MICAH THE MESSAGE WHICH CAME FROM JEHOVAH TO MICAH THE MORASHTITE IN THE DAYS OF HEZEKIAH 183. A COUNTRYMAN'S CONDEMNATION OF THE CRIMES OF THE CITY Hear this, peoples all, and give heed, O earth, and its inhabitants, For before you Jehovah will testify, See, he comes down from his place, For the guilt of Jacob is all this, And for the sin of the house of Judah. Is it not Samaria? What is Judah's sin? Is it not Jerusalem? Se Jehovah has made Samaria a ruin, For this I will wail and lament, And mourn like the ostriches. For Samaria's wound is incurable, The peril comes even to Judah, It reaches the gate of my people, Tell it not in Gath! In Giloh exult not! In Bochim weep bitterly! Hark! Jehovah calls to the city! Hear, O tribe and council of the city, Whose rich men are given to deeds of violence, And whose citizens speak only falsehood: 'Can I forget the riches in the house of the wicked, And the accursed scant measure? Or condone the wicked balances, 'I indeed have begun to crush you, 'For you follow the statutes of Omri, You have lived in accord with their counsels, Your inhabitants to derision.' 184. FALSE AND TRUE RELIGION Woe to those who plan mischief, And plot evil upon their beds! When morning dawns they carry it out, They covet fields and seize them, So they crush both household and householder, Therefore Jehovah declares: Which you cannot remove from your necks, For this is a time of calamity!' 'Do not keep harping on such things,' they urge, 'No disgrace can come to the house of Jacob. Is Jehovah impatient, or are these his doings? Are not his words kindly to his people Israel?' But you have become my people's foe; You strip the cloak from peaceful travellers, You drive the women of my people Out of their pleasant homes; You take away my glory From their young children forever. By saying, "Rise and be gone, Hear, you leaders of Jacob, They devour the flesh of my people, And strip their skin from off them, They lay bare their bones and break them, Then they will cry to Jehovah, Jehovah declares concerning the prophets Who, when well fed, proclaim peace, But a holy war on one who fills not their mouths: 'Night shall fall upon you with no vision, The sun shall set upon these prophets, Then shall the seers be ashamed, But verily I am full of power, Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, You who build Zion by bloodshed With what shall I come before Jehovah, And bow before the God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, And with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give him my first-born to atone for my guilt, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? It has been shown you, O man, To walk humbly with your God. 185. UNIVERSAL PEACE BASED ON JUSTICE It shall come to pass in future days, That the site of Jehovah's house Will be established on the mountain tops, Exalted above the hills. People shall come streaming to it, 'Let us go up to Jehovah's mount, |