In that day, says the LORD,

I will assemble the lame

and gather those who have been driven away,

and those whom I have afflicted;

⁷and the lame I will make the remnant;

and those who were cast off, a strong nation;

and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion

from this time forth and for evermore.

⁸And you, O tower of the flock,

hill of the daughter of Zion,

to you shall it come,

the former dominion shall come,

the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

⁹Now why do you cry aloud?

Is there no king in you?

Has your counselor perished,

that pangs have seized you like a woman in labor?

¹⁰Writhe and groan,^h O daughter of Zion,

like a woman with labor pains;

for now you shall go forth from the city

and dwell in the open country;

you shall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued,

there the LORD will redeem you

from the hand of your enemies.

¹¹Now many nations

are assembled against you,

saying, “Let her be profaned,

and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”

¹²But they do not know

the thoughts of the LORD,

they do not understand his plan,

that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

¹³Arise and thresh,

O daughter of Zion,

for I will make your horn iron

and your hoofs bronze;

you shall beat in pieces many peoples,

and shallⁱ devote their gain to the LORD,

their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

A Ruler from Bethlehem

5 ^j Now you are walled about with a wall; ^k

siege is laid against us;

with a rod they strike upon the cheek

the ruler of Israel.

² ^l But you, O Bethlehem Eph'rathah,

who are little to be among the clans of Judah,

from you shall come forth for me

one who is to be ruler in Israel,

whose origin is from of old,

from ancient days.

³Therefore he shall give them up until the time

when she who has labor pains has brought forth;

then the rest of his brethren shall return

to the sons of Israel.

⁴And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD,

in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.

And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great

to the ends of the earth.

⁵And this shall be peace,

when the Assyrian comes into our land

and treads upon our soil, ^m

that we will raise against him seven shepherds

and eight princes of men;

⁶they shall rule the land of Assyria with the sword,

and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword; ⁿ

and they ^o shall deliver us from the Assyrian

when he comes into our land

and treads within our border.

⁷Then the remnant of Jacob shall be

in the midst of many peoples

like dew from the LORD,

like showers upon the grass,

which do not depend upon men

nor wait for the sons of men.

⁸And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples,

like a lion among the beasts of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which, when it goes through, treads down

and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

⁹Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,

and all your enemies shall be cut off.

¹⁰And in that day, says the LORD,

I will cut off your horses from among you

and will destroy your chariots;

¹¹and I will cut off the cities of your land

and throw down all your strongholds;

¹²and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,

and you shall have no more soothsayers;

¹³and I will cut off your images

and your pillars from among you,

and you shall bow down no more

to the work of your hands;

¹⁴and I will root out your Ashe'rim from among you

and destroy your cities.

¹⁵And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance

upon the nations that did not obey.

What the Lord Requires

6 Hear what the LORD says:

Arise, plead your case before the mountains,

and let the hills hear your voice.

²Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the LORD,

and you enduring foundations of the earth;

for the LORD has a controversy with his people,

and he will contend with Israel.

³“O my people, what have I done to you?

In what have I wearied you? Answer me!

⁴For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,

and redeemed you from the house of bondage;

and I sent before you Moses,

Aaron, and Miriam.

⁵O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,

and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,

and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,

that you may know the saving acts of the LORD.”

⁶“With what shall I come before the LORD,

and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

⁷Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,

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 the LORD require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness, ^p

and to walk humbly with your God?

⁹The voice of the LORD cries to the city—

and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:

“Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city! ^q

¹⁰ Can I forget ^r the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,

and the scant measure that is accursed?

¹¹Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales

and with a bag of deceitful weights?

¹²Your ^s rich men are full of violence;

your ^s inhabitants speak lies,

and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹³Therefore I have begun ^t to strike you,

making you desolate because of your sins.

¹⁴You shall eat, but not be satisfied,

and there shall be hunger in your inward parts;

you shall put away, but not save,

and what you save I will give to the sword.

¹⁵You shall sow, but not reap;

you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;

you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.

¹⁶For you have kept the statutes of Omri, ^u

and all the works of the house of A'hab;

and you have walked in their counsels;

that I may make you a desolation, and your ^v inhabitants a hissing;

so you shall bear the scorn of the peoples.” ^w

Corruption, Repentance, and God’s Compassion and Love

7 Woe is me! For I have become

as when the summer fruit has been gathered,

as when the vintage has been gleaned:

there is no cluster to eat,

no first-ripe fig which my soul desires.

²The godly man has perished from the earth,

and there is none upright among men;

they all lie in wait for blood,

and each hunts his brother with a net.

³Their hands are upon what is evil, to do it diligently;

the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,

and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;

thus they weave it together.

⁴The best of them is like a brier,

the most upright of them a thorn hedge.

The day of their ^x watchmen, of their ^x punishment, has come;

now their confusion is at hand.

⁵Put no trust in a neighbor,

have no confidence in a friend;

guard the doors of your mouth

from her who lies in your bosom;

⁶for the son treats the father with contempt,

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 to the LORD,

I will wait for the God of my salvation;

my God will hear me.

⁸Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;

when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

the LORD will be a light to me.

⁹I will bear the indignation of the LORD

because I have sinned against him,

until he pleads my cause

and executes judgment for me.

He will bring me forth to the light;

I shall behold his deliverance.

¹⁰Then my enemy will see,

and shame will cover her who said to me,

“Where is the LORD your God?”

My eyes will gloat over her;

now she will be trodden down

like the mire of the streets.

¹¹A day for the building of your walls!

In that day the boundary shall be far extended.

¹²In that day they will come to you,

from Assyria to ^y Egypt,

and from Egypt to the River,

from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

¹³But the earth will be desolate

because of its inhabitants,

for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff,

the flock of your inheritance,

who dwell alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

¹⁵As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt

I will show them ^z marvelous things.

¹⁶The nations shall see and be ashamed

of all their might;

they shall lay their hands on their mouths;

their ears shall be deaf;

¹⁷they shall lick the dust like a serpent,

like the crawling things of the earth;

they shall come trembling out of their strongholds,

they shall turn in dread to the LORD our God,

and they shall fear because of you.

¹⁸Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger for ever

because he delights in mercy.

¹⁹He will again have compassion upon us,

he will tread our iniquities under foot.

You will cast all our ^a sins

into the depths of the sea.

²⁰You will show faithfulness to Jacob

and mercy to Abraham,

as you have sworn to our fathers

from the days of old.