Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Micah 4:9
Now why dost thou cry out aloud? [is there] no king in thee? is thy counselor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
9. Now why dost thou cry out aloud? ] The prophet from his watch-tower beholds the capture of Jerusalem, and hears the lamentation of its inhabitants (comp. Isa 10:30). Absorbed in high visions of the future, he deprecates this unmanly despair. True, all is lost, for the present; but they may carry with them into exile a consoling promise of deliverance.
Is there no king in thee? ] Is it because thy king has been carried captive? Comp. Hos 13:10, ‘Where then is thy king that he may save thee?’
thy counseller ] A synonym for ‘thy king.’ The root of mlech (king) in Aramaic means ‘to counsel.’ The Messiah is called ‘Wonderful counsellor’ in Isa 9:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Now – The prophet places himself in the midst of their deepest sorrows, and out of them he promises comfort. Why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no King in thee? is thy Counsellor perished? . Is then all lost, because thou hast no visible king, none to counsel thee or consult for thee? . Very remarkably he speaks of their King and Counsellor as one, as if to say, When all beside is gone, there is One who abides. Though thou be a captive, God will not forsake thee. When thou hadst no earthly king, the Lord thy God was thy King 1Sa 12:12. He is the First, and He is the Last. When thou shalt have no other, He, thy King, ceaseth not to be. Montanus: Thou shouldest not fear, so long as He, who counselleth for thee, liveth; but He liveth forever. Thy Counsellor, He, who is called Counsellor Isa 9:6, who counselleth for thee, who counselleth thee, will, if thou obey His counsel, make birth-pangs to end in joy.
For pangs have taken thee, as a woman in travail – Resistless, remediless, doubling the whole frame, redoubled until the end, for which God sends them, is accomplished, and then ceasing in joy. The truest comfort, amid all sorrow, is in owning that the travail-pains must be, but that the reward shall be afterward. Montanus: It is meet to look for deliverance from Gods mercy, as certainly as for punishment from our guilt; and that the more, since He who foretold both, willingly saves, punishes unwillingly. So the prophets adds.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Mic 4:9-13
The Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies
The moral regeneration of the world
I. The state of mankind requires it. Is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? It was more serious for the Jewish people to be deprived of a king than for any other people, for their king was theocratic, he was supposed to be the Voice and vicegerent of God. The prophet means to say, that when the Chaldeans would come and carry them away, they would have no king and no counsellors. Now, men in an unregenerate state–
1. Have no king. A political ruler is to man, as a spiritual existent, only a king in name. He does not command the moral affections, rule the conscience, or legislate for the inner and primal springs of all activity. Such a king is the deep want of man, he wants some one to be enthroned on his heart, to whom his conscience can render homage. No man in an unregenerate state has such a king; he has gods many and lords many, of a sort, but none to rule him, and to bring all the powers of his soul into one harmonious channel of obedience.
2. Have no counsellor. Society abounds with counsellors who proffer their advice; but some of them are wicked, most of them worthless, few, if any, satisfactory, that is, to conscience. What the soul wants, is not the mere book counsellor,–though it be the Bible itself,–but the spirit of that book, the spirit of reverence, love, Christlike trust.
3. Have no ease. Pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. The unregenerate soul is always liable to consternation, remorse, it often writhes in agony. There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked. Now, moral regeneration brings the man a true King, a true Counsellor, a true Peace–a peace that passeth all understanding.
II. It is opposed by formidable antagonists. The nations referred to are those that composed the army of Nebuchadnezzar. What formidable opponents there are to the conversion of man!
1. The depraved elements of the soul. Unbelief, selfishness, carnality, etc.
2. The corrupt influence of society. Custom, fashion, amusements, pleasures!
III. It is guaranteed by the Word of Almighty God. The enemies of the Jews were utterly ignorant of Gods purpose to deliver His people from Babylonish Captivity.
1. Man in ignorance fights against Gods purpose.
2. Man, in fighting against Gods purpose, brings ruin on himself.
The nations thought to ruin Christianity in its infancy, but it was victorious over them! (Homilist.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. Is there no King in thee?] None. And why? Because thou hast rejected Jehovah thy king.
Is thy counsellor perished?] No: but thou hast rejected the words and advices of the prophets.
Pangs have taken thee] He is speaking of the desolations that should take place when the Chaldeans should come against the city; and hence he says, “Thou shalt go to Babylon;” ye shall be cast out of your own land, and sent slaves to a foreign country, He represents the people under the notion of a woman in travail.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Now; now that I have from the Lord promised such great good things to you, after the seventy years captivity, and in the days of the Messiah,
why dost thou cry out aloud? as if this case were desperate, or as if it would be ever night with thee, or as if thy hopes would not outweigh thy fears, or thy future joy would not counterbalance thy present griefs.
Is there no king in thee? thou hast lost thy king Zedekiah, and now art become tributary, but thy God, thy King, is with thee. and will be with thee to preserve, restore, establish, enlarge, enrich, and beautify thee with salvation, and to reign over thee in Mount Zion for ever, Mic 4:7. Thy loss at present is great, but thy future advantage may well stop these outcries.
Is thy counsellor perished? hast thou none among thy wise counsellors left in thee? Hath Nebuchadnezzar cruelly slain all he took of them, and are the rest fled? Yet the wonderful Counsellor is with thee, doth consult and resolve that thou shalt not be undone, and perish for ever. Messiah, the wisdom of his Father, hath the conduct of thy sufferings, deliverance, and re-establishment, in which thou mayst at last glory.
For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail: this great distress of spirit appears by thy outcries, like those of a woman in travail; of which no great reason can be given, all things considered, no more than of those of a woman at her full time, and bringing forth the fruit of her womb, to the present increase and future honour of the family; whose pains end in joy, Joh 16:21.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. Addressed to the daughter ofZion, in her consternation at the approach of the Chaldeans.
is there noking in thee?asked tauntingly. There is a king in her; but itis the same as if there were none, so helpless to devise means ofescape are he and his counsellors [MAURER].Or, Zion’s pains are because her king is taken away from her(Jer 52:9; Lam 4:20;Eze 12:13) [CALVIN].The former is perhaps the preferable view (compare Jer49:7). The latter, however, describes better Zion’s kinglessstate during her present long dispersion (Hos 3:4;Hos 3:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Now why dost thou cry out aloud?…. Or “cry a cry” w; a vehement one, or set up a most lamentable cry, as if no help or hope were to be had, but as in the most desperate condition: here the prophet represents the Jews as if they were already in captivity, and in the utmost distress, and as they certainly would be; and yet had no reason to despair of deliverance and salvation, since the Messiah would certainly come to them, and his kingdom would be set up among them, The word used has sometimes the notion of friendship and association; hence the Targum renders it,
“now why art thou joined to the people?”
and so Jarchi,
“thou hast no need to seek friends and lovers, the kings of Egypt and Assyria, for help.”
And which sense of the word as approved by Gussetius x.
[Is there] no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? he it so that they were; as was the case when Zedekiah was taken and carried captive, and his princes, nobles, and counsellors killed; yet God, their King and Counsellor, was with them, to keep and preserve them, counsel, instruct, and comfort them, and at last to deliver and save them; and the King Messiah would be raised up, and sent unto them in due time, who is the Wonderful Counsellor Isaiah had prophesied of:
for pangs have taken thee as a worn an in travail; which is often expressive of great sufferings and sorrows; and yet, as the pangs of a woman in travail do not continue always, but have an end, so would theirs, and therefore there was no reason for despair; and as, when she brings forth her issue, her sorrow is turned into joy, this would be their case.
w “quid vociferabis vociferationem”, Pagninus, Montanus. So Vatablus, Drusius. x Ebr. Comment. p. 789.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But before this takes place, the daughter Zion will lose her king, and wander into captivity to Babylon; but there she will be redeemed by the Lord out of the power of her enemies. Mic 4:9. “Now why dost thou cry a cry? Is there no king in thee, or is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have seized thee like the woman in labour? Mic 4:10. Writhe and break forth, O daughter Zion, like a woman in labour! For how wilt thou go out of the city and dwell in the field, and come to Babel? there wilt thou be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies.” From this glorious future the prophet now turns his eye to the immediate future, to proclaim to the people what will precede this glorification, viz., first of all, the loss of the royal government, and the deportation of the people to Babylon. If Micah, after announcing the devastation of Zion in Mic 3:12, has offered to the faithful a firm ground of hope in the approaching calamities, by pointing to the highest glory as awaiting it in the future, he now guards against the abuse which might be made of this view by the careless body of the people, who might either fancy that the threat of punishment was not meant so seriously after all, or that the time of adversity would very speedily give place to a much more glorious state of prosperity, by depicting the grievous times that are still before them. Beholding in spirit the approaching time of distress as already present, he hears a loud cry, like that of a woman in labour, and inquires the cause of this lamentation, and whether it refers to the loss of her king. The words are addressed to the daughter Zion, and the meaning of the rhetorical question is simply this: Zion will lose her king, and be thrown into the deepest mourning in consequence. The loss of the king was a much more painful thing for Israel than for any other nation, because such glorious promises were attached to the throne, the king being the visible representative of the grace of God, and his removal a sign of the wrath of God and of the abolition of all the blessings of salvation which were promised to the nation in his person. Compare Lam 4:20, where Israel calls the king its vital breath (Hengstenberg). (counsellor) is also the king; and this epithet simply gives prominence to that which the Davidic king had been to Zion (cf. Isa 9:5, where the Messiah is designated as “Counsellor” par excellence). But Zion must experience this pain: writhe and break forth. Goch is strengthened by chul , and is used intransitively, to break forth, describing the pain connected with the birth as being as it were a bursting of the whole nature (cf. Jer 4:31). It is not used transitively in the sense of “drive forth,” as Hitzig and others suppose; for the determination that Jerusalem would submit, and the people be carried away, could not properly be represented as a birth or as a reorganization of things. With the words the prophet leaves the figure, and predicts in literal terms the catastrophe awaiting the nation. (now), repeated from Lam 4:9, is the ideal present, which the prophet sees in spirit, but which is in reality the near or more remote future. , without an article, is a kind of proper name, like urbs for Rome (Caspari). In order to set forth the certainty of the threatened judgment, and at the same time the greatness of the calamity in the most impressive manner, Micah fills up the details of the drama: viz., going out of the city, dwelling in the field, without shelter, delivered up to all the chances of weather, and coming to Babel, carried thither without delay. Going out of the city presupposes the conquest of the city by the enemy; since going out to surrender themselves to the enemy (2Ki 24:12; 1Sa 11:3) does not fit in with the prophetic description, which is not a historical description in detail. Nevertheless Israel shall not perish. There ( sham , i.e., even in Babel) will the Lord its God deliver it out of the hand of its foes.
