rsv Micah:1-4 SEEK
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The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Mo '
resheth in the days of Jotham ,
Ahaz ,
and Hezeki '
ah ,
kings of Judah ,
which he saw concerning Sama '
ria and Jerusalem .
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Hear ,
you peoples ,
all of you ;
hearken ,
O earth ,
and all that is in it ;
and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you ,
the Lord from his holy temple .
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For behold ,
the LORD is coming forth out of his place ,
and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth .
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And the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will be cleft ,
like wax before the fire ,
like waters poured down a steep place .
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All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel .
What is the transgression of Jacob ?
Is it not Sama '
ria ?
And what is the sin of the house of Judah ?
Is it not Jerusalem ?
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Therefore I will make Sama '
ria a heap in the open country ,
a place for planting vineyards ;
and I will pour down her stones into the valley ,
and uncover her foundations .
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All her images shall be beaten to pieces ,
all her hires shall be burned with fire ,
and all her idols I will lay waste ;
for from the hire of a harlot she gathered them ,
and to the hire of a harlot they shall return .
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For this I will lament and wail ;
I will go stripped and naked ;
I will make lamentation like the jackals ,
and mourning like the ostriches .
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For her wound is incurable ;
and it has come to Judah ,
it has reached to the gate of my people ,
to Jerusalem .
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Tell it not in Gath ,
weep not at all ;
in Beth-le-aph '
rah roll yourselves in the dust .
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Pass on your way ,
inhabitants of Shaphir ,
in nakedness and shame ;
the inhabitants of Za '
anan do not come forth ;
the wailing of Beth-e '
zel shall take away from you its standing place .
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For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good ,
because evil has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem .
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Harness the steeds to the chariots ,
inhabitants of Lachish ;
you were the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion ,
for in you were found the transgressions of Israel .
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Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Mo '
resheth-gath ;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel .
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I will again bring a conqueror upon you ,
inhabitants of Mare '
shah ;
the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam .
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Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair ,
for the children of your delight ;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle ,
for they shall go from you into exile .
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Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds !
When the morning dawns ,
they perform it ,
because it is in the power of their hand .
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They covet fields ,
and seize them ;
and houses ,
and take them away ;
they oppress a man and his house ,
a man and his inheritance .
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Therefore thus says the LORD :
Behold ,
against this family I am devising evil ,
from which you cannot remove your necks ;
and you shall not walk haughtily ,
for it will be an evil time .
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In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you ,
and wail with bitter lamentation ,
and say , "
We are utterly ruined ;
he changes the portion of my people ;
how he removes it from me !
Among our captors he divides our fields ."
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Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD .
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Do not preach "--
thus they preach --"
one should not preach of such things ;
disgrace will not overtake us ."
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Should this be said ,
O house of Jacob ?
Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient ?
Are these his doings ?
Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly ?
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But you rise against my people as an enemy ;
you strip the robe from the peaceful ,
from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war .
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The women of my people you drive out from their pleasant houses ;
from their young children you take away my glory for ever .
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Arise and go ,
for this is no place to rest ;
because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction .
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If 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 !
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I will surely gather 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 .
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He who opens the breach will go up before them ;
they will break through and pass the gate ,
going out by it .
Their king will pass on before them ,
the LORD at their head .
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And I said :
Hear ,
you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel !
Is it not for you to know justice ?--
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you who hate the good and love the evil ,
who tear the skin from off my people ,
and their flesh from off their bones ;
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who eat the flesh of my people ,
and flay their skin from off them ,
and break their bones in pieces ,
and chop them up like meat in a kettle ,
like flesh in a caldron .
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Then they will cry to the LORD ,
but he will not answer them ;
he will hide his face from them at that time ,
because they have made their deeds evil .
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Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray ,
who cry "
Peace "
when they have something to eat ,
but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths .
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Therefore it shall be night to you ,
without vision ,
and darkness to you ,
without divination .
The sun shall go down upon the prophets ,
and the day shall be black over them ;
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the seers shall be disgraced ,
and the diviners put to shame ;
they shall all cover their lips ,
for there is no answer from God .
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But as for me ,
I am filled with power ,
with the Spirit of the LORD ,
and with justice and might ,
to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin .
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Hear this ,
you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel ,
who abhor justice and pervert all equity ,
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who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong .
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Its heads give judgment for a bribe ,
its priests teach for hire ,
its prophets divine for money ;
yet they lean upon the LORD and say , "
Is not the LORD in the midst of us ?
No evil shall come upon us ."
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Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field ;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins ,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height .
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It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains ,
and shall be raised up above the hills ;
and peoples shall flow to it ,
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and many nations shall come ,
and say : "
Come ,
let us go up to the mountain of the LORD ,
to the house of the God of Jacob ;
that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths ."
For out of Zion shall go forth the law ,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem .
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He shall judge between many peoples ,
and shall decide for strong nations afar off ;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares ,
and their spears into pruning hooks ;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation ,
neither shall they learn war any more ;
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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 has spoken .
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For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god ,
but we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever .
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In that day ,
says the LORD ,
I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away ,
and those whom I have afflicted ;
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and the lame I will make the remnant ;
and those who were cast off ,
a strong nation ;
and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and for evermore .
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And you ,
O tower of the flock ,
hill of the daughter of Zion ,
to you shall it come ,
the former dominion shall come ,
the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem .
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Now why do you cry aloud ?
Is there no king in you ?
Has your counselor perished ,
that pangs have seized you like a woman in travail ?
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Writhe and groan ,
O daughter of Zion ,
like a woman in travail ;
for now you shall go forth from the city and dwell in the open country ;
you shall go to Babylon .
There you shall be rescued ,
there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies .
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Now many nations are assembled against you ,
saying , "
Let her be profaned ,
and let our eyes gaze upon Zion ."
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But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD ,
they do not understand his plan ,
that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor .
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Arise and thresh ,
O daughter of Zion ,
for I will make your horn iron and your hoofs bronze ;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples ,
and shall devote their gain to the LORD ,
their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth .
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Now you are walled about with a wall ;
siege is laid against us ;
with a rod they strike upon the cheek the ruler of Israel .