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Mat_2:6. In Mic_5:1 the sense is: Although Bethlehem is too unimportant to be reckoned among the cities of the district, yet a ruler in Israel will come forth from it. In Matthew this thought is, with a slight deviation, changed into: Bethlehem is undoubtedly an important place, because, etc. It is therefore unnecessary, with Grotius, to take the passage in Micah as interrogative: “Art thou, then, Bethlehem, too small,” etc., and to derive the turn of the thought with οὐδαμῶς from this interrogative interpretation (Hilgenfeld). But the Ruler to whom Micah alludes is none other than the Messianic King of David’s race (see Ewald, Proph.), so that in the birth of Jesus this prophecy receives its complete historical fulfilment. Comp. Joh_7:42.
ἐν τοῖς ἡγεμόσιν ] áÌÀàÇìÀôÅé , LXX. ἐν χιλιάσιν . The Hebrew àÆìÆó denotes the subdivision of the tribes (the thousands, see Ewald, Alterth. p. 323 f.; Keil, Arch. II. p. 223), which had their principal places and their heads ( àÇìÌåÌó ). See Gesenius, Thes. I. p. 106. The translation by ἡγεμόσιν (Chrysostom: φυλάρχοις ) clearly shows that either the evangelist himself had read the word in question not áÌÀàÇìÀôÅé , but áÌÀàÇìËôÅé , or that his translator had committed this mistake. In the Septuagint also àÇìÌåÌó is rendered by ἡγεμών , Gen_36:15 f.; Exo_15:15; 1Ch_1:51 f.; Psa_55:14. According to the words as they stand in Matthew, Bethlehem, the town, appears personified in the midst of the heads of families (Ewald, “amongst the princes of Judah”), amongst whom it had by no means the lowest position. Fritzsche conjectures ταῖς ἡγεμόσιν , in primariis familiarum in Judaea sedibus. But even thus the sense of àÆìÆó is not yet obtained. How easily, on the contrary, might the evangelist or his translator derive àìôé from àìåó , as the ἡγούμενος which follows must have been before him!
γῆ ] not city, but strip of land, province, which includes the same, 1Ma_5:68. Often likewise in the tragic writers. See Fritzsche in loc. Comp. Seidler, ad Eurip. Troad. iv.; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 361.
ἐξελεύσεται ] will come forth, namely, by birth. Thus éÈöÈà , Gen_17:6. Comp. Heb_7:5; 1Ma_1:10.
ποιμανεῖ ] Comp. the Homeric ποιμένες λαῶν . In like manner øÈòÈä is used of rulers, 2Sa_5:2; 2Sa_7:7; Jer_23:2 ff.; Mic_5:3.