Yahweh will punish those who oppress the poor

2 Terrible things will happen to you who lie awake in bed at night

planning how to do evil things.

You get up at dawn and you do those things,

simply because you are able to do them.

2 You want fields that belong to other people,

so you forcefully take them;

you want their houses, so you steal them.

You cheat people and take away their property, including what their families have owned for generations.

3 So this is what Yahweh says:

“Listen to me! I am planning to destroy you people,

and you will not be able to escape from it.

You will no longer be able to act proudly,

because you will be experiencing terrible things.

4 At that time, your enemies will mock you

by singing this very sad song about you:

‘Yahweh has completely destroyed us Israelites!

Yahweh is taking the portions of land away from us that he had given to us!

We are extremely distressed because he is giving our fields to our enemies!’ ”

5 So when Yahweh’s people return to divide up the land again,

no one from your families will be there to receive any of it.

6 False prophets who hear me say this prophesy to me,

“Do not prophesy!”

They do not prophesy about these things, therefore Yahweh will certainly dishonor them.

7 You descendants of Jacob should not say such things as,

“Yahweh does not become impatient.”

Or, “These are not the kinds of things that he does.”

What I say certainly helps those who do what is right.

8 However, Yahweh says,

“Recently my people have turned against me and become my enemies.

When people pass by feeling safe,

like soldiers returning from battle to their own people,

you strip the fine outer garments right off their fronts.

9 You force the women among my people out of the homes that they love,

and you take away from their children forever

the good things that I wanted to give them.

10 So get up and leave!

This land is no longer a place where you can live.

You have made it unacceptable to me by your sins,

so I will destroy it in a way that is severe.”

11 If someone who speaks nothing but lies were to say,

“I will preach that you should drink wine and beer!”

that is the kind of prophet you people would accept.

12 “However, some day I will certainly gather all of you descendants of Jacob.

I will certainly bring together the Israelite people who survive.

I will bring them together in one place, as a shepherd gathers a flock of sheep into a good pasture.

They will make a lot of noise because there will be very many of them.

13 I will send someone who will open the way in front of them, and they will follow behind him, going out through the gate.

Their king will go before them,

and I, Yahweh, will be the one leading them.”

3 Then I said,

“You leaders of the people of Jacob

and you rulers of the people of Israel, listen to me!

You are the ones who should know all about how to treat people fairly.

2 Yet you hate what is right and love what is evil!

You violently rob my people

as though you are stripping off their skin and flesh.

3 You greedily strip my people of everything that they have

as though you are a butcher who strips off their skin,

breaks their bones,

chops them up,

puts them into a cooking pot,

and eats them.”

4 Someday, when bad things happen to those leaders, they will call out for Yahweh to help them,

but he will not help them.

He will be as diligent to ignore them at that time,

as they were to do evil deeds.

5 This is what Yahweh says,

“This is about the prophets who are misleading my people.

They prophesy good things for anyone giving them something to eat.

However, they declare holy war against anyone who does not give them food.

6 Because of that, it will be as though it is always night for you prophets because you will no longer be able to see visions,

and you will no longer be able to practice divination.

Yes, it will be as though the sun has set for you prophets even during the day,

because I will show you nothing.

7 Those who claim to see the future will feel ashamed,

and those who practice divination will feel disgraced.

They will all cover their faces to express how ashamed they are,

because God will not answer them.

8 But as for me, Yahweh’s Spirit greatly empowers me

to do what is right and to be strong

so that I can tell the people of Jacob how they have rebelled against God

and tell the people of Israel how they have sinned.

9 You leaders of the people of Jacob

and you rulers of the people of Israel, listen to this!

You are the ones who hate it when people do what is right,

and when people say what is true, you change it into something false.

10 You are getting the wealth to build up Jerusalem

by murdering people and treating people unjustly.

11 The city’s leaders decide cases favorably only for those who give them bribes.

The city’s priests teach only when people pay them well.