The prediction that the daughter Zion, i.e., the nation of Israel which was governed from Zion, and had its centre in Zion – the covenant nation which, since the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, existed in Judah only – should be carried away to Babylon, and that at a time when Assyria was in the field as the chief enemy of Israel and the representative of the imperial power, goes so far beyond the bounds of the political horizon of Micah’s time, that it cannot be accounted for from any natural presentiment. It is true that it has an analogon in Isa 34:6-7, where Isaiah predicts to king Hezekiah in the most literal terms the carrying away of all his treasures, and of his sons (descendants), to Babylon. At the same time, this analogy is not sufficient to explain the prediction before us; for Isaiah’s prophecy was uttered during the period immediately following the destruction of the Assyrian forces in front of Jerusalem and the arrival of Babylonian ambassadors in Jerusalem, and had a point of connection in these events, which indicated the destruction of the Assyrian empire and the rise of Babylon in its stead, at all events in the germ; whereas no such connecting link exists in the case of Micah’s prophecy, which was unquestionably uttered before these events. It has therefore been thought, that in Mic 3:12 Micah predicts the destruction of Jerusalem, and here in Mic 4:10 the carrying away of Judah to Babylon by the Assyrians; and this opinion, that Micah expected the judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah to be executed by the Assyrians, and not by the Babylonians, has been supported partly by such passages as Mic 5:4-5, and Jer 26:18-19, and partly by the circumstance that Micah threatens his own corrupt contemporaries with the judgment which he predicts on account of their sins; whereas in his time the Assyrians were the only possible executors of a judgment upon Israel who were then standing on the stage of history (Caspari). But these arguments are not decisive. All that can be inferred from Mic 5:4-5, where Asshur is mentioned as the representative of all the enemies of Israel, and of the power of the world in its hostility to the people of God in the Messianic times, is that at the time of Micah the imperial power in its hostility to the kingdom of God was represented by Assyria; but it by no means follows that Assyria would always remain the imperial power, so that it could only be from her that Micah could expect the destruction of Jerusalem, and the carrying away of Judah to Babylon. Again, Jer 26:18, Jer 26:19 – where the chief men of Judah, in order to defend the prophet Jeremiah, quote Micah’s prophecy, with the remark that king Hezekiah did not put him to death in consequence, but feared the Lord and besought His face, so that the Lord repented of the evil which He had spoken concerning Jerusalem – simply proves that these chief men referred Micah’s words to the Assyrians, and attributed the non-fulfilment of the threatened judgment by the Assyrians to Hezekiah’s penitence and prayer, and that this was favoured by the circumstance that the Lord answered the prayer of the king, by assuring him that the Assyrian army should be destroyed (Isa 37:21.). But whether the opinion of these chief men as to the meaning and fulfilment of Micah’s prophecy (Mic 3:12) was the correct one or not, cannot be decided from the passage quoted. Its correctness is apparently favoured, indeed, by the circumstance that Micah threatened the people of his own time with the judgment ( for your sakes shall Zion be ploughed into a field, etc.). Now, if he had been speaking of a judgment upon Judah through the medium of the Babylonians, “he would (so Caspari thinks) not only have threatened his contemporaries with a judgment which could not fall upon them, since it was not possible till after their time, inasmuch as the Assyrians were on the stage in his day; but he would also have been most incomprehensibly silent as to the approaching Assyrian judgment, of which Isaiah spoke again and again.” This argument falls to the ground with the untenable assumptions upon which it is founded. Micah neither mentions the Assyrians nor the Babylonians as executing the judgment, nor does he say a word concerning the time when the predicted devastation or destruction of Jerusalem will occur. In the expression , for your sakes (Mic 3:12), it is by no means affirmed that it will take place in his time through the medium of the Assyrians. The persons addressed are the scandalous leaders of the house of Israel, i.e., of the covenant nation, and primarily those living in his own time, though by no means those only, but all who share their character and ungodliness, so that the words apply to succeeding generations quite as much as to his contemporaries. The only thing that would warrant our restricting the prophecy to Micah’s own times, would be a precise definition by Micah himself of the period when Jerusalem would be destroyed, or his expressly distinguishing his own contemporaries from their sons and descendants. But as he has done neither the one nor the other, it cannot be said that, inasmuch as the destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying away of the people was not effected by the Assyrians, but by the Babylonians (Chaldaeans), he would have been altogether silent as to the approaching Assyrian judgment, and only threatened them with the Chaldaean catastrophe, which did not take place till a long time afterwards. His words refer to all the judgments, which took place from his own time onwards till the utter destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying away of the people to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. The one-sided reference of the prophecy to the Assyrians is simply based upon an incorrect idea of the nature of prophecy, and its relation to the fulfilment, and involves the prophet Micah in an irreconcilable discrepancy between himself and his contemporary the prophet Isaiah, who does indeed predict the severe oppression of Judah by the Assyrians, but at the same time foretels the failure of the plans of these foes to the people of Jehovah, and the total destruction of their army.
This contradiction, with the consequence to which it would inevitably lead, – namely, that if one of the prophets predicted the destruction of Jerusalem by the Assyrians, whereas the other prophesied that it would not be destroyed by them, the two contemporary prophets would necessarily lead the people astray, and render both the truth of their contradictory utterances and their own divine mission doubtful, – cannot be removed by the assumption that Isaiah uttered the prophecies in ch. 28-32 at a somewhat later period, after Micah had published his book, and the terribly severe words of Micah in Mic 3:12 had produced repentance. For Isaiah had predicted that the Assyrian would not conquer Jerusalem, but that his army would be destroyed under its walls, not only in Isaiah 28-32, at the time when the Assyrians are approaching with threatening aspect under Shalmaneser or Sennacherib, but much earlier than that, – namely, in the time of Ahaz, in Isaiah 10:5-12:6. Moreover, in Isaiah 28-32 there is not a single trace that Micah’s terrible threatening had produced such repentance, that the Lord was able to withdraw His threat in consequence, and predict through Isaiah the rescue of Jerusalem from the Assyrian. On the contrary, Isaiah scourges the evil judges and false prophets quite as severely in Isa 28:7. and Isa 29:9-12 as Micah does in Mic 3:1-3 and Mic 3:5-8. And lastly, although the distinction between conditional prophecies and those uttered unconditionally is, generally speaking, correct enough, and is placed beyond all doubt by Jer 18:7-10; there is nothing in the addresses and threatenings of the two prophets to indicate that Micah uttered his threats conditionally, i.e., in case there should be no repentance, whereas Isaiah uttered his unconditionally. Moreover, such an explanation is proved to be untenable by the fact, that in Micah the threat of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the desolation of the temple mountain (Mic 3:12) stands in the closest connection with the promise, that at the end of the days the mountain of God’s house will be exalted above all mountains, and Jehovah reign on Zion as king for ever (Mic 4:1-3 and Mic 7:1). If this threat were only conditional, the promise would also have only a conditional validity; and the final glorification of the kingdom of God would be dependent upon the penitence of the great mass of the people of Israel, – a view which is diametrically opposed to the real nature of the prophecies of both, yea, of all the prophets. The only difference between Isaiah and Micah in this respect consists in the fact that Isaiah, in his elaborate addresses, brings out more distinctly the attitude of the imperial power of Assyria towards the kingdom of God in Israel, and predicts not only that Israel will be hard pressed by the Assyrians, but also that the latter will not overcome the people of God, but will be wrecked upon the foundation-stone laid by Jehovah in Zion; whereas Micah simply threatens the sinners with judgment, and after the judgment predicts the glorification of Zion in grand general terms, without entering more minutely into the attitude of the Assyrians towards Israel.
In the main, however, Micah goes hand in hand with his contemporary Isaiah. In Isa 32:14, Isaiah also foretels the devastation, or rather the destruction, of Jerusalem, notwithstanding the fact that he has more than once announced the deliverance of the city of God from Asshur, and that without getting into contradiction with himself. For this double announcement may be very simply explained from the fact that the judgments which Israel had yet to endure, and the period of glory to follow, lay, like a long, deep diorama, before the prophet’s mental eye; and that in his threatenings he plunged sometimes more, sometimes less, deeply into those judgments which lay in perspective before him (see Delitzsch on Isaiah, at Isa 32:20). The same thing applies to Micah, who goes to a great depth both in his threats and promises, not only predicting the judgment in all its extremity, – namely, the utter destruction of Jerusalem, and the carrying away of the people to Babel, – but also the salvation in its ultimate perfection, viz., the glorification of Zion. We must therefore not restrict his threats in Mic 3:12 and Mic 4:10 even to the Chaldaean catastrophe, nor the promise of Israel’s deliverance in Babel out of the hands of its foes to the liberation of the Jews from Babylon, which was effected by Cyrus, and their return to Palestine under Zerubbabel and Ezra; but must also extend the threat of punishment to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans and the attendant dispersion of the Jews over all the world, and the redemption out of Babel promised in Mic 4:10 to that deliverance of Israel which, in the main, is in the future still. These two judgments and these two deliverances are comprehended in an undivided unity in the words of the prophet, Babel being regarded not only in its historical character, but also in its typical significance, as the beginning and the hearth of the kingdom of the world. Babel has this double significance in the Scriptures from the very commencement. Even the building of the city with a tower intended to reach to heaven was a work of human pride, and an ungodly display of power (Gen 11:4.); and after its erection Babel was made by Nimrod the beginning of the empire of the world (Gen 10:10). It was from these two facts that Babel became the type of the imperial power, and not because the division of the human race into nations with different languages, and their dispersion over the whole earth, had their origin there (see A. ch. Lmmert, Babel, das Thier und der falsche Prophet. Goth. 1862, p. 36ff.); and it is in this typical significance of Babel that we have to seek not only for the reason for the divine purpose to banish the people of God to Babel, when they were given up to the power of the kingdom of the world, but also for a point of connection for the prophetic announcement when this purpose had been communicated to the prophet’s mind. Micah accordingly predicts the carrying away of the daughter Zion to Babel, and her deliverance there out of the power of her enemies, not because Babel along with Nineveh was the metropolis of the world-empire of his time, or a chief city of that empire, but because Babel, from its very origin, was a type and symbol of the imperial power. That the words of Micah, in their deepest sense, should be so interpreted, is not only warranted, but necessitated, by the announcement which follows in Mic 4:11-13 of the victorious conflict of Zion with many nations, which points far beyond the conflicts of the Jews in the times succeeding the captivity.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Verse 9, 10:
The Intervening Babylonian Captivity
Verse 9 presents an inquiry of irony and chiding sarcasm. Tauntingly Israel was asked, as the Chaldean army approached, if she did not have a king to devise resistance against the armed enemy. Are her counselors too mentally deranged to give any guidance? With her king subdued by the Chaldeans, Israel had anguish compared with the sudden sharp and severe pains of a woman in travail of birth, Jer 52:9; Lam 4:20; Hos 3:4-5. The king was a sign of God’s presence in Israel, His absence a sign of God’s displeasure.
