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About this book

Micah

About this book

The Ideal Age

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.”⁠

The Lord Will Rescue the Exiles

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.

Israel Will Crush Its 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.⁠

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Texts in conversation

Compare Micah 4:7 and Jonathan Micah 4:7

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

In the Hebrew version of Micah, God will reign on Zion. In the Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan, his kingdom will be revealed there, expressing its eternal existence rather than a reign that begins in the future.

Passages

Micah 4:7

Hebrew Bible
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.”
740–401 BCE Read in Micah

Jonathan Micah 4:7

Targum · Targum Jonathan to the Prophets
5 All the peoples will be condemned because they worshiped idols. But we will rely on the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.6 At that time, says the Lord God, I will gather those driven into exile, and bring together those scattered, and those treated harshly because of My people’s sins.7 I will make the displaced into a surviving remnant, and the scattered into a strong people. The Lord’s kingdom will be revealed over them on Mount Zion, from this time and forever.8 And you, Messiah of Israel, hidden because of the sins of Zion’s congregation, the kingdom is destined to come to you. The former rule will return to the kingdom of Jerusalem’s congregation.

References

“... For MT “the Lord will reign”. It is the Targumist’s view that God’s reign and kingdom are eternal, and MT might be taken to imply some doubt concerning this. The kingdom of God, which has existed and always will, will be revealed to those who do not know it. See Smolar and Aberbach, Studies 132: Chilton The Glory of Israel 791. On gly in relation to divine activity, cf. the Introduction 8 2. ...”
Kevin J. Cathcart and Robert P. Gordon, The Targum of the Minor Prophets, ArBib 14 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1989), 120.

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Micah 4:7 and Jonathan Micah 4:7

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