Micah 1

¹The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham , Ahaz , and Hezekiah , kings of Judah , which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem .

²Hear , you peoples , all of you; pay attention , O earth , and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple .

³For behold , the Lord is coming out of his place , and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth .

⁴And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire , like waters poured down a steep place .

⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel . What is the transgression of Jacob ? Is it not Samaria ? And what is the high place of Judah ? Is it not Jerusalem ?

⁶Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country , a place for planting vineyards , and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations .

⁷All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire , and all her idols I will lay waste , for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return .

⁸For this I will lament and wail ; I will go stripped and naked ; I will make lamentation like the jackals , and mourning like the ostriches .

⁹For her wound is incurable , and it has come to Judah ; it has reached to the gate of my people , to Jerusalem .

¹⁰Tell it not in Gath ; weep not at all ; in Beth-le-aphrah roll yourselves in the dust .

¹¹Pass on your way , inhabitants of Shaphir , in nakedness and shame ; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out ; the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place.

¹²For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good , because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem .

¹³Harness the steeds to the chariots , inhabitants of Lachish ; it was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion , for in you were found the transgressions of Israel .

¹⁴Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath ; the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel .

¹⁵I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah ; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam .

¹⁶Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight ; make yourselves as bald as the eagle , for they shall go from you into exile .