Bible Strands
Micah 6:14
You will eat but not be satisfied, and your hunger will remain with you. What you acquire, you will not preserve; and what you save, I will give to the sword.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Micah pronounces God's judgment to the covenant people of Israel for their accumulated sins. This declaration immediately follows the warning of severe divine striking in Micah 6:13.
The words — The Hebrew תֹאכַל (to.Khal) means "you will eat," directly contrasted with תִשְׂבָּ֔ע (tis.Ba'), "you will be satisfied," to frame futile consumption. The phrase וְ/יֶשְׁחֲ/ךָ֖ (ve./yesh.cha./Kha) literally renders "and emptiness of you," specifying that hunger persists in the person's midst.
The thread — This sequence of eating without satisfaction appears in Hosea 4:10 and Isaiah 65:13 as a recurring covenant curse. The motif aligns with Leviticus 26:26, where God withholds bread despite intensified labor.
Why it lands — The text states that acquired goods cannot be preserved and saved resources will be destroyed by the sword. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on material accumulation and acknowledge that provision and loss are under divine control.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.
Cross-references
- Hosea 4:10 They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have abandoned the LORD to give themselves
- Isaiah 65:13 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; My servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.
- Leviticus 26:26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
- Isaiah 9:20 They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring.
- Isaiah 30:6 This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.
- Jeremiah 48:44 “Whoever flees the panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For I will bring upon Moab the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.
- Ezekiel 4:16 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.
- Ezekiel 5:12 A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.
- Amos 2:14 Escape will fail the swift, the strong will not prevail by his strength, and the mighty will not save his life.
- Haggai 1:6 You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”