Verse 10 calls upon Zion to be in pain, and to labor to bring forth, like a woman in travail, Jer 4:31. In her bitter sorrows and grieving, God brings her consolation. The suffering is her lot for a time, deliverance is assured, after awhile, Isa 59:20. Israel is told by God’s prophet Micah that she must go forth from the city into the field, open places, defenseless fields, even to Babylon, some 400 miles east of the Jordan river, there to languish in captivity 70 years because of her disobedience, Psa 137:1; Eze 3:15; Isa 39:6-7; Isa 43:14. They are assured, however, that they shall be delivered from that captivity, Isa 48:20. Cyrus, a type in deed, of Christ the Great deliverer, did deliver them, a remnant, back to Jerusalem after seventy years, Jdg 14:14; Jer 25:11-12; Dan 9:1-2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
The Prophet blends here things in their nature wholly contrary, — that the Jews were for a time to be cut off, — and that afterwards they were to recover their former state. Why, he says, dost thou cry out with crying? We must notice the Prophet’s design. He did not intend to overturn what he had before stated; but as the minds of the godly might have fainted amidst so many changes, the Prophet here gives them support, that they might continue firm in their faith; and hence he says, Why dost thou cry aloud with loud crying? That is, “I see that grievous troubles will arise capable of shaking even the stoutest hearts: time will be changeable; it will often be, that the faithful will be disturbed and degraded; but though various tumults may arise, and tempests throw all things into confusion, yet God will redeem his people.” We now then see what the Prophet means by saying, Why dost thou now cry? Why dost thou make an uproar? for the verb here properly means, not only to cry out, but also to sound the trumpet; as though he said, Why do the Jews so much torment themselves? There is he says, no doubt, a good reason.
And he adds, Is there no king among thee? This was doubtless the reason why the Jews so much harassed themselves; it was, because God had deprived them of their kingdom and of counsel: and we know what Jeremiah has said, ‘Christ,’ that is, the anointed of the Lord, ‘by whose life we breathe, is slain,’ (Lam 4:20.) Since, then, the whole Church derived as it were its life from the safety of its king, the faithful could not be otherwise than filled with amazement when the kingdom was upset and abolished; for the hope of salvation was taken away Is there, then, not a king among thee? and have thy counselors perished? Some think that the unfaithfulness of the people is here indirectly reproved, because they thought themselves to be destitute of the help of God and of his Christ, as though he said, — “Have ye forgotten what God has promised to you, that he would be your king for ever, and would send the Messiah to rule over you? nay, has he not promised that the kingdom of David would be perpetual? Whence then, is this fear and trembling, as though God no longer reigned in the midst of you, and the throne of David were hopelessly overturned?” These interpreters, in confirmation of this opinion, say, that Christ is here distinguished by the same title as in Isa 9:7; where he is called יועף, ivots, a counselor. But as in this verse, it is the Prophet’s design to terrify, and to reprove rather than to alleviate the grievousness of evils by consolation; it is more probable, that their own destitution is set before the people; as though Micah said, “What cause have you for trembling? Is it because your king and all his counselors have been taken away?” But what immediately follows proves that this sorrow arose from a just cause; it was because they were stripped of all those things which had been till that time the evidences of God’s favor.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Mic. 4:9.] Zion will lose her king, wander into captivity, but will be redeemed from her enemies. King] Loss of royal government, the cause of lamentation, more painful to Israel than other people; the king a sign of Gods presence, &c.
Mic. 4:10. Pain] Fig. of a woman with child (cf. Jer. 4:31). Out of the city, &c] Set forth the greatness and certainty of the calamity. There thee] Emphatic declaration; the scene of distress, the place of deliverance.
Mic. 4:11.] Distant sunlight overclouded by present cloud. Now] Nations gathered not to hear the law (Mic. 4:2), but for war. Defiled] Like a virgin.
Mic. 4:12. Gather them] To be punished in turn when they have answered his purpose, when fully ripe, like sheaves, lit. sheaf. However great the numbers of the foe, all are but as one sheaf ready to be threshed [Calvin].
Mic. 4:13. Arise] Deu. 25:4 Horn] To push the enemies (1Ki. 22:11). Gain] Goods collected by robbery (Jdg. 5:19). Lord] Not for Zions selfish ends (Isa. 60:6; Isa. 60:9). Whole earth] Who through subjugating the heathen has proved to be such (Psalms 93, 96).
HOMILETICS
THE SUFFERING AND TRIUMPH OF GODS PEOPLE.Mic. 4:9-13
Israels history, like human life, has its dark and its bright side. Before the glory promised is ever gained, sorrow and trial must be endured. This is
1. A constant rule; and
2. A necessary order in Gods discipline. But the scene of trial was to be the place of deliverance. The sufferings shall be over-ruled for the salvation of his people and the destruction of their enemies. Notice:
I. The bitterness of the affliction. Pangs have taken thee, &c. Pangs with out remedy, and painful as a woman in travail.
1. The loss of kings. Is there no king in thee? A visible king was a protection, and a symbol of Gods presence to them. The loss was most serious and irreparable. It was a condition of helplessness and shame.
2. The loss of counsellors. Is thy counsellor perished? Kings and judges were their counsellors and guides; but they were bereft of wisdom to direct, left in the hands of the enemy, and governed by captive nations.
3. The loss of liberties. Now shalt thou go forth out of the city, which shall be captured; dwell in the field exposed to danger; and be carried even to Babylon into long captivity. This was a sad exchange of liberty and luxury for bondage and misery. But it is the picture of many a soul reduced to slavery, bereft of God and writhing in agony.
II. The comforts under the affliction. All is not lost, though they have neither king nor counsellor. God will make up for everything.
1. Affliction will end in good. Jerusalems pangs are not as dying agonies, but as travailing throes, which after a while will be forgotten for joy that a child is born into the world. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning (Psa. 30:6; Psa. 73:24; Jer. 10:24).
2. Deliverance will be granted. There shalt thou be delivered. There, where sorrow is greatest and hope is faintesteven in Babylon, the most unlikely place, the Lord shall redeem thee. The utmost degree of affliction is often the nearest to the end, and help is not in the holy city, but in the stronghold of the foe. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity. The Red Sea must be the scene of triumph to Israel, and the prison the place of deliverance to Joseph and Peter. This magnifies Gods grace and power. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
3. Enemies will be subdued. Thou shalt beat in pieces many people. In their weakness, God will be their strength, and make them victorious over confederate nations. Their horns shall be iron, to push their enemies; and their hoofs brass, to tread them down. The destruction is universal and complete. All enemies shall be put under their feet, as conquered foes, or willing subjects. Fear not, thou worm Jacob. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff (Isa. 41:13-15).
III. The spirit in which they should bear the affliction. If such be their prospects in the trial, how should they demean themselves?
1. They should cherish a patient spirit. Why dost thou cry out aloud? Calm fear and hush grief; though affliction be grievous at present, it shall afterward yield the fruits of joy and peace. Patience defeats the menace of the foe, but passion takes his part
Patience doth conquer by out-suffering all [Peel].
2. They should cherish a submissive spirit. Be in pain, &c. Grieve, but remember excessive grief, fretfulness, and rebellion, are unreasonable. Resistance is folly, submission is triumph.
By not opposing, thou dost ills destroy,
And wear thy conquered sorrows into joy [Young].
3. They should cherish a spirit of hope. What a bright prospect opens up before them! Why doubt or despair? God will accomplish his word. Hope will sweeten trial, and, like the sun, paint the rainbow on the clouds. Black though our side of the canvas be, said Sir Harry Vane, in going to be executed, the Divine hand paints a beautiful picture on the unseen side.
THE DESTRUCTION OF ZIONS FOES.Mic. 4:11-13
Those who exult in Israels fall, and seek to defile and outrage her, will be disappointed. Inscrutable wisdom will correct the children with the foe, and then destroy the foe with the children.
I. They are frustrated in their design. Let her be defiled, &c.
1. They sought her injury. They desired to defile her with blood, and condemn her in guilt. The wicked delight in the fall and inconsistencies of Gods people. They often become tempters, then accusers; first desecrators, then sanctimonious justiciaries, says one.
2. They feasted their eyes on her misery. Let our eye look upon Zion. The world always hates the Church and rejoices in its sorrow. Edom delighted in the chastisement of Israel (Oba. 1:12); and the sufferings of the martyrs were a spectacle to the heathen. Malice is blind to all virtue, and eyes can always see what hearts can wish. Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.
