Micah 7

¹ I am in trouble! I have become like a harvester in summer time, like a gleaner at the vintage: not a single cluster to eat, not one of the early figs I so long for.

² The devout have vanished from the land: there is not one honest man left. All are lurking for blood, every man hunting down his brother.

³ Their hands are skilled in evil: the official demands…, the judge gives judgement for a bribe, the man in power pronounces as he pleases.

⁵ Put no trust in a neighbour, have no confidence in a friend; to the woman who shares your bed do not open your mouth.

⁶ For son insults father, daughter defies mother, daughter-in-law defies mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are those of his own household.

⁴ … among them, the best is like a briar, the most honest a hedge of thorn. Today will come their ordeal from the North, now is the time for their confusion.

⁷ For my part, I look to Yahweh, my hope is in the God who will save me; my God will hear me.[*a]

⁸ Do not gloat over me, my enemy: though I have fallen, I shall rise; though I live in darkness, Yahweh is my light.

⁹ I must suffer the anger of Yahweh, for I have sinned against him, until he takes up my cause and rights my wrongs; he will bring me out into the light and I shall rejoice to see the rightness of his ways.

¹⁰ When my enemy sees it, she will be covered with shame, she who said to me, ‘Where is Yahweh your God?’ My eyes will gloat over her; she will be trampled underfoot like mud in the streets.

¹¹ The day is coming for rebuilding your walls. Your frontiers will be extended that day,

¹² men will come to you that day from Assyria as far as to Egypt, from Tyre as far as to the river, from sea to sea, from mountain to mountain.

¹³ The earth will become a desert by reason of its inhabitants, in return for what they have done.

¹⁴ With shepherd’s crook lead your people to pasture, the flock that is your heritage, living confined in a forest with meadow land all around. Let them pasture in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old.

¹⁵ As in the days when you came out of Egypt grant us to see wonders.

¹⁶ The pagans, seeing it, will be confounded for all their power; they will lay their hands to their mouths, their ears will be deafened by it.

¹⁷ They will lick the dust like serpents, like things that crawl on the earth. They will come trembling from their lairs, in terror and fear before you.

¹⁸ What god can compare with you: taking fault away, pardoning crime, not cherishing anger for ever but delighting in showing mercy?

¹⁹ Once more have pity on us, tread down our faults, to the bottom of the sea throw all our sins.

²⁰ Grant Jacob your faithfulness, and Abraham your mercy, as you swore to our fathers from the days of long ago.