Armenian Apostolic Church Library Online

Micah
Chapter 1

1. The word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of

Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria

and Jerusalem.

2 Hear, ye peoples, all of you: hearken, O earth, and all that therein

is: and let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy

temple.

3 For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his place, and will come down,

and tread upon the high places of the earth.

4 And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be

cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep

place.

5 For 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 places

for planting vineyards; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the

valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof.

7 And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires

shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I lay desolate; for of

the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot

shall they return.

8. For this will I lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will

make a wailing like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches.

9 For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even unto Judah; it

reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

10 Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all: at Beth-le-aphrah have I rolled

myself in the dust.

11 Pass away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame: the

inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth; the wailing of Beth-ezel shall take

from you the stay thereof.

12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waiteth anxiously for good, because evil

is come down from Jehovah unto the gate of Jerusalem.

13 Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish: she was

the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of

Israel were found in thee.

14 Therefore shalt thou give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath: the houses

of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing unto the kings of Israel.

15 I will yet bring unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him that shall

possess thee: the glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam.

16 Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair for the children of thy delight:

enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from

thee.

1. Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when

the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their

hand.

2 And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away:

and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

3 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Behold, against this family do I devise

an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk

haughtily; for it is an evil time.

4 In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a

doleful lamentation, [and] say, We are utterly ruined: he changeth the

portion of my people: how doth he remove [it] from me! to the rebellious he

divideth our fields.

5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the line by lot in the

assembly of Jehovah.

6. Prophesy ye not, [thus] they prophesy. They shall not prophesy to

these: reproaches shall not depart.

7 Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the Spirit of Jehovah

straitened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that

walketh uprightly?

8 But of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye strip the robe from

off the garment from them that pass by securely [as men] averse from war.

9 The women of my people ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from

their young children ye take away my glory for ever.

10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place; because of

uncleanness that destroyeth, even with a grievous destruction.

11 If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood do lie, [saying], I will

prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the

prophet of this people.

12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the

remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a

flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall make great noise by reason

of [the multitude of] men.

13 The breaker is gone up before them: they have broken forth and passed

on to the gate, and are gone out thereat; and their king is passed on

before them, and Jehovah at the head of them.

1. And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the

house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?

2 ye who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from

off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3 who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them,

and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as

flesh within the caldron.

4 Then shall they cry unto Jehovah, but he will not answer them; yea, he

will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought

evil in their doings.

5 Thus saith Jehovah concerning the prophets that make my people to err;

that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and whoso putteth not into

their mouths, they even prepare war against him:

6 Therefore it shall be night unto you, that ye shall have no vision; and

it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go

down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.

7 And the seers shall be put to shame, and the diviners confounded; yea,

they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

8. But as for me, I am full of power by the Spirit of Jehovah, and of

judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to

Israel his sin.

9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of

the house of Israel, that abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for

hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet they lean upon

Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come

upon us.

12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem

shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a

forest.

1. But in the latter days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of

Jehovah's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it

shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it.

2 And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the

mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will

teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall

go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem;

3 and he will judge between many peoples, and will decide concerning

strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against

nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and

none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken

it.

5 For all the peoples walk every one in the name of his god; and we will

walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever.

6 In that day, saith Jehovah, will I assemble that which is lame, and I

will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted;

7 and I will make that which was lame a remnant, and that which was cast

far off a strong nation: and Jehovah will reign over them in mount Zion

from henceforth even for ever.

8. And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto

thee shall it come, yea, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the

daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee, is thy

counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in

travail?

10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman

in travail; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in

the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be rescued;

there will Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

11 And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be

defiled, and let our eye see [our desire] upon Zion.

12 But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, neither understand they his

counsel; for he hath gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing-floor.

13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron,

and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many

peoples: and I will devote their gain unto Jehovah, and their substance

unto the Lord of the whole earth.

1. Now shalt thou gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath

laid siege against us; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon

the cheek.

2 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the

thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be

ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she who travaileth

hath brought forth: then the residue of his brethren shall return unto the

children of Israel.

4 And he shall stand, and shall feed [his flock] in the strength of

Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God: and they shall

abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

5 And this [man] shall be [our] peace. When the Assyrian shall come into

our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise

against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land

of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: and he shall deliver us from the

Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our

border.

7. And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew

from Jehovah, as showers upon the grass, that tarry not for man, nor wait

for the sons of men.

8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of

many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion

among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, treadeth down and teareth

in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

9 Let thy hand be lifted up above thine adversaries, and let all thine

enemies be cut off.

10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah, that I will cut

off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots:

11 and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy

strongholds.

12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy hand; and thou shalt have no

[more] soothsayers:

13 and I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars out of the midst

of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thy hands;

14 and I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst of thee; and I will

destroy thy cities.

15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations which

hearkened not.

1. Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend thou before the

mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

2 Hear, O ye mountains, Jehovah's controversy, and ye enduring

foundations of the earth; for Jehovah hath a controversy with his people,

and he will contend with Israel.

3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied

thee? testify against me.

4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out

of the house of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised, and what

Balaam the son of Beor answered him; [remember] from Shittim unto Gilgal,

that ye may know the righteous acts of Jehovah.

6. Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, and bow myself before the high

God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves a year old?

7 will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, [or] with ten thousands

of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the

fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8 He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require

of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with

thy God?

9. The voice of Jehovah crieth unto the city, and [the man of] wisdom will

see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

10 Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and

a scant measure that is abominable?

11 Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful

weights?

12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants

thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

13 Therefore I also have smitten thee with a grievous wound; I have made

thee desolate because of thy sins.

14 Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy humiliation shall be in

the midst of thee: and thou shalt put away, but shalt not save; and that

which thou savest will I give up to the sword.

15 Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but

shalt not anoint thee with oil; and the vintage, but shalt not drink the

wine.

16 For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of

Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I may make thee a desolation, and

the inhabitants thereof a hissing: and ye shall bear the reproach of my

people.

1. Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as

the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul

desireth the first-ripe fig.

2 The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright

among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother

with a net.

3 Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince

asketh, and the judge [is ready] for a reward; and the great man, he

uttereth the evil desire of his soul: thus they weave it together.

4 The best of them is as a brier; the most upright is [worse] than a

thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, is come; now

shall be their perplexity.

5 Trust ye not in a neighbor; put ye not confidence in a friend; keep the

doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

6 For the son dishonoreth the father, the daughter riseth up against her

mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are

the men of his own house.

7. But as for me, I will look unto Jehovah; I will wait for the God of my

salvation: my God will hear me.

8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when

I sit in darkness, Jehovah will be a light unto me.

9 I will bear the indignation of Jehovah, because I have sinned against

him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me

forth to the light, [and] I shall behold his righteousness.

10 Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said unto

me, Where is Jehovah thy God? Mine eyes shall see [my desire] upon her; now

shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

11 A day for building thy walls! in that day shall the decree be far

removed.

12 In that day shall they come unto thee from Assyria and the cities of

Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and [from]

mountain to mountain.

13 Yet shall the land be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for

the fruit of their doings.

14. Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, which dwell

solitarily, in the forest in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan

and Gilead, as in the days of old.

15 As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt will I

show unto them marvellous things.

16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall

lay their hand upon their mouth; their ears shall be deaf.

17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the

earth they shall come trembling out of their close places; they shall come

with fear unto Jehovah our God, and shall be afraid because of thee.

18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over

the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his

anger for ever, because he delighteth in lovingkindness.

19 He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities

under foot; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, [and] the lovingkindness to

Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.