Michée (NAB) 1
1 1 The word of the LORD which came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: that is, the vision he received concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, O peoples, all of you, give heed, O earth, and all that fills you! Let the Lord GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple!
3 For see, the LORD comes forth from his place, he descends and treads upon the heights of the earth.
4 The mountains melt under him and the valleys split open, Like wax before the fire, like water poured down a slope.
5 For the crime of Jacob all this comes to pass, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 I will make Samaria a stone heap in the field, a place to plant for vineyards; I will throw down into the valley her stones, and lay bare her foundations.
7 All her idols shall be broken to pieces, all her wages shall be burned in the fire, and all her statues I will destroy. As the wages of a harlot they were gathered, and to the wages of a harlot shall they return.
8 For this reason I lament and wail, I go barefoot and naked; I utter lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.
9 There is no remedy for the blow she has been struck; rather, it has come even to Judah, It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
10 Publish it not in Gath, weep not at all; In Beth-leaphrah roll in the dust.
11 Pass by, you who dwell in Shaphir! The inhabitants of Zaanan come not forth from their city. The lamentation of Beth-ezel finds in you its grounds.
12 How can the inhabitants of Maroth hope for good? For evil has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness steeds to the chariots, O inhabitants of Lachish; Lachish, the beginning of sin for daughter Zion, Because there were in you the crimes of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath; Beth-achzib is a deception to the kings of Israel.
15 Yet must I bring to you the conqueror, O inhabitants of Mareshah; Even to Adullam shall go the glory of Israel.
16 Make yourself bald, pluck out your hair, for the children whom you cherish; Let your baldness be as the eagle's, because they are exiled from you.
2 1 Woe to those who plan iniquity, and work out evil on their couches; In the morning light they accomplish it when it lies within their power.
2 They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and they take them; They cheat an owner of his house, a man of his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I am planning against this race an evil from which you shall not withdraw your necks; Nor shall you walk with head high, for it will be a time of evil.
4 On that day a satire shall be sung over you, and there shall be a plaintive chant: "Our ruin is complete, our fields are portioned out among our captors, The fields of my people are measured out, and no one can get them back!"
5 Thus you shall have no one to mark out boundaries by lot in the assembly of the LORD.
6 "Preach not," they preach, "let them not preach of these things!" The shame will not withdraw.
7 How can it be said, O house of Jacob, "Is the LORD short of patience, or are such his deeds?" Do not my words promise good to him who walks uprightly?
8 But of late my people has risen up as an enemy: you have stripped off the mantle covering the tunic Of those who go their way in confidence, as though it were spoils of war.
9 The women of my people you drive out from their pleasant houses; From their children you take away forever the honor I gave them.
10 "Up! Be off, this is no place to rest"; For any trifle you exact a crippling pledge.
11 If one, acting on impulse, should make the futile claim: "I pour you wine and strong drink as my prophecy," then he would be the prophet of this people.
12 I will gather you, O Jacob, each and every one, I will assemble all the remnant of Israel; I will group them like a flock in the fold, like a herd in the midst of its corral; they shall not be thrown into panic by men.
13 With a leader to break the path they shall burst open the gate and go out through it; Their king shall go through before them, and the LORD at their head.
3 1 And I said: Hear, you leaders of Jacob, rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not your duty to know what is right,
2 you who hate what is good, and love evil? You who tear their skin from them, and their flesh from their bones!
3 They eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from them, and break their bones. They chop them in pieces like flesh in a kettle, and like meat in a caldron.
4 When they cry to the LORD, he shall not answer them; Rather shall he hide his face from them at that time, because of the evil they have done.
5 Thus says the LORD regarding the prophets who lead my people astray; Who, when their teeth have something to bite, announce peace, But when one fails to put something in their mouth, proclaim war against him.
6 Therefore you shall have night, not vision, darkness, not divination; The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them.
7 Then shall the seers be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; They shall cover their lips, all of them, because there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the spirit of the LORD, with authority and with might; To declare to Jacob his crimes and to Israel his sins.
9 Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel! You who abhor what is just, and pervert all that is right;
10 Who build up Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness!
11 Her leaders render judgment for a bribe, her priests give decisions for a salary, her prophets divine for money, While they rely on the LORD, saying, "Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No evil can come upon us!"
12 Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem reduced to rubble, And the mount of the temple to a forest ridge.
4 1 In days to come the mount of the LORD'S house Shall be established higher than the mountains; it shall rise high above the hills, And peoples shall stream to it:
2 Many nations shall come, and say, "Come, let us climb the mount of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, that we may walk in his paths." For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples and impose terms on strong and distant nations; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.
4 Every man shall sit under his own vine or under his own fig tree, undisturbed; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.
5 For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, But we will walk in the name of the LORD, our God, forever and ever.
6 On that day, says the LORD, I will gather the lame, And I will assemble the outcasts, and those whom I have afflicted.
7 I will make of the lame a remnant, and of those driven far off a strong nation; And the LORD shall be king over them on Mount Zion, from now on forever.
