Micah 5:1

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops,.... Not Jerusalem, full of people, called to draw out their forces, and fall upon the enemy besieging them, whether Chaldeans or Romans; but rather

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. Now gather thyself in troops - i:e., thou shalt do so, to resist the enemy.

MICAH CHAPTER 5 The birth of Christ foretold, ; his kingdom, ; his complete conquest over his enemies, . This verse is, say some, a sharp sarcasm against Israel’ s enemies. Others will have it to be a repetition of the evils, and a description how far those evils should prevail, that were ere long to come upon Judah and Jerusalem, by either Sennacherib and his Assyrians, or by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonians, to where God’ s people seem thus to speak: We have heard what we must suffer for a time, and how we shall be delivered and triumph at last; and since that is the order, first afflictions, afterwards salvation, delay not, O thou enemy, but now gather thyself in troops; summon in thy forces, appoint thy rendezvous, bring thy spoiling, wasting troops, thy merciless and bloody troops, and form thy army, O Assyrian: of whom much like this doth Isaiah prophesy, . And this passage of Micah may also further refer to the Babylonian army under Nebuchadnezzar, under the violence of both which they were to suffer, and from both which the Jews should have a glorious deliverance ere long. O daughter of troops; O Nineveh, daughter of troops: from her first founder she was a city full of troops, that spoiled, Cut off, and destroyed, and had been more than ordinarily so under Pul, Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, and Sennacherib for ninety-five years together, in the successive reigns of these four monarchs. Babylon also in her time was as troublesome to Judah, and must be this daughter of troops also. He; that is, the enemy, either Assyrian, which had taken all but Jerusalem, and did invest Jerusalem too; or Babylonian, which afterward besieged and took Jerusalem, sacked the city, burnt the temple, and captivated the people. Hath laid siege against us; hath in prophetic style, certainly will lay siege against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the only people of God at that time; both king, judges, and citizens were all enclosed in the siege. They, the proud, successful, and oppressive enemy, shall smite the judge, the king, supreme judge, of Israel; not the ten tribes, though they are usually called by this name, but the two tribes that adhered to David’ s family. With a rod upon the cheek: this is a proverbial speech, expressing a very contemptuous usage of the person spoken of, and it was fulfilled partly when Sennacherib’ s general Rabshakeh did so vilify good Hezekiah, and not content herewith vilified the God of, Israel also, as , &c.; . It was more fully and literally accomplished when Zedekiah, his children, his counsellors, and his officers of state, were most barbarously used by the insulting Babylonians, ,7 ,17,18, &c.; , &c. Since all this must be done against us, make haste, O thou proud enemy, and do it, for it will end in our deliverance and thy ruin.

Micah 5:1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.Ver. 1. Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops] Here the virgin, the daughter of Zion, despiseth her adversaries of Assyria and Babylon, and laughs them to scorn; "the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at them," Isaiah 37:22; and bearing herself bold upon the foregoing promise, Micah 4:13, that she should beat in pieces many people, she taketh liberty to taunt the Assyrian monarch with all his troops beleaguering her, and basely abusing her judges, telling him, that the babe of Bethlehem would shortly take an order with him. And although she were but a virgin, yet, having such a champion as Christ, who is in love with her, that will take her part and fight her quarrel, she doubteth not to say, "Now gather thyself in troops," &c. Nunc turmatim coito, o turmaria, Increase thine army and come forth. "Gather yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us," Isaiah 8:9-10; Jehovah is our judge, Jehovah is our champion, Jehovah is our king; he will save us, Isaiah 33:22. Lo, this is the Church’ s confident boasting in Christ, this is the triumph of her trust in him. The thought of his birth swalloweth up all her fears and discontents; and compasseth her about with songs of deliverance, Psalms 32:7. He hath laid siege against us] And already devoured us in his hopes; but if we do but turn us to Christ, and say, Behold, she whom thou lovest is distressed the Assyrian as a strong river is come up over all his channels, and reacheth even to the neck; yea, the stretching out of his wings filleth the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel, Isaiah 8:7-8, he will soon bestir himself, he will besiege our besiegers, he will smite them upon the cheek bone, and break the teeth of those ungodly, Psalms 3:7, that smote the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek, for a reproach to the whole people. Hugo by this judge of Israel understandeth Christ, who was indeed at his passion contumeliously buffeted (ερραπισαν Bacillis ceciderunt. Beza), and smitten with rods upon the cheek, Matthew 26:6-7. But this, though it be true, yet cannot be the sense of this text.

