Commentary on Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah and Nahum John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
proceed ---
Micah 5:3
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.
3. Propterea 219 dabit eos (hoc est, ponet eos, vel, relinquet) usque ad tempus quo parturiens pariet; et revertentur ad filios Israel residuum fratrum ejus.
The Prophet here again so moderates his words, that the Jews might understand, that they were to endure many evils before God relieved their miseries. He wished then here to prepare the minds of the godly to bear evils, that they might not despair in great troubles, nor be depressed by extreme fear. He then states these two things, --- that the people, as they deserved, would be heavily afÒicted, --- and then that God, notwithstanding such severe punishment, would be mindful of his covenant, so as to gather at length some remnants and not to suffer his people to be wholly destroyed.
He therefore promises a middle course between a prosperous state and destruction.
The people, says the Prophet, shall not continue entire. --- How so? For God will cut off the kingdom and the city; and yet he will afford relief to the miserable: When they shall think that they are given up to entire ruin, he will stretch forth his hand to them. This is the sum of the whole.
He then says that they shall be delivered up, that is, forsaken by God, until she who is in travail bringeth forth 220 There are those who apply this to the blessed virgin; as though Micah had said that the Jews were to look forward to the time when the Virgin would bring forth Christ: but all may easily see that this is a forced interpretation. The Prophet, I have no doubt, in using this similitude, compares the body of the people to a woman with child. The similitude of a woman in travail is variously applied. The wicked, when they promise to themselves impunity, are suddenly and violently laid hold on: thus their destruction is like the travail of a woman with child. But the meaning of this passage is different; for the Prophet says that the Jews would be like pregnant women, for this reason, --- that though they would have to endure the greatest sorrows, there yet would follow a joyful and happy issue. And Christ himself employs this example for the same purpose, `A woman,' he says, `has sorrow when she brings forth, but immediately rejoices when she sees a man born into the world,' (John 16:21.)
So Micah says in this place, that the chosen people would have a happy deliverance from their miseries, for they would bring forth. There shall indeed be the most grievous sorrows, but their issue will be joy, that is, when they shall know that they and their salvation had been the objects of God's care, when they shall understand that their chastisements had been useful to them. Until then she who is in travail bringeth forth, God, he says, will forsake them
There are then two clauses in this verse; --- the first is, that the Jews were for a time
renders it certè --- surely: but nevertheless, as proposed by Scott, is the most suitable particle here. Dathius gives this paraphrase --- Verum quidem est --- True indeed it is. --- Ed.
220Until the time the begetting shall beget, ({{}ילדה{( יולדהAnd the remnant of his brethren shall be converted
Together with the children of Israel. Newcome gives this explanation of the verse, --- ``The sense is: God will not fully vindicate and exalt his people, till the Virgin-mother shall have brought forth her Son; and till Judah and Israel, and all the true sons of Abraham among their brethren, the Gentiles, be converted to Christianity.'' --- Ed.