Micah 7

Israel’s Misery

1 Woe is me, because I am like someone gathering summer fruit after harvest, like picking grapes after the vintage, with no cluster left to eat, none of the early figs I crave.

2 The faithful are gone from the land, and nobody upright is left. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood, each one hunting his brother with a net.

3 Both hands are skilled at doing evil. The ruler demands gifts, the judge takes bribes, and the powerful decide what they want, and together they twist justice.

4 The best of them is like a thorn bush, the most upright worse than a hedge of thorns. The day your watchmen warned about, your punishment, has come. Now confusion is here.

5 Do not trust a neighbor, do not put confidence in a friend. Guard what you say even from the one lying in your arms.

6 A son dishonors his father, a daughter rises against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies are the people in his own house.

Hope in the LORD

7 But as for me, I will watch for the LORD. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

8 Do not rejoice over me, my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.

9 I will bear the LORD’s anger because I sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and brings justice for me. He will bring me out into the light, and I will see His righteousness.

10 Then my enemy will see it and be covered with shame, the one who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will look on her downfall. She will be trampled down like mud in the streets.

The Lord’s Compassion

11 The day for rebuilding your walls will come, the day when your boundaries will be extended.

12 On that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, from Egypt to the Euphrates, from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

13 The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as a result of what they have done.

14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your inheritance, living alone in a forest in the middle of fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead like in days long ago.

15 As in the days when You came out of Egypt, show us Your wonders.

16 Nations will see and be ashamed of all their power. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will go deaf.

17 They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures crawling on the ground. They will come trembling out of their strongholds to the LORD our God and will fear You and stand in awe.

18 Who is a God like You, who forgives sin and passes over rebellion for the remnant of His inheritance, He does not stay angry forever because He delights in faithful love.

19 He will again have compassion on us. He will crush our sins underfoot and throw all our sins into the depths of the sea.

20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loyal love to Abraham, just as You swore to our ancestors long ago.