One of the events that would occur before the realization of these great promises of blessing was Israel's exile, but the burden of this pericope is also future restoration.
4:9 Micah, speaking for the Lord, addressed the Jews in captivity. He was looking into the future, not as far as the restoration previously promised but into the captivity. He asked rhetorically why the Israelites were crying out in agony, like a woman in labor pains who can do nothing to relieve her misery. Did the Jews have no king leading them and providing counsel for them? This would be their condition during the captivity. The Babylonian captivity is in view primarily (v. 10).
4:10 The Israelites would leave Jerusalem as a woman in labor. They would have to live in a field temporarily until they arrived in Babylon, but in Babylon the Lord would eventually rescue and redeem them. He would deliver them from captivity and return them to the land.
This prediction of captivity in Babylon was unusual in Micah's day, because then Assyria was the great threat to the Israelites. The Babylonian deportations came a century later. In Micah's day Babylon was part of the Assyrian Empire. Probably "Babylon"here has a double meaning: the historic Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar's day and the future Babylon, the symbol of Gentile power that has held Israel captive since Nebuchadnezzar (cf. Gen. 10:10; 11:4-9; Rev. 17-18). Micah had just prophesied an eschatological redemption of Israel, and that future vision stayed with him (vv. 1-8).
4:11-12 In Micah's day many nations desired to see Israel polluted and destroyed. However, they did not understand God's purposes for Israel or for themselves. They failed to see that He would gather the nations for judgment, as a farmer gathers sheaves of grain on a threshing floor in preparation for beating them out.
4:13 In the future Israel would be the Lord's instrument to thresh the nations. He would strengthen Israel to overcome them and to turn over their wealth to Him, namely, to bring them into subjection to the sovereign Lord. Israel has not yet done this, so the fulfillment lies in the future, when Messiah returns to reign (cf. Zech. 14:12-15). Universal peace (in the Millennium, vv. 3-4) will follow this judgment of the nations.
5:1 This verse is the last one in chapter 4 in the Hebrew Bible. It continues the theme of Zion's might.
Micah called the Israelites to prepare for war and reminded them that they had often engaged in war by referring to them as a "daughter of troops."This expression means that Jerusalem was a city marked by warfare. Jerusalem's rich had been at war with the poor (2:8; 3:2-3, 9-10; 7:2-6), but now their external enemies would wage war against them. These enemies had laid siege against them (2 Kings 24:10; 25:1-2; Jer. 52:5; Ezek. 4:3, 7; 5:2) and would even smite Israel's judge on the cheek (4:2-3), a figure for humiliating Him (cf. 1 Kings 22:24; Job 16:10; Lam. 3:30).
The judge in view appears to be King Zedekiah for the following reasons (cf. 2 Kings 25:1-7). First, according to this verse the time of this smiting is when Israel was under siege. Second, verses 2-6 jump to a time in the distant future whereas verse 1 describes a time in the near future (cf. "But,"v. 2). Third, "judge"(Heb. shopet) is different from "ruler"(Heb. moshel) in verse 2 and probably describes a different individual.33
