UST MIC Chapter 7

Micah laments but trusts in Yahweh

7 I am very miserable!

It is because I am very frustrated like someone who looks for fruit to pick

after everyone else has already picked all of the summer fruit and harvested all of the grapes.

I am like someone who cannot find a single cluster of grapes to eat

or an early fig, which he longs for.

2 I am looking for faithful people, but all of them have disappeared from the land,

and there are no longer any honest people among us.

All of the people who remain are eager to kill others;

each person tries to find ways to exploit his fellow citizens.

3 They are energetic and skillful in doing evil things.

Government officials and judges demand bribes.

Powerful people tell others what they want for themselves,

and they all plot together to get it done.

4 Even the best people among them are harmful,

and even those who seem the most honest cause people pain.

The day that the prophets foretold,

the day when God will punish those who do evil things, is coming soon.

This is when they will panic.

5 So, do not trust anyone, not even a neighbor or a friend.

Be careful what you say

even to your own wife!

6 Indeed, even sons treat their fathers contemptuously,

and daughters defy their mothers.

Daughters-in-law defy their mothers-in-law.

A person’s enemies are the people who live in his own household.

7 But as for me, I will watch to see what Yahweh will do to help me.

I intend to wait confidently for God, who saves me.

The God whom I worship will listen when I call to him.

Yahweh will rescue his people

8 You who are our enemies,

do not celebrate over what has happened to us,

because even though you have defeated us, we will recover.

Even though it looks like everything is bad for us,

Yahweh will take care of us.

9 We will patiently endure whatever Yahweh does to punish us,

because we have sinned against him.

Eventually he will defend us and

make things right for us.

He will change everything bad around us to good,

and we will see that he always does what is right.

10 I want my enemies to see the same thing, and then everyone will completely despise them.

They are the ones who mocked me by saying,

“Yahweh your God is not helping you at all!”

But at that time I will watch as people destroy the homes of my enemies,

making them just like the mud in the streets.

11 People of Zion, the day is coming when you will rebuild your walls!

On that day, your city will extend far beyond its present boundaries.

12 On that day people will come to you

from everywhere. The places they will come from will be from Assyria to Egypt,

and from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River,

from one sea to another and from every mountain.

13 In contrast the rest of the earth will become an empty wasteland

because of the evil things its people have done.

Micah prays and Yahweh answers

14 Yahweh, protect and guide your people, as a shepherd does for his sheep!

They are the people whom you have chosen to belong to you.

They are like sheep that live apart from others in a wooded area of Mount Carmel,

but give them the rich pasturelands

of the Bashan and Gilead regions

that they enjoyed long ago.

15 Yahweh says,

“Yes, just as I did long ago when I rescued your ancestors from Egypt,

I will do amazing things for you.”

16 People from many nations will see what Yahweh does for his people,

and what they see will humiliate them

because they thought that they were powerful, but they are not.

They will be so amazed that they will be unable to say

or hear anything.

17 They will grovel on the ground like a snake, like an insect in the dirt.

They will be so afraid that they will come trembling from their fortresses.

They will be very afraid as they approach Yahweh, the God whom we worship.

They will be afraid because of you, Yahweh.

18 Yahweh, no other God is like you!

You forgive the sins of the people who have

remained faithful to you, those who belong to you.

You do not stay angry forever

because you are the one who delights in faithfully loving us.

19 You will be merciful to us once again.

You will completely forgive all of our sins,

as though you are throwing them into the deepest part of the ocean.

20 You will show the descendants of Jacob that you are trustworthy,

and you will faithfully love the descendants of Abraham,

just as you solemnly promised to our ancestors

long ago.