Micah 7

¹ Alack to me! For I become as the gatherings of the straw of the harvest, as the clean-gleanings of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat; my soul yearns for the firstfruit. ² The kindly one has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among humanity. All of them are ambushing for blood; each man is hunting his brother with a seine net. ³ Both palms are set upon the evil to do it thoroughly: The chief is asking, also the judge, for a repayment, and the great one, he is speaking the woe of his soul. And they are entwining it. ⁴ Their good is as prickly nightshade; their uprightness is a hedge. The day of your watchmen, your visitation, comes; now shall be their perplexity. ⁵ You must not believe in an associate. You must not trust in a mentor. From her who is lying in your bosom, keep the portals of your mouth, ⁶ for the son is disgracing the father, the daughter is rising against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her husband's mother. The enemies of a man are all the mortals of his house. ⁷ Yet I will watch in Yahweh. I will wait for the Elohim of my salvation. My Elohim will hear me. ⁸ You must not rejoice against me, O my enemy. Though I fall, I shall rise. Though I am sitting in darkness, Yahweh shall be light for me. ⁹ The turbulence of Yahweh I will bear, for I have sinned against Him, till He is contending my contention, and shall execute my judgment. He will bring me forth to the light; I shall see by His righteousness. ¹⁰ Then my enemy shall see, and shame will cover her, the one saying to me: Where is Yahweh your Elohim? My eyes shall see her. Now, shall she come to be for tramping as the mud of the streets. ¹¹ A day to build your stone dikes comes; in that day the delineating limit shall be put far off. ¹² In that day also, unto you shall they come from Assyria and the cities of lower Egypt, and from Tyre and unto the stream, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. ¹³ Yet first the land becomes a desolation, on account of its dwellers, because of the fruit of their actions. ¹⁴ Shepherd Your people with Your club, the flock of Your allotment, tabernacling solitary in the wildwood in the midst of Carmel. They shall graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of the eon. ¹⁵ As the days of your faring forth from the land of Egypt, will I show marvels to them. ¹⁶ The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their mastery. They will place a hand on the mouth. Their ears will be deaf. ¹⁷ They will lick up soil as a serpent. As skulkers of the earth shall they be disturbed from their borders. Of Yahweh, our Elohim, shall they be afraid, and they shall fear because of You. ¹⁸ Who is an El as You are, bearing with depravity, and passing over transgression, for the remnant of His allotment? He does not hold fast His anger for the future. For He delights in kindness. ¹⁹ He will return, having compassion on us. He will subdue our depravities. And You wilt fling into the shadowy depths of the sea all our sins. ²⁰ You wilt render the truth to Jacob, the kindness to Abraham, which You swear to our forefathers from days aforetime.