1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw [through divine revelation] concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, all you people; listen closely, O earth and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be witness among you and against you, the Lord from His holy temple.(A)
3 For behold, the Lord comes forth out of His place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.(B)
4 And the mountains shall melt under Him and the valleys shall be cleft like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is because of the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not [the idol worship of] Samaria? And what are the high places [of idolatry] in Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I [the Lord] will make Samaria a [a]heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards; and I will pour down into the ravine her stones and lay bare her foundations.(C)
7 And all her carved images shall be broken in pieces, and all her hires [all that man would gain from desertion of God] shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will be laid waste; for from the hire of [one] harlot she gathered them, and to the hire of [another] harlot they shall return.
8 Therefore I [Micah] will lament and wail; I will go stripped and [virtually] naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals and a lamentation like the ostriches.
9 For [Samaria’s] wounds are incurable and they come even to Judah; He [the Lord] has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
10 In Gath [a city in Philistia] announce it not; in [b]Acco weep not at all, [betraying your grief to foreigners; but among your own people] in Beth-le-aphrah [house of dust] roll yourself in the dust.
11 Pass on your way [into exile], dwellers of Shaphir, in shameful nakedness. The dwellers of Zaanan dare not come forth; the wailing of Beth-ezel takes away from you the place on which it stands.
12 For the inhabitant of Maroth [bitterness] writhes in pain [at its losses] and waits anxiously for good, because evil comes down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O lady inhabitant of Lachish; you were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
14 Therefore you must give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath [Micah’s home town]; the houses of Achzib [place of deceit] shall be a deception to the kings of Israel.
15 Yet will I bring a conqueror upon you, O lady inhabitant of Mareshah, who shall possess you; the glory and nobility of Israel shall come to Adullam [to hide in the caves, as did David].(D)
16 Make yourself bald in mourning and cut off your hair for the children of your delight; enlarge your baldness as the eagle, for [your children] shall be carried from you into exile.
Footnotes
- Micah 1:6 Samaria was captured by the king of Assyria around 722 b.c. (II Kings 17:6), and was besieged and demolished by John Hyrcanus around 128 b.c. In his book Syria and Palestine, written in the nineteenth century, Van de Velde, after visiting Sebaste or Samaria, wrote: “Samaria, a heap of stones! Her foundations discovered, her streets plowed up and covered with corn fields and olive gardens! Samaria has been destroyed; her rubbish has been thrown down into the valley; her foundation stones lie scattered about on the slope of the hill.” Through the inspiration of the omniscient and omnipotent God, Micah was able to foretell all this more than 2,000 years before.
- Micah 1:10 The Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) suggests this rendering: “in Acco weep not at all.” Acco was a coastal city about 25 miles south of Tyre.