Micah 7

⁴The fading flower of his beautiful splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest: Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.

¹³So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

⁶Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten—two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares the Lord, the God of Israel.

³You have said, ‘Woe is me because the Lord has added sorrow to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.’”

¹⁰Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

¹For the choirmaster. According to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. Help, O Lord, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.

¹For the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good.

²The Lord looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God.

⁷Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

¹The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one considers that the righteous are taken away from the presence of evil.

²⁶For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.

¹¹If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,

¹¹Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord, saying, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

¹⁶For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall.

¹⁷For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

¹²For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.

¹⁰Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit.

⁵Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ This you have spoken, but you keep doing all the evil you can.”

¹In the meantime, a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling one another. Jesus began to speak first to His disciples: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

²There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.

⁵For the Lord God of Hosts has set a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—of breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains.

⁶But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.

³What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

⁶But the worthless are all like thorns raked aside, for they can never be gathered by hand.

⁷The man who touches them must be armed with iron or with the shaft of a spear. The fire burns them to ashes in the place where they lie.”

⁷The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.

⁸The prophet is Ephraim’s watchman, along with my God, yet the snare of the fowler lies on all his paths. Hostility is in the house of his God!

⁸But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.

⁴“Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

⁸It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.

⁹It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

¹⁶Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

¹⁴A despairing man should have the kindness of his friend, even if he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

¹⁵But my brothers are as faithless as wadis, as seasonal streams that overflow,

⁵The lords of the Philistines went to her and said, “Entice him and find out the source of his great strength and how we can overpower him to tie him up and subdue him. Then each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me the source of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

³⁵For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

³⁶A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

⁵³They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

²¹Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death.

⁹Even my close friend whom I trusted, the one who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.

⁷Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

¹²For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide.

¹³But it is you, a man like myself, my companion and close friend.

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

²⁶It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

⁷Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.

¹⁴And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

¹⁵And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

²²Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

⁹And in that day it will be said, “Surely this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He has saved us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

¹²Do not hand me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence.

¹³Still I am certain to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

¹²Once again, Jesus spoke to the people and said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”

¹Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

²The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

⁴Light dawns in the darkness for the upright—for the gracious, compassionate, and righteous.

¹⁶For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times.

¹⁷Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,

¹⁰Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,

¹¹because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.

⁵Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

⁶He will bring forth your righteousness like the dawn, your justice like the noonday sun.

⁵All this is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment. And so you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.

⁶After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

¹⁵May the Lord be our judge and decide between you and me. May He take notice and plead my case and deliver me from your hand.”

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

⁷Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

³⁹Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins?

⁴⁰Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the Lord.

⁵They will be like mighty men in battle, trampling the enemy in the mire of the streets. They will fight because the Lord is with them, and they will put the horsemen to shame.

¹⁰Like the crushing of my bones, my enemies taunt me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

³³This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “The sons of Israel are oppressed, and the sons of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to release them.

³⁴Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Hosts is His name. He will fervently plead their case so that He may bring rest to the earth, but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.

²⁶May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.

¹⁷Let the priests who minister before the Lord weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O Lord, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

¹¹“In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old,

¹²that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name,” declares the Lord, who will do this.

⁶So we rebuilt the wall until all of it was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

¹¹“O afflicted city, lashed by storms, without solace, surely I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires.

⁸And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house I will occupy.” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.

¹²Let it be known to the king that the Jews who came from you to us have returned to Jerusalem and are rebuilding that rebellious and wicked city. They are restoring its walls and repairing its foundations.

¹³Let it now be known to the king that if that city is rebuilt and its walls are restored, they will not pay tribute, duty, or toll, and the royal treasury will suffer.

³Then Tobiah the Ammonite, who was beside him, said, “If even a fox were to climb up on what they are building, it would break down their wall of stones!”

²³In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.

²⁴In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing upon the earth.

¹¹They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria. Then I will settle them in their homes, declares the Lord.

¹⁶There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

³Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them, and I will return them to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and multiply.

²¹In that day I will cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel, and I will open your mouth to speak among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

¹²In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered one by one.

¹³And in that day a great ram’s horn will sound, and those who were perishing in Assyria will come forth with those who were exiles in Egypt. And they will worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

¹⁰Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.

¹¹Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

¹¹And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.

¹³Therefore I am striking you severely, to ruin you because of your sins.

¹⁰I, the Lord, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.

³³But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

³⁴Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

¹A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

²He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

⁴He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majestic name of the Lord His God. And they will dwell securely, for then His greatness will extend to the ends of the earth.

³Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

¹¹He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes.

¹⁰They will not hunger or thirst, nor will scorching heat or sun beat down on them. For He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.

²⁷My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

¹²He worked wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea and brought them through; He set the waters upright like a wall.

²⁰So I will stretch out My hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders I will perform among them. And after that, he will release you.

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?

²²The Lord said, “I will retrieve them from Bashan, I will bring them up from the depths of the sea,

¹¹Then His people remembered the days of old, the days of Moses. Where is He who brought them through the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is the One who set His Holy Spirit among them,

¹²who sent His glorious arm to lead them by the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to gain for Himself everlasting renown,

¹⁶There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

¹¹O Lord, Your hand is upraised, but they do not see it. They will see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame. The fire set for Your enemies will consume them!

¹⁵so He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For they will see what they have not been told, and they will understand what they have not heard.

⁴“Behold, I am insignificant. How can I reply to You? I place my hand over my mouth.

⁹The princes refrained from speaking and covered their mouths with their hands.

¹⁰The voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.

¹⁹Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

²Then our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with shouts of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

²³Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”

⁹May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust.

⁴⁵Foreigners lose heart and come trembling from their strongholds.

¹⁴So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and every beast of the field! On your belly will you go, and dust you will eat, all the days of your life.

¹⁵And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

¹⁶And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

¹¹So the two of them showed themselves to the outpost of the Philistines, who exclaimed, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes in which they were hiding!”

²⁵I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.

²²I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

⁴But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,

⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!

⁸The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.

⁹He will not always accuse us, nor harbor His anger forever.

²⁰In those days and at that time, declares the Lord, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.

³⁸Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

³⁹Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

¹⁷Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

²⁵I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.

¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

³⁴No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”

¹²As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

²⁰In those days and at that time, declares the Lord, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.

¹³And there at the top the Lord was standing and saying, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.

¹⁴Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

⁷²to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,

⁷³the oath He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us

⁷I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

⁸And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”

²I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

³I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

¹⁶saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,

¹⁷I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.

⁸He remembers His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations—

⁹the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac.