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Micah 1

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1 καὶ ἐγένετο λόγος κυρίου πρὸς Μιχαιαν τὸν τοῦ Μωρασθι ἐν ἡμέραις Ιωαθαμ καὶ Αχαζ καὶ Εζεκιου βασιλέων Ιουδα ὑπὲρ ὧν εἶδεν περὶ Σαμαρείας καὶ περὶ Ιερουσαλημ

1 This message came from the Lord to Michaeas the Morasthite, during the reigns of Joathan, Achaz and Ezechias in Juda; this revelation was made to him concerning Samaria and Jerusalem both together.

1 Verbum Domini, quod factum est ad Michæam Morasthiten, in diebus Joathan, Achaz, et Ezechiæ, regum Juda, quod vidit super Samariam et Jerusalem.

2 ἀκούσατε λαοί λόγους καὶ προσεχέτω ἡ γῆ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ ἔσται κύριος ἐν ὑμῖν εἰς μαρτύριον κύριος ἐξ οἴκου ἁγίου αὐτοῦ 3 διότι ἰδοὺ κύριος ἐκπορεύεται ἐκ τοῦ τόπου αὐτοῦ καὶ καταβήσεται καὶ ἐπιβήσεται ἐπὶ τὰ ὕψη τῆς γῆς 4 καὶ σαλευθήσεται τὰ ὄρη ὑποκάτωθεν αὐτοῦ καὶ αἱ κοιλάδες τακήσονται ὡς κηρὸς ἀπὸ προσώπου πυρὸς καὶ ὡς ὕδωρ καταφερόμενον ἐν καταβάσει

2 A word for you, nations far and near; let the whole world give audience, and all the world contains! Listen to this indictment the Lord God brings, from his high throne all beholding. 3 See, where the Lord comes out from his dwelling-place; and, as he makes his way down, the topmost peaks of earth for his stairway, 4 melt hills at his touch, melt valleys like wax before the fire, like water over the steep rocks flowing away!

2

Audite, populi omnes,
et attendat terra, et plenitudo ejus:
et sit Dominus Deus vobis in testem,
Dominus de templo sancto suo. 3
Quia ecce Dominus egredietur de loco suo,
et descendet, et calcabit super excelsa terræ. 4
Et consumentur montes subtus eum,
et valles scindentur sicut cera a facie ignis,
et sicut aquæ quæ decurrunt in præceps.

5 διὰ ἀσέβειαν Ιακωβ πάντα ταῦτα καὶ διὰ ἁμαρτίαν οἴκου Ισραηλ τίς ἡ ἀσέβεια τοῦ Ιακωβ οὐ Σαμάρεια καὶ τίς ἡ ἁμαρτία οἴκου Ιουδα οὐχὶ Ιερουσαλημ 6 καὶ θήσομαι Σαμάρειαν εἰς ὀπωροφυλάκιον ἀγροῦ καὶ εἰς φυτείαν ἀμπελῶνος καὶ κατασπάσω εἰς χάος τοὺς λίθους αὐτῆς καὶ τὰ θεμέλια αὐτῆς ἀποκαλύψω 7 καὶ πάντα τὰ γλυπτὰ αὐτῆς κατακόψουσιν καὶ πάντα τὰ μισθώματα αὐτῆς ἐμπρήσουσιν ἐν πυρί καὶ πάντα τὰ εἴδωλα αὐτῆς θήσομαι εἰς ἀφανισμόν διότι ἐκ μισθωμάτων πορνείας συνήγαγεν καὶ ἐκ μισθωμάτων πορνείας συνέστρεψεν

5 Alas, what betokens it? What but Jacob’s going astray, what but guilt of Israel’s line? Head and front of Jacob’s sinning Samaria needs must be, sure as Jerusalem is Juda’s place of pilgrimage.[1] 6 In ruin Samaria shall lie, a heap of stones in the open country-side, a terrace for vineyards; all down yonder valley I will drag the stones of her, till her very foundations are laid bare. 7 Shattered all those idols must be, burnt to ashes the gauds she wears;[2] never an image but shall be left forlorn; all shall go the way of a harlot’s wages, that were a harlot’s wages from the first.

5
In scelere Jacob omne istud,
et in peccatis domus Israël.
Quod scelus Jacob? nonne Samaria?
et quæ excelsa Judæ? nonne Jerusalem? 6
Et ponam Samariam quasi acervum lapidum in agro,
cum plantatur vinea;
et detraham in vallem lapides ejus,
et fundamenta ejus revelabo. 7
Et omnia sculptilia ejus concidentur,
et omnes mercedes ejus comburentur igne,
et omnia idola ejus ponam in perditionem,
quia de mercedibus meretricis congregata sunt,
et usque ad mercedem meretricis revertentur.