The city’s prophets require people to pay them money in order to tell them what they think will happen to them.

Yet those same leaders trust in Yahweh and say,

“Yahweh is among us,

so nothing bad will happen to us.”

12 So, because of what you leaders are doing,

enemies will make Mount Zion look like a field that a farmer has plowed.

Jerusalem will become a pile of rubble,

and the temple hill will become an overgrown forest.

Yahweh will rule over all peoples in the future

4 But Yahweh says that in the latter days,

the mountain where his temple stands will become the most important of all the mountains.

Yes, Yahweh will cause it to be the most important place,

and a lot of people from many different people groups will come there to worship.

2 People from many nations will gather and say to each other,

“Let us go to the mountain where Yahweh is,

to the temple where we can worship the God whom Jacob worshiped.

There God will teach us how he wants us to live,

and we will do what he tells us to do.”

Indeed, Zion is the place from which God will send out his instructions,

and from Jerusalem Yahweh will announce his messages.

3 Yahweh will settle disputes among many peoples

and will make decisions for powerful nations that are far away.

Then those peoples will reshape their implements of war

into implements for farming.

Armies of nations will no longer fight against armies of other nations,

and people will no longer train to be soldiers.

4 Everyone will sit peacefully under his own grapevines, and under his own fig trees,

and no one will cause any of them to be afraid.

That will certainly happen because Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, has commanded it.

5 Even though each one of all of the other people groups obeys its own god,

as for us, we will obey Yahweh our God forever.

6 Yahweh says, “At that time

I will gather the people who are injured and those who are scattered,

that is, everyone whom I have caused to suffer.

7 I will cause the injured ones to be the faithful survivors of my people

and I will cause all of those whom I drove away to become a mighty nation.

Then I, Yahweh, will rule over them on Mount Zion,

now and forever.

8 You people of Zion, who are like a watchtower on the hill guarding my people,

you will receive your former authority again.

Jerusalem will once again be the capitol of my kingdom.”

9 But now you are crying out,

and it is not because you have no king,

or because your advisors have all died.

You act as though you are suffering greatly, as much as a woman who is birthing a child!

10 People of Zion, you should agonize and wail like a woman birthing a child,

because now you must leave this city

and live out in the open fields.

You will go all the way to Babylon.

However, while you are there,

Yahweh will rescue you.

That is where he will take you away from your enemies.

11 But now the armies of many nations have gathered to attack you.

They are saying, “We are here to destroy this city!

We want to see the ruins of Zion!”

12 But as for them, they do not know what Yahweh is thinking.

They do not understand that this is what he has planned for them.

In fact, he has gathered them together to destroy them,

just as a farmer gathers grain onto a threshing floor to crush it.

13 So you people of Zion, become active and defeat your enemies!

You can do this because I will cause you to be very strong.

So destroy these many peoples

and give to me, Yahweh, the Ruler of the whole earth,

everything valuable that your enemies possess.

5 Now, people of Jerusalem, gather yourselves into a troop!

Even though you have a wall to protect your city, enemy soldiers have surrounded it.

They are here to overpower and humiliate the ruler of Israel.

2 However, I have something to say about Bethlehem in the region of Ephrathah.

Even though the clan that lives there is the smallest of the clans of Judah,

someone who will rule Israel for me will come from that town.

He has been active since ancient times, from eternity.

3 So God will allow Israel’s enemies to conquer them,

until the time when she who will bear gives birth.

Then the rest of those who, with him, are part of Israel

will rejoin their fellow Israelites.

4 Yahweh will strengthen him to rule and to care for his people

as majestically and authoritatively as if Yahweh, his God, were doing those things himself.

His people will live safely,

because, at that time, people all over the earth will honor him.

5 He will cause his people to prosper.

When the army of Assyria attacks our land

and breaks through our fortresses,

we will appoint many leaders

to lead our army to fight against them.

