Micah 2

¹Woe to those who devise wickedness

and work evil upon their beds!

When the morning dawns, they perform it,

because it is in the power of their hand.

²They covet fields, and seize them;

and houses, and take them away;

they oppress a man and his house,

a man and his inheritance.

³Therefore thus says the Lord:

Behold, against this family I am devising evil,

from which you cannot remove your necks;

and you shall not walk haughtily,

for it will be an evil time.

⁴In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you,

and wail with bitter lamentation,

and say, “We are utterly ruined;

he changes the portion of my people;

how he removes it from me!

Among our captors he divides our fields.”

⁵Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot

in the assembly of the Lord.

⁶“Do not preach”—thus they preach—

“one should not preach of such things;

disgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷Should this be said, O house of Jacob?

Is the Spirit of the Lord impatient?

Are these his doings?

Do not my words do good

to him who walks uprightly?

⁸But you rise against my people as an enemy;

you strip the robe from the peaceful,

from those who pass by trustingly

with no thought of war.

⁹The women of my people you drive out

from their pleasant houses;

from their young children you take away

my glory for ever.

¹⁰Arise and go,

for this is no place to rest;

because of uncleanness that destroys

with a grievous destruction.

¹¹If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,

saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”

he would be the preacher for this people!

¹²I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob,

I will gather the remnant of Israel;

I will set them together

like a sheep in a fold,

like a flock in its pasture,

a noisy multitude of men.

¹³He who opens the breach will go up before them;

they will break through and pass the gate,

going out by it.

Their king will pass on before them,

the Lord at their head.