Micah

¹ sunk in a swamp of despair! I'm like someone who goes to the garden to pick cabbages and carrots and corn And returns empty-handed, finds nothing for soup or sandwich or salad.

² Right-living humans are extinct. They're all out for one another's blood, animals preying on each other.

³ Corrupt leaders demand bribes. The powerful rich make sure they get what they want.

⁴ The top of the line is crabgrass. But no longer: It's exam time. Look at them slinking away in disgrace!

⁵ don't confide in your friend. Watch your words, even with your spouse.

⁶ The closer they are—sons, daughters, in-laws— The worse they can be. Your own family is the enemy.

⁷ I'm sticking around to see what God will do. I'm waiting for God to make things right. I'm counting on God to listen to me.

⁸ I'm down, but I'm not out. I'm sitting in the dark right now, but God is my light.

⁹ 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 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 a day for stretching your arms, spreading your wings!

¹² 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 because of the way they lived, the things they did.

¹⁴ 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 of our exodus from Egypt.

¹⁶ humiliated in their arrogance, speechless and clueless.

¹⁷ come out of their holes from under their rocks And face our God. Fill them with holy fear and trembling.

¹⁸ 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 You'll stamp out our wrongdoing. You'll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean.

²⁰ and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham— Everything you promised our ancestors from a long time ago.