Micah 7

How sad I am! I feel like someone who comes to pick fruit after the summer harvest is over, when the vineyard has already been stripped. There is no cluster of grapes left to eat, and no early fig, which is the fruit I want most.

1Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.

NoteThe image is of coming to a vineyard or orchard after the pickers have already been through: only scraps are left. "Firstripe fruit" is the early fig, which ripened in June, weeks before the main August crop. It was a rare delicacy and the thing a hungry person most hoped to find.

2The good and faithful person has disappeared from the land, and there is no honest one left among people. They all lie in wait to shed blood; each one hunts down his own brother with a net.

2The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

NoteThe word translated "earth" can equally mean "the land" (that is, the country of Judah specifically) and either sense fits here. "Hunt with a net" is the language of trapping birds or animals: the point is a deliberate, prepared snare rather than a sudden quarrel.

3Both hands are skilled at doing evil. The ruler demands, and the judge asks for a bribe; the powerful man says out loud what he wants, and together they weave the whole scheme.

3That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

Note"The prince" is a ruling official or noble, not a king's son. Bribery in a legal case is what is being described: the judge is the one who decides disputes, and he is asking payment to decide them a particular way. The final clause of this verse in Hebrew is badly damaged and obscure; "so they wrap it up" is the King James guess at it, and "together they weave the whole scheme" is another. No translation of it is certain.

4The best of them is like a thorny bush, and the most honest is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day of your lookouts has come, the day when God comes to deal with you. Now they are thrown into confusion.

4The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

NoteThorn hedges were planted or piled as livestock fences; there was nothing you could grab hold of safely. "Watchmen" were sentries posted on city walls or towers to shout warning of an approaching army. "Visitation" in older English does not mean a friendly visit: it means the moment an authority arrives to inspect and to settle accounts.

5Do not trust a friend, and do not put your confidence in a close companion. Guard what comes out of your mouth, even from the wife who lies in your arms.

5Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

Note"Her that lieth in thy bosom" is a standard Hebrew way of saying "your wife." The point of the verse is the ranking: friend, close companion, wife, each nearer than the last, and none of them safe to speak freely in front of.

6A son treats his father with contempt, a daughter turns against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the people in his own household.

6For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.

NoteIn this society the household was the one unit a person could count on absolutely: property, security, legal standing and old age all depended on it. Listing sons, daughters and daughters-in-law turning on their elders is therefore not a complaint about rude families but an image of society at its last stage of collapse.

7But as for me, I will keep my eyes on the LORD. I will wait for God, who saves me. My God will hear me.

7Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

8Do not gloat over me, my enemy. Though I have fallen, I will get up again. Though I sit in the dark, the LORD will be my light.

8Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.

9I have sinned against the LORD, so I will bear his anger until he takes up my case and brings me justice. He will bring me out into the light, and I will see that he sets things right.

9I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

Note"Plead my cause" and "execute judgment" are courtroom words. The speaker pictures God as both the one who has sentenced her and the advocate who will eventually argue her side and win the case for her.

10Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her, the one who said to me, "Where is the LORD your God?" My own eyes will look at her when she is trampled down like mud in the streets.

10Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

Note"My enemy" is grammatically feminine throughout this verse, which in Hebrew usually signals a city being spoken of as a woman. The text does not name her. "Where is the LORD your God?" was a standard taunt to a defeated people: your god either could not or would not save you.

11A day is coming for your walls to be rebuilt. On that day the set limit will be pushed far out.

11In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.

NoteThis verse is one of the most disputed in the book. The word rendered "decree" or "set limit" can mean a boundary line, a fixed allotment, or an imposed law. So the second half may promise that the borders of the land will be pushed far out, or that some decree weighing on the people will be removed far away. Both readings are defensible and the Hebrew does not settle it.

12On that day people will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, from Egypt all the way to the Euphrates River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

12In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

NoteAssyria was the empire that dominated the region in Micah's lifetime and deported large numbers of Israelites. The word behind "the fortified cities" and "fortress" is spelled almost identically to the Hebrew for Egypt, so translators divide over whether the verse names two great powers or speaks of fortified towns. "The river" with no name attached always means the Euphrates. "From sea to sea and from mountain to mountain" is an idiom for the whole known world, not two specific places.

13Even so, the land will be left empty and ruined because of the people living in it, as the result of what they have done.

13Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

14Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock that belongs to you, who live alone in scrubland with rich pasture around them. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead, as they did long ago.

14Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

NoteThe rod or staff is a shepherd's, used to guide and defend the flock, not to punish it. "Carmel" in the King James is the Hebrew word *karmel*, which is both the name of a mountain and an ordinary noun meaning fertile garden land, hence "rich pasture." Bashan and Gilead were the grazing lands east of the Jordan, proverbial for fat cattle and good pasture, and by Micah's time lost to Assyria. Asking for them back is asking for the old borders back.

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

15According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.

NoteThe exodus, Israel's escape from slavery in Egypt, was the founding event of the nation and the standard benchmark for what a rescue by God looked like. Note the shift in person: "the days of *your* coming out" but "I will show *him*." The Hebrew is uneven here and translations differ in how they smooth it.

16The nations will see it and be ashamed, for all their strength will count for nothing. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will go deaf.

16The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

NotePutting a hand over the mouth is a gesture of being struck silent, used for awe, shock, or having no answer to give. "Their ears shall be deaf" continues the picture: the onlookers are so overwhelmed they can neither speak nor take anything in.

17They will lick the dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their strongholds; they will be in dread of the LORD our God, and they will be afraid of you.

17They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

NoteLicking the dust is the posture of total submission: a defeated enemy face down before a victor. The snake and the crawling creatures are being used for their low position on the ground, not as symbols of evil.

18Who is a God like you, who forgives wrongdoing and overlooks the sin of the few who are left of his own people? He does not stay angry forever, because he is glad to show faithful love.

18Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

Note"Who is a God like unto thee" is a play on the prophet's own name: Micah is a shortened form of a Hebrew phrase meaning "who is like the LORD?" The "remnant" is the small surviving fraction of a people left after war and deportation, a recurring term in these prophets for those who come through the disaster. "Mercy" here translates *hesed*, which means loyal, committed love of the kind owed within a binding relationship, closer to "faithfulness" than to "pity."

19He will turn back to us and have compassion on us. He will crush our sins underfoot, and you will throw all their sins into the deep sea.

19He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

Note"Subdue our iniquities" uses the word for treading an enemy underfoot, sins are pictured as a hostile force being trampled, not merely forgiven. Manuscripts differ between "our sins" and "their sins" in the second half, which is why translations vary.

20You will keep faith with Jacob and show faithful love to Abraham, just as you promised our ancestors with an oath long ago.

20Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

NoteJacob and Abraham are the ancestors of the nation, Abraham the earliest and Jacob his grandson, whose twelve sons gave their names to the tribes. "Sworn" refers to the promises made to them under oath, recorded in Genesis, which bound God to their descendants.