II. They are crushed in their efforts. Many nations are gathered against thee. The powers of earth and hell are sometimes arrayed against the Church, but all in vain. They are against God when against his people. They may have wickedness to imagine, craft to devise, but are not able to perform (Psalms 21). God knows their thoughts, but they cannot defeat his purpose. Pharaohs counsel to extinguish issued in the increase of the chosen people. The wisdom, power, and counsel of man signify nothing, if they oppose the decrees of God. He taketh the wise in their craftiness. Learn
1. The folly of designing against God.
2. The security of obedience to God.
III. They are ruined in their numbers. Many nations combined against Zion. The armies of Babylon, with their subject nations, the forces of Edom, Ammon, Moab, and others, who exulted in Judahs fall, were types of the anti-Christian powers of the latter days. Neither numbers nor craft avail before God. They only ripen themselves for God to gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Mic. 4:9-10. I. The moral condition of men. Kingless and restless, in captivity and misery. Unable to cope with sin, evil habits, and the world. Without the privileges of that city, whose builder and maker is God; exposed to danger, tumult, and the distractions of life. II. The purpose of God concerning men. To redeem, to govern, to guide, and to exalt above all misery and opposition. He will shortly bruise Satan under their feet, and every power of body and mind shall be consecrated to him.
Mic. 4:11-12. The enemies of Zion.
1. Their number.
2. Their purpose,to defile and rejoice.
3. Their spiritproud and determined.
4. Their helplessness. They know not the thoughts of God.
5. Their ruin. He shall gather them, &c. Gods people begin, and he will finish, the work.
Gather them as sheaves. Persecutors.
1. Ripened by their own conduct.
2. Gathered by the providence of God.
3. Threshed by the judgments of God. This prophecy received a primary and partial fulfilment in the victories of the Maccabees (1Ma. 5:1). But its adequate accomplishment is in Christ. It is to be applied to the work of the apostles, and apostolic men, missionaries of Christ, who are compared by St. Paul to oxen treading out the corn (1Co. 9:9; 1Ti. 5:18; cf. Isa. 32:20). Their work is indeed one of bringing the nations into subjection (2Co. 2:14; 2Co. 10:5; Eph. 6:12); but it is in subjection to the law of love, in order that the good grain winnowed from the sheaves on the floor may be gathered into the garner of heaven (cf. Psa. 149:8) [Wordsworth].
Mic. 4:13. The very image of the threshing implies that this is no mere destruction. While the stubble is beaten or bruised to small pieces, and the chaff is far more than the wheat, and is carried out of the floor, there yet remains the seed-corn. So in the great judgments of God, while most is refuse, there yet remains over what is severed from the lost heap, and wholly consecrated to him [Pusey].
The Lord of the whole earth.
1. God the supreme ruler of the world. Not merely the God of Israel, but ruler of the whole earth.
2. All things governed in the interests of the Church. The nations subject to Zion, not for selfish aggrandisement, but for her good and his glory (Isa. 60:6; Isa. 60:9; Isa. 23:18).
3. The glory of victory should be given to God. All gains of merchandise, all achievements of intellect, all success of spiritual efforts, spring from him, and should be consecrated to him. Holiness to the Lord should be written on all things we do.
Mic. 4:9-13. Of the struggles of Gods congregation. They must be maintained:
1. Under heavy sorrow, in secure expectation of their final redemption (Mic. 4:9-10).
2. Under the mighty assaults of the foe, in sure confidence that the Lord sits upon the throne (Mic. 4:11-12).
3. In constant self-examination. For although the victory must certainly be given to Gods cause (Mic. 4:13), nevertheless, until Christ is born in the congregation (and in each individual, Mic. 4:1), the result of every contest is deserved disaster and disgrace (Mic. 4:13) [Lange].
The whole chapter sets forth
1. The glory;
2. The peace;
3. The dominion; and,
4. The victory of the Church.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Mic. 4:1-2. Last days. Gods promises are dated, but with a mysterious character; and for want of skill in Gods chronology, we are prone to think God forgets us, when, indeed, we forget ourselves in being so bold to set God a time of our own, and in being angry that he comes not just then to us [Gurnall].
Mic. 4:3. War. There must be peace when the art of war is laid by as useless, and shall be learned no more. That will be a blessed time, indeed, when the art military shall be out of date, and (being itself the greatest interrupter of learning) shall be learned no more. When soldiers shall turn husbandmen and vine-dressers. When a man casts away his sword we may well conclude he intends to be quiet. Thus the Lord gives quiet to nations which have been engaged in war, by causing wars to cease [Caryl].
Mic. 4:4. Peace of country life.
In all things grew his wisdom and his wealth,
And folk beholding the fair state and health
Wherein his land was, said that now at last
A fragment of the Golden Age was cast
Over the place, for there was no debate,
And men forgot the very name of hate. [Wm. Morris.]
Mic. 4:6-8. As the pleasures of the future will be spiritual and pure, the object of a good and wise man in this transitory state of existence should be to fit himself for a better, by controlling the unworthy propensities of his nature and improving all his better aspirations; to do his duty, first to God, then to his neighbour; to promote the happiness and welfare of those who are in any degree dependent upon him, or whom he has the means of assisting; never wantonly to injure the meanest thing that lives; to encourage, as far as he can, whatever is useful and tends to refine and exalt humanity; to store his mind with such knowledge as it is fitted to receive, and he is able to attain; and so to employ the talents committed to his care that, when the account is required, he may hope to have his stewardship approved [Southey].
Mic. 4:9. King.
Kings are like starsthey rise and setthey have
The worship of the world, but no repose. [Shelley.]
Mic. 4:8-10. The kingdom shall come. Observe, it is a kingdom that is to come to us; we are not to go to it. Also, it is not to be a kingdom of the dead, but of the living. Also, it is not to come all at once, but quietly; nobody knows how. The kingdom cometh not with observation [Ruskin].
Mic. 4:10-11. It belongs, in truth, to the Church of God to suffer blows, not to strike them. But at the same time let it be remembered that the Church is an anvil which has worn out many a hammer [Beza].
Mic. 4:12. Thoughts of the Lord. To those, the eyes of whose understandings are enlightened, and the avenues of their hearts opened to discern and adore the perfections of God, how manifold are the instances which occur of the providence of God interfering to direct the course of human events towards a salutary end; to make afflictions of men the by-path to enjoyment; out of evils, temporal and transitory, to produce substantial and permanent good [Bp. Mant].
Mic. 4:13. Hope doth three things: it assures good things to come; it disposes us for them; it waits for them unto the end, each of which will be of singular use to fit us for pious sufferings [Polhill].
Arise. When God has conquering work for his people to do, he will furnish them with strength and ability for it; will make the horn iron and the hoofs brass: and, when he does so, they must exert the power he gives them, and execute the commission; even the daughter of Zion must arise and thresh [Matt. Henry].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
DISTRESS AND REDEMPTION . . . Mic. 4:9 to Mic. 5:1
RV . . . Now why doest thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee, is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of thee as of a woman in travail? Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city; and shalt dwell in the field, and shalt come even unto Babylon: there shalt thou be rescued; there will Jehovah redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. And now many nations are assembled against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of Jehovah, neither understand they his counsel for he hath gathered them as the sheaves to the threshing-floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thy horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain unto Jehovah, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. Now shalt thou gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
LXX . . . And now, why hast thou known calamities? was there not a king to thee? or has thy counsel perished that pangs as of a woman in travail have seized upon thee? Be in pain, and strengthen thyself, and draw near, O daughter of Zion, as a woman in travail: for now thou shalt go forth out of the city, and shalt lodge in the plain, and shalt reach even to Babylon: thence shall the Lord thy God deliver thee, and thence shall he redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies. And now have many nations gathered against thee, saying, We will rejoice, and our eyes shall look upon Zion. But they know not the thought of the Lord, and have not understood his counsel: for he has gathered them as sheaves of the floor. Arise, and thresh them, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horns iron, and I will make thine hoofs brass: and thou shalt utterly destroy many nations, and shalt consecrate their abundance to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth. Now shall the daughter of Zion be completely hedged in: he has laid siege against us: they shall smite the tribes of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
COMMENTS
WHY DOST THOU CRY ALOUD? . . . Mic. 4:9-10
The term tower of the flock (Mic. 4:8) appears also in Gen. 35:16 -ff. There is the record of Rachel, beloved of Jacob, dying in childbirth as they journeyed from Bethel to Bethlehem.
Just as Rachel died in childbirth, so the nation of Israel would die at the hands of Titus (70 A.D.) and Hadrian (135 A.D.) in the height of her Messianic expectancy. First century Israel looked for a king, but could find none. Micahs question is pertinent, Is there no king in thee? The king would indeed be in her, but she would die in travail without seeing (recognizing) Him just as Rachel died.
The nation, even in Micahs time, in pain would go away into Babylon . . . there to be rescued. To all outward appearances the Hebrew nation was dead when they were led away into Babylon. In truth, however, it was there they were molded into a people who never again forgot God.
True, their national ambition blinded them to the Christ. He was recognized only by the remnant, not the nation. Nevertheless, there is a real sense in which Micah can truly use the plural, both the remnant and the nation (Mic. 5:7) shall be ruled over by Jehovah.
In all this, Micah is looking beyond the Assyrian Dynasty to the supremacy of Babylon, and through Babylon to the Persians, and beyond Persia to the Messianic Age.
(Mic. 5:11) It is the prophets purpose in these verses to return to the warnings of Mic. 3:12, Before there can be a national restoration and a deliverance of the remnant there must be the captivity.
Having projected hope which lay nearly two centuries in the future in its first instance i.e. the deliverance from Babylon, and some eight centuries in the future in its Messianic fulfillment, Micah returns in Mic. 5:11 to the situation immediately before him. Between the present and the blessed future was an array of enemies bent on Israels destruction.
In Micahs own time the Assyrians dominated the international scene, They would wipe out the northern kingdom and in their turn be replaced by Babylon. Babylon would enslave the southern kingdom, only to be destroyed by the Persians.
The Medo-Persians would themselves yield to Alexander and the Greeks.
Against the oppression of the Greeks would rises a blood bath known to history as The Maccabean Period, including a Jewish civil war, to be ended only by Roman occupation.
(Mic. 4:12 to Mic. 5:1 . . .) This array of foreign powers who, from the beginning of recorded history, have used the land of Israel as a military pawn and buffer state have reckoned without Gods thought and counsel. He has gathered them, i.e. the nations arrayed against Israel, as sheves to the threshing floor. Jerusalem, daughter of Zion, is called to arise and thresh. Jehovah will make her horn iron and her hoofs brass.
