The Holy Bible, containing the Old & New Testament & the Apocrypha/Volume 2/Micah
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MICAH
THE word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
- Hear, all ye people;
- Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is:
- And let the Lord God be witness against you,
- The Lord from his holy temple.
- For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place,
- And will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
- And the mountains shall be molten under him,
- And the valleys shall be cleft,
- As wax before the fire,
- And as the waters that are poured down a steep place.
- 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?
- Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field,
- And as plantings of a vineyard:
- And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley,
- And I will discover the foundations thereof.
- And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces,
- And all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire,
- And all the idols thereof will I lay desolate:
- For she gathered it of the hire of an harlot,
- And they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
- Therefore I will wail and howl,
- I will go stripped and naked:
- I will make a wailing like the dragons,
- And mourning as the owls.
- For her wound is incurable;
- For it is come unto Judah;
- He is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
- Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all:
- In the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust.
- Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked:
- The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel;
- He shall receive of you his standing.
- For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good:
- But evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem.
- O 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.
- Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath:
- The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.
- Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah:
- He shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.
- Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children;
- Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle;
- For they are gone into captivity from thee.
- 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.
- And they covet fields, and take them by violence;
- And houses, and take them away:
- So they oppress a man and his house,
- Even a man and his heritage.
- Therefore thus saith the Lord;
- Behold, against this family do I devise an evil,
- From which ye shall not remove your necks;
- Neither shall ye go haughtily:
- For this time is evil.
- In that day shall one take up a parable against you,
- And lament with a doleful lamentation,
- And say, We be utterly spoiled:
- He hath changed the portion of my people:
- How hath he removed it from me!
- Turning away he hath divided our fields.
- Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot
- In the congregation of the Lord.
- Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy:
- They shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not take shame.
- O thou that art named the house of Jacob,
- Is the spirit of the Lord straitened?
- Are these his doings?
- Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
- Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy:
- Ye pull off the robe with the garment
- From them that pass by securely as men averse from war.
- The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses;
- From their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.
- Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest:
- Because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.
- If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying,
- I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink;
- He shall even be the prophet of this people.
- 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 the flock in the midst of their fold:
- They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.
- The breaker is come up before them:
- They have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it:
- And their king shall pass before them,
- And the Lord on the head of them.
- And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob,
- And ye princes of the house of Israel;
- Is it not for you to know judgment?
- Who hate the good, and love the evil;
- Who pluck off their skin from off them,
- And their flesh from off their bones;
- Who also eat the flesh of my people,
- And flay their skin from off them;
- And they break their bones,
- And chop them in pieces, as for the pot,
- And as flesh within the caldron.
- Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them:
- He will even hide his face from them at that time,
- As they have behaved themselves ill in their doings.
- Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err,
- That bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace;
- And he that putteth not into their mouths,
- They even prepare war against him.
- Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision;
- And it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine;
- And the sun shall go down over the prophets,
- And the day shall be dark over them.
- Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded:
- Yea, they shall all cover their lips;
- For there is no answer of God.
- But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord,
- And of judgment, and of might,
- To declare unto Jacob his transgression,
- And to Israel his sin.
- Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob,
- And princes of the house of Israel,
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"BUT JONAH ROSE UP TO FLEE UNTO TARSHISH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, AND WENT DOWN TO JOPPA."—Jonah i.
- That abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
- They build up Zion with blood,
- And Jerusalem with iniquity.
- The heads thereof judge for reward,
- And the priests thereof teach for hire,
- And the prophets thereof divine for money:
- Yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say,
- Is not the Lord among us?
- None evil can come upon us.
- 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 the forest.
- But in the last days it shall come to pass,
- That the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains,
- And it shall be exalted above the hills;
- And people shall flow unto it.
- And many nations shall come, and say,
- Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
- 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 the law shall go forth of Zion,
- And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
- And he shall judge among many people,
- And rebuke strong nations afar off;
- And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
- And their spears into pruninghooks:
- Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation,
- Neither shall they learn war any more.
- But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree;
- And none shall make them afraid:
- For the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.
- For all people will walk every one in the name of his god,
- And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.
- In that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth,
- And I will gather her that is driven out,
- And her that I have afflicted;
- And I will make her that halted a remnant,
- And her that was cast far off a strong nation:
- And the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion
- From henceforth, even for ever.
