The word of the Lord that came to Micah aof Moresheth bin the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw cconcerning dSamaria and Jerusalem.
The Coming Destruction
2 aHear, you peoples, all of you;
bpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and clet the Lord God be a witness against you,
dthe Lord from his holy temple.
3 For behold, athe Lord is coming out of bhis place,
and will come down and ctread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And athe mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is for athe transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
bWhat is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not cSamaria?
And what is dthe high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make aSamaria ba heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones cinto the valley
and duncover her foundations.
7 All aher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
ball her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from bthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
8 aFor this I will lament and wail;
I will go bstripped and naked;
I will make lamentation clike the jackals,
and mourning dlike the ostriches.
9 aFor her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
10 aTell it not in bGath;
weep not at all;
in Beth‑le‑aphrah
croll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
ain nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth‑ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down afrom the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of aLachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
bthe transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts
to aMoresheth‑gath;
the houses of bAchzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring aa conqueror to you,
inhabitants of bMareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to cAdullam.
16 aMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
amake yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.