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📚The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Moresthite✭ in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah✭, kings of Judah, the vision he saw✭ concerning Samaria and Jerusalem✭.God is about to bring punishment on evil people
2 📚✭Hear, all you peoples!
Listen, O earth, and all that
is in it,
that the Lord God may be a
witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple✭.
3 📚For, see, the LORD is coming✭ out
of his place,
and will descend and tread
on the high places✭ of the earth.
4 📚And the mountains will melt✭
under him,
and the valleys will split,
like wax before the fire,
and like water poured down
a steep place.
God will bring ruin on Samaria and its idols
5 📚All this is because of
the transgression of Jacob,
and because of 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
a heap of ruins in the field
and a place for planting
a vineyard,
and I will pour her stones
into the valley,
and I will uncover her
foundations.
7 📚And all her carved images will be
smashed to pieces,
and all her earnings will be
burned with fire,
and all her idols I will make desolate.
For she collected them
from the earnings of a prostitute,
and they will return to the earnings
of a prostitute✭.
A lament concerning the coming invasion of the Assyrians
8 📚Therefore I will wail and mourn.
I will go stripped and naked✭.
I will wail✭ like the jackals,
and mourn like the owls.
9 📚For her wound is incurable✭;
and it has come to Judah.
It has come to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem✭.
10 📚Tell it not at Gath✭,
weep not at all.
In the house of Aphrah✭ roll
yourself in the dust.
11 📚Pass by in naked shame✭,
inhabitant of Saphir.
The inhabitant of Zaanan
does not come out.
Beth-Ezel is in mourning.
Its standing place has been
taken away from you.
12 📚For the inhabitant of Maroth✭
longed for good,
but disaster from the LORD✭
came down to the gate
of Jerusalem.
13 📚O inhabitant of Lachish✭,
harness the chariot
to the swift beast
(she was the beginning of sin✭
to the daughter of Zion)✭,
for the transgressions of Israel
were found in you.
14 📚✭Therefore you will give presents
to Moresheth-Gath.
The houses of Achzib
will prove false
to the kings of Israel.
15 📚Yet I will bring an heir to you,
O inhabitant of Mareshah✭.
The glory of Israel will come
to Adullam✭.
16 📚Make yourselves bald✭,
and cut off your hair in mourning
for the children of your delight.
Make your baldness like that
of the eagle,
because they have gone away
from you into captivity✭.