Micah 1

¹ The word of Yahweh which came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz andHezekiah kings of Judah. His visions about Samaria and Jerusalem.

² Listen, al you peoples, attend, earth and everyone on it! Yahweh intends to give evidence against you,the Lord, from his holy temple.

³ For look, Yahweh is leaving his home, down he comes, he treads the heights of earth.

⁴ Beneath him, the mountains melt, and val eys are torn open, like wax near a fire, like water pouringdown a slope.

⁵ Al this is because of the crime of Jacob, the sin of the House of Israel. What is the crime of Jacob? Is itnot Samaria? What is the sin of the House of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶ So I shal make Samaria a ruin in the open country, a place for planting vines. I shal send her stonesrol ing into the val ey, until I have laid her foundations bare.

⁷ Al her images wil be shattered, al her earnings consumed by fire. I shal leave al her idols derelict-they were amassed out of prostitutes' earnings and prostitutes' earnings once more they wil be.

⁸ This is why I shal howl and wail, why I shal go barefoot and naked, why I shall howl like the jackals,why I shal shriek like the owls;

⁹ for there is no cure for the wounds that Yahweh inflicts: the blow fal s on Judah, it fal s on the gateway ofmy people, on Jerusalem itself.

¹⁰ Do not announce it in Gath, in . . . shed no tears! In Beth-Leaphrah rol in the dust!

¹¹ Sound the horn, inhabitant of Shaphir! She has not left her city, she who lives in Zaanan. Beth-Ezel istorn from its foundations, from its strong supports.

¹² What hope has she of happiness, she who lives in Maroth? Instead Yahweh sent down disaster on thegateway of Jerusalem itself!

¹³ Harness the horse to the chariot, you inhabitant of Lachish! That is where the sin of the daughter ofZion began; the crimes of Israel can be traced to you!

¹⁴ And so you must provide a dowry for Moresheth-Gath. Beth-Achzib wil prove a disappointment for thekings of Israel.

¹⁵ The plunderer will come to you again, you citizen of Mareshah! And into Adullam wil vanish the gloryof Israel.

¹⁶ Off with your hair, shave your head, for the children that were your joy. Make yourselves bald like thevulture, for they have left you for exile.