¹ The word of the Lord which came to Micah the Morashtite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah: his vision about Samaria and Jerusalem.

² Give ear, you peoples, all of you; give attention, O earth and everything in it: let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy Temple.

³ For see, the Lord is coming out from his place, and will come down, stepping on the high places of the earth.

⁴ And the mountains will be turned to water under him, and the deep valleys will be broken open, like wax before the fire, like waters flowing down a slope.

⁵ All this is because of the wrongdoing of Jacob and the sins of the children of Israel. What is the wrongdoing of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

⁶ So I will make Samaria into a field and the plantings of a vine-garden: I will send its stones falling down into the valley, uncovering its bases.

⁷ And all her pictured images will be hammered into bits, and all the payments for her loose ways will be burned with fire, and all the images of her gods I will make waste: for with the price of a loose woman she got them together, and as the price of a loose woman will they be given back.

⁸ For this I will be full of sorrow and give cries of grief; I will go uncovered and unclothed: I will give cries of grief like the jackals and will be in sorrow like the ostriches.

⁹ For her wounds may not be made well: for it has come even to Judah, stretching up to the doorway of my people, even to Jerusalem.

¹⁰ Give no word of it in Gath, let there be no weeping at all: at Beth-le-aphrah be rolling in the dust.

¹¹ Be uncovered and go away, you who are living in Shaphir: the one living in Zaanan has not come out of her town; Beth-ezel is taken away from its base, even from its resting-place.

¹² For the one living in Maroth is waiting for good: for evil has come down from the Lord to the doorways of Jerusalem.

¹³ Let the war-carriage be yoked to the quick-running horse, you who are living in Lachish: she was the first cause of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the wrongdoings of Israel were seen in you.

¹⁴ For this cause give a parting offering to Moresheth-gath: the daughter of Achzib will be a deceit to the king of Israel.

¹⁵ Even now will the taker of your heritage come to you, you who are living in Mareshah: the glory of Israel will come to destruction for ever.

¹⁶ Let your head be uncovered and your hair cut off in sorrow for the children of your delight: let the hair be pulled from your head like an eagle's; for they have been taken away from you as prisoners.

¹ Moreover the Spirit lifted me up, and brought me to the east gate of Yahweh's house, which looks eastward: and see, at the door of the gate twenty-five men; and I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people.

² He said to me, Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity, and who give wicked counsel in this city;

³ who say, [The time] is not near to build houses: this [city] is the caldron, and we are the flesh.

⁴ Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy, son of man.

⁵ The Spirit of Yahweh fell on me, and he said to me, Speak, Thus says Yahweh: Thus you have said, house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.

⁶ You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled its streets with the slain.

⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Your slain whom you have laid in its midst, they are the flesh, and this [city] is the caldron; but you shall be brought forth out of its midst.

⁸ You have feared the sword; and I will bring the sword on you, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁹ I will bring you forth out of its midst, and deliver you into the hands of strangers, and will execute judgments among you.

¹⁰ You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

¹¹ This [city] shall not be your caldron, neither shall you be the flesh in its midst; I will judge you in the border of Israel;

¹² and you shall know that I am Yahweh: for you have not walked in my statutes, neither have you executed my ordinances, but have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you.

¹³ It happened, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down on my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said, Ah Lord Yahweh! will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?

¹⁴ The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹⁵ Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, [are they] to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Go far away from Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession.

¹⁶ Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they are come.

¹⁷ Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

¹⁸ They shall come there, and they shall take away all the detestable things of it and all its abominations from there.

¹⁹ I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;

²⁰ that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

²¹ But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads, says the Lord Yahweh.

²² Then did the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.

²³ The glory of Yahweh went up from the midst of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city.

²⁴ The Spirit lifted me up, and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.

²⁵ Then I spoke to them of the captivity all the things that Yahweh had shown me.