Micah 4:13

4:9-13 Many nations would assemble against Zion to rejoice in her calamities. They would not understand that the Lord had collected them as sheaves are gathered to be threshed; and that Zion would be strengthened to beat them to pieces. Nothing has yet taken place in the history of the Jewish church agreeing with this prediction. When God has conquering work for his people to do, he will furnish them with strength and ability for it. Believers should cry aloud under distresses, with the prayer of faith, not with despondency.

Arise, and thresh, O daughter of Zion,.... The nations gathered against her, and now laid together on the floor as sheaves to be threshed. Here the people of God are aroused, and called out of a low and weak estate, and are animated and encouraged to exert themselves, and fall upon their enemies, and destroy them; alluding to the threshing of grain on the floor, the metaphor being here carried on from Micah 4:12 . The Targum is, "arise, and kill, O congregation of Zion;'' for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass; signifying that the Lord would give them strength sufficient to such work, and such power their enemies should not be able to resist and overcome; and that they should into their hands, and be crushed, trod, and trampled on by them, and utterly subdued.

Micah 4:13 . Arise and thrash, O daughter of Zion — The daughter of Zion means the Jewish people, whose power and victory over their enemies are here foretold. The expressions made use of are figurative, alluding to the manner of separating the corn from the chaff in Judea, which was done chiefly by treading it with the feet of oxen. The purport of the passage is, that the Jews are here called upon to arise and tread down their enemies. For I will make thy horn iron, and thy hoofs brass — Thou shalt be enabled to do this with ease and safety. And thou shalt beat in pieces — Or, shalt bruise, many people — This might be spoken of the victories which the Jewish people, some time after their return, were to gain over the neighbouring nations, especially under the Maccabees and their successors. But the prophecy does not appear to have had a full accomplishment in these victories: nor has any event yet occurred in the history of the Jewish people which fully answers to it. This consideration has induced some commentators to expound the passage in a spiritual sense, namely, of bringing the Gentiles into subjection to Christ and his gospel, and of the victory which the Christian Church should obtain over her persecuting enemies after the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine to the faith of Christ. Thus Dr. Pocock, Lowth, and many others understand it.

The nations thought to have ruined Christianity in its infancy, but it proved victorious over them; those that persisted in their enmity were broken to pieces, Matthew 21:44 ; particularly the Jewish nation: but multitudes, by divine grace, were gained to the church, and, as is signified in the next clause, they and their substance were consecrated to the Lord Jesus, the Lord of the whole earth. We have reason to believe, however, that this prophecy will have a still more eminent and evident accomplishment, when all the enemies of the church shall be subdued, and the saints reigning with Christ shall have complete power over the nations, and shall rule the refractory with a rod of iron, Revelation 2:26-27 : compare this text with Micah 5:8-15 of this prophecy, and with Isaiah 14:2 ; Isaiah 41:15 ; Isaiah 60:12 ; Isaiah 61:5 ; on which places see the notes.

(13) Arise and thresh .—Micah, having likened Israel to the sheaves safely gathered, pursues the metaphor by calling upon the daughter of Zion to thresh her enemies after the manner of oxen treading out the corn; and under the symbolism of the horn—the weapon of strength—he promises that God will strengthen her for the work I will consecrate.—The better reading is that of the LXX., Vulg., and some ancient versions, which give the second person, Thou shalt consecrate their gain unto the Lord. The termination, indicating the first person in our Hebrew Version, may be a form of the old second person feminine, of which there are other examples.

Arise and thresh, {n} O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. (n) God gives his Church this victory, as often as he overcomes their enemies: but the accomplishment of this will be at the last coming of Christ.

13 . thresh ] A figurative expression for ‘conquer’ (comp. Isaiah 41:15 , Jeremiah 51:33 ), based on the barbarous custom of torturing those who had been taken captives in war ( 2 Samuel 12:31 , Amos 1:3 ). It may be called a phraseological ‘survival. horn ] Another figure for victorious might; comp. Deuteronomy 33:17 . hoofs ] Alluding to the custom of employing oxen to tread out the corn; comp. Deuteronomy 25:4 , 1 Corinthians 5:9 . Sometimes however a machine was used (see above). many people ] Rather, many peoples . I will consecrate ] Rather, thou shalt (so the ancient versions rightly render, comp. Gesenius, Hebr. Gram. § 47, Rem. 5) devote . See Leviticus 27:28 , “every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord.” The term ‘devoted thing’ is applied sometimes to lifeless objects (e.g. Leviticus 27:21 ), and sometimes to living (e.g. 1 Samuel 15:21 , 1 Kings 20:42 ). In the latter case, devotion, strictly speaking, involved destruction, i.e. the restitution to the Lord of life of that breath which He for a time had granted.

