Micah 7

¹ Woe is me! For I have become
like the gleanings after the summer fruit,
like the grape clusters after the vintage—
there is no cluster to eat,
no early fig that I crave.

² The faithful have perished from the land,
and there is no one upright among humanity.
They all lie in ambush for blood;
each hunts the other with a net.

³ Their hands are on evil, to do it well.
The official demands, and the judge asks for a bribe,
and the powerful dictates what he desires—
thus they weave it together.

⁴ The best of them is like a brier;
the most upright, worse than a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.

⁵ Do not trust a neighbor;
put no confidence in a friend.
Guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms.

⁶ For 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.

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

⁸ Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy!
When I fall, I will arise;
when I sit in darkness,
the LORD will be a light to me.

⁹ I will bear the indignation of the LORD—
for I have sinned against him—
until he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
He will bring me out to the light;
I will see his righteousness.

¹⁰ Then my enemy will see,
and shame will cover her—
she who said to me:
"Where is the LORD your God?"
My eyes will gaze upon her;
now she will be trampled
like mud in the streets.

¹¹ A day for building your walls!
On that day the boundary will be far extended.

¹² On that day they will come to you
from Assyria to Egypt,
and from Egypt to the River,
from sea to sea and mountain to mountain.

¹³ But the earth will be desolate
because of its inhabitants,
as the fruit of their deeds.

¹⁴ Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land.
Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.

¹⁵ As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show them marvelous things.

¹⁶ The nations will see and be ashamed
of all their might.
They will put their hand over their mouth;
their ears will be deaf.

¹⁷ They will lick the dust like a serpent,
like crawling things of the earth.
They will come trembling out of their strongholds;
they will turn in dread to the LORD our God,
and they will fear because of you.

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in faithful love.

¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all their sins
into the depths of the sea.

²⁰ You will give faithfulness to Jacob
and loyal love to Abraham,
as you swore to our fathers
from the days of old.