The Prophet Micah

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- Chapter 1 -

(Isaiah 7:17–25)

Yahweh gave Micah, who was from Moresheth in Judah, these messages in visions about Samaria and Jerusalem during the time when Jotham, and then Ahaz, and then Hezekiah were the kings of Judah.

You people everywhere on the earth, pay attention to this. Yahweh our God is accusing you from his holy temple in heaven.

He will come down from heaven and walk over the high places where you worship idols.

It will be as though the mountains will melt under his feet as wax melts in front of a fire, and as water disappears when it rushes down into a valley.

Those things will happen because of the terrible sins that the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, have committed. But it was the people of the city of Samaria who persuaded all the people of Israel to sin. And it was because the people of Jerusalem set up altars to worship their gods that the other people of Judah thought they should also worship idols on the hilltops.

Yahweh says this: “I will cause Samaria to become a heap of rubble; it will be only a field for planting vineyards. I will cause the stones of its buildings to roll down into the valley. I will destroy the buildings down to their foundations.

I will make others smash the idols in Samaria to pieces. The gifts given to prostitutes at the temples of their idols will be burned in fire. Because people paid prostitutes there, their enemies will take away those idols and sell them to pay prostitutes in other countries.

Weeping and Mourning

Because Samaria will be destroyed, I will weep and wail. I will walk around barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and screech like an owl.

I will lament because Samaria will be completely destroyed; nothing can save that city. But the same thing will happen to Judah. It is as though the enemy army had already reached the city gates of Jerusalem, the main city where my people live.

Do not tell that to our enemies in the city of Gath in Philistia! Do not cry, or the people there will find out what is happening. Instead, just roll on the ground in Beth Leaphrah.

You people who live in Shaphir, naked and ashamed, you will be taken to another country. You people in Beth Ezel should mourn, because no one from Zaanan will go out to help you.

The people of Maroth are anxiously waiting for good things to happen to them. But I will make terrible things to happen to them, and they will soon happen at the gates of Jerusalem.”

You people in the city of Lachish, hitch your horses to pull the chariots in which you can ride to flee from your enemies. The Israelite people rebelled against Yahweh, and you imitated them, and that caused the people of Jerusalem to start sinning, too.

You people of Judah, send a farewell gift to the people of Moresheth, because their enemies will soon destroy it. The kings of Israel will soon find out that the people of the town of Akzib will disappoint them.

You people of Mareshah, Yahweh will soon send someone to conquer your town. It will be necessary for the great leaders of Israel to go and hide in the cave near Adullam.

You people of Judah, shave your heads and go into mourning, because the children whom you love will soon go into exile.

(Isaiah 7:17–25)

The LORD’s(a) word that came to Micah of Morasheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Hear, you peoples, all of you! Listen, O earth, and all that is therein. Let the Lord

(b)

GOD be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

For behold,(c) the LORD comes out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.

“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem?

Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations.

All her idols will be beaten to pieces, all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and I will destroy all her images; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.”

Weeping and Mourning

For this I will lament and wail. I will go stripped and naked. I will howl like the jackals and mourn like the ostriches.

For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah(d) I have rolled myself in the dust.

Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won’t come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection.

For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.

Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.

I will yet bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture, for they have gone into captivity from you!

Footnotes

(a)1:1 When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name.

(b)1:2 The word translated “Lord” is “Adonai.”

(c)1:3 “Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.

(d)1:10 Beth Ophrah means literally “House of Dust.”