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Micah 5:1. 26 Now the daughter of Ephraim will be fenced in with a fence; an army will come against us, 27 with a rod they will smite the tribes of Israel against the jaws. Thus, many nations will gather against Zion, hoping to mock and mock him; but they themselves were ground and worn out, because God cast them under the feet of the victors like sheaves. Samaria was taken and perished, and destroyed by war, and it is said about it that it will be “fenced” and will be straitened, obviously because God determined for it to be in straitened circumstances and to endure them. He calls Ephraim his daughter Samaria or the people living in Samaria, since the one to whom the kingdom is entrusted appears to his subjects as taking the place of his father. A descendant of Ephraim reigned in Samaria. So, Samaria, he says, will be surrounded and girded by hostile nations, who will, as it were, “strike her on the jaw,” striking not with their hands, which inflict a less sensitive blow, but crushing them with sticks and greatly humiliating her. Through this, it indicates dishonor and the unbearable severity of captivity, for blows to the jaw are an undoubted sign of dishonor. And if we take into account that they were inflicted with a rod, then they will turn out to cause extremely severe humiliation and possible only in relation to a slave. So, he says, let Samaria, in which the tribe of Ephraim reigns, be in dishonor, disgrace and suffering. But the hand of the beating will cease to strike and we will not be plunged into shame if we with all our might begin to avoid arousing the Lord of all to anger against us by our illegal actions and zealous committing of what is hateful to Him; on the contrary, by honoring Him with a virtuous life, we will enjoy complete prosperity and lead a glorious and truly desirable life. Micah 5:2. And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrath, have little food to eat, even if you were among the thousands of Judah? From you 28 ... will come forth 29 to be a prince over Israel 30 , and he has come forth from the beginning from the days of the world. Here the prophetic word preaches to us about returning us to our original state. It very wisely recalls the leadership that, as we know, took place in Christ; for “the creation is new,” as it is written in Him (2 Cor. 5:17), and the old has passed away and through Him has become new, because He transformed all human things and restored them to their former well-being. He reigned and again received the power desired by everyone. The general is expressed here through the particular actions of providence, for over Israel, as I said, God first reigned through the mediation of the saints. Then, a little later, having suffered from the disease of unreason and recognizing it as humiliating for himself to live under the rule of God, he preferred human power to divine power, and therefore asked Saul to be king over him, which greatly offended God; for the God of all, in grief, said to blessed Samuel: “He did not humiliate you, but he humiliated me, so that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). And that this could in no way bring them any benefit, on the contrary, it was bitter, harmful and disastrous for them, this was shown by experience itself. Can there be any doubt about this? Indeed, as a result of this, they were subjected to terrible and inevitable disasters. So, as if returning Israel to what was in the beginning, I say, to the reign of God over them, he foreshadowed the Savior and Redeemer - Christ - who was going to be for them from Bethlehem. But anyone who thought that there was some general meaning here would not have strayed from the goal. When we, living on earth, reject the royal power of God over us, putting on ourselves an alien yoke and recognizing as our master not the real Lord, but the arrogant and apostate, I say, Satan, then we are exposed to all kinds of disasters. But as I said recently, God and the Father was pleased to “make all things about Christ in heaven and on earth in him” (Eph. 1:10) and “deliver us from the power of darkness, and entrust us into the kingdom of the Son of His love in light” (Col. 1:13). So, he turns his speech to Bethlehem or the house of Ephrath. Ephrath is the name of the country, and Bethlehem is a town or village in this country, from where Jesse and David came, and also the holy Virgin herself, who gave birth to us the divine child, the child Jesus, “whose head was in his frame: and his name is called Great is the counsel of the angel” (Is. 9:6). He reigned by the way of the cross, and because “he was obedient even to death, even the death of the cross, even so,” as the divine Paul says, “and God exalted Him and gave him a name above every name, that in the name of Christ every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” amen (Phil.2:8-11). So, he says: O Bethlehem, house of Ephrath! “Thou art a little food, that thou couldst be among the thousands of Judah,” that is, there are many glorious and large cities in Judea, and overflowing with a great multitude of inhabitants. But although the number