\NormalFont\ShortTitle{MICAH}

{\MT MICAH



\par }\ChapOne{CHAPTER 1}{\PP \VerseOne{1}The word of the Lord, which was made to Micah
{\EM{the}} Morasthite, in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah; which
{\EM{word}} he saw on Samaria and Jerusalem.


\par }{\PP \VS{2}Hear ye, all peoples, and the earth perceive, and the plenty thereof, and be the Lord God to you into a witness, the Lord from his holy temple.


\par }{\PP \VS{3}For lo! the Lord shall go out of his place, and shall come down, and shall tread on high things of earth.


\par }{\PP \VS{4}And mountains shall be wasted under him, and valleys shall be cut, as wax from the face of fire, and as waters that run down into a pit.


\par }{\PP \VS{5}In the great trespass of Jacob
{\EM{is}} all this thing, and in the sins of the house of Israel. Which
{\EM{is}} the great trespass of Jacob? whether not Samaria? and which
{\EM{be}} the high things of Judah? whether not Jerusalem?


\par }{\PP \VS{6}And I shall put Samaria as an heap of stones in the field, when a vine-yard is planted; and I shall draw away the stones thereof into a valley, and I shall show the foundaments thereof.


\par }{\PP \VS{7}And all graven images thereof shall be beaten together, and all hires thereof shall be burnt in fire; and I shall put all the idols thereof into perdition; for of the hires of an whore those be gathered, and to hire of an whore those shall turn again.


\par }{\PP \VS{8}On this thing I shall wail and yell, I shall go spoiled and naked; I shall make wailing as of dragons, and mourning as of ostriches.


\par }{\PP \VS{9}For wound thereof is despaired; for it came till to Judah, it touched the gate of my people, till to Jerusalem.


\par }{\PP \VS{10}In Gath do not ye tell, by tears weep ye not; in the house of dust with dust altogether sprinkle you.


\par }{\PP \VS{11}And ye
{\EM{of}} a fair dwelling, pass to you,
{\EM{which is}} confounded with evil fame; it is not gone out, which dwelleth in the going out; a nigh house shall take of you wailing, which stood to itself.


\par }{\PP \VS{12}For it is made sick
{\ADD{[in]}} to good, which dwelleth in bitternesses. For evil came down from the Lord into the gate of Jerusalem,


\par }{\PP \VS{13}the noise of
{\ADD{[a]}} four-horsed cart, of dread to the
{\EM{people}} dwelling at Lachish. It is the beginning of sin of the daughter of Zion, for the great trespasses of Israel be found in thee.


\par }{\PP \VS{14}Therefore he shall give warriors on the heritage of Gath, on the houses of leasing into deceit to kings of Israel.


\par }{\PP \VS{15}Yet I shall bring an heir to thee, that dwellest in Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come till to
{\EM{the cave at}} Adullam.


\par }{\PP \VS{16}Be thou made bald, and be thou clipped on the sons of thy delights; alarge thy baldness as an eagle, for they be led captive from thee.




\par }\Chap{CHAPTER 2}{\PP \VerseOne{1}Woe
{\EM{to you}}, that think unprofitable thing, and work evil in your beds; in the morrowtide light they do it, for the hand of them is against God.


\par }{\PP \VS{2}They coveted fields, and took violently; and ravished houses, and falsely challenged a man and his house, a man and his heritage.


\par }{\PP \VS{3}Therefore the Lord saith these things, Lo! I think on this meine evil, from which ye shall not take away your necks; and ye shall not walk proud, for the worst time is.


\par }{\PP \VS{4}In that day a parable shall be taken on you, and a song shall be sung with sweetness of men, saying, By robbing we be destroyed; a part of my people is changed; how shall he go away from me, when he turneth again that shall part your countries?


\par }{\PP \VS{5}For this thing, none shall be to thee sending a little cord of lot, in company of the Lord.


