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THE SINS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL

Micah chs. 1-3 Micah 1
1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Mo'resheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezeki'ah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Sama'ria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; hearken, O earth, and all that is in it; and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And the mountains will melt under him and the valleys will be cleft, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All 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 Sama'ria? And what is the sin of the house of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make Sama'ria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards; and I will pour down her stones into the valley, and uncover her foundations.
7 All her images shall be beaten to pieces, all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste; for from the hire of a harlot she gathered them, and to the hire of a harlot they shall return.
8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.
9 For her wound is incurable; and it has come to Judah, it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
10 Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all; in Beth-le-aph'rah roll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Za'anan do not come forth; the wailing of Beth-e'zel shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, because evil has come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish; you were the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Mo'resheth-gath; the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring a conqueror upon you, inhabitants of Mare'shah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.
16 Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair, for the children of your delight; make yourselves as bald as the eagle, for they shall go from you into exile.

Micah 2
1 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil upon their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, against this family I am devising evil, from which you cannot remove your necks; and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time.
4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you, and wail with bitter lamentation, and say, "We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! Among our captors he divides our fields."
5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD.
6 "Do not preach" --thus they preach--"one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us."
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?
8 But you rise against my people as an enemy; you strip the robe from the peaceful, from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.
9 The women of my people you drive out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my glory for ever.
10 Arise and go, for this is no place to rest; because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, "I will preach to you of wine and strong drink," he would be the preacher for this people!
12 I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob, I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach will go up before them; they will break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king will pass on before them, the LORD at their head.

Micah 3
1 And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice? --
2 you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people, and their flesh from off their bones;
3 who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron.
4 Then they will cry to the LORD, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry "Peace" when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;
7 the seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
9 Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity,
10 who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong.
11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for hire, its prophets divine for money; yet they lean upon the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No evil shall come upon us."
12 Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.