1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

²Hear, you peoples, all of you,
    listen, earth and all who live in it,
that the Sovereign LORD may bear witness against you,
    the Lord from his holy temple.

Judgment Against Samaria and Jerusalem

³Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling place;
    he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.
⁴The mountains melt beneath him
    and the valleys split apart,
like wax before the fire,
    like water rushing down a slope.
⁵All this is because of Jacob’s transgression,
    because of the sins of the people of Israel.
What is Jacob’s transgression?
    Is it not Samaria?
What is Judah’s high place?
    Is it not Jerusalem?

⁶“Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble,
    a place for planting vineyards.
I will pour her stones into the valley
    and lay bare her foundations.
⁷All her idols will be broken to pieces;
    all her temple gifts will be burned with fire;
    I will destroy all her images.
Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes,
    as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used.”

Weeping and Mourning

⁸Because of this I will weep and wail;
    I will go about barefoot and naked.
I will howl like a jackal
    and moan like an owl.
⁹For Samaria’s plague is incurable;
    it has spread to Judah.
It has reached the very gate of my people,
    even to Jerusalem itself.
¹⁰Tell it not in Gath;
    weep not at all.
In Beth Ophrah
    roll in the dust.
¹¹Pass by naked and in shame,
    you who live in Shaphir.
Those who live in Zaanan
    will not come out.
Beth Ezel is in mourning;
    it no longer protects you.
¹²Those who live in Maroth writhe in pain,
    waiting for relief,
because disaster has come from the LORD,
    even to the gate of Jerusalem.
¹³You who live in Lachish,
    harness fast horses to the chariot.
You are where the sin of Daughter Zion began,
    for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
¹⁴Therefore you will give parting gifts
    to Moresheth Gath.
The town of Akzib will prove deceptive
    to the kings of Israel.
¹⁵I will bring a conqueror against you
    who live in Mareshah.
The nobles of Israel
    will flee to Adullam.
¹⁶Shave your head in mourning
    for the children in whom you delight;
make yourself as bald as the vulture,
    for they will go from you into exile

Human Plans and God’s Plans

2 Woe to those who plan iniquity,
    to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out
    because it is in their power to do it.
²They covet fields and seize them,
    and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes,
    they rob them of their inheritance.

³Therefore, the LORD says:

“I am planning disaster against this people,
    from which you cannot save yourselves.
You will no longer walk proudly,
    for it will be a time of calamity.
⁴In that day people will ridicule you;
    they will taunt you with this mournful song:
‘We are utterly ruined;
    my people’s possession is divided up.
He takes it from me!
    He assigns our fields to traitors.’”

⁵Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD
    to divide the land by lot.

False Prophets

⁶“Do not prophesy,” their prophets say.
    “Do not prophesy about these things;
    disgrace will not overtake us.”
⁷You descendants of Jacob, should it be said,
    “Does the LORD become impatient?
    Does he do such things?”

“Do not my words do good
    to the one whose ways are upright?
⁸Lately my people have risen up
    like an enemy.
You strip off the rich robe
    from those who pass by without a care,
    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.
¹⁰Get up, go away!
    For this is not your resting place,
because it is defiled,
    it is ruined, beyond all remedy.
¹¹If a liar and deceiver comes and says,
    ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’
    that would be just the prophet for this people!

Deliverance Promised

¹²“I will surely gather all of you, Jacob;
    I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel.
I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,
    like a flock in its pasture;
    the place will throng with people.
¹³The One who breaks open the way will go up before them;
    they will break through the gate and go out.
Their King will pass through before them,
    the LORD at their head.”

Leaders and Prophets Rebuked

3 Then I said,

“Listen, you leaders of Jacob,
    you rulers of Israel.
Should you not embrace justice,
²    you who hate good and love evil;
who tear the skin from my people
    and the flesh from their bones;
³who eat my people’s flesh,
    strip off their skin
    and break their bones in pieces;
who chop them up like meat for the pan,
    like flesh for the pot?”

⁴Then they will cry out to the LORD,
    but he will not answer them.
At that time he will hide his face from them
    because of the evil they have done.

⁵This is what the LORD says:

“As for the prophets
    who lead my people astray,
they proclaim ‘peace’
    if they have something to eat,
but prepare to wage war against anyone
    who refuses to feed them.
⁶Therefore night will come over you, without visions,
    and darkness, without divination.
The sun will set for the prophets,
    and the day will go dark for them.
⁷The seers will be ashamed
    and the diviners disgraced.
They will all cover their faces
    because there is no answer from God.”
⁸But 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,
    to Israel his sin.

⁹Hear this, you leaders of Jacob,
    you rulers of Israel,
who despise justice
    and distort all that is right;
¹⁰who build Zion with bloodshed,
    and Jerusalem with wickedness.
¹¹Her leaders judge for a bribe,
    her priests teach for a price,
    and her prophets tell fortunes for money.
Yet they look for the LORD’s support and say,
    “Is not the LORD among us?
    No disaster will come upon us.”
¹²Therefore because of you,
    Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
    the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.

The Mountain of the LORD

4 In the last days

the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established
    as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
    and peoples will stream to it.

²Many nations will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
    to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
    so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
    the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
³He will judge between many peoples
    and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.
⁴Everyone will sit under their own vine
    and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
    for the LORD Almighty has spoken.
⁵All the nations may walk
    in the name of their gods,
but we will walk in the name of the LORD
    our God for ever and ever.

The LORD’s Plan

⁶“In that day,” declares the LORD,

“I will gather the lame;
    I will assemble the exiles
    and those I have brought to grief.
⁷I will make the lame my remnant,
    those driven away a strong nation.
The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion
    from that day and forever.
⁸As for you, watchtower of the flock,
    stronghold of Daughter Zion,
the former dominion will be restored to you;
    kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.”

⁹Why do you now cry aloud—
    have you no king?
Has your ruler perished,
    that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?
¹⁰Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,
    like a woman in labor,
for now you must leave the city
    to camp in the open field.
You will go to Babylon;
    there you will be rescued.
There the LORD will redeem you
    out of the hand of your enemies.

¹¹But now many nations
    are gathered against you.
They say, “Let her be defiled,
    let our eyes gloat over Zion!”
¹²But they do not know
    the thoughts of the LORD;
they do not understand his plan,
    that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
¹³“Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion,
    for I will give you horns of iron;
I will give you hooves of bronze,
    and you will break to pieces many nations.”
You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the LORD,
    their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

The Seals

6 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”²I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

³When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”⁴Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

⁵When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.⁶Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

⁷When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!”⁸I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

⁹When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.¹⁰They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”¹¹Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

¹²I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,¹³and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.¹⁴The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.¹⁶They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!¹⁷For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

Psalm 134

134 Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD
    who minister by night in the house of the LORD.
²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
    and praise the LORD.

³May the LORD bless you from Zion,
    he who is the Maker of heaven and earth.

Sayings of Agur

30 The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh—an inspired utterance.

This man’s utterance to Ithiel:

“I am weary, God,
    but I can prevail.
²Surely I am only a brute, not a man;
    I do not have human understanding.
³I have not learned wisdom,
    nor have I attained to the knowledge of the Holy One.
⁴Who has gone up to heaven and come down?
    Whose hands have gathered up the wind?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak?
    Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is the name of his son?
    Surely you know!