Micahchapter 4
13 verses · Micah · 750 to 686 BC · The Twelve
And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken.
Introduction
Micah, The Twelve, Micah Overview.
After the sentence on Jerusalem at the end of the last chapter, Micah turns to what lies beyond it. The same prophet who said the temple mount would become a wooded ridge now speaks of its future. His hearers were a small nation in the path of great empires, and they knew war well. Listen for the change from the end of one age to the last days. Listen for words Isaiah also spoke in Jerusalem, and for the one city Micah names long before it mattered to Judah. Read the chapter as hope that runs through suffering.
Context
- Who
- People who had just been told that mount would be plowed under
- What
- A promise of the last days, when the nations come to Zion to learn God's ways, followed by oracles on the gathering of the remnant, the exile to Babylon and the rescue from it.
- Where
- Mount Zion and Jerusalem, with the road into exile to Babylon and the nations gathered against the city.
- When
- Spoken in Micah's ministry, about 750 to 686 BC, looking ahead to the exile of 586 BC, the return that followed and the last days.
- Why
- To show that the judgment on Jerusalem would give way to a restored Zion, from which God would teach and rule the nations.
Historical context
The opening oracle appears almost word for word in Isaiah 2, and the two prophets were contemporaries. Whether Micah drew on Isaiah, Isaiah on Micah, or both on an older oracle they shared is not settled and the text does not say; what is clear is that two prophets in the same generation were given the same picture.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The metalwork is village metalwork. A plough point and a pruning hook were the two most valuable iron tools a farming family owned, and both were made and remade at the local smith's forge; beating a sword into a plough point is a job an ordinary blacksmith could do in an afternoon. The image is of an economy converting itself, not of weapons being locked away.
Every man under his vine and under his fig tree is the standard picture of peasant security in that world, used elsewhere of Solomon's reign. A vine takes years to bear and a fig tree longer; sitting under your own means nobody has burned them, nobody has confiscated the land, and you expect to be there next year.
The threshing image at the end is a working animal. Grain was trodden out by oxen on a hard floor, and Micah pictures Zion given a horn of iron and hooves of bronze, a threshing ox rebuilt as a war machine.
Significance
The chapter is placed immediately after the announcement that the temple mount will become a wooded ruin, and the contrast is the point. The same hill is both the ploughed field and the mountain the nations stream to.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The prophecy is not yet fulfilled. Micah names Babylon as the road there, a startling thing to say a century before Babylon mattered, when Assyria was the threat everyone feared, and says the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from that time forth and forever. The peace described comes when the King does.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records no synagogue reading from this chapter. Probed for this lane, it printed no weekly portion, no Haftarah use for chapter 4 and no festival reading for the book. A congregation following that table does not hear this chapter read aloud on a Sabbath.
Rashi's note on the fourth verse joins the chapter to the Torah. He asks where the mouth of the Lord has spoken of each man under his vine, and answers from Leviticus 26:6, citing the Mechilta (Rashi on Micah 4:4:1). The corpus carries the same join at Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 12:18. The translation's note on the third verse carries a cross-reference to Isaiah 2:4 (Rashi on Micah 4:3:1).
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. One note of Metzudat David is kept as well, quoted here from Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
The nations streaming to the mountain gather "like rivers flowing into the sea." (Rashi on Micah 4:1:1). Metzudat David reads the Torah going out of Zion as a claim about its truth. It goes out "because the true Torah is that which comes out from Zion, and there is no other in the world" (Metzudat David on Micah 4:2:5). Rashi reads the judging of the third verse as rebuke: "This judgment is an expression of reproof" (Rashi on Micah 4:3:1).
Two readings stand side by side at the sixth and eighth verses. At the lame one Rashi reports Jonathan's rendering, "I will gather in the exiles." He then gives his own: "To me, however, it appears as an expression of healing" (Rashi on Micah 4:6:1). At the tower of the flock he reports Jonathan again. There the tower is the anointed one of Israel, hidden because of the sins of the people of Zion. Rashi adds that it is possible to read the tower as the Temple instead (Rashi on Micah 4:8:1).
The friends sought in the ninth verse are "the kings of Egypt and the kings of Assyria, for aid" (Rashi on Micah 4:9:2). The sheaves of the twelfth verse are the nations gathered around Jerusalem to be threshed, where the daughter of Zion is told to arise and thresh (Rashi on Micah 4:12:1).
