Micah 2

Micah 1Micah 3
Index

Micah 2 English Standard Version (ESV)

Woe to the Oppressors

2 Woe to those who devise wickedness
    and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
    because it is in the power of their hand.
2 They covet fields and seize them,
    and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
    a man and his inheritance.
3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
behold, against this family I am devising disaster,[a]
    from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk haughtily,
    for it will be a time of disaster.
4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you
    and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined;
    he changes the portion of my people;
how he removes it from me!
    To an apostate he allots our fields.”
5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot
    in the assembly of the Lord.

6 “Do not preach”—thus they preach—
    “one should not preach of such things;
    disgrace will not overtake us.”
7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
    Has the Lord grown impatient?[b]
    Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
    to him who walks uprightly?
8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly
    with no thought of war.[c]
9 The women of my people you drive out
    from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
    my splendor forever.
10 Arise and go,
    for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys
    with a grievous destruction.
11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
    saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
    he would be the preacher for this people!
12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
    I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
    like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
    a noisy multitude of men.
13 He who opens the breach goes up before them;
    they break through and pass the gate,
    going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
    the Lord at their head.

Footnotes:

  1. Micah 2:3 The same Hebrew word can mean evil or disaster, depending on the context
  2. Micah 2:7 Hebrew Has the spirit of the Lord grown short?
  3. Micah 2:8 Or returning from war
English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.