\par }{\PP \VS{6}A! thou Israel, speak ye not speaking; it shall not drop
{\EM{a word}} on these men, confusion shall not catch,


\par }{\PP \VS{7}saith the house of Jacob. Whether the Spirit of the Lord is abridged, either such be the thoughts of him? Whether my words be not good, with him that goeth rightly?


\par }{\PP \VS{8}And on the contrary, my people rose together into an adversary; ye took away the mantle above the coat, and ye turned into battle them that went simply.


\par }{\PP \VS{9}Ye casted the women of my people out of the house of their delights; from the little children of them ye took away my praising without end.


\par }{\PP \VS{10}Rise ye, and go, for here ye have no rest; for the uncleanness thereof it shall be corrupted with the worst rot.


\par }{\PP \VS{11}I would that I were not a man having spirit, and rather that I spake a leasing. I shall drop
{\EM{a word}} to thee into wine, and into drunkenness; and this people shall be, on whom it is dropped.


\par }{\PP \VS{12}With gathering I shall gather Jacob; I shall lead together thee all into one, the remnants of Israel. I shall put him together, as a flock in the fold; as sheep in the middle of folds they shall make noise,
{\EM{because}} of multitude of men.


\par }{\PP \VS{13}For he shall go up showing
{\EM{the}} way before them; they shall depart, and pass the gate, and shall go out thereby; and the king of them shall pass before them, and the Lord in the head of them.




\par }\Chap{CHAPTER 3}{\PP \VerseOne{1}And I said, Ye princes of Jacob, and dukes of the house of Israel, hear. Whether it is not yours for to know doom,


\par }{\PP \VS{2}which hate good, and love evil? Which violently take away the skins of them from above them, and the flesh of them from above the bones of them.


\par }{\PP \VS{3}Which ate the flesh of my people, and uncovered,
{\ADD{[or flayed off]}}, the skin of them from above; and brake altogether the bones of them, and cutted
{\EM{them up}} altogether as in a cauldron, and as flesh in the middle of a pot.


\par }{\PP \VS{4}Then they shall cry to the Lord, and he shall not hear them; and he shall hide his face from them in that time, as they did wickedly in their findings.


\par }{\PP \VS{5}The Lord saith these things on the prophets that deceive my people, that bite with their teeth, and preach peace; and if any man giveth not in the mouth of them anything, they hallow battle on him.


\par }{\PP \VS{6}Therefore night shall be to you for vision,
{\EM{or prophecy}}, and darknesses to you for divination; and the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be made dark on them.


\par }{\PP \VS{7}And they shall be confounded that see visions, and diviners shall be confounded, and all shall cover their cheers, for it is not the answer of God.


\par }{\PP \VS{8}Nevertheless I am filled with strength of the Spirit of the Lord, and with doom and power, that I show to Jacob his great trespass, and to Israel his sin.


\par }{\PP \VS{9}Hear these things, ye princes of the house of Jacob, and doomsmen of the house of Israel, which loathe doom, and pervert all right things;


\par }{\PP \VS{10}which build Zion in bloods, and Jerusalem in wickedness.


\par }{\PP \VS{11}The princes thereof deemed for gifts, and
{\ADD{[the]}} priests thereof taught for hire, and the prophets thereof divined for money; and on the Lord they rested, and said, Whether the Lord is not in the middle of us? evils shall not come on us.


\par }{\PP \VS{12}For this thing because of you, Zion as a field shall be eared; and Jerusalem shall be as an heap of stones, and the hill of the temple
{\EM{shall be}} into high things of woods.




