Logos Bible Study

Micah 4:1–8

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Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

4:1In the future1 the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all;2

it will be more prominent than other hills.3

People will stream to it.

4:2Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple4 of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands5

and we can live by his laws.”6

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem.7

4:3He will arbitrate8 between many peoples

and settle disputes between many9 distant nations.10

They will beat their swords into plowshares,11

and their spears into pruning hooks.12

Nations will not use weapons13 against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

4:4Each will sit under his own grapevine

or under his own fig tree without any fear.14

The Lord who commands armies has decreed it.15

4:5Though all the nations follow their respective gods,16

we will follow17 the Lord our God forever.

Restoration Will Follow Crisis

4:6“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,

and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.18

4:7I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,19

and those far off20 into a mighty nation.

The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,

from that day forward and forevermore.”21

4:8As for you, watchtower for the flock,22

fortress of Daughter Zion23—

your former dominion will be restored,24

the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Heb “at the end of days.”
  2. 2 Heb “will be established as the head of the mountains.”
  3. 3 Heb “it will be lifted up above the hills.”
  4. 4 Heb “house.”
  5. 5 Heb “ways.”
  6. 6 Heb “and we can walk in his paths.”
  7. 7 Heb “instruction [or, “law”] will go out from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
  8. 8 Or “judge.”
  9. 9 Or “mighty” (); , , , “strong”; “among the great powers.”
  10. 10 Heb “[for many nations] to a distance.”
  11. 11 Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.
  12. 12 This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, 1:). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle.
  13. 13 Heb “take up the sword.”
  14. 14 Heb “and there will be no one making [him] afraid.”
  15. 15 Heb “for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.”
  16. 16 Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life.
  17. 17 Heb “walk in the name of.”
  18. 18 The exiles of the nation are compared to lame and injured sheep.
  19. 19 Heb “make the lame into a remnant.”
  20. 20 The precise meaning of this difficult form is uncertain. The present translation assumes the form is a Niphal participle of an otherwise unattested denominative verb הָלָא (hala’, “to be far off”; see 229 ), but attractive emendations include הַנַּחֲלָה (hannakhalah, “the sick one[s]”) from חָלָה (khalah) and הַנִּלְאָה (hannil’ah, “the weary one[s]”) from לָאָה (la’ah).
  21. 21 Heb “from now until forever.”
  22. 22 Heb “Migdal-eder.” Some English versions transliterate this phrase, apparently because they view it as a place name (cf. ).
  23. 23 The city of David, located within Jerusalem, is addressed as Daughter Zion. As the home of the Davidic king, who was Israel’s shepherd (Ps 78:70–72), the royal citadel could be viewed metaphorically as the watchtower of the flock.
  24. 24 Heb “to you it will come, the former dominion will arrive.”

The NET Bible First Edition, Copyright 1996-2005 by Biblical Studies Press