1. The Word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2. Hear, all you people; listen, O earth, and its fullness. And let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple.
3. For behold, Jehovah is coming out of His place, and will come down and walk on the high places of the earth.
4. And the mountains shall melt under Him, and the valleys shall tear themselves, as wax before the fire, and as waters poured down a steep place.
5. All this is for the transgression of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?
6. And I will make Samaria into ruins of the field, planting places for a vineyard; and I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will uncover her foundations.
7. And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her gifts shall be burned with the fire, and I will destroy all its idols. For she gathered it from the reward of a harlot, and they shall return to the reward of a harlot.
8. Therefore I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like jackals, mourn like the daughters of an ostrich.
9. For her wounds are not curable; for it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of My people, to Jerusalem.
10. Do not declare it in Gath; weep not at all; in the house of Leaphrah roll in the dust.
11. Pass over to them, O dweller of Shaphir, in nakedness of shame. The dweller of Zaanan has not gone out; the mourning of Beth-ezel shall take from you his standing.
12. For be grieved for good, the dweller of Maroth, for evil came down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.
13. O inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the stallion; she is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for the sins of Israel were found in you.
14. Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib are for a lying thing to the kings of Israel.
15. Yet I will bring an heir to you, O dweller of Mareshah. The glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.
16. Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair for the sons of your delight; make your baldness large like the eagle; for they go into exile from you.