彌迦書 7
Chinese Union Version Modern Punctuation (Traditional)
哀嘆義人死亡
7 哀哉！我[a]好像夏天的果子已被收盡，又像摘了葡萄所剩下的，沒有一掛可吃的，我心羨慕初熟的無花果。 2 地上虔誠人滅盡，世間沒有正直人。各人埋伏要殺人流血，都用網羅獵取弟兄。
人心唯惡是趨
3 他們雙手作惡，君王徇情面，審判官要賄賂，位分大的吐出惡意，都彼此結聯行惡。 4 他們最好的不過是蒺藜，最正直的不過是荊棘籬笆。你守望者說降罰的日子已經來到，他們必擾亂不安。
勿恃世人唯賴神
5 不要倚賴鄰舍，不要信靠密友，要守住你的口，不要向你懷中的妻提說。 6 因為兒子藐視父親，女兒抗拒母親，媳婦抗拒婆婆，人的仇敵就是自己家裡的人。
7 至於我，我要仰望耶和華，要等候那救我的神，我的神必應允我。 8 我的仇敵啊，不要向我誇耀！我雖跌倒，卻要起來；我雖坐在黑暗裡，耶和華卻做我的光。 9 我要忍受耶和華的惱怒，因我得罪了他。直等他為我辨屈，為我申冤，他必領我到光明中，我必得見他的公義。 10 那時，我的仇敵，就是曾對我說「耶和華你神在哪裡」的，他一看見這事就被羞愧遮蓋。我必親眼見他遭報，他必被踐踏，如同街上的泥土。 11 以色列啊，日子必到，你的牆垣必重修。到那日，你的境界必開展[b]。 12 當那日，人必從亞述，從埃及的城邑，從埃及到大河，從這海到那海，從這山到那山，都歸到你這裡。 13 然而，這地因居民的緣故，又因他們行事的結果，必然荒涼。
主許復施恩惠
14 求耶和華在迦密山的樹林中，用你的杖牧放你獨居的民，就是你產業的羊群。求你容他們在巴珊和基列得食物，像古時一樣。 15 耶和華說：「我要把奇事顯給他們看，好像出埃及地的時候一樣。」 16 列國看見這事，就必為自己的勢力慚愧。他們必用手摀口，掩耳不聽。 17 他們必舔土如蛇，又如土中腹行的物，戰戰兢兢地出他們的營寨。他們必戰懼投降耶和華，也必因我們的神而懼怕。
神不永蓄怒樂赦罪愆
18 神啊，有何神像你？赦免罪孽，饒恕你產業之餘民的罪過。不永遠懷怒，喜愛施恩。 19 必再憐憫我們，將我們的罪孽踏在腳下，又將我們的一切罪投於深海。 20 你必按古時起誓應許我們列祖的話，向雅各發誠實，向亞伯拉罕施慈愛。
Micah 7
EasyEnglish Bible
Israel's people are very bad, but Micah still believes God
7 I am very sad!
I am like someone who comes to trees with no fruit on them.
Other people have picked the fruit already.
So I am like those people who can only pick the last grapes.
Those are the grapes that other people leave behind.
Really, there are no grapes there to eat.
There are none of the first figs that I like so much.
2 There are no longer any people here who obey God.
There are no good, honest people.
Everyone is waiting to kill someone else.
They are all like hunters, who try to catch each other.
3 They know very well how to work together to do bad things.
Rulers demand gifts and judges ask for money.[a]
Powerful bad people always get what they want.
All these people work together to do what is bad.
4 The best of them are dangerous like wild plants with thorns.[b]
The most honest of them are worse than thorn bushes.
The bad time that your prophets told you about is coming.
Soon God will punish you,
and you will be confused.
5 Do not believe anyone, even somebody that you know well.
You cannot be sure that your friend will always be honest with you.
Be careful what you say to your wife.
Be careful even when you are hugging her.
6 Sons think that their fathers are fools.
And daughters refuse to obey their mothers.
Wives quarrel with their husbands' mothers.
A man's enemies are the people who live in his own house now.
7 But as for me, I will watch for what the Lord will do.
I will wait for God, who saves me.
I know that he hears me.
Israel's enemies will be ashamed
8 My enemy, do not be happy because I am in trouble.[c]
I have fallen down, but I will get up.
I am in the dark, but the Lord will be a light to me.
9 I have not obeyed the Lord,
so he is angry with me.
He will continue to punish me,
until the time when he speaks for me.
Then he will make things right for me.
He will bring me out into the light.
He always does what is really right.
And I will see that then.
10 ‘Why does the Lord your God not help you?’ my enemies say to me.
They will see what God does for me.
Then they will be very ashamed.
And I will see the bad things that happen to them.
Soon other people will crush them and beat them.
Then they will be like wet ground in the streets under people's feet.
Jerusalem will be great again
11 But the time will come for you to build the walls of your cities again.
You will make the borders of your country much wider then.
12 At that time many of Assyria's people and Egypt's people will come to you.
People will come to you from the countries between Egypt and the River Euphrates.
They will come to you from all over the earth,
from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 The other parts of the earth will become sad places where nobody lives.
God will destroy them because of the people who live there.
Those people have done what is bad.
Micah talks to God
14 Rule us and lead us, Lord.
You are like a man who leads his sheep.
He uses a strong stick to lead them.
