Micah 5:6 - Exposition

They shall waste. The word rendered "waste" ( raah ) is capable of two interpretations according as it is derived. It may mean "to break" or "to feed;" and in the latter sense may signify either "to eat up" or "to be shepherd over," as the Septuagint, ποιμανοῦσι , The addition, with the sword, however, limits the explanation, whichever verb we refer it to. These leaders shall not only defend their own land against the enemy, but shall carry the war into the hostile territory, conquer it, and rule with rigour (for the phrase, comp. Psalms 2:9 ; Revelation 2:27 ; Revelation 12:5 ). True religion has always a war to wage with error and worldliness, but shall conquer in the power of Christ. The land of Nimrod. This is taken by some commentators to mean Babylon, the other great enemy of the Church of God. But Babylon is nowhere in Scripture called "the land of Nimrod," though Nimrod is connected with Babel in Genesis 10:10 ; and the term is better explained here as a synonym of Assyria, used to recall the "rebel" (so Nimrod is interpreted) who founded the first empire ( Genesis 10:8-12 ), and gives the character to the kingdom of this world. In the entrances thereof; literally, in the gates thereof; i.e. in the cities and fortresses, corresponding to the "palaces" of Genesis 10:5 (comp. Isaiah 3:26 ; Isaiah 13:2 ; Nahum 3:13 ). Septuagint, ἐν τῇ τάφρῳ αὐτῆς , with her trench;" Vulgate, in lanceis ejus , which, if the Hebrew he taken as Jerome reads it, will he in close parallelism with the words in the preceding clause, "with the sword." Thus ( and ) he shall deliver us . Israel has to undergo much tribulation and many struggles, but Messiah shall save her.