Micah 2

¹Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds ! When the morning dawns , they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand .

²They covet fields and seize them, and houses , and take them away ; they oppress a man and his house , a man and his inheritance .

³Therefore thus says the Lord: behold , against this family I am devising disaster , from which you cannot remove your necks , and you shall not walk haughtily , for it will be a time of disaster .

⁴In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly , and say , We are utterly ruined ; he changes the portion of my people ; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields .

⁵Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶Do not preach —thus they preach — one should not preach of such things ; disgrace will not overtake us.

⁷Should this be said , O house of Jacob ? Has the Lord grown impatient ? Are these his deeds ? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly ?

⁸But lately my people have risen up as an enemy ; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war .

⁹The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses ; from their young children you take away my splendor forever .

¹⁰Arise and go , for this is no place to rest , because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction .

¹¹If a man should go about and utter wind and lies , saying, I will preach to you of wine and strong drink , he would be the preacher for this people !

¹²I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob ; I will gather the remnant of Israel ; I will set them together like sheep in a fold , like a flock in its pasture , a noisy multitude of men .

¹³He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate , going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head .