1:1 The word of the Lord which came to Micah the Morashtite, in
 the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: his
 vision about Samaria and Jerusalem.
1:2 Give ear, you peoples, all of you; give attention, O earth
 and everything in it: let the Lord God be witness against you,
 the Lord from his holy Temple.
1:3 For see, the Lord is coming out from his place, and will
 come down, stepping on the high places of the earth.
1:4 And the mountains will be turned to water under him, and the
 deep valleys will be broken open, like wax before the fire,
 like waters flowing down a slope.
1:5 All this is because of the wrongdoing of Jacob and the sins
 of the children of Israel. What is the wrongdoing of Jacob? is
 it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they
 not Jerusalem?
1:6 So I will make Samaria into a field and the plantings of a
 vine-garden: I will send its stones falling down into the
 valley, uncovering its bases.
1:7 And all her pictured images will be hammered into bits, and
 all the payments for her loose ways will be burned with fire,
 and all the images of her gods I will make waste: for with the
 price of a loose woman she got them together, and as the price
 of a loose woman will they be given back.
1:8 For this I will be full of sorrow and give cries of grief; I
 will go uncovered and unclothed: I will give cries of grief
 like the jackals and will be in sorrow like the ostriches.
1:9 For her wounds may not be made well: for it has come even to
 Judah, stretching up to the doorway of my people, even to
 Jerusalem.
1:10 Give no word of it in Gath, let there be no weeping at all:
 at Beth-le-aphrah be rolling in the dust.
1:11 Be uncovered and go away, you who are living in Shaphir:
 the one living in Zaanan has not come out of her town;
 Beth-ezel is taken away from its base, even from its
 resting-place.
1:12 For the one living in Maroth is waiting for good: for evil
 has come down from the Lord to the doorways of Jerusalem.
1:13 Let the war-carriage be yoked to the quick-running horse,
 you who are living in Lachish: she was the first cause of sin
 to the daughter of Zion; for the wrongdoings of Israel were
 seen in you.
1:14 For this cause give a parting offering to Moresheth-gath:
 the daughter of Achzib will be a deceit to the king of Israel.
1:15 Even now will the taker of your heritage come to you, you
 who are living in Mareshah: the glory of Israel will come to
 destruction for ever.
1:16 Let your head be uncovered and your hair cut off in sorrow
 for the children of your delight: let the hair be pulled from
 your head like an eagle's; for they have been taken away from
 you as prisoners.
2:1 A curse on the designers of evil, working on their beds! in
 the morning light they do it, because it is in their power.
2:2 They have a desire for fields and take them by force; and
 for houses and take them away: they are cruel to a man and his
 family, even to a man and his heritage.
2:3 For this cause the Lord has said, See, against this family I
 am purposing an evil from which you will not be able to take
 your necks away, and you will be weighted down by it; for it is
 an evil time.
2:4 In that day this saying will be said about you, and this
 song of grief will be made: The heritage of my people is
 measured out, and there is no one to give it back; those who
 have made us prisoners have taken our fields from us, and
 complete destruction has come to us.
2:5 For this cause you will have no one to make the decision by
 the measuring line in the meeting of the Lord.
2:6 Let not words like these be dropped, they say: Shame and the
 curse will not come to the family of Jacob!
2:7 Is the Lord quickly made angry? are these his doings? do not
 his words do good to his people Israel?
2:8 As for you, you have become haters of those who were at
 peace with you: you take the clothing of those who go by
 without fear, and make them prisoners of war.
2:9 The women of my people you have been driving away from their
 dearly loved children; from their young ones you are taking my
 glory for ever.
2:10 Up! and go; for this is not your rest: because it has been
 made unclean, the destruction ordered will come on you.
2:11 If a man came with a false spirit of deceit, saying, I will
 be a prophet to you of wine and strong drink: he would be the
 sort of prophet for this people.
2:12 I will certainly make all of you, O Jacob, come together; I
 will get together the rest of Israel; I will put them together
 like the sheep in their circle: like a flock in their green
 field; they will be full of the noise of men.
2:13 The opener of the way will go up before them: forcing their
 way out they will go on to the doorway and out through it:
 their king will go on before them, and the Lord at their head.
3:1 And I said, Give ear, now, you heads of Jacob and rulers of
 the people of Israel: is it not for you to have knowledge of
 what is right?
3:2 You who are haters of good and lovers of evil, pulling off
 their skin from them and their flesh from their bones;
3:3 Like meat they take the flesh of my people for their food,
 skinning them and crushing their bones, yes, cutting them up as
 if for the pot, like flesh inside the cooking-pot.
3:4 Then they will be crying to the Lord for help, but he will
 not give them an answer: yes, he will keep his face veiled from
 them at that time, because their acts have been evil.
3:5 This is what the Lord has said about the prophets by whom my
 people have been turned from the right way; who, biting with
 their teeth, say, Peace; and if anyone puts nothing in their
 mouths they make ready for war against him.
