Delivery from Future Enemies (5:5-6):
5:5–6 The NIV has attached the first line of verse 5 to the foregoing oracle, but in order to do so, it has had to emend the line. The Hebrew does not say, And he will be their peace. Rather it reads, “And this shall be peace.” The line belongs with this oracle, though indeed “this” refers to the messianic figure of verses 2–4.
There has been much scholarly discussion about the proper interpretation of this brief passage and its relation to 5:2–4. The plural verbs in 5c and 6a conflict with the singular verb in 6c. The military images employed contrast with the peaceful portrait in 5:4. Thus, the questions are, Who will deliver Israel from the Assyrians, and How?
To answer the questions, we must first realize that Assyria in verses 5b and 6a does not refer to the historical empire of the eighth and seventh centuries BC. Rather, the word is used in the OT and here in a different sense to stand for any nation that would threaten Israel in the future (cf. Ezra 6:22; Zech. 10:10–11). Such a meaning is supported by the fact that Nimrod here is made the poetic parallel to “Assyria.” Nimrod is mentioned in Genesis 10:8–12 (cf. 1 Chron. 1:10) as a somewhat legendary figure and “mighty warrior” who was the hero-founder of the great eastern empires that threatened Israel during much of its existence. The intention of verse 6a–b, therefore, is simply to portray any foe who would endanger Israel’s life.
Verse 5a can be read, “And this (one) shall be peace,” referring back to the messianic king of verses 2–4. It is clear then from verse 6c that this messianic king will be the deliverer of Israel from any future enemy. He will be the one who gives “peace” (šālôm), that is, prosperity and wholeness to the nation.
The passage envisions, however, that even under the universal rule of the Messiah, there may yet arise threats to that rule. The kingdom has not come in its fullness, and the Messiah and his people are still challenged by those subversive of his reign. But the messianic king will put down all such challenges, verse 6c.
When the Messiah works such deliverance and establishes peace, a military government made up of Israelite leaders will be set up over the threatening foes to keep them in check, verse 5d–6b. As in Romans 13, government is the instrument to maintain civil order by lawful force. The Messiah alone wins the victory over the assaulting foe; Israel’s leaders then keep the continual threats of the foe in check.
Additional Notes
5:5 Instead of we will raise against him, the verb’s meaning here is “we will set over him.”
5:6 And the land of Nimrod with drawn sword: The Hb. reads, “and the land of Nimrod with its gates.”
Israel among the Nations (5:7-9): We have in Micah 5:5–9 a series of three brief oracles, each beginning with the Hebrew waw, which describe Israel’s role among the nations (5:5–6, 7, 8–9), just as before we had a three-fold series of oracles, each beginning with “now” and describing Israel’s present plight and future deliverance (4:9–10, 11–13; 5:1–4). Thus, 5:7 and 5:8–9 are really separate oracles, but we can treat them together here for the sake of space.
Though we have seen a passage dealing with the messianic king, in 5:2–4, Micah here is not treating the end of history or the eschatological time, as our customary discussions of the Messiah often do. Rather, the prophecy is dealing with the remnant of Israel living still in the midst of a threatening world. The kingdom has not yet come. Israel will be delivered and gathered, but its life will still be threatened, and this series of three oracles, 5:5–9, gives reassurance concerning that threat.
5:7 The beginning of 5:7 is very similar to the beginning of verse 8, and indeed, the LXX adds “among the nations” to the end of verse 7a in order to emphasize the similarity. The correspondence between the two oracles gives some indication of how the figure of the dew is to be interpreted in verse 7. It is not intended as the figure of a beneficial presence of Israel. (Cf. for example, 2 Sam. 17:12.) Rather, the intention is to point to the mysterious, nonhuman origin of the dew, which the Bible considers always to come from God (Judg. 6:36–40; Job 38:28. etc.). A remnant of Israel will survive the exiles of the sixth century BC. Then they will be gathered together and returned to their own country (cf. 4:6–7), once again a people in the midst of the nations. But how they got there and who delivered and gathered them will be utterly mysterious to human beings. In short, their existence and return will be solely the work of Yahweh.
5:8–9 The oracle in 5:8–9 then takes up Israel’s defense against the nations who still want to do away with it. Just as it will control threatening enemies, according to 5:5–6 (which see), it will also be able to defeat any who lift up their hand against it. Its power will be like that of a lion (for the figure, cf. Gen. 49:9; Num. 24:9) in the midst of a sheepfold, fearsome and irresistible, so that all of its enemies will be destroyed. But such power will be given it by God alone. Such is the implication of the joining of verse 7 with verses 8–9. If we take the words of these prophets seriously, then perhaps they should form a warning to all of those who still in our time harbor that antisemitism which wants to get rid of the Jews.
