Micah 1

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

2Hear, all you peoples; pay attention, O earth, and all that fills it. And let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

3For look, the LORD is coming out from his place; he will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

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

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

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

7All her carved images will be smashed, and all her prostitute’s wages will be burned with fire; all her idols I will make desolate. For from the wages of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the wages of a prostitute they will return.

8Because of this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked. I will make a lament like the jackals, and mourning like the daughters of the ostrich.

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

10In Gath, do not tell it; in Acco, do not weep. In Beth-leaphrah, roll yourself in the dust.

11Pass on, naked and in shame, inhabitant of Shaphir. The inhabitant of Zaanan has not come out. The lamentation of Beth-ezel will take away from you its support.

12For the inhabitant of Maroth writhes for good, because disaster has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.

13Harness the chariot to the swift horse, inhabitant of Lachish; she was the beginning of sin to daughter Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel.

14Therefore you will give parting gifts for Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.

15I will yet bring an heir against you, inhabitant of Mareshah; the glory of Israel will come as far as Adullam.

16Make yourself bald and shave your head for the children of your delight; enlarge your baldness like the eagle, for they have gone from you into exile.