But the land will become empty and desolate because of the wickedness of those who live there.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yet the land will be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
- KJV Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
- BSB Then the earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the fruit of their deeds.
- NKJV Yet the land shall be desolate Because of those who dwell in it, And for the fruit of their deeds.
- NASB And the earth will become a wasteland because of her inhabitants, On account of the fruit of their deeds.
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
Yet the wider earth will be made desolate because of its inhabitants' evil deeds. It holds judgment and restoration together, the same day brings ruin to the unrepentant.
Overview
Alongside Zion's restoration, the land (or earth) will lie desolate as the fruit of human wickedness. God's saving purpose for His people coincides with judgment on persistent evil. This sober note reminds us that the day of salvation is also a day of reckoning, fulfilled when Christ both saves and judges.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Isa 3:10–11Tell the righteous “Good!” For they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
- Jer 25:11This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
- Mic 6:13Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.
- Jer 17:10“I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- Prov 31:31Give her of the fruit of her hands! Let her works praise her in the gates!
- Prov 5:22The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
- Isa 6:11–13Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land becomes utterly waste,
- Isa 24:3–8The earth will be utterly emptied and utterly laid waste; for Yahweh has spoken this word.
- Job 4:8According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
- Dan 4:26–27Whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree; your kingdom shall be sure to you, after that you shall have known that the heavens do rule.
- Mic 3:12Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
- Luke 21:20–24“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand.
- Lev 26:33–39I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
- Gal 6:7–8Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- Jer 21:14I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says Yahweh; and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her.’”
- Jer 32:19great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings:
- Prov 1:31Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes.
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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 7:13 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.