- And thou, O tower of the flock,
- The strong hold of the daughter of Zion,
- Unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion;
- The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
- Now why dost thou cry out aloud?
- Is there no king in thee?
- Is thy counsellor perished?
- For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
- Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail:
- For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field,
- And thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered;
- There the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
- Now also many nations are gathered against thee,
- That say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.
- But they know not the thoughts of the Lord,
- Neither understand they his counsel:
- For he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
- Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion:
- For I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass:
- And thou shalt beat in pieces many people:
- And I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord,
- And their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
- Now 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.
- But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah,
- Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
- Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;
- Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
- Therefore will he give them up,
- Until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth:
- Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
- And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord,
- In the majesty of the name of the Lord his God;
- And they shall abide:
- For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
- And this man shall be the 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.
- And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword,
- And the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof:
- Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian,
- When he cometh into our land,
- And when he treadeth within our borders.
- And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people
- As a dew from the Lord,
- As the showers upon the grass,
- That tarrieth not for man,
- Nor waiteth for the sons of men.
- And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people
- As a lion among the beasts of the forest,
- As a young lion among the flocks of sheep:
- Who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces,
- And none can deliver.
- Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries,
- And all thine enemies shall be cut off.
- And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord,
- That I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee,
- And I will destroy thy chariots:
- And I will cut off the cities of thy land,
- And throw down all thy strong holds:
- And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand;
- And thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
- Thy graven images also will I cut off,
- And thy standing images out of the midst of thee;
- And thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
- And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee:
- So will I destroy thy cities.
- And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen,
- Such as they have not heard.
- Hear ye now what the Lord saith;
- Arise, contend thou before the mountains,
- And let the hills hear thy voice.
- Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy,
- And ye strong foundations of the earth:
- For the Lord hath a controversy with his people,
- And he will plead with Israel.
- O my people, what have I done unto thee?
- And wherein have I wearied thee?
- Testify against me.
- For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,
- And redeemed thee out of the house of servants;
- And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
- O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted,
- And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him
- From Shittim unto Gilgal;
- That ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.
- Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,
- And bow myself before the high God?
- Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
- With calves of a year old?
- Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
- Or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
- Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
- The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
- He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;
- And what doth the Lord require of thee,
- But to do justly, and to love mercy,
- And to walk humbly with thy God?
- The Lord's voice crieth unto the city,
- And the man of wisdom shall see thy name:
- Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.
- Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
- And the scant measure that is abominable?
- Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances,
- And with the bag of deceitful weights?
- For the rich men thereof are full of violence,
- And the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies,
- And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
- Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee,
- In making thee desolate because of thy sins.
- Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied;
- And thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee;
- And thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver;
- And that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.
- Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap;
- Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil;
- And sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.
- For the statutes of Omri are kept,
- And all the works of the house of Ahab,
- And ye walk in their counsels;
- That I should make thee a desolation,
- And the inhabitants thereof an hissing:
- Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.
- Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits,
- As the grapegleanings of the vintage:
- There is no cluster to eat:
- My soul desired the firstripe fruit.
- The good 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.
- That they may do evil with both hands earnestly,
- The prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward;
- And the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire:
- So they wrap it up.
- The best of them is as a brier:
- The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge:
- The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh;
- Now shall be their perplexity.
- Trust ye not in a friend,
- Put ye not confidence in a guide:
- Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
- For the son dishonoureth 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.
- Therefore I will look unto the Lord;
- I will wait for the God of my salvation:
- My God will hear me.
- Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy:
- When I fall, I shall arise;
- When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
- I will bear the indignation of the Lord, 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.
- Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her
- Which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God?
- Mine eyes shall behold her:
- Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
- In the day that thy walls are to be built,
- In that day shall the decree be far removed.
- In that day also he shall come even to thee
- From Assyria, and from the fortified cities,
- And from the fortress even to the river,
- And from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
- Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein,
- For the fruit of their doings.
- Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage,
- Which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel:
- Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
- According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt
- Will I shew unto him marvellous things.
- The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might:
- They shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
- They shall lick the dust like a serpent,
- They shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth:
- They shall be afraid of the Lord our God,
- And shall fear because of thee.
- Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity,
- And passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?
- He retaineth not his anger for ever,
- Because he delighteth in mercy.
- He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us;
- He will subdue our iniquities;
- And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
- Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham,
- Which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.