Micah

The word of Yăhwēh which had been to Miƙ̣ah the Mórashtee in the days of Yotam, Aɦ̣az, and Ḥ̂izqeeyahu, kings of Yehudah, which he had seen concerning Shomron and Yerushalaim.

^1:2Hear, O peoples, all of you. Pay attention, O earth, and its fulness: and let Adŏnai Yăhwēh be witness among you, Adŏnai from his holy temple.

^3For, behold, Yăhwēh comes out out from his place. And he will have come down, and he will have treaded upon the high places of the earth. ^4And the mountains will have melted themselves under him. And the valleys will split themselves open, like wax facing the fire, like waters poured down a slope.

^5All this is on account of the transgression of Ya`ạqov̱ and in connection to the sins of the house of Yisra´æl. What is the transgression of Ya`ạqov̱? Is it not Shomron? And what is the high place of Yehudah? Is it not Yerushalaim?

^6So I will have made Shomron a heap of ruins in the country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will have poured her stones into the valley; and her foundations I will reveal.

^7And all her images shall be crushed: all her wages shall be burned in fire: and all her idols I will lay waste, because from the wages of a prostitute she has gathered them: and into the wages of another prostitute they shall turn.

^8Over this I will lament and I will wail; I will go barefoot and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the daughters of an ostrich.

^9For her wound is incurable, because it has come even to Yehudah; it has struck as far as the gate of my people, as far as Yerushalaim.

^10Tell it not in Gatʰ; do not lament a lament there: but for Bætʰ-Le‘aphrah I will have rolled myself in the dust.

^11Move yourselves along, female residents of Shapheer, in nakedness and shame; the female residents of Tsa’anan will have not come out lamenting. Bætʰ-ha’ætsel shall take away from you its position.

^12Yea, the female residents of Morotʰ will have performed an excellent mourners dance because calamity will have come down from Yăhwēh to the gate of Yerushalaim.

^13Hook up the chariots to the stallions, O residents of Laƙ̣eesh: It was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Tseeyon; because the transgressions of Yisra´æl have been found in you.

^14Therefore you shall give the parting dowry for Moreshetʰ-Gatʰ. The houses of ’Aƙ̲zeeb̲ shall be a disappointment unto the kings of Yisra´æl.

^15Again, I will bring someone to disposses you, O inhabitants of Maræshah. The glory of Yisra´æl, its nobility, will go to the cave of ‘Adullam.

^16Make yourselves bald and be shorn on behalf of the children of your delight. Widen your bald spot like the eagle, because they shall have been exiled from you.

Woe to those planning iniquity and making up evil, who plan disasters on their beds! At the light of daybreak, they put it into action, because it is in the might of their hand. ^2:2And they have been coveting fields, and they have been seizing them, and houses, and they have been taking them away; they have been extorting each man and his house, and each one and his inheritance.

^3Therefore thus has said Yăhwēh: “Behold, against this family I am planning a disaster, which you cannot remove your necks from under and you shall not walk haughtily, because it will be a time of disaster.

^4In that day one will take up a ridicule against you. And one will have lamented a lament; it will have been, it will have said: “A Ruin, we have been ruined. The apportionment of my people is altered. How can he make it leave me! He apportions our fields to traitors.”

^5Therefore, you will have no one stretching out a survey line according to allotment in the congregation of Yăhwēh.

^6Do not drivel on. They drivel, “They should not drivel on about these things.” Insults cannot be turned away. ^7Can it be said, O house of Ya`ạqov̱, that the Rŭakh of Yăhwēh has been impatient? Are these never his actions? Do not my words do good to the one walking uprightly?

^8And just yesterday my people were set up as the enemy: you strip off the metals of honor from the front of coats, from those passing by securely, who are returned from war. ^9The women of my people, you drive out from their nice houses. From their young children ye take away the honor due me forever.

^10Rise up and go! For this is not a resting place, because it has become unclean, it ruins itself and the ruin is sickening.

^11Perhaps if a man blown along with the wind and falsehood would have lied, “I will drip to you of wine and of strong drink,” then he would have been the driveler of this people.

^12Gathering I will gather all of you, O Ya`ạqov̱. Collecting I will collect the remnant of Yisra´æl. I will put them together as sheep in a fold, like a flock in the middle of its pasture; they are making a noisy clamor of men.

^13He has gone up, The Breaker before their faces. They have broken through. Then they pass through the gate. Then they go out by it. Then their king passes before their faces, even Yăhwēh at their head.

Then I said, “Listen please, heads of Ya`ạqov̱, and rulers of the house of Yisra´æl. Doesn’t it concern you to understand justice, ^3:2O haters of good, and lovers of evil, who tear the skin off them, and their flesh from off their bones, ^3and who have eaten the flesh of my people, and who have stripped the skin from off them, and who have been breaking their bones, and have been spreading them out like what is in the pot, and as flesh in the middle of the caldron?”

^4At that time, they will cry out to Yăhwēh, and he will not answer them. Then he will hide his face from them at that time, since they have been made evil from their deeds.

