Micah — Chapter 7

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1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.
2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.
3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.
4 The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.
5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
11 In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.
12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain. {and from the fortified cities: or, even to the fortified cities}
13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.
16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.
18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
19 He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.
Abrahamic Catechism
Bible Study
Micah — Chapter 7
✦ Talmud

• Yoma 86b teaches that "who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love" is the Talmud's culminating statement on the character of the divine — this verse is embedded in the Tashlich ceremony and the Yom Kippur liturgy because it captures the second-heaven attribute that the Sitra Achra cannot duplicate: a justice-executing power that simultaneously delights in mercy, so that mercy is not weakness but the expression of the deepest divine nature.

• Berakhot 10a teaches that "do not rejoice over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me" is the Talmud's warrior-psalm of the Tzaddik in defeat — the Sitra Achra's error is always to interpret the Tzaddik's fall as permanent, because it measures by first-heaven metrics, while the Tzaddik knows that fall-and-rise is the second-heaven operational pattern, and that each defeat is the precondition of a greater restoration.

• Sanhedrin 99a teaches that "though I have fallen, I will rise; though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is my light" is connected to the Talmudic martyrology tradition — those who died al kiddush Hashem are described as having spoken this verse in the moment of death, understanding their physical death as a first-heaven fall that would be answered by a second-heaven rising.

• Megillah 31a teaches that "I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me" — the Tzaddik accepting divine correction rather than fleeing it — is the Talmud's definition of the mature spiritual warfare posture: the advanced Tzaddik does not resist divine discipline but metabolizes it, using it as the teshuvah fuel that accelerates the second-heaven restoration process.

• Makkot 24a teaches that the promise "he will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot; you will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea" is the Talmud's final image in the prophetic teshuvah theology — sins cast into the sea-depths echo Jonah's fish, the Exodus's Pharaoh, and the Sitra Achra's sea from which the four beasts of Daniel rose, so that Micah's closing verse is a second-heaven declaration that the very medium through which the Sitra Achra launched its greatest campaigns against the covenant will become the burial ground of the sins those campaigns exploited.