ACV - Micah

Chapter 1

1:1  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.

1:2  Hear, ye peoples, all of you. Hearken, O earth, and all who are in it, and let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

1:3  For, behold, Jehovah comes 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 melted under him, and the valleys shall be split, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place.

1:5  All this is for the transgression of Jacob, 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 a heap of the field, and as places for planting vineyards. And I will pour down the stones of it into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations of it.

1:7  And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces. And all her wages shall be burned with fire, and I will lay desolate all her idols. For she has gathered them from the wages of a harlot, and to the wage of a harlot they shall return.

1:8  For this I will lament and wail. I will go stripped and naked. I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches.

1:9  For her wounds are incurable. For it has come even to Judah. it reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

1:10  Tell it not in Gath. Weep not at all. I have rolled myself in the dust at Beth-le-aphrah.

1:11  Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan has not come forth. The wailing of Beth-ezel shall take from you the stay of it.

1:12  For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.

1:13  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.

1:14  Therefore thou shall give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath. The houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.

1:15  I will yet bring to thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him who shall possess thee. The glory of Israel shall come even to Adullam.

1:16  Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair for the sons of thy delight. Enlarge thy baldness as the vulture, for they have gone into captivity from thee.

Chapter 2

2:1  Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.

2:2  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.

2:3  Therefore thus says Jehovah: Behold, I devise an evil against this family, from which ye shall not remove your necks, nor shall ye walk haughtily, for it is an evil time.

2:4  In that day they shall take up a taunt against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation. And say, We are utterly ruined. He changes the portion of my people. How he removes it from me! He divides our fields to the rebellious.

2:5  Therefore thou shall have nobody to cast the line by lot in the assembly of Jehovah.

2:6  Prophesy ye not, they prophesy. They shall not prophesy to these, so reproaches shall not depart.

2:7  Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the Spirit of Jehovah restricted? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?

2:8  But of late my people have risen up as an enemy. Ye strip off the robe with the garment from those who pass by securely as men turning back from war.

2:9  Ye cast out the women of my people from their pleasant houses. Ye take away my glory from their young sons forever.

2:10  Arise ye, and depart, for this is not your resting-place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction.

2:11  If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies, saying, I will prophesy to 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 a flock in the midst of their pasture. They shall make great noise because of the multitude of men.

2:13  The breaker has gone up before them. They have broken forth and passed on to the gate, and have gone out there. And their king has passed on before them, and Jehovah at the head of them.

Chapter 3

3:1  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?

3:2  Ye 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 break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

3:4  Then they shall cry to 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.

3:5  Thus says Jehovah concerning the prophets who make my people to err, who bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace. And he who does not put into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

3:6  Therefore it shall be night to you, that ye shall have no vision. And it shall be dark to you, that ye shall not divine. And the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.

3:7  And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded. Yea, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.

3:8  But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

3:9  Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

3:10  They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

3:11  The heads of it judge for a bribe, and the priests of it teach for a wage, and the prophets of it divine for money. Yet they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us.

3:12  Therefore for your sake Zion shall 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

4:1  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 to it.

4:2  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.

4:3  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, nor 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 Jehovah of hosts has spoken it.

4:5  For all the peoples walk each one in the name of his god. And we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God forever and ever.

4:6  In that day, says Jehovah, I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted.

4:7  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 forever.

4:8  And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, to thee it shall come. Yea, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

4:9  Now why do thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee? Has thy counselor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail?

4:10  Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail. For now thou shall go forth out of the city, and shall dwell in the field, and shall come even to Babylon. There thou shall be rescued. There Jehovah will redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

4:11  And now many nations are assembled against thee, who say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire upon Zion.

4:12  But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, nor do they understand his counsel, for he has gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing-floor.

4:13  Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass, and thou shall beat many peoples in pieces. And I will devote their gain to Jehovah, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.

Chapter 5

5:1  Now thou shall gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

5:2  But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, which are little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee he shall come forth to me who is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

5:3  Therefore he will give them up until the time that she who travails has brought forth. Then the residue of his brothers shall return to the sons of Israel.

5:4  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 he shall be great to the ends of the earth.

5:5  And this man shall be our peace. When the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then we shall 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 of it. And he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land, and when he treads within our border.

5:7  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.

5:8  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 goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

5:9  Let thy hand be lifted up above thine adversaries, and let all thine enemies be cut off.

5:10  And it shall come to pass in that day, says Jehovah, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots,

5:11  and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy strongholds.

5:12  And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy hand, and thou shall have no more soothsayers.

5:13  And I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars out of the midst of thee, and thou shall no more worship the work of thy hands.

5:14  And I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy cities.

5:15  And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that did not hearken.

Chapter 6

6:1  Hear ye now what Jehovah says: Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

6:2  Hear, O ye mountains, Jehovah's controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth, for Jehovah has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel.

6:3  O my people, what have I done to thee? And in what 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 bondage. And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

6:5  O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him. Remember from Shittim to Gilgal, that ye may know the righteous acts of Jehovah.

6:6  With what 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?

6:7  Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand 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 has shown thee, O man, what is good. And what does Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?

6:9  The voice of Jehovah cries to the city, and the man of wisdom will see thy name. Hear ye the rod, and who has appointed it.

6:10  Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a scant measure that is abominable?

6:11  Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

6:12  For the rich men of it are full of violence, and the inhabitants of it have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

6:13  Therefore I also have smitten thee with a grievous wound, I have made thee desolate because of thy sins.

6:14  Thou shall eat, but not be satisfied, and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee. And thou shall put away, but shall not save, and that which thou save I will give up to the sword.

6:15  Thou shall sow, but shall not reap, thou shall tread the olives, but shall not anoint thee with oil, and the vintage, but shall not drink the 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 may make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing. And ye shall bear the reproach of my people.

Chapter 7

7:1  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 desires the first ripe fig.

7:2  The devout man has 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  Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler asks, and the judge asks for a bribe. And the great man, he utters the evil desire of his soul. Thus they weave it together.

7:4  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, has come. Now shall be their perplexity.

7:5  Trust ye not in a neighbor. Put ye not confidence in a friend. Keep the doors of thy mouth from her who lies in thy bosom.

7:6  For the son dishonors the father. 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.

7:7  But as for me, I will look to Jehovah. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

7:8  Rejoice not against me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall arise. When I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light to me.

7:9  I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

7:10  Then my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said to me, Where is Jehovah thy God? My eyes shall see my desire upon her. Now she shall be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

7:11  A day for building thy walls! In that day the decree shall be far removed.

7:12  In that day they shall come to thee from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and mountain to mountain.

7:13  Yet the land shall be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

7:14  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.

7:15  As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt I will show marvelous things to them.

7:16  The nations shall see and be ashamed of 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. Like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their close places. They shall come with fear to Jehovah our God, and shall be afraid because of thee.

7:18  Who is a God like to thee, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness.

7:19  He will again have compassion upon us. He will tread our iniquities under foot, and thou will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

7:20  Thou will perform the truth to Jacob, and the loving kindness to Abraham, which thou have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.