And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
to stand · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
feed
וְרָעָה֙ve.ra.'Ah
H7462
to tend a flock · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
strength
בְּעֹ֣זbe.'Oz
H5797
strength in various applications (force · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
majesty
בִּגְא֕וֹןbig.'on
H1347
arrogance or majesty · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
name
שֵׁ֖םshem
H8034
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God
אֱלֹהָ֑יו'e.lo.Hav
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
abide
וְיָשָׁ֕בוּve.ya.Sha.vu
H3427
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural
great
יִגְדַּ֖לyig.Dal
H1431
to be (causatively make) large (in various senses · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
ends
אַפְסֵי'af.sei-
H657
cessation · noun, common masculine plural construct
earth
אָֽרֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 40:10-11 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
Psalms 23:1-2 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Micah 7:14 Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bash…
Luke 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord…
1 Chronicles 29:11-12 Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the ea…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Micah 5:1-6
Here, as before, we have,
I. The abasement and distress of Zion, Mic 5:1. The Jewish nation, for many years before the captivity, dwindled, and fell into disgrace: Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops! It is either a summons to Zion's enemies, that had troops at their service, to come and do their worst against her (God will suffer them to do it), or a challenge to Zion's friends, that had troops too at command, to come and do their best for her; Let them gather in troops, yet it shall be to no purpose; for, says the prophet, in the name of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, He has laid siege against us; the king of Assyria has, the king of Babylon has, and we know not which way to…
he shall stand--that is, persevere: implying the endurance of His kingdom [CALVIN]. Rather, His sedulous care and pastoral circumspection, as a shepherd stands erect to survey and guard His flock on every side (Isa 61:5) [MAURER].
feed--that is, rule: as the Greek word similarly in Mat 2:6, Margin, means both "feed" and "rule" (Isa 40:11; Isa 49:10; Eze 34:23; compare Sa2 5:2; Sa2 7:8).
in the majesty of the name of the Lord--possessing the majesty of all Jehovah's revealed attributes ("name") (Isa 11:2; Phi 2:6, Phi 2:9; Heb 2:7-9).
his God--God is "His God" in a oneness of relation distinct from the sense in which God is our God (Joh 20:17).
they shall abide--the Israelites ("they,…
He shall stand and feed - The Messiah shall remain with his followers, supporting and governing them in the strength and majesty of the Lord, with all the miraculous interferences of his power, and all the glories of his grace.
And they shall abide - After this the Jews shall no more go astray, but shall remain one people with the Gentiles, under the one Shepherd and Bishop of all souls.
Newcome translates, "They shall be converted" for instead of וישבו veyashebu, he reads וישובו veyashubu, which gives him the translation above. This is the reading of three MSS. of Kennicott's and De Rossi's, with the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate.
For now shall he be great - The Messiah shall be great, as br…
The Church Fathers
Evidently [the Hebrew leaders] understood [the prophecy] in a carnal manner, just as Herod did, and reckoned that Christ's kingdom would be like the powers in this world. They hoped for a temporal leader, while Herod feared an earthly rival. "Herod, you are trapped in a useless fear. In vain do you attempt to rage against the child you suspect. Your realm does not encompass Christ, nor does the Lord of the world care about the meager limits within which you wield the rod of your power. He whom you do not wish to see reign in Judea reigns everywhere. You yourself would reign more happily if you would submit to his rule. Why not turn into honest service that which you resolve to do in falsehood and guile? Go with the wise men and worship the true king in humble adoration. But more inclined as you are toward the Jewish blindness, you do not imitate the faith of these Gentiles. You turn your perverse heart to cruel wiles. Yet you are not going to kill the one you fear, nor will you harm those whom you eliminate."
(Verse 4) And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of his God: and they shall be converted, for now he shall be magnified even to the ends of the earth. LXX: And he shall stand, and shall see, and shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, and they shall be in the glory of the name of the Lord their God: for now they shall be magnified even to the ends of the earth. Afterward the sun of justice shall rise to the heights of heaven, and shall come to the borders of the people: and he shall give his light to everyone, and shall be made manifest in his power: and the residue shall be turned into the children of Israel. Then shall the Lord our God appear to them: and they shall pass in a cloud, and shall come to the places mentioned before: the Lord our God shall enlighten them, and shall perpetuate the work of his justice in peace. (Psalm 22, 1) But He feeds them, not only in the strength of the Lord, but also in the exaltation of the name of His God, when He says to the Father: Holy Father, keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are: while I was with them, I kept them in Your name: those whom You have given Me, I have guarded, and none of them has perished (John 17:11). And they will turn, or as Symmachus interprets it better, they will dwell. Jasubu () enim verbum Hebraicum utrumque significat. Habitabunt autem in Ecclesia Domini, quiamagnificatus est Christus usque ad terminum terrae. Sive, juxta LXX, quia magnificabuntur (( Al. magnificantur)) ipsi cum pastore suo usque ad extremum terrae, ut in omnem terram exeat sonus eorum et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum (Ps. XVIII) .
Dictionary and topics
Christ, The Shepherd · The great — The great
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord,.... The ruler in Israel, before described and prophesied of; the Messiah, as Kimchi himself interprets it, and other Jewish writers. Kimchi's note is,
"after the affliction, the King Messiah shall stand and feed Israel in the strength of the Lord;''
and so R. Isaac (t) paraphrases the words exactly in the same way: wherefore, as another learned Jew (u) observes, these expressions evince that the ruler here spoken of can be no other than the Messiah; not Zerubbabel, who never attained to this height and happiness. He is both King and Shepherd, and to each of these the act of feeding is ascribed. The same word, in the Greek language, s…
Micah 5:4
4. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.
4. Et stabit et pascet in virtute Jehovae, in magnificentia nominis Jehovae Dei sui; et habitabunt, quia nunc magnificabitur usque ad fines terrae.
There is no doubt but that the Prophet continues here to speak of Christ; and though the Jews shamelessly pervert the whole Scripture, they yet cannot deny that Micah calls here the attention of all the godly to the coming of Christ, yea, of all who hope or desire to obtain salvation. This is certain. Let us now see what the Prophet ascribes to Christ.…
"Therefore will He give them up until the time when a travailing woman hath brought forth, and the remnant of His brethren will return, together with the sons of Israel. Mic 5:4. And He will stand and feed in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah His God, and they will dwell, for now will He be great to the ends of the earth." "Therefore" (lâkhēn): i.e., "because the great divine Ruler of Israel, from whom alone its redemption can proceed, will spring from the little Bethlehem, and therefore from the degraded family of David" (Caspari). This is the correct explanation; for the reason why Israel is to be given up to the power of the nations of the world, and not to…
Following the Exile, Prince Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, was among the returned exiles and became the focus of Israel’s hopes (see Hag 2:20-23). But a greater ruler than Zerubbabel was needed. The leader from Bethlehem would be a source of peace; Isaiah called him the Prince of Peace (Isa 9:6). Only Jesus fits this description.
Rashi on Micah 5:4
And this shall be peace—A complete and permanent peace, without interruption, and it will not resemble the other redemptions after which there were troubles.
should Assyria come Heb כִּי יָבוֹא. This כִּי serves as “if” - If he comes into our land as he comes now.
we will appoint over them seven shepherds and eight—Concerning the seven and eight, our Rabbis enumerated their names in Tractate Sukkah, but I do not know whence they derived them. [referring to Sukkah 52b]