\par }\Chap{CHAPTER 4}{\PP \VerseOne{1}And in the last days, the hill of the house of the Lord shall be made ready in the top of
{\ADD{[the]}} hills, and shall be high over small hills. And peoples shall flow to him,


\par }{\PP \VS{2}and many peoples shall hasten, and shall say, Come ye, ascend or go we up to the hill of the Lord, and to the house of God of Jacob; and he shall teach us of his ways, and we shall go in his paths. For the law shall go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;


\par }{\PP \VS{3}and he shall deem betwixt many peoples, and shall chastise strong folks till into far. And they shall beat together their swords into shares\FTNT{*}{{\FR CHAPTER 4:3 }{\FT{In other writings, John Wycliffe renders this word in this verse as ‘plowghschares’ (‘ploughshares’/‘plowshares’).}}}, and their spears into pickaxes; folk shall not take sword against folk, and they shall no more learn to fight.


\par }{\PP \VS{4}And a man shall sit under his vineyard, and under his fig tree; and there shall not be that shall make afeared, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts spake.


\par }{\PP \VS{5}For all peoples shall go, each man in the name of his Lord God; but we shall walk in the name of our Lord God into the world, and over.


\par }{\PP \VS{6}In that day, saith the Lord, I shall gather the halting, and I shall gather her that I casted away, and whom I tormented I shall comfort.


\par }{\PP \VS{7}And I shall put the halting into remnants, and her that travailed in{\ADD{[to]}} a strong folk. And the Lord shall reign on them in the hill of Zion, from this time now and till into without end.


\par }{\PP \VS{8}And thou, dark tower of the flock of the daughter of Zion, unto thee he shall come, and the first power shall come, the realm of the daughter of Jerusalem.


\par }{\PP \VS{9}Now why art thou drawn together with mourning? whether a king is not to thee, either thy counsellor perished? for sorrow hath taken thee as a woman travailing of child.


\par }{\PP \VS{10}Thou daughter of Zion, make sorrow, and haste, as a woman travailing of child; for now thou shalt go out of the city, and shalt dwell in the country, and shalt come unto Babylon; there thou shalt be delivered, there the Lord shall again-buy thee, from the hand of thine enemies.


\par }{\PP \VS{11}And now many folks be gathered on thee, which say, Be it stoned, and our eye behold into Zion.


\par }{\PP \VS{12}Forsooth they knew not the thoughts of the Lord, and understood not the counsel of him, for he gathered them as the hay of the field.


\par }{\PP \VS{13}Rise thou, and thresh, daughter of Zion, for I shall put thine horn of iron, and I shall put thy nails brazen; and thou shalt lose,
{\EM{either waste}}, many peoples, and shalt slay to the Lord
{\EM{for an offering}} the ravens of them, and the strength of them to the Lord of all earth.




\par }\Chap{CHAPTER 5}{\PP \VerseOne{1}Now thou, daughter of a thief, shalt be destroyed; they putted on us besieging, in a rod they shall smite the cheek of the judge of Israel.


\par }{\PP \VS{2}And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, art little in the thousands of Judah; he that is the lordly governor in Israel shall go out of thee to me; and the going out of him
{\EM{is}} from
{\ADD{[the]}} beginning, from days of everlastingness.


\par }{\PP \VS{3}For this thing he shall give them
{\EM{up}}, till to the time in which the
{\EM{woman}} travailing of child shall bear child, and the remnants of his brethren shall be turned again to the sons of Israel.


\par }{\PP \VS{4}And he shall stand, and shall feed in the strength of the Lord, in the height of the name of his Lord God; and they shall be converted, for now he shall be magnified till to the ends of all earth.


\par }{\PP \VS{5}And this shall be peace, when Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our houses; and we shall raise on him seven shepherds, and eight primates men,
{\EM{either the first in dignity}}.


\par }{\PP \VS{6}And they shall waste the land of Assur by sword, and the land of Nimrod by spears of him; and he shall deliver us from Assur, when he shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our coasts.


\par }{\PP \VS{7}And remnants of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples, as dew of the Lord, and as drops on herb, which abideth not man, and shall not abide the sons of men.


\par }{\PP \VS{8}And remnants of Jacob shall be in heathen men, in the middle of many peoples, as a lion among beasts of the woods, and as a whelp of a lion roaring in flocks of sheep; and when he passeth, and defouleth, and taketh, there is not that shall deliver.


