Micah 7:1-20
7 Woe to me! I am like one who,After the gathering of summer fruitAnd the gleaning following a grape harvest,Finds no cluster of grapes to eat,No early fig that I crave.*
2 The loyal one has perished* from the earth;Among men there is no one upright.+
All of them lie in ambush for bloodshed.+
Each hunts his own brother with a dragnet.
3 Their hands are expert at doing what is bad;+The prince is making demands,The judge asks for a reward,+The prominent one makes known his desires,*+And they work it out together.*
4 Their best one is like thorns,Their most upright one is worse than a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen and of your reckoning will come.+
Now they will panic.+
5 Do not put faith in your companionOr trust a close friend.+
Guard what you say to the one who lies in your embrace.
6 For a son despises his father,A daughter rises up against her mother,+And a daughter-in-law is against her mother-in-law;+A man’s enemies are the men of his household.+
7 But as for me, I will keep on the lookout for Jehovah.+
I will show a waiting attitude* for the God of my salvation.+
My God will hear me.+
8 Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy.*
Although I have fallen, I will rise up;Although I dwell in the darkness, Jehovah will be my light.
9 The wrath of Jehovah I will bear—For I have sinned against him+—Until he pleads my legal case and brings about justice for me.
He will bring me out to the light;I will look upon his righteousness.
10 My enemy will also see,And shame will cover her who said to me:
“Where is Jehovah your God?”+
My eyes will look upon her.
Now she will be trampled like mud in the streets.
11 It will be a day for building your stone walls;On that day the boundary will be extended.*
12 On that day they will come to youAll the way from As·syrʹi·a and the cities of Egypt,From Egypt all the way to the River;*From sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.+
13 And the land 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,+The one who was living alone in a forest—in the midst of an orchard.
Let them feed on Baʹshan and Gilʹe·ad+ as in the days of old.
15 “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,I will show him wonderful things.+
16 Nations will see and be ashamed despite all their might.+
They will put their hand over their mouth;Their ears will become deaf.
17 They will lick the dust like serpents;+Like the reptiles of the earth they will come trembling out of their strongholds.
To Jehovah our God they will come in dread,And they will be in fear of you.”+
18 Who is a God like you,Pardoning error and passing over the transgression+ of the remnant of his inheritance?+
He will not hold onto his anger forever,For he delights in loyal love.+
19 He will again show us mercy;+ he will conquer* our errors.
You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.+
20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob,Loyal love to Abraham,As you swore to our forefathers from the days of old.+
Footnotes
^ Or “my soul craves.”
^ Or “vanished.”
^ Or “the craving of his soul.”
^ Lit., “they weave it together.”
^ Or “I will wait patiently.”
^ In Hebrew, the word for “enemy” is in the feminine gender.
^ Or possibly, “the decree will be far away.”
^ That is, the Euphrates.
^ Lit., “Because of the fruitage of their deeds.”
^ Or “tread down; subdue.”