1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah aof Moresheth bin the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw cconcerning dSamaria and Jerusalem.
The Coming Destruction
2 eHear, you peoples, all of you;1
fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and glet the Lord God be a witness against you,
hthe Lord from his holy temple.
3 For behold, ithe Lord is coming out of jhis place,
and will come down and ktread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And lthe mountains will melt under him,
and the valleys will split open,
like wax before the fire,
like waters poured down a steep place.
5 All this is for mthe transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
nWhat is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not dSamaria?
And what is othe high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make dSamaria pa heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones qinto the valley
and runcover her foundations.
7 All sher carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
tall her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from tthe fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
8 uFor this I will lament and wail;
I will go vstripped and naked;
I will make lamentation wlike the jackals,
and mourning xlike the ostriches.
9 yFor her wound is incurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
broll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
cin nakedness and shame;
the inhabitants of Zaanan
do not come out;
the lamentation of Beth-ezel
shall take away from you its standing place.
12 For the inhabitants of Maroth
wait anxiously for good,
because disaster has come down dfrom the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of eLachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
fthe transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts2
to gMoresheth-gath;
the houses of hAchzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring ia conqueror to you,
inhabitants of hMareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to jAdullam.
16 kMake yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
kmake yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.
The Triumphal Entry
1 iNow when they drew near to Jerusalem, to jBethphage and Bethany, at kthe Mount of Olives, Jesus1 sent ltwo of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, mon which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many nspread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, o“Hosanna! pBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is qthe coming rkingdom of sour father rDavid! oHosanna tin the highest!”
11 uAnd he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, vhe went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 wOn the following day, when they came from Bethany, xhe was hungry. 13 yAnd seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for zit was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
15 aAnd they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of bthe money-changers and the seats of those who sold cpigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, d‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But eyou have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and fwere seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because gall the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 hAnd when evening came they2 went out of the city.
The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree
20 iAs they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, j“Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have kfaith in God. 23 lTruly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, m‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not ndoubt in his heart, but obelieves that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, pwhatever you ask in prayer, obelieve that you qhave received3 it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever ryou stand praying, sforgive, tif you have anything against anyone, so that uyour Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”4
The Authority of Jesus Challenged
27 vAnd they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, w“By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John xfrom heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, y‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—zthey were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was aa prophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem
41 rAnd when he drew near and saw the city, she wept over it, 42 saying, t“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now uthey are hidden from your eyes. 43 For vthe days will come upon you, when your enemies wwill set up a barricade around you and xsurround you and hem you in on every side 44 yand tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And zthey will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know athe time of your bvisitation.”