of your inhabitants and inhabitants is completely insignificant, you will be the breadwinner and will be called the city of the king over Israel - and, without a doubt, not over the descendants of Israel only, but also over those who were foretold to Abraham in the promises, for nowhere did He tell him that in “Isaac your seed will be called” (Gen. 21:12). And the expression: in “Isaac” means: according to the promise. So, the promise is sure: “not to those who are of the blood of Israel (“circumcision”), “but also to those who walk in the steps of faith, even as our father Abraham was uncircumcised” (Rom. 4:12); for these are Israel (Rom.9:6), because “the children of the promise are counted among the seed” (Rom.9:8). It is as if he said that He will rule over everyone who believes in Him and through Him draws near to Me. We are brought to the Father through the Son; He himself will testify to this, saying: “No one will come to the Father except by Me” (John 14:6). So, Christ appeared from Bethlehem, the good shepherd, shepherding us among gardens and lilies, giving us the fragrance of the Gospel commandments and offering His teaching, as if ripe flowers, to those who wish to enjoy them. So He said: “I am a full color and a full grain” (Song. 2: 1). “Go forth from Him,” He says, “from the beginning and from the days of the world,” pointing either to the pre-eternal existence of the Word (for It is co-eternal with His Father and Itself is the creator of the ages), or to the fact that It became man, although in the last time of the century, but the secret about Him was already predetermined in the foreknowledge of the Father and before the creation of the world. So, “outcomes” means either the timeless birth from God the Father into His own existence of the 31st Son, or His appearance, which took place at the time when He became flesh, although from the days of the world He was predestined and decreed to be the Savior and Redeemer from the Father, Who knew what would happen in the human race as a result of the crime of Adam. Micah 5:3. For this sake, 32 I am giving birth until the time of birth. He will give birth, and the rest of their brethren will turn to the children of Israel. Apparently, the prophet reflects with himself, argues and says that God cannot speak lies and will certainly fulfill his promises. And if Israel has such bright hopes, if a leader is born to them, will reign over them and deliver them from all evil, then how will he (Israel) be taken captive? Then, reflecting on the time of the promise and thus understanding the present, he in some way answers himself, saying: since the time for the fulfillment of the promise is delayed for a long time, and they are guilty of considerable crimes and do not stop sinning at all, then for this reason “let me”, that is, hand them over, Lord, to their enemies, “until the time of giving birth,” until that divine one is born, he says, from a virgin’s womb Baby. Then redemption will come; they will be in lasting well-being and there will no longer be any lack of happiness. When the prophet thinks like this and, as it were, quietly talks to himself, God overhears him and says: “he will give birth,” and makes him (the prophet) firm in the faith. The prophet Habakkuk says something similar to this: “he who comes will come and will not tarry” (Hab. 2:3). Without fail, he says, he will be born, “and the rest of their brethren will turn to the children of Israel,” for a significant number of Jews accepted faith in Christ, and before others the blessed disciples; but those who, through their disobedience, reached the point of insolence, did not completely lose hope for this; in recent times they will join others and, as if from running, will finally return to what they should have come to first. Micah 5:4–5. And the Lord will stand and see, and will provide for 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 great even to the end of the earth, and there will be peace. “He will become” says instead: “he will be in charge,” and he will personally be the shepherd of his own sheep, he will not entrust the leadership of them to anyone else, like the blessed Moses of old, but he will govern them by himself; for truly, neither an intercessor nor an angel, but the Lord himself saved us by His strength, without any effort or labor on our part. He will rush and save us courageously, not allowing false shepherds to achieve glory through deception and wild beasts to attack His flocks, not allowing the evil and enemy forces, as was the case of old, to triumph over those who believed, on the contrary, giving them the power to step “on the asp and the basilisk, to trample... the lion and the serpent" (Ps. 90:13). Through Him we have become glorious, rose to splendor and celebrity, and spread even to the ends of heaven; for He is our fortress, strength, and intercessor, and reconciler, and He is our peace; connecting love together. Therefore the name befits Him: peace, although He is also called Christ. Micah 5:5–6. When the Asshur comes to your land, and when he ascends against your country, and the seven shepherds and the eight plagues of men arise, and