Micah 4 - Introduction

Chaps. 4 and 5 belong together, though the connexion is not always clear. They appear to have been revised subsequently to their first composition, and the original draft of the prophecy seems to have contained Micah 4:1-4; Micah 4:11-13; Micah 5:1-4; Micah 5:7-15. The student will do well to read these passages together in the first instance, before proceeding to the study of the prophecy in its present form. The fundamental idea is, that Israel will certainly be restored to prosperity, because the promise cannot be broken; but that a period of sore trial must precede this. The transitions are abrupt, and will be indicated below. The prophet begins (Micah 4:1), with the well-known description of the coming golden age, which we find again (with one verse less) in Isaiah 2:2-4. It has been much disputed which prophecy is the earlier. But Isaiah cannot have copied the verses from Micah, for the prophecy to which it is appended in Micah (chap. 3) was delivered in the time of Hezekiah (see Jeremiah 26:18). It is possible that both Isaiah and Micah took the prophecy from an older work; some affinities have been traced with Joel (comp. esp. Joel 3:10; Joel 3:18). Similar quotations from older prophecies are believed to occur in Isaiah 15, 16, Jeremiah 49:7-22.