Micah 7
1 Alas for me! for I am become as one
gathering straw in harvest, and as
one gathering grape-gleanings in the vintage, when
there is no cluster for me to eat the first-ripe fruit: alas my soul!
2 For the godly is perished from the
earth; and there is none among men that orders
his way aright: they all quarrel even to blood: they
grievously afflict every one his neighbour:
3 they prepare their hands for
mischief, the prince asks a reward, and the judge
speaks flattering words; it is the desire of their soul:
4 therefore I will take away their
goods as a devouring moth, and as one who acts by a
rigid rule in a day of visitation. Woe, woe, thy
times of vengeance are come; now shall be their lamentations.
5 Trust not in friends, and confide
not in guides: beware of thy wife, so as not to commit anything to her.
6 For the son dishonours his father,
the daughter will rise up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law: those in his house shall be all a
man's enemies.
7 But I will look to the Lord; I will
wait upon God my Saviour: my God will hearken to me.
8 Rejoice not against me, mine enemy;
for I have fallen yet shall arise; for though I
should sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the
Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he make good my cause: he also
shall maintain my right, and shall bring me out to the light,
and I shall behold his righteousness.
10 And she that is mine enemy shall
see it, and shall clothe herself with shame, who says, Where
is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall look upon her:
now shall she be for trampling as mire in the ways.
11 It is the
day of making of brick; that day shall be thine utter destruction, and that
day shall utterly abolish thine ordinances.
12 And thy cities shall be levelled,
and parted among the Assyrians; and thy strong cities shall be parted from
Tyre to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
13 And the land shall be utterly
desolate together with them that inhabit it, because of the fruit of their
doings.
14 Tend thy people with thy rod, the
sheep of thine inheritance, those that inhabit by themselves the thicket in
the midst of Carmel: they shall feed in the land of Basan, and in the land of
Galaad, as in the days of old.
15 And according to the days of thy
departure out of Egypt shall ye see marvellous
things.
16 The nations shall see and be
ashamed; and at all their might they shall lay their hands upon their mouth,
their ears shall be deafened. 17 They
shall lick the dust as serpents crawling on the earth, they shall be
confounded in their holes; they shall be amazed at the Lord our God, and will
be afraid of thee.
18 Who is a God like thee, cancelling
iniquities, and passing over the sins of the remnant of his inheritance? and
he has not kept his anger for a testimony, for he delights in mercy.
19 He will return and have mercy upon
us; he will sink our iniquities, and they shall be cast into the depths of the
sea, even all our sins.
20 He shall give blessings truly to
Jacob, and mercy to Abraam, as thou swarest to our fathers, according to the
former days.