Micah 5:6
And sthey shall 4waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod 5in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he tcometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
s:
4:
Heb. eat up.
5:
Heb. with her own naked swords.
t:
2 Chronicles 33:11 ¶Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
the seven shepherds and eight principal men, i.e. those great, wise, and successful instruments of God’s revenge, and of his church’s deliverance,
this passage seems to point to the Babylonians, who did invade, waste, and subdue the Assyrian kingdom under the conduct of Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon, called also Berodach, 2Ki 20:12. He sent the congratulatory embassy to Hezekiah, newly by miracle cured of his mortal disease and delivered from the Assyrian, Isa 39:1,2. This Merodach taking the opportunity of the weakness of the Assyrian kingdom, partly by the great slaughter of Sennacherib’s army, and the murder of that mighty, daring monarch, and partly by the civil wars which ensued between the regicides and Esarhaddon, took arms, and succeeded in the attempt, subduing the Assyrian kingdom with force and bloodshed enough.
the same, say some, with the land of Assyria but others, perhaps with better reason, refer this to Babylon, and the kingdom thereof, which by Nebuchadnezzar’s hand destroyed the Jews, Jerusalem, and temple, and was afterwards destroyed by the Medes and Persians, whom God raised to punish Babylon and release the Jews.
as we read, it denoteth the fortified frontiers, the garrisons which keep all the entrances of the kingdom; it denoteth also their cities, through the gates of which was great entrance, or their courts of judicature, which were kept in the gates: both their military power should be reduced and their civil power also by the prevailing conqueror.
in this manner shall he, i.e. the Messiah,
the Jews his people,
both as type of all other enemies, and he an enemy to the people of God.
see this explained Mic 5:1. I add, that what is rendered when might be rendered because, and note the reason why the Lord Messiah doth so deal with Assyria first and Babylon next.