Albert Barnes Commentary Micah 4:9

"Now why dost 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?" — Micah 4:9 (ASV)

Now - The prophet places himself in the midst of their deepest sorrows, and out of them he promises comfort. Why do you cry out aloud? Is there no King in you? Is your Counsellor perished? Is then all lost, because you have no visible king, none to counsel you or consult for you? Very remarkably he speaks of their “King and Counsellor” as one, as if to say, “When all else is gone, there is One who abides. Though you are a captive, God will not forsake you. When you had no earthly king, the Lord your God was your King” (1 Samuel 12:12).

He is the First, and He is the Last. When you shall have no other, He, your King, does not cease to be.” Montanus: “You should not fear, so long as He, who counsels for you, lives; but He lives forever.” Your “Counsellor,” He, who is called “Counsellor” (Isaiah 9:6), who counsels for you, who counsels you, will, if you obey His counsel, make birth-pangs to end in joy.

For pangs have taken you, 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 acknowledging that the travail-pains must be, but that the reward shall be afterward. Montanus: “It is fitting to look for deliverance from God’s mercy, as certainly as for punishment from our guilt; and that the more, since He who foretold both, willingly saves, punishes unwillingly.” So the prophet adds.