Micah 7
The prophet laments the state of the people, describing a time of moral decay and violence, where even family members turn against each other. Despite the darkness, the prophet expresses trust in God and looks forward to a time of redemption and justice. The prophet also envisions a future time of restoration, when God will rebuild the walls and restore the land, and the people will be pastured like a flock. The nations will be confounded by God's power, and the people will be forgiven and have their sins cast away.
Woe to me, for I have become just like one who gleans the clusters of the vintage in autumn. There is no cluster of grapes to consume; my soul desired figs out of seasonThe holy ones pass away from the land, and there is no one righteous among men. All wait in ambush for blood; a man hunts his brother to deathThe evil of their hands, they call good. The leader is demanding, and the judge is yielding, and the great is speaking the desire of his soul, and they have confused itWhoever is best among them is like a thorny plant, and he who is righteous is like a thorny hedge. The day of your inspection, your visitation, arrives. Now will be their ruinationDo not be willing to believe a friend. And do not be willing to confide in a commander. From her, who sleeps in your bosom, keep the doors of your mouth closedFor the son acts with contempt for the father, and the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man’s enemies are those of his own householdBut I will look towards the Lord. I will wait for God, my Savior. My God will hear meYou, my enemy, should not rejoice over me because I have fallen. I will rise up, when I sit in darkness. The Lord is my lightI will carry the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he may judge my case and execute judgment for me. He will lead me into the light. I will behold his justiceAnd my enemy will look, and she will be covered with confusion, she who says to me, "Where is the Lord your God?" My eyes will look upon her. Now she will be trampled under foot like the mud of the streetsThe day that your walls will be rebuilt, in that day the law will be far awayIn that day also, they will come towards you even from Assur, and even to the fortified cities, and from the fortified cities even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountainAnd the land will be in desolation, because of its inhabitants and because of the fruit of their intentionsWith your rod, pasture your people, the flock of your inheritance, living alone in the narrow forest, in the midst of Carmel. They will graze in Bashan and Gilead, as in the ancient daysAs in the days of your departure from the land of Egypt, I will reveal miracles to himThe nations will look, and they will be confounded at the strength of them all. They will place hand over mouth; their ears will be deafThey will lick the dust like serpents, and, like the creeping things of the earth, they will be disturbed in their houses. They will dread the Lord our God, and they will fear youWhat God is like you, who takes away iniquity and passes over the sin of the remnant of your inheritance? No longer will he send forth his fury, because he is willing to be mercifulHe will turn back and have mercy on us. He will put away our iniquities, and he will cast all our sins into the depths of the seaYou will give the truth to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, which you swore to our fathers from the ancient days
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