Micah 2

⁴Even on his bed he plots wickedness; he sets himself on a path that is not good; he fails to reject evil.

⁷The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive; he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.

¹⁴Behold, the wicked man travails with evil; he conceives trouble and births falsehood.

¹⁵He has dug a hole and hollowed it out; he has fallen into a pit of his own making.

⁶For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls upon Me.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,

¹³winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers.

¹¹From you, O Nineveh, comes forth a plotter of evil against the Lord, a counselor of wickedness.

⁸Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.

¹⁷“But your eyes and heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, on practicing extortion and oppression.”

⁴Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land,

¹²He oppresses the poor and needy; he commits robbery and does not restore a pledge. He lifts his eyes to idols; he commits abominations.

¹³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.

²So Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard to use as a vegetable garden, since it is next to my palace. I will give you a better vineyard in its place—or if you prefer, I will give you its value in silver.”

³But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

³And wherever I have banished them, the remnant of this evil family will choose death over life,” declares the Lord of Hosts.

¹³Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.

¹¹The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

¹²For the Day of the Lord of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted—it will be humbled—

¹¹Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

¹I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the rest with the sword. None of those who flee will get away; none of the fugitives will escape.

²Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down.

¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

⁶Will not all of these take up a taunt against him, speaking with mockery and derision: ‘Woe to him who amasses what is not his and makes himself rich with many loans! How long will this go on?’

¹⁷This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Take note, and summon the wailing women; send for the most skillful among them.

¹⁸Let them come quickly and take up a lament over us, that our eyes may overflow with tears, and our eyelids may gush with water.

¹⁵I will again bring a conqueror against you, O dweller of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

¹⁰I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.

³The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered. For the Lord has spoken this word.

¹¹Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,

⁴Appoint three men from each tribe, and I will send them out to survey the land and map it out, according to the inheritance of each. Then they will return to me

⁸When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

¹⁰And Joshua cast lots for them in the presence of the Lord at Shiloh, where he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their divisions.

²No one of illegitimate birth may enter the assembly of the Lord, nor may any of his descendants, even to the tenth generation.

⁶The lines of my boundary have fallen in pleasant places; surely my inheritance is delightful.

³They will not remain in the land of the Lord; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

¹²“But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.

¹⁰They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.

⁴⁰At this, they yielded to Gamaliel. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and released them.

²⁶I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house.

⁹There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.

¹¹Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.

¹²People will stagger from sea to sea and roam from north to east, seeking the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.

¹¹For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; He withholds no good thing from those who walk with integrity.

¹⁶Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O Lord God of Hosts.

²He who walks with integrity and practices righteousness, who speaks the truth from his heart,

⁶So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.

⁹He who walks in integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out.

⁹⁹I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰I discern more than the elders, for I obey Your precepts.

¹⁹I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”

⁶Too long have I dwelt among those who hate peace.

⁷I am in favor of peace; but when I speak, they want war.

⁵So the Lord his God delivered Ahaz into the hand of the king of Aram, who attacked him and took many captives to Damascus. Ahaz was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force.

⁶For in one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed 120,000 valiant men in Judah. This happened because they had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.

²⁰My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.

²¹Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn against Judah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

²¹I will display My glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the judgment that I execute and the hand that I lay upon them.

¹⁴For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

⁴⁷They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”

¹⁸And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

¹⁹And blessed be His glorious name forever; may all the earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen.

¹⁹Now please, may my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the Lord has stirred you up against me, then may He accept an offering. But if men have done it, may they be cursed in the presence of the Lord! For today they have driven me away from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’

⁹For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.

³⁸They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it.

²For we also received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, since they did not share the faith of those who comprehended it.

⁷then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

²²You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.

²³You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.

³¹The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

¹⁴And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

¹⁰They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.

¹¹Get out of the way; turn off the road. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”

¹⁷They keep saying to those who despise Me, ‘The Lord says that you will have peace,’ and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’

¹⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, but you have persuaded this people to trust in a lie.

⁶So the king of Israel assembled the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Should I go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I refrain?” “Go up,” they replied, “and the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”

⁶“On that day,” declares the Lord, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the outcast, even those whom I have afflicted.

⁷And I will make the lame into a remnant, the outcast into a strong nation. Then the Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.

⁷Then the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for man or linger for mankind.

¹¹Then the people of Judah and of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and will go up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel.

⁷For this is what the Lord says: “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations! Make your praises heard, and say, ‘O Lord, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’

⁸Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, including the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor. They will return as a great assembly!

²¹you are to tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I will take the Israelites out of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land.

⁶I will strengthen the house of Judah and save the house of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them, and they will be as though I had not rejected them. For I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them.

⁷Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their hearts will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be joyful; their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.

¹²For you will not leave in a hurry nor flee in haste, for the Lord goes before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.

¹This is what the Lord says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:

²“I will go before you and level the mountains; I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.

¹⁴Then the Lord will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will sound the ram’s horn and advance in the whirlwinds of the south.

¹⁵The Lord of Hosts will shield them. They will destroy and conquer with slingstones; they will drink and roar as with wine. And they will be filled like sprinkling bowls, drenched like the corners of the altar.

¹⁷For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

²⁷My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

¹⁴Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,

¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.