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Chapter 1
This message came from the Lord to Michaeas the Morasthite, during the reigns of Joathan, Achaz and Ezechias in Juda; this revelation was made to him concerning Samaria and Jerusalem both together. A word for you, nations far and near; let the whole world give audience, and all the world contains! Listen to this indictment the Lord God brings, from his high throne all beholding. See, where the Lord comes out from his dwelling-place; and, as he makes his way down, the topmost peaks of earth for his stairway, melt hills at his touch, melt valleys like wax before the fire, like water over the steep rocks flowing away!
Alas, what betokens it? What but Jacob's going astray, what but guilt of Israel's line? Head and front of Jacob's sinning Samaria needs must be, sure as Jerusalem is Juda's place of pilgrimage. In ruin Samaria shall lie, a heap of stones in the open country-side, a terrace for vineyards; all down yonder valley I will drag the stones of her, till her very foundations are laid bare. Shattered all those idols must be, burnt to ashes the gauds she wears; never an image but shall be left forlorn; all shall go the way of a harlot's wages, that were a harlot's wages from the first.
For this, should I not raise the dirge aloud? Barefoot go I and stripped; jackal nor ostrich cries out more lamentably. Hurt is here past all cure, that to Juda itself must spread; Jerusalem itself, mart of my own country-side, shall feel the blow. Gate of Gath must never hear the news, hushed be the sound of weeping; afar at Bethaphra cast the dust on your heads. Away with you, Shaphir's folk, shivering and shamed; of coming and going in Saanan sign is none; mourning of Beth-ezel... has taken the ground from under your feet. Marred, now, are the anxious hopes of Maroth; so ruthless the Lord's decree against yonder gates of Jerusalem. Recklessly, at Lachis, harness they steed to chariot; Lachis, that first betrayed poor Sion into guilt, that was Israel's mistress in wrong-doing! Marriage-dower this daughter of yours, Moreseth-gath, shall cost you; here is Achsib, too, for the royal policy how rude a set-back! your marches, Maresa, shall be ridden once again; to Odollam...
... Israel's glory shall come. Such pride in your children! Shaven bare your brow; vulture itself is not so bald; alas, for sons of yours exiled far away!
Chapter 2
Out upon you, that lie awake over dreams of mischief, schemes of ill, and are up at dawn of day to execute them, soon as your godless hands find opportunity! Covet they house or lands, house or lands by robbery become theirs; ever their oppression comes between a man and his home, a man and his inheritance. And I, too, the Lord says, am devising mischief, mischief against the whole clan of you; never think to shake it off from your necks and walk proudly as of old; ill days are coming. A by-word then they shall make of you, dirge and dole of music raise over you: Stripped, stripped bare! My country's bounds removed! Come he but once again, that so parcels out our lands, all is lost to me! Trust me, when lands are allotted among the Lord's people, never shall one of yonder clan have rope to throw.
Prophets, leave your prophesying; word of prophecy is never for such as these, never may shame overtake them. What, cry they of Jacob, is the Lord so easily offended? Are his designs indeed so unfavourable? Nay, certain it is, if a man will follow the straight path, award of mine shall prosper him; but what of you? Has not this people of mine long counted you enemies, rising up to arraign you? Robbers, that will have cloak and coat both; what marvel if simple folk are up in arms against you? My people! And you would dispossess its women of the homes they loved, take away from its children... my glory for ever. Do you, in your turn, rise up and go your ways; no resting-place shall you have here; corruption most foul the guilt of this land shall breed in it.
Alas, that I should be one beckoned by the spirit, and not rather some forger of lies! Wine and revel to inspire him, he might prophesy, and a people such as this take him for an oracle: Trust me, Jacob, I mean to assemble you in full strength, rally all that is left of Israel in one place, thronging like sheep in fold, like herd in byre, hum of voices echoing all around; where the breach has been made ready for them, break they out and pass on their way, sally forth with a king to lead them, with the Lord at their head!
Chapter 3
But no, this is my word to you, chieftains of Jacob's line, rulers of Israel: Who should acclaim justice, if not you? Alas, that you should be the foes of right, the friends of wrong! Beasts of prey, that will have skin and flesh both, leave nothing save the bare bone. My people! And you will gnaw flesh of them, tear skin of them, break bones of them; cut them to pieces, meat for your pot, roast for your oven! What marvel, if the Lord will not listen to such cry as yours, turns his back on you in your distress, for your ill deserving?
