Micah

Micah foretells judgment from the LORD who comes down to tread the high places: Samaria’s idols and wealth will be smashed, Jerusalem’s wounds incurable. He laments through wordplays on Judah’s towns, warning that disaster is coming to the gate of Jerusalem.

Woe to those who scheme by night and seize fields and houses by day—Yahweh promises to pull their land from under them. False prophets who demand beer reject Micah’s warnings, yet God still vows to gather a remnant like sheep in a pen led out by their King.

Leaders who tear the flesh off people, prophets who preach for pay, and judges who take bribes will have no answer when God hides His face. Zion will be ploughed like a field, Jerusalem become ruins, because its rulers build with blood and injustice.

In the latter days the mountain of the LORD’s house will tower over all, nations will stream to it for instruction, swords will be beaten into ploughshares, and exiles gathered. Though now in labor and besieged, Daughter Zion will be redeemed and her dominion restored even to distant lands.

From Bethlehem Ephrathah will come a ruler whose origins are from ancient days; after a time of exile, Israel’s remnant will be like dew among nations and like a lion among flocks. God will cut off war-horses, chariots, fortified cities, sorcery, idols—executing vengeance on disobedient nations.

The LORD brings a covenant lawsuit: He has acted faithfully since Egypt, but His people respond with injustice. What He requires is clear—‘to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.’ Instead, scales are false, violence fills the city; therefore desolation and scorn await them.

Micah mourns a society devoid of loyalty, where even family cannot be trusted, yet he waits for the God of his salvation. Israel will fall, then rise; enemies will be shamed. God will again shepherd His people, pardoning iniquity and casting sins into the sea, faithful to Abrahamic promises.