1 The word of the Lord that came to aMicah of Moresheth in the days of bJotham, cAhaz, and dHezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
The Coming Destruction
2 eHear, you peoples, all of you;1
fpay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord God be a witness against you,
the Lord from his gholy temple.
3 hFor behold, the Lord is coming out of his place,
and will come down and itread upon the high places of the earth.
4 And the jmountains 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 the transgression of Jacob
and for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob?
Is it not Samaria?
And what is the high place of Judah?
Is it not Jerusalem?
6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country,
a place for planting vineyards,
and I will pour down her stones into the valley
and uncover her foundations.
7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste,
for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them,
and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
8 For this I will lament and wail;
I will go kstripped and naked;
I will make lamentation like the jackals,
and mourning like the ostriches.
9 For her wound is lincurable,
and it has come to Judah;
it has reached to the gate of my people,
to Jerusalem.
10 mTell it not in Gath;
weep not at all;
in Beth-le-aphrah
nroll yourselves in the dust.
11 Pass on your way,
inhabitants of Shaphir,
in 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 from the Lord
to the gate of Jerusalem.
13 Harness the steeds to the chariots,
inhabitants of Lachish;
it was the beginning of sin
to the daughter of Zion,
for in you were found
the transgressions of Israel.
14 Therefore you shall give parting gifts2
to Moresheth-gath;
the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing
to the kings of Israel.
15 I will again bring a conqueror to you,
inhabitants of Mareshah;
the glory of Israel
shall come to Adullam.
16 Make yourselves obald and pcut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.
The Triumphal Entry
1 oNow when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus1 sent two 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, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The pLord 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 qthe colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many rspread 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, s“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the tcoming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 uOn the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a vfig 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 it 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 wAnd 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 the xmoney-changers and the seats of those who sold ypigeons. 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, z‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a aden of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way bto destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was castonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they2 went out of the city.
The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree
20 dAs they passed by in the morning, they saw the efig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, f“Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, gwhatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received3 it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, hif you have anything against anyone, iso that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”4
The Authority of Jesus Challenged
27 jAnd 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, “By what kauthority 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 from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you lnot believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a mprophet. 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 And when he drew near and saw the city, he uwept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a vbarricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will wnot leave one stone upon another in you, xbecause you did not know the time of your visitation.”