3:6 For this cause it will be night for you, without a vision;
 and it will be dark for you, without knowledge of the future;
 the sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will be
 black over them.
3:7 And the seers will be shamed, and the readers of the future
 will be at a loss, all of them covering their lips; for there
 is no answer from God.
3:8 But I truly am full of the spirit of the Lord, with power of
 judging and with strength to make clear to Jacob his wrongdoing
 and to Israel his sin.
3:9 Then give ear to this, you heads of the children of Jacob,
 you rulers of the children of Israel, hating what is right,
 twisting what is straight.
3:10 They are building up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with
 evil-doing.
3:11 Its heads take rewards for judging, and the priests take
 payment for teaching, and the prophets get silver for reading
 the future: but still, supporting themselves on the Lord, they
 say, Is not the Lord among us? no evil will overtake us.
3:12 For this reason, Zion will be ploughed like a field because
 of you, and Jerusalem will become a mass of broken walls, and
 the mountain of the house like a high place in the woods.
4:1 But in the last days it will come about that the mountain of
 the Lord's house will be placed on the top of the mountains,
 and be lifted up over the hills; and peoples will be flowing to
 it.
4:2 And a number of nations will go and say, Come, and let us go
 up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of
 Jacob; and he will give us knowledge of his ways and we will be
 guided by his word: for from Zion the law will go out, and the
 word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4:3 And he will be judge between great peoples, and strong
 nations far away will be ruled by his decisions; their swords
 will be hammered into plough-blades and their spears into
 vine-knives: nations will no longer be lifting up their swords
 against one another, and knowledge of war will have gone for
 ever.
4:4 But every man will be seated under his vine and under his
 fig-tree, and no one will be a cause of fear to them: for the
 mouth of the Lord of armies has said it.
4:5 For all the peoples will be walking, every one in the name
 of his god, and we will be walking in the name of the Lord our
 God for ever and ever.
4:6 In that day, says the Lord, I will get together her who goes
 with uncertain steps, I will get together her who has been sent
 away, and her on whom I have sent evil;
4:7 And I will make her whose steps were uncertain a small band,
 and her who was feeble a strong nation: and the Lord will be
 their King in Mount Zion from now and for ever.
4:8 And you, O tower of the flock, Ophel of the daughter of
 Zion, to you it will come, even the earlier authority, the
 kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
4:9 Now why are you crying so loudly? is there no king in you?
 has destruction come on your wise helper? so that pains have
 taken you like the pains of a woman in childbirth:
4:10 Be in pain, make sounds of grief, O daughter of Zion, like
 a woman in childbirth: for now you will go out of the town,
 living in the open country, and will come even to Babylon;
 there you will have salvation; there the Lord will make you
 free from the hands of your haters.
4:11 And now a number of nations have come together against you,
 and they say, Let her be made unclean and let our eyes see the
 fate of Zion.
4:12 But they have no knowledge of the thoughts of the Lord,
 their minds are not able to see his purpose: for he has got
 them together like stems of grain to the crushing-floor.
4:13 Up! and let the grain be crushed, O daughter of Zion, for I
 will make your horn iron and your feet brass, and a number of
 peoples will be broken by you, and you will give up their
 increase to the Lord and their wealth to the Lord of all the
 earth.
5:1 Now you will give yourselves deep wounds for grief; they
 will put up a wall round us: they will give the judge of Israel
 a blow on the face with a rod.
5:2 And you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, the least among the families
 of Judah, out of you one will come to me who is to be ruler in
 Israel; whose going out has been purposed from time past, from
 the eternal days.
5:3 For this cause he will give them up till the time when she
 who is with child has given birth: then the rest of his
 brothers will come back to the children of Israel.
5:4 And he will take his place and give food to his flock in the
 strength of the Lord, in the glory of the name of the Lord his
 God; and their resting-place will be safe: for now he will be
 great to the ends of the earth.
5:5 And this will be our peace: when the Assyrian comes into our
 country and his feet are in our land, then we will put up
 against him seven keepers of the flocks and eight chiefs among
 men.
5:6 And they will make waste the land of Assyria with the sword,
 and the land of Nimrod with the edge of the sword: he will give
 us salvation from the Assyrian when he comes into our country,
 when his feet come inside the limit of our land.
5:7 And the rest of Jacob will be among the mass of peoples like
 dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which may not be
 kept back by man, or be waiting for the sons of men.
5:8 And the rest of Jacob will be among the nations, in the
 middle of the mass of peoples, like a lion among the beasts of
 the woods, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep: if he
 goes through, they will be crushed under foot and pulled to
 bits, and there will be no saviour.
5:9 Your hand is lifted up against those who are against you,
 and all your haters will be cut off.
5:10 And it will come about in that day, says the Lord, that I
 will take away your horses from you, and will give your
 war-carriages to destruction:
5:11 I will have the towns of your land cut off and all your
 strong places pulled down:
5:12 I will put an end to your use of secret arts, and you will
 have no more readers of signs:
5:13 And I will have your images and your pillars cut off from
 you; and you will no longer give worship to the work of your
 hands.
