Aramaic Peshitta Bible Repository
Lamsa OT - Micah
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1 ¶ THE word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morashite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2 Hear, all you people; hearken, O earth and all that is in it; and let the LORD God be a witness among you, even the LORD from his holy temple. 3 For behold, the LORD will come forth out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains shall melt under him, and the valleys shall be rent asunder like wax before the fire, and like waters that run down a steep place. 5 All this will happen because of the wickedness of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6 Therefore I will make Samaria as a ploughed field and a place for the planting of a vineyard; and I will pile her stones into a heap, and I will uncover the foundation thereof. 7 And all her graven images shall be broken to pieces and all her idols shall be burned with fire and all her shrines of worship I will lay desolate; for they were gathered of the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot.""
8 ¶ Therefore I will mourn and howl, and walk bare footed and naked; I will make a wailing like the jackal and mourning like the owl. 9 For her wound is very painful; and disaster has reached Judah; it has come to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. 10 Rejoice not in Gath, weep not at all; in the house of Aphrah roll yourselves in the dust. 11 Pass away, O you beautiful inhabitant; you came out naked and you are not shamed, O you inhabitant of Zanan; your wound will be like that of Beth-aozel. 12 For the rebellious inhabitant is sick of waiting for good; for disaster is come down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem. 13 You have harnessed horses to the chariots, O you inhabitants of Lachish; you were the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; for in you were found the transgressions of Israel. 14 Therefore you shall abandon the possessions of Gath; the shrines of falsehood have become a lie to the kings of Israel. 15 Yet will I bring an heir against you, O inhabitant of Mareshah; he shall exalt the glory of Israel for ever. 16 Make yourself bald, pull out your hair, for your delicate children; enlarge your baldness as the eagle; for they are carried into captivity from you.""
2:1 ¶ WOE to those who devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! They rise up early every morning and practice what they have devised; then they lift up their hands toward God to pray. 2 They covet fields and houses, and seize them by force; they oppress a man, taking away from him his possessions and his inheritance. 3 Therefore thus says the LORD God: Behold, against this people do I devise a disaster from which you shall not lift up your necks, neither shall you walk haughtily; for this is an evil time. 4 In that day shall one take up a proverb against you, and lament with a wailing melody, and say, The robber has plundered us; the portion of my people he has divided with a measuring line; there is none to restore our fields with the measuring line. 5 Therefore you shall have none that shall measure by the measuring line and divide by casting the lots in the congregation of the LORD.""
6 ¶ Shed not tears, and weep not over these things, 7 That the shame which is spoken against the house of Jacob may not overtake you; for the spirit of the LORD is angry at these devices; behold, my words are good to him who walked uprightly. 8 My people stood up like a thief against his own peace; you strip the skin from the poor that they may lose their hope; you invite war. 9 The women of my people you have driven out from their pleasant houses; from their children you have taken away the glory for ever. 10 Arise and go away; for this is no place for your rest, because the pollution will bring destruction, and the destruction will be grievous. 11 When a man walks in the spirit of falsehood and deception, overwhelmed with wine and drunkenness, he does so because of the anguish of this people.""
12 ¶ I will surely gather you, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely bring you together, O remnant of Israel; I will keep them like sheep when they are in danger, like a flock in the midst of their fold, which are protected from thieves. 13 The pathbreaker is come up before them; they have made a breach and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it; and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD at the head of them.""
3:1 ¶ THEN the LORD said, Hear these things, O you chiefs of the house of Jacob and you princes of the house of Israel: Is it not meet for you to know justice? 2 O you haters of the good and lovers of evil, who strip the skin from off the people and the flesh from off their bones; 3 Who oppress my people and flay their skin from off them and break their bones and chop them in pieces, as if they were to be put in the pot, like meat in a caldron. 4 Then shall they cry to the LORD, but he will not hear them; he will even turn away his face from them at that time, for they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. 5 Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who bite with their teeth and preach peace; and when one puts not bread into their mouths, they preach war against him. 6 Therefore it shall be night to you, that you shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark to you, that you shall not divine; and the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. 7 Then the seers shall be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips because God will not answer them.""
8 ¶ But truly I am full of power by the spirit of the LORD, and of justice and of might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. 9 Now hear this, O you chiefs of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and pervert all equity; 10 Who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity; 11 The chiefs thereof judge for a bribe, and its priests teach for hire, and its prophets divine for money; yet they rely upon the LORD, saying, The LORD is among us, no evil can come upon us; 12 Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become desolate, and the mountain of the house like a forest.""
4:1 ¶ BUT it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all people shall gather to it. 2 And many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, 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 the law shall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 3 And he shall judge between many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles; 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 there shall be none to harm them; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken it. 5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. 6 In that day, says the LORD, I will gather those who are afar off, and I will bring near those who have been driven out and those whom I have afflicted. 7 And I will make those who have been driven out a remnant, and those who are afar off a strong nation; and the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever.""
