¹The word of the Lord , which came to Micah the Morashite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem.[#Isa 1:1]

²Hear, all you peoples!

Listen, earth and everything in it,

that the Sovereign Lord may be a witness against you,

the Lord from His holy temple.

Judgment Against Samaria and Jerusalem

³Behold, the Lord is coming out from His place,[#Isa 26:21]

so that He might come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.

⁴The mountains will melt beneath Him,[#Ps 97:5; Na 1:5]

and the valleys split apart

like wax before the fire,

like waters deluged down a slope.

⁵All this because of the transgression of Jacob

and because of 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 in the field[#Mic 3:12]

for the planting of vineyards.

I will dump her stones into the valley

and expose her foundations.

⁷All her idols will be shattered,

and her gifts burned with fire,

and I will annihilate her images,

because she gathered them as the wages of a prostitute,

and as the wages of a prostitute they will again be used.

The Lament of Micah

⁸Because of this I will lament and wail,

I will go about barefoot and naked;

I will howl like the jackals

and moan like owlets.

⁹For her wound is mortal,

for it has come to Judah;

it has extended to the gate of my people,

to Jerusalem.

¹⁰Do not tell it in Gath,[#2Sa 1:20]

do not weep at all;

in Beth Ophrah,

roll around in the dust.

¹¹Pass on your way,

inhabitants of Shaphir, naked and ashamed;

the inhabitants of Zaanan

have not come out.

The mourning of Beth Ezel

has taken from you its foothold.

¹²Indeed the inhabitants of Maroth

wait anxiously for good,

because calamity has come down from the Lord

to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the chariot to the steeds,

inhabitants of Lachish.

It was the beginning of sin

to the daughter of Zion,

because in you were found

the transgressions of Israel.

¹⁴Therefore you will give parting gifts

to Moresheth Gath;

the houses of Akzib will be deception

to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will again bring a conqueror to you,

inhabitants of Mareshah;

the glory of Israel

will come to Adullam.

¹⁶Make yourself bald and shave your head[#Isa 22:12]

for the children of your delight;

make yourself as bald as the eagle,

for they will go from you into exile.