Micah2

¹Woe to those who devise wrongdoing, Who practice evil on their beds! When morning comes, they do it, Because it is in the power of their hands.

²They covet fields, so they seize them; And houses, so they take them. They exploit a man and his house, A person and his inheritance.

³Therefore this is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am planning against this family a catastrophe From which you cannot remove your necks; And you will not walk haughtily, For it will be an evil time.

⁴On that day they will take up against you a song of mocking And utter a song of mourning and say, ‘We are completely destroyed! He exchanges the share of my people; How He removes it from me! To the apostate He apportions our fields.’

⁵Therefore you will have no one applying a measuring line For you by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶‘Do not prophesy,’ so they prophesy. But if they do not prophesy about these things, Insults will not be turned back.

⁷Is it being said, house of Jacob: ‘Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient? Are these His works?’ Do My words not do good For the one walking rightly?

⁸Recently My people have arisen as an enemy— You strip the robe off the garment From unsuspecting passers-by, From those returned from war.

⁹You evict the women of My people, Each one from her pleasant house. From her children you take My splendor forever.

¹⁰Arise and go, For this is no place of rest Because of the uncleanness that brings on destruction, A painful destruction.

¹¹If someone walking after wind and falsehood Had lied and said, ‘I will prophesy to you about wine and liquor,’ He would become a prophet to this people.

¹²“I will certainly assemble all of you, Jacob, I will certainly gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like sheep in the fold; Like a flock in the midst of its pasture They will be noisy with people.

¹³The one who breaks through goes up before them; They break through, pass through the gate, and go out by it. So their king passes on before them, And the Lord at their head.”