The corpus numbers this chapter by the Hebrew text, which has fourteen verses. Its last verse, the daughter of troops, is the first verse of chapter 5 in the Berean Standard Bible. Rashi reads that daughter as Babylon: "O daughter of the Chaldeans, gather troops" (Rashi on Micah 4:14:1).
The corpus carries 7 further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Micah 4:1:1, 4:2:1, 4:3:1, 4:4:1, 4:5:1 and 4:7:1 and Radak on Micah 4:7:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 5 in the Talmud and 35 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 98:2, Midrash Tehillim 36:4 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 21:4. On verse 2 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Pesakhim 8:8, Ein Yaakov, Bava Batra 2:1, Ein Yaakov, Pesakhim 8:10 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 45:1. On verse 4 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Pischa 12:18 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 207:1. On verse 5 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 64:1, Midrash Tehillim 1:18, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 10:4 and Shemot Rabbah 15:15. It also holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 2:1:3.
On verse 6 it holds Berakhot 32a:1, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 29, Ein Yaakov, Sukkah 5:13 and Jerusalem Talmud Taanit 3:4:5. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 189 and Shemot Rabbah 46:4. On verse 8 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 35:21:2, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 35:21:3 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 38:4. On verse 10 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Sukkah 4:3:6, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 24:17:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 3:13 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayishlach 9:4. It also holds Midrash Tehillim 11:4.
On verse 11 it holds Midrash Tehillim 118:12. On verse 12 it holds Bava Metzia 89b:10, Bereshit Rabbah 42:2 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 14:2:4. On verse 13 it holds Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 10:7, Eruvin 101a:10 and Midrash Tehillim 62:1. On verse 14 it holds Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Noah 37, Eikhah Rabbah 1:25, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 3:23:1 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 16:4. It also holds Vayikra Rabbah 10:2.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Micah 4:1:1 to 4:14:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Micah 4:2:5, Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Micah 4:1:1, 4:2:1, 4:3:1, 4:4:1, 4:5:1 and 4:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Micah 4:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/micah/4.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Micah 4 with parashotForChapter, haftarahUsesForChapter and festivalReadingForBook.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The mountain of the LORD's house lifted above the hills
Micah 4:1-2
the mountain of the house of the LORD: The oracle turns from the plowed hill of 3:12 to a mountain "established as the chief of the mountains". Isaiah 2:2-4 gives the same vision in nearly the same words. The nations come so that "He will teach us His ways", reversing the direction judgment has run in the book.
Micah 4:1
“In the last days - Or, in the latter days, at the expiring of the seventy years captivity, near two hundred years from Micah's time, a type of the days of the Messiah's kingdom. The mountain - The mountain on which the temple stood, the type of the church of Christ. Established - Literally fulfilled when the second temple was built by the Jews.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Micah 4:1
“Almost identical with Isa 2:2-4. the mountain of the house of the Lord--which just before (Mic 3:12) had been doomed to be a wild forest height. Under Messiah, its elevation is to be not that of situation, but of moral dignity, as the seat of God's universal empire. people shall flow into it--In Isaiah it is "all nations": a more universal prophecy.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
let us go up to the mountain of the LORD: The nations urge one another to go up to Zion, and they come to be taught. The law goes out from Jerusalem to the world. The same words stand at Isaiah 2:3, and later readers heard in them the gospel going out from Jerusalem to the Gentiles.
Micah 4:2
“And when the Spirit of prophecy speaks as predicting things that are to come to pass, He speaks in this way: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." And that it did so come to pass, we can convince you.”
Justin Martyr · written before 165 · The First Apology, Chapter XXXIXpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 4:2
“And many nations shall come - Isaiah Isa 2:2 added the world all to Micah’s prophecy. So our Lord said, “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations” Mat 24:14; and the elect are to be gathered out “of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues” Rev 7:9. All nations shall flow into it. The all might be many or few. Both prophets say that those all should be many. Judah probably knew already of many.”
Micah 4:3-4
Then He will judge between many peoples: The nations turn their weapons into farm tools, "swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks". Each man sits "under his own vine and under his own fig tree". The words "For the mouth of the LORD of Hosts has spoken" rest the promise on His word.
