1   The word of our Lord that was made to Michæas the Morasthite, in the dayes of Ioathan, Achaz, and Ezechias kinges of Iuda: which he saw vpon Samaria and Ierusalem.

2   Heare al ye peoples: and let the earth attend, and the fulnes therof: and ^note let our Lord God be vnto you for a witnes, our Lord out of his holie temple.

3   Because loe our Lord wil goe forth out of his place: and he wil descend, & wil tread vpon the highest of the earth.

4   And the mountaines shal be consumed vnder him: and the

valleis shal be clouen, as waxe at the presence of fyre, & as waters that runne downe headlong.

5   For the wickednes of Iacob al this, and for the sinnes of the house of Israel. what is the wickednes of Iacob? is it not Sammaria? and what the excelses of Iuda? is it not Ierusalem?

6   And I wil lay Samaria as a heape of stones in the filde when a vineyard is planted: and I wil plucke downe her stones into the valley, & wil discouer her fundations.

7   And al her sculptils shal be cut in sunder, and al her wages shal be burnt with fyre, and I wil lay al her idols into perdition: because they are gathered together of the wages of an harlot, & ^note vnto the hyre of an harlot they shal returne.

8   Vpon this wil I lament, and howle: I wil goe spoiled, and naked: I wil make lamentation as of dragons, and mourning as it were of striches.

9   Because her plague is desperate, because it is come euen to Iuda it hath touched the gate of my people euen to Ierusalem.

10    ^noteIn Geth declare it not, weepe not with teares: ^note in the house of dust sprinkle your self with dust.

11   And passe ye to your selues ô faire habitation, confounded with ignominie: she went not out that dwelleth in the going out: the house adioyning shal receiue lamentation of you, which stood to her self.

12   Because she is weakened to good which dwelleth in bitternesses: because euil is descended from our Lord into the gate of Ierusalem.

13   Tumult of the chariot of astonishment to the inhabitant of Lachis: it is the beginning of sinne to the daughter of Sion, because in thee are found the wickednesses of Israel.

14   Therfore shal he geue spoilers vpon the inheritance of Geth: the houses of lying into deception to the kinges of Israel.

15   As yet wil I bring an heyre to thee which dwellest in Maresa: euen to ^note Odolla shal the glorie of Israel come.

16   Be bald, and be pouled for the children of thy delicacies: enlarge thy baldnes as an eagle: because they are led captiues out of thee. Chap. II. By their great iniustice, 7. notwithstanding their vaine presumption of Gods mercie; wherto he is in dede most prone, 8. the Israelites through their excessiue rapine, prouoke God to punish them. 12. yet when Christ shal come some Iewes wil serue him; and manie more in the end of the world.

1   VVo to you which thinke that is ^note vnpofitable, and worke euil in your beds: in the morning light

they doe it, because their hand is against God.

2   And they haue coueted fildes, and violently taken, and houses forcibly taken away: and oppressed the man and his house, the man and his inheritance.

3   Therfore thus saith our Lord: Behold I purpose euil vpon this familie: whence you shal not take away your neckes, and you shal not walke prowd, because it is a very euil time.

4   In that day a parable shal be taken vp vpon you, and a songue shal be sung with sweetnes, of them that say: With depopulation we are wasted: part of my people is changed: how shal he depart from me, wheras he returneth, that wil diuide our regions?

5   For this cause thou shalt haue none casting the cord of lot in the assemblie of our Lord.

6   Speake ye not ^note speaking: It shal not droppe vpon these, confusion shal not apprehend them.

7   The house of Iacob saith: Why is the spirit of our Lord abridged, or are his cogitations such? ^noteAre not my wordes good with him that walketh rightly?

8   And on the contrarie my people is risen vp as an aduersarie: from aboue the cote you haue taken away the cloke: & them that passed simply, you turned into battel.

9   The wemen of my people you haue cast out of the house of their delicacies: from their litle ones you haue taken my praise for euer.

10   Arise, and goe, because you haue no rest here. For the vncleannes therof it shal be corrupted with a sore putrefaction.

11   Would God I were not a man hauing the spirit, and that I did rather speake a lie: I wil distil to thee into wine, and into drunkennes: and it shal be this people vpon whom it is distilled.