Thus, against the figure of oxen treading out grain, God promises power which will beat many people in pieces.
Nothing in history to date, fully accords with the prediction. The only period of history since Micah in which Israel has had any military power was the Maccabean period of victory over Antiochus Epiphanes and that victory was on nothing like the scale indicated here in the threshing of many nations.
To find the fulfillment of this prophecy, we must look to more recent history. We have previously referred to Romans 11 in reference to the first group here presented by Micah i.e., the true Israel, the covenant people called the remnant. But what of the cast off ones who are to become a strong nation to whom the former dominion shall come?
It is concerning them that Paul writes as touching the Gospel, they are enemies for your (Christians) sake, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers sake. For the gifts and calling of God are not repented of. For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown you they also may now obtain mercy. (Rom. 11:24 -ff) (See Don DeWelt, Romans Realized, p. 174-f)
The Jews are precious to Jehovah because of His past relations with them. There is little doubt that the Bible predicts another period of national life and prosperity. To recognize this ought, not, however, to engender in us such earthly, material and sordid hopes as proved their undoing in the rejection of Christ two thousand years ago. Whatever is in store for the Jewish nation in terms of earthly identity, it can in no way preclude the longing of God and His church to win them to Christ.
It is my opinion that in our day, which is called the latter days, the time of the Messiah (Cp. Mic. 4:1; Mic. 4:6), we are seeing the fulfillment of Mic. 4:9 to Mic. 5:1 in the present history of the Israeli nation. As we have previously indicated, no time in the interval between Micah and the present has met the fullness of this passage. From Assyria to now many nations have been assembled against the Jews (Mic. 5:11). In all this historic desire to see these people defiled, the nations have not considered Gods will nor known His counsel (Mic. 5:12). The present Arab-Russian-Chinese coalition against modern Israel certainly takes none of this into account.
Yet, in a strength unbelievable, reported by every news media of our time, this little postage stamp country has not once but four times in turn defied the strength of Britain and all the Arab world could hurl against her and has each time threshed them soundly (Mic. 5:12). In six days in June, 1967, Israel literally beat in pieces many people.
Micah promised this would come to pass during the Christian era. It ought be no great source of amazement that we are seeing it happen!
(Mic. 5:1) But before the remnant shall be gathered by Messiah, before those cast off can become a strong nation, the inevitable must happen. The kingdoms will gather their armies together and attempt in vain to hold off the armies of Assyria and of Babylon. But it will be to no avail. The price of their apostacy must be paid.
Chapter IXQuestions
Future Exaltation and Messianic Hope
1.
Demonstrate that Micahs prophecy in Micah 4-5 has to do with the day of the Messiah, our own Messianic time.
2.
What does John tell us about this end time? (1Jn. 2:18 -f)
3.
What is the meaning of the mountain of Jehovahs house?
4.
Comment on all peoples walk everyone in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. (Mic. 4:5)
5.
Discuss many nations. (Mic. 4:2)
6.
Discuss . . . out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. (Mic. 4:2 cp. Luk. 24:44 -f)
7.
Men are at war with men because ________________________.
8.
God must become ruler of our ____________ as well as our church doctrine. (Mic. 4:4)
9.
In that day (Mic. 4:6-7) refers us back to ___________________.
10.
That which is lame is the image of ____________.
11.
Discuss her that halted is become a remnant. (Mic. 4:7)
12.
Distinguish between that which was lame and that which was driven away.
13.
Discuss I will make . . . that which was cast far off a strong nation in Mic. 4:7 in light of Rom. 11:1.
14.
What is meant by tower of the flock? (Mic. 4:8)
15.
Discuss Mic. 4:11 in connection with Mic. 3:12.
16.
In Micahs own time the nation of ____________ dominated the international scene.
17.
____________ would wipe out the northern kingdom.
18.
____________ would enslave the southern kingdom.
19.
____________ would conquer the Medo-Persian empire.
20.
The Maccabean revolt was against the rule of ____________.
21.
All these powers, and others since have used the land of ____________ as a political pawn and a ____________ state.
22.
Discuss Romans 11, Mic. 4:11-13 in light of current events in the Middle East.
23.
The Jews are precious to Jehovah because ____________.
24.
This does not imply ____________.
25.
What New Testament reference is made to Mic. 5:2 -ff?
26.
What is the meaning of Ephratah? (Mic. 5:2)
27.
Bethlehem nestles on the ____________ slopes of a ridge some ____________ miles ____________ of Jerusalem.
28.
Discuss, the conditions of Jesus birth in contrast to what might have been expected for the birth of a king.
29.
The sheep tended on the slopes of Bethlehem were traditionally intended for _________.
30.
Why did the Roman emperor Harian forbid Jews to live in or near Bethlehem?
31.
Perhaps no other term in the Old Testament has been more grossly misunderstood than _____________.
32.
Humanly speaking, it was the Jews ambitious vision of ____________ that was responsible for the death of Jesus.
33.
It is the failure of many to recognize the kingly office and authority of Jesus that has brought about the ____________ in the modern church.
34.
Discuss the temptation of Jesus (Luk. 4:1-12) in relation to the Jewish dream of world power in the Messianic age.
35.
The real issue in Mic. 2:6 is the assurance that ____________.
36.
Why do the Jews object that Jesus cannot be the Messiah?
37.
Discuss the pre-existence of Christ in light of Mic. 5:2.
38.
God would not, Micah promised, fully vindicate His people and exalt them until ____________,
39.
The Messiah is to be a glorious prince, but His relationship to His people is that of a ____________.
40.
What is the significance of His greatness shall be to the ends of the earth?
41.
Discuss and this man shall be our peace . . .
42.
Discuss seven shepherds . . . eight principal men. (Mic. 5:5-6)
43.
What is meant by the remnant shall be as dew in a summer morning?
44.
Messiahs people are to be as bold as _____________.
45.
Mic. 5:15 must be almost unbelievable to ____________.
46.
The prophet sees in the age of
____________ God executing vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations which hearken not
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) Now why dost thou cry out aloud?The prophet places again, side by side with his vision of returned glory, the circumstances of misery which will intervene. The king and the counsellors of Jerusalem will be powerless to help in the moment of emergency.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Distress and subsequent redemption, Mic 4:9-10.
The distant future, the prophet is convinced, will be all brightness and glory, but in the immediate future he can see nothing but gloom and despair. This new section opens with a vision of the agony and despair soon to be felt by the people. The prophet already beholds the destruction and hears the lamentation.
Why dost thou cry out aloud? Addressed is the “daughter of Zion” (Mic 4:10), that is, Jerusalem and its inhabitants. The capital is filled with lamentation over the present or rapidly approaching judgment.
A woman in travail This and similar expressions are used not infrequently in the Old Testament, as expressive of extreme pain and anguish. The questions of Mic 4:9 are meant to be more or less ironical. The prophet knows well enough the reason for the lamentation and the helplessness of king and nobles in such a crisis.
King counselor There is a king and there are counselors; but in the time of calamity, when they are needed the most, they can do nothing, because one greater than they has caused the distress (see on Hos 13:10).
Be in pain Jerusalem may well continue the lamentation, for there can be no immediate relief; and the wail is justified, because the city is desolate; homeless and without protection the inhabitants will camp in the fields, until finally they are carried away into exile. Only after these calamities have been suffered will Jehovah manifest his redemptive powers. The tertium comparationis in the picture is only the pain and anguish; there is no thought of Zion actually bringing forth a child, that is, the Messianic king.
If Mic 4:9-10 were standing by themselves their interpretation would be a very simple matter; but when they are studied with due regard for their context difficulties seem to arise. Mic 4:11-12 picture the enemy gathered around Jerusalem, determined to defile and to destroy the holy city; but the scheme will not succeed; the enemy will be “beaten to pieces,” and Jerusalem will triumph gloriously; and all this will happen without a capture of the city or an exile. Such outlook seems to be in hopeless contradiction with the statements in Mic 4:10, which imply a conquest and an exile, and promise deliverance only after the people have been deported to Babylon. To remove this difficulty the words “and shall come even unto Babylon” are commonly rejected as a later interpolation. But the omission of these words by no means removes the whole difficulty, for the fate foretold in Mic 4:10 still remains very different from that announced in Mic 4:11; in the former there is an expectation of great affliction and suffering, in the latter all is triumph and glory. A more satisfactory solution of the difficulty, and one that requires no textual changes, is to separate Mic 4:9-10 entirely from Mic 4:11 ff., and to consider the oracles as two distinct utterances coming from entirely different periods of Micah’s ministry. At one time, near the fall of Samaria, he expected that Judah, including Jerusalem, would suffer the same fate as Israel (Mic 1:8 ff.; Mic 3:12), but it is not necessary to suppose that he adhered to this view throughout his entire ministry. It is at least possible that in his later years he was influenced by the conviction of his greater contemporary Isaiah that Jerusalem was inviolable (Isa 37:33 ff.). That conviction is reflected in 11ff., verses which fit admirably in the period of Sennacherib’s invasion in 701 B.C. (compare Isaiah 36, 37); Mic 4:9-10 would reflect the earlier conviction, expressed so forcibly in chapter 1. These words, then, may have been spoken either before or, better, soon after the fall of Samaria, while that calamity was still fresh in the memory of the prophet, or, perhaps, as late as 711 B.C. (compare Isaiah 20), when Sargon sent an expedition against Philistia. The mention of Babylon does not militate against the view that Micah is the author of the words, for the reference does not imply that at the time the words were spoken, Babylon had already displaced Assyria as the great Eastern world power. Babylon is mentioned simply as a place to which the people would be deported. According to 2Ki 17:24, Sargon settled in the territory of Israel men from Babylon, and this statement is corroborated by Sargon’s own inscription ( Records of the Past, 7: 29). It is only natural to suppose and this would be in perfect accord with Assyrian practice that the depleted territory in the east was filled with exiles from the land of Israel. If this was done we can readily understand how Micah, who expected the people of the south to suffer a fate similar to that of the north, might represent the people of Jerusalem as following their brethren from Samaria to the same place of exile.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Micah Describes The Coming Tribulations of Judah But Gives the Final Assurance That In The End YHWH Will Triumph ( Mic 4:9-13 ).
