Micah 6-7

English Standard Version

The Indictment of the Lord

6 ^(A)Hear what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
    and let the hills hear your voice.
²^(B)Hear, you mountains, ^(C)the indictment of the Lord,
    and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against his people,
    and he will contend with Israel.

³“O my people, ^(D)what have I done to you?
    ^(E)How have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴For ^(F)I brought you up from the land of Egypt
    and ^(G)redeemed you from the house of slavery,
and I sent before you Moses,
    Aaron, and ^(H)Miriam.
⁵O my people, remember ^(I)what Balak king of Moab devised,
    and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
and what happened from ^(J)Shittim to Gilgal,
    that you may know ^(K)the righteous acts of the Lord.”

What Does the Lord Require?

⁶^(L)“With what shall I come before the Lord,
    and bow myself before ^(M)God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
    with calves a year old?
⁷^(N)Will the Lord be pleased with^[a] thousands of rams,
    with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
^(O)Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
⁸He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and ^(P)what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,^[b]
    and to ^(Q)walk humbly with your God?

Destruction of the Wicked

⁹The voice of the Lord cries to the city—
    and it is sound wisdom to fear ^(R)your name:
“Hear of ^(S)the rod and of him who appointed it!^[c]
¹⁰    Can I forget any longer the treasures^[d] of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
    and the scant measure that is accursed?
¹¹Shall I acquit the man ^(T)with wicked scales
    and with a bag of deceitful weights?
¹²Your^[e] rich men are ^(U)full of violence;
    your inhabitants ^(V)speak lies,
    and ^(W)their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
¹³Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
    ^(X)making you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴^(Y)You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
    and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
    and what you preserve I will give to the sword.
¹⁵^(Z)You shall sow, but not reap;
    you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
    you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
¹⁶For you have kept the statutes of ^(AA)Omri,^[f]
    and all the works of the house of ^(AB)Ahab;
    and you have walked in their counsels,
that I may make you ^(AC)a desolation, and your^[g] inhabitants ^(AD)a hissing;
    so you shall bear ^(AE)the scorn of my people.”

Wait for the God of Salvation

7 Woe is me! For I have become
    ^(AF)as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
    as when the grapes have been gleaned:
there is no cluster to eat,
    no ^(AG)first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
²^(AH)The godly has perished from the earth,
    and ^(AI)there is no one upright among mankind;
^(AJ)they all lie in wait for blood,
    and ^(AK)each hunts the other with a net.
³^(AL)Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
    ^(AM)the prince and ^(AN)the judge ask for a bribe,
and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
    thus they weave it together.
⁴The best of them is ^(AO)like a brier,
    the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of ^(AP)your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
    ^(AQ)now their confusion is at hand.
⁵^(AR)Put no trust in a neighbor;
    have no confidence in a friend;
guard ^(AS)the doors of your mouth
    from her who lies in your arms;^[h]
⁶for ^(AT)the son treats the father with contempt,
    the daughter rises up against her mother,
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
    ^(AU)a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
⁷But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
    ^(AV)I will wait for the God of my salvation;
    my God will hear me.

⁸^(AW)Rejoice not over me, O ^(AX)my enemy;
    ^(AY)when I fall, I shall rise;
^(AZ)when I sit in darkness,
    the Lord will be a light to me.
⁹^(BA)I will bear the indignation of the Lord
    because I have sinned against him,
until ^(BB)he pleads my cause
    and executes judgment for me.
^(BC)He will bring me out to the light;
    I shall look upon his vindication.
¹⁰Then ^(BD)my enemy will see,
    and shame will cover her who ^(BE)said to me,
    “Where is the Lord your God?”
^(BF)My eyes will look upon her;
    now she will be trampled down
    ^(BG)like the mire of the streets.

¹¹^(BH)A day for the building of your walls!
    In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
¹²In that day they^[i] will come to you,
    ^(BI)from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
and from Egypt to ^(BJ)the River,^[j]
    ^(BK)from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
¹³But ^(BL)the earth will be desolate
    because of its inhabitants,
    for the fruit of their deeds.

¹⁴^(BM)Shepherd your people ^(BN)with your staff,
    the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
    ^(BO)in the midst of ^(BP)a garden land;^[k]
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
    as in the days of old.
¹⁵^(BQ)As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
    I will show them^[l] marvelous things.
¹⁶^(BR)The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
^(BS)they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
    their ears shall be deaf;
¹⁷^(BT)they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
    like the crawling things of the earth;
^(BU)they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
    ^(BV)they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
    and they shall be in fear of you.

God's Steadfast Love and Compassion

¹⁸^(BW)Who is a God like you, ^(BX)pardoning iniquity
    and passing over transgression
    ^(BY)for the remnant of his inheritance?
^(BZ)He does not retain his anger forever,
    because he delights in steadfast love.
¹⁹He will ^(CA)again have compassion on us;
    ^(CB)he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
^(CC)You will cast all our^[m] sins
    into the depths of the sea.
²⁰^(CD)You will show faithfulness to Jacob
    and steadfast love to Abraham,
^(CE)as you have sworn to our fathers
    from the days of old.