6 They will lead our army to rule the land of Assyria, that is, the territory that Nimrod founded long ago. The ruler will rescue us from the Assyrians when they cross our borders to invade our land. 7 Then the descendants of Jacob who have survived will live among many other peoples. They will be a blessing for those peoples, just as the dew and the rain are that Yahweh sends for the grass. They will depend on Yahweh to sustain them just as the grass does, and not on other people. 8 Yes, the descendants of Jacob who have survived will be in other nations, living among many other peoples. But they will be powerful, like a lion is among the other animals. If they need to do so, they can easily defeat those peoples, just as a young lion pounces on sheep and tears them apart, and no one can rescue them. 9 Yahweh, we want you to powerfully defeat all of your enemies and to destroy them completely! 10 Yahweh declares, “At that time,

I will take away your war horses

and I will destroy your chariots.

11 I will tear down the cities in your land

and I will destroy all of your fortresses.

12 I will stop you from practicing witchcraft and

there will be no more fortune tellers among you

. 13 I will take away your idols and your sacred stone pillars,

and then you will no longer worship things that you yourselves have made.

14 I will remove the poles that you use to worship the goddess Asherah,

and I will destroy your cities.

15 Because I am very angry,

I will severely punish the people of the nations that have not obeyed me.”

Yahweh accuses his people

6 Listen, everyone, because Yahweh has something to say:

“Micah, stand up and present my case,

and let the mountains and the hills be witnesses to what you say.”

2 You mountains, listen as Yahweh contends against his people.

You enduring foundations of the earth, pay attention,

because Yahweh is bringing charges against

his people;

he is arguing his case against Israel:

3 Yahweh says,“My people, you act as though I have harmed you!

You treat me as though I have made things difficult for you!

If you can accuse me of anything, then do it now!

4 Instead of doing bad things,

I brought

your ancestors out of Egypt,

rescuing them from the place where they had lived as slaves.

I sent Moses to lead them,

along with his older brother Aaron and his older sister Miriam.

5 My people, remember when Balak, the king of Moab, wanted to conspire with Balaam son of Beor to curse your ancestors,

and think about how Balaam answered him.

Remember what happened as your ancestors traveled from Shittim to Gilgal,

so that you may recognize that I, Yahweh, have always done the right things for you.”

6 An Israelite asks, “What should I bring when I come to Yahweh, the God who lives in the highest heaven,

and bow down before him?

Should I bring offerings to burn;

should I bring one-year-old calves as sacrifices?

7 Will Yahweh accept thousands of rams

or vast quantities of olive oil?

Should I sacrifice my firstborn child to pay for my sin?

Can a sacrifice from my physical body compensate for my spiritual sin?”

8 No! Yahweh has already told you, human person, what is good

and that he wants from you only this:

He wants you to do what is just, to love being faithful to others,

and to conduct yourself humbly as you live before your God.

The people of Israel are guilty and Yahweh must punish them

9 Yahweh is calling out a message to the city of Jerusalem.

(Truly wise people revere you, Yahweh.)

Listen carefully, you tribe of Israel and all leaders that Yahweh has appointed!

10 It disgusts me that wicked people still have wealth in their houses

that they got by cheating others and

that they use measures that are smaller than they should be.

This is something that I have cursed.

11 No one is innocent who uses dishonest scales

or a bag of deceptive weights.

12 The rich people in this city always act violently to others.

All of the people who live here tell lies.

Yes, they always speak deceitfully.

13 For my part, I will attack you severely.

I will ruin you because of your sins.

14 As for you, you will eat food, but it will not satisfy you

because it will rush right through you.

You will try to save people,

but you will not be able to rescue anyone

and even if you do rescue a few, I will allow enemies to kill them.

15 As for you, you will plant crops,

but you will not harvest them.

As for you, you will press olives,

but you will not get to use the olive oil.

Yes, also with the wine—you will crush grapes,

but you will not get to drink any of it.

