Chapter 4

1 And in future days the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; it will be more prominent than other hills. People will stream to it.⁠ 2 Many nations will come, saying, “Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of Jacob’s God, so he can teach us his ways and we can live by his laws.”⁠ For instruction will proceed from Zion, the Lord’s message from Jerusalem. 3 He will arbitrate between many peoples and settle disputes between many distant nations. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not use weapons against other nations, and they will no longer train for war.⁠ 4 Each will sit under his own grapevine or under his own fig tree without any fear.⁠ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed it. 5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, we will follow the Lord our God forever.⁠ 6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame and assemble the outcasts whom I injured. 7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation and those far off into a mighty nation. The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion, from that day forward and forevermore. 8 As for you, watchtower for the flock, fortress of Daughter Zion—your former dominion will be restored, the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.”⁠ 9 Jerusalem, why are you now shouting so loudly? Has your king disappeared? Has your wise leader been destroyed? Is this why pain grips you as if you were a woman in labor?⁠ 10 Twist and strain, Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor! For you will leave the city and live in the open field. You will go to Babylon, but there you will be rescued. There the Lord will deliver you from the power of your enemies. 11 Many nations have now assembled against you. They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, so we can gloat over Zion!” 12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning; they do not understand his strategy. He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed at the threshing floor. 13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion! For I will give you iron horns; I will give you bronze hooves, and you will crush many nations.” You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler of the whole earth.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Micah 4:4 and Zechariah 3:10

Hebrew Bible

Summary

Micah 4 expands a vision of peace found in Isaiah by adding the image of people safely resting beneath their vines and fig trees. This expression is used and reshaped in many prophetic traditions, including Zechariah.

Passages

Micah 4:4

Hebrew Bible

2 Many nations will come, saying, “Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of Jacob’s God, so he can teach us his ways and we can live by his laws.” For instruction will proceed from Zion, the Lord’s message from Jerusalem. 3 He will arbitrate between many peoples and settle disputes between many distant nations. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not use weapons against other nations, and they will no longer train for war. 4 Each will sit under his own grapevine or under his own fig tree without any fear. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed it. 5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, we will follow the Lord our God forever. 6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.

600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Micah

Zechariah 3:10

Hebrew Bible

8 Listen now, Joshua the high priest, both you and your colleagues who are sitting before you, all of you are a symbol that I am about to introduce my servant, the Branch. 9 As for the stone I have set before Joshua—on the one stone there are seven eyes. I am about to engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, ‘to the effect that I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. 10 In that day,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, ‘everyone will invite his friend to fellowship under his vine and under his fig tree.’”

500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Zechariah

References

"... it is noteworthy that Micah 4:1–3 appears in a slightly different form in Isaiah 2:1–4. The interrelationship of these texts has been studied extensively, and, although scholars are not in full agreement on the issue, most conclude that the Mican and Isaian versions of the passage presuppose a liturgical text that derives from the period of the exile, perhaps in the late-sixth-century rule of Cyrus, when such a scenario of peace in relation to the nations was a real possibility ... The features of the Mican text in verses 4 and 5 indicate that it is a reworked form of the passage. Micah 4:4 includes a statement that does not appear in the Isaiah version, “and each man shall dwell under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make him afraid, for the mouth of YHWH Sebaoth has spoken.” The reference to YHWH’s speech provides a fitting close to the passage that distinguishes it from the following statement in Micah 4:5 concerning the nations’ walking after their own gods. Micah 4:4 thereby employs formulaic language that appears elsewhere in 1 Kings 8:5, 2 Kings 18:31 / Isaiah 36:16, and Zechariah 3:10 as a means to describe a situation of peace. It is likely not original to the passage in that it would have appeared in the Isaiah version as well if the Isaian writer had borrowed the passage from an original Mican context. Instead, it appears to have been introduced here by the Mican writer as a means to emphasize the scenario of peace and to provide an appropriate transition to Micah 4:5 ..."

Marvin A. Sweeney, King Josiah of Judah: The Lost Messiah of Israel (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 297.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Micah7 chapters

Compare Micah 4:4 and Zechariah 3:10

Summary

Passages

Micah 4:4

Zechariah 3:10

References

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