<t /><p class="bodytext">This is the prophetic message that the <sc>Lordsc> gave to<n id="1" /> Micah of Moresheth. He delivered this message<n id="2" /> during the reigns of<n id="3" /> Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The prophecies pertain to<n id="4" /> Samaria<n id="5" /> and Jerusalem.<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">All this is because of Jacob&#8217;s rebellionp> <p class="poetry">and<n id="1" /> the sins of the nation<n id="2" /> of Israel.p> <p class="poetry">How has Jacob rebelled, you ask?<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Samaria epitomizes their rebellion!<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Where are Judah&#8217;s pagan worship centers, you ask?<n id="5" />p> <p class="poetry">They are right in Jerusalem!<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">For Samaria&#8217;s<n id="1" /> disease<n id="2" /> is incurable.p> <p class="poetry">It has infected<n id="3" /> Judah;p> <p class="poetry">it has spread to<n id="4" /> the leadership<n id="5" /> of my peoplep> <p class="poetry">and has even contaminated Jerusalem!<n id="6" />p>

<p class="poetry">As for you, watchtower for the flock,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">fortress of Daughter Zion<n id="2" /> &#8211;p> <p class="poetry">your former dominion will be restored,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.p>

Turning to me, the messenger then said, &#8220;Cry out that the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all says, &#8216;I am very much moved<n id="1" /> for Jerusalem and for Zion.

I asked, &#8220;Where are you going?&#8221; He replied, &#8220;To measure Jerusalem<n id="1" /> in order to determine its width and its length.&#8221;

and said to him, &#8220;Hurry, speak to this young man<n id="1" /> as follows: &#8216;Jerusalem will no longer be enclosed by walls<n id="2" /> because of the multitude of people and animals there.

The <sc>Lordsc><n id="1" /> said to Satan, &#8220;May the <sc>Lordsc> rebuke you, Satan! May the <sc>Lordsc>, who has chosen Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> rebuke you! Isn&#8217;t this man like a burning stick snatched from the fire?&#8221;

Should you not have obeyed the words that the <sc>Lordsc> cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem<n id="1" /> was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah<n id="2" /> were also populated?p>

Moreover, the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all says, &#8216;Old men and women will once more live in the plazas of Jerusalem, each one leaning on a cane because of advanced age.

And I will bring them to settle within Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God,<n id="1" /> in truth and righteousness.&#8217;p>

so, to the contrary, I have planned in these days to do good to Jerusalem and Judah &#8211; do not fear!

Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all and to ask his favor.

The <sc>Lordsc> also will deliver the homes<n id="1" /> of Judah first, so that the splendor of the kingship<n id="2" /> of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not exceed that of Judah.

Moreover, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> half of them to the eastern sea<n id="2" /> and half of them to the western sea;<n id="3" /> it will happen both in summer and in winter.p>

Moreover, Judah will fight at<n id="1" /> Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered up<n id="2" /> &#8211; gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance.

But if any of the nations anywhere on earth refuse to go up to Jerusalem<n id="1" /> to worship the King, the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all, they will get no rain.

Judah has become disloyal, and unspeakable sins have been committed in Israel and Jerusalem.<n id="1" /> For Judah has profaned<n id="2" /> the holy things that the <sc>Lordsc> loves and has turned to a foreign god!<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">The king of Assyria sent his commanding general, the chief eunuch, and the chief adviser<n id="1" /> from Lachish to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> along with a large army. They went up and arrived at Jerusalem. They went<n id="3" /> and stood at the conduit of the upper pool which is located on the road to the field where they wash and dry cloth.<n id="4" />

King Rehoboam solidified his rule in Jerusalem;<n id="1" /> he<n id="2" /> was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the <sc>Lordsc> chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home.<n id="3" /> Rehoboam&#8217;s<n id="4" /> mother was an Ammonite named Naamah.