¹ Set the trumpet to thy mouth. [He cometh] as an eagle against the house of Jehovah, because they have transgressed my covenant, and rebelled against my law.

² They shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee; [we], Israel.

³ Israel hath cast off good: the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴ They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not; of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

⁵ Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast [thee] off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will they be incapable of purity?

⁶ For from Israel is this also: -- a workman made it, and it is no God: for the calf of Samaria shall be [broken in] pieces.

⁷ For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; should it sprout, it would yield no meal; if so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it up.

⁸ Israel is swallowed up: now are they become among the nations as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

⁹ For they are gone up [to] Assyria [as] a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.

¹⁰ Although they hire among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall begin to be straitened under the burden of the king of princes.

¹¹ Because Ephraim hath multiplied altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.

¹² I have prescribed unto him the manifold things of my law: they are counted [as] a strange thing.

¹³ They sacrifice flesh [for] the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; Jehovah hath no delight in them. Now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴ For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

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, ye peoples, all of you; hearken, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple!

³ For behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.

⁴ And the mountains shall be melted under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, as waters poured down a steep place.

⁵ For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. Whence is the transgression of Jacob? is it not [from] Samaria? And whence are the high places of Judah? are they not [from] Jerusalem?

⁶ Therefore will I make Samaria as a heap of the field, as plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will lay bare the foundations thereof.

⁷ And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her harlot-gifts shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will I make a desolation; for of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered [them], and to a harlot's hire shall they return.

⁸ For this will I lament, and I will howl; I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.

⁹ For her wounds are incurable; for it is come even unto Judah, it reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

¹⁰ Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all; at Beth-le-aphrah roll thyself in the dust.

¹¹ Pass away, inhabitress of Shaphir, in nakedness [and] shame. The inhabitress of Zaanan is not come forth for the lamentation of Beth-ezel: he will take from you its shelter.

¹² For the inhabitress of Maroth waited anxiously for good; but evil hath come down from Jehovah unto the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³ Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitress of Lachish: she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for in thee were found the transgressions of Israel.

¹⁴ Therefore shalt thou give parting-gifts to Moresheth-Gath: the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵ I will yet bring unto thee an heir, O inhabitress of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam.

¹⁶ Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy delights; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, for they are gone into captivity from thee.