Micah 2:1-8

Disaster is ahead for those who plot evil. They’re as good as dead! Disaster is ahead for those who scheme as they lie on their bed. No sooner is it dawn than they act on their plan just because they can. They covet someone’s field and seize it for themselves, and they take over his house as well. They defraud a man of his home and another man of his inheritance. So here’s what YAHWEH has to say about that: “Now I am the one plotting a disaster for those who plot to defraud others, a disaster from which you cannot escape. You will no longer walk with heads held high, for a catastrophe will bring you low. And when that time comes, people will adopt a taunting proverb about you and sing this mournful song to mock your sad experience: ‘We have lost everything! God has divided up our people’s lands with no one left to restore it to our hands. Our property has been seized and given to our captors—the traitors.’ ” Because of this, when YAHWEH restores the land to his people, those corrupt leaders will have no stake in YAHWEH’s assembly nor have any part in the distribution of land. They berate me continually. “Don’t prophesy,” they say to me. “Don’t keep prophesying on and on about these things! Disgrace will not overtake us.” Should Jacob’s descendants even be asking, “Is the Spirit of YAHWEH really so short-tempered that he would do such things to us?” YAHWEH “When I speak, don’t my words produce good within the one who obeys them? But you wealthy oppressors of the poor have become like enemies attacking my people. When men return home from war and think they are finally safe at home, there you are, ready to snatch the coats off their backs as security for the money they owe you.