4:9-13 Zion’s present pangs will give birth to a new era

9 Now why do you cry aloud?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
that pain seized you like a woman in labor?
10 Writhe and groan, [2] O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you shall go out from the city
and dwell in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
there the Lord will redeem you
from the hand of your enemies.

11 Now many nations
are assembled against you,
saying, “Let her be defiled,
and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
12 But they do not know
the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,
that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
13 Arise and thresh,
O daughter of Zion,
for I will make your horn iron,
and I will make your hoofs bronze;
you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
and shall devote [3] their gain to the Lord,
their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

The prophet continues on the trail of Zion’s restoration. The oracle develops in two stages (9-10, 11-13) with a similar form pointing to a coherent meaning. Both move from now (i.e. the present distress of Micah’s situation; 9, 11) to the glorious future by means of a vocative, O Daughter of Zion (i.e. Jerusalem and its citizens), with commands, writhe in agony (10) and rise and thresh (13), followed by for and a description of the future.

    9 The rhetorical questions Why do you now cry aloud? rebukes Zion for her unbelief as the remnant (on whom God banks the future of history) goes into the Babylonian exile. The second question, have you no king? (better, ‘King’), explains the first. The ‘King’ is God, as the parallels in v 12 and Je. 8:19 suggest. Their counsellor (better, ‘Counsellor’) who is sending them into exile has a secret strategy behind their birth pangs: through pain they will give birth to the new era.
10 To bring Zion’s history to fulfilment the remnant that survives Jerusalem’s fall is commanded to writhe in agony... like a woman in labour. The birth pangs now indicate that the remnant must leave the city (cf. 2 Ki. 25:2-7; Je. 52:7), camp in the open field (Je. 6:25; [p. 827]14:18), AND GO TO BABYLON, the supreme example of spiritual darkness. But there (repeated twice for emphasis) the Lord will redeem them from the hand of their enemies; the first glimmer of the dawning of the new era (see 4:1). In 705 BC Isaiah predicted the Babylonian captivity in connection with the visit by the embassy from Merodach–Baladan, king of Babylon (2 Ki. 20:12-19 = Is. 39:1-8). The prophecy that the preserved remnant would return to Jerusalem was fulfilled under Zerubbabel and Joshua in 538 BC.

    11 Whereas the now of vs 9-10 refers to the Babylonian exile, the now of v 11 refers to the Assyrian blockade of Jerusalem (see the Introduction). The Assyrian imperial army consisted of mercenaries from many nations (Is. 29:7), hired from the hated tribute collected from her subjugated peoples. In pride the defiant armies (each under its own flag) are gathered against Zion with the result that the holy city will be defiled by them tearing down the walls protecting its sacred precincts, especially the Most Holy Place. They will also gloat over the city that claimed to be the true representation of heaven on earth and so condemned them.

12 But they do not know God’s battle plan; namely, he gathers them about Zion’s walls like sheaves to the threshing floor (a common picture of judgment; Is. 21:10; Je. 51:33; Ho. 13:3). They are the unwitting tools of their own defeat, just as God outwitted Satan in the cross of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 2:7-8).

13 So Micah commands the remnant gathered with him within Jerusalem’s blockaded walls to go out (cf. 2:13), Rise and thresh, for God has given them invincible horns of iron to gore their enemies and hoofs of bronze to break to pieces (like husks and chaff) these many nations. The remnant will take the Assyrians’ ill–gotten gains (the plunder of Judah that had not already been sent back to Assyria) and will devote them to the LORD in his protected temple (cf. the fate of Samaria in 1:6-7). The secret strategy, which began to be fulfilled in 701 BC (2 Ki. 19), continues to be fulfilled in sacred history (Je. 51:33; 1 Cor. 2:7-8).