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God will destroy the city of Samaria
1 These are the messages that the Lord gave to Micah.[a] Then Micah told them to the people during the times that Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah ruled the country called Judah. Micah was born in a small town called Moresheth. God showed Micah about what would happen to the cities called Samaria and Jerusalem.[b]
2 Listen, all of you people everywhere!
Hear this, everyone who lives on the earth!
The Lord God will speak against you.
You have done what is wrong. That is why he will speak against you.
He will speak from his special house.
3 Look! The Lord is leaving his place and he is coming down to the earth.
He will come to the high places (where you worship false gods).
He will destroy those places when he comes.
4 The mountains will melt when he comes,
like wax melts near a fire.
The valleys will also break into pieces.
They will move like water when it rushes down a hill.
5 All these bad things will happen because Jacob's people have refused to obey God.
These things will happen because Israel's people have done wrong things.
You may ask who has caused this.
It is the leaders in your capital cities, Samaria and Jerusalem.
They have kept the high places there for people to offer gifts to false gods.
6 So God says to you:
‘I will destroy Samaria so that just a few stones are lying in the fields there.[c]
Then people will plant vines in that place.[d]
I will throw the stones from the city down into the valley,
when I completely destroy all the buildings.
7 I will break all the false gods into pieces and I will destroy them.
I will burn all the gifts that the people brought for those false gods.
The people have paid so that they could have sex with bad women in those places.
Your enemies will come and they will take away this money.
They will give it to their gods in the same way.’
Micah is sad for the people in Israel and Judah
8 Because of what God has said, I will cry aloud. And I will weep.
I will walk about without shoes or clothes.
I will scream like a wild dog,
and I will cry like a bird in the night.
9 Because Samaria has such bad wounds it can never get well.
And the same will happen also to Judah's people.
The enemies have already reached the gates of my people, that is, Jerusalem itself.
10 Do not talk about this in the city of Gath.
Do not even weep there.
But you people at Beth-Leaphrah,
roll on the ground to show how sad you are.
11 You people who live in Shaphir, go on your way.
Your enemies will not let you wear any clothes while they take you away.
So you will be ashamed.
The people who live in Zaanan will be afraid to leave their city.
The people at Beth-Ezel will cry because nobody comes to help them.
12 The people at Maroth are in pain while they wait.
They were waiting and hoping for something good.
But the Lord sent only something bad.
He brought trouble even to the gates of Jerusalem.
13 You people who live in Lachish, get your chariots and horses ready to go!
You were the first people in Judah to do what is wrong.
You are exactly like Israel's people, because, like them, you refused to obey God.
14 You will need to give gifts to the people in Moresheth Gath,
because they must go away.
The houses in Akzib town will disappoint the kings of Israel.[e]
15 People in Mareshah, I (God) will bring an army against you,
to fight your town. And it will win.
And Israel's leaders will need to hide at Adullam.[f]
16 People in Judah, cut off all your hair.[g]
Make yourselves bald like vultures,[h]
because you will be very sad.
Your enemies will take your children away.
They will take your children, whom you love so much, away to another country!
God says that bad things will happen to the bad people
2 Micah continues:
People who prepare to do bad things should be afraid.
God will do bad things to them!
While they lie in bed, they think about bad things to do.
Then, when the morning comes, they do those bad things.
They have the authority to do whatever they want to do.
2 When they want fields, they take them from other people.
When they want houses, they take them.
These cruel people take other people's homes and fields;
then those people's families have nothing.
3 So the Lord says this to them:
‘I am against you.
You cannot save yourselves.
I will prepare trouble for you.
Then you will stop thinking that you are so very clever and important.
It will be a time of much trouble for you.
4 At that time, your enemies will laugh at you.
They will sing this sad song against you:
“God has completely destroyed us!
We no longer have any fields, because God has taken them away from us.
He has given them to our enemies, who have turned away from what is right.”
5 So, when the Lord's people measure the land again to give fields to everyone,
you will get none.[i]
You will have nobody to speak on your behalf.’
False prophets
6 The people say to me, ‘Do not prophesy against us![j]
Do not say that we will have trouble.
God will not make us ashamed!’
7 You should not talk like that, you who are descendants of Jacob.
Do you think that the Lord's Spirit will always be patient with you?
If you agree to do what is right, then you will accept that my message is good.
8 The Lord says:
‘You have become like enemies among my people.
You rob people of their coats when they pass by.
Even men who thought that they were safe now.
You even rob men who are returning home from war.
9 You rob the women among my people too.
You take away their happy homes.
So you take away what I want their children to enjoy.
10 Get up and go away!
You cannot remain in this place because you have made it bad.
