¹The word of the Lord that came to Micah aof Moresheth bin the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw cconcerning dSamaria and Jerusalem.

The Coming Destruction

²eHear, you peoples, all of you;1

fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,

and glet the Lord God be a witness against you,

hthe Lord from his holy temple.

³For behold, ithe Lord is coming out of jhis place,

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

⁴And lthe mountains will melt under him,

and the valleys will split open,

like wax before the fire,

like waters poured down a steep place.

⁵All this is for mthe transgression of Jacob

and for the sins of the house of Israel.

nWhat is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not dSamaria?

And what is othe high place of Judah?

Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore I will make dSamaria pa heap in the open country,

a place for planting vineyards,

and I will pour down her stones qinto the valley

and runcover her foundations.

⁷All sher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,

tall her wages shall be burned with fire,

and all her idols I will lay waste,

for from tthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,

and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.

⁸uFor this I will lament and wail;

I will go vstripped and naked;

I will make lamentation wlike the jackals,

and mourning xlike the ostriches.

⁹yFor her wound is incurable,

and it has come to Judah;

it has reached to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

¹⁰zTell it not in aGath;

weep not at all;

in Beth-le-aphrah

broll yourselves in the dust.

¹¹Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir,

cin nakedness and shame;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

do not come out;

the lamentation of Beth-ezel

shall take away from you its standing place.

¹²For the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

because disaster has come down dfrom the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the steeds to the chariots,

inhabitants of eLachish;

it was the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

for in you were found

fthe transgressions of Israel.

¹⁴Therefore you shall give parting gifts2

to gMoresheth-gath;

the houses of hAchzib shall be a deceitful thing

to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will again bring ia conqueror to you,

inhabitants of hMareshah;

the glory of Israel

shall come to jAdullam.

¹⁶kMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,

for the children of your delight;

kmake yourselves as bald as the eagle,

for they shall go from you into exile.