The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV The faithful man has perished from 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.
- NASB The godly person has perished from the land, And there is no upright person among mankind. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed; Each of them hunts the other with a net.
- NLT The godly people have all disappeared; not one honest person is left on the earth. They are all murderers, setting traps even for their own brothers.
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
The godly have vanished and everyone lies in wait to shed his brother's blood. It describes the collapse of human decency and trust.
Overview
Micah declares that faithful and upright people have perished from the land, while violence and treachery dominate, each hunting his neighbor "with a net." The total absence of righteousness underscores universal human sinfulness, echoed in Paul's "there is none righteous" (Romans 3). It magnifies the grace of God, who provides the righteous Redeemer the world cannot produce.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 12:1For the choirmaster. According to Sheminith. A Psalm of David. Help, O LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
- Isa 59:7Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
- Ps 14:1–3For the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good.
- Isa 57:1The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; devout men are swept away, while no one considers that the righteous are guided from the presence of evil.
- Jer 5:26For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.
- Prov 1:11If they say, “Come along, let us lie in wait for blood, let us ambush the innocent without cause,
- Jer 16:16But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.
- 1 Sam 24:11See, my father, look at the corner of your robe in my hand. For I cut it off, but I did not kill you. See and know that there is no evil or rebellion in my hands. I have not sinned against you, even though you are hunting me down to take my life.
- 1 Sam 26:20So do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the LORD. For the king of Israel has come out to look for a flea, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.”
- Prov 12:6The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.
- Ps 57:6They spread a net for my feet; my soul was despondent. They dug a pit before me, but they themselves have fallen into it! Selah
- Hab 1:15–17The foe pulls all of them up with a hook; he catches them in his dragnet, and gathers them in his fishing net; so he rejoices gladly.
- Lam 4:18They stalked our every step, so that we could not walk in our streets. Our end drew near, our time ran out, for our end had come!
- Mic 3:10who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.
- Jer 5:16Their quivers are like open graves; they are all mighty men.
- Rom 3:10–18As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.
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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 7:2 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.