Micah
7
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence
in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words.
- 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.
- But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD,
I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The day for building your walls will come,
the day for extending your boundaries.
- 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.
- The earth will become desolate because of
its inhabitants, as the result of their deeds.
- 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.
- "As in the days when you came out of
Egypt, I will show them my wonders."
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- You will again have compassion on us; you
will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths
of the sea.
- You will be true to Jacob, and show mercy
to Abraham, as you pledged on oath to our fathers in days long ago.
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