1The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2Hear, all ye people! Hearken, O earth, and all that is therein! And let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.
3For behold, the LORD cometh forth out of His place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as waters that are poured down a steep place.
5For 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 the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof.
7And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate; for she gathered it from the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot."
8Therefore I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owls.
9For her wound is incurable; for it has come unto Judah; he has come unto the gate of My people, even to Jerusalem.
10Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all; in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.
11Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Shaphir, having thy shame naked. The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall receive from you his standing.
12For the inhabitant of Maroth waited anxiously for good, but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem.
13O 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.
14Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath; the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
15Yet I will bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel.
16Make thyself bald, and shear thy beard because of thy pleasant children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, for they are gone into captivity from thee.