Micah 2:1–13

¹ Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands. ² They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance. ³ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity. ⁴ In that day they will take up a proverb against you and taunt you with this bitter lamentation: ‘We are utterly ruined! He has changed the portion of my people. How He has removed it from me! He has allotted our fields to traitors.’” ⁵ Therefore, you will have no one in the assembly of the LORD to divide the land by lot. ⁶ “Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.” ⁷ Should it be said, O house of Jacob, “Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things He does?” Do not My words bring good to him who walks uprightly? ⁸ But of late My people have risen up like an enemy: You strip off the splendid robe from unsuspecting passersby like men returning from battle. ⁹ You drive the women of My people from their pleasant homes. You take away My blessing from their children forever. ¹⁰ Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction— a grievous destruction! ¹¹ If a man of wind were to come and say falsely, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be just the preacher for this people! ¹² I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of its pasture— a noisy throng. ¹³ One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate, and go out by it. Their King will pass through before them, the LORD as their leader.