Micah 5:3

Hebrew Bible

1 But now slash yourself, daughter surrounded by soldiers! We are besieged! With a scepter they strike Israel’s ruler on the side of his face. 2 (5:1) As for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, seemingly insignificant among the clans of Judah—from you a king will emerge who will rule over Israel on my behalf, one whose origins are in the distant past. 3 So the Lord will hand the people of Israel over to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth. Then the rest of the king’s countrymen will return to be reunited with the people of Israel. 4 He will assume his post and shepherd the people by the Lord’s strength, by the sovereign authority of the Lord his God. They will live securely, for at that time he will be honored even in the distant regions of the earth. 5 He will give us peace. Should the Assyrians try to invade our land and attempt to set foot in our fortresses, we will send against them seven shepherd-rulers, make that eight commanders.

Matthew 24:8

New Testament

3 As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4 Jesus answered them, “Watch out that no one misleads you. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these things are the beginning of birth pains.

 Notes and References

"... Despite the absence of the terms ‘woes’ or ‘birthpangs’, the details in this passage use the same vocabulary to describe the same familiar phenomena. Such descriptions in the rabbinic writings bear remarkable consistency in content and approach to the centuries-old Old Testament prophecies of the Day of the Lord and its antecedents previously described; equally, they bear striking similarity to many of the much more nearly contemporary sayings of Jesus relating to the End, which are stated in terms full of Old Testament allusion: he describes the beginning of the birth-pains in Mark 13:8 as follows: ‘Nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.’ On family breakdown he says: ‘Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death’ (Mark 13:12); and regarding the spiritual health of the people: ‘And then many will be caused to stumble and will betray and hate one another. Because of the increase in wickedness, the love of many will vanish’ (Matthew 24:10, 12). Jesus’ ready usage of themes and terminology familiar from both Old Testament and the later writings of the Rabbis is entirely consistent with his own rabbinic background. The apocalyptic literature of the period up to the 2nd century AD is essentially eschatological in content, employing many of the same themes and motifs as the rabbinic writings. Here, consequently, the woes are mentioned far more frequently: Charles goes as far as to state that ‘The woes before the Messianic Age are a feature of all Apocalypse.’ Three typical examples show very similar themes to both the biblical and the rabbinic texts: 2 Bauch 27:1-13 (early 2nd century AD) ..."

Steedman, Robin Anthony Colossians 1:24 and Vicarious Suffering in the Church (pp. 251-252) University of Birmingham, 2013

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