V. (1) 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 fulfilment in the indignities which happened to King Zedekiah.

CHAPTER V This chapter begins, according to the opinion of some commentators, with a prophecy concerning the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the great indignities which Zedekiah should suffer from the Babylonians, 1. We have next a most famous prediction concerning the birthplace of the Messiah, "whose goings forth have been from of old, from EVERLASTING," 2. See Matthew 2:6. The Jews obstinately persisting in their opposition to the Messiah, God will therefore give them up into the hands of their enemies till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled: and then all the posterity of Jacob, both Israel and Judah, shall be converted to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, along with the Gentiles, be brought into the large and peaceful pastures of this Great Shepherd of the sheep, 3, 4. After this illustrious prophecy, the prophet goes on to foretell the downfall of the Assyrians, by whom are meant the enemies of the Church in general, the type being probably put for the antitype; the miraculous discomfiture of the great Assyrian army in the reign of Sennacherib strongly shadowing forth the glorious and no less miraculous triumphs of Christianity in the latter times, 5, 6. See Isaiah 11:16. Some understand this prophecy of Antiochus and the seven famous Maccabees, with their eight royal successors, from Aristobulus to Antigonus; and it is not impossible that these people may be also intended, for we have often had occasion to remark that a prophecy of the Old Testament Scriptures has frequently more than one aspect. The seventh verse was fulfilled by the Jews spreading the knowledge of the true God during their captivity, and so paving the way for the gospel; but will be more signally fulfilled after their conversion and restoration. See Romans 11:12-15. The remaining verses contain a prophecy of the final overthrow of all the enemies of pure and undefiled religion, and of the thorough purification of the Church of God from the corruptions of Antichrist, 9-15. NOTES ON CHAP. V Verse 1. O daughter of troops] The Chaldeans, whose armies were composed of troops from various nations. He (Nebuchadnezzar) hath laid siege against us; (Jerusalem;) they shall smite the judge of Israel (Zedekiah) with a rod upon the cheek.] They shall offer him the greatest indignity. They slew his sons before his face; and then put out his eyes, loaded him with chains, and carried him captive to Babylon.

1. Transition from the prediction of Jerusalem’s extremity during the siege to the Messianic glories in prospect 1. Now gather thyself in troops] Rather, Now thou mayest gather, &c. Assyria may marshal her hosts, may lay siege against the holy city, may violate the person of the king, but from insignificant Bethlehem a royal Deliverer shall arise. O daughter of troops] i.e. O invading army. ‘Daughter’ is a personifying phrase, as in ‘daughter of Jerusalem’ = population of Jerusalem. Most commentators think Jerusalem itself is referred to here, the ‘troops’ being the crowds of frightened citizens, but this is contrary to usage, ‘troop’ being constantly used in a military sense. he hath laid siege] An abrupt change of number, as in Isaiah 1:29. ‘Assyria’ is the implied subject. smite … upon the cheek] A gross insult; comp. 1 Kings 22:24, Job 16:10, Luke 22:64. the judge of Israel] i.e. the king (as in Amos 2:3). The phrase is chosen partly to produce a kind of paronomasia in the Hebrew with the word for ‘rod,’ and partly perhaps because Jehovah has already been called the ‘king’ of Israel (Micah 2:13). ‘Israel’ here means Judah, as in Micah 1:14 (see note).

Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops - The “daughter of troops” is still the same who was before addressed, Judah. The word is almost always .

THE MESSIAH AND THE ERA, 1-15 (in Hebrew, Micah 4:14-5:14).In Micah 5:1, the prophet returns once more (Micah 4:9; Micah 4:11) to the condition now present or imminent; but immediately he rises from