¹The word of the Lord which came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

²Hear, all you people,

And hearken, O earth and your fulness,

And let my Lord the Lord be a witness against you

– That is the Lord^*

From his holy temple.

³For look, the Lord is coming out of his place,

And he will descend and step

Onto the idolatrous raised sites of the earth.

⁴Then the mountains will melt under him,

And the valleys will be split;

They will be like wax in front of a fire,

And like water pouring down a gully.

⁵All this is for the transgression of Jacob,

And for the sins of the house of Israel.

What is the transgression of Jacob?

Is it not Samaria?

And what are the idolatrous raised sites of Judah?

Are they not in Jerusalem?

⁶“And I will make Samaria a ruin of the countryside

– Vineyard plantation sites.

And I will pour her stones out into the valley,

And I will expose her foundations.

⁷And all her carved images will be beaten in pieces,

And all her wages of prostitution will be burnt in fire.

And I will make all her idols a desolation,

For she gathered them from the wages of prostitution,

And to the wages of prostitution they shall return.”

⁸For this I will mourn and howl;

I will walk as one who has been stripped and is naked.

I will undertake mourning like jackals,

And lamentation like ostriches.

⁹For her wounds are incurable,

For this has come to Judah;

He has reached the gate of my people

– Jerusalem.

¹⁰Do not relate this in Gath;

Do not weep at all.

In the house of Aphrah,

Roll in the dust.

¹¹Transgress as you will,

O inhabitants of Shaphir,

In nakedness and shame.

The inhabitant of Zaanan did not come out

At the mourning of Beth-Ezel;

He will take his support away from you.

¹²For the inhabitants of Maroth waited for good times,

When bad times came down from the Lord,

At the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Hitch the steed to the chariot,

O inhabitants of Lachish.

It is the beginning of sin for the daughter of Zion,

For the transgressions of Israel have been found in you.

¹⁴Therefore give a bill of divorce in Moresheth-Gath.

The houses of Achzib are deceit to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I am still going to bring the dispossessor to you,

O inhabitants of Mareshah.

The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

¹⁶Make yourself bald and shave yourself,

For the sake of your delightful sons.

Make your baldness wide like the eagle,

For they will be deported away from you.