Micah 7
The Message
Stick Around to See What God Will Do
7 1-6 I’m overwhelmed with sorrow!
sunk in a swamp of despair!
I’m like someone who goes to the garden
to pick cabbages and carrots and corn
And returns empty-handed,
finds nothing for soup or sandwich or salad.
There’s not a decent person in sight.
Right-living humans are extinct.
They’re all out for one another’s blood,
animals preying on each other.
They’ve all become experts in evil.
Corrupt leaders demand bribes.
The powerful rich
make sure they get what they want.
The best and brightest are thistles.
The top of the line is crabgrass.
But no longer: It’s exam time.
Look at them slinking away in disgrace!
Don’t trust your neighbor,
don’t confide in your friend.
Watch your words,
even with your spouse.
Neighborhoods and families are falling to pieces.
The closer they are—sons, daughters, in-laws—
The worse they can be.
Your own family is the enemy.
* * *
7 But me, I’m not giving up.
I’m sticking around to see what God will do.
I’m waiting for God to make things right.
I’m counting on God to listen to me.
Spreading Your Wings
8-10 Don’t, enemy, crow over me.
I’m down, but I’m not out.
I’m sitting in the dark right now,
but God is my light.
I can take God’s punishing rage.
I deserve it—I sinned.
But it’s not forever. He’s on my side
and is going to get me out of this.
He’ll turn on the lights and show me his ways.
I’ll see the whole picture and how right he is.
And my enemy will see it, too,
and be discredited—yes, disgraced!
This enemy who kept taunting,
“So where is this God of yours?”
I’m going to see it with these, my own eyes—
my enemy disgraced, trash in the gutter.
* * *
11-13 Oh, that will be a day! A day for rebuilding your city,
a day for stretching your arms, spreading your wings!
All your dispersed and scattered people will come back,
old friends and family from faraway places,
From Assyria in the east to Egypt in the west,
from across the seas and out of the mountains.
But there’ll be a reversal for everyone else—massive depopulation—
because of the way they lived, the things they did.
14-17 Shepherd, O God, your people with your staff,
your dear and precious flock.
Uniquely yours in a grove of trees,
centered in lotus land.
Let them graze in lush Bashan
as in the old days in green Gilead.
Reproduce the miracle-wonders
of our exodus from Egypt.
And the godless nations: Put them in their place—
humiliated in their arrogance, speechless and clueless.
Make them slink like snakes, crawl like cockroaches,
come out of their holes from under their rocks
And face our God.
Fill them with holy fear and trembling.
* * *
18-20 Where is the god who can compare with you—
wiping the slate clean of guilt,
Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear,
to the past sins of your purged and precious people?
You don’t nurse your anger and don’t stay angry long,
for mercy is your specialty. That’s what you love most.
And compassion is on its way to us.
You’ll stamp out our wrongdoing.
You’ll sink our sins
to the bottom of the ocean.
You’ll stay true to your word to Father Jacob
and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham—
Everything you promised our ancestors
from a long time ago.
Micah 7
English Standard Version
Wait for the God of Salvation
7 Woe is me! For I have become
(A)as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
no (B)first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
2 (C)The godly has perished from the earth,
and (D)there is no one upright among mankind;
(E)they all lie in wait for blood,
and (F)each hunts the other with a net.
3 (G)Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
(H)the prince and (I)the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
thus they weave it together.
4 The best of them is (J)like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of (K)your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
(L)now their confusion is at hand.
5 (M)Put no trust in a neighbor;
have no confidence in a friend;
guard (N)the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms;[a]
6 for (O)the son treats the father with contempt,
the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
(P)a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
7 But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
(Q)I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.
8 (R)Rejoice not over me, O (S)my enemy;
(T)when I fall, I shall rise;
(U)when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.
9 (V)I will bear the indignation of the Lord
because I have sinned against him,
until (W)he pleads my cause
and executes judgment for me.
(X)He will bring me out to the light;
I shall look upon his vindication.
10 Then (Y)my enemy will see,
and shame will cover her who (Z)said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
(AA)My eyes will look upon her;
now she will be trampled down
(AB)like the mire of the streets.
11 (AC)A day for the building of your walls!
In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
12 In that day they[b] will come to you,
(AD)from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to (AE)the River,[c]
(AF)from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 But (AG)the earth will be desolate
because of its inhabitants,
for the fruit of their deeds.
14 (AH)Shepherd your people (AI)with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
(AJ)in the midst of (AK)a garden land;[d]
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
15 (AL)As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
I will show them[e] marvelous things.
16 (AM)The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
(AN)they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf;
17 (AO)they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
like the crawling things of the earth;
(AP)they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
(AQ)they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
and they shall be in fear of you.
God's Steadfast Love and Compassion
18 (AR)Who is a God like you, (AS)pardoning iniquity
and passing over transgression
(AT)for the remnant of his inheritance?
(AU)He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love.
19 He will (AV)again have compassion on us;
(AW)he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
(AX)You will cast all our[f] sins
into the depths of the sea.
20 (AY)You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
(AZ)as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.
Footnotes
- Micah 7:5 Hebrew bosom
- Micah 7:12 Hebrew he
- Micah 7:12 That is, the Euphrates
- Micah 7:14 Hebrew of Carmel
- Micah 7:15 Hebrew him
- Micah 7:19 Hebrew their
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
