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During the time that Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, the LORD gave this message to Micah, who was from the town of Moresheth. The LORD revealed to Micah all these things about Samaria and Jerusalem.
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Hear this, all you nations; listen to this, all who live on earth! The Sovereign LORD will testify against you. Listen! He speaks from his heavenly temple.
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The LORD is coming from his holy place; he will come down and walk on the tops of the mountains.
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Then the mountains will melt under him like wax in a fire; they will pour down into the valleys like water pouring down a hill.
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All this will happen because the people of Israel have sinned and rebelled against God. Who is to blame for Israel's rebellion? Samaria, the capital city itself ! Who is guilty of idolatry in Judah? Jerusalem itself !
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So the LORD says, "I will make Samaria a pile of ruins in the open country, a place for planting grapevines. I will pour the rubble of the city down into the valley, and will lay bare the city's foundations.
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All its precious idols will be smashed to pieces, everything given to its temple prostitutes will be destroyed by fire, and all its images will become a desolate heap. Samaria acquired these things for its fertility rites, and now her enemies will carry them off for temple prostitutes elsewhere."
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Then Micah said, "Because of this I will mourn and lament. To show my sorrow, I will walk around barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and wail like an ostrich.
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Samaria's wounds cannot be healed, and Judah is about to suffer in the same way; destruction has reached the gates of Jerusalem itself, where my people live."
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Don't tell our enemies in Gath about our defeat; don't let them see you weeping. People of Beth Leaphrah, show your despair by rolling in the dust!
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You people of Shaphir, go into exile, naked and ashamed. Those who live in Zaanan do not dare to come out of their city. When you hear the people of Bethezel mourn, you will know that there is no refuge there.
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The people of Maroth anxiously wait for relief, because the LORD has brought disaster close to Jerusalem.
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You that live in Lachish, hitch the horses to the chariots. You imitated the sins of Israel and so caused Jerusalem to sin.
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And now, people of Judah, say good-bye to the town of Moresheth Gath. The kings of Israel will get no help from the town of Achzib.
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People of Mareshah, the LORD will hand you over to an enemy, who is going to capture your town. The leaders of Israel will go and hide in the cave at Adullam.
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People of Judah, cut off your hair in mourning for the children you love. Make yourselves as bald as vultures, because your children will be taken away from you into exile.
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How terrible it will be for those who lie awake and plan evil! When morning comes, as soon as they have the chance, they do the evil they planned.
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When they want fields, they seize them; when they want houses, they take them. No one's family or property is safe.
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And so the LORD says, "I am planning to bring disaster on you, and you will not be able to escape it. You are going to find yourselves in trouble, and then you will not walk so proudly any more.
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When that time comes, people will use the story about you as an example of disaster, and they will sing this song of despair about your experience: We are completely ruined! The LORD has taken our land away And given it to those who took us captive."
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So then, when the time comes for the land to be given back to the LORD's people, there will be no share for any of you.
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The people preach at me and say, "Don't preach at us. Don't preach about all that. God is not going to disgrace us.
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Do you think the people of Israel are under a curse? Has the LORD lost his patience? Would he really do such things? Doesn't he speak kindly to those who do right?"
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The LORD replies, "You attack my people like enemies. Men return from battle, thinking they are safe at home, but there you are, waiting to steal the coats off their backs.
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You drive the women of my people out of the homes they love, and you have robbed their children of my blessings forever.
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Get up and go; there is no safety here any more. Your sins have doomed this place to destruction.
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"These people want the kind of prophet who goes around full of lies and deceit and says, 'I prophesy that wine and liquor will flow for you.'
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"But I will gather you together, all you people of Israel that are left. I will bring you together like sheep returning to the fold. Like a pasture full of sheep, your land will once again be filled with many people."
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God will open the way for them and lead them out of exile. They will break out of the city gates and go free. Their king, the LORD himself, will lead them out.
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Listen, you rulers of Israel! You are supposed to be concerned about justice,
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yet you hate what is good and you love what is evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh off their bones.
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You eat my people up. You strip off their skin, break their bones, and chop them up like meat for the pot.
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The time is coming when you will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer you. He will not listen to your prayers, for you have done evil.
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My people are deceived by prophets who promise peace to those who pay them, but threaten war for those who don't. To these prophets the LORD says,
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"Prophets, your day is almost over; the sun is going down on you. Because you mislead my people, you will have no more prophetic visions, and you will not be able to predict anything."
