Bible Strands
Micah 7:13
Then the earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as the fruit of their deeds.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Micah pronounces this judgment to the people of Israel and Judah immediately after describing the gathering of hostile nations. The declaration marks the pivot from national collapse to the promised restoration in the following verse.
The words — שְׁמָמָה (sh.ma.Mah) means desolation, and מַעֲלָלֵי (Ma.'a.lei) means deeds or actions. The syntax directly ties the earth’s ruin to the inhabitants’ own conduct.
The thread — The land’s desolation echoes Jeremiah 25:11, where the whole territory becomes a wasteland, while the principle of reward matching action parallels Jeremiah 17:10 and the contrast in Isaiah 3:10. The motif of national ruin producing fruit of its own making recurs in prophetic judgment oracles.
Why it lands — It demands recognition that collective consequences flow directly from collective conduct. It requires the reader to accept desolation as the necessary precursor to divine reordering rather than as arbitrary punishment.
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
Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 3:10 Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor.
- Jeremiah 25:11 And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
- Jeremiah 17:10 I, the LORD, search the heart; I examine the mind to reward a man according to his way, by what his deeds deserve.
- Micah 6:13 Therefore I am striking you severely, to ruin you because of your sins.
- Leviticus 26:33 But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.
- Job 4:8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
- Proverbs 1:31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- Proverbs 5:22 The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
- Proverbs 31:31 Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her at the gates.
- Isaiah 6:11 Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,