The near future is seen as bleak. Judah and Jerusalem are seen as in despair, without any hope of assistance from their king or counsellors. Indeed they will endure birth pains and will be carried be forced to live in the open countryside, and even some of them in that arch enemy of God, Babylon.
But in the end God will rescue them from there, and deliver them from the hands of their enemies.
It is true that many nations will gather eagerly to see this upstart nation with its upstart God humbled, and watch in delight as their wishes are carried out, but what they are not aware of is that in fact YHWH has gathered those nations so that they might be threshed by the people of God who will be given iron horns and brazen hoofs, so that they can thresh the nations of the world and devote their wealth to YHWH.
We may ask why at this stage mention is made of Babylon. Surely we are dealing with Assyria? The answer is in fact based on what Babylon was in the eyes of Judah and Israel. Babylon was the initial city that raised itself against God (Gen 11:1-9). It was the leading nation that sought to attack the covenant people (Gen 14:1). It had become a mighty city full of claims about itself calling itself ‘the glory of the kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldean’s pride’ (Isa 13:19); its king set himself up in opposition to the Most High (Isa 14:13-14); it saw itself as ‘the Lady of the Kingdoms’ (Isa 47:5), it said ‘I am and there is none beside me’ (Isa 47:10) and was renowned for luxury, debauchery, idolatry and the occult (Isa 47:12-13). It was the centre of evil. It was the very opposite of Jerusalem.
Furthermore we know that exiles had already been carried off to Babylon (Shinar) (Isa 11:11), which to a prophet of YHWH must have been the worst fate imaginable. (Note Micah’s ‘even to Babylon’ – Mic 4:10). They were in the hands of God’s Great Enemy, and of all the powers of evil. Thus the hope for the deliverance of God’s people from Babylon is not anachronistic. Compare how Isaiah even moreso saw Babylon as the ultimate enemy even in Assyria’s day (Isaiah 13-14).
So the future of God’s people was not at present a happy one, but the one thing that they could be assured of was that in the end YHWH would triumph. Any failure was theirs not His.
Mic 4:9
“Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you, is your counsellor perished, that pangs have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?”
Micah visualises the pain of Judah as the advancing Assyrian armies destroy her cities one by one and commit wholesale atrocities. And he asks them why they are so disturbed. Do they not have a king? Do they not remember when they rejected YHWH as their king and thought that to have their own chosen king would solve all their problems (2Sa 7:5; 2Sa 7:7)? Are their counsellors not still alive, to whom they have listened rather than to the prophets? Why then are they in such anguish? Can it be that these are failing them?
Indeed in the end Hezekiah would plead with YHWH and Jerusalem itself would be spared (2Ki 19:1-7). But that was still in the future, and even then it did not prevent the rape of Judah.
Mic 4:10
“Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go forth out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even unto Babylon. There will you be rescued; there will YHWH redeem you from the hand of your enemies.”
Thus because they have not trusted in YHWH they must go through their birth pains, and in the end the inhabitants of Zion will be carried off into the open countryside (the field) and will find themselves ‘even in Babylon’, in Jewish eyes the worst of all possible fates. Because they have been evil they will be totally given up to all that is evil. There is a hint here of the Exodus when Israel left Egypt, and were in the wilderness, before they arrived in Canaan. It is an Exodus in reverse, but to an even worse nation, Babylon.
It was only because Hezekiah humbled himself before YHWH that this future was delayed. But he was warned that because he had failed in the matter of making a peace treaty with Babylon exile in Babylon for his sons and other leading Israelites was only a matter of time (Isa 39:6-7), and in fact under his son Manasseh some would be carried off to Babylon, including even Manasseh himself (2Ch 33:11 – Assyria had made Babylon one of its seats of power). This prophecy by Micah was presumably made after that warning of YHWH concerning Babylon had been given to Hezekiah.
But it would not mean that all was lost, because YHWH would rescue them from Babylon, and redeem them from the hand of their enemies. And that is precisely what happened with Manasseh when he repented and sought YHWH (2Ch 33:12-13).
Micah’s words were even more completely fulfilled when Babylon became Israel’s chief adversary and destroyed Jerusalem and carried off its inhabitants to Babylon over a hundred years later.
Mic 4:11
“And now many nations are assembled against you, who say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye see our desire on Zion.”
It is clear that many nations round about resented Judah’s revival of Yahwism under Hezekiah, with its exclusivism and closing down of high places for the gods of other nations. Thus they watched the Assyrian invasion with glee, and participated in it with them, and said, ‘Let her be defiled.’ They wanted this proud nation with its pure God to be humbled and become like themselves, being forced to accept into their Temple the gods of Assyria. They longed to see their desire on Zion, its total humiliation.
The Assyrian army would originally have been composed of many nations, for subject nations would be required to provide their contingents, and these would have been expanded as the victorious Assyrian army incorporated more men into their ranks as the different nations were subjugated. Many would surrender without fighting (Mic 1:11) and it would therefore be seen as natural that many of their menfolk were conscripted into the army, while those who resisted more strongly would be subject to reprisal, but the need of the army for conscripts would never be forgotten. Thus by this stage the Assyrian army would have included many peoples from surrounding countries including Philistines, the new peoples of Samaria, and even men of Judah.
One lesson we can learn from that is that those who serve God faithfully will always discover that there are those who wish to see them humiliated.
Mic 4:12
“But they do not know the thoughts of YHWH, nor do they understand his counsel, for he has gathered them as the sheaves to the threshingfloor.”
But what these nations fail to recognise are the thoughts of YHWH. They do not understand His counsel. If they had they would not have been so pleased. For what they did not realise was that YHWH was gathering them as sheaves for the threshingfloor. He was gathering them so that they could be sifted and revealed to be chaff.
Not the contrast between Micah question about Judah’s king and counsellors in Mic 4:9, with the recognition here that YHWH is the King and Counsellor Who really matters. He will lead Judah aright if only they will hear Him.
Mic 4:13
“Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you will beat in pieces many peoples, and I will devote their gain to YHWH, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.”
So the nations need to beware. For YHWH is going to make the horns of Judah as iron, He is going to make their hoofs as brass. Here He is likening Judah to the oxen who trod the threshingfloor, who will be powerfully equipped for the job. And the result will be that just as the grain on the threshingfloor was crushed in pieces by the oxen’s hoofs, so will the nations be trodden down by Judah. If only His people will trust Him and believe in Him, and will obey His covenant, and will therefore obey Him and arise and thresh the nations, they will crush in pieces many peoples (Psa 2:8-12). But note that God will devote what they gain to Himself, and the substance that they obtain to the One Whose it is, the Lord of the whole earth. In their eyes that would mean it going into the Temple treasury.
There was fulfilment of this to some extent when the armies gathered against Jerusalem were smitten by the plague, and even moreso when the Jews were later roused to faith and gained periods of independence by defeating their enemies But it was even more true when God’s people would go out with the word of truth to bring the nations in submission to Him, and they would bring their wealth under His control.
There is a reminder for us here that however serious the circumstances might appear, God is in control and has in mind the needs of His people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mic 4:9. Now why dost thou cry, &c. As much as to say, “What cause is there thus to cry and lament like a woman in labour, when it is so certainly promised thee that thy ancient kingdom shall again return? There indeed cause for thee to lament, on the view of thy Babylonish captivity; for, till after that period, thou shalt have no temporal deliverer: but that past, the Lord will gather thee as the sheaves into the floor;” Mic 4:12. Instead of, Is thy counsellor perished, &c. we may read Is thy counsellor lost, that pangs, &c.?
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mic 4:9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? [is there] no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
Ver. 9. Now why dost thou cry out aloud? ] Shout and howl? q.d. hast thou any such cause to be so unreasonably and outrageously impatient, so long as Christ is thy king and counsellor? What if there now be no king in thee? what if thy counsellor perished? A woeful case, I confess, and great confusion must needs be the issue of it; as it happened in Jerusalem after Josiah was slain: confer Hos 3:4 . See Trapp on “ Hos 3:4 “ But yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing; neither need the saints be so excessively dejected with outward crosses so long as Christ is with them and for them. If Seneca could say to his friend Polybius, Fas tibi non est salvo Caesare, de fortuna tua queri, Be thy case never so miserable, thou hast no cause to complain, so long as Caesar is in safety; how much less ground of mourning or murmuring have Christ’s subjects, so long as he liveth and reigneth! Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est, alioqui totus desperassem, I rejoice because Christ est Lord, otherwise, I am in total dispair, writeth Miconius to Calvin, of the Church’s enemies: I am glad that Christ is Lord of all, for otherwise I should have had no hope of help at all. David in deep distress comforteth himself in the Lord his God, 1Sa 30:6 Psa 119:94 , “I am thine, save me,” saith he, q.d. my professed subjection to thee calleth for thy care and protection of me, and here he stays himself. Kings and counsellors are great stays to a state, but Christ is not tied to them. These are but particular good things, as is health against sickness, wealth against poverty, &c., but Christ is a universal good, all-sufficient and satisfactory; every way proportionable and fitting to our souls and several necessities. Why then do we cry aloud as utterly undone? why sing we not rather with David when at greatest under, “The Lord liveth, and blessed be the God of my salvation. It is God that avengeth me, and delivereth me from the violent man,” Psa 18:46 . He is King of all the earth. He is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. It was a learned man’s motto, Blessed be God, that he is God; and blessed be Christ, that he reigns for ever; that counsel is his, and sound wisdom; that he hath understanding, he hath strength, Pro 8:14 .
For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mic 4:9-13
9Now, why do you cry out loudly?
Is there no king among you,
Or has your counselor perished,
That agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth?
10Writhe and labor to give birth,
Daughter of Zion,
Like a woman in childbirth,
For now you will go out of the city,
Dwell in the field,
And go to Babylon.
There you will be rescued;
There the LORD will redeem you
From the hand of your enemies.
11And now many nations have been assembled against you
Who say, ‘Let her be polluted,
And let our eyes gloat over Zion.’
12But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD,
And they do not understand His purpose;
For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
13Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion,
For your horn I will make iron
And your hoofs I will make bronze,
That you may pulverize many peoples,
That you may devote to the LORD their unjust gain
And their wealth to the LORD of all the earth.