8 And you, O Magdal-eder, hillock of daughter Zion! Unto you shall it come: the former dominion shall be restored, the kingdom of daughter Jerusalem.
9 Now why do you cry out so? Are you without a king? Or has your counselor perished, That you are seized with pains like a woman in travail?
10 Writhe in pain, grow faint, O daughter Zion, like a woman in travail; For now shall you go forth from the city and dwell in the fields; To Babylon shall you go, there shall you be rescued. There shall the LORD redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11 How many nations are gathered against you! They say, "Let her be profaned, let our eyes see Zion's downfall!"
12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, nor understand his counsel, When he has gathered them like sheaves on the threshing floor.
13 Arise and thresh, O daughter Zion; your horn I will make iron And your hoofs bronze, that you may crush many peoples; You shall devote their spoils to the LORD, and their riches to the Lord of the whole earth.14 Now fence yourself in, Bat-gader! "They have laid siege against us!" With the rod they strike on the cheek the ruler of Israel.
5 1 But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah too small to be among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.
2 (Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne, And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel.)
3 He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the LORD, in the majestic name of the LORD, his God; And they shall remain, for now his greatness shall reach to the ends of the earth;
4 he shall be peace. If Assyria invades our country and treads upon our land, We shall raise against it seven shepherds, eight men of royal rank;
5 And they shall tend the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the drawn sword; And we shall be delivered from Assyria, if it invades our land and treads upon our borders.
6 The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, Like dew coming from the LORD, like raindrops on the grass, Which wait for no man, nor tarry for the sons of men.
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, Like a lion among beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep; When it passes through, it tramples and tears, and there is none to deliver.
8 Your hand shall be lifted above your foes, and all your enemies shall be destroyed.
9 On that day, says the LORD, I will destroy the horses from your midst and ruin your chariots;
10 I will demolish the cities of your land and tear down all your fortresses.
11 I will abolish the means of divination from your use, and there shall no longer be soothsayers among you.
12 I will abolish your carved images and the sacred pillars from your midst; And you shall no longer adore the works of your hands.
13 I will tear out the sacred poles from your midst, and destroy your cities.
14 I will wreak vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not hearkened.
6 1 Hear, then, what the LORD says: Arise, present your plea before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice!2 Hear, O mountains, the plea of the LORD, pay attention, O foundations of the earth! For the LORD has a plea against his people, and he enters into trial with Israel.3 O my people, what have I done to you, or how have I wearied you? Answer me!4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery I released you; And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.5 My people, remember what Moab's King Balak planned, and how Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him... from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the just deeds of the LORD.
6 With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow before God most high? Shall I come before him with holocausts, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriad streams of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my crime, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.
9 Hark! the LORD cries to the city. (It is wisdom to fear your name!) Hear, O tribe and city council, 10 Am I to bear any longer criminal hoarding and the meager ephah that is accursed?11 Shall I acquit criminal balances, bags of false weights?12 You whose rich men are full of violence, whose inhabitants speak falsehood with deceitful tongues in their heads!13 Rather I will begin to strike you with devastation because of your sins.14 You shall eat, without being satisfied, food that will leave you empty; What you acquire, you cannot save; what you do save, I will deliver up to the sword.15 You shall sow, yet not reap, tread out the olive, yet pour no oil, and the grapes, yet drink no wine.16 You have kept the decrees of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their counsels; Therefore I will deliver you up to ruin, and your citizens to derision; and you shall bear the reproach of the nations.
7 1 Alas! I am as when the fruit is gathered, as when the vines have been gleaned; There is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.
2 The faithful are gone from the earth, among men the upright are no more! They all lie in wait to shed blood, each one ensnares the other.
3 Their hands succeed at evil; the prince makes demands, The judge is had for a price, The great man speaks as he pleases,
4 The best of them is like a brier, the most upright like a thorn hedge. The day announced by your watchmen! your punishment has come; now is the time of your confusion.
5 Put no trust in a friend, have no confidence in a companion; Against her who lies in your bosom guard the portals of your mouth.
6 For the son dishonors his father, the daughter rises up against her mother, The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies are those of his household.
7 But as for me, I will look to the LORD, I will put my trust in God my savior; my God will hear me!
8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy! though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD is my light.
9 The wrath of the LORD I will endure because I have sinned against him, Until he takes up my cause, and establishes my right. He will bring me forth to the light; I will see his justice.
10 When my enemy sees this, shame shall cover her: She who said to me, "Where is the LORD, thy God?" My eyes shall see her downfall; now shall she be trampled underfoot, like the mire in the streets.
11 It is the day for building your walls; on that day the boundary shall be taken away.
12 It is the day; and they shall come to you from Assyria and from Egypt, From Tyre even to the River, from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain;
13 And the land shall be a waste because of its citizens, as a result of their deeds.
14 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, That dwells apart in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old;
Michée (NAB) 1