10. Be in pain, and labour--carrying on the metaphor of a pregnant
woman. Thou shalt be affected with bitter sorrows before thy deliverance
shall come. I do not forbid thy grieving, but I bring thee consolation.
Though God cares for His children, yet they must not expect to be exempt
from trouble, but must prepare for it.
go forth out of the city--on its capture. So "come out" is used
2Ki 24:12;
Isa 36:16.
dwell in the field--namely, in the open country, defenseless, instead
of their fortified city. Beside the Chebar
(Ps 137:1;
Eze 3:15).
Babylon--Like Isaiah, Micah looks beyond the existing Assyrian dynasty
to the Babylonian, and to Judah's captivity under it, and restoration
(Isa 39:7; 43:14; 48:20).
Had they been, as rationalists represent, merely sagacious politicians,
they would have restricted their prophecies to the sphere of the
existing Assyrian dynasty. But their seeing into the far-off
future of Babylon's subsequent supremacy, and Judah's connection
with her, proves them to be inspired prophets.
there . . . there--emphatic repetition. The very scene of thy
calamities is to be the scene of thy deliverance. In the midst of
enemies, where all hope seems cut off, there shall Cyrus, the
deliverer, appear (compare
Jud 14:14).
Cyrus again being the type of the greater Deliverer, who shall finally
restore Israel.
JFB.
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