Micah 7:1-7

Israel's people are very bad, but Micah still believes God

1 I am very sad!

I am like someone who comes to trees with no fruit on them.

Other people have picked the fruit already.

So I am like those people who can only pick the last grapes.

Those are the grapes that other people leave behind.

Really, there are no grapes there to eat.

There are none of the first figs that I like so much.

2 There are no longer any people here who obey God.

There are no good, honest people.

Everyone is waiting to kill someone else.

They are all like hunters, who try to catch each other.

3 They know very well how to work together to do bad things.

Rulers demand gifts and judges ask for money.

7:3A judge is someone with authority to decide what is right or fair.

Powerful bad people always get what they want.

All these people work together to do what is bad.

4 The best of them are dangerous like wild plants with thorns.

7:4Micah says that the bad people are like plants with thorns. He means that they are always ready to cause trouble for other people.

The most honest of them are worse than thorn bushes.

The bad time that your prophets told you about is coming.

Soon God will punish you,

and you will be confused.

5 Do not believe anyone, even somebody that you know well.

You cannot be sure that your friend will always be honest with you.

Be careful what you say to your wife.

Be careful even when you are hugging her.

6 Sons think that their fathers are fools.

And daughters refuse to obey their mothers.

Wives quarrel with their husbands' mothers.

A man's enemies are the people who live in his own house now.

7 But as for me, I will watch for what the Lord will do.

I will wait for God, who saves me.

I know that he hears me.