1 The word of Yahweh that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2 Hear, you{+} peoples, all of you{+}: listen, O earth, and all that is in it: and let the Sovereign Yahweh be witness against you{+}, the Lord from his holy temple.
3 For, look, Yahweh comes forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread on the high places of the earth.
4 And the mountains will be melted under him, and the valleys will be split, as wax before the fire, as waters that are poured down a steep place.
5 For 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 are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, [and] as places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will uncover her foundations.
7 And all her graven images will be beaten to pieces, and all her wages will be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay desolate; for of the wages of a prostitute she has gathered them, and to the wages of a prostitute they will return.
8 For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals, and a lamentation like the ostriches.
9 For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah; it reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
10 Don't tell it in Gath, don't weep at all: at Beth-le-aphrah I have rolled myself in the dust.
11 Pass by, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame: the inhabitant of Zaanan has not come forth; the wailing of Beth-ezel will take from you{+} its standing ground.
12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from Yahweh to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish: she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.
14 Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath: the houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.
15 I will yet bring to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him who will possess you: the glory of Israel will come even to Adullam.
16 Make yourself bald, and cut off your hair for the sons of your delight: enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they have gone into captivity from you.