| 1 | 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. |
| 2 | 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. |
| 3 | For, behold, the LORD 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 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. |
| 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 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. |
| 7 | 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. |
| 8 | 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. |
| 9 | For her wound [is] incurable; for it is come unto Judah; he is come unto the gate of my people, [even] to Jerusalem. |
| 10 | Declare ye [it] not at Gath, weep ye not at all: in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. |
| 11 | Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir, having thy shame naked: the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall receive of you his standing. |
| 12 | For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem. |
| 13 | 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. |
| 14 | Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath: the houses of Achzib [shall be] a lie to the kings of Israel. |
| 15 | Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel. |
| 16 | Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee. |
