Micah 2

Woe to the Oppressors

1 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.

2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

3 Therefore thus says the Lord:
behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks,
and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.

4 In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly,
and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people;
how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.”

5 Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.

6 “Do not preach”—thus they preach—
“one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.”

7 Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Has the Lord grown impatient?
Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly?

8 But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war.

9 The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away my splendor forever.

10 Arise and go, for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction.

11 If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,”
he would be the preacher for this people!

12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.

13 He who opens the breach goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate, going out by it.
Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.