Discovery BoxMicah 4:10 
Context4:10 Twist and strain, 1 Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!
For you will leave the city
and live in the open field.
You will go to Babylon,
but there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will deliver 2 you
from the power 3 of your enemies.
Micah 5:3
Context5:3 So the Lord 4 will hand the people of Israel 5 over to their enemies 6
until the time when the woman in labor 7 gives birth. 8
Then the rest of the king’s 9 countrymen will return
to be reunited with the people of Israel. 10
1 tn Or perhaps “scream”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “groan.”
2 tn Or “redeem” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
3 tn Heb “hand.” The Hebrew idiom is a metonymy for power or control.
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the
5 tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people of Israel) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn The words “to their enemies” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 sn The woman in labor. Personified, suffering Jerusalem is the referent. See 4:9-10.
8 sn Gives birth. The point of the figurative language is that Jerusalem finally finds relief from her suffering. See 4:10.
9 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 tn Heb “to the sons of Israel.” The words “be reunited with” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
sn The rest of the king’s brothers are the coming king’s fellow Judahites, while the sons of Israel are the northern tribes. The verse pictures the reunification of the nation under the Davidic king. See Isa 11:12-13; Jer 31:2-6, 15-20; Ezek 37; Hos 1:11; 3:5.
