Micah 7:8-20

8 Don't, enemy, crow over me. I'm down, but I'm not out. I'm sitting in the dark right now, but God is my light.

9 I can take God's punishing rage. I deserve it - I sinned. But it's not forever. He's on my side and is going to get me out of this. He'll turn on the lights and show me his ways. I'll see the whole picture and how right he is.

10 And my enemy will see it, too, and be discredited - yes, disgraced! This enemy who kept taunting, "So where is this God of yours?" I'm going to see it with these, my own eyes - my enemy disgraced, trash in the gutter.

11 Oh, that will be a day! A day for rebuilding your city, a day for stretching your arms, spreading your wings!

12 All your dispersed and scattered people will come back, old friends and family from faraway places, From Assyria in the east to Egypt in the west, from across the seas and out of the mountains.

13 But there'll be a reversal for everyone else - massive depopulation - because of the way they lived, the things they did.

14 Shepherd, O God, your people with your staff, your dear and precious flock. Uniquely yours in a grove of trees, centered in lotus land. Let them graze in lush Bashan as in the old days in green Gilead.

15 Reproduce the miracle-wonders of our exodus from Egypt.

16 And the godless nations: Put them in their place - humiliated in their arrogance, speechless and clueless.

17 Make them slink like snakes, crawl like cockroaches, come out of their holes from under their rocks And face our God. Fill them with holy fear and trembling.

18 Where is the god who can compare with you - wiping the slate clean of guilt, Turning a blind eye, a deaf ear, to the past sins of your purged and precious people? You don't nurse your anger and don't stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That's what you love most.

19 And compassion is on its way to us. You'll stamp out our wrongdoing. You'll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean.

20 You'll stay true to your word to Father Jacob and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham - Everything you promised our ancestors from a long time ago.

Micah 7:8-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO MICAH 7

This chapter begins with a lamentation of the prophet, in the name of the church and people of God, concerning the general depravity and corruption of the times in which he lived, Mic 7:1-6; then declares what he was determined to do for his relief in such circumstances, Mic 7:7; comforts himself and the church with a good hope and firm belief of its being otherwise and better with them, to the shame and confusion of their enemies that now rejoiced, though without just reason for it, Mic 7:8-10; with promises of deliverance, after a desolation of the land for some time, Mic 7:11-13; and with the answer returned to the prayers of the prophet, Mic 7:14,15; which would issue in the astonishment of the world, and their subjection to the church of God, Mic 7:16,17; and the chapter is concluded with admiration at the pardoning grace and mercy of God, and his faithfulness to his promises, Mic 7:18-20.