9 Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, That pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?
For, behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, The whole supply of bread, And the whole supply of water; The mighty man, The man of war, The judge, The prophet, The diviner, The elder, The captain of fifty, The honorable man, The counselor, The skilled craftsman, And the clever enchanter. I will give boys to be their princes, And children shall rule over them. The people will be oppressed, Everyone by another, And everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man, And the base against the honorable. Indeed a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, "You have clothing, you be our ruler, And let this ruin be under your hand." In that day he will cry out, saying, I will not be a healer; For in my house is neither bread nor clothing. You shall not make me ruler of the people.
Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with child: why 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.
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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.”