The word of the Lord came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. What he saw concerned Samaria and Jerusalem, and the vision carried the weight of a legal summons. The Lord called all peoples to hear, the earth and everything in it to listen, and declared himself a witness against them from his holy temple.
The Lord was coming out of his place. He would descend and tread on the high places of the earth. Under him the mountains would melt, the valleys would split open like wax before fire, like water poured down a steep slope. This was not a distant threat. It was a direct response to the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel.
Micah named the transgression plainly. Samaria was the transgression of Jacob. Jerusalem was the high place of Judah. The two capitals had become the visible centers of rebellion, and the Lord intended to make Samaria a heap in the field, a place for planting vineyards. He would pour its stones into the valley and uncover its foundations.
The idols of Samaria would be beaten to pieces. The hires gathered from prostitution would be burned with fire. The Lord would lay all her images desolate, because she had gathered them from the hire of a harlot, and to the hire of a harlot they would return. Nothing would remain of the city's religious commerce.
Micah responded with public lament. He would wail and go stripped and naked, making a wailing like jackals and a lamentation like ostriches. The wounds of Samaria were incurable, and the disaster had reached Judah. It had come to the gate of his people, even to Jerusalem.
The prophet then issued a series of commands to the towns of Judah, each name carrying a bitter pun. Tell it not in Gath. Weep not at all. At Beth-le-aphrah, roll in the dust. The inhabitant of Shaphir would pass away in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan would not come forth. The wailing of Beth-ezel would take away its support.
The inhabitant of Maroth waited anxiously for good, but evil had come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem. Lachish was told to bind the chariot to the swift steed, for she was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion. The transgressions of Israel were found in her.
Moresheth-gath would give a parting gift. The houses of Achzib would be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel. The Lord would bring one to possess Mareshah, and the glory of Israel would come to Adullam. The prophet commanded the people to make themselves bald and cut off their hair for the children of their delight, to enlarge their baldness like an eagle, because those children had gone into captivity.