Micah7

¹Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered , as when the grapes have been gleaned : there is no cluster to eat , no first-ripe fig that my soul desires .

²The godly has perished from the earth , and there is no one upright among mankind ; they all lie in wait for blood , and each hunts the other with a net .

³Their hands are on what is evil , to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe , and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul ; thus they weave it together.

⁴The best of them is like a brier , the most upright of them a thorn hedge . The day of your watchmen , of your punishment , has come ; now their confusion is at hand.

⁵Put no trust in a neighbor ; have no confidence in a friend ; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms ;

⁶for the son treats the father with contempt , the daughter rises up against her mother , the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law ; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house .

⁷But as for me , I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation ; my God will hear me.

⁸Rejoice not over me, O my enemy ; when I fall , I shall rise ; when I sit in darkness , the Lord will be a light to me.

⁹I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light ; I shall look upon his vindication .

¹⁰Then my enemy will see , and shame will cover her who said to me, Where is the Lord your God ? My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets .

¹¹A day for the building of your walls ! In that day the boundary shall be far extended .

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

¹³But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants , for the fruit of their deeds .

¹⁴Shepherd your people with your staff , the flock of your inheritance , who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land ; let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old .

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

¹⁶The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might ; they shall lay their hands on their mouths ; their ears shall be deaf ;

¹⁷they shall lick the dust like a serpent , like the crawling things of the earth ; they shall come trembling out of their strongholds ; they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God , and they shall be in fear of you.

¹⁸Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance ? He does not retain his anger forever , because he delights in steadfast love .

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

²⁰You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham , as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old .