Micah 7

1Woe is me! I have become like one gathering summer fruit, like one gleaning after the grape harvest. There is not a cluster to eat, not one of the early figs that I crave.

2The faithful have vanished from the land, and there is no one upright left among people. All of them lie in wait to shed blood; each hunts his brother with a net.

3Their hands are skilled at doing evil. The official asks for gifts, the judge takes a bribe, and the powerful speak what they desire; so they weave it together.

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

5Do not trust a neighbor; do not rely on a friend. Guard the words of your mouth even from the one who lies in your arms.

6For the son treats his father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a person’s enemies are the members of his own household.

7But as for me, I will watch for Yahweh; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.

8Do not gloat over me, my enemy. Though I have fallen, I will rise; though I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be my light.

9I will bear the anger of Yahweh, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light; I will see his righteousness.

10Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her, she who said to me, “Where is Yahweh your God?” My eyes will look on her; now she will be trampled down like mud in the streets.

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

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

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

14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that is your inheritance, which lives alone in a forest in the middle of a fertile land. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago.

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

16The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths; their ears will become deaf.

17They will lick the dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their strongholds; they will turn in dread to Yahweh our God and be afraid of you.

18Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? He does not stay angry forever, because he delights in steadfast love.

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

20You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you swore to our ancestors in days long ago.