8 ἕνεκεν τούτου κόψεται καὶ θρηνήσει πορεύσεται ἀνυπόδετος καὶ γυμνή ποιήσεται κοπετὸν ὡς δρακόντων καὶ πένθος ὡς θυγατέρων σειρήνων 9 ὅτι κατεκράτησεν ἡ πληγὴ αὐτῆς διότι ἦλθεν ἕως Ιουδα καὶ ἥψατο ἕως πύλης λαοῦ μου ἕως Ιερουσαλημ 10 οἱ ἐν Γεθ μὴ μεγαλύνεσθε οἱ ἐν Ακιμ μὴ ἀνοικοδομεῖτε ἐξ οἴκου κατὰ γέλωτα γῆν καταπάσασθε κατὰ γέλωτα ὑμῶν 11 κατοικοῦσα καλῶς τὰς πόλεις αὐτῆς οὐκ ἐξῆλθεν κατοικοῦσα Σεννααν κόψασθαι οἶκον ἐχόμενον αὐτῆς λήμψεται ἐξ ὑμῶν πληγὴν ὀδύνης 12 τίς ἤρξατο εἰς ἀγαθὰ κατοικούσῃ ὀδύνας ὅτι κατέβη κακὰ παρὰ κυρίου ἐπὶ πύλας Ιερουσαλημ 13 ψόφος ἁρμάτων καὶ ἱππευόντων κατοικοῦσα Λαχις ἀρχηγὸς ἁμαρτίας αὐτή ἐστιν τῇ θυγατρὶ Σιων ὅτι ἐν σοὶ εὑρέθησαν ἀσέβειαι τοῦ Ισραηλ 14 διὰ τοῦτο δώσεις ἐξαποστελλομένους ἕως κληρονομίας Γεθ οἴκους ματαίους εἰς κενὰ ἐγένετο τοῖς βασιλεῦσιν τοῦ Ισραηλ 15 ἕως τοὺς κληρονόμους ἀγάγω σοι κατοικοῦσα Λαχις κληρονομία ἕως Οδολλαμ ἥξει ἡ δόξα τῆς θυγατρὸς Ισραηλ 16 ξύρησαι καὶ κεῖραι ἐπὶ τὰ τέκνα τὰ τρυφερά σου ἐμπλάτυνον τὴν χηρείαν σου ὡς ἀετός ὅτι ᾐχμαλωτεύθησαν ἀπὸ σοῦ

8 For this, should I not raise the dirge aloud? Barefoot go I and stripped; jackal nor ostrich cries out more lamentably. 9 Hurt is here past all cure, that to Juda itself must spread; Jerusalem itself, mart of my own country-side, shall feel the blow. 10 Gate of Gath[3] must never hear the news, hushed be the sound of weeping; afar at Beth-aphra cast the dust on your heads. 11 Away with you, Shaphir’s folk, shivering and shamed; of coming and going in Saanan sign is none; mourning of Beth-ezel … has taken the ground from under your feet. 12 Marred, now, are the anxious hopes of Maroth; so ruthless the Lord’s decree against yonder gates of Jerusalem. 13 Recklessly, at Lachis,[4] harness they steed to chariot; Lachis, that first betrayed poor Sion into guilt, that was Israel’s mistress in wrong-doing! 14 Marriage-dower this daughter of thine, Moreseth-gath, shall cost thee; here is Achsib, too, for the royal policy how rude a set-back! 15 Thy marches, Maresa, shall be ridden once again; to Odollam …

… Israel’s glory shall come.[5] 16 Such pride in thy children! Shaven bare thy brow; vulture itself is not so bald; alas, for sons of thine exiled far away!

8
Super hoc plangam, et ululabo;
vadam spoliatus, et nudus;
faciam planctum velut draconum,
et luctum quasi struthionum: 9
quia desperata est plaga ejus,
quia venit usque ad Judam;
tetigit portam populi mei usque ad Jerusalem. 10
In Geth nolite annuntiare;
lacrimis ne ploretis;
in domo pulveris pulvere vos conspergite. 11
Et transite vobis, habitatio pulchra, confusa ignominia:
non est egressa quæ habitat in exitu:
planctum domus vicina accipiet ex vobis, quæ stetit sibimet. 12
Quia infirmata est in bonum,
quæ habitat in amaritudinibus;
quia descendit malum a Domino in portam Jerusalem. 13
Tumultus quadrigæ stuporis habitanti Lachis:
principium peccati est filiæ Sion,
quia in te inventa sunt scelera Israël. 14
Propterea dabit emissarios super hæreditatem Geth,
domus mendacii in deceptionem regibus Israël. 15
Adhuc hæredem adducam tibi quæ habitas in Maresa;
usque ad Odollam veniet gloria Israël. 16
Decalvare, et tondere super filios deliciarum tuarum;
dilata calvitium tuum sicut aquila,
quoniam captivi ducti sunt ex te.

[1] In the original, the latter part of this verse reads simply, ‘What is the crime of Israel; is it not Samaria? And what are the hill-shrines of Juda, are they not Jerusalem?’ The sense of the phrase cannot be determined with certainty.

[2] ‘The gauds she wears’; literally, ‘the wages of a harlot’, as in the concluding part of the sentence. The prophet seems to regard the meretricious accessories of Samaritan worship not as a gift from man to God, but as a gift from God to man (possibly in allusion to the idea that false gods were responsible for Israel’s prosperity, cf. Os. 2.5). The end of the verse is perhaps merely a proverb, ‘lightly come, lightly go’, used of wealth won on easy terms.

[3] Gath seems to have been wrested from the Philistines by Ozias (II Par. 26.6); Michaeas points out that this and the neighbouring towns will once more be lost to Juda as the result of the Assyrian invasion. He plays upon the names of these towns by a series of rough assonances, of which the rendering given above may afford some idea. Unfortunately, the text of verses 10-15 seems to have been much disturbed; the meaning of the Hebrew is doubtful in several cases, and the Latin version, like the Septuagint Greek, yields no satisfactory sense, even where it can be construed as grammar. The Latin version also represents most of the place-names by common nouns. It is, therefore, the sense of the Hebrew text that is given here.

[4] The allusion to Lachis as specially responsible for Juda’s misdoings has not been convincingly explained.

[5] It seems impossible to find any meaning in the phrase, ‘the glory of Israel shall come to Odollam’, and the text of the verse may well have suffered in transmission.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd