This book contains the account of Micah foretelling about God punishing Israel and Judah because of their evil leaders, and about restoring them by the leader coming from Bethlehem. We call this book
Micah
1
1 I am Micah. I am from the town of Moresheth in Judah. Yahweh gave me these messages in visions about Samaria and Jerusalem during the time when Jotham, and then Ahaz, and then Hezekiah, were the kings of Judah.
Yahweh will punish Samaria
2 You people everywhere on the earth, pay attention to this [DOU]!
Yahweh our God is accusing you from his holy temple in heaven.
3 He will come down from heaven
and walk on the tops of the highest mountains.
4 It will be as though the mountains will melt under his feet
like [SIM] wax melts in front of a fire,
and like [SIM] water disappears
when it rushes/flows down into a valley.
5 Those things will happen because of the terrible sins [DOU] that the people [MTY] of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, have committed.
But it was [RHQ] the people of Samaria city who persuaded all the people of Israel to sin,
and it was [RHQ] because the people of Jerusalem set up altars to worship their gods
that the other people of Judah were persuaded to worship idols on their hilltops.
6 So Yahweh will cause Samaria to become a heap of rubble/ruins;
it will be only a field for planting vineyards.
He will cause the stones of its buildings to roll down into the valley,
and the foundations of the buildings will be uncovered.
7 All the idols in Samaria will be smashed,
and the gifts given to prostitutes at the temples of their idols will be destroyed in a fire.
And because people paid prostitutes there,
their enemies will take away those idols and sell them to get money to pay to prostitutes in other countries.
Micah mourned for Judah also
8 Because Samaria will be destroyed, I will weep and wail.
I will walk around ◄barefoot/without any sandals on my feet► and naked.
I will howl like a jackal/wolf
and screech like an owl,
9 because Samaria will be completely destroyed [MET];
nothing can save that city.
But the same thing will happen to Judah!
It is as though the enemy army has already reached the city gates of Jerusalem,
the main city where my people live.
10 Do not tell that to our enemies in Gath city in Philistia!
Do not cry, lest the people there find out what is happening!!
Instead, just roll in the dirt in Beth-Leaphrah because the name of that town means ‘house of dust.’
11 You people who live in Shaphir town, whose name means ‘beautiful,’
naked and ashamed, you will be taken to another country.
You people in Beth-Ezel town should mourn,
because no one from Zaanan town, whose name means ‘one who goes out,’ will go out to help you.
12 The name of Maroth town sounds like ‘bitterness;’
everyone there is anxiously waiting for good things to happen to them,
but good things will not happen to them;
instead, terrible things are about to happen to them,
and it will soon happen at the gates of Jerusalem.
13 You people of Lachish city, whose name sounds like ‘team,’
hitch your horses to pull the chariots in which you can ride to flee from your enemies.
The Israeli people rebelled against Yahweh,
and you ◄imitated them/did the same evil things that they did►,
and that caused the people of Jerusalem [IDM] to start sinning, too.
14 You people of Judah, send a farewell gift to the people of Moresheth town,
because their enemies will soon destroy it.
The name of the town Aczib means ‘deception,’
and the kings of Israel will soon find out that the people of that town will deceive them.
15 The name of your town of Mareshah means ‘conqueror,’
and Yahweh will soon send someone to conquer your town.
It will be necessary for the great/glorious leaders of Israel to go and hide in the cave at Adullam city.
16 You people of Judah, shave your heads while you will be mourning,
because your children whom you love will soon be ◄exiled/forced to leave you and go to another country►.