Micah 2:1–11

¹Woe to those who devise iniquity

and plot evil on their beds!

At morning’s light they accomplish it

because the power is in their hands.

²They covet fields and seize them;

they take away houses.

They deprive a man of his home,

a fellow man of his inheritance.

³Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“I am planning against this nation a disaster

from which you cannot free your necks.

Then you will not walk so proudly,

for it will be a time of calamity.

⁴In that day they will take up a proverb against you

and taunt you with this bitter lamentation:

‘We are utterly ruined!

He has changed the portion of my people.

How He has removed it from me!

He has allotted our fields to traitors.’”

⁵Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD

to divide the land by lot.

⁶“Do not preach,” they preach.

“Do not preach these things;

disgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷Should it be said, O house of Jacob,

“Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient?

Are these the things He does?”

Do not My words bring good

to him who walks uprightly?

⁸But of late My people have risen up

like an enemy:

You strip off the splendid robe

from unsuspecting passersby

like men returning from battle.

⁹You drive the women of My people

from their pleasant homes.

You take away My blessing

from their children forever.

¹⁰Arise and depart,

for this is not your place of rest,

because its defilement brings destruction—

a grievous destruction!

¹¹If a man of wind were to come

and say falsely,

“I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”^a

he would be just the preacher for this people!