^5Thus has said Yăhwēh about the prophets making my people err, who when chewing with their teeth, then they will have proclaimed peace, but he who may not put something in their mouth, then they will have sanctified war against him!

^6Therefore it shall be a night to you, without vision, and it will have become darkness to you, without divination. And the sun shall have gone down on the prophets, and the day shall have become black over them. ^7And the seers will have been shamed, and the diviners will have been disgraced. And all of them will have covered their lips, because there is no answer from the Almĭghty.

^8And I however, I have been filled with power, with the Ruăkh of Yăhwēh, and with justice and might, to declare to Ya`ạqov̱ his transgression and to Yisra´æl his sin.

^9Please hear this, heads of the house of Ya`ạqov̱, and rulers of the house of Yisra´æl, the abhorrers of justice, and who are making everything straight to be crooked, ^10who are building Tseeyon with bloodshed and Yerushalaim with injustice: ^11“Her heads with a bribe will do justice, and her priests for a price will teach, and her prophets for silver will divine, but on Yăhwēh they support themselves, saying ‘Is not Yăhwēh in our midst? No disaster can come on us!’” ^12Therefore on account of you Tseeyon will be plowed as a field; Yerushalaim shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the House a shrub covered height.

And it will have been in the latter days, that the mountain of the House of Yăhwēh will be established on the headmost of the mountains, and it will have been lifted up above the hills, and the peoples will have streamed over it.

^4:2And many nations will have come, and they will have said, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yăhwēh, and to the House of the Almĭghty of Ya`ạqov̱, and let him teach us from his ways, and let us walk in his paths, because from Tseeyon will go out the Torah, and the word of Yăhwēh from Yerushalaim.”

^3And he will have judged between many peoples, and he will have given decisions for strong nations far away; and they will have beaten their swords into plowing blades, and their spears into prunning knives. Nation will not lift up the sword against nation, and they will not learn war again.

^4Then they will dwell, each one under his vine, and under his fig tree, and no one is spreading fear. Yea, the mouth of Yăhwēh of Hosts has spoken.

^5Though all the peoples walk, each one in the name of his gods, even we will walk in the name of Yăhwēh our Almĭghty to time-immemorial and onward.

^6“In that day,” (by declaration of Yăhwēh) “I want to gather the lame; and I want to assemble the banished, and whoever I have brought a disaster, ^7And I will establish the lame as a remnant, and those removed far off as a strong nation, and Yăhwēh will have ruled over them in Mount Tseeyon from that time and onward time immemorial.”

^8“And you, O Tower of Æder fortress of the daughter of Tseeyon, unto you it will come: the former dominion will have come, the kingdom to the daughter of Yerushalaim. ^9Now why do you shout aloud? Is there no king in you? Your counselor, has he perished? Yea, the labor pain has seized you like the woman giving birth.”

^10“Convulse and groan, O daughter of Tseeyon like the woman giving birth, because now you will go out from the city, and you will have resided in the fields, and you will have gone even to Bavel. There you will be ¹delivered. There Yăhwēh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.”

^11“And now many nations are gathered against you, those saying, ‘Let her be defiled,’ and ‘Let our eyes gaze on Tseeyon.’ ^12But they have not known the plans of Yăhwēh, and they have not understood his advice, because he will have collected them as sheaves to the threshing floor. ^13Rise and thresh, O daughter of Tseeyon, because I will make your horn iron, and your hoofs I will make bronze, and you will have crushed many peoples, and I will have devoted to Yăhwēh their ill gotten gain, and their army to the Lŏrd of all the earth.”

“Now mass together, O daughter of troops. A siege has been put on us. With a rod they will strike the judge of Yisra´æl on the cheek.”

^5:2And you, Bæytleɦ̣em Ephratʰah, being little among the thousands of Yehudah, out of you shall he come forth to me that is to be ruler in Yisra´æl; and his goings forth are from of old, from days of time immemorial.

^3Therefore he shall give them up until the time she who bears has given birth. And the rest of his brothers shall return to be with the sons of Yisra´æl. ^4And he will have stood up, and he will have shepherded his flock in the power of Yăhwēh, in the majesty of the name of Yăhwēh hĭs Almighty. And they will have stayed, because then he will become great as far as the ends of the earth.

^5And he will have made to be this ‘peace’ with Ashur: because it comes into our land, and because it marches into our fortresses: ^6then we will have raised up against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; And they will have shepherded the land of Ashur with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances, and he will have delivered us from Ashur, because it comes into our land, and because it makes way through our borders.

^7And the remnant of Ya`ạqov̱ will have been in the midst of many peoples as dew from Yăhwēh, as rain showers on the verdant grassland, which will not wait for man, and will not delay for a son of Adam.

^8And the remnant of Ya`ạqov̱ will have been 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, who, if it has passed by, then it has treaded down, and it has torn, and no one delivers. ^9Your hand shall have been lifted high over your advesaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.

