Micah 5:2

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah,.... But though Jerusalem should be besieged and taken, and the land of Judea laid waste, yet, before all this should be, the Messiah should be born in Bethlehem, of

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

But, Heb. And. Beth-lehem; not in the tribe of Zebulun , but in the tribe of Judah, styled therefore Beth-lehem of Judah, Matt. it. 1, 6. Ephratah; so called, say some, from Caleb’ s wife; but that is not probable, for it had the name long before Caleb’ s wife was thought of, as appears, . It is more likely to be called Ephratah from the richness and fruitfulness of the land where it was situate, the Hebrew word whence this is derived importing fruitfulness, whence also it was called Bethlehem, the house of bread. Though thou be little: some read this as an interrogation, Art thou little? which ought to be resolved by a negative, Thou art not little, and so reconcile to this of the prophet. Some read it in the neuter gender, It is a little thing for thee to be among the thousands, to have a captain, or ruler of a thousand in Judah; it is much greater honour, which shall be put upon thee; out of thee shall come he that is to be chief Ruler and Head of all the people of God, the Messiah. Much like phrase is, that ; there is an exposition of the word Tsair in the text, as denoting the contrary to our usual notion of it: so . The Chaldee paraphrase explains it by sultans or princes, but I question whether one instance from the Scriptures can be given in which Tsair signifies great, notable, or chief; our translators have better rendered it with supplying the adversative though, and make the sense plain and easy: As for Beth-lehem Ephratah, she is so little that she is scarce to be ranged among the cities of Judah which go out by a thousand, or are led out by one that is head, prefect, or captain of a thousand. Among the thousands of Judah: this was the royal tribe from which the Messiah was to rise; this (as other tribes) was divided into thousands, and a head appointed to each thousand; and of these the thousand, or, in our language, the regiment, of Bethlehem was one of the least to the eye. Out of thee shall he come forth; out of the tribe of Judah, and out of the city Bethlehem, shall he come, i.e. be born. Unto me; for to do that great work God hath designed to do by the Messiah. That is to be ruler, King and Sovereign, in Israel; amidst the Israel of God, the whole Israel, as well that after the faith as that after the flesh. Christ the Lord in the midst of them, . Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting; whose generation, as he is the Son of God equal with his Father, is eternal: this asserts the eternity of his Divine nature.

Micah 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting.Ver. 2. But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah] Not so called from Ephratah, Caleb’ s wife, 1 Chronicles 2:19; 1 Chronicles 2:50-51, but from its fruitfulness; whence also it had the name Bethlehem, that is, the house of bread, where Jesus (that bread of life, that came down from heaven, John 6:33) was born in the fulness of time, as is here first foretold by this prophet; that great mystery of godliness being revealed to the world by degrees, in several ages. Here was Christ born by mere accident, in regard of his parents, who were brought hither by a tyrannical edict of Augustus, Luke 2:2, but yet by a sweet providence of God, that this Scripture might be fulfilled, and our faith in Christ settled. Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah] Or, Art thou little? &c.; q.d. no such matter: and so it agreeth with Matthew 2:6. Or thus: And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, it is a small thing to be among the princes of Judah: Out of thee shall come a ruler, q.d. thou hast a dignity above this, and above them all, in that out of thee shall come a ruler. Take tsagnir in the neuter gender (as Scultetus, after Osiander, and Forster doth), and then the seeming difference (εναντιοφανος) between the prophet and evangelist is taken away. Some make St Matthew to relate the words of the Scribes to Herod, as they had varied the text before him. But we find not that they are anywhere taxed for altering or corrupting the text, but for misinterpreting it only, Matthew 5:17-48. Besides that, they were by their office text men, to look to the letter of the Scripture, and to keep it pure, 1 Corinthians 1:20; where they are distinguished from teachers of traditions and teachers of allegories. Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me] That is, to God the Father; that we may know that the coming of Christ in the flesh was a plot of God’ s own contriving. He came not by chance, but by counsel; him hath God the Father sealed, anointed, and appointed to the work, John 6:27. This is comfortable to consider. That is go be ruler in Israel] Matthew rendereth it, a captain that shall feed my people Israel, Matthew 2:6. Whose goings forth have been from of old] This is spoken of Christ’ s eternal generation, which none can declare, Isaiah 53:8. "What is God’ s name, and what is his son’ s name, if thou canst tell?" Proverbs 30:4. The Scripture usually speaketh of this grand mystery by way of circumlocution. It is here spoken of in the plural number for the excellence of it. In this text, then, we have a description of Christ, in his natures and offices.

