1:1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of
Jotham, Ahaz, {and} Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria
and Jerusalem.
1:2 Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the
Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
1:3 For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down,
and tread upon the high places of the earth.
1:4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be
cleft, as wax before the fire, {and} as the waters {that are} poured down a
steep place.
1:5 For 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?
1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, {and} as plantings
of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I
will discover the foundations thereof.
1:7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the
hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I
lay desolate: for she gathered {it} of the hire of an harlot, and they shall
return to the hire of an harlot.
1:8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a
wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.
1:9 For her wound {is} incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto
the gate of my people, {even} to Jerusalem.
1:10 Declare ye {it} not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah
roll thyself in the dust.
1:11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the
inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall
receive of you his standing.
1:12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down
from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem.
1:13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she
{is} the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions
of Israel were found in thee.
1:14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib
{shall be} a lie to the kings of Israel.
1:15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall
come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.
1:16 Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy
baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the
morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2:2 And they covet fields, and take {them} by violence; and houses, and take
{them} away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
2:3 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against this family do I devise an
evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily:
for this time {is} evil.
2:4 In that day shall {one} take up a parable against you, and lament with a
doleful lamentation, {and} say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the
portion of my people: how hath he removed {it} from me! turning away he hath
divided our fields.
2:5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the
congregation of the Lord.
2:6 Prophesy ye not, {say they to them that} prophesy: they shall not prophesy
to them, {that} they shall not take shame.
2:7 O {thou that art} named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord
straitened? {are} these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh
uprightly?
2:8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye pull off the robe with
the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war.
2:9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from
their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.
2:10 Arise ye, and depart; for this {is} not {your} rest: because it is
polluted, it shall destroy {you}, even with a sore destruction.
2:11 If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, {saying}, I will
prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of
this people.
2:12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the
remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the
flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of {the
multitude of} men.
2:13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed
through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before
them, and the Lord on the head of them.
3:1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house
of Israel; {is it} not for you to know judgment?
3:2 Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off
them, and their flesh from off their bones;
3:3 Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and
they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh
within the caldron.
3:4 Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them: he will even
hide his face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in
their doings.
3:5 Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that
bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their
mouths, they even prepare war against him.
3:6 Therefore night {shall be} unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and
it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down
over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
3:7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they
shall all cover their lips; for {there is} no answer of God.
3:8 But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment,
and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.
3:9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the
house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
3:10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
3:11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the
Lord, and say, {Is} not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.
3:12 Therefore 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 the
forest.
4:1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, {that} the mountain of the
house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it
shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
4:2 And many nations shall come, 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 teach
us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of
Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4:3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more.
4:4 But 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 hath spoken
{it}.
4:5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk
in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.
4:6 In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will
gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;
4:7 And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a
strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from
henceforth, even for ever.
4:8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion,
unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the
daughter of Jerusalem.
4:9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? {is there} no king in thee? is thy
counseller perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
4:10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in
travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in
the field, and thou shalt go {even} to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered;
there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
4:11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be
defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
4:12 But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his
counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
4:13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and
I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I
will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of
the whole earth.
5:1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege
against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, {though} thou be little among the thousands
of Judah, {yet} out of thee shall he come forth unto me {that is} to be ruler
in Israel; whose goings forth {have been} from of old, from everlasting.
5:3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time {that} she which travaileth
hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the
children of Israel.
5:4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of
the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great
unto the ends of the earth.
5:5 And this {man} shall be the 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.
5:6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of
Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver {us} from the Assyrian,
when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
5:7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from
the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth
for the sons of men.
5:8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many
people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the
flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in
pieces, and none can deliver.
5:9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies
shall be cut off.
5:10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cut off
thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:
5:11 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong
holds:
5:12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no
{more} soothsayers:
5:13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the
midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
5:14 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy
thy cities.
5:15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as
they have not heard.
6:1 Hear ye now what the Lord saith; Arise, contend thou before the mountains,
and let the hills hear thy voice.
6:2 Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of
the earth: for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead
with Israel.
6:3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee?
testify against me.
6:4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of
the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
6:5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what
Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know
the righteousness of the Lord.
6:6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, {and} bow myself before the high
God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
6:7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, {or} with ten thousands of
rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn {for} my transgression, the fruit of
my body {for} the sin of my soul?
6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what {is} good; and what doth the Lord require
of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
6:9 The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and {the man of} wisdom shall see
thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.
6:10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and
the scant measure {that is} abominable?
6:11 Shall I count {them} pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of
deceitful weights?
6:12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof
have spoken lies, and their tongue {is} deceitful in their mouth.
6:13 Therefore also will I make {thee} sick in smiting thee, in making {thee}
desolate because of thy sins.
6:14 Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down {shall be} in
the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and {that}
which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.
6:15 Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but
thou shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.
6:16 For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab,
and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the
inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my
people.
7:1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the
grapegleanings of the vintage: {there is} no cluster to eat: my soul desired
the firstripe fruit.
7:2 The good {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.
7:3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the
judge {asketh} for a reward; and the great {man}, he uttereth his mischievous
desire: so they wrap it up.
7:4 The best of them {is} as a brier: the most upright {is sharper} than a
thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen {and} thy visitation cometh; now shall be
their perplexity.
7:5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors
of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
7:6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her
mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies {are}
the men of his own house.
7:7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my
salvation: my God will hear me.
7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I
sit in darkness, the Lord {shall be} a light unto me.
7:9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord, 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.
7:10 Then {she that is} mine enemy shall see {it}, and shame shall cover her
which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now
shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
7:11 {In} the day that thy walls are to be built, {in} that day shall the
decree be far removed.
7:12 {In} that day {also} he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and {from}
the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to
sea, and {from} mountain to mountain.
7:13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell
therein, for the fruit of their doings.
7:14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell
solitarily {in} the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed {in} Bashan and
Gilead, as in the days of old.
7:15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew
unto him marvellous {things}.
7:16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay
{their} hand upon {their} mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
7:17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their
holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and
shall fear because of thee.
7:18 Who {is} a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for
ever, because he delighteth {in} mercy.
7:19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our
iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
7:20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, {and} the mercy to Abraham, which
thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