^10“And it will have been, in that day,” by declaration of Yăhwēh, “that I will have cut off your war horses from the midst of you and I will have destroyed your chariots; ^11and I will have cut off the cities of your land and I will have torn down all your fortifications; ^12and I will have cut off sorceries from your hand, and there will be no one practicing divination among you; ^13and I will have cut off your images and your pillars from the midst of you, and you shall bow yourselves down no more to the work of your hands; ^14and I will have uprooted your ’Ashærah from from the midst of you and I will have demolished your cities. ^15And I will have acted in anger and in wrath avenging myself on the nations which had not obeyed.

Hear please that which Yăhwēh is saying. Arise, argue with the mountains, and may the hills listen to your voice! ^6:2Hear O mountains the argument of Yăhwēh, and you enduring foundations of the earth, because Yăhwēh has an argument along with his people, even alongside Yisra´æl he himself with contend:

^3“My people, what have I done to you, and how have I wearied you. Answer against me! ^4For I had brought you up from the land of Egypt, and from the house of slavery I had redeemed you, and I had sent before your faces Moshēh, ‘Aharon, and Miryam. ^5My people, remember please what Balaq king of Mo´av̱ had devised, and what Bil`am the son of Be‘or had answered him; recall the events from Shittim unto Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of Yăhwēh.”

^6With what should I meet Yăhwēh? Should I bow myself to my Almĭghty on high? Should I meet him him with ascending offerings, with calves, the sons of a year? ^7Will Yăhwēh be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ^8He has told you, O man, what is good! And what is Yăhwēh seeking from you except to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your Almĭghty?

^9The voice of Yăhwēh proclaims to the city, and sound wisdom will fear your name. Listen to the rod and he who appointed it! ^10“Is there still in the house of wickedness ill-gotten treasures, and an angry emaciated ’Æphah? ^11Shall I acquit the man with wicked balances, and a bag of deceitful weights ^12where its rich have been filled with violence, and its residents have spoken falsely, and their tongue is treacherous in their mouth? ^13So also I will have made you sick, striking you and desolating you because of your sins.”

^14“You, you shall eat, and not be satisfied. Then it will oppress you in your midst. Then, you shall retreat but you will not escape, and whoever does escape, I will give to the sword. ^15You shall sow, but you will not reap. You shall press olives, but you shall not annoint yourself with oil, and grape mush, but you shall not drink wine.

^16Thus, you yourselves have kept the statutes of Omree, and all the works of the house of Aɦ̣´av̱. Thus, you walk by their counsels so that I can give you over to destruction, and its residents to derision; and insult of my people you will carry.

Woe to me, because I have become like the gleanings of summer, like left overs of a vineyard. There is no grape cluster to eat, nor any early figs that my soul has desired.

^7:2The pious have perished from the land; and there is no one upright among men; all of them lie in wait for bloodshed; each one hunts his brother with a net. ^3Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince makes inquiry (or the judge) for a bribe, then the great man dictates the desire of his soul, himself; Then they plot it. ^4The best of them is like a briar; the upright one is from a thorn hedge. The day of your watching out, of your attending, has come. Now it will confound them. ^5Put no support in a neighbor. Put no trust in a friend. From she who lies in your bosom, guard the doors of your mouth. ^6For the son treats the father as a fool, 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 I on Yăhwēh should keep watch. I will wait for the Almĭghty of my salvation. My Almĭghty will hear me. ^8Rejoice not, O my enemy against me. Though I have fallen, I will have risen again; though I dwell in darkness, Yăhwēh is light for me. ^9The rage of Yăhwēh I will bear, because I have sinned against him, until when he will argue my argument, and he will have done me judgment. He will bring me out to the light; I will look on his justice!

^10Then my enemy will see. Then shame will cover him who said to me, “Where is Yăhwēh your Almĭghty?” My eyes will look on him; now he will be for trampling like mud in the streets.

^11It is a day to build your walls. In that day the statutory border will be far distant; ^12In that day, even past you it will go, alongside Ashur, and the cities of Egypt, and alongside Egypt, and past the river, and sea to sea and mountain to mountain. ^13But the earth will have become desolate because of its residents, from the fruit of their deeds.

^14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, dwelling alone, like a forest in the midst of a garden land. Let them pasture in Bashan and Gil‘ad as in days of time immemorial. ^15As in the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt, I will make them see wonders. ^16The nations will see, then they will be ashamed of all their might; they shall put a hand on their mouth; their ears shall be silenced. ^17They shall lick dust like the snake, like creepy crawlies of the earth. They shall tremble out of their bunkers to Yăhwēh our Almĭghty. They will be in dread, and they will fear because of you.

^18Who is a Gŏd like you, bearing iniquity and passing over transgression for the sake of the remnant of his inheritance? He will not have fortified his anger for ever, because he is delighting in loving kindness. ^19He will return; he will show mercy; he will subdue our iniquities. Thus, you will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. ^20You will give the truth to Ya`ạqov̱, and the loving kindness to Av̱raham, which you have sworn yourself, to our fathers from days of old.