Bible (American Standard)/Micah

Micah
==Chapter 1==
 The word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morashtite
in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which
he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 
 Hear, ye peoples,
all of you: hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let
the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy
temple. 
 For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his
place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the
earth. 
 And the mountains shall be melted under him, and
the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters
that are poured down a steep place. 
 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? 
 Therefore, I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, [and] as
places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down the stones
thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations
thereof. 
 And all her graven images shall be beaten to
pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her
idols will I lay desolate; for of the hire of a harlot hath she
gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot shall they return.
 For this will I lament and wail; I will go stripped and
naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a lamentation
like the ostriches. 
 For her wounds are incurable; for it
is come even unto Judah; it reacheth unto the gate of my people,
even to Jerusalem. 
 Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all:
at Beth-le-aphrah have I rolled myself in the dust. 
 Pass
away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame: the
inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth; the wailing of Beth-ezel
shall take from you the stay thereof. 
 For the inhabitant
of Maroth waiteth anxiously for good, because evil is come down
from Jehovah unto the gate of Jerusalem. 
 Bind the chariot
to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish: she was the
beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions
of Israel were found in thee. 
 Therefore, shalt thou give a
parting gift to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a
deceitful thing unto the kings of Israel. 
 I will yet
bring unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him that shall
possess thee: the glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam.
 Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair for the children of
thy delight: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are
gone into captivity from thee.
==Chapter 2==
 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. 
 And they covet fields,
and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress
a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 
 Therefore, thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I
devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks,
neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil time. 
 In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament
with a doleful lamentation, [and] say, We are utterly ruined: he
changeth the portion of my people: how doth he remove [it] from
me! to the rebellious he divideth our fields. 
 Therefore,
thou shalt have none that shall cast the line by lot in the
assembly of Jehovah. 
 Prophesy ye not, [thus] they
prophesy. They shall not prophesy to these: reproaches shall not
depart. 
 Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the Spirit
of Jehovah straitened? are these his doings? Do not my words do
good to him that walketh uprightly? 
 But of late my people
is risen up as an enemy: ye strip the robe from off the garment
from them that pass by securely [as men] averse from war. 
 The women of my people ye cast out from their pleasant houses;
from their young children ye take away my glory for ever. 
 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place;
because of uncleanness that destroyeth, even with a grievous
destruction. 
 If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood do
lie, [saying], I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong
drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people. 
 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 a flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall
make great noise by reason of [the multitude of] men. 
 The
breaker is gone up before them: they have broken forth and
passed on to the gate, and are gone out thereat; and their king
is passed on before them, and Jehovah at the head of them.
==Chapter 3==
 And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and
rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know
justice? 
 ye who hate the good, and love the evil; who
pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off
their bones; 
 who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay
their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them
in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
 Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer
them; yea, he will hide his face from them at that time,
according as they have wrought evil in their doings. 
 Thus
saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that make my people to
err; that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and whoso
putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against
him: 
 Therefore, it shall be night unto you, that ye shall
have no vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not
divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day
shall be black over them. 
 And the seers shall be put to
shame, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover
their lips; for there is no answer of God. 
 But as for me,
I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment,
and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to
Israel his sin. 
 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the
house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that abhor
justice, and pervert all equity. 
 They build up Zion with
blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. 
 The heads thereof
judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and
the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon
Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil
shall come upon us. 
 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 a forest.
==Chapter 4==
 But in the latter days it shall come to pass, that the
mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of
the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and
peoples shall flow unto it. 
 And many nations shall go and
say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, 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 out of Zion shall go
forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem; 
 and
he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning
strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into
plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
any more. 
 But they shall sit every man under his vine and
under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the
mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it. 
 For all the
peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will walk
in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. 
 In that
day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble that which is lame, and I
will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have
afflicted; 
 and I will make that which was lame a remnant,
and that which was cast far off a strong nation: and Jehovah
will reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for
ever. 
 And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the
daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, yea, the former
dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.
 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee,
is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee
as of a woman in travail? 
 Be in pain, and labor to bring
forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now
shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the
field, and shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be
rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thine
enemies. 
 And now many nations are assembled against thee,
that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see [our desire]
upon Zion. 
 But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah,
neither understand they his counsel; for he hath gathered them
as the sheaves to the threshing-floor. 