shepherds the Asshur with weapons and the land of Nevrod in his den, 33 and delivers from the Asshur, when he comes to your land and when he enters your borders. The Jewish edition of the explanatory section begins with the words: “And this peace will be when Assyrian comes to your land, and when he ascends against your country.” He will be, he says, a means of peace if the Assur wants to attack your land and country. To explain these verses, we will say that the prophetic word again moves away from sensory and visual objects, as if rising upward and skillfully leading away from the visible image to spiritual phenomena. By Assyrian here he no longer means a man from Babylon, but rather the author of sin or Satan, or even, generally speaking, a ferocious multitude of demons, which spiritually opposes everything holy and is at enmity against the holy city, spiritual Zion, about which the divine Psalmist recalled, saying: “glorious words were spoken about you, the city of God” (Ps. 86:3); for Christ dwells in the Church and, as it were, made it some kind of His city, although He fills everything with His divine nature. So, it is the city of God, like a certain land, a country of those sanctified and enriched in spirit by unity with God. So, he says, when the Assyrian comes to your city, that is, when cruel and hostile forces want to attack the saints, they will not find them deprived of defenders; for against them “seven shepherds and eight plagues of men will rise up.” It seems that the idea of ​​this prophecy, with the help of times or numbers, I say, seven and eight, wants to point to the saints who were before the coming of Christ, during the coming itself and after this. After all, before the coming, according to the law of Moses, the sabbath (the celebration of the Sabbath) was honored in weeks, which was still the time of the canopy. Then a host of holy prophets also appeared to lead to piety and to the knowledge of the coming time. When the Only Begotten finally appeared and endured the cross for the lives of all, and, having captured hell, rose from the dead on the eighth day 34, then He commanded the holy apostles to teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe everything that He commanded them (Matthew 28:19-20). These are the ones he calls the eight plagues of man, pointing to those that have occurred since the resurrection, i.e. both at the time of it and after it. So, when, he says, “the Assur comes,” or the foreigner and barbarian, then he will come to the seven shepherds and the seven plagues; for we will find that even during the time of the law there were saints, whom he calls seven shepherds; and besides them there were also apostles and evangelists, and, in accordance with the needs of the Churches, teachers, who always courageously fought and rebelled against the seduction of demons, and opposed the tireless malice of the evil one with their characteristic vigilance. They save those living in the holy land and country, confirming them with their instructions in everything that is best. And that the face of the saints had to somehow cheat against Satan and dishonor him with spiritual plagues, this was again shown by God Himself, speaking about him through the mouth of a saint: “Woe to him who multiplies to himself, since he does not exist, how long?” and aggravating the burden of his burden. For suddenly those who bite him will arise, and your accusers will take courage, and you will be spoiled by them. Since you have taken many tongues 35 into captivity, all the remaining people will take you captive” (Hab. 2:6-8). You hear that he who multiplies without subsistence will be subject to remorse, he says, and to robbery, that is, Satan. Then he calls those who were robbed “those left behind,” that is, from Jacob. But if someone were attacked by some Assyrian, that is, a man who is different-minded and lost, and does not have the right faith, as if limping and broken in mind; then they will oppose this with the power of truth, as if biting him like a wolf and driving him out of the flock of spiritual sheep. So, these seven shepherds, as well as those implied by the eight plagues, “will shepherd Assyria with weapons.” “They will fall” instead of: “they will pursue.” But since shepherds were mentioned, he retained this image of speech, saying: “they will shepherd.” And what kind of weapon should be understood here, which the saints usually used, is explained by the Psalmist, speaking of them: “and the swords are sharp in their hands” (Ps. 149:6); “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb. 4:12). And that Assyria is pursuing the divine and omnipotent sword, that is, the word of God, the prophet Isaiah will no less convince us of this, saying: and it will come to pass, “in that day the Lord will bring a holy and great and mighty sword against the dragon... fleeing... and he will kill the dragon” (Is. 27:1), and again: “and it will come to pass, when the Lord has finished all that he has done in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will bring to a great mind, and to the prince of Assyria, and to the height of glory in his eyes. For I will say, with