Micah

¹ Woe to those who devise iniquity

and plot evil on their beds!

At morning’s light they accomplish it

because the power is in their hands.

² They covet fields and seize them;

they take away houses.

They deprive a man of his home,

a fellow man of his inheritance.

³ Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“I am planning against this nation a disaster

from which you cannot free your necks.

Then you will not walk so proudly,

for it will be a time of calamity.

⁴ In that day they will take up a proverb against you

and taunt you with this bitter lamentation:

‘We are utterly ruined!

He has changed the portion of my people.

How He has removed it from me!

He has allotted our fields to traitors.’”

⁵ Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD

to divide the land by lot.

⁶ “Do not preach,” they preach.

“Do not preach these things;

disgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷ Should it be said, O house of Jacob,

“Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient?

Are these the things He does?”

Do not My words bring good

to him who walks uprightly?

⁸ But of late My people have risen up

like an enemy:

You strip off the splendid robe

from unsuspecting passersby

like men returning from battle.

⁹ You drive the women of My people

from their pleasant homes.

You take away My blessing

from their children forever.

¹⁰ Arise and depart,

for this is not your place of rest,

because its defilement brings destruction—

a grievous destruction!

¹¹ If a man of wind were to come

and say falsely,

“I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” ^[a]

he would be just the preacher for this people!

¹² I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob;

I will collect the remnant of Israel.

I will bring them together like sheep in a pen,

like a flock in the midst of its pasture—

a noisy throng.

¹³ One who breaks open the way

will go up before them;

they will break through the gate,

and go out by it.

Their King will pass through before them,

the LORD as their leader.