OET-RV MIC Chapter 1

2 Listen, all you peoples.

≈Let the world and everything in it pay attention.

Let my master Yahweh be against you as a witness,

my master from his sacred temple

3 because wow, Yahweh comes out of his place.

He will come down and tread on the high places[fn] of the earth.

4 The mountains will melt under him.

≈The valleys will break apart,

like wax that’s near a fire,

≈like waters that are poured out from a steep place.

5 All that is because of Yakob’s (Jacob’s) disobedience,

and because of the sins of the Israeli people.

What was Yakob’s transgression? Isn’t it Shomron?

What is Yehudah’s (Judah’s) high place? Isn’t it Yerushalem?

6 “I will make Shomron a heap of ruins in the countryside—

≈a place for planting vineyards.

Then I’ll pour the stones from her buildings down into the valley

≈and I’ll uncover her foundations.

7 All her carved statues will be smashed into pieces,

and all her wages will be burned with fire.

Yes, I’ll totally destroy all her idols.

Since she used prostitutes’ wages to pay for them,

≈the crushed pieces of idols will become prostitutes’ wages again.”

8 Because of that, I’ll mourn and wail.

I’ll go barefoot and undressed.

I’ll wail like the jackals

≈and mourn like owls

9 because her wound is incurable.

Yes, it’s come to Yehudah.

≈It’s reached the gate of my people—reached Jerusalem.

10 Don’t tell about it in Gat.

Don’t weep at all.

I roll myself in the dust at Beyt-Leafrah (the house of dust).

11 Pass by undressed and humiliated, inhabitants of Shafir.

≈Don’t come out, inhabitants of Tsa’anan.

Beyt-Haetsel mourns—its place to stand is taken from you

12 because the inhabitants of Marot wait anxiously for good,

because disaster has come down from Yahweh to Yerushalem’s gates.

13 Harness the chariot to the team of horses, inhabitants of Lakish.

She was the beginning of sin for the daughter of Tsiyyon (Zion),

because Israel’s transgressions were first found in you.

14 So you’ll give parting gifts to Moreshet-Gat.

The town of Akzib will deceive Israel’s kings.

15 I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah.

Israel’s best will come to Adullam.

16 Shave your head

≈and cut off your hair

for the children who you delight in.

Make yourselves as bald as eagles,

because they’ll be taken from you and into exile.