The Establishment of God’s Kingdom (Ch. 4). 

        There is no link logical or spiritual expressed as in Isaiah be­tween judgment and the coming deliverance — even the “but” of 4:1 is “and” in Hebrew. But there will not have been the need for his contemporaries. Though these chapters probably synchronize with chs. 1-3 rather than follow them, they are later in time than Isaiah’s Messianic prophecies linked with Immanuel. The older prophet had struck the note which the younger could develop without the spiritual links of Isaiah’s message.

        The two prophets employ the earlier prophecy they use in common in similar but contrasting ways. Isa. 2:2-5 is used as a contrast to the grim reality in Judah, Mic. 4:1-5 as a con­trast with the present heathen world (read R.V. mg. in 4:5).

        The following section is divided into three unconnected prophecies of deliverance and restoration, viz. ver. 6f; ver. 8ff; ver. 11ff. The mention of Babylon in ver. 10 has made diffi­culties for many, for why should Babylon be mentioned, when the enemy to be feared in Micah’s day was Assyria? It is probably best explained by the element of dependence in Micah on Isaiah. The prophecy in Isa. 39:6 is to be dated reasonably early in Hezekiah’s reign (see pp. 46,54), and a know­ledge of it would explain the reference here. Naturally it is possible to explain it as a later scribal adaptation of the prophecy even as Stephen (Acts 7:43) adapted Amos 5:27; we do not, however, consider it likely.