Charles Ellicott Commentary Micah 5

O daughter of troops. —This verse coheres better with the former chapter, to which it is attached in the Hebrew Version. Micah again interpolates a prediction of trouble and dismay between the sentences describing triumph and glory. The sentence of smiting the judge has its historical fulfillment in the indignities which happened to King Zedekiah.

But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah.—This is a passage of immense significance, through the interpretation given to it by the chief priests and scribes in the Gospel of Saint Matthew. Beth-lehem Ephratah: the two names, modern and ancient, are united, each of them having reference to the fertility of the country. In the Gospel, the scribes quote, evidently from memory, the passage from Micah, in reply to Herod’s question; and their first variation is in the title of the town—Thou, Beth-lehem (not Ephratah, but), land of Judah. So also the people protested against Jesus on the ground of His being from Galilee, for, Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? (John 7:42).

Though thou be little. —Strictly, art little among the thousands, or chiliads: a word analogous to our “hundreds;” a division of the tribes. In Saint Matthew the word is paraphrased by princes, as representing the chiliads.

Yet out of thee. —Saint Matthew—for out of thee, the illative conjunction—helps to show that the quotation is really a paraphrase, conveying the ultimate intention of the prophet’s words, which contrasts the smallness of the chiliad with the greatness of its destiny.

Whose goings forth have been from of old. —The nativity of the governor of Israel is evidently contrasted with an eternal nativity, the depth of which mystery passes the comprehension of human intellect: it must be spiritually discerned. The Creed of the Church expresses the article of faith as “Begotten of His Father before all worlds.” He came forth unto Me to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting, from the days of antiquity.

Therefore will he give them up.—There is a suggestion here of a parable, setting forth the smallness of Bethlehem, which gave birth to the mighty Ruler who was to come from it. So the nation was to be brought very low before the nativity of the Virgin-born.

He shall stand and feed — that is, He shall stand with the majesty of an assured sovereignty, uniting the dignity of a king with the tenderness of a shepherd’s care—a thought that, underlying the notion of a Jewish monarch , becomes a distinguishing attribute of the King Messiah (Isaiah 40:2; see also the note on Ezekiel 34:2).

His God. —The Messiah was to be subordinate to the Father in heaven—My Father is greater than I—and they—that is, His subjects—shall abide. It is impossible to conceive this prophecy as satisfied by any event short of that which is the foundation of the Christian faith.

And this man shall be the peace — that is, He shall Himself be Peace (after the same idiomatic expression David speaks of himself, “For my love they are my adversaries, but I am Prayer”—Psalms 109:4). This sentence is connected with the former instead of the following passage, with which the Authorized Version joins it.

When the Assyrian shall come into our land. —This may refer to the imminent apprehension of the invasion of Sennacherib, but the actual event does not correspond to it.

It may look forward to the time when the enemies of Israel attacked the Jews in the Maccabean period, and the shepherds, seven or eight—that is, an indefinite number—successfully resisted the attacks upon the flock.

The intention of the passage may be spiritually interpreted as pointing to the eight principal, strictly anointed men, who, as Christian pastors, receive their commission from the Messiah.