1The word of YHWH that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
2Hear, O peoples, all of them; hearken, O earth, and its fullness; and let my Lord (Adonai) YHWH be a witness against you, my Lord (Adonai) from his holy temple.
3For, behold, YHWH is coming forth from his place, and he will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
4And the mountains shall melt under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.
5For 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?
6And I will make Samaria into a heap of the field, a place for planting a vineyard; and I will pour down her stones into the valley, and her foundations I will uncover.
7And all her graven images shall be beaten to pieces, and all her hires shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay desolate; for from the hire of a harlot she gathered them, and to the hire of a harlot they shall return.
8Over this I will lament and wail, I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the great sea-creatures (tannin), and a mourning like the daughters of an ostrich.
9For her wounds are incurable; for it has come to Judah, it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
10Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all; in Beth-le-aphrah roll yourself in the dust (aphar).
11Pass over for yourselves, 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 place.
12For the inhabitant of Maroth is in anguish for good; for evil has come down from YHWH to the gate of Jerusalem.
13Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O inhabitant of Lachish; she is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for in you were found the transgressions of Israel.
14Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.
15Yet the possessor I will bring to you, O inhabitant of Mareshah; even to Adullam shall come the glory of Israel.
16Make yourself bald and shear yourself for the children of your delight; enlarge your baldness like the eagle; for they have gone into exile from you.