God’s Eschatological Triumph (5:10-15):
5:10–15 This oracle predicts God’s final victory over those pagan nations that will threaten Israel’s life in the future. (See the commentary on 5:5–6, 7–9.) But above all, it represents God’s final triumph over those foreign peoples who will not acknowledge God’s lordship. The passage is linked to verse 9b by the verb “cut off” (NIV: destroy) in verse 10b, a verb which is then repeated three more times in verses 11–13 in a staccato emphasizing the finality of the destruction wrought by Yahweh.
The oracle closes the section of Micah’s prophecies that began with 4:6. Both 4:6 and 5:10 open with the phrase, in that day. The whole section, from 4:6 to 5:15, deals with Israel’s life among the nations, and it is framed with a beginning (4:6–8) and ending (5:10–15) announcement of Yahweh’s eschatological triumph as Lord over all peoples.
The most pressing question concerning this passage is, To whom is it addressed? You in verses 10–14 is singular. Does “you” therefore refer to Israel, with the foreign nations mentioned only in verse 15? Or is each one of the foreign nations being addressed here by the Lord?
Most scholars interpret verses 10–14 to refer to Israel. To the contrary, I believe they are addressed to the foreign nations. There is great emphasis in this passage on cultic sins of idolatry, but that form of trespass on the part of Israel has received only slight notice, in 1:7, in Micah’s indictment of the people in chapters 1–3. Instead, the concern thus far in Micah has been with Israel’s corruption of leaders, judges, priests, and prophets (2:2, 8–11; 3:2–3, 5–6, 9–11). And God’s judgment on such corruption has been designed to serve as a witness to the nations of God’s lordship (see the comment at 1:5). Thus 5:15 is an announcement of God’s wrath to be poured out on those foreign nations who refuse to accept the import of the witness.
But the foreign nations must also be purged of their idolatry and false trusts before they can become people of the Lord, as foretold in 4:1–4. Their lives are full of false worship of their pagan gods and goddesses and of their reliance on weapons and fortresses to furnish them security. Before Yahweh can convert them all in his final, eschatological establishment of his lordship over all the earth, they must be rid of their dependence on everything but Yahweh.
Yahweh therefore announces that he will destroy their military instruments and fortified cities that they believe will give them safety. He will destroy their sorceries (NIV: witchcraft) and soothsayers (NIV reads a verb: cast spells), by which they think to manipulate their future. And he will destroy all of their idols—their images, their stone pillars (NIV: sacred stones), and their Asherah poles—to whom they look for divine guidance and protection.
Sorcery, which involved various kinds of magic and superstition, is often connected in the OT with foreign nations (Exod. 7:11; Isa. 19:3; Dan. 2:2), and Exodus 22:18 in the early book of the covenant already prescribes death for any sorceress. Deuteronomy 18:9–14 urges Israel to shun all such foreign magic as “an abomination” (RSV) to the Lord (cf. 2 Kgs. 17:17; Jer. 27:9; Mal. 3:5; Gal. 5:20; Rev. 18:23; 21:8; 22:15). And Second Isaiah is quite sure that sorcerers have no power to save their people from the judgment of God (47:9, 12).
Divination involved not the casting of spells, as the NIV has it, but the reading of omens to be found in either natural or manufactured phenomena. It sought not to control the future, as did sorcery, but rather to discern it ahead of time. While Israel had diviners (Mic. 3:7; Jer. 27:9; 29:8; Zech. 10:2), it was to rely not on them, but on its God, whose hands held the future. Diviners are included in that list of persons in Deuteronomy 18:9–14 whom Israel is to shun (cf. Ezek. 13:6).
The images, stone pillars, and Asherah poles that Micah 5:13–14 marks for God’s destruction were all used in foreign and specifically Canaanite cult practices. Contrary to our usual understanding, it was not believed by the foreign peoples that such idols contained their deities. Rather such objects were considered to be transparent bearers of divine revelation. They marked the sacred spot where the deity was present, and they were transparent objects through which divine revelation was conveyed. Biblical faith, on the other hand, knows that God is not revealed through any object in the natural world, but solely through words and actions within the history and worship of Israel. Thus, Israel was to worship nothing “that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exod. 20:4). To the same imageless, historical faith this oracle in Micah 5:10–15 is therefore calling the foreign nations of the world. And those that will not heed Yahweh’s witness in word and action will be destroyed.
God’s vengeance in this passage, however, is not the exercise of some wrathful punishment, wrought by a rejected deity, but the exercise of lordship. As Ezekiel 20:33 has it, Yahweh declares, “surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you.” Yahweh will be king, Lord of all the earth, sovereign ruler of every nation. And Yahweh will destroy every false trust and idolatrous worship that challenges that kingship, in order finally that all peoples may walk in his way in a kingdom where “every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid” (Mic. 4:4). Such is the future vision toward which this oracle in 5:10–15 points.