Micah 4:3
“And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off,.... That are in the most distant parts of the world; not only the isles afar off, but the remotest parts of the continent, the American nations found out since.”
under his own vine: The vine and the fig tree were a small farmer's own property, the picture of peace in Solomon's reign at 1 Kings 4:25. Each man sits at home with nothing to fear. The line ends with its guarantee, the word of the LORD of Hosts.
Micah 4:4
“Under his vine and under his fig tree - A proverbial expression, indicative of perfect peace, security, and rural comfort. See on Isa 2:1 (note). This verse is an addition to the prophecy as it stands in Isaiah. See Clarke on Mic 4:1 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 4:4
“They - The redeemed of the Lord, redeemed from Babylonish captivity, the type of a greater redemption by Christ. Shall sit - That is, they shall enjoy peace, security and plenty. This was more fully made good in the gospel-days.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ConnectionsZechariah 3:10
we will walk in the name of the LORD our God: Against the nations who each "walk in the name of his god", Israel answers, "we will walk in the name of the LORD our God". The verse stands as the congregation's own pledge. The people choose now the path the nations will seek in verse 2.
Micah 4:5
“For all people well walk, every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God - Hitherto unsteadfastness had been the very characteristic sin of Israel. It was , “constant only in its inconstancy,” ever “falling away like their forefathers, starting aside like a broken bow” Psa 78:57. The pagan persevered in their worship, because it was evil or had evil in it, not checking but feeding their passions.”
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 4:5
“So the Hebrew particle means in the Margin, Ge 8:21; The resolution of the exile Jews is: As Jehovah gives us hope of so glorious a restoration, notwithstanding the overthrow of our temple and nation, we must in confident reliance on His promise persevere in the true worship of Him, however the nations around, our superiors now in strength and numbers, walk after their gods [ROSENMULLER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The lame gathered; dominion returns to the tower of the flock
Micah 4:6-8
"On that day" the Lord will "gather the lame" and "assemble the outcast", making the cast-off "into a strong nation". The "watchtower of the flock" is Migdal-eder in Hebrew, near Bethlehem, where Jacob camped in Genesis 35:21. To it "the former dominion will be restored", the dominion of David's house.
Micah 4:6
“THIS is spoken, I suppose, in the first place, of the Jewish people who have been so afflicted on account of their sin that they almost cease to be a nation. They are driven here and there among the lands and made to suffer greatly. In the last time, when Christ shall appear in His Glory in the days of halcyon peace, then shall Israel partake of the universal joy. Poor, limping, faltering Israel, afflicted with tempest, shall yet be gathered and rejoice in her God!”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3201: “Mercy for the Meanest of the Flock” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
make the lame into a remnant: God gathers the lame and the outcast, the weakest of the flock, and makes them the remnant that survives. That remnant becomes a strong nation, which Israel had never been by the measure of this world. The LORD Himself will reign over them on Mount Zion.
Micah 4:7
“And her that was cast off a strong nation - The prophecy, that there should be a remnant, was depressing. Yet what a remnant should it be! A remnant, which should multiply like the stars of heaven or the sand on the sea-shore. Israel had never been “a strong nation,” as a kingdom of this world. At its best estate, under David, it had subdued the petty nations around it, who were confederated to destroy it.”
watchtower of the flock: A shepherd built a high tower in a large pasture to watch the flock, and the phrase stands for Jerusalem and the house of David. Genesis 35:21 names a tower of the flock near Bethlehem. The former dominion will return to it.
Micah 4:8
“O tower of the flock - I think the temple is meant, or Jerusalem; the place where the flock, the whole congregation of the people assembled to worship God. Newcome retains the Hebrew word עדר eder, a tower in or near Beth-lehem, Gen 35:21 or, as some think, a tower near the sheep-gate in Jerusalem, I believe Jerusalem, or the temple, or both, are meant; for these were considered the stronghold of the daughter-of Zion, the fortress of the Jewish people. Even the first dominion - What was this?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 4:8
“The strong-hold - Ophel, a strong fort, is likewise put for the whole city. The first dominion - The former dominion; the government (after seventy years captivity) shall return to the former royal family, and continue in it 'till Shiloh come. This, in the type was fulfilled, under Zerubbabel and his successors; but the whole antitype concerns the Messiah's kingdom.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 4:8
“In large pastures it was usual to erect a high wooden tower, so as to oversee the flock. JEROME takes the Hebrew for "flock," Eder or Edar, as a proper name, namely, a village near Beth-lehem, for which it is put, Beth-lehem being taken to represent the royal stock of David (Mic 5:2; compare Ge 35:21).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Pangs like a woman in travail, then a horn of iron
Micah 4:9-10
Why do you now cry aloud?: Zion is asked, "Is there no king among you", as anguish grips her "like a woman in labor". She must "go to Babylon", yet "there the LORD will redeem you". The older commentators hold this a prediction while Assyria was the threat, and critical scholars date it after the event.
