Micah 1:1–9

¹This 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:

²Hear, 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.

³For behold, the LORD comes forth

from His dwelling place;

He will come down and tread

on the high places of the earth.

⁴The mountains will melt beneath Him,

and the valleys will split apart,

like wax before the fire,

like water rushing down a slope.

⁵All 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?

⁶Therefore 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.

⁷All 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.

⁸Because of this I will lament and wail;

I will walk barefoot and naked.

I will howl like a jackal^a

and mourn like an ostrich.^b

⁹For her wound is incurable;

it has reached even Judah;

it has approached the gate of my people,

as far as Jerusalem itself.