Micah 7
7
Micah’s Lament over Judah’s Wickedness
1I’m so depressed and disappointed, # 7:1 Or “Woe is me.” The prophet Micah was sad as he saw the wickedness of the people. He felt as though he had wasted his life in trying to bring his people back to following Yahweh.
like a hungry man who went to the field
after the harvest had been gathered
and found nothing remaining, not even the gleanings—
nor a single cluster of grapes
nor any of those firstfruit figs I love.
2The godly # 7:2 This is the Hebrew word chasid (or hasid), which is taken from the same root word as chesed (chesed means “merciful,” “loyal love,” “loving-kindness,” or “tender love”). To be godly is to be loving and kind, a person of chesed. have vanished from the land:
there is not a decent person left.
They are all out for each other’s blood,
they hunt each other with a net.
3Concerning evil, both hands do it well. # 7:3 This was off-putting imagery meant to revolt the original Jewish hearers. They had a strict cultural regulation of the uses of the right and left hands: food was eaten only with the right hand, while the left was used for less sanitary tasks. The Hebrew word translated “hands” here is kap, which refers more specifically to the hollow of one’s palm. The implication is that not only were the people doing evil acts with both hands, including the left hand reserved for filthy tasks, but they were cupping their hands to scoop up evil.
Officials and judges ask for bribes,
the man in power pronounces whatever he pleases,
and the prominent plot as one.
4The best and brightest is like a briar bush,
the most honest of them like a thorn hedge.
Now here comes the punishment your prophets proclaimed. # 7:4 Or “the day of your watchmen [the prophets], your appointed [time of punishment], is coming.” The prophets were viewed as Israel’s “watchmen” because they were to see prophetically when trouble was coming and were supposed to warn the people so that they could change their evil ways and be delivered. See Jer. 6:17; Ezek. 3:17–21; Hos. 9:8.
Confusion confronts you!
5Don’t dare to trust in a neighbor
or place your confidence in a friend.
Watch your words even with the wife you love. # 7:5 Or “the one who lies in your bosom.”
6For the son insults his father,
the daughter rebels against her mother,
and the daughter-in-law quarrels with her mother-in-law.
One’s enemies come from within your own household. # 7:6 See Matt. 10:21, 35–36; Mark 13:12; Luke 12:53.
7But as for me,
I will keep watching for Yahweh to break through.
I will wait for the God who will save me,
and I know my God will hear my cry.
Yahweh Will Vindicate His Own
8Listen, my enemy.
Don’t gloat over me when I fall,
for I will get back up even stronger.
Whenever I feel darkness around me,
Yahweh himself will be the light that surrounds me.
9I must endure Yahweh’s anger for a while
because I have sinned against him.
Yet he will still defend my cause
and right every wrong done to me.
He will expose it all and bring me out into the light,
and I will experience firsthand his vindication. # 7:9 Or “I will see his righteousness.”
10When my enemy sees this,
she will be disgraced and covered with shame—
she who sneered, “Where is this God of yours, Yahweh?”
I’ll see it with my own eyes
as she is trampled down
like mud in the streets.
A Prophecy of Restoration
11What a day that will be! A day for rebuilding your walls!
A day for expanding your borders!
12A day when people come to you from everywhere—
from the cities of Assyria, Egypt, and Tyre
and all the way from the river Euphrates,
from across the seas, and from every mountainous land. # 7:12 Or “from sea to sea, mountain to mountain,” a poetic way of saying “from all over the world.”
13Those lands will become desolate
because of the corruption of their inhabitants.
Micah’s Prayer
14Our kind Shepherd,
watch over us, the flock that is your special inheritance.
With your staff, # 7:14 Or “scepter.” lead your people to pasture. # 7:14 See Ps. 23; John 10:1–16.
For we are like a flock confined to live in a forest
with meadowland all around us.
Let us graze again in the fertile fields of Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old. # 7:14 Bashan and Gilead were regions on the east of the river Jordan and were among the first areas to come into the possession of the Israelites at the conquest. Invaders in the 700s BC captured their land. In effect, Micah was praying for the restoration of the territory God had once given them. Micah asked for a future that would be as glorious as their past, like it was under the united monarchy during the days of King Solomon.
15“I will show you mighty miracles
as in the days when you came out of Egypt.” # 7:15 It appears that God interrupted Micah’s prayer with a declaration and a promise to God’s people. God is faithful to answer our prayers.
16When the nations see your miracles,
they will be ashamed, seeing that their power counts for nothing.
They will put their hands over their mouths,
too dumbfounded by your might to even speak,
and their ears will become deaf.
17Let them lick the dust like snakes,
like the crawling things of the earth.
Let them come slinking out of their strongholds, # 7:17 See Ps. 18:45.
trembling in terror before you, Yahweh.
Micah’s Psalm
18Who is a merciful God like you? # 7:18 The prophet Micah’s name means “Who is like Yahweh?”
Your grace wipes the slate clean of guilt
and pardons the rebellion # 7:18 Or “passes over our crimes [transgressions].” See Ex. 34:6. of the remnant of your people.
You don’t hold your anger against us forever,
but you delight in showing faithful, tender love.
19Once more we ask:
have tender mercy # 7:19 This is the nearly untranslatable Hebrew word racham, a homonym for “womb.” It conveys the thought of mercy, pity, compassion, and a tender love like that of a mother for the child inside her womb. God has “womb-love” for you. Although righteous anger at evil is a part of God’s character, his delight is in showing tender love and mercy, which always triumphs over judgment. on us,
tread our iniquities under your feet,
and hurl all our sins to the bottom of the sea. # 7:19 See Ps. 103:12; Isa. 43:25; 44:22; 2 Cor. 5:19; Heb. 8:12.
20You will demonstrate endless faithfulness to Jacob’s tribes
and to Abraham’s descendants your constant love,
just like you swore to our ancestors
in ancient times. # 7:20 Our Jewish friends read vv. 18–20 on Sabbath Shuvah (the Sabbath of Repentance) and publicly recite them on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) after the book of Jonah. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Tashlik liturgy is performed near a body of water. Tashlik is the Hebrew word for “cast,” “throw,” or “hurl” found in v. 19. This liturgy involves symbolically casting off the sins of the previous year by tossing pieces of bread or another food into a body of flowing water. Just as the water carries away the bits of bread, so, too, are sins symbolically carried away. Since Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish new year, in this way, the participants express hope to start the new year with a clean slate.
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Micah 7: TPT
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