 Arise and thresh,
O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and I will
make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many
peoples: and I will devote their gain unto Jehovah, and their
substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
==Chapter 5==
 Now shalt thou 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. 
 But thou,
Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands
of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be
ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from
everlasting. 
 Therefore, will he give them up, until the
time that she who travaileth hath brought forth: then the
residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of
Israel. 
 And he shall stand, and shall feed [his flock] in
the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah
his God: and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto
the ends of the earth. 
 And this [man] shall be [our]
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. 
 And they shall
waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod
in the entrances thereof: and he shall deliver us from the
Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth
within our border. 
 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in
the midst of many peoples as dew from Jehovah, as showers upon
the grass, that tarry not for man, nor wait for the sons of men.
 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in
the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the
forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go
through, treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and there is none
to deliver. 
 Let thy hand be lifted up above thine
adversaries, and let all thine enemies be cut off. 
 And it
shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah, that I will cut
off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy
chariots: 
 and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and
will throw down all thy strongholds. 
 And I will cut off
witchcrafts out of thy hand; and thou shalt have no [more]
soothsayers: 
 and I will cut off thy graven images and thy
pillars out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship
the work of thy hands; 
 and I will pluck up thine Asherim
out of the midst of thee; and I will destroy thy cities. 
 And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations
which hearkened not.
==Chapter 6==
 Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend thou
before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. 
 Hear, O ye mountains, Jehovah's controversy, and ye enduring
foundations of the earth; for Jehovah hath a controversy with
his people, and he will contend with Israel. 
 O my people,
what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee?
testify against me. 
 For I brought thee up out of the land
of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage; and I
sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 
 O my people,
remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam
the son of Beor answered him; [remember] from Shittim unto
Gilgal, that ye may know the righteous acts of Jehovah. 
 Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before the
high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with
calves a year old? 
 will Jehovah be pleased with thousands
of rams, [or] with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give
my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? 
 He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to
love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God? 
 The voice
of Jehovah crieth unto the city, and [the man of] wisdom will
see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. 
 Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the
wicked, and a scant measure that is abominable? 
 Shall I
be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful
weights? 
 For the rich men thereof are full of violence,
and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue
is deceitful in their mouth. 
 Therefore, I also have
smitten thee with a grievous wound; I have made thee desolate
because of thy sins. 
 Thou shalt eat, but not be
satisfied; and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee:
and thou shalt put away, but shalt not save; and that which thou
savest will I give up to the sword. 
 Thou shalt sow, but
shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not
anoint thee with oil; and the vintage, but shalt not drink the
wine. 
 For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the
works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that
I may make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a
hissing: and ye shall bear the reproach of my people.
==Chapter 7==
 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the
summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is
no cluster to eat; my soul desireth the first-ripe fig. 
 The godly 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. 
 Their hands are upon
that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and
the judge [is ready] for a reward; and the great man, he
uttereth the evil desire of his soul: thus they weave it
together. 
 The best of them is as a brier; the most upright
is [worse] than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen, even thy
visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity. 
 Trust
ye not in a neighbor; put ye not confidence in a friend; keep
the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. 
 For the son dishonoreth 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.
 But as for me, I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for
the God of my salvation: my God will hear me. 
 Rejoice not
against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit
in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me. 
 I will bear
the indignation of Jehovah, 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. 
 Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame
shall cover her who said unto me, Where is Jehovah thy God? Mine
eyes shall see [my desire] upon her; now shall she be trodden
down as the mire of the streets. 
 A day for building thy
walls! in that day shall the decree be far removed. 
 In
that day shall they come unto thee from Assyria and the cities
of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea,
and [from] mountain to mountain. 
 Yet shall the land be
desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of
their doings. 
 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of
thy heritage, which dwell solitarily, in the forest in the midst
of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of
old. 
 As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land
of Egypt will I show unto them marvellous things. 
 The
nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall
lay their hand upon their mouth; their ears shall be deaf.
 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling
things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their close
places; they shall come with fear unto Jehovah our God, and
shall be afraid because of thee. 
 Who is a God like unto
thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not
his anger for ever, because he delighteth in lovingkindness.
 He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our
iniquities under foot; and thou wilt cast all their sins into
the depths of the sea. 
 Thou wilt perform the truth to
Jacob, [and] the lovingkindness to Abraham, which thou hast
sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.