Micah 4:9
“Now - The prophet places himself in the midst of their deepest sorrows, and out of them he promises comfort. “Why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no King in thee? is thy Counsellor perished?” . Is then all lost, because thou hast no visible king, none to counsel thee or consult for thee? . Very remarkably he speaks of their “King and Counsellor” as one, as if to say, “When all beside is gone, there is One who abides. Though thou be a captive, God will not forsake thee.”
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 4:9
“Now - Now I have promised such great things to you. No king - Thou hast lost thy king Zedekiah, but thy God, thy king is with thee. Thy counsellor - Hast thou none among thy wise counsellors left?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 4:9
“Addressed to the daughter of Zion, in her consternation at the approach of the Chaldeans. is there no king in thee?--asked tauntingly. There is a king in her; but it is the same as if there were none, so helpless to devise means of escape are he and his counsellors [MAURER].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
You will go to Babylon: Micah names Babylon more than a century before the exile, while Assyria was still the great power. The city will fall and its people will camp in the open fields on the road. Yet the LORD will redeem them there.
Micah 4:10
“Though God cares for His children, yet they must not expect to be exempt from trouble, but must prepare for it. go forth out of the city--on its capture. So "come out" is used 2Ki 24:12; Isa 36:16. dwell in the field--namely, in the open country, defenseless, instead of their fortified city.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Micah 4:10
“In the field - In their journey to Babylon they were forced to lodge in the fields. Delivered - By Cyrus, by Darius, and by Artaxerxes; and this was a type of a greater deliverance. Redeem - The Hebrew word points out a redemption by the next kinsman, and so minds us of the Messiah, the great redeemer of the church.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Micah 4:10
“This was done by Cyrus, who acted therein as God's servant; and that deliverance was typical of our redemption by Jesus Christ, and the release from our spiritual bondage which is proclaimed in the everlasting gospel, that acceptable year of the Lord, in which Christ himself preached liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that were bound, Luke iv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Micah 4:11-13
But now many nations have assembled against you: Many nations gather to see Zion "defiled", but "they do not know the thoughts of the LORD". Zion is told, "Rise and thresh". The last line turns victory to worship, as she will "devote their gain to the LORD", the Hebrew verb of the ban.
Micah 4:11
“Now also - (And now.) The prophet had already spoken of the future before them, with this word Now. Then, he distinctly prophesied the captivity to Babylon. Twice more he begins anew; as Holy Scripture, so often, in a mystery, whether speaking of evil or of good, of deliverance or of punishment, uses a threefold form. In these two, no mention is made of the enemy, and so there is some uncertainty. But the course must apparently be either backward or forward. They must either be two nearer futures before the Captivity, or two more distant after it.”
like sheaves to the threshing floor: The nations gather against Zion for their own reasons and cannot see God's plan. God has gathered them for threshing. Threshing was done by treading, so the nations who came to take a harvest become the harvest.
Micah 4:12
“The Hebrew is singular, "sheaf." However great the numbers of the foe, they are all but as one sheaf ready to be threshed [CALVIN]. Threshing was done by treading with the feet: hence the propriety of the image for treading under foot and breaking asunder the foe.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
horns of iron and hooves of bronze: Zion is pictured as an ox threshing grain with horns of iron and hooves of bronze. Jacob had been the threshing floor, and now Jacob threshes. The spoil is devoted to the Lord of all the earth, for His glory rather than for Zion's gain.
Micah 4:13
I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord--God subjects the nations to Zion, not for her own selfish aggrandizement, but for His glory (Isa 60:6, 9; Zec 14:20, with which compare Isa 23:18) and for their ultimate good; therefore He is here called, not merely God of Israel, but "Lord of the whole earth."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Micah 4:13
“Arise - (It may be,) from the dust in which they were lying, “I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass.” Threshing in the East is partly with oxen, partly with wheels of iron, or with planks set with sharp flints on an open place made hard to this end.”
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.