Micah 1

1Yahweh's word came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—what he saw about Samaria and Jerusalem.

2Hear, all peoples. Give heed, earth, and all that fills her; let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

3For behold, Yahweh goes out from his place, and descends to tread the high places of the earth.

4The mountains melt beneath him, and the valleys break open, like wax before the fire, like waters flowing down a steep descent.

5All this arises from Jacob's transgression and the sins of the house of Israel. What is Jacob's transgression? Is it not Samaria? And what are Judah's high places? Are they not Jerusalem?

6I will make Samaria a heap in the field and plantings of a vineyard, and I will pour its stones into the valley, and I will expose its foundations.

7All her carved images will be crushed, all her prostitution earnings burned in fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from a prostitute's wages she gathered them, and to a prostitute's wages they will return.

8For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped bare and naked; I will make lamentation like jackals and mourning like daughters of the ostrich.

9For her wounds are incurable, for it has come to Judah; it has reached the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.

10Do not proclaim it in Gath; do not weep at all. In Beth Aphrah I have rolled myself in dust—roll yourself.

11Cross over, dweller of Shaphir, naked in shame; Zaanan's dweller does not go out; Beth-ezel's wailing takes his support from you.

12For she who dwells in Maroth travails for good, because calamity has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.

13Harness the chariot to the swift beast, dweller in Lachish: she is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for Israel's transgressions were found in you.

14Therefore you will give presents to Moresheth-gath; Achzib's houses will prove a deception to Israel's kings.

15Yet I will bring the possessor to you, inhabitant of Mareshah; to Adullam Israel's glory will come.

16Make yourself bald and shave for your delightful children; enlarge your baldness like an eagle, for they have gone into exile from you.