1 ARST Yahweh gave Micah, who was from Moresheth in Judah, these messages in visions about Samaria and Jerusalem during the time when Jotham, and then Ahaz, and then Hezekiah were the kings of Judah. BSB BSB: This is the word of the LORD that came to Micah the Moreshite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem:
2 ARST You people everywhere on the earth, pay attention to this. Yahweh our God is accusing you from his holy temple in heaven. BSB BSB: Hear, 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.
3 ARST He will come down from heaven and walk over the high places where you worship idols. BSB BSB: For behold, the LORD comes forth from His dwelling place; He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.
4 ARST It will be as though the mountains will melt under his feet as wax melts in front of a fire, and as water disappears when it rushes down into a valley. BSB BSB: The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
5 ARST Those things will happen because of the terrible sins that the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, have committed. But it was the people of the city of Samaria who persuaded all the people of Israel to sin. And it was because the people of Jerusalem set up altars to worship their gods that the other people of Judah thought they should also worship idols on the hilltops. BSB BSB: All this is for the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 ARST Yahweh says this:“I will cause Samaria to become a heap of rubble; it will be only a field for planting vineyards. I will cause the stones of its buildings to roll down into the valley. I will destroy the buildings down to their foundations. BSB BSB: Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble in the open field, a planting area for a vineyard. I will pour her stones into the valley and expose her foundations.
7 ARST I will make others smash the idols in Samaria to pieces. The gifts given to prostitutes at the temples of their idols will be burned in fire. Because people paid prostitutes there, their enemies will take away those idols and sell them to pay prostitutes in other countries. BSB BSB: All her carved images will be smashed to pieces; all her wages will be burned in the fire, and I will destroy all her idols. Since she collected the wages of a prostitute, they will be used again on a prostitute.
8 ARST Because Samaria will be destroyed, I will weep and wail. I will walk around barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and screech like an owl. BSB BSB: Because of this I will lament and wail; I will walk barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and mourn like an ostrich.
9 ARST I will lament because Samaria will be completely destroyed; nothing can save that city. But the same thing will happen to Judah. It is as though the enemy army had already reached the city gates of Jerusalem, the main city where my people live. BSB BSB: For her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah; it has approached the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem itself.
10 ARST Do not tell that to our enemies in the city of Gath in Philistia! Do not cry, or the people there will find out what is happening. Instead, just roll on the ground in Beth Leaphrah. BSB BSB: Do not tell it in Gath; do not weep at all. Roll in the dust in Beth-leaphrah.
11 ARST You people who live in Shaphir, naked and ashamed, you will be taken to another country. You people in Beth Ezel should mourn, because no one from Zaanan will go out to help you. BSB BSB: Depart in shameful nakedness, O dwellers of Shaphir. The dwellers of Zaanan will not come out. Beth-ezel is in mourning; its support is taken from you.
12 ARST The people of Maroth are anxiously waiting for good things to happen to them. But I will make terrible things to happen to them, and they will soon happen at the gates of Jerusalem.” BSB BSB: For the dwellers of Maroth pined for good, but calamity came down from the LORD, even to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 ARST You people in the city of Lachish, hitch your horses to pull the chariots in which you can ride to flee from your enemies. The Israelite people rebelled against Yahweh, and you imitated them, and that caused the people of Jerusalem to start sinning, too. BSB BSB: Harness your chariot horses, O dweller of Lachish. You were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
14 ARST You people of Judah, send a farewell gift to the people of Moresheth, because their enemies will soon destroy it. The kings of Israel will soon find out that the people of the town of Akzib will disappoint them. BSB BSB: Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.
15 ARST You people of Mareshah, Yahweh will soon send someone to conquer your town. It will be necessary for the great leaders of Israel to go and hide in the cave near Adullam. BSB BSB: I will again bring a conqueror against you, O dweller of Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.
16 ARST You people of Judah, shave your heads and go into mourning, because the children whom you love will soon go into exile. BSB BSB: Shave yourselves bald and cut off your hair in mourning for your precious children; make yourselves as bald as an eagle, for they will go from you into exile.