Micah 5:3

"Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she who travaileth hath brought forth: then the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel."

The woman in travail was mentioned in Micah 4:9 and here again, with the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem included in the middle verses between these references, thus binding the whole passage together as a unity and identifying the subject as unequivocally that of the coming of the Messiah into the world.

"Therefore will be give them up ..." Israel will be given up to tribulation, yet preserved in all of her sorrows, until her mission of delivering the Messiah to mankind has been accomplished.

"Then ..." After the Messiah has been delivered, then the residue of rebellious and scattered Israel shall find their way into the bosom of the true Israel "in Christ." Homer Hailey's discerning comment on this passage is very helpful:

"The prophet was looking to the birth of Messiah and the kingdom that began on Pentecost. The "great sign" seen by John on Patmos, a woman arrayed with the sun, having the moon under her feet and a crown of stars upon her brow, who gave birth to the man-child, is this same woman (Revelation 12:1-6)."[11]

(For a full discussion of this, see in my commentary on Revelation, pp. 264-272.)