Micah 7

¹Woe is me! For I have become

as when the summer fruit has been gathered,

as when the vintage has been gleaned:

there is no cluster to eat,

no first-ripe fig which my soul desires.

²The godly man has perished from the earth,

and there is none upright among men;

they all lie in wait for blood,

and each hunts his brother with a net.

³Their hands are upon what is evil, to do it diligently;

the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,

and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;

thus they weave it together.

⁴The best of them is like a brier,

the most upright of them a thorn hedge.

The day of their watchmen, of their punishment, has come;

now their confusion is at hand.

⁵Put no trust in a neighbor,

have no confidence in a friend;

guard the doors of your mouth

from her who lies in your bosom;

⁶for the son treats the father with contempt,

the daughter rises up against her mother,

the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord,

I will wait for the God of my salvation;

my God will hear me.

⁸Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;

when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

the Lord will be a light to me.

⁹I will bear the indignation of the Lord

because I have sinned against him,

until he pleads my cause

and executes judgment for me.

He will bring me forth to the light;

I shall behold his deliverance.

¹⁰Then my enemy will see,

and shame will cover her who said to me,

“Where is the Lord your God?”

My eyes will gloat over her;

now she will be trodden down

like the mire of the streets.

¹¹A day for the building of your walls!

In that day the boundary shall be far extended.

¹²In that day they will come to you,

from Assyria to Egypt,

and from Egypt to the River,

from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

¹³But the earth will be desolate

because of its inhabitants,

for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴Shepherd thy people with thy staff,

the flock of thy inheritance,

who dwell alone in a forest

in the midst of a garden land;

let them feed in Bashan and Gilead

as in the days of old.

¹⁵As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt

I will show them marvelous things.

¹⁶The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;

they shall lay their hands on their mouths;

their ears shall be deaf;

¹⁷they shall lick the dust like a serpent,

like the crawling things of the earth;

they shall come trembling out of their strongholds,

they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,

and they shall fear because of thee.

¹⁸Who is a God like thee, pardoning iniquity

and passing over transgression

for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger for ever

because he delights in steadfast love.

¹⁹He will again have compassion upon us,

he will tread our iniquities under foot.

Thou wilt cast all our sins

into the depths of the sea.

²⁰Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob

and steadfast love to Abraham,

as thou hast sworn to our fathers

from the days of old.