Passage

Micah 7.20

Book: Micah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

18. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in lovingkindness. 19. He will again have compassion upon us; he will tread our iniquities under foot; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

20. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the lovingkindness to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. (Micah 7:18-20, ASV)

WEB

18. Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness. 19. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

20. You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old. (Micah 7:18-20, WEB)

KJV

18. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. 19. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

20. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. (Micah 7:18-20, KJV)

YLT

18. Who [is] a God like Thee? taking away iniquity, And passing by the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance, He hath not retained for ever His anger, Because He, He delighteth [in] kindness. 19. He doth turn back, He pitieth us, He doth subdue our iniquities, And Thou castest into the depths of the sea all their sins.

20. Thou givest truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham, That thou hast sworn to our fathers, from the days of antiquity! (Micah 7:18-20, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: The prophet, speaking for the community in the last verse of the book, addressing God ("Thou wilt perform").
Audience: God, in confident praise.
Location: Judah, looking back to the patriarchs.
Time period: Late eighth century BC, in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah (Micah 1:1), the same years as Isaiah; Jeremiah 26:18 remembers Micah prophesying "in the days of Hezekiah".

Theological reading

Truth and lovingkindness. "Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the lovingkindness to Abraham." Truth (emet) and lovingkindness (hesed) are the pair God used of himself at Sinai: "abundant in lovingkindness and truth" (Exodus 34:6). Lovingkindness is the loyal love of covenant; truth is reliability, God doing what he said. The book ends by naming the two qualities on which the whole future depends.

Sworn to the fathers. The promise is one "which thou hast sworn unto our fathers." God swore to Abraham after Moriah: "By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah" (Genesis 22:16). The book does not end with Israel's faithfulness, which it has shown to be lacking, but with God's oath, which cannot fail.

From the days of old. "From the days of old" uses the same Hebrew word for antiquity as Micah 5:2, where the ruler's "goings forth are from of old." The ruler's origin and the promise to the fathers both reach back before Micah's time; the book's hope rests on what God set in motion long before the crisis of Assyria.

Taken up in the Gospel. When Zechariah praises God at the birth of John the Baptist, he uses the same terms: "To show mercy towards our fathers, And to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware unto Abraham our father" (Luke 1:72-73). Micah's last verse states the expectation that Luke presents as beginning to be fulfilled.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H0571 - emet, emet, Strong's H0571
H2617 - hesed, hesed, Strong's H2617
H0001 - ab, ab, Strong's H0001

Quoted in

Lexicon:

H0571 - emet
H7356 - rachamim, via Micah 7.18-20

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.