Micah 6

²⁹O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!

¹Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

²Hear, O peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and everyone in it! May the Lord God bear witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.

¹“And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.

⁴He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that He may judge His people:

²⁶I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.

¹Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!

²The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah. He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

¹⁸“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.

³¹The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth because the Lord brings a charge against the nations. He brings judgment on all mankind and puts the wicked to the sword,’” declares the Lord.

¹⁶The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

²⁹when He set a boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not surpass His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth.

⁵This is what the Lord says: “What fault did your fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me? They followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves.

²²But you have not called on Me, O Jacob, because you have grown weary of Me, O Israel.

²³You have not brought Me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense.

¹³If only My people would listen to Me, if Israel would follow My ways,

³¹You people of this generation, consider the word of the Lord: “Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of dense darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam; we will come to You no more’?

⁷“Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you: I am God, your God.

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

⁸But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

⁵¹And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt by their divisions.

¹⁰He struck down the firstborn of Egypt His loving devotion endures forever.

¹¹and brought Israel out from among them His loving devotion endures forever.

²⁰Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.

²¹And Miriam sang back to them: “Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; the horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.”

²¹You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror.

²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

⁹Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.

¹⁰On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover.

¹While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab,

¹¹the voices of the singers at the watering places. There they shall recount the righteous acts of the Lord, the righteous deeds of His villagers in Israel. Then the people of the Lord went down to the gates:

¹⁵They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

³You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.

¹⁹On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

¹⁶For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.

¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

²For I testify about them that they are zealous for God, but not on the basis of knowledge.

³Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

⁶Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require.

⁷Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll:

³⁷When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

¹⁶Just then a man came up to Jesus and inquired, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to obtain eternal life?”

²⁶Then Nebuchadnezzar approached the door of the blazing fiery furnace and called out, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire,

³Instead, he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

¹⁶For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.

²²But Samuel declared: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.

⁶For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,

³¹They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.

¹²And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹³and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord that I am giving you this day for your own good?

³To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the Lord than sacrifice.

¹²Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

³This is what the Lord says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

⁶For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

²²But Samuel declared: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.

¹⁹Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

⁹Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them but the rebellious stumble in them.

²She heeded no voice; she accepted no correction. She does not trust in the Lord; she has not drawn near to her God.

²⁷Behold, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

¹³But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁰For the fortified city lies deserted—a homestead abandoned, a wilderness forsaken. There the calves graze, and there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.

¹⁰“For they know not how to do right,” declares the Lord. “They store up violence and destruction in their citadels.”

²⁶For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.

²⁷Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.

¹⁰Differing weights and unequal measures—both are detestable to the Lord.

⁵asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.

⁶Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

⁶Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit.

¹The Israelites, however, acted unfaithfully regarding the things devoted to destruction. Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of what was set apart. So the anger of the Lord burned against the Israelites.

⁷A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.

³⁶You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

¹¹Honest scales and balances are from the Lord; all the weights in the bag are His concern.

⁸Their tongues are deadly arrows; they speak deception. With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

¹³Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, they speak lies against Me.

²³Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

²If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.

³“They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the Lord.

⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.

⁸For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they spoke and acted against the Lord, defying His glorious presence.

¹⁷Fools, in their rebellious ways, and through their iniquities, suffered affliction.

¹⁸They loathed all food and drew near to the gates of death.

²¹The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess.

²²The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.

¹⁶then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

²³Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

¹⁶Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

¹⁹A man is also chastened on his bed with pain and constant distress in his bones,

²⁰so that he detests his bread, and his soul loathes his favorite food.

¹⁰They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have abandoned the Lord to give themselves

¹³Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.

²⁶When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

²⁰They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.

¹²A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

¹⁶from that time, when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.

¹³Their wealth will be plundered and their houses laid waste. They will build houses but not inhabit them, and plant vineyards but never drink their wine.

¹¹Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.

¹³They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves to no avail. Bear the shame of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”

⁸The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain to your enemies for food, nor will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled.

⁹For those who harvest grain will eat it and praise the Lord, and those who gather grapes will drink the wine in My holy courts.”

³⁸You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.

³⁹You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.

⁶You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”

⁵¹“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach; disgrace has covered our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the Lord’s house.”

⁸He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the Lord has spoken.

²⁴Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.

¹³You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.

²⁵But Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord and acted more wickedly than all who were before him.

²⁶For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sins, which he caused Israel to commit, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger with their worthless idols.

⁸I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.