Micah 5-7

Micah 5

¹Now shalt thou gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

²But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

³Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

⁴And he shall stand, and shall feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God: and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

⁵And this man shall be our peace: when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

⁶And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our border.

⁷And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from the LORD, as showers upon the grass; that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

⁸And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

⁹Let thine hand be lifted up above thine adversaries, and let all thine enemies be cut off.

¹⁰And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots:

¹¹and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy strong holds:

¹²And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:

¹³and I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.

¹⁴and I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst of thee: and I will destroy thy cities.

¹⁵And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations which hearkened not.

Micah 6

¹Hear ye now what the LORD saith: Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

²Hear, O ye mountains, the LORD’S controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

³O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.

⁴For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

⁵O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; remember from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteous acts of the LORD.

⁶Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

⁷will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

⁹The voice of the LORD crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom will see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

¹⁰Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

¹¹Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

¹²For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

¹³Therefore I also have smitten thee with a grievous wound; I have made thee desolate because of thy sins.

¹⁴Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt remove, but shalt not carry away safe; and that which thou carriest away will I give up to the sword.

¹⁵Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap: thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not anoint thee with oil; and the vintage, but shalt not drink the wine.

¹⁶For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels: that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing; and ye shall bear the reproach of my people.

Micah 7

¹Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desireth the firstripe fig.

²The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

³Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the mischief of his soul: thus they weave it together.

⁴The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is worse than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity.

⁵Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

⁶For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

⁷But as for me, I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

⁸Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.

⁹I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him; until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

¹⁰Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her; which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? Mine eyes shall behold her; now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

¹¹A day for building thy walls! in that day shall the decree be far removed.

¹²In that day shall they come unto thee, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

¹³Yet shall the land be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily, in the forest in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

¹⁵As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvelous things.

¹⁶The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

¹⁷They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their close places: they shall come with fear unto the LORD our God, and shall be afraid because of thee.

¹⁸Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

¹⁹He will turn again and have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

²⁰Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.