And this message the Lord has for prophets that guide my people amiss, prophets that must have their mouths filled ere they will cry, All's well; sop you must give them, else you shall be their sworn enemy. Visions would you see, all shall be night around you, search you the skies, you shall search in the dark; never a prophet but his sun is set, his day turned into twilight! Seers that see nothing, baffled diviners, acknowledge they, finger on lip, word from God is none. But here stands one that is full of the Lord's spirit; vigour it lends me, and discernment, and boldness, fault of Jacob to denounce, guilt of Israel to proclaim.
A word with you, chieftains of Jacob's line, rulers of Israel, that hold right abominable, and all justice pervert; that build up strength of Sion, fortunes of Jerusalem, with deeds of bloodshed and of wrong! Never a judge but has his price; never a priest tradition teaches, but for hire; never a prophet but must have his hand lined with silver! And all the while, how lean they on the Lord! Is not he in their midst (they ask)? How should harm befall them? Trust me, for such guilt as yours I will turn mount Sion into plough-lands; standing heaps of stones that were once Jerusalem, and brushwood of the high forest growing over the Temple hill.
Chapter 4
The Temple hill! One day it shall stand there, highest of all the mountain-heights, overtopping the peaks of them, and the nations will flock there together. A multitude of peoples will make their way to it, crying, Come, let us climb up to the Lord's mountain-peak, to the house where the God of Jacob dwells; he shall teach us the right way, we will walk in the paths he has chosen. The Lord's command shall go out from Sion, his word from Jerusalem; over thronging peoples he shall sit in judgement, give award to great nations from far away. Sword they will fashion into ploughshare and spear into pruning-hook; no room there shall be for nation to levy war against nation, and train itself in arms. At ease you shall sit, each of you with his own vine, his own fig-tree to give him shade, and none to raise the alarm; such blessing the Lord of hosts pronounces on you. Let other nations go their own way, each with the name of its own god to rally it; ours to march under his divine name, who is our God for ever and for evermore!
When that time comes, the Lord says, I will gather them in again and take them to myself, flock of mine that go limping and straggling, ever since I brought calamity on them; lame shall yet be a stock to breed from, and wayworn shall grow into a sturdy race; here in Sion they shall dwell, and the Lord be king over them, for ever henceforward. And you, the watch-tower of that flock, cloud-capped fastness where the lady Sion reigns, power shall come back to you as of old, once more Jerusalem shall be a queen.
When that time comes! At this present time, what anguish is this constrains you? Have king and counsellor played you false, that the pangs of travail take hold on you? Sorrow you well may, lady of Sion, and labour as any woman brought to bed; city you must needs leave, and lodge in the open country-side, nay, to distant Babylon you must journey; there it is you will find deliverance, there it is the Lord will ransom you from the power of your enemies. At this present time, how many the nations that gather about you, crying, Death to the adulteress! Feast we our eyes on Sion's downfall! Little they know God's thoughts; little they guess his purpose is to store them up, like wheat on the threshing-floor! Up, lady of Sion, and set about the threshing of them! Horn of iron, hoof of bronze he will give you, to grind all that conspiracy of nations to dust. Forfeit to the Lord their ill-gotten gains shall be; nothing of theirs but must be his, who is master of the whole earth.
Chapter 5
At this present time, what is left you but to muster your roving bands, daughter of an outlaw king? Hard siege presses us now; smitten on the cheek, now, is the ruler of Israel.
Bethlehem-Ephrata! Least do they reckon you among all the clans of Juda? Nay, it is from you I look to find a prince that shall rule over Israel. Whence comes he? From the first beginning, from ages untold! Marvel not, then, if the Lord abandons his people for a time, until she who is in travail has brought forth her child; others there are, brethren of his, that must be restored to the citizenship of Israel. Enabled by the Lord his God, confident in that mighty protection, stands he, our shepherd, and safely folds his flock; fame of him now reaches to the world's end; who else should be its hope of recovery? What though the Assyrian invade our country, trample down our strongholds? Seven leaders of men we shall find to marshal us, and an eighth yet in reserve; sword in hand, they shall herd the men of Assyria, naked steel for the land of Nemrod! Invade they, trample they as they will, he shall be our deliverance.
Poor remnant of Jacob, lost among that multitude of peoples! Yet thrive it shall; does not the grass thrive, with dew and shower from the Lord to water it, nor looks for man's tending, unbeholden to our human toil? Poor remnant of Jacob, among those heathen multitudes lost! Yet lion amid the forest herds, lion's whelp amid flock of sheep, finds not easier passage, brings not down more inexorably his prey. High triumph you shall have over your enemies; perish all that bear you ill-will!
All other help, the Lord says, shall then be denied you; gone, horse and chariot of yours, the cities lost, ruined the strongholds. Sorcery you shall have none to trust in, nor divinings; gone idol and sacred pillar of yours, nor any of your own imaginings left you; uprooted the woods of your false worship, fallen the cities. Only then shall my fierce anger find its scope, only then fall my vengeance upon the nations that defied me.
Chapter 6
Listen to this message I have from the Lord: Up, and to the mountains make your complaint, let the hill-sides echo with your voice! Listen they must, yonder sturdy bastions of earth, while the Lord impleads his people; Israel stands upon its trial now. Tell me, my people, what have I done, that you should be a-weary of me? Answer me. Was it ill done, to rescue you from Egypt, set you free from a slave's prison, send Moses and Aaron and Mary to guide you on your way? Bethink you, what designs had Balach, king of Moab, and how Balaam the son of Beor answered him... from Setim to Galgala; and can you doubt, then, the faithfulness of the Lord's friendship?
How best may I humble myself before the Lord, that is God most high? What offering shall I bring? Calf, think you, of a year old, for my burnt-sacrifice? Fall rams by the thousand, fattened buck-goats by the ten thousand, will the Lord be better pleased? Shall gift of first-born for wrong-doing atone, body's fruit for soul's assoiling? Nay, son of Adam, what need to ask? Best of all it is, and this above all the Lord demands of you, right you should do, and ruth love, and carry yourself humbly in the presence of your God.
So comes the divine voice to yonder city; best he shall thrive, that stands in awe of your name. Listen, tribesmen, to that voice; which of you dares acclaim it? What of homes unhallowed, that hide yet the ill-gotten gain, the false measure to call down my vengeance? Here the uneven scales, there the bag of short weights, and shall I hold you acquitted? City where the rich are ever busy with oppression, where all is treachery, and a man has a tongue in his mouth only to deceive! Your turn, now, to feel my lash; your guilt is your undoing. yours to eat, and eating, never have your fill; for all alike, now, the same affliction. Yours to enslave, but your slaves never to keep; those you have, I mean to make over to the sword. Sow shall you, and never reap, press olive, and never anoint you, tread grape, and no wine drink. Commands of Amri you would obey, not mine, Ahab's purposes, not mine, fulfil; their bidding if you would follow, what marvel that I should mark you down for ruin, Jerusalem for the hiss of scorn?
Shame of its own origins the people that is mine must bear.
Chapter 7
Your tears for Sion! Not more pitiful work is gleaning when the vintage is done; never a cluster to eat; for the ripe figs belly craves in vain. Fled is piety, vanished honesty, from human kind; murderous plots afoot; the hunt is up everywhere, man spreading his nets for man. Ever the wrong done, and fair names devised for it; ruler must have his benevolence, and judge his gratuity, and tyrant makes known what is his earnest wish; they know well how to wrap it up. Cruel as thorns they be, that are kindliest of them, close as thorn-hedge, that are honest above the rest. Surely this is the day your watchmen foretold, surely you will call them to account; not long delayed their last extremity!
Trust no man, give your heart to no man, though he be friend and counsellor of yours; against the wife that lies on your bosom, guard the entry of your lips; here, where son fools father, and daughter her mother, and son's wife her mother-in-law, where a man's own household are his enemies! On the Lord my eyes are set; it is to God I look for my protection; my own God, and will he deny me audience?
City that Sion hate, never triumph over her fall; fall I, it is but to rise again, sit I in darkness, the Lord will be my light. The Lord's displeasure I must bear, I that have sinned against him, till at last he admits my plea, and grants redress. Out into the light he will bring me, to find him faithful still. Sore abashed that enemy of mine shall behold it; only yesterday she was crying, What is become of your God now? Welcome the sight, when she is trampled down like mire in the streets!
Day of pell-mell disorder it shall be, the day of your walls rebuilding; a day when folk shall resort to you from all the lands that lie between Assyria and the towns of Egypt, between Egypt and... Euphrates, between sea and sea, mountain-range and mountain-range. By then, the whole country-side will be lying desolate, such reward the inhabitants of it have earned by their ill-doing. With that staff of yours gather your people in, the flock that is your very own, scattered now in the forest glades, with rich plenty all around them; Basan and Galaad for their pasture-grounds, as in the days of old. Now for such wondrous evidences of power as marked your rescuing of them from Egypt! Here is a sight to make the Gentiles hold their valour cheap, stand there dumb; ay, and why not deaf too? Let them lick the dust, serpent-fashion, crawl out from their homes, like scared reptiles, in terror of the Lord our God; much cause they shall have to fear him.
Was there ever such a God, so ready to forgive sins, to overlook faults, among the scattered remnant of his chosen race? He will exact vengeance no more; he loves to pardon. He will relent, and have mercy on us, quashing our guilt, burying our sins away sea-deep. You will keep your promise to Jacob, shew mercy to Abraham, your promised mercies of long ago.