5:14 I will have your Asherahs pulled up from among you: and I
 will send destruction on your images.
5:15 And my punishment will be effected on the nations with such
 burning wrath as they have not had word of.
6:1 Give ear now to the words of the Lord: Up! put forward your
 cause before the mountains, let your voice be sounding among
 the hills.
6:2 Give ear, O you mountains, to the Lord's cause, and take
 note, you bases of the earth: for the Lord has a cause against
 his people, and he will take it up with Israel.
6:3 O my people, what have I done to you? how have I been a
 weariness to you? give answer against me.
6:4 For I took you up out of the land of Egypt and made you free
 from the prison-house; I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and
 Miriam.
6:5 O my people, keep in mind now what was designed by Balak,
 king of Moab, and the answer which Balaam, son of Beor, gave
 him; the events, from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may be
 certain of the upright acts of the Lord.
6:6 With what am I to come before the Lord and go with bent head
 before the high God? am I to come before him with burned
 offerings, with young oxen a year old?
6:7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of sheep or with ten
 thousand rivers of oil? am I to give my first child for my
 wrongdoing, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
6:8 He has made clear to you, O man, what is good; and what is
 desired from you by the Lord; only doing what is right, and
 loving mercy, and walking without pride before your God.
6:9 The voice of the Lord is crying out to the town: Give ear,
 you tribes and the meeting of the town.
6:10 Am I to let the stores of the evil-doer go out of my
 memory, and the short measure, which is cursed?
6:11 Is it possible for me to let wrong scales and the bag of
 false weights go without punishment?
6:12 For its men of wealth are cruel, and its people have said
 what is not true, and their tongue is false in their mouth.
6:13 So I have made a start with your punishment; I have made
 you waste because of your sins.
6:14 You will have food, but not enough; your shame will be ever
 with you: you will get your goods moved, but you will not take
 them away safely; and what you do take away I will give to the
 sword.
6:15 You will put in seed, but you will not get in the grain;
 you will be crushing olives, but your bodies will not be rubbed
 with the oil; and you will get in the grapes, but you will have
 no wine.
6:16 For you have kept the laws of Omri and all the works of the
 family of Ahab, and you have been guided by their designs: so
 that I might make you a cause of wonder and your people a cause
 of hisses; and the shame of my people will be on you.
7:1 Sorrow is mine! for I am as when they have got in the summer
 fruits, like the last of the grapes: there is nothing for food,
 not even an early fig for my desire.
7:2 The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one upright
 among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood, every man
 is going after his brother with a net.
7:3 Their hands are made ready to do evil; the ruler makes
 requests for money, and the judge is looking for a reward; and
 the great man gives decisions at his pleasure, and the right is
 twisted.
7:4 The best of them is like a waste plant, and their upright
 ones are like a wall of thorns. Sorrow! the day of their fate
 has come; now will trouble come on them.
7:5 Put no faith in a friend, do not let your hope be placed in
 a relation: keep watch on the doors of your mouth against her
 who is resting on your breast.
7:6 For the son puts shame on his father, the daughter goes
 against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her
 mother-in-law; and a man's haters are those of his family.
7:7 But as for me, I am looking to the Lord; I am waiting for
 the God of my salvation: the ears of my God will be open to me.
7:8 Do not be glad because of my sorrow, O my hater: after my
 fall I will be lifted up; when I am seated in the dark, the
 Lord will be a light to me.
7:9 I will undergo the wrath of the Lord, because of my sin
 against him; till he takes up my cause and does what is right
 for me: when he makes me come out into the light, I will see
 his righteousness;
7:10 And my hater will see it and be covered with shame; she who
 said to me, Where is the Lord your God? my eyes will see their
 desire effected on her, now she will be crushed under foot like
 the dust of the streets.
7:11 A day for building your walls! in that day will your limits
 be stretched far and wide.
7:12 In that day they will come to you from Assyria and the
 towns of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea
 to sea and from mountain to mountain.
7:13 But the land will become a waste because of its people, as
 the fruit of their works.
7:14 Keep your people safe with your rod, the flock of your
 heritage, living by themselves in the woods in the middle of
 Carmel: let them get their food in Bashan and Gilead as in the
 past.
7:15 As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt,
 let us see things of wonder.
7:16 The nations will see and be shamed because of all their
 strength; they will put their hands on their mouths, their ears
 will be stopped.
7:17 They will take dust as their food like a snake, like the
 things which go flat on the earth; they will come shaking with
 fear out of their secret places: they will come with fear to
 the Lord our God, full of fear because of you.
7:18 Who is a God like you, offering forgiveness for evil-doing
 and overlooking the sins of the rest of his heritage? he does
 not keep his wrath for ever, because his delight is in mercy.
7:19 He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under
 his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of
 the sea.
7:20 You will make clear your good faith to Jacob and your mercy
 to Abraham, as you gave your oath to our fathers from times
 long past.
