1: 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. 2: 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. 3: For behold, the LORD cometh forth from his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4: And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, [and] as the waters [that are] poured down a steep place. 5: 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? 6: Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, [and] as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will lay bare her foundations. 7: And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with the fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate: for she gathered [it] from the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot. 8: 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. 9: For her wound [is] incurable; for it is come to Judah; he is come to the gate of my people, [even] to Jerusalem. 10: Declare ye [it] not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. 11: Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame exposed: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel; he shall receive from you his standing. 12: For the inhabitant of Maroth waited anxiously for good: but evil came down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem. 13: 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. 14: Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib [shall be] a lie to the kings of Israel. 15: Yet will I bring an heir to thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come to Adullam the glory of Israel. 16: Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.
