Глава 5

Micah 5:1. Now you will protect yourself with a fence, raise an army against you; with a rod they will smite the tribes of Israel on the jaws. They, without foreseeing the end, will surround the city with an army as if by some kind of fence, hoping to take it with all its inhabitants and, in the hope of dealing with them with all insolence. The Prophet expressed this when he said: “They will strike you on the jaw with a rod,” because such a blow is most dishonorable. But don't be afraid; you will not be left without care for you, not for your truthfulness, but for the sake of the King who will be born of you according to the flesh. And clearly showing this, the Prophet added: Micah 5:2. And you are in Bethlehem, the house of Euphrates, and you have little food, even if you were among the thousands of Judah? From you I will come forth to be a prince in Israel, so He came forth from the beginning from the days of the world. Do not look, Bethlehem, at the small number of inhabitants, says the Prophet; you have a basis for glorification, which no city on earth has; in you will be born according to the flesh before the age, begotten of the Father, “who proceed from the beginning.” And this is completely similar to what was said at the beginning of the Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word from the beginning to God” (John 1:1, 2). This is also similar to what God said through the mouth of blessed David: “From the womb before the morning star I gave birth to Thee” (Psalm 109:3). So, this eternal one, who was in the beginning with God, God the Word and from God who “came from the beginning” in you, says the Prophet, will be born according to the flesh, you, a city of Judah made low among thousands, making you glorious and famous. And this is the prophecy that the present-day Jews dared to interpret about Zerubbabel, clearly opposing the truth; and they are not ashamed when they hear that “He came forth from the beginning from the days of the world.” Zerubbabel, after his captivity, was born in Babylon, and received his name from this place. And the ancient Jews did not understand this prophecy in the same way as they do today; on the contrary, after Zerubbabel, when a large number of years had passed, Herod asked: “Where is Christ born?” , this prophecy was brought to him as a testimony (Matthew 2:4–6). So, it is clear that the Jews of today are interpreting things wrong. But leaving their folly aside, let us turn to the continuation of the interpretation. Micah 5:3. For this reason I will give, until the time of giving birth, and the rest of their brethren will turn to the children of Israel. Until then, says the Prophet, you will be patient and take care of the Jews until the woman in labor gives birth. This means the Church, about which Isaiah cries: “She who has not given birth rejoices, who has not given birth, who has not given birth to a child, who has not given birth to a child, who has cried and cried, for she is many, more empty children than those who have husbands” (Isaiah 54:1). Those born of her, says the Prophet, will enter into unity with those who believe from Israel; because from Israel, and the divine face of the Apostles, and those seventy disciples who were chosen by the Lord after them, and those one hundred and twenty who were found together after the resurrection, and those five hundred to whom the Lord appeared gathered together, and those three thousand whom the fisherman Peter caught with his fishing net, and those many thousands about whom the God-wise James said to the divine Paul: “You see, brother, how many are Jews who believed" (Acts 21:20). Therefore, says the Prophet, of these and others there will be one Church, and in them is the Lord from Bethlehem. Micah 5:4. The Lord will stand and see and shepherd His flock with strength, and they will abide in the glory of the name of the Lord their God: from now on he will be magnified even to the end of the earth. And you can see that the sacred Church of God is glorified by the name of the Lord, and the name of God is glorified everywhere on land and at sea. And until the coming of the Master, until the Savior’s suffering, until the calling of the pagans, the Jews will not indicate the fulfillment of the prophecy. Because this was to be fulfilled after a long time; that prophecy is confirmed by the events of that time. In order that you may know, God says, that what is foretold is true; accept the present as a pledge of this; because I will crush the king of Assyria, who will invade you, and will give you deep peace. Micah 5:5. And there will be this peace when Asshur comes to your land, and when he ascends against your country, I will give you peace during his invasion beyond all human aspirations. and the seven shepherds will arise, and the eight plagues of men, Micah 5:6. and they will preserve Assyrian with weapons, and the land of Nevrod in its trench, 2 and he will deliver from Assyrian when he comes to your land, and when he enters your borders. From this we clearly learned that the Assyrian reigned in Babylon; because Nimrod, as blessed Moses informs us, having proclaimed himself king, first of all had Babylon under his rule. It is said: “The beginning of his kingdom was Babylon and Nut and Halanni” (Gen. 