p, Ephraim? how shall I deliver
thee, Israel? mine heart is turned within me, my compassions are
kindled together. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I
will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the
Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not come in wrath. They
shall walk after the Lord, who shall roar like a lion: for he shall
roar, and the children shall come trembling from the west. They shall
come trembling as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land
of Assyria: and I will make them to dwell in their houses, saith the
Lord. I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem
them from death: O death, where are thy plagues? O grave, where is thy
destruction? I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely:
for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto
Israel: he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as
Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the
olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

{367}

MICAH

(It is supposed that Micah lived in the time of Isaiah, the prophet.
His message resembles that of Amos in its stern denunciation of the
wrong-doing of the rich. He himself belonged to the poorer classes and
speaks from a full heart when he describes the misery of the poor and
the oppression of the rich. Like Isaiah, Amos, and Hosea, he is a
social reformer.)

Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when
the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of
their hand. And they covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and
take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and
his heritage. The voice of the Lord crieth unto the city, and the man
of wisdom will see thy name: hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed
it. "Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the
wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? Shall I be pure with
wicked balances, and with deceitful weights? For the rich men thereof
are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies,
and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Therefore I also have
smitten thee with a grievous wound; I have made thee desolate because
of thy sins. Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy humiliation
shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt store up, but shalt not
keep it; and that which thou carriest away will I give up to the
sword. Thou shalt sow,