Micah 4-5
Evangelical Heritage Version
A Future Kingdom of Peace
4 In the last days, the mountain of the House of the Lord
will be established as the highest among the mountains.[a]
It will be raised above the hills,
and peoples will stream to it like a river.
2 Many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law[b] will go out from Zion
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He will render judgment between many peoples.
He will settle disputes between mighty nations from far away.
They will pound their swords into plowshares
and their spears into blades for trimming vines.
Nation will not raise the sword against nation,
and they will not learn how to wage war any longer.
4 Each man will sit under his own vine
and under his own fig tree.
There will be no one to make them afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of Armies has spoken.
5 For all the other peoples walk in the names of their gods,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.
Gathering the Scattered People
6 On that day, says the Lord,
I will bring in the lame
and gather the scattered,
even those I have afflicted.
7 I will establish the lame as survivors
and the scattered as a powerful nation.
The Lord will rule over them on Mount Zion
from that time on and forever.
8 But for you, watchtower of the flock,
for you, stronghold of the Daughter of Zion,
for you, the power to rule, which you had before, will come again.
The kingship will return to the Daughter of Jerusalem.
9 But now, why are you shouting so loudly?
Is it because you have no king among you?
Has the one who guided you perished,
so that pain now has gripped you like a woman giving birth?
10 Writhe and scream, Daughter of Zion,
like a woman giving birth, since now you must leave the city,
and you will seek shelter in the fields.
You will go to Babylon.
There you will be rescued.
There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
11 But now many nations have banded together against you.
They say, “Let her be degraded! Let our eyes gloat over Zion!”
12 But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord,
and they do not understand his plans,
namely, that he will gather them together like bundles of grain on the threshing floor.
13 Rise up and thresh, Daughter of Zion,
for I will turn your horns into iron,
and I will make your hoofs bronze,
and you will crush many peoples.
You will dedicate what they have gained to the Lord,
and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
The Ruler From the Little Town of Bethlehem
5 Now, gather the troops, you daughter[c] of troops.
A siege is laid against us.
With a rod they will strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.[d]
2 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
from you, will go out the one who will be the ruler for me in Israel.
His goings forth[e] are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.[f]
3 Therefore the Lord[g] will give them up,
until the time when the woman who is in labor bears a child.[h]
Then the remaining survivors from his brothers will return to the people of Israel.
4 He will stand and shepherd with the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
They will dwell securely, for at that time he will be great to the ends of the earth.
5 This one will be their peace.
When Assyria invades our land
and tramples on our citadels,
we will raise against him seven shepherds
and eight leaders of men.
6 They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword
and the land of Nimrod with a drawn blade.[i]
He will save us from Assyria
when it invades our land
and tramples on our territory.
The Remnant Among the Nations
7 There will be a surviving remnant of Jacob in the midst of many peoples,
like dew from the Lord,
like spring showers on the grass,
which do not wait around for a man,
and do not delay for human beings.[j]
8 The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations,
in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among animals of the forest,
like a young lion among flocks of sheep.
As he passes through, he crushes and tears them.
There is no one who can save them from him.
9 Your hand will be high above your enemies.
All your enemies will be cut off.
God’s Judgment on His People
10 This is what will happen on that day, declares the Lord.
I will cut off your horses from your midst
and destroy your chariots.
11 I will cut off the cities of your land,
and I will destroy all your fortified cities.
12 I will cut off every form of witchcraft from your hands,
and you will have no one to read omens anymore.
13 I will cut off your carved images
and your sacred memorial stones from your midst,
and you will not worship the work of your hands anymore.
14 I will uproot your Asherah poles from your midst,
and I will destroy your cities.
15 In anger and wrath I will inflict vengeance
on the nations that have not listened to me.
Footnotes
- Micah 4:1 Micah 4:1-3 is a close parallel to Isaiah 2:2-4. The two passages were translated independently, and the parallel translations retain some of the insights of each translator.
- Micah 4:2 The term law here refers to the whole word of God.
- Micah 5:1 The term daughter refers to the city.
- Micah 5:1 English verse 5:1 is verse 4:14 in Hebrew. In chapter 5, the English verse numbers are one higher than the Hebrew.
- Micah 5:2 The term goings forth, which is plural in Hebrew, has been understood in three ways: 1) as a reference to the eternal generation (begetting) of the Son, who goes out from the Father; 2) as a reference to the human origins of the Messiah, who descends from the patriarchs; 3) as a reference to the appearances of Christ as the Angel of the Lord, throughout the Old Testament.
- Micah 5:2 Or from days of old
- Micah 5:3 The Hebrew reads he, without specifying the antecedent.
- Micah 5:3 This is the same woman and child who appear in Isaiah 7:14.
- Micah 5:6 Or at its entrances
- Micah 5:7 The meaning of the last two lines is uncertain. They seem to mean that just as dew and rain come at God’s time without human initiative, so the return of God’s people will not depend on a human timetable.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.