10:10). Seven kings will rise up against him, says God in the Prophet, because he calls kings shepherds, and I will smite him with eight human plagues; He understands the enemy attacks that were on him, for he calls them “human plagues.” At the same time, it also means the capture of Babylon. Now, he says, I will defeat him with these disasters, and after a few years I will finally crush his successor, who made Babylon a royal city, and will not find any benefit either in the strong walls or in the ditch surrounded outside them. You will get rid of them not only when I raise other enemies against them, but also now, when they are approaching your city with a large army; because now, having used an Angel in my ministry, I will bring invisible destruction upon them. Thus, having given what happened then as a pledge of what will happen in the future, the Prophet again turns his word to the future, and reveals how the holy Apostles, who believed in the Lord born in Bethlehem, and after them were appointed ministers of divine preaching, will bring the Gospel teaching to foreign nations. He says this: Micah 5:7. And the remnant of Jacob will be among the nations of many people, like the dew that falls from the Lord, and like lambs on the pasture, so that not one is gathered, he will stand lower among the sons of men. God calls those who are saved everywhere “remnant.” So in another place it is said: “And if the number of the children of Israel is like the sand of the sea, the remains will be saved” (Rom. 9:27). Therefore, the Prophet says this: those who believed and brought the gospel message to the pagans, like dew falling from heaven, water the world, and just as hungry lambs destroy the grass, so they, like grass, will destroy the wickedness that arises in hardened souls, so that there will no longer be a gathering of such people. And how the demons remained incurably ill; then the Holy Spirit rightly spoke this foreshadowing with limitations; “For not one will be gathered, but will stand lower among the sons of men,” so that, says the Prophet, there will not be a single gathering made up of wicked people. And since he compared those who believed to dew and lambs, and thereby insufficiently depicted the power given to them by God; then adds something else to the said similarities. Micah 5:8. And Jacob will remain among the nations of many people, like a lion among the herds in the oak grove, and like a lioness among the flocks of sheep; but when he has passed by, he has excommunicated and taken away, and there will be no one who takes away. The initial actions of the sacred Apostles were likened to falling dew, and like lambs, destroying the growths of wickedness through teaching and miracles, they lived like lambs among wolves, according to the prophecy of the Master: “Behold, I send you like sheep among wolves” (Matthew 10:16). But after the universe has accepted the preaching, and military leaders and kings have filled the church list, fear will attack the opponents of the truth, and they, like cattle, fear and tremble, not finding a single helper anywhere; and the heralds of the Gospel dogmas, showing the lion's courage, with great boldness overcome the defenders of lies with the word of truth. Then, says the Prophet: Micah 5:9. Your hand will be raised against those who insult you, and all your enemies will be consumed. You will no longer be driven out by them, but you yourself will destroy their churches. Therefore, as those who believe from Israel acquire such strength, those who remain in unbelief will be deprived of their kingdom, and they will have neither horse nor foot troops, nor cities fortified with walls. But this, too, the Prophet says, will serve you well. For he continues: Micah 5:12. You have cast away your sorcery from your hand, and those who practice sorcery will not be in you. And he calls soothsayers soothsayers. Micah 5:13. And I will consume your graven image and your graven images from among you, and seven by one, lest you bow down to the work of your hands. Micah 5:14. And I will cut off the oak groves from among you, and I will destroy your cities. Micah 5:15. And I will take revenge with anger and fury with my tongue, because you did not listen. And this is not difficult to find out from the events themselves; because, after the incarnation of our God and Savior, the Jews, seeing the piety of the pagans and their deliverance from error, unwittingly freed themselves from serving idols. They are clearly ashamed to dishonor, seeing those who are outside the law also become chaste. Therefore, the Prophet foretells to them how they will be expelled from their cities, and those scattered among the nations will be freed from idolatry. Having pronounced this ruling on them, he again brings them to court, and the court leaves them to the inanimate mountains, not calling out to them as if they were animate, and not speaking to them as if they were intelligent; but, since the mountains and the valleys and abysses lying between them received either the Assyrian dead, beaten by angelic power, or the repeatedly defeated Scythian peoples, the Prophet, turning to the mountains, hills and valleys, reminds the Jews of what happened on them. According to the Slavic translation: “copies of it.”