8 ¶ And you, O gloomy ruler of the daughter of Zion, your time has come, and the former ruler of the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem is coming. 9 Now why do you commit iniquity? Is there no king in you? Or have your counsellors perished? For pangs have taken you like a woman in travail. 10 Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you shall go forth out of the city, and you shall dwell in the desert, and you shall go even to Babylon; there you shall be delivered; there the LORD shall save you from the hand of your enemies. 11 Now many nations shall gather against you, who say, Let Zion be defiled, and let our eyes look upon it. 12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither do they understand his counsel; for he shall gather them as sheaves into the threshing floor. 13 Arise and thresh them, O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horns of iron, and your hoofs of brass; and you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and I will consecrate their possessions to the LORD, and their wealth to the LORD of the whole earth.""
5:1 ¶ NOW you shall go forth in a raid, O daughter of mighty raiders, for they have risen against us and have smitten the shepherd of Israel with a rod upon his cheek. 2 And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of towns of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth a ruler to govern Israel; whose goings forth have been predicted from of old, from eternity. 3 Henceforth he will deliver them, until the time when she who is in travail has brought forth; then the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel. 4 And he shall arise and rule in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and the people shall return; for now his dominion shall extend to the ends of the earth. 5 And there shall be peace when the Assyrian shall come to invade our country, and shall tread in our palaces; then we will raise up against him seven rulers and eight princes of men. 6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with their anger; thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, that he may not come to our land, and that he may not tread within our borders.""
7 ¶ And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many nations like the dew from the LORD, like the showers upon the grass, which tarry not for man, nor wait for the sons of men. 8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many nations as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, when he selects his prey, cuts and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver. 9 Your hand shall be lifted up against your adversaries, and all your enemies shall perish. 10 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD, that I will destroy your horses from the midst of you, and will do away with your chariots; 11 And I will lay waste the towns of your land, and demolish all your strongholds. 12 And I will destroy the magicians from within your reach; and you shall have no more soothsayers; 13 And I will destroy your graven images and your high places from the midst of you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands. 14 And I will destroy your groves from the midst of you; and I will lay waste your cities. 15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations that did not obey.""
6:1 ¶ HEAR now what the LORD says: Arise and judge upon the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2 Hear, O you mountains, the judgment of the LORD, listen, O you deep foundations of the earth; for the LORD will contend with his people, and he will judge Israel; 3 O my people, what have I done to you? Or in what have I grieved you? Testify against me. 4 Have not I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and delivered you from the house of bondage? And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam? 5 O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab purposed against you, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal; for he knew the righteousness of the LORD.""
6 ¶ With what shall I come before the LORD, and how shall I be pleasing before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, or with calves of a year old? 7 The LORD will not be pleased with thousands of rams, nor with ten thousands of heifers; if I should offer my first-born, it is an iniquity to myself, and the fruit of my body, it is a sin against my soul. 8 He has showed you, O man, what is good and what the LORD requires of you, that you shall do justice and love mercy and be ready to walk after the LORD your God.""
9 ¶ The voice of the LORD cries upon the city, preaching doctrine to those who revere his name; hear, O tribe, him who testifies against you. 10 For there is still fire in the house of the wicked and in the storehouses of iniquity and in the short measure of deceit. 11 How can they justify themselves with the wicked scales and with the bag of deceitful weights? 12 For the rich men of the land are full of deceit, and its inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is treacherous in their mouth. 13 Therefore I will begin to smite you, and will make you desolate because of your sins. 14 You shall eat, but not be satisfied; and dysentery shall be in the midst of you; and you shall thresh wheat, but shall not keep it, and that which you retain, I will give up to the sword. 15 You shall sow, but you shall not reap; you shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes but you shall not drink wine. 16 For you have kept the statutes of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their counsels; therefore I have made the land a desolation, and its inhabitants a hissing; thus you shall bear the reproach of my people.""
7:1 ¶ WOE is me! for I have become as when they have gathered the summer fruit, as the grape gleanings of the vintage; there is no cluster to eat; my soul craves the first ripe fruit. 2 The righteous man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men; they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother for destruction. 3 Their hands are ready to do evil, and they never do good; the governor asks for gold, and the judge says, Give me a bribe; and the prince speaks the desire of his soul. 4 They have rejected the best part of them, and have become like rags which are eaten by the moth; the day of your watchmen and your salvation is come; but now it shall be their mourning. 5 Trust not in your friends, put no confidence in your neighbors, guard the words of your mouth from your wife. 6 For the son curses his father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.""
7 ¶ Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God my Saviour; my God will hear me. 8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, because I have fallen; I shall rise again; though I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light to me. 9 I will bear the affliction of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and avenges me; he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall see his righteousness. 10 Then my enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said to me, Where is the LORD your God? My eyes shall behold her; now she shall be trodden down like the mire of the streets. 11 It is a day to build your walls; it is a day to be lifted up. 12 It is a day when the people shall come to you from Assyria and from the fortified cities and from Tyre and even to the river and from sea to sea, as far as mount Hor. 13 Nevertheless the land shall be desolate to its inhabitants because of the fruit of their doings.""
14 ¶ Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, who shall dwell alone like sheep in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Mathnin and Gilead, as in the days of old. 15 As in the day when you came out of the land of Egypt will I again show them marvellous things. 16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth; they shall tremble and be afraid of the LORD our God. 18 There is no God like thee, who pardons iniquity and removes the sins of the remnant of his inheritance; thou retainest not thy anger for ever, because thou delightest in mercy. 19 He will turn again and have mercy on us; he will sweep away our iniquity and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 20 Thou wilt grant truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, as thou hast sworn to our fathers from the days of old."