It is so bad that it will completely destroy you.
11 When a person speaks false messages to you, then you believe them.
They might say that you would have plenty of wine and strong drink.
That is the message that you would like!’[k]
God promises to bring his people back together
12 ‘You people of Israel, I promise to bring all of you together.
I will bring back together all Israel's people who remain.
I will put all of you together like sheep in a field with a wall round it.
You will be like a field full of sheep.
There will be a loud noise because there will be so many of you.
13 The person who breaks open the way will go in front of you.
Then you will go out through the gate.
I am the Lord, your king, and I will lead you out.’
Micah speaks against the bad leaders of Israel
3 Then I spoke to the leaders:
Listen to me, I said.
You are the leaders of Jacob's people,
you are the rulers of Israel.
You ought to know what is right or wrong.
2 But you hate what is good.
And you love what is bad.
You would like to tear the skin off my people,
and pull the meat from their bones.
3 You look at my people and you are like butchers.
They strip the skin off an animal and they break its bones.
Then they cut the meat into pieces and they cook it in a pot.
They are happy when they eat the meat.
4 One day you will shout to the Lord for help,
but he will not answer you.
Instead, God will turn away from you at that time,
because you have done those bad things.
5 The Lord says this: ‘It will be very bad for the prophets who tell false messages. They lead my people the wrong way with false promises. If people give food to them, then they are happy. So they promise that there will be no war. But, if people do not feed them, they become angry. They promise that war will come.
6 Because of that, it will become like night for you.
I will not show you my messages.
You will no longer see what will happen in future times.
The sun will go down over you prophets,
and the day will become dark for you.
7 Then you prophets will be ashamed.
You who tell what will happen in future times will be confused.
You will hide your faces in shame because you have no message from me.’
8 But the Spirit of the Lord fills me, to make me powerful.
He helps me to know what is right and fair.
He makes me brave so that I can speak to you, Jacob's people.
I can tell you what you have done wrong.
You are Israel's people,
but you have not obeyed God.[l]
9 So listen to this, you leaders of Jacob's people.
You are Israel's rulers.
But you never do what is right and fair.
You take what is good.
And you make it seem bad.
10 You rule Zion city, which is Jerusalem.
But you are cruel, and you kill honest people.[m]
11 You are the city's rulers, but you accept bribes.
Then you do not judge people in a fair way.
You priests teach people only if they pay you.[n]
You prophets speak about what will happen in future times.
But you only speak if you receive money.
But you still say that you trust the Lord.
You say, ‘The Lord is with us, so nothing bad will happen to us.’
12 Because of how you live, Zion will be like a field that a farmer has dug.
Jerusalem will become a heap of stones.
Trees will cover the hill where the temple is now.[o]
God's mountain
4 In the last days,
the mountain where the Lord's house is will be the highest mountain.
It will be the most important of all the mountains.
It will be higher than the hills,
and people from many countries will go to it.
2 Many people will speak about it.
‘Come! We will go up to the Lord's mountain,’ they will say.
‘We will go to the Lord's house because he is the God of Jacob's people.
He will teach us what he wants us to do.
He will show us the right way; so then we will be able to obey him.
The Lord will speak his rules from Zion.
He will send out his message from Jerusalem.’
3 He will judge between the people of many nations
When they argue together, he will decide who is right.
He will cause strong nations everywhere to stop fighting each other.
They fight with swords and spears.[p]
But at that time, they will make their swords into ploughs.
They will make their spears into knives to cut their vines.
Nations will no longer need weapons to fight each other.
They will never prepare to fight wars again.
4 Everyone will sit under his own vine and his own fig tree.[q]
Nobody will make them afraid any longer.[r]
The Lord Almighty has promised this.
5 People from other countries may be the servants of other gods.
But we will be servants of the Lord our God.
We will obey him always.
God will make Israel and Jerusalem strong again
6 The Lord speaks again:
‘At that time I will bring together the people who cannot walk well.
I will bring back the people that I sent away.
I caused trouble for those people,
but I will bring them back together.
7 I will make a new beginning with those people who cannot walk well.
Together with some of those people that I sent far away,
I will make them my own special people.
They will be strong,
and I will rule over them from Mount Zion.
I will be their king from that time and always.
8 And as for Jerusalem,
it was a strong, safe place for Zion's people.
It was like a tall building,
from which a man can watch over his sheep.
Then it will again be a place where a king rules with great authority.’
9 You people in Jerusalem,
you are crying aloud like people who have no king.
You cry like people who have no wise leader.[s]
You have bad pains like a woman who is giving birth to a baby.
10 People in Zion, you will have a lot of pain,
like a woman who is giving birth to a baby.
She rolls about and she screams with pain.
Soon you will have to leave your city and you will have to live in the fields.
You will have to go to Babylon,
but there the Lord will save you.
He will make you free again from the authority of your enemies.
11 But now, at this time, many countries have come together to attack your city.
They say: ‘We will destroy Jerusalem and we will enjoy ourselves.
We want to see Zion's people in trouble.’
12 But they do not know the Lord's thoughts.
They do not understand how he will punish them.
He will bring them together,
as people bring bundles of wheat together at harvest time.[t]
He will punish them,
as people thresh wheat to get the seeds out.[u]
13 ‘People in Zion, get up and fight your enemies,’ God says to you.
‘Hit them like people thresh the wheat.
I will make you very strong.
Then you will be like dangerous animals with iron horns and metal feet.[v]
You will beat enemies from many countries,
as men crush things into small pieces.
The people from those countries became rich,
because they did bad things.
But you will bring their riches to me,
because I am the Lord of all the earth.’[w]
The Lamb opens the seals
6 Then I watched while the Lamb opened one of the seven seals on the book. I heard one of the four beings say, ‘Come!’ It spoke very loudly with a voice like thunder. 2 I looked, and I saw a white horse. The person who was riding the horse held a bow. Someone gave him a crown. He had fought against many people and he had won. Now he rode out on his horse to win against many more people.
3 Then the Lamb opened the second seal. I heard another of the beings say, ‘Come!’ 4 Then another horse came out. This horse was bright red, like fire. The person who was riding the horse had authority. He could take peace away from the earth, so that people killed each other. Someone gave him a large sword.
5 Then the Lamb opened the third seal. I heard the next being say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and I saw a black horse. The person who was riding the horse held something in his hand. He used it to weigh things. 6 Then I heard a sound like somebody speaking among the four beings. The voice said, ‘A litre of wheat is worth one day's work. And three litres of barley is also worth one day's work. But do not destroy the olive oil and the wine.’[a]
7 Then the Lamb opened the fourth seal. I heard the last being say, ‘Come!’ 8 I looked, and I saw a grey horse.[b] The name of the person who was riding the horse was Death. The place for dead people, called Hades, was following near to him. They had authority to kill people in a quarter of the earth. They could kill people in different ways. They could kill them in wars. They could cause people to die because there was no food. They could cause people to become very ill so that they died. They could also cause wild animals to kill people.
9 Then the Lamb opened the fifth seal. I saw an altar where people offered gifts to God. I saw the souls of some of God's people under the altar. These people had died because they had believed God's message. They had continued to speak the true message about Jesus Christ. That is why people had killed them. 10 These believers called out loudly, ‘Lord, you have all authority. You are completely good. You always do what is right. When will you decide to judge the people who live on the earth? Do not wait! You should quickly punish the people who killed us!’
11 Then each believer received white clothes. God told them to wait for a short time more. They must wait until other believers on earth also died. These believers are also servants of God. God will wait until people kill those believers too. Then the number of them will be complete.
12 I watched again. I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal. Then the ground shook with a great earthquake. The sun became black like thick black cloth. The whole moon became red like blood. 13 The stars in the sky fell to the earth. They fell like fruits fall from a tree when a strong wind blows. 14 The sky divided into two parts. It rolled up like a piece of paper. Every mountain and every island moved away from its place.
15 Then everyone on the earth hid themselves. They went to the mountains and they hid among the rocks and in holes in the rocks. Everyone tried to hide, even the kings and the rulers. The soldiers' leaders, the rich people and other powerful people all went to hide. Everyone hid, whether they were slaves or free people. 16 They shouted to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and cover us. Hide us, so that the one who sits on the throne cannot see us. Also hide us from the Lamb who is very angry with us. 17 Their great day has come. They will punish us because they are so angry. Nobody will be able to escape.’
A song to sing as we climb.
A song at night
134 Listen, all you servants of the Lord,
come and praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord,
all you who serve him in his temple during the night.
2 Lift up your hands towards his Holy Place,
and praise him.
3 The Lord made the heaven and the earth.
From his home in Zion, may he bless you!
The wise words of Agur
30 These are the words of Jakeh's son, Agur. It is an important message. The man says this to Ithiel:
God, I am weak and tired. I cannot continue to stand.
2 I feel more stupid than any other person. I do not understand things as other people do.
3 I have never learned wisdom. I do not know anything about God, the Holy One.
4 No one has gone up to heaven and then come back. No one has held the wind in his hands. No one has tied his coat around the seas. No one has fixed the borders of the earth. If anyone has done this, tell me his name. Tell me his son's name. Tell me, if you know.
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