Micah 1:1-16
1 The word of Jehovah* that occurred to Miʹcah+ of Moʹresh·eth,* in the days of Joʹtham,+ Aʹhaz,+ Hez·e·kiʹah,+ kings of Judah,+ that he visioned concerning Sa·marʹi·a+ and Jerusalem:+
2 “Hear, O YOU peoples, all of YOU; pay attention, O earth and what fills you,+ and let the Sovereign Lord Jehovah serve against YOU as a witness,+ Jehovah* from his holy temple.*+
3 For, look! Jehovah* is going forth from his place,+ and he will certainly come down and tread upon earth’s high places.+
4 And the mountains must melt under him,+ and the low plains themselves will split apart, like wax because of the fire,+ like waters being poured down a steep place.
5 “It is because of the revolt of Jacob that there is all this, even because of the sins of the house of Israel.+ What is the revolt of Jacob? Is it not Sa·marʹi·a?+ And what are the high places* of Judah?+ Are they not Jerusalem?
6 And I shall certainly make Sa·marʹi·a a heap of ruins of the field,+ the planting places of a vineyard; and I will pour down into the valley her stones, and her foundations I shall lay bare.+
7 And her graven images will all be crushed to pieces,+ and all the gifts [made] to her as her hire will be burned in the fire;+ and all her idols I shall make a desolate waste. For from the things given as the hire of a prostitute she collected [them], and to the thing given as the hire of a prostitute they will return.”+
8 On this account I will wail and howl;+ I will walk barefoot and naked.+ I shall make a wailing like the jackals, and a mourning like female ostriches.*
9 For the stroke* upon her is unhealable;+ for it has come as far as Judah,+ [the] plague as far as the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem.+
10 “In Gath do not YOU men tell [it] out; positively do not weep.+
“In the house of Aphʹrah wallow in the very dust.+
11 Make your way across, O inhabitress of Shaʹphir, in shameful nudity.+ The inhabitress of Zaʹa·nan has not gone forth. The wailing of Beth-eʹzel will take from YOU people its standing place.
12 For the inhabitress of Maʹroth has waited for good,+ but what is bad has come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.+
13 Attach the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitress of Laʹchish.+ The beginning of sin was what she was to the daughter of Zion,+ for in you* the revolts of Israel have been found.+
14 Therefore you will give parting gifts to Moʹresh·eth-gath.+ The houses of Achʹzib+ were as something deceitful to the kings of Israel.
15 The dispossessor* I shall yet bring to you,+ O inhabitress of Ma·reʹshah.+ As far as A·dulʹlam+ the glory of Israel will come.
16 Cause baldness, and shear [your hair] off on account of your sons of exquisite delight.+ Broaden out your baldness like [that of] the eagle, because they have gone away from you into exile.”+
Footnotes
^ Or, “the Morashtite.”
^ See App 1C §2.
^ One of 134 scribal changes from YHWH to ʼAdho·naiʹ. See App 1B.
^ See App 1C §2.
^ “The high places,” MVg; LXX, “the sin of the house”; Sy, “the sin.”
^ “Female ostriches.” Lit., “daughters of an ostrich.”
^ “Stroke,” LXXSyVg; M, “strokes.”
^ “You,” fem. sing.
^ Or, “The one taking possession.”