12    ^noteGathering I wil gather thee wholly together ô Iacob: I wil bring together the remnant of Israel into one, I wil put them together as a flocke in the fold, as cattel in the middes of sheepcotes, they shal make a tumult by reason of the multitude of men.

13   For he shal ascend opening the way before them: they shal diuide, and passe through the gate, and shal enter by it: and their king shal passe before them, and our Lord in the head of them. Chap. III. ^note For the sinnes of the rich opressing the poore, 5. of falfe prophets flatering for lucre, 9. and of Iudges peruerting iustice, 12. Ierusalem, and the temple shal be destroyed.

1   And I sayd: Heare ye princes ^note of Iacob, & ye dukes of the house of Israel: Why, is it not your part to know

iudgement,

2   which hate good, and loue euil: which violently take away their skinnes from them, and their flesh from their bones?

3   Which haue eaten the flesh of my people, and haue slead their skinne from them: and haue broken, and cut their bones as in a kettle & as it were flesh in the middes of a potte. shal they crie to our Lord, and he wil not heare them: and he wil hide his face from them at that time, as they haue done wickedly in their inuentions.

5   Thus sayth our Lord vpon ^note the prophets, that seduce my people: that bite with their teeth, nnd preach peace: and if a man geue not something in their mouth, they sanctifie battel vpon him.

6   Therfore there shal be nigt to you for vision, and darkenes to you for diuination: and the sunne shal goe downe vpon the prophets, & the day shal be darkened ouer them.

7   And they shal be confounded that see visions, and the diuiners shal be confounded: and al shal couer their faces, because there is no answer of God.

8   But yet I am replenished with the strenght of the spirit of our Lord, with iudgement, and power: to declare vnto Iacob his wickednes, and to Israel his sinne.

9   Heare this ye princes of the house of Iacob, and ye ^note iudges of the house of Israel: which abhorre iudgement, & peruert al right thinges.

10   Which build Sion in bloud, and Ierusalem in iniquitie.

11   Her princes iudged for gifts, and her priests taught for wages, and her prophets diuined for money: & they rested vpon our Lord, saying: Why, is not our Lord in the middes of vs? euils shal not come vpon vs.

12    ^noteFor this, because of you, Sion shal be ploughed as a filde, and Ierusalem shal be as an heape of stones, and the mount of the temple as the high places of forests. Chap. IIII. ^note Manie Gentiles shal beleue in Christ: 6. and lastly the multitude of Iewes. 8. In the meane time the two tribes shal be caried into captiuitie, and be deliuered againe.

1   And it shal be: In ^note the later end of dayes there shal be the mount of the house of our Lord prepared in the toppe of mountaines, and high aboue the hilles: and peoples shal flow to it.

2   And manie nations shal hasten, & shal say: Come, let vs goe vp to the mountaine of our Lord, & to the house of the God of Iacob: & he wil teach vs of his wayes, and we shal goe in this pathes: because out of Sion shal the law goe forth, and the word of our Lord out of Ierusalem.

3   And he shal

iudge betwen manie peoples, and he shal rebuke strong nations vnto a far of: and they ^note shal cut their swordes into culters, and their speares into spades: nation shal not take sword against nation: and they shal no more learne to make battel.

4   And euerie man shal sitte vnder his vine, & vnder his figtree, and there shal be none to make them afrayd: because the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

5   Because ^note al peoples wil walke euerie one in the name of his God: but we shal walke in the name of the Lord our God for euer and euer.

6   In that day, saith our Lord; ^note I wil gather her that halteth: and her that I had cast out, I wil gather vp, & her whom I had afflicted.

7   And I wil make her that halted into a remnant: and her that had laboured into a mightie nation: and our Lord wil reigne ouer them in mount Sion, from this time now and for euer.

8   And thou ^note the towre of flocke, clowdie of the daughter of Sion shal come to thee: and the first powre shal come the kingdom to the daughter of Ierusalem.

9   Now why art thou drawne together with pensifnes? why, is there not a king to thee, or is thy counselor perished, because sorow hath apprehended thee as a woman in trauel?

10   Sorow thou & labour ô daughter of Sion as a woman in trauel: because now shalt thou goe out of the citie, and shalt dwel in the countrie, and shalt come euen to Babylon, there thou shalt be deliuered: there our Lord wil redeme thee out of the hand of thine enemies.

