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Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.
Micah 6:13 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.
  • BSB Therefore I am striking you severely, to ruin you because of your sins.
  • NKJV “Therefore I will also make you sick by striking you, By making you desolate because of your sins.
  • NASB “So also I will make you sick, striking you down, Making you desolate because of your sins.
  • NLT “Therefore, I will wound you! I will bring you to ruin for all your sins.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Because of their sins, God Himself has struck them with a wounding blow and made them desolate. It announces that judgment is the LORD's deliberate response to sin.

Overview

God declares that He is the agent behind Israel's coming devastation, "I have made you desolate because of your sins." The judgment is neither random nor merely natural consequence but the righteous act of the covenant Lord. Such sober warning underscores why a Savior is needed, one who would bear God's wounding stroke in the place of His people (Isaiah 53).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 12

  • Ps 107:17–18Fools are afflicted because of their disobedience, and because of their iniquities.
  • Deut 28:21–22Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it.
  • Lev 26:16I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
  • Hos 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
  • Acts 12:23Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
  • Job 33:19–22He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones;
  • Lam 3:11He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
  • Lam 1:13“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them; He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has made me desolate and faint all day long.
  • Hos 5:9Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.
  • Jer 14:18If I go out into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! If I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.’”
  • Isa 6:11Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land becomes utterly waste,
  • Isa 1:5–7Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Micah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Micah 6:13YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on MicahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Micah names the town — 'But you, Bethlehem... from you shall come forth one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origins are from of old' — the birthplace of the eternal King.

How Micah 6:13 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.