1A word of YHWH that has been to Micah the Morashite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, that he has seen concerning Samaria and Jerusalem:

2Hear, O peoples, all of them! Attend, O earth, and its fullness, || And Lord YHWH is against you for a witness, || The Lord from His holy temple.

3For behold, YHWH is going out from His place, || And He has come down, || And has trodden on high places of earth.

4The mountains have been melted under Him, || And the valleys split themselves, || As wax from the presence of fire, || As waters cast down by a slope.

5For the transgression of Jacob [is] all this, || And for the sins of the house of Israel. What [is] the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what the high places of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?

6“And I have set Samaria for a heap of the field, || For plantations of a vineyard, || And poured out into a valley her stones, || And her foundations I uncover.

7And all her carved images are beaten down, || And all her wages are burned with fire, || And all her idols I make a desolation, || For from the wage of a harlot she gathered, and to the wage of a harlot they return.”

8For this I lament and howl, || I go spoiled and naked, || I make a lamentation like dragons, || And a mourning like daughters of an ostrich.

9For mortal [are] her wounds, || For it has come to Judah, || It has come to a gate of My people—to Jerusalem.

10In Gath do not tell—in Acco do not weep, || In Beth-Aphrah, roll yourself in dust.

11Pass over for you, O inhabitant of Shaphir, || Naked one of shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan has not gone out, || The lamentation of Beth-Ezel takes from you its standing.

12For the inhabitant of Maroth has stayed for good, || For calamity has come down from YHWH to the gate of Jerusalem.

13Bind the chariot to a swift beast, O inhabitant of Lachish, || The beginning of sin [is] she to the daughter of Zion, || For in you have been found the transgressions of Israel.

14Therefore you give presents to Moresheth-Gath, || The houses of Achzib become a lying thing to the kings of Israel.

15Yet I bring the possessor to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah, || The glory of Israel comes to Adullam.

16Make bald and shave, for your delightful sons, || Enlarge your baldness as an eagle, || For they have removed from you!