Micah 7

New International Version

• 1. What misery is mine! I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave.
• 2. The godly have been swept from the land; not one upright man remains. All men lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net.
• 3. Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire- they all conspire together.
• 4. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen has come, the day God visits you. Now is the time of their confusion.
• 5. Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words.
• 6. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law- a man's enemies are the members of his own household.
• 7. But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
• 8. Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
• 9. Because I have sinned against him, I will bear the LORD's wrath, until he pleads my case and establishes my right. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.
• 10. Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame, she who said to me, "Where is the LORD your God?" My eyes will see her downfall; even now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the streets.
• 11. The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries.
• 12. In that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
• 13. The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds.
• 14. Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago.
• 15. "As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders."
• 16. Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their power. They will lay their hands on their mouths and their ears will become deaf.
• 17. They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens; they will turn in fear to the LORD our God and will be afraid of you.
• 18. Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.
• 19. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
• 20. You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago.

New International Version