Micah
Chapter 7
The Prophet’s Speech
How I sorrow! For I am like a gatherer of summer fruit, like a gleaner of the vintage, when there are no grapes to eat; none of the early figs I crave.
The righteous have disappeared from the earth, and not one upright person is to be found. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; one hunts another with a net.
Their hands are skilled at doing evil. The official demands a bribe, the judge takes a bribe, and the mighty do as they please.
Their kindness is like a brier, their justice worse than a thorn hedge. But the time of punishment has arrived, and now is the time of chaos.
Do not rely on a friend or trust an intimate partner. Be cautious in your speech with the woman who shares your bed.
When the son treats his father like a fool, the daughter rebels against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. The enemies of each person are the ones in their own household.
As for me, I will watch eagerly for the Lord, hope has in my heart for the God who saves me. My God will hear me.
Restoration
Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; even though I have fallen, I will rise again. Although I now live in darkness, the Lord is my light.
I will endure the Lord’s anger—for I have sinned against him—while he investigates my case and defends my rights. Then he will bring me into the light, and I will see his justice.
Then my enemy will also see, and shame will cover her. Did she not say: “Where is the Lord, your God?” My eyes, then, will rejoice: See how she is trampled like mud in the street!
The day is approaching when your walls will be rebuilt and your boundaries expanded.
On that day, they will come to you from Assyria to Egypt, from Tyre to the Euphrates, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain,
while the earth will remain desolate because of its citizens and their deeds.
Guide your people with your staff; tend the flock of your inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, amid fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old, during the times when you led them out of Egypt. Show us your wonders.
When they see this, the nations will be ashamed, despite their strength. People will cover their mouths, unable to believe the news.
They will lick the dust like snakes, like creatures crawling on the ground. They will come trembling out of their strongholds, fearing you.
Who is a God like you, who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of his inheritance?Who is like you, whose anger does not last? For you delight in merciful forgiveness.
Once again, you will show us your loving-kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.
Commentaries
The Prophet’s Speech.
The prophet portrays himself as a poor man who has no leftovers from the harvest (cf. Lv 19:10). No one remains faithful to the Lord, and he cannot trust anyone. The powerful distort the values of goodness and righteousness through violence and bribery (3-4). As a result, the day of the Lord will come to punish the violent and deceitful who spread confusion and helplessness (cf. Is 2:12; Am 5:18). The prophet’s only option is to trust and wait on God, his savior (7; cf. Job 19:25).
Restoration.
The essential condition for God’s salvation is conversion, which he had urged his people to pursue through the prophet (6:2-5). Ultimately, Jerusalem, symbolizing the people, steps in as if to continue the judgment initiated by the prophet at the start of chapter 6 (8-10), challenging its enemy, Assyria, who had mocked its destiny (cf. Ps 42:5.11). God then declares the freeing and restoration of Israel (11-14), and the prophet ends his message with a prayer full of trust and hope in God, who “loves mercy” (18-19).