Micah

Chapters

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7

In the maps

• Micah 4:9

  Daughter Zion cries out in labour pains, is told to travail, and is promised that at the end of her pangs the LORD will redeem her. Pitre traces the Jewish idea of the 'birth pangs of the Messiah' to prophecies like this: suffering that gives birth to a redeemed people. The Woman in labour in Revelation 12 and Mary's travail at the cross stand in this tradition.

• Micah 5:2

  Micah foretells that the ruler of Israel will come from Bethlehem and links his coming to the moment when 'she who is in travail' gives birth. Pitre observes that the prophecy of the Messiah's birthplace is also, from the start, a prophecy about his mother. The Bethlehem setting further connects the Messiah's mother with Rachel, who died giving birth on the road to Bethlehem.