9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have seized thee as a woman in travail?
Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, from a very far country: Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, with foreign vanities?
and they shall be terrified: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, they shall writhe as a woman that travaileth; they shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames.
For behold, the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, will take away from Jerusalem and from Judah stay and staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet, and the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the clever among artificers, and the one versed in enchantments. And I will appoint youths as their princes, and children shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed one by the other, and each by his neighbour; the child will be insolent against the elder, and the base against the honourable. When a man shall take hold of his brother, in his father's house, [and shall say:] Thou hast clothing; be our chief, and let this ruin be under thy hand; he will lift up [his hand] in that day, saying, I cannot be a healer, and in my house there is neither bread nor clothing; ye shall not make me a chief of the people.
Therefore are my loins filled with pain; anguish hath taken hold upon me, as the anguish of a woman in travail: I am bowed down so as not to hear, I am dismayed so as not to see.
As a woman with child, that draweth near her delivery, is in travail, [and] crieth out in her pangs; so have we been before thee, Jehovah.
Thou inhabitress of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how pitiful shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, pain as of a woman in travail!
Ask ye now, and see, whether a male doth travail with child? Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail; and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.
The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Jehovah, was taken in their pits; of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without statue, and without ephod and teraphim.
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Commentary on Micah 4 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Glorification of the House of the Lord, and Restoration of the Dominion of Zion - Micah 4:1-13
Zion will eventually be exalted from the deepest degradation to the highest glory. This fundamental thought of the announcement of salvation contained in Micah 4:1-13 and Micah 5:1-15 is carried out thus far in Micah 4:1-13 : the first section (Micah 4:1-7) depicts the glorification of the temple mountain by the streaming of the heathen nations to it to hear the law of the Lord, and the blessing which Israel and the nations will derive therefrom; and the second section (Micah 4:8-13) describes the restoration of the dominion of Zion from its fallen condition through the redemption of the nation out of Babel, and its victorious conflict with the nations of the world.
The promise of salvation opens, in closest connection with the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, with a picture of the glory awaiting in the remotest future the temple mountain, which has now become a wild forest-height. Micah 4:1. “And it comes to pass at the end of the days, that the mountain of Jehovah's house will be established on the head of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and nations stream to it. Micah 4:2. And many nations go, and say, Up, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us of His ways, and we may walk in His paths: for from Zion will law go forth, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. Micah 4:3. And He will judge between many nations, and pronounce sentence on strong nations afar off; and they forge their swords into coulters, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war any more. Micah 4:4. And they will sit, every one under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and no one will make them afraid: for the mouth of Jehovah of hosts hath spoken it.”