Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished, that pangs have seized thee as a woman in travail?
Micah has just shown Zion at her highest — nations streaming to the mountain of the Lord, the first dominion returning to the daughter of Jerusalem. Then the tone breaks. The prophet turns to the city with three questions: why the loud crying, where is her king, where is her counsellor?
These questions mark a turning point. The promised glory now waits, and the long road to it begins here.
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But meanwhile the royalty on which the glory of Jerusalem depended had to be set aside (v. 9). A double judgment on Jerusalem went with this. The daughter of Jerusalem must go to Babylon. There God's power will deliver her and redeem her from the hand of her enemies. She was to be their captive, far from Zion. That is, the prophet announces the captivity of Jerusalem among the Gentile monarchies.
So why is the pain needed at all? God will not restore a people He has not first searched.
Meanwhile they taste sorrow, for Jehovah will surely discipline His people. He will not take them up and restore them without moral testing and a deep spiritual work in their souls.
The image is childbirth: pain with an end in view. Zion's road to that end runs through captivity.
The prophet teaches the daughter of Zion that she must go to Babylon before she can come out in the majesty that will be hers in the days of the kingdom. In Babylon her pains, her labour, come to an end… Zion must reach her joy through captivity and come to honour through bitter sorrow. Long ago God told Abraham that his offspring would live in a foreign land for centuries before they came to their inheritance. And so it was. The brick-kilns of Egypt came before the victories of Joshua. Now again, Babylon is a second Egypt to the children of Zion. It comes before "the first dominion" reaches them, before the bright days of David and Solomon return.
Commentators differ on how far these labour pains reach. Some read the captivity in Babylon as the whole answer. Another writer says the promise is too large for that exile to fill.
Notice that verse 10 goes beyond the Babylonian captivity. No one could say that the Lord redeemed Israel from the hands of her enemies in that past captivity. Nor was it true then that many nations gathered against her. The Babylonian captivity is a type of the greater dispersion throughout this present age. It will end. When it does, the Lord will redeem His people. He will judge the opposing nations that gather against Jerusalem at the end.
This passage also clears up a puzzle elsewhere in Scripture. Revelation 12 shows a woman crying out in birth pains, yet Israel was in no such pain on the night Christ was born.
Who is this woman clothed with these signs of royal power? If we turn to Micah 4:8, there can be no doubt who she is… In Revelation 12:2 we see the pain and labour of Israel. An objector might say there was no uproar or labour among the Jews at the birth of Christ, the man-child. Jerusalem was asleep, and only a few peaceful shepherds were awake. Quite true… Micah 4:10 describes the labour of Israel, when she has gone out of the city, even to Babylon.
- Cry. Three questions expose an empty throne and an empty council chamber. Zion cries because the royal power on which her glory rested is gone.
- Cause. The pain is discipline, not accident. God will not restore His people without doing a deep spiritual work in them first.
- Captivity. The road from the cry to the crown runs through Babylon, a second Egypt. Zion reaches joy through captivity and honour through bitter sorrow.
- Compass. The promised redemption is larger than the return from Babylon. That exile pictures a longer scattering, which the Lord ends by judging the nations gathered against Jerusalem.
- Childbirth. The picture is childbirth, not death. Israel's labour still lay ahead on the night the Messiah was born, and labour ends in a birth.
Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon there shalt thou be delivered; there Jehovah will redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
In verse 8 Micah promises the daughter of Jerusalem that her old kingdom will come back. Then the tone changes at once. Verse 10 holds both together. The city with a kingdom ahead of her must first leave her walls, camp in open country, and find her rescue in the land of her captors.
The order of events matters. The prophet does not soften the exile. He tells Zion where it ends, and points back to an older captivity.
The prophet speaks of all this. Then he turns to Judah, and leaves the Assyrian of his own day for the Babylonian of a day to come. The daughter of Zion is taught that she must go to Babylon before God brings her out in the majesty that will be hers in the days of the kingdom. It is in Babylon that her pains are to end. But the stages of her rescue are noticed too: out of the city, into the field, on to Babylon, and there the Lord redeems her. Zion must reach her joy through captivity and come to honour through deep sorrow. Long ago God told Abraham that his offspring would live in a foreign land for centuries before they came to their inheritance. And so it was: the brick-kilns of Egypt came before the victories of Joshua. And now again, Babylon is a second Egypt to the children of Zion, before "the first dominion" comes to them.
The enemy pressing Micah's own generation was Assyria. Verse 10 names a different power, and one writer warns us never to mix the two.
Later we find Babylon; but the case then is altogether different from Assyria. We must never confuse the two. The uses God turned Assyria and Babylon to in prophecy are as precise as they are different... Babylon rose to supremacy in another way. It was not merely an overlord of nations bound together by agreement. It was supreme head over subject kings. In short, an imperial dignity belonged not to Assyria but to Babylon. That power rose up after Israel had been swept away. It came to carry Judah captive, when the last hope of the house of David was completely gone.
Notice where the rescue happens: not on the road out, and not after the return, but in Babylon itself. The kingship is set aside, and God's own power delivers her.
The prophet announces that "the first dominion," the kingdom of David and Solomon, will return to Jerusalem... But meanwhile the kingship that Jerusalem's glory hung on had to go (v. 9), and a double judgment on Jerusalem went with it. The daughter of Jerusalem must go to Babylon. There God's power will deliver her and redeem her from the hand of her enemies. She was to be their captive, far away from Zion. That is, the prophet announces the captivity of Jerusalem among the empires of the nations. God would grant her deliverance while she was in that condition.
Verse 10 is only the first half of the picture. Verses 11-13 bring a second trouble on Jerusalem.
Micah 4:9-13 gives, in general, the two evils that judged Jerusalem had to face: Babylon, and the gathering of the nations in the last days, with her glorious deliverance. Micah 5 then shows how Messiah is connected both with the judgment and with the deliverance from the second of these evils.
The image of a woman in labour was not exhausted by the exile. One writer uses this verse to answer an objection about the birth pains described in Revelation 12.
Someone might object that there was no upheaval, or travail, among the Jews at the birth of Christ, the man-child. Jerusalem was asleep, and only a few peaceful shepherds were awake. Quite true. Turn to the prophets again, and you will see that the revelation is right to assume we should know this must be so. The travail of Israel does not come at the birth of Christ at all. Turn to Micah 4 again. The travail of Israel is described in verse 10, when she has gone out of the city, even to Babylon. "There you shall be rescued."
God does not simply hand the kingdom back. He works inside His people first.
Meanwhile His people taste sorrow, for Jehovah will surely deal with them in discipline. He will not take them up and re-establish them without inward testing and a deep spiritual work in their souls.
- Pain — Zion's exile is labour pain, not a dead end. Her pains end in Babylon itself.
- Place — God promises the rescue there, in the land of captivity. His power, not David's throne, redeems her from her enemies' hand.
- Precision — Assyria and Babylon are two different powers with two different roles. Babylon carried Judah away once the last hope of David's house had gone.
- Pattern — Egypt came before Joshua's victories; Babylon comes before the first dominion. Zion reaches joy through captivity.
- Purpose — God will not re-establish His people without deep inward work in them. The sorrow is discipline, and none of it is wasted.