16 These things will happen because you follow the wicked laws that King Omri established

and do all of the evil things that King Ahab and his descendants practiced.

You have lived according to what they advised,

so I will destroy your city

and cause people of other nations to scorn everyone who lives there.

Other peoples will detest you, because that is what my people deserve.”

Micah laments but trusts in Yahweh

7 I am very miserable!

It is because I am very frustrated like someone who looks for fruit to pick

after everyone else has already picked all of the summer fruit and harvested all of the grapes.

I am like someone who cannot find a single cluster of grapes to eat

or an early fig, which he longs for.

2 I am looking for faithful people, but all of them have disappeared from the land,

and there are no longer any honest people among us.

All of the people who remain are eager to kill others;

each person tries to find ways to exploit his fellow citizens.

3 They are energetic and skillful in doing evil things.

Government officials and judges demand bribes.

Powerful people tell others what they want for themselves,

and they all plot together to get it done.

4 Even the best people among them are harmful,

and even those who seem the most honest cause people pain.

The day that the prophets foretold,

the day when God will punish those who do evil things, is coming soon.

This is when they will panic.

5 So, do not trust anyone, not even a neighbor or a friend.

Be careful what you say

even to your own wife!

6 Indeed, even sons treat their fathers contemptuously,

and daughters defy their mothers.

Daughters-in-law defy their mothers-in-law.

A person’s enemies are the people who live in his own household.

7 But as for me, I will watch to see what Yahweh will do to help me.

I intend to wait confidently for God, who saves me.

The God whom I worship will listen when I call to him.

Yahweh will rescue his people

8 You who are our enemies,

do not celebrate over what has happened to us,

because even though you have defeated us, we will recover.

Even though it looks like everything is bad for us,

Yahweh will take care of us.

9 We will patiently endure whatever Yahweh does to punish us,

because we have sinned against him.

Eventually he will defend us and

make things right for us.

He will change everything bad around us to good,

and we will see that he always does what is right.

10 I want my enemies to see the same thing, and then everyone will completely despise them.

They are the ones who mocked me by saying,

“Yahweh your God is not helping you at all!”

But at that time I will watch as people destroy the homes of my enemies,

making them just like the mud in the streets.

11 People of Zion, the day is coming when you will rebuild your walls!

On that day, your city will extend far beyond its present boundaries.

12 On that day people will come to you

from everywhere. The places they will come from will be from Assyria to Egypt,

and from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River,

from one sea to another and from every mountain.

13 In contrast the rest of the earth will become an empty wasteland

because of the evil things its people have done.

Micah prays and Yahweh answers

14 Yahweh, protect and guide your people, as a shepherd does for his sheep!

They are the people whom you have chosen to belong to you.

They are like sheep that live apart from others in a wooded area of Mount Carmel,

but give them the rich pasturelands

of the Bashan and Gilead regions

that they enjoyed long ago.

15 Yahweh says,

“Yes, just as I did long ago when I rescued your ancestors from Egypt,

I will do amazing things for you.”

16 People from many nations will see what Yahweh does for his people,

and what they see will humiliate them

because they thought that they were powerful, but they are not.

They will be so amazed that they will be unable to say

or hear anything.

17 They will grovel on the ground like a snake, like an insect in the dirt.

They will be so afraid that they will come trembling from their fortresses.

They will be very afraid as they approach Yahweh, the God whom we worship.

They will be afraid because of you, Yahweh.

18 Yahweh, no other God is like you!

You forgive the sins of the people who have

remained faithful to you, those who belong to you.

You do not stay angry forever

because you are the one who delights in faithfully loving us.

19 You will be merciful to us once again.

You will completely forgive all of our sins,

as though you are throwing them into the deepest part of the ocean.

20 You will show the descendants of Jacob that you are trustworthy,

and you will faithfully love the descendants of Abraham,

just as you solemnly promised to our ancestors

long ago.