Micah 4:10

"Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?"

Key Reflection

Micah 4:10 poses a challenging rhetorical question to the people of Jerusalem, urging them to reconsider their cries for help and suffering. The verse suggests that despite having a king and a council to advise them, they are in distress as if giving birth, symbolizing a time of great upheaval and displacement. This imagery reflects the historical context where the city faced significant turmoil, likely foreshadowing its eventual fall to Babylonian forces.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Be in pain, and labor to bring forth -(Literally, Writhe and burst forth,) as if to say, “thou must suffer, but thy suffering and thy joy shall be one. Thou canst not have the joy without the suffering. As surely as thou sufferest, thou shalt have joy. In all sorrow, lose not faith and hope, and “thou shalt be sorrowful, but thy sorrow shall be turned into joy”John 16:20. Cyril: “Good daughter, be very patient in the pangs, bear up against your sorrows,” so shall the birth be nigh. Yet for the time she must “go forth out of the city” into captivity.

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