No Cluster Left to Eat
1 Misery is mine! Indeed, I am like one who gathers the summer fruits, as gleanings of the vineyard. There is no cluster of grapes to eat. My soul desires to eat the early fig. 2 The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net. 3 Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe. The powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together. 4 The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion. 5 Don’t trust in a neighbor. Don’t put confidence in a friend. With the woman lying in your embrace, be careful of the words of your mouth! 6 For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
The collapse is traced inward from the courts to the household, and it ends at the one relationship nobody expects to have to guard.
The chapter opens on a man walking a stripped vineyard after the pickers have gone, wanting one early fig and finding none Micah 7:1. It is a picture of searching rather than of famine, which is what makes it bleak.
What has been harvested away is named in verse 2, and the word is worth pausing on. The one who has perished is the chasid H2623, the person of covenant faithfulness — the same root as the loyalty God asked for two chapters earlier Micah 6:8. The book asked for a quality and now reports it cannot be found.
Verse 3 gives the mechanism, and it is competence rather than weakness: both hands skilled at evil, the official asking, the powerful man naming what he wants, the three braiding it together. Corruption here is teamwork.
Verses 5 and 6 then move the collapse indoors. Do not trust a neighbor, do not confide in a friend, guard your words from the woman lying against your chest. Son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law — a man's enemies are the men of his own house. That last sentence was quoted centuries later, without softening, for what following the Messiah would cost Matthew 10:35–36.
settled What this mark means