Micah 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

The word Yahweh spoke to Micah of Moresheth while Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah. This is what he saw about Samaria and Jerusalem.

Listen, every one of you peoples. Pay attention, earth, and all of you who fill it. Let the Lord Yahweh be the witness against you, the Lord speaking from his temple.

Look: Yahweh is walking out of his own place. He is coming down. He is treading on the high ridges of the earth.

The mountains melt underneath him and the valleys split open, like wax held over a fire, like water poured down a slope.

All of this is for Jacob's revolt, for the failures of the house of Israel. What is Jacob's revolt? Samaria. Where are Judah's hilltop shrines? Jerusalem.

So I will turn Samaria into a heap of rubble in an open field, ground fit for planting vines. I will pour her stones down into the valley and lay her foundations bare.

Every carved figure she owns will be smashed, every fee she earned will be burned, and I will leave all her idols in ruins. She collected them out of a prostitute's earnings, and back to a prostitute's earnings they will go.

This is why I am wailing and beating my chest, why I walk stripped and barefoot, howling like a jackal, grieving like an ostrich in the desert.

Her wound will not close. It has spread to Judah. It has reached the gate of my own people. It has reached Jerusalem.

Say nothing about it in Gath. Do not shed a tear. In Beth-le-aphrah, the house of dust, roll yourself in the dust.

Move along, you who live in Shaphir, the pretty town, stripped naked and shamed. Zaanan, the town of going out, will not come out. Beth-ezel, the house standing beside you, is wailing; it pulls its support out from under you.

Maroth, the bitter town, is doubled over, waiting for anything good, because disaster has come down from Yahweh as far as the gate of Jerusalem.

Harness the fast horses to the chariot, you who live in Lachish. You were where the failure of Zion's people began. Israel's revolts turned up in you.

So you will be handing over farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath. The houses of Achzib will lie to the kings of Israel like a streambed that runs dry in summer.

Mareshah, town of inheritance, I am bringing you the man who takes over the inheritance. Israel's glory will end up at Adullam, hiding in the caves.

Shave your head bare for the children you took such pleasure in. Make yourself as bald as a vulture, because they are being marched away from you.