\par }{\PP \VS{9}And thine hand shall be raised on thine enemies, and all thine enemies shall perish.


\par }{\PP \VS{10}And it shall be, in that day, saith the Lord, I shall take away thine horses from the middle of thee, and I shall destroy thy four-horsed carts.


\par }{\PP \VS{11}And I shall lose the cities of thy land, and I shall destroy all thy strongholds,
{\EM{either wardings}};


\par }{\PP \VS{12}and I shall do away witchcrafts from thine hand, and divinations,
{\EM{either tellings by devil’s craft}}, shall not be in thee.


\par }{\PP \VS{13}And I shall make for to perish thy graven images, and I shall break altogether from the middle of thee thine images, and thou shalt no more worship the works of thine hands.


\par }{\PP \VS{14}And I shall draw out of the midst of thee thy woods
{\EM{dedicated to idols}}, and I shall all-break thy cities.


\par }{\PP \VS{15}And I shall make in wrath and indignation vengeance in all folks, which heard not.




\par }\Chap{CHAPTER 6}{\PP \VerseOne{1}Hear ye which things the Lord speaketh. Rise thou, strive thou by doom against mountains, and little hills hear thy voice.


\par }{\PP \VS{2}Mountains and the strong foundaments of earth, hear the doom of the Lord; for the doom of the Lord shall be with his people, and he shall be deemed with Israel.


\par }{\PP \VS{3}My people, what have I done to thee, either
{\EM{in}} what was I grievous to thee? Answer thou to me.


\par }{\PP \VS{4}For I led thee out of the land of Egypt, and of the house of servage I delivered thee; and I sent before thy face Moses, and Aaron, and Mary.


\par }{\PP \VS{5}My people, bethink, I pray, what Balak, king of Moab, thought, and what Balaam, son of Beor, of Shittim, answered to him till to Gilgal, that thou shouldest know the rightwiseness of the Lord.


\par }{\PP \VS{6}What worthy thing shall I offer to the Lord? shall I bow the knee to the high God? Whether shall I offer to him brunt sacrifices, and calves of one year?


\par }{\PP \VS{7}Whether God may be satisfied in thousands of wethers, either in many thousands of fat goat bucks? Whether I shall give my first begotten for my great trespass, the fruit of my womb for sin of my soul?


\par }{\PP \VS{8}I shall show to thee, thou man, what is good, and what the Lord asketh of thee; forsooth for to do doom, and for to love mercy, and be busy for to walk with thy God.


\par }{\PP \VS{9}The voice of the Lord crieth to the city, and health shall be to all men dreading thy name. Ye lineages, hear; and who shall approve it?


\par }{\PP \VS{10}Yet fire
{\EM{is}} in the house of unpious men, the treasures of wickedness, and a less measure,
{\EM{which make me}} full of wrath.


\par }{\PP \VS{11}Whether I shall justify the wicked balance, and the guileful weights of a little sack,


\par }{\PP \VS{12}in which rich men thereof be filled with wickedness? And men dwelling therein spake leasing, and the tongue of them
{\EM{was}} guileful in the mouth of them.


\par }{\PP \VS{13}And I therefore began for to smite thee, into perdition on thy sins.


\par }{\PP \VS{14}Thou shalt eat, and shalt not be
{\ADD{[ful]}} filled, and thy meeking
{\EM{is}} in the middle of thee; and thou shalt take, and shalt not save; and which thou shalt save, I shall give into sword.


\par }{\PP \VS{15}Thou shalt sow, and shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olive, and shalt not be anointed with oil; and
{\EM{make}} must, and shalt not drink wine.


\par }{\PP \VS{16}And thou keptest the behests of Omri, and all the work of the house of Ahab, and hast walked in the lusts of them, that I should give thee into perdition, and men dwelling in it into hissing,
{\EM{either scorning}}, and ye shall bear the shame of my people.




