Micah 1

1The word of Yahweh 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; listen, earth and everything in it! Let Lord Yahweh be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

3For Yahweh is coming out from his place; he will come down and tread on the heights of the earth.

4The mountains will melt beneath him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water pouring down a slope.

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

6So I will make Samaria a heap of rubble in the open field, a place for planting vineyards. I will pour her stones down into the valley and lay bare her foundations.

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

8Because of this I will lament and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like the jackals and mourn like the ostriches.

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

10Do not tell it in Gath; do not weep at all. In Beth-leaphrah roll in the dust.

11Pass on your way, you who live in Shaphir, in shameful nakedness. Those who live in Zaanan do not come out. Beth-ezel is in mourning; it will take away from you its support.

12Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain, waiting for good, for disaster has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.

13Harness the chariot to the team of horses, you who live in Lachish. You were the beginning of sin for Daughter Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

14Therefore you will give farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath. The houses of Achzib will prove a deception to the kings of Israel.

15I will again bring a conqueror against you, you who live in Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

16Shave your head in mourning for the children you delight in; make yourself as bald as the vulture, for they will go from you into exile.