We are your own special people.
We are like a group of sheep that lives by itself in a forest.
There is good grass all round them.
Let your sheep eat grass in Bashan and Gilead,
as they did a long time ago.[d]
15 Lord, you did great things long ago,
when you brought us out of the land of Egypt.
Do great things like that again.
16 The people in other countries will see what you do.
They will understand that they are not really powerful.
So then they will be ashamed.
They will be like deaf people and dumb people.
17 They will be like snakes that move along the ground.
They will be afraid and they will eat dust like snakes.[e]
They will come carefully out of their safe places,
because they are afraid of you, the Lord our God.
18 No other god is like you.
You chose us to be your people.
And you decide not to remember what we have done wrong.
Not many of your people remain and we have done bad things.
But you choose to forget those bad things.
You will not always be angry,
because you want very much to be kind.
19 You like to be kind because you love us.
You will remove everything that we have done wrong.
You will crush those bad things.
You will throw all of them into the deep sea.
20 You will continue to be kind to us,
because we are Jacob's and Abraham's people.[f]
That is what you promised to our grandfathers a long time ago.
Footnotes
- 7:3 A judge is someone with authority to decide what is right or fair.
- 7:4 Micah says that the bad people are like plants with thorns. He means that they are always ready to cause trouble for other people.
- 7:8 Verses 8-10 Here Micah speaks on behalf of Zion's people, as if they were one person.
- 7:14 Bashan and Gilead were east of the Jordan River. They were good places for sheep because lots of grass grew there. They had been parts of Israel's land many years before, but Assyria's people had taken them. In this verse, Micah is saying that Israel's people can live there again.
- 7:17 ‘Eat dust’ means ‘show that they will obey you’.
- 7:20 Abraham was the man that God chose. God chose him a long time before Micah lived. Abraham was Jacob's (Israel's) grandfather. All his people after that time have the name: ‘Israel's people’. Abraham believed God and obeyed him. He believed even when it was very difficult. (See Genesis 12—25.)
Micah 7
New King James Version
Sorrow for Israel’s Sins
7 Woe is me!
For I am like those who gather summer fruits,
Like those who (A)glean vintage grapes;
There is no cluster to eat
Of the first-ripe fruit which (B)my soul desires.
2 The (C)faithful[a] man has perished from the earth,
And there is no one upright among men.
They all lie in wait for blood;
(D)Every man hunts his brother with a net.
3 That they may successfully do evil with both hands—
The prince asks for gifts,
The judge seeks a (E)bribe,
And the great man utters his evil desire;
So they scheme together.
4 The best of them is (F)like a brier;
The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge;
The day of your watchman and your punishment comes;
Now shall be their perplexity.
5 (G)Do not trust in a friend;
Do not put your confidence in a companion;
Guard the doors of your mouth
From her who lies in your (H)bosom.
6 For (I)son dishonors father,
Daughter rises against her mother,
Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.
7 Therefore I will look to the Lord;
I will (J)wait for the God of my salvation;
My God will hear me.
Israel’s Confession and Comfort
8 (K)Do not rejoice over me, my enemy;
(L)When I fall, I will arise;
When I sit in darkness,
The Lord will be a light to me.
9 (M)I will bear the indignation of the Lord,
Because I have sinned against Him,
Until He pleads my (N)case
And executes justice for me.
He will bring me forth to the light;
I will see His righteousness.
10 Then she who is my enemy will see,
And (O)shame will cover her who said to me,
(P)“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will see her;
Now she will be trampled down
Like mud in the streets.
11 In the day when your (Q)walls are to be built,
In that day [b]the decree shall go far and wide.
12 In that day (R)they[c] shall come to you
From Assyria and the [d]fortified cities,
From the [e]fortress to [f]the River,
From sea to sea,
And mountain to mountain.
13 Yet the land shall be desolate
Because of those who dwell in it,
And (S)for the fruit of their deeds.
God Will Forgive Israel
14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff,
The flock of Your heritage,
Who dwell [g]solitarily in a (T)woodland,
In the midst of Carmel;
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead,
As in days of old.
16 The nations (W)shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
(X)They shall put their hand over their mouth;
Their ears shall be deaf.
17 They shall lick the (Y)dust like a serpent;
(Z)They shall crawl from their holes like [i]snakes of the earth.
(AA)They shall be afraid of the Lord our God,
And shall fear because of You.
18 (AB)Who is a God like You,
(AC)Pardoning iniquity
And passing over the transgression of (AD)the remnant of His heritage?
(AE)He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in (AF)mercy.[j]
19 He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all [k]our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
20 (AG)You will give truth to Jacob
And [l]mercy to Abraham,
(AH)Which You have sworn to our fathers
From days of old.
Footnotes
- Micah 7:2 Or loyal
- Micah 7:11 Or the boundary shall be extended
- Micah 7:12 Lit. he, collective of the captives
- Micah 7:12 Heb. arey mazor, possibly cities of Egypt
- Micah 7:12 Heb. mazor, possibly Egypt
- Micah 7:12 The Euphrates
- Micah 7:14 Alone
- Micah 7:15 Lit. him, collective for the captives
- Micah 7:17 Lit. crawlers
- Micah 7:18 Or lovingkindness
- Micah 7:19 Lit. their
- Micah 7:20 Or lovingkindness
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