Mic 4:9-13 The historical setting is again ambiguous, but because of Mic 4:10, it seems to reflect the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. by neo-Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II.
Mic 4:9 why do you cry out so loudly This refers to the time of exile. See Jer 8:19.
Is there no king among you This seems to be a sarcastic comment on chapter 3. The king was God’s representative, and yet, if the king is evil, to whom can the people turn?
has your counselor perished King and counselor are parallel and refer to the head of the royal line. In Isa 9:6 it is one of several titles of the coming Messianic king. See Isa 3:1-3. See Special Topic: Messiah .
like a woman in childbirth Birthing (cf. Mic 4:10 lines 1-3) is an OT metaphor of judgment and pain (cf. Isa 42:14; Jer 4:31; Jer 6:24). In Mar 13:8 and Rom 8:22 it is used of the birth pangs of the new age (i.e., for ever and ever).
Mic 4:10
NASBWrithe and labor to bring forth
NKJVbe in pain and labor to bring forth
NRSVwrithe and groan
TEVtwist and groan
NJBwrithe in pain and cry aloud
Both of these VERBS (writhe BDB 296, KB 297, and labor BDB 161, KB 189) are Qal IMPERATIVES.
For now you will go out of the city, Dwell in the field This is specifically referring to a forced exile after the capture of Jerusalem. These people will be forced to live out of doors while they are being marched to new homes and fields far away.
And go to Babylon This is a specific allusion to the powerful Mesopotamian nation that conquered Assyria and the Fertile Crescent. Assyria took captive the Northern Ten Tribes (Israel) in 722 B.C. (cf. chapters 1-2). Babylon took captive the Southern Two Tribes (Judah) in 586 B B.C. (cf. Mic 3:12).
Many scholars are surprised at such a specific reference to Babylon. This same non-chronological aspect can be seen in Isaiah 13-14. However, it must also be mentioned that Babylon can be a way of referring to Mesopotamia, for there was a Babylonian Empire before Assyria and even long before that (cf. Gen 10:10). It could also, following Gen 11:4-9, refer to anti-God world powers (like Daniel). This would follow John the Apostle’s use in the book of the Revelation (cf. Rev 14:8; Rev 16:19; Rev 17:5; Rev 18:2; Rev 18:10; Rev 18:21).
There you will be rescued;
There the LORD will redeem you
From the hand of your enemies Here is another glimpse of hope (lines 7-9) amidst the blackness of judgment (lines 1-6). There is another radical subject break after Mic 4:10. The new subject is introduced in Mic 4:11-12. The text moves from deliverance to another future attack beyond their return from Babylon.
Mic 4:11 now many nations have been assembled against you This seems to refer to the mercenary troops found both in the Assyrian (e.g., Sennacherib, 701 B.C.) and Babylonian armies (e.g., Nebuchadnezzar, 586 B.C.). However, those who are looking for a certain pre-millennial position often find credence in their position from passages like this in the Prophets.
NASBLet her be polluted
NKJVLet her be defiled
NRSVLet her be profaned
TEVmust be destroyed
NJBLet us desecrate her
The VERB (BDB 337, KB 335, Qal IMPERFECT, but JUSSIVE in meaning) means to be polluted or profaned (cf. Psa 106:38; Jer 3:1; Jer 3:9). This same root is used in Isa 9:16; Isa 10:6).
NASB, NJBlet our eyes gloat over Zion
NKJVlet our eyes look upon
NRSVlet our eyes gaze upon
TEVwe will see
The VERB is parallel to the one above. It (BDB 302, 301, Qal JUSSIVE) is one general term to see.
The USB Translator’s Handbook suggests that these two VERBS had a sexual connotation and this was the reason why the metaphor of daughter is used in Mic 4:8; Mic 4:10; Mic 4:13 (p. 129) or possibly the Promised Land’s ritual defilement by foreign troops is the connotation of the two parallel VERBS (p. 129).
Mic 4:12 When those who do not know YHWH or His Word view history, they see Him judging His own people. They miss the goal of a special covenant people as a means for all people to know God. Abraham’s descendants did not keep the covenant, did not reveal God, so God chose to reveal Himself (cf. Eze 36:22-38).
In this chapter the tension between (1) believing nations and (2) attacking, unbelieving nations is accentuated. The poetry is brief and ambiguous. It is difficult (impossible) to systematize it. These are flashes of truth, of future events, or literary metaphors. Two great truths are taught:
1. God’s will of a restored believing humanity will be a reality.
2. Some will not believe and will attack God by attacking His people.
3. One group will be with God forever; one group will be destroyed!
He has gathered them This seems to imply that God has gathered Israel’s and Judah’s enemies to allow her to destroy them (cf. Mic 4:13; Isaiah 13-14; Ezekiel 38-39; Joel 4; Zechariah 14).
Mic 4:13 Mic 4:12-13 must be taken together to understand God’s comment. He calls His restored covenant people to devastate those pagan nations which God used to punish His own people for their sins (cf. Mic 4:12; Isa 41:15-16; Jer 51:20-23; Habakkuk).
The first two VERBS (arise BDB 877, KB 1086 and thresh BDB 190, KB 218) are both Qal IMPERATIVES.
But in Mic 4:13 God is speaking to His restored covenant people (i.e., New Covenant, cf. Jer 31:31-34). One day His people will be victorious. God wanted to use Abraham’s descendants. He wanted the world to know Him and come to Him, but Abraham’s seed did not and the world could not!
to the LORD of all the earth Again, notice this universal emphasis. In context this chapter relates to God’s first covenant people, but in light of Jesus, it refers to the new covenant people! See Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan .
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.
1. Why are the books of Isaiah and Micah so similar?
2. Is it unusual for the Old Testament prophecies to have a universal implication?
3. Why is Mic 4:5 out of context?
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
why dost thou Cry. ? This refers to the birth-pangs of the new nation which will be brought forth in that day and at that time. Compare Isa 13:8; Isa 21:3, &c.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Mic 4:9-13
DISTRESS AND REDEMPTION(Mic 4:9 to Mic 5:1)
WHY DOST THOU CRY ALOUD? ( Mic 4:9-10)
The term tower of the flock (Mic 4:8) appears also in Gen 35:16 -ff. There is the record of Rachel, beloved of Jacob, dying in childbirth as they journeyed from Bethel to Bethlehem. Just as Rachel died in childbirth, so the nation of Israel would die at the hands of Titus (70 A.D.) and Hadrian (135 A.D.) in the height of her Messianic expectancy. First century Israel looked for a king, but could find none. Micahs question is pertinent, Is there no king in thee? (Mic 4:9) The king would indeed be in her, but she would die in travail without seeing (recognizing) Him just as Rachel died.
Zerr: Mic 4:9. The verse is predicting a condition of sorrow to be felt by the nation in captivity, but with the understanding that the sorrow will be turned into joy by the deliverance from bondage. Is there no king is a prediction in question form that Israel will have the services of a king when the important day arrives. Mic 4:10. The pains preceding childbirth are used to compare the distress of the captivity, hut with the added thought that, as the pains are an indication of the approaching joy of parenthood, so the captivity must precede the return and establishment of the strong nation” predicted above.
The nation, even in Micahs time, in pain would go away into Babylon . . . there to be rescued. To all outward appearances the Hebrew nation was dead when they were led away into Babylon. In truth, however, it was there they were molded into a people who never again forgot God. True, their national ambition blinded them to the Christ. He was recognized only by the remnant, not the nation. Nevertheless, there is a real sense in which Micah can truly use the plural, both the remnant and the nation (Mic 4:7) shall be ruled over by Jehovah. In all this, Micah is looking beyond the Assyrian Dynasty to the supremacy of Babylon, and through Babylon to the Persians, and beyond Persia to the Messianic Age.
(Mic 4:11) It is the prophets purpose in these verses to return to the warnings of Mic 3:12, Before there can be a national restoration and a deliverance of the remnant there must be the captivity. Having projected hope which lay nearly two centuries in the future in its first instance i.e. the deliverance from Babylon, and some eight centuries in the future in its Messianic fulfillment, Micah returns in Mic 4:11 to the situation immediately before him. Between the present and the blessed future was an array of enemies bent on Israels destruction.
Zerr: Mic 4:11, In a group of verses predicting the restoration of Israel from bondage, it was fitting to insert a few lines regarding the opinions of the nation’s enemies and such is the pres-ent verse. Many nations were 111 disposed toward the people of God and took pleasure in their misfortunes, but they were going to learn that the Lord would come to the rescue of his own nation after the necessary chas-tisement was given.
In Micahs own time the Assyrians dominated the international scene, They would wipe out the northern kingdom and in their turn be replaced by Babylon. Babylon would enslave the southern kingdom, only to be destroyed by the Persians. The Medo-Persians would themselves yield to Alexander and the Greeks. Against the oppression of the Greeks would rises a blood bath known to history as The Maccabean Period, including a Jewish civil war, to be ended only by Roman occupation.
(Mic 4:12 to Mic 5:1 . . .) This array of foreign powers who, from the beginning of recorded history, have used the land of Israel as a military pawn and buffer state have reckoned without Gods thought and counsel. He has gathered them, i.e. the nations arrayed against Israel, as sheves to the threshing floor. Jerusalem, daughter of Zion, is called to arise and thresh. Jehovah will make her horn iron and her hoofs brass. Thus, against the figure of oxen treading out grain, God promises power which will beat many people in pieces.