11   And now manie nations are gathered together vpon thee, which say: Let her be stoned: and let our eye looke vpon Sion.

12    ^noteBut they haue not knowne the cogitations of our Lord, and haue not vnderstood his counsel: because he hath gathered them together as the haye of the floore,

13   Arise, and thresh ô daughter of Sion: because I wil make thy horne of yron, and thy hoofes I wil make of brasse: & thou shalt breake in peeces manie peoples, and shalt kil the spoiles of them to our Lord, and their strength to the Lord of the whole earth. Chap. V. ^note Ierusalem shal be besieged and taken (2. Christ shal be borne in Bethlehem) 3. the Iewes shal not be wholly reiected, vntil the Gentiles beginne to embrace the true faith. 4. which shal be spred in the whole world, 8. pure from idolatrie, 14. and the incredulous punished.

1   Now shalt thou be spoiled ^note daughter of the spoiler: they haue layd siege vpon vs, with a rod shal they strike the cheeke of the iudge of Israel.

2   And thov Bethlehem, Ephrata, art ^note a litle one in the thousands of Iuda: out of thee shal come forth vnto me he that shal be the dominatour in Israel: and his coming forth09Q0319 from the begynning, from the dayes of eternitie.

3   Therfore shal he geue them euen til the time, wherin she that traueleth shal bring forth: and the remnant of his bretheren shal be conuerted to the children of Israel.

4   And he shal stand, and feede in the strength of our Lord, in the height of the name of our Lord his God: and they shal be conuerted, because now shal he be magnified euen to the endes of the earth.

5   And this man shal be peace: when the Assyrian shal come into our land, and when he shal tread in our houses: and we wil rayse vpon him09Q0320 seuen pastours, and 09Q0321 eight principal men.

6   And they shal feede the land of Assur in the sword, and the land of Nemrod in the speares therof: and he shal deliuer from Assur, when he shal come into our Land, and when he shal tread in our coasts.

7   And the remnant of Iacob shal be in the middes of manie peoples as dew from our Lord, and as droppes vpon the grasse, which expecteth not man, and tarieth not for the children of men.

8   And the remnant of Iacob shal be in the Gentiles in the middes of manie peoples, as a lion among the beasts of the forests, and as a lions whelpe among the flockes of cattel: who when he hath passed, and troden downe, and taken, there is none to deliuer.

9   Thy hand shal be exalted ouer thine enemies, and al thine enemies shal perish.

10   And it shal be in that day, sayth our Lord: I wil take away thy horses out of the middes of thee, and wil destroy thy chariots.

11   And I wil destroy the cities of thy land, and wil destroy al thy munitions, and I wil take away sorceries out of thy hand, & there shal be no diuinations in thee.

12   And I wil make thy sculptils to perish, and thy statuees out of the middes of thee: and thou shalt no more adore the workes of thy handes.

13   And I wil plucke vp thy groues out of the middes of thee: and wil destroy thy cities.

14   And I wil doe vengeance in furie and in indignation among al the nations, that haue not heard. ^note

^note Chap. VI. ^note God expostulateth with the chiefe of the Iewes, 3. and with the whole people, their ingratitude, for his singular benefites: 6. who is not pacified with sacrifices, 8. but by doing iustice. 9. which they not doing, 13. shal be afflicted by their enimies.

1   Heare ye what our Lord speaketh: Arise, contend in iudgement against the mountaines, & let the hilles heare thy voice.

2   Let the mountaynes heare the iudgement of our Lord, & the strong fundations of the earth: because the iudgement of our Lord is with his people, and with Israel he wil be iudged.

3    ^noteMy people what haue I done to thee, or what haue I molested thee? answer me.

4   Because I brought thee out of the Land of Ægypt, & deliuered thee out of the house of them that serued: and sent before thy face Moyses, and Aaron, and ^note Marie?

5   My people remember I pray thee, what Balach the king of Moab purposed: and what Balaam the sonne of Beor answered him: from Setim euen to Galgal, that thou mightst know the iustices of our Lord.

6   What worthie thing shal I offer to our Lord? shal I bow the knee to the high God? What shal I offer vnto him holocausts, & calues of a yeare old?

7   Why, can our Lord be pacified with thousandes of rammes, or with manie thousandes of fatte buckgoates? Why, shal I geue my first borne for my wickednes, the fruite of my womb for the sinne of my soule?