13. thresh—destroy thy foes "gathered" by Jehovah as "sheaves" (Isa 41:15, 16). thine horn—Zion being compared to an ox treading corn, and an ox's strength lying in the horns, her strength is implied by giving her a horn of iron (compare 1Ki 22:11). beat in pieces many—(Da 2:44). I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord—God subjects the nations to Zion, not for her own selfish aggrandizement, but for His glory (Isa 60:6, 9; Zec 14:20, with which compare Isa 23:18) and for their ultimate good; therefore He is here called, not merely God of Israel, but "Lord of the whole earth."

Verse 13. - Arise . Shake off thy sorrow and fear and despair. And thresh. Tread thine enemies underfoot, now that they are gathered in the floor, as the oxen tread out the corn ( Isaiah 41:15 , etc.; Jeremiah 51:33 .) Thine horn. The horn is an emblem of power and victory, as appertaining to the wild ox, the most powerful animal in Canaan ( Deuteronomy 33:17 ; 1 Kings 22:11 .) The metaphor of threshing is dropped for the moment, but resumed in the next clause. Hoofs . In allusion to the mode of threshing mentioned above ( Deuteronomy 25:4 ; 1 Corinthians 9:9 ). People ; peoples . Israel shall crush all the nations that rise up against her. I (God) will consecrate. So the Masoretic text; but the second person, which the ancient versions give, is preferable. Septuagint, ἀναθήσεις , "thou shalt dedicate;" Vulgate, interficies . Thou, Zion, shalt devote their gain unto the Lord. This consecration, or devotion, to the Lord in the case of living things involved death, the restitution to the Lord of the life which he had given (see Leviticus 27:21, 28, 29 ; Zechariah 14:21 ). Thus the spiritual Israel, purified by suffering, and redeemed, shall consecrate to the Lord the power of the world; and all the wealth and might of earth shall be subservient to the glory of the kingdom of God, Micah 4:13

Arise: this imperative may be read in the future tense, and so be an express promise; it is, however, an implicit promise made to the daughter of Zion, the Jewish church, type of the gospel catholic church, that she shall be raised out of a captive, low, and oppressed state, and this shall be by the reviving power of her God. Thresh; so in a decorum to the metaphor, Micah 4:12 , used to express the gathering of the enemy into the floor to be broken: the future strength of the church, employed successfully (more by the arm of her Redeemer than her own) in the subduing and breaking her enemies, is here foretold and promised, as it is also Isaiah 41:15 . Christ will thus punish his enemies. So Babylon typical, as threatened Jeremiah 2:33 , was beat to pieces; and so shall antitypical Babylon in due time be broken as straw that is thrashed into smallest pieces like chaff. I will make thine horn iron: some taking this for the horny part of the hoof of the ox which did tread out the corn, make it to be in sense the same with the hoofs made brass; but they that take it as our version doth, for the horn properly taken, with which the horned beasts do push and thrust down, break, or wound, do express the power and strength of the church firm as iron to beat down her enemies.

I will make thy hoofs brass: by this figurative speech is the strength of Zion expressed, by which she treads under foot, and breaks the power of enemies into pieces that it shall never be repaired, as straw that is thrashed in the floor and broken like chaff. Thou shalt beat in pieces; in the times after the rebuilding of Jerusalem the Jews grew to such strength, that in their wars they did, especially in the Maccabees’ time, break their enemies in pieces. But here is a mystical and spiritual sense of these words, as they refer to the Messiah’s kingdom, in which he will break hard hearts by the power of his word, and convert sinners to himself; and by the power of his almighty arm will defend and support his own subjects, whilst he doth by invincible strength throw down and trample into dust his and their enemies. And this power he hath sometimes evidently exercised already, in the various deliverances he hath wrought for his people, which stand recorded in the church histories. Of this strength you may truly say what is reported of the inscription in the cross appearing to Constantine, In this thou shalt conquer .