Micah 2

1 Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

2 And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

3 Therefore thus saith theLord: Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.

4 In that day shall they take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation,andsay, We be utterly spoiled: he changeth the portion of my people: how doth he removeitfrom me! to the rebellious he divideth our fields.

5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the line by lot in the congregation of theLord.

6 Prophesy ye not,thusthey prophesy. They shall not prophesy to these: reproaches shall not depart.

7 Shall it be said, O house of Jacob, Is the spirit of theLordstraitened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?

8 But of late my people is risen up as an enemy: ye strip the robe from off the garment from them that pass by securelyas menaverse from war.

9 The women of my people ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children ye take away my glory for ever.

10 Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because of uncleanness that destroyeth, even with a grievous destruction.

11 If a man walking in wind and falsehood do lie,saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.

12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah: as a flock in the midst of their pasture, they shall make great noise by reason ofthe multitude ofmen.

13 The breaker is gone up before them: they have broken forth and passed on to the gate, and are gone out thereat: and their king is passed on before them, and theLordat the head of them.

Micah 3

1 And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know judgment?

2 who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

3 who also eat the flesh of my people; and they flay their skin from off them, and break their bones: yea, they chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

4 Then shall they cry unto theLord, but he will not answer them: yea, he will hide his face from them at that time, according as they have wrought evil in their doings.

5 Thus saith theLordconcerning the prophets that make my people to err; that bite with their teeth and cry, Peace; and whoso putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him:

6 Therefore it shall be night unto you, that ye shall have no vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them.

7 And the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips: for there is no answer of God.

8 But I truly am full of power by the spirit of theLord, and of judgment, and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

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

10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon theLord, and say, Is not theLordin the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us.

12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

Micah 4

1 But in the latter days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of theLord’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow unto it.

2 And many nations shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of theLord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of theLordfrom Jerusalem,

3 and he shall judge between many peoples, and shall reprove strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of theLordof hosts hath spoken it.

5 For all the peoples will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of theLordour God for ever and ever.

6 In that day, saith theLord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven away, and her that I have afflicted;

7 and I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and theLordshall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever.

8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the hill of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come; yea, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee, is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail?

10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon; there shalt thou be rescued; there shall theLordredeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

11 And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye seeits desireupon Zion.

12 But they know not the thoughts of theLord, neither understand they his counsel: for he hath gathered them as the sheaves to the threshingfloor.

13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples: and thou shalt devote their gain unto theLord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

Micah 5

1 Now shalt thou gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

2 But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

3 Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.

4 And he shall stand, and shall feedhis flockin the strength of theLord, in the majesty of the name of theLordhis God: and they shall abide; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.

5 And thismanshall beourpeace: when the Assyrian shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.

6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our border.

7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples as dew from theLord, as showers upon the grass; that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.

8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and there is none to deliver.

9 Let thine hand be lifted up above thine adversaries, and let all thine enemies be cut off.

10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith theLord, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and will destroy thy chariots:

11 and I will cut off the cities of thy land, and will throw down all thy strong holds:

12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have nomoresoothsayers:

13 and I will cut off thy graven images and thy pillars out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands,

14 and I will pluck up thine Asherim out of the midst of thee: and I will destroy thy cities.

15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations which hearkened not.

Micah 6

1 Hear ye now what theLordsaith: Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

2 Hear, O ye mountains, theLord’S controversy, and ye enduring foundations of the earth: for theLordhath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.

3 O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me.

4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of bondage; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him;rememberfrom Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteous acts of theLord.

6 Wherewith shall I come before theLord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

7 will theLordbe pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth theLordrequire of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

9 The voice of theLordcrieth unto the city, andthe man ofwisdom will see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it.

10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable?

11 Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?

12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

13 Therefore I also have smitten thee with a grievous wound; I have made thee desolate because of thy sins.

14 Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt remove, but shalt not carry away safe; and that which thou carriest away will I give up to the sword.

15 Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap: thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not anoint thee with oil; and the vintage, but shalt not drink the wine.

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; and ye shall bear the reproach of my people.

Micah 7

1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desireth the firstripe fig.

2 The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

3 Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judgeis readyfor a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the mischief of his soul: thus they weave it together.

4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright isworsethan a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen, even thy visitation, is come; now shall be their perplexity.

5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

7 But as for me, I will look unto theLord; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, theLordshall be a light unto me.

9 I will bear the indignation of theLord, because I have sinned against him; until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light,andI shall behold his righteousness.

10 Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her; which said unto me, Where is theLordthy God? Mine eyes shall behold her; now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

11 A day for building thy walls! in that day shall the decree be far removed.

12 In that day shall they come unto thee, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt even to the River, and from sea to sea, andfrommountain to mountain.

13 Yet shall the land be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily, in the forest in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

15 As in the days of thy coming forth out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvelous things.

16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their close places: they shall come with fear unto theLordour God, and shall be afraid because of thee.

18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

19 He will turn again and have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob,andthe mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

Jonah 1

1 Now the word of theLordcame unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,

2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of theLord; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of theLord.

4 But theLordsent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god; and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it unto them. But Jonah was gone down into the innermost parts of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.

6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

8 Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?

9 And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear theLord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.

10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, What is this that thou hast done? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of theLord, because he had told them.

11 Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea grew more and more tempestuous.

12 And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.

13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not: for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

14 Wherefore they cried unto theLord, and said, We beseech thee, OLord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, OLord, hast done as it pleased thee.

15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

16 Then the men feared theLordexceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice unto theLord, and made vows.

17 And theLordprepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 2

1 Then Jonah prayed unto theLordhis God out of the fish’s belly.

2 And he said, I called by reason of mine affliction unto theLord, and he answered me; out of the belly of hell cried I,andthou heardest my voice.

3 For thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the seas, and the flood was round about me; all thy waves and thy billows passed over me.

4 And I said, am cast out from before thine eyes; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the deep was round about me; the weeds were wrapped about my head.

6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her barsclosedupon me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit, OLordmy God.

7 When my soul fainted within me, I remembered theLord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

8 They that regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of theLord.

10 And theLordspake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Jonah 3

1 And the word of theLordcame unto Jonah the second time, saying,

2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.

3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of theLord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days’ journey.

4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

6 And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

7 And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

9 Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, which he said he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Jonah 4

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

2 And he prayed unto theLord, and said, I pray thee, OLord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and repentest thee of the evil.

3 Therefore now, OLord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

4 And theLordsaid, Doest thou well to be angry?

5 Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

6 And theLordGod prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his evil case. So Jonah was exceeding glad because of the gourd.

7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered.

8 And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry even unto death.

10 And theLordsaid, Thou hast had pity on the gourd; for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:

11 and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city; wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?