\par }\Chap{CHAPTER 7}{\PP \VerseOne{1}Woe to me, for I am made as he that gathereth in harvest raisins of grapes; there is no cluster for to eat; my soul desired figs ripe before others.


\par }{\PP \VS{2}The holy perished from
{\ADD{[the]}} earth, and rightful is not in men; all ambush,
{\EM{either set treason}}, in blood; a man hunteth his brother to death.


\par }{\PP \VS{3}The evil of their hands they say good; the prince asketh, and the doomsman is in yielding; and a great man spake the desire of his soul, and they troubled altogether it.


\par }{\PP \VS{4}He that is the best in them, is as a paliurus,
{\EM{that is, a teasel, either a sharp bush}}; and he that is rightful
{\EM{is}} as a thorn of hedge. The day of thy beholding, thy visiting cometh, now shall be destroying of them.


\par }{\PP \VS{5}Do not ye believe to a friend, and do not ye trust in a duke; from her that sleepeth in thy bosom, keep thou the closings of thy mouth.


\par }{\PP \VS{6}For the son doeth wrong to the father, and the daughter shall rise against her mother, and the wife of the son against the mother of her husband; the enemies of a man
{\EM{be}} the
{\EM{ones}} at home,
{\EM{either the house-hold meine}}, of him.


\par }{\PP \VS{7}Forsooth I shall behold to the Lord, I shall abide God my saviour; the Lord my God shall hear me.


\par }{\PP \VS{8}Thou, mine enemy, be not glad on me, for I fell down, I shall rise
{\EM{up again}}; when I sit in darknesses, the Lord is my light.


\par }{\PP \VS{9}I shall bear wrath of the Lord, for I have sinned to him, till he deem my cause, and make my doom; he shall lead out me into light, I shall see
{\ADD{[the]}} rightwiseness of him.


\par }{\PP \VS{10}And mine enemy shall behold me, and she shall be covered with confusion, which saith to me, Where is thy Lord God? Mine eyes shall see her, now she shall be into defouling, as clay,
{\EM{either fen}}, of streets.


\par }{\PP \VS{11}Day
{\EM{shall come}}, that thy walls be builded; in that day law shall be made afar.


\par }{\PP \VS{12}In that day, and Assur shall come till to thee, and till to strong cities, and from strong cities till to
{\ADD{[the]}} flood; and to sea from sea, and to hill from hill.


\par }{\PP \VS{13}And
{\ADD{[the]}} earth shall be into desolation for her dwellers, and for fruit of the thoughts of them.


\par }{\PP \VS{14}Feed thou thy people in thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, that dwell alone in
{\ADD{[the]}} wild wood; in the middle of Carmel they shall be fed of Bashan and of Gilead,
{\EM{as}} by eld
{\ADD{[or old]}} days,


\par }{\PP \VS{15}by days of thy going out of the land of Egypt. I shall show to him wonderful things;


\par }{\PP \VS{16}heathen men shall see, and they shall be confounded on all their strength; they shall put hands on their mouth, the ears of them shall be deaf;


\par }{\PP \VS{17}they shall lick dust as a serpent; as creeping things of
{\ADD{[the]}} earth they shall be disturbed,
{\EM{or troubled, out}} of their houses; they shall not desire our Lord God, and they shall dread thee.


\par }{\PP \VS{18}God, who
{\EM{is}} like thee, that doest away wickedness, and bearest over the sin of the remnants of thine heritage? He shall no more send in his strong vengeance, for he is willing
{\EM{or desiring}} mercy;


\par }{\PP \VS{19}he shall turn again, and have mercy on us. He shall put down our wickednesses, and shall cast far into deepness of the sea all our sins.


\par }{\PP \VS{20}Thou shalt give truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, which thou sworest to our fathers from eld
{\ADD{[or old]}} days.


\par }