Micah 7:1-10

I’m so depressed and disappointed, 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. The godly 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. Concerning evil, both hands do it well. Officials and judges ask for bribes, the man in power pronounces whatever he pleases, and the prominent plot as one. The 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. Confusion confronts you! Don’t dare to trust in a neighbor or place your confidence in a friend. Watch your words even with the wife you love. For 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. But 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 Listen, 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. I 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. When 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.