the strength of my hand I will do, and with the wisdom of my understanding I will take away the ends of the tongues, and the power of them I will bring into captivity: and I will shake the inhabited cities” (Is. 10:12-14). So, with this sword they will rule Assur and the whole land of Nevroda: (so) he calls the country of the Assyrians or Babylonians, around which, as they say, a deep ditch is drawn; Nevroda calls it earth because he was the ancestor and father of this people. About him in the book of Genesis it is written like this: “the sons of Regman are Sheba and Dadan. Hus begat Nevrod: this began to be a giant on the earth: this was a giant fisher before the Lord God: for this reason they say: for Nevrod is a giant fisher before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, and Nut, and Arhad, and Halanni” (Gen. 10:7-10). But the Divine Scripture also calls this country Persian. So, Nevrod calls Babylon the country, which was surrounded by a ditch, as I just said. Thus, he says, they will preserve Assur and all the land of Nevrod, so that they remain inside the ditch and no longer spread outside cities or countries. But we will find that the hordes of demons were afraid to stay at home and trembled to undergo this at the command of Christ, so that they would no longer exalt themselves above the world. Micah 5:7. And the remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many people, like dew falling from the Lord, and like lambs on the pasture, so that not one is gathered, he will stand among the sons of men. I have said more than once that the remnant of Israel was saved, and the tribe of Jacob did not perish in the end; for a considerable number of them believed in Christ and, before the pagans, received salvation through faith. Among this remaining part were the divine disciples themselves and their associates in spreading the Gospel of Christ. These same ones, he says, were saved, like some dew descending onto the fields and destroying the heat of the devil’s malice. As sometimes in the fields the heat of the sun's rays falling on the lilies causes them to lose their beauty and dry up; so the inventor of sin, through addiction to worldly pleasures, sometimes inflames and in some way dries up the human soul, and completely deprives it of beauty. And the word of God, as it were, restores it, just as dew revives a flower and grass. So, he says, the descendants of Jacob will be among the nations - to water the souls of believers with words of piety, as if with some dew, and to drink abundantly with the teachings of the Gospel. And like lambs, if they graze on abundant and luxurious grass, they rejoice and jump about with pleasure; In the same way, I think, the soul of mentors receives food and pleasure from the obedience of the guided and the obedience of the secretly guided. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, in the obedience of the Samaritans, found food that was His own and, as it were, suitable for Him; for He said to the apostles: “I am eating food, which you do not know”; then, having explained this, he added the following: “My purpose is, that I may do the will of him who sent me, and finish his work” (John 4:32, 34). So, for the saints, the work of God is food and pleasure. Therefore, the descendants of Jacob, he says, will rejoice, eating as it were grains and luxurious grass; and, as if protecting the pagan believers, they will thus find a wide way of preaching, so that no one will be able to gather and resist them, that is, to enter into battle with them and withstand their attack (for this means “to stand”), if any of the sons of men decided to do them harm. Yes, although many plans and enterprises were drawn up against them, this did not harm them at all, because God pacifies the rage of the strong and miraculously delivers them from every temptation. Micah 5:8–9. And Jacob will remain among the nations among many people, like a lion among cattle in an oak grove, and like a lioness among flocks of sheep, as when he has passed by, and having been separated, he will take him away, and there will be no one to take him away. Your hand will be raised against those who insult you, and all your enemies will be consumed. Useful and pleasant stories, even if they are told in the same words, cannot cause boredom; on the contrary, they always give pleasure. So, he says, the remnant of Jacob, that is, the descendants of Jacob, who were saved through faith in Christ and who appeared as preachers of the gospel teachings and priests, will be “like dew” among the pagans, will graze like lambs and gallop in luxurious pastures. And yet, there will be “like a lion in a cattle grove,” emitting a mighty and terrible roar, inspiring great terror in those who are far away. They will also be like young lion cubs in a herd, apparently boldly attacking him. So our Lord Jesus Christ said to the holy disciples: “Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16), that is, meek and submissive. But their inherent strength crushed the hearts of their enemies and aroused great reverence for them. In this way they overcame their enemies, defeated their opponents; became