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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Micah 5:3 - 5:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
“Therefore (because of His settled plan) will God give up to their foes His people Israel, until,” etc.
she which travaileth hath brought forth - namely, “the virgin” mother, mentioned by Micah’s contemporary, Isa 7:14. Zion “in travail” (Mic 4:9, Mic 4:10) answers to the virgin in travail of Messiah. Israel’s deliverance from her long travail-pains of sorrow will synchronize with the appearance of the Messiah as her Redeemer (Rom 11:26) in the last days, as the Church’s spiritual deliverance synchronized with the virgin’s giving birth to Him at His first advent. The ancient Church’s travail-like waiting for Messiah is represented by the virgin’s travail. Hence, both may be meant. It cannot be restricted to the Virgin Mary: for Israel is still “given up,” though Messiah has been “brought forth” eighteen and a half centuries ago. But the Church’s throes are included, which are only to be ended when Christ, having been preached for a witness to all nations, shall at last appear as the Deliverer of Jacob, and when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, and Israel as a nation shall be born in a day (Isa 66:7-11; Luk 21:24; Rev 12:1, Rev 12:2, Rev 12:4; compare Rom 8:22).
the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel - (Compare Mic 4:7). The remainder of the Israelites dispersed in foreign lands shall return to join their countrymen in Canaan. The Hebrew for “unto” is, literally, “upon,” implying superaddition to those already gathered.