The Preacher's Bible

Jehovah’s word that came to Micah of Morasheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

²Hear, you peoples, all of you! Listen, O earth, and all that is therein. Let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

³For behold, Jehovah comes out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

⁴The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.

⁵“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations.

⁷All her idols will be beaten to pieces, all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and I will destroy all her images; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.”

⁸For this I will lament and wail. I will go stripped and naked. I will howl like the jackals and mourn like the ostriches.

⁹For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

¹⁰Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.

¹¹Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection.

¹²For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

¹⁴Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will yet bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

¹⁶Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture, for they have gone into captivity from you!