8   I wil shew thee ô man what is good, and what our Lord requireth of thee: Verely ^note to do indgement, and to loue mercie, and to walke solicitous with thy God.

9   The voice of our Lord crieth to the citie, and saluation shal be to them that feare thy name: heare ye ô tribes, and who shal approue it?

10   As yet there is fire in the house of

the impious, treasures of iniquitie, and a lesser measure ful of wrath.

11   Why, shal I iustifie an impious balance, and the deceitful weights of the bag?

12   By which her richmen were replenished with iniquitie, and the inhabitants therin spake lies, and their tongue was fraudulent in their mouth.

13   And I therfore begane to strike thee with perdition for thy sinnes.

14   Thou shalt eate, & shalt not be filled: and thy humiliation in the middes of thee: and thou shalt apprehend, and shalt not saue: and whom thou shalt saue, I wil geue vnto the sword.

15   Thou shalt sow, and shalt not reape: thou shalt tread the oliue, and shalt not be anoynted with the oyle: and presse muste, & shalt not drinke the wine.

16   And thou hast kept the precepts ^note of Amri, and al the worke of the house of Achab: and thou hast walked in their willes, that I might geue thee into perdition, and the inhabitants therin into hissing, and the reproch of my people you shal beare. Chap. VII. ^note The prophet lamenteth, that for al his preaching few are good, and manie corrupt in maners: 5. therfore their miseries approch: 7. from which they shal be againe deliuered, 14. and prosper, 20. and al mankind shal be redemed by Christ.

1   VVo is me, because I am become as he that gathereth in autumne the clusters of vintage: there is no cluster to eate, timely ripe figges my soule hath desired.

2   The holie is perished out of the earth, & there is ^note none righteous among men: al lie in wayte for bloud, euerie one hunteth his brother to death.

3   The euil of their handes they cal good the prince requireth, and the iudge is in rendring: and the great man hath spoken the desire of his soule, and they haue trubled it.

4   He that is left among them, is as a brier: and he that is righteous, as the thorne of the hedge. The day of thy speculation, thy visitation cometh: now shal be the destruction of them.

5    ^noteBeleue not a frend, and trust not in prince: from her that sleepeth in thy bosome, keepe the closures of thy mouth.

6   Because the sonne doth contumelie to the father, & the daughter ryseth agaynst her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law: & a mans enemies they of his owne houshold.

7   But I wil looke towards our Lord, I wil expect God my sauiour: my God wil heare me.

8   Reioyce not thou mine enemie ouer me, because I am fallen: I shal arise, when I haue sitte

in darkenes, our Lord is my light.

9   I wil beare the wrath of our Lord, because I haue sinned to him: vntil he iudge my iudgement: he wil bring me forth into the light, I shal see his iustice.

10   And mine enemie shal behold, and ^note she shal be couered with confusion, which sayth to me, where is the Lord thy God? Mine eyes shal looke on her: now shal she be into conculcation as the myre of the streetes.

11   The day that thy walles may be builded vp: in that day shal the law be made far of.

12   In that day and Assur shal come euen to thee, & euen to the fensed cities, and from the fensed cities euen to the riuer, and to sea from sea, and to mountaine from mountaine.

13   And the land shal be into desolation for the inhabitants therof, and for the fruite of their cogitations.

14    ^noteFeede thy people with thy ^noterod, the flocke of thine inheritance, them that dwel alone in in the forest, in the middes of Carmel: they shal feede vpon Basan and Galaad according to the dayes of old.

15   According to the dayes of thy coming forth out of the Land of Ægypt I wil shew him meruels.

16   The nations shal see, and shal be confounded vpon al their strength: they shal put the hand vpon the mouth, their eares shal be deafe.

17   They shal licke dust as serpents, as the creeping beasts of the earth, they shal be trubled in their houses: the Lord our God they shal dreade, and shal feare thee.

18   What God is like to thee, which takest away iniquitie, and passest ouer the sinne of the remnant of thine inheritance? he wil send his furie in no more, because he is willing mercie.

19   He wil returne, and wil haue mercie on vs: he wil lay away our iniquities: and he wil cast al our sinnes into the botome of the sea.

20   Thou wilt geue ^note truth to Iacob, ^note mercie to Abraham: which thou hast sworne to our fathers from the dayes of old.

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