Micah 2
1 Terrible things will happen to you who lie awake at night, planning to do wicked things. You get up at dawn, and you do those things, [as soon as] you are able to do them.
Woe to those that devise wickedness, and resolve on evil upon their couches! by the first light of the morning they execute it, if they have it in the power of their hand.
2 You want fields [that belong to other people], so you seize them; you also take their houses. You cheat people to get their homes, taking away the property that belongs to their families.
And they covet fields, and rob them; and houses, and take them away: so they defraud the master and his house, and the man and his heritage.
3 Therefore, this is what Yahweh says: “I will cause you people to experience disasters, and you will not be able to escape [MTY] from them. You will no [longer] walk around proudly, because when those things happen, it will be a time of much trouble for you.
Therefore thus hath said the Lord, Behold, I will devise against this family an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks; nor shall ye go erect; for it is an evil time.
4 At that time, [your enemies] will make fun of you; they will ridicule you by singing this sad song about you: ‘We are completely ruined; Yahweh is taking our land/fields from us, and he will give it to those who will capture us.’”
On that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a mournful lamentation, and say, “We are utterly wasted: the portion of my people hath he exchanged; how hath he removed it from me! instead of restoring [them to us] he divideth our fields.”
5 So [when it is the time for the land to be given back to you] people who belong to Yahweh, there will be no one [MTY] who will be able to (cast lots/throw marked stones) to determine which land belongs to whom.
Therefore shalt thou have none that shall draw the [measuring] cord in [his] lot in the congregation of the Lord.
6 The people [who heard me say that] replied to me, “Do not prophesy such things! Do not say that [Yahweh] is going to humiliate us [by causing us to experience disasters]!”
“Preach not;” [but] they shall preach: they shall not preach [indeed] to these, that reproach may not overtake them.
7 But you people [MTY] of Israel should not [RHQ] talk like that! The Spirit of Yahweh will certainly not [RHQ] be patient [with people who say such things]! People who continually do things that are righteous will certainly [RHQ] like/appreciate what I say.
Shall it be said [in] the house of Jacob, Is the spirit of the Lord straightened? are these his doings? Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
8 [But Yahweh says], “[Recently] my people have been acting toward me like an enemy. When soldiers return from fighting [against their enemies], you [rich people refuse to return the coats of those poor soldiers who have borrowed money from you] [and given you their coats to guarantee that they will pay back the money that they borrowed from you]. [It is as though] you are waiting to forcefully take their coats off their backs!
But long since is my people risen up as an enemy: from the garment do you pull off the ornament; of those that pass by securely [ye make] men returned from war.
9 You have forced women to leave their nice homes, and you have stolen from their children forever the (blessings/good things) that I wanted to give them.
The wives of my people do you drive out of their delightful houses; from their children do ye take away my ornament for ever.
10 [So] get up and leave [here]! This is not a place where you can rest [and be safe/protected], because you have (defiled it/caused it to be a place that I hate); it will be completely destroyed.
Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place; because it is polluted, it shall destroy [you], even with a grievous destruction.
11 [You people want] a prophet who will lie to you, saying ‘I will preach [that you should drink] plenty of wine and [other] alcoholic drinks!’ That is the [kind of] prophet who [would please] you.”
If a man that goeth after wind and lieth with falsehood [should say], “I will preach unto thee of wine and of strong drink:” he would be a preacher for this people.
12 “[But some day], you descendants of Jacob, you Israeli people who have survived, I will bring you back [from (exile/other countries)], I will gather you together like [SIM] [a shepherd gathers his] sheep from the pasture into a pen [DOU]; there will be many of you in your land/country.
I will [once] surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather up the remnant of Israel; I will place them together as flocks in the fold, as droves in the midst of their pen: they shall be crowded with men.
13 Your leader will enable them to leave the countries where they have been exiled; he will lead them out of the gates [of their enemies’ cities], [back to your own country]. Your king will lead them; [it is I], Yahweh, who will be their king!”
The wall-breaker cometh up before them; they break in and pass through the gate, and go out by it: and their king passeth on before them, and the Lord at their head.
