Micah 7:1-20 CEV

[1] I feel so empty inside- like someone starving for grapes or figs, after the vines and trees have all been picked clean. [2] No one is loyal to God; no one does right. Everyone is brutal and eager to deceive everyone else. [3] People cooperate to commit crime. Judges and leaders demand bribes, and rulers cheat in court. [4] The most honest of them is worse than a thorn patch. Your doom has come! Lookouts sound the warning, and everyone panics. [5] Don't trust anyone, not even your best friend, and be careful what you say to the one you love. [6] Sons refuse to respect their own fathers, daughters rebel against their own mothers, and daughters-in-law despise their mothers-in-law. Your family is now your enemy. [7] But I trust the LORD God to save me, and I will wait for him to answer my prayer. [8] My enemies, don't be glad because of my troubles! I may have fallen, but I will get up; I may be sitting in the dark, but the LORD is my light. [9] I have sinned against the LORD. And so I must endure his anger, until he comes to my defense. But I know that I will see him making things right for me and leading me to the light. [10] You, my enemies, said, "The LORD God is helpless." Now each of you will be disgraced and put to shame. I will see you trampled like mud in the street. [11] Towns of Judah, the day is coming when your walls will be rebuilt, and your boundaries enlarged. [12] People will flock to you from Assyria and Egypt, from Babylonia and everywhere else. [13] Those nations will suffer disaster because of what they did. [14] Lead your people, LORD! Come and be our shepherd. Grasslands surround us, but we live in a forest. So lead us to Bashan and Gilead, and let us find pasture as we did long ago. [15] I, the LORD, will work miracles just as I did when I led you out of Egypt. [16] Nations will see this and be ashamed because of their helpless armies. They will be in shock, unable to speak or hear, [17] because of their fear of me, your LORD and God. Then they will come trembling, crawling out of their fortresses like insects or snakes, lapping up the dust. [18] The people said: Our God, no one is like you. We are all that is left of your chosen people, and you freely forgive our sin and guilt. You don't stay angry forever; you're glad to have pity [19] and pleased to be merciful. You will trample on our sins and throw them in the sea. [20] You will keep your word and be faithful to Jacob and to Abraham, as you promised our ancestors many years ago.