Micah 5:9

"Let thy hand be lifted up above thine adversaries, and let all thine enemies be cut off."

This continues the same vein of thought as that in the preceding verse. That the Jewish nation returned from the Babylonian captivity did indeed find their nation exalted, for a time, is true; but the theme here is the triumph of righteousness, not the elevation of an earthly kingdom, especially that of Israel. God's purpose, as regarded that, was "the destruction of the sinful kingdom."

Behold the eyes of the Lord Jehovah are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will utterly destroy it from off the face of the earth (Amos 9:8). Any idea, therefore, that Micah was here prophesying a reincarnation and expansion of the secular Israel as an all-powerful world-monarchy is absolutely incorrect.

Micah's style is such that certain, ambiguities necessarily attach themselves to what he wrote. (See more on the Sinful Kingdom, in our Commentary on Joel, Amos and Jonah, pp. 231-233.)