terrible for wolves, although they behaved like lambs; escaped evil intentions, “trouble from a robber, trouble from a relative,... troubles in the false brethren,” as Blessed Paul writes (2 Cor. 11:26), and the crowds of pagans were plundered as if by lions. Satan, who wanted to lead them to destruction, could not provide protection and snatch those caught for salvation from the hands of the apostles. And what was said through the mouth of the prophet Habakkuk applied to him: “Woe to him who multiplies himself, for how long will he not exist?” and aggravating the burden of his burden. For suddenly those who gnaw at him will rise up, and your accusers will take courage, and you will be theirs to plunder. Since you have captivated many tongues, all the remaining people will take you captive” (Hab. 2:6-8). After all, those “osm” bit him and, like young lions, plundered what he had collected. And he collected what did not belong to him; for man belongs to God and not to him at all. But he was deprived of his prey by the “remaining people,” so that you again understand the servants of the gospel teaching. Then the Lord, who strengthens and supports them, says: “Your hand will be lifted up against those who insult you, and all your enemies will be consumed”; for they, as I said, in Christ conquered and surpassed all evil, and shone in the world, and overcame their enemies, winning to God the lost. Micah 5:10–15. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will consume thy horses from among thy midst, and destroy thy chariots, and will consume the cities of thy land, and will tear down all thy strongholds, and will put away thy sorceries out of thy hand, and those who practice magic will not be in thee: and I will consume thy graven images and thy graven images from among thee, and therefore let not thou bow down with the work of thy hands, and I will cut down the oak groves from among thee. And I will destroy your cities, and I will take revenge with your tongue with anger and fury, because you did not listen to me. The speech again returns to sad predictions and ends with a narration of bright and amazing deeds in Christ. It seems to be adjacent to the previous one and indicates what is about to happen as a result of the wrath of the divine. He said: “And you, pillar of the flock of darkness, daughter of Zion, the first power will come and enter into you, the kingdom from Babylon to the daughter of Jerusalem” (Micah 4:8). Then, he says, your cavalry will perish, and with it the splendor of your chariots, your cities will be devastated, and you will be deprived of the walls themselves (because the Babylonians burned the cities along with their inhabitants), the fruits of your ingenuity will be completely destroyed - magic and false predictions, and the most masterful deceptions - churches along with idols, and will be cut to the ground of the grove. And what will follow after that? And this glorious judgment and method of punishment will not remain unknown to the neighboring pagans. They learn that they were subjected to all this because they did not listen to God, that is, because of their disobedience. Wisdom also says something similar to those who have unbridled thoughts: “before... I stretch out my words and do not heed: for even I will laugh at your destruction, but I will rejoice when destruction comes to you, and when it comes... sudden rebellion, and destruction will come like a storm” (Prov. 1:24, 26-27); for the fruits of apostasy from God are anger, wrath, sorrow and suffering. So, we must willingly, without the slightest delay, follow God, who calls us to do what is useful, and do what is pleasing to Him, because slowness and laziness in doing good deeds will cause us a lot of harm and subject us to severe suffering. Look how God turns the very punishments for sins committed into the benefit of people: He frees Israel from vile idolatry, altars, churches, sacrifices and worship of the works of his hands. So, it is not useless to be under His punishment, however, if it is “in judgment, and not in wrath,” according to the word of the prophet (Jer. 10:24). But if someone were to say that this happened to the Jews, who brazenly acted against Christ, he would not have sinned against the truth. There is no doubt that their cities were devastated, and the entire generation capable of bearing arms perished, exterminated at the hands of the Romans. And they were probably held accountable for the ancient idolatry, although even at that time they still had those who wanted to worship creatures and those who were devoted to magic, because they are always inclined to follow those who are disposed to idolatry, and they have nothing the most absurd thing about which they would think badly. In some this verse ends the previous chapter. Slav.: “on you”, as in some. In glory followed by: “to me”. In glory followed by: “elder”. Slav. according to the authoritative reading of the LXX: "in Israel". Slav.: “copies of it”; Ezra and Kimchi mean "drawn sword"; Russian synod.: “at its very gates.” Those. counting Saturday as the seventh day, the Latin translator reads: “third.” You might be interested in: