Passage

Micah 5.1

Book: Micah · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. Now shalt thou gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall one come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. 3. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she who travaileth hath brought forth: then the residue of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. (Micah 5:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. Now you shall gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings out are from of old, from ancient times. 3. Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel. (Micah 5:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

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. ^{everlasting: Heb. the days of eternity} 3. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. (Micah 5:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. Now gather thyself together, O daughter of troops, A siege he hath laid against us, With a rod they smite on the cheek the judge of Israel.

And thou, Beth-Lehem Ephratah, Little to be among the chiefs of Judah! From thee to Me he cometh forth, to be ruler in Israel, And his comings forth [are] of old, From the days of antiquity. 3. Therefore he doth give them out till the time She who bringeth forth hath brought forth, And the remnant of his brethren return to the sons of Israel. (Micah 5:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: The prophet, speaking as one of the besieged: "he hath laid siege against us."
Audience: Jerusalem, addressed as "daughter of troops," a city that must muster its forces.
Location: Jerusalem under siege. In the Hebrew Bible this verse is numbered Micah 4:14, and the English 5:2 is the Hebrew 5:1.
Time period: Late eighth century BC (Micah 1:1). The siege may reflect the Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib in 701 BC, though which siege the oracle has in view is debated.

Theological reading

The judge struck. "They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek." A blow on the cheek is public humiliation, as when Zedekiah "smote Micaiah on the cheek" (1 Kings 22:24) and when Job says "They have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully" (Job 16:10). Under siege, Israel's ruler is not merely defeated but disgraced by the enemy.

Humiliated ruler, then God's ruler. The next words begin "But thou, Beth-lehem Ephrathah" (Micah 5:2). Against the judge who is struck stands the ruler who will "come forth unto me," sent by God from Bethlehem. The contrast is built into the passage: the present leadership fails under attack, and God answers with a ruler of his own choosing. The Hebrew chapter division, which closes chapter 4 with this verse, keeps it with Zion's distress; the English division sets it at the head of the Bethlehem oracle.

Read across the canon. The Gospels record that Jesus was struck during his trials: "some smote him with the palms of their hands" (Matthew 26:67), "they... took the reed and smote him on the head" (Matthew 27:30), and an officer "struck Jesus with his hand" (John 18:22). Christian readers have often heard Micah 5:1 in those scenes. The New Testament does not quote this verse, and in Micah it speaks of Israel's judge under siege; the link is a reading of the whole canon, and should be presented as such.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Jesus Failed the Messianic Job Description Objection Defeater

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.