Micah 5
GOD’S WORD Translation
5 [a]Now, gather your troops, you city of troops.
We are under attack.
Enemies will strike the judge of Israel on the cheek with a stick.
The Lord’s Leader for Israel
2 You, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
are too small to be included among Judah’s cities.
Yet, from you Israel’s future ruler will come for me.
His origins go back to the distant past, to days long ago.
3 That is why the Lord will abandon Israel
until the time a mother has a child.
Then the rest of the Lord’s people will return to the people of Israel.
4 The child will become the shepherd of his flock.
⌞He will lead them⌟ with the strength of the Lord,
with the majestic name of the Lord his God.
They will live in safety
because his greatness will reach the ends of the earth.
5 This man will be their peace.
When the Assyrians invade our land and trample our palaces,
we will attack them with seven shepherds and eight leaders.
6 They will rule Assyria with their swords
and the country of Nimrod with drawn swords.
They will rescue us from the Assyrians
when they come into our land
and walk within our territory.
7 Then the few people left from Jacob will be among many people
like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass.
They do not put their hope in humans or wait for mortals.
8 The few people left from Jacob will be among the nations,
among many people.
They will be like a lion among animals in the forest,
like a young lion among flocks of sheep.
When a lion hunts,
it tramples ⌞its victims⌟ and tears ⌞them⌟ to pieces,
and there is no one to rescue them.
9 You will use your power against your opponents,
and all your enemies will be destroyed.
10 “When that day comes,” declares the Lord,
“I will destroy your horses
and demolish your chariots.
11 I will destroy the cities in your land
and tear down all your fortresses.
12 I will destroy your sorcerers,
and you will have no more fortunetellers.
13 I will destroy your idols and your sacred monuments.
You will no longer worship what your hands have made.
14 I will pull out your poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah.
I will wipe out your cities.
15 I will take revenge with great anger
on the nations that do not obey me.”
Footnotes
- 5:1 Micah 5:1–15 in English Bibles is Micah 4:14–5:14 in the Hebrew Bible.
Micah 5
EasyEnglish Bible
The ruler that God chooses will be born in Bethlehem
5 Soldiers in Jerusalem, come together!
Get ready, because your enemies are attacking you.
They are all round the city, ready to fight.
They will hit Israel's ruler on his face with a stick.[a]
2 But God tells us this:
‘Bethlehem Ephrathah is only a little town,
among all the many towns in Judah,’ God says.
‘But I will choose someone who is born there.[b]
He will rule Israel for me.
Long, long ago, I prepared for him to come.’
3 So God will turn away from his people,
until the time that the woman gives birth to this baby in Bethlehem.
Then this ruler's own people who are still alive will return to Israel.
4 And this ruler will stay strong because the Lord will make him strong.
He will supply what his people need.
He will be like a man who supplies everything for his sheep.
He will rule with authority from the Lord his God,
and his people will be safe.
So then, all over the world, people will know that he is great.
5 And he will cause the people to rest,
so that they have no trouble.
Assyria's soldiers will come to attack our country.
They will march through our large, strong buildings.
Then we will choose seven or eight leaders to fight against them.[c]
6 These leaders will use their swords to destroy Assyria.
They will beat the people in the country called Nimrod with swords in their hands.[d]
Assyria's soldiers will come into our country.
They will march across our borders,
but our ruler will save us from them.
God's people will be strong again
7 And later, Jacob's people who are still alive will be in many countries.
They will be everywhere,
like water on the ground in the early morning,
or rain on the grass.
The Lord sends the water to help the plants,
but no human can make it stay.
8 Jacob's people who are still alive will be living among people in many other countries.
They will become like a dangerous lion among the other animals in the forest.[e]
They will become like a young lion among people's sheep.
The lion attacks other animals.
It knocks them down and it tears them in pieces.
Nobody can save them.[f]
9 You will be strong like that and so you will beat your enemies.
You will kill all of them.
God wants people to obey him
10 ‘At that time,’ the Lord says, ‘I will take your horses away from you.
I will destroy your chariots.
11 I will destroy the cities in your country.
I will knock down all your strong buildings.
12 You make bad spirits help you.
But I will destroy the things that you use to talk to them.
You will have nobody to tell you about future times.
13 You bend down to worship tall stones and idols.[g]
But I will destroy all of them.
You will stop worshipping things that you have made with your own hands.
14 You worship the false god Asherah,[h]
but I will pull her poles from the ground.
I will even destroy your cities.
15 Also I will punish all the people in other countries who refuse to obey me.
I will show them that I am very angry with them.’
Footnotes
- 5:1 This verse tells us again about the enemies who were coming to fight against Jerusalem. They will hit the king on his face, because they will almost win the war. This will show that they have authority over him. (An army from Assyria attacked Jerusalem in 701 BC but they did not completely beat Judah's soldiers. An army from Babylon came years later and beat them.)
- 5:2 This verse tells people that the birth of the ruler will be in Bethlehem, a very small town. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.
- 5:5 ‘Seven or eight leaders’ means ‘as many leaders as we need’. The idea is that Israel will have more than enough leaders to beat their enemy at that time.
- 5:6 Nimrod is another name for Assyria. (Genesis 10:8-11 says that Nimrod was a strong hunter. He lived in the same place as Assyria, but many years earlier.)
- 5:8 A lion is a big wild animal. It kills other animals and it eats them.
- 5:8 Verses 7-8 These verses tell about the future time when God's people will be strong again. This time is the ‘last days’, as in Chapter 4:1. Jacob's people can bring life to people from other countries as water brings life to plants. But some of those other people may not want to obey God. To them, Jacob's people will bring death, as a lion kills other animals.
- 5:13 An idol is a thing that people have made from stone, wood or metal. Then they worship and pray to the idol instead of God.
- 5:14 Asherah was the mother-god of the people called Canaanites. Israel's people took their country from the Canaanites and they lived there. They learned to worship the Canaanites' god, Asherah. They used the poles to worship Asherah. But God had told Israel's people not to worship any other gods.
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