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word of the that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.


 * Hear, ye peoples, all of you,
 * Hearken, O earth, and all that therein is;
 * And let the Lord be witness against you,
 * The Lord from His holy temple.
 * For, behold, the cometh forth out of His place,
 * And will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
 * And the mountains shall be molten under Him,
 * And the valleys shall be cleft,
 * As wax before the fire,
 * As waters that are poured down a steep place.


 * 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?


 * Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the field,
 * A place for the planting of vineyards;
 * And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley,
 * And I will uncover the foundations thereof.
 * And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces,
 * And all her hires shall be burned with fire,
 * And all her idols will I lay desolate;
 * For of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them,
 * And unto the hire of a harlot shall they return.


 * For this will I wail and howl,
 * I will go stripped and naked;
 * I will make a wailing like the jackals,
 * And a mourning like the ostriches.
 * For her wound is incurable;
 * For it is come even unto Judah;
 * It reacheth unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
 * Tell it not in Gath,
 * Weep not at all;
 * At Beth-le-aphrah roll thyself in the dust.
 * Pass ye away, O inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame;
 * The inhabitant of Zaanan is not come forth;
 * The wailing of Beth-ezel shall take from you the standing-place thereof.
 * For the inhabitant of Maroth waiteth anxiously for good;
 * Because evil is come down from the unto the gate of Jerusalem.
 * Bind the chariots to the swift steeds, O inhabitant of Lachish;
 * She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion;
 * For the transgressions of Israel are found in thee.
 * Therefore shalt thou give a parting gift to Moresheth-gath;