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Those who predict the future will be disgraced by their failure. They will all be humiliated because God does not answer them.
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But as for me, the LORD fills me with his spirit and power, and gives me a sense of justice and the courage to tell the people of Israel what their sins are.
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Listen to me, you rulers of Israel, you that hate justice and turn right into wrong.
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You are building God's city, Jerusalem, on a foundation of murder and injustice.
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The city's rulers govern for bribes, the priests interpret the Law for pay, the prophets give their revelations for money---and they all claim that the LORD is with them. "No harm will come to us," they say. "The LORD is with us."
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And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.
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In days to come the mountain where the Temple stands will be the highest one of all, towering above all the hills. Many nations will come streaming to it,
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and their people will say, "Let us go up the hill of the LORD, to the Temple of Israel's God. He will teach us what he wants us to do; we will walk in the paths he has chosen. For the LORD's teaching comes from Jerusalem; from Zion he speaks to his people."
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He will settle disputes among the nations, among the great powers near and far. They will hammer their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again.
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Everyone will live in peace among their own vineyards and fig trees, and no one will make them afraid. The LORD Almighty has promised this.
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Each nation worships and obeys its own god, but we will worship and obey the LORD our God forever and ever.
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"The time is coming," says the LORD, "when I will gather together the people I punished, those who have suffered in exile.
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They are crippled and far from home, but I will make a new beginning with those who are left, and they will become a great nation. I will rule over them on Mount Zion from that time on and forever."
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And you, Jerusalem, where God, like a shepherd from his lookout tower, watches over his people, will once again be the capital of the kingdom that was yours.
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Why do you cry out so loudly? Why are you suffering like a woman in labor? Is it because you have no king, and your counselors are dead?
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Twist and groan, people of Jerusalem, like a woman giving birth, for now you will have to leave the city and live in the open country. You will have to go to Babylon, but there the LORD will save you from your enemies.
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Many nations have gathered to attack you. They say, "Jerusalem must be destroyed! We will see this city in ruins!"
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But these nations do not know what is in the LORD's mind. They do not realize that they have been gathered together to be punished in the same way that grain is brought in to be threshed.
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The LORD says, "People of Jerusalem, go and punish your enemies! I will make you as strong as a bull with iron horns and bronze hoofs. You will crush many nations, and the wealth they got by violence you will present to me, the Lord of the whole world."
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Let us go forward, then, to mature teaching and leave behind us the first lessons of the Christian message. We should not lay again the foundation of turning away from useless works and believing in God;
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of the teaching about baptisms and the laying on of hands; of the resurrection of the dead and the eternal judgment.
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Let us go forward! And this is what we will do, if God allows.
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For how can those who abandon their faith be brought back to repent again? They were once in God's light; they tasted heaven's gift and received their share of the Holy Spirit;
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they knew from experience that God's word is good, and they had felt the powers of the coming age.
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And then they abandoned their faith! It is impossible to bring them back to repent again, because they are again crucifying the Son of God and exposing him to public shame.
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God blesses the soil which drinks in the rain that often falls on it and which grows plants that are useful to those for whom it is cultivated.
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But if it grows thorns and weeds, it is worth nothing; it is in danger of being cursed by God and will be destroyed by fire.
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But even if we speak like this, dear friends, we feel sure about you. We know that you have the better blessings that belong to your salvation.
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God is not unfair. He will not forget the work you did or the love you showed for him in the help you gave and are still giving to other Christians.
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Our great desire is that each of you keep up your eagerness to the end, so that the things you hope for will come true.
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We do not want you to become lazy, but to be like those who believe and are patient, and so receive what God has promised.
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When God made his promise to Abraham, he made a vow to do what he had promised. Since there was no one greater than himself, he used his own name when he made his vow.
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He said, "I promise you that I will bless you and give you many descendants."
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Abraham was patient, and so he received what God had promised.
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When we make a vow, we use the name of someone greater than ourselves, and the vow settles all arguments.
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To those who were to receive what he promised, God wanted to make it very clear that he would never change his purpose; so he added his vow to the promise.
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There are these two things, then, that cannot change and about which God cannot lie. So we who have found safety with him are greatly encouraged to hold firmly to the hope placed before us.
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We have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and sure, and goes through the curtain of the heavenly temple into the inner sanctuary.
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On our behalf Jesus has gone in there before us and has become a high priest forever, in the priestly order of Melchizedek.