Zerr: Mic 4:12. They know not the thoughts of the Lord. The heathen nations misunderstood the Lord’s dealings with his people and thought it was because He had turned against them. Because of this misunderstanding they regarded the victories which they had experienced over Israel as a sign of Gods personal favor for them, whereas the Lord was using them as instruments for the necessary chastisement of a disobedient and ungrateful people. Gather them as sheaves into the floor. The floor means the place where grain was piled for threshing by beating the whole straw until the grain was separated from the chaff. Since only the good sheaves would be taken to such a place, the fact is used to represent the profitable use Which God proposed to make of the nation that had gained so much at the expense of His people. Mic 4:13. Daughter of Zion is an endearing term frequently used to designate the people of God whose headquarters were in Zion, a special spot in Jerusalem. God accomplished much of his plan against the unfaithful Jews through the agency of the heathen nations. Now the order is reversed and He will use the Jews as instruments in bringing the heathen nations into the service of their restoration to the home land; such is the meaning of the figures used in this verse. Since the figure of sheaves was used for the heathen in the preceding vense, it was consistent for the prophet to use thresh in this. In figurative language horn means power, and God here promises to give his people the power to contend with the heathen through their influence and superior wisdom, not necessarily through military action. Sometimes the ox was used in treading out the grain that had been piled upon the floor (Deu 25:4; 1Co 9:9; 1Ti 5:18), so the promise-of brazen hoofs is appropriate in this connection. Consecrate their gain unto the Lord was to be fulfilled literally and morally. The heathen nation was constrained to contribute material help for the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezr 1:2-4; Ezr 6:8-10), and also the same nation was brought lo respect the God of Israel. Mic 5:1. This verse is a continuation of the thought started in Mic 4:13, namely, the triumph of Israel over all her misfortunes. Troops literally means soldiers and indicates military conflicts, but it is used figuratively only, for Israel did not have to fight for the release from captivity. The pronouns should be carefully distinguished in order to avoid confusion. Thyself and us means Israel, while he and they are the enemies of Gads people. Laid siege and smite refer to the siege and capture of the nation of Israel, which was to be reversed when the “return was accomplished by the Lords decree.
Nothing in history to date, fully accords with the prediction. The only period of history since Micah in which Israel has had any military power was the Maccabean period of victory over Antiochus Epiphanes and that victory was on nothing like the scale indicated here in the threshing of many nations.
To find the fulfillment of this prophecy, we must look to more recent history. We have previously referred to Romans 11 in reference to the first group here presented by Micah i.e., the true Israel, the covenant people called the remnant. But what of the cast off ones who are to become a strong nation to whom the former dominion shall come?
It is concerning them that Paul writes as touching the Gospel, they are enemies for your (Christians) sake, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers sake. For the gifts and calling of God are not repented of. For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown you they also may now obtain mercy. (Rom 11:24 -ff) (See Don DeWelt, Romans Realized, p. 174-f)
The Jews are precious to Jehovah because of His past relations with them. There is little doubt that the Bible predicts another period of national life and prosperity. To recognize this ought, not, however, to engender in us such earthly, material and sordid hopes as proved their undoing in the rejection of Christ two thousand years ago. Whatever is in store for the Jewish nation in terms of earthly identity, it can in no way preclude the longing of God and His church to win them to Christ.
It is my opinion that in our day, which is called the latter days, the time of the Messiah (Cp. Mic 4:1; Mic 4:6), we are seeing the fulfillment of Mic 4:9 to Mic 5:1 in the present history of the Israeli nation. As we have previously indicated, no time in the interval between Micah and the present has met the fullness of this passage. From Assyria to now many nations have been assembled against the Jews (Mic 5:11). In all this historic desire to see these people defiled, the nations have not considered Gods will nor known His counsel (Mic 5:12). The present Arab-Russian-Chinese coalition against modern Israel certainly takes none of this into account.
Yet, in a strength unbelievable, reported by every news media of our time, this little postage stamp country has not once but four times in turn defied the strength of Britain and all the Arab world could hurl against her and has each time threshed them soundly (Mic 5:12). In six days in June, 1967, Israel literally beat in pieces many people.
Micah promised this would come to pass during the Christian era. It ought be no great source of amazement that we are seeing it happen!
(Mic 5:1) But before the remnant shall be gathered by Messiah, before those cast off can become a strong nation, the inevitable must happen. The kingdoms will gather their armies together and attempt in vain to hold off the armies of Assyria and of Babylon. But it will be to no avail. The price of their apostacy must be paid.
Questions
Future Exaltation and Messianic Hope
1. Demonstrate that Micahs prophecy in Micah 4-5 has to do with the day of the Messiah, our own Messianic time.
2. What does John tell us about this end time? (1Jn 2:18 -f)
3. What is the meaning of the mountain of Jehovahs house?
4. Comment on all peoples walk everyone in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of Jehovah our God for ever and ever. (Mic 4:5)
5. Discuss many nations. (Mic 4:2)
6. Discuss . . . out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. (Mic 4:2 cp. Luk 24:44 -f)
7. Men are at war with men because ________________________.
8. God must become ruler of our ____________ as well as our church doctrine. (Mic 4:4)
9. In that day (Mic 4:6-7) refers us back to ___________________.
10. That which is lame is the image of ____________.
11. Discuss her that halted is become a remnant. (Mic 4:7)
12. Distinguish between that which was lame and that which was driven away.
13. Discuss I will make . . . that which was cast far off a strong nation in Mic 4:7 in light of Rom 11:1.
14. What is meant by tower of the flock? (Mic 4:8)
15. Discuss Mic 4:11 in connection with Mic 3:12.
16. In Micahs own time the nation of ____________ dominated the international scene.
17. ____________ would wipe out the northern kingdom.
18. ____________ would enslave the southern kingdom.
19. ____________ would conquer the Medo-Persian empire.
20. The Maccabean revolt was against the rule of ____________.
21. All these powers, and others since have used the land of ____________ as a political pawn and a ____________ state.
22. Discuss Romans 11, Mic 4:11-13 in light of current events in the Middle East.
23. The Jews are precious to Jehovah because ____________.
24. This does not imply ____________.
25. What New Testament reference is made to Mic 5:2 -ff?
26. What is the meaning of Ephratah? (Mic 5:2)
27. Bethlehem nestles on the ____________ slopes of a ridge some ____________ miles ____________ of Jerusalem.
28. Discuss, the conditions of Jesus birth in contrast to what might have been expected for the birth of a king.
29. The sheep tended on the slopes of Bethlehem were traditionally intended for _________.
30. Why did the Roman emperor Harian forbid Jews to live in or near Bethlehem?
31. Perhaps no other term in the Old Testament has been more grossly misunderstood than _____________.
32. Humanly speaking, it was the Jews ambitious vision of ____________ that was responsible for the death of Jesus.
33. It is the failure of many to recognize the kingly office and authority of Jesus that has brought about the ____________ in the modern church.
34. Discuss the temptation of Jesus (Luk 4:1-12) in relation to the Jewish dream of world power in the Messianic age.
35. The real issue in Mic 2:6 is the assurance that ____________.
36. Why do the Jews object that Jesus cannot be the Messiah?
37. Discuss the pre-existence of Christ in light of Mic 5:2.
38. God would not, Micah promised, fully vindicate His people and exalt them until ____________,
39. The Messiah is to be a glorious prince, but His relationship to His people is that of a ____________.
40. What is the significance of His greatness shall be to the ends of the earth?
41. Discuss and this man shall be our peace . . .
42. Discuss seven shepherds . . . eight principal men. (Mic 5:5-6)
43. What is meant by the remnant shall be as dew in a summer morning?
44. Messiahs people are to be as bold as _____________.
45. Mic 5:15 must be almost unbelievable to ____________.
46. The prophet sees in the age of ____________ God executing vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations which hearken not
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
why: Jer 4:21, Jer 8:19, Jer 30:6, Jer 30:7
is there: Isa 3:1-7, Lam 4:20, Hos 3:4, Hos 10:3, Hos 13:10, Hos 13:11
for: Isa 13:8, Isa 21:3, Isa 26:17, Jer 22:23, Jer 30:6, Jer 50:43
Reciprocal: Gen 3:16 – in sorrow Isa 30:19 – thou shalt Jer 6:24 – anguish Jer 48:41 – as the heart Hos 13:13 – sorrows Mar 13:8 – sorrows 1Th 5:3 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Mic 4:9. The verse is predicting a condition of sorrow to be felt by the nation in captivity, but with the understanding that the sorrow will be turned into joy by the deliverance from bondage. Is there no king is a prediction in question form that Israel will have the services of a king when the important day arrives.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mic 4:9-10. Now Now I have promised such great things to you, why dost thou cry out aloud As a woman in the anguish of her travail? Here the Jewish people are addressed, as bewailing themselves under the miseries of their captivity. Is there no king in thee? Thou hast lost the king Zedekiah, but thy God, thy king, is with thee. Is thy counsellor perished? Hast thou none among thy wise counsellors left? Yet the Wonderful Counsellor is with thee. Messiah, the wisdom of the Father, hath the conduct of thy sufferings, deliverance, and re-establishment. For pangs hath taken thee as a woman in travail This may be understood of the time when Zedekiah and his counsellors were seized by the Chaldeans. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth Be like a woman in her pangs; bow thyself down, and show all the signs of excessive pain, for there is a sufficient cause. For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, &c. Thou shalt not only have troubles, sorrows, and dangers, in the wars against the Babylonians; but shortly thou shalt be driven out from thy city and country, and have no habitation of thy own, but be forced to dwell in a foreign land. The Jews captivity is expressed thus, because their city and temple being destroyed, they should live in an obscure state. The same condition is elsewhere expressed by their living in the wilderness, Eze 20:35. And thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered Thou shalt be carried away, even as far as Babylon; but there, where, according to all human probability, and the expectations of thine enemies, thou mayest seem to be cut off from all relief, even there shalt thou be delivered: such is the power, and lovingkindness, and faithfulness of Jehovah thy God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4:9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? [is {l} there] no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
(l) In the meantime he shows that they would endure great troubles and temptations, when they saw themselves neither to have king nor counsel.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Micah, speaking for the Lord, addressed the Jews in captivity. He was looking into the future, not as far as the restoration previously promised, but into the captivity. He asked rhetorically why the Israelites were crying out in agony, like a woman in labor pains who can do nothing to relieve her misery. Did the Jews have no king leading them and providing counsel for them? This would be their condition during the captivity. The Babylonian captivity is in view primarily (Mic 4:10).
"The now has a certain width of reference, embracing both the Assyrian and Babylonian crises. Prophets saw the future not diachronically [consecutively] but synchronically [simultaneously]." [Note: Waltke, in Obadiah, . . ., p. 178.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
2. The might of Zion 4:9-5:1
One of the events that would occur before the realization of these great promises of blessing was Israel’s exile, but the burden of this pericope is also future restoration.