Micah:1-4

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* The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham , Ahaz , and Hezekiah , kings of Judah , which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem . * Hear , all ye people ; hearken , O earth , and all that therein is : and let the Lord GOD be witness against you , the Lord from his holy temple . * For , behold , the LORD cometh forth out of his place , and will come down , and tread upon the high places of the earth . * And the mountains shall be molten under him , and the valleys shall be cleft , as wax before the fire , and as the waters that are poured down a steep place . * For the transgression of Jacob is all this , and for the sins of the house of Israel . What is the transgression of Jacob ? is it not Samaria ? and what are the high places of Judah ? are they not Jerusalem ? * Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field , and as plantings of a vineyard : and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley , and I will discover the foundations thereof . * And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces , and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire , and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate : for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot , and they shall return to the hire of an harlot . * Therefore I will wail and howl , I will go stripped and naked : I will make a wailing like the dragons , and mourning as the owls . * For her wound is incurable ; for it is come unto Judah ; he is come unto the gate of my people , even to Jerusalem . * Declare ye it not at Gath , weep ye not at all : in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust . * Pass ye away , thou inhabitant of Saphir , having thy shame naked : the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel ; he shall receive of you his standing . * For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good : but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem . * O thou inhabitant of Lachish , bind the chariot to the swift beast : she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion : for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee . * Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath : the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel . * Yet will I bring an heir unto thee , O inhabitant of Mareshah : he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel . * Make thee bald , and poll thee for thy delicate children ; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle ; for they are gone into captivity from thee . * Woe to them that devise iniquity , and work evil upon their beds ! when the morning is light , they practise it , because it is in the power of their hand . * And they covet fields , and take them by violence ; and houses , and take them away : so they oppress a man and his house , even a man and his heritage . * Therefore thus saith the LORD ; Behold , against this family do I devise an evil , from which ye shall not remove your necks ; neither shall ye go haughtily : for this time is evil . * In that day shall one take up a parable against you , and lament with a doleful lamentation , and say , We be utterly spoiled : he hath changed the portion of my people : how hath he removed it from me ! turning away he hath divided our fields . * Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD . * Prophesy ye not , say they to them that prophesy : they shall not prophesy to them , that they shall not take shame . * O thou that art named the house of Jacob , is the spirit of the LORD straitened ? are these his doings ? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly ? * Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy : ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war . * The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses ; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever . * Arise ye , and depart ; for this is not your rest : because it is polluted , it shall destroy you , even with a sore destruction . * If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie , saying , I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink ; he shall even be the prophet of this people . * I will surely assemble , O Jacob , all of thee ; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel ; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah , as the flock in the midst of their fold : they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men . * The breaker is come up before them : they have broken up , and have passed through the gate , and are gone out by it : and their king shall pass before them , and the LORD on the head of them . * And I said , Hear , I pray you , O heads of Jacob , and ye princes of the house of Israel ; Is it not for you to know judgment ? * Who hate the good , and love the evil ; who pluck off their skin from off them , and their flesh from off their bones ; * Who also eat the flesh of my people , and flay their skin from off them ; and they break their bones , and chop them in pieces , as for the pot , and as flesh within the caldron . * Then shall they cry unto the LORD , but he will not hear them : he will even hide his face from them at that time , as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings . * Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err , that bite with their teeth , and cry , Peace ; and he that putteth not into their mouths , they even prepare war against him . * Therefore night shall be unto you , that ye shall not have a vision ; and it shall be dark unto you , that ye shall not divine ; and the sun shall go down over the prophets , and the day shall be dark over them . * Then shall the seers be ashamed , and the diviners confounded : yea , they shall all cover their lips ; for there is no answer of God . * But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD , and of judgment , and of might , to declare unto Jacob his transgression , and to Israel his sin . * Hear this , I pray you , ye heads of the house of Jacob , and princes of the house of Israel , that abhor judgment , and pervert all equity . * They build up Zion with blood , and Jerusalem with iniquity . * The heads thereof judge for reward , and the priests thereof teach for hire , and the prophets thereof divine for money : yet will they lean upon the LORD , and say , Is not the LORD among us ? none evil can come upon us . * Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field , and Jerusalem shall become heaps , and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest . * But in the last days it shall come to pass , that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains , and it shall be exalted above the hills ; and people shall flow unto it . * And many nations shall come , and say , Come , and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD , and to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will teach us of his ways , and we will walk in his paths : for the law shall go forth of Zion , and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem . * And he shall judge among many people , and rebuke strong nations afar off ; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares , and their spears into pruninghooks : nation shall not lift up a sword against nation , neither shall they learn war any more . * But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree ; and none shall make them afraid : for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it . * For all people will walk every one in the name of his god , and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever . * In that day , saith the LORD , will I assemble her that halteth , and I will gather her that is driven out , and her that I have afflicted ; * And I will make her that halted a remnant , and her that was cast far off a strong nation : and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth , even for ever . * And thou , O tower of the flock , the strong hold of the daughter of Zion , unto thee shall it come , even the first dominion ; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem . * Now why dost thou cry out aloud ? is there no king in thee ? is thy counsellor perished ? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail . * Be in pain , and labour to bring forth , O daughter of Zion , like a woman in travail : for now shalt thou go forth out of the city , and thou shalt dwell in the field , and thou shalt go even to Babylon ; there shalt thou be delivered ; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies . * Now also many nations are gathered against thee , that say , Let her be defiled , and let our eye look upon Zion . * But they know not the thoughts of the LORD , neither understand they his counsel : for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor . * Arise and thresh , O daughter of Zion : for I will make thine horn iron , and I will make thy hoofs brass : and thou shalt beat in pieces many people : and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD , and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth . * Now gather thyself in troops , O daughter of troops : he hath laid siege against us : they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek .

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