Micah 2:4–7

⁶Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay!

²⁹And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

³The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

¹¹Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

¹⁰For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.

¹⁷¶ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:

¹⁸And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.

¹⁹For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.

²⁰Yet hear the word of the Lord, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.

²¹For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.

¹⁵Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel.

⁷And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.

²⁵¶ And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

²⁰And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

²¹To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

²³Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

²⁴¶ And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

¹⁷¶ And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son:

¹HEAR ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.

¹⁷And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord.

⁴⁴¶ Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.

¹⁰And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

⁴¶ That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

¹⁷¶ O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

¹⁸The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.

¹⁸If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.

⁹Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

¹⁰Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.

¹¹And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹³Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.

¹MOREOVER Job continued his parable, and said,

¹³Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

⁸¶ Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

¹HOW doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

²She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

³Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

⁴The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

⁵Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

¹²And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them: and they left him, and went their way.

¹⁰Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.

¹⁸And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor:

¹⁵¶ And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:

³And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:

²I will utterly consume all things from off the land, saith the Lord.

⁸When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

⁴Give out from among you three men for each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me.

¹⁰¶ And Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord: and there Joshua divided the land unto the children of Israel according to their divisions.

²A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord.

⁸The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the Lord in their third generation.

³They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

⁶¹And these were they which went up also from Tel-melah, Tel-haresha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer: but they could not shew their father’s house, nor their seed, whether they were of Israel.

⁶The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

¹²But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

¹⁰Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:

⁴⁰And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

²⁶And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.

¹⁵Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

¹⁶Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

¹⁷But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.

²⁸Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.

⁵¹¶ Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

¹³But prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.

¹¹¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

¹²And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.

¹³In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

⁴⁶Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;

²Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,

²⁰And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:

²¹And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt;

²²And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt.

²³And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

⁸¶ Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die.

⁹Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

¹⁴They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

¹⁵Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.

¹¹For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

¹²Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord.

¹⁶¶ For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.

⁹We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

¹¹For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

¹⁶Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.

²He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

⁹Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

²Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.

²⁹The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.

⁹He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.

¹⁸Whoso walketh uprightly shall be saved: but he that is perverse in his ways shall fall at once.

⁹²Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

⁹³I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.

⁹⁹I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰⁰I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

¹⁰¹I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.

¹⁰²I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.

¹⁰³How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

⁷The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

⁸The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

⁹The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

¹⁰More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

¹¹Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

⁶Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

¹²Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.

⁵Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

¹HEAR ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.

²For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The Lord of hosts is his name.

¹CRY aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

¹BEHOLD, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

²But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

⁴Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:

³⁹They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.

⁸Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

⁹Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

²³And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.

²He that walketh in his uprightness feareth the Lord: but he that is perverse in his ways despiseth him.

⁷He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

⁶⁵Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word.

⁷⁰Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.

⁷¹It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

²⁸For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

²⁹But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

¹³Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

⁶Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

⁷Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

⁸That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

⁹For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.

¹⁰And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;

¹¹(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

¹²It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

¹³As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.