(2) But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah.—This is a passage of immense significance, through the interpretation given to it by the chief priests and scribes in the Gospel of St. Matthew. Beth-lehem Ephratah: the two names, modern and ancient, are united, each of them having reference to the fertility of the country. In the Gospel the scribes quote, evidently from memory, the passage from Micah, in reply to Herod’s question; and their first variation is in the title of the town—“Thou, Beth-lehem (not Ephratah, but), land of Judah.” So also the people protested against Jesus on the ground of His being from Galilee, for, “Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?” (John 7:42.) Though thou be little.—Strictly, art little among the thousands, or chiliads: a word analogous to our “hundreds;” a division of the tribes. In St. Matthew the word is paraphrased by princes, as representing the chiliads. Yet out of thee.—St. Matthew—“for out of thee,” the illative conjunction—helps to show that the quotation is really a paraphrase, conveying the ultimate intention of the prophet’s words, which contrasts the smallness of the chiliad with the greatness of its destiny. Whose goings forth have been from of old.—The nativity of the governor of Israel is evidently contrasted with an eternal nativity, the depth of which mystery passes the comprehension of human intellect: it must be spiritually discerned. The Creed of the Church expresses the article of faith as “Begotten of His Father before all worlds.” He came forth unto Me to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting, from the days of antiquity.

Verse 2. But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah] I have considered this subject in great detail in Clarke's notes on "Matthew 2:6", to which the reader will be pleased to refer. This verse should begin this chapter; the first verse belongs to the preceding chapter. Bethlehem Ephratah, to distinguish it from another Beth-lehem, which was in the tribe of Zebulun, Joshua 19:15. Thousands of Judah] The tribes were divided into small portions called thousands; as in our country certain divisions of counties are called hundreds. Whose goings forth have been from of old] In every age, from the foundation of the world, there has been some manifestation of the Messiah. He was the hope, as he was the salvation, of the world, from the promise to Adam in paradise, to his manifestation in the flesh four thousand years after. From everlasting] מימי עולם miyemey olam, "From the days of all time;" from time as it came out of eternity. That is, there was no time in which he has not been going forth-coming in various ways to save men. And he that came forth the moment that time had its birth, was before that time in which he began to come forth to save the souls that he had created. He was before all things. As he is the Creator of all things, so he is the Eternal, and no part of what was created. All being but God has been created. Whatever has not been created is God. But Jesus is the Creator of all things; therefore he is God; for he cannot be a part of his own work.

2–4. The Messiah’s birth and world-wide rule 2. But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah …] (See the application of this passage by the Jewish Sanhedrin in Matthew 2:6; comp. John 7:42.) To the deep abasement of the actual king the prophet, in this and the following verses, opposes the Divine glory of the ideal King. Mean as Bethlehem may be in outward appearance, it has been selected as the birthplace of the Messianic Deliverer. ‘Ephratah,’ or rather ‘Ephrathah’ (a fuller form of Ephrath), was another name for Bethlehem (1 Samuel 17:12, Rth 1:2; Rth 4:11, 1 Chronicles 2:50-51): its meaning (‘fruitful’) suggests that it originally belonged to the valley which leads up to Bethlehem, and which is still richly adorned with vines and olive-trees. The Septuagint rendering is peculiar, ‘And thou Bethlehem, house of Ephratah,’ which looks very much like a combination of two different renderings, which presuppose two different readings of the Hebrew text (the one, ‘And thou, Bethlehem;’ the other, ‘And thou, Beth-Ephratah’). Some scholars indeed prefer the latter reading on exegetical grounds, and suppose that the present reading of the Hebrew text is incorrect, and that lehem in Beth-lehem is an interpolation, due to a confusion between the two meanings of Ephratah. This makes a little difference in the exegesis of the passage. ‘House’ in ‘house of Ephratah’ will have to be taken in the larger sense of the word, viz. for a subdivision of the ‘thousand’ or ‘family.’ This will very well suit the following words (as generally explained), which will then contain a statement that the people or households of the district of Ephrath (see above) were not numerous enough to form a ‘thousand’ or ‘family’ by themselves. The context also shews the essential point of the prophecy to be, not that the Deliverer shall be born at Bethlehem, but that he shall belong to the Davidic family. If we retain the received reading of the Hebrew text we may refer to the analogy of Isa 9:1, which (when rightly translated) mentions a particular region of Palestine as in some sense the object of special favour from the Messiah: the one prediction is not more circumstantial than the other. There remains however a difficulty connected with the compound form of the name. Why Bethlehem Ephratah, and not simply Bethlehem? It is hardly enough to reply that there was another Bethlehem in the territory of Zebulun (Joshua 19:15), for the danger of confusion would be more naturally guarded against by giving the full name ‘Bethlehem-judah’ (Judges 17:9; Judges 19:18). Nor can we attach much weight to the remark of Delitzsch, that the prophet substitutes Ephratah for Judah, because the former name “awakens so many reminiscences from the primitive history of Israel (Genesis 35:16) and the Davidic kingdom (Rth 4:11).” Messianic Prophecies (by Curtiss), section 45. though thou be little …] The Hebrew text according to most scholars, requires a different rendering—art too small to be, &c. This however is not strictly in accordance with grammar, and it is very possible that the Auth. Vers.

But - (And) thou, Bethlehem Ephratah With us, the chequered events of time stand in strong contrast, painful or gladdening. Good seems to efface evil, or evil blots out the memory of the good.

THE MESSIAH AND THE ERA, 1-15 (in Hebrew, Micah 4:14-5:14).In Micah 5:1, the prophet returns once more (Micah 4:9; Micah 4:11) to the condition now present or imminent; but immediately he rises from