Mic 4:11-13 | JFB | STEP | 11. many nations-- the subject peoples composing Babylon's armies: and also Edom, Ammon, &c., who exulted in Judah's fall ( ; Ob 11-13). defiled-- metaphor from a virgin. Let her be defiled (that is, outraged by violence and bloodshed), and let our eye gaze insultingly on her shame and sorrow ( ). Her foes desired to feast their eyes on her calamities.

‏ Micah 4:11-13

11. many nations--the subject peoples composing Babylon's armies: and also Edom, Ammon, &c., who exulted in Judah's fall (La 2:16; Ob 11-13).

defiled--metaphor from a virgin. Let her be defiled (that is, outraged by violence and bloodshed), and let our eye gaze insultingly on her shame and sorrow (Mi 7:10). Her foes desired to feast their eyes on her calamities.

12. thoughts of the Lord--Their unsearchable wisdom, overruling seeming disaster to the final good of His people, is the very ground on which the restoration of Israel hereafter (of which the restoration from Babylon is a type) is based in Is 55:8; compare with Mi 4:3, 12, 13, which prove that Israel, not merely the Christian Church, is the ultimate subject of the prophecy; also in Ro 11:13. God's counsel is to discipline His people for a time with the foe as a scourge; and then to destroy the foe by the hands of His people.

gather them as ... sheaves--them who "gathered" themselves for Zion's destruction (Mi 4:11) the Lord "shall gather" for destruction by Zion (Mi 4:13), like sheaves gathered to be threshed (compare Is 21:10; Jr 51:33). The Hebrew is singular, "sheaf." However great the numbers of the foe, they are all but as one sheaf ready to be threshed [Calvin]. Threshing was done by treading with the feet: hence the propriety of the image for treading under foot and breaking asunder the foe.

13. thresh--destroy thy foes "gathered" by Jehovah as "sheaves" (Is 41:15, 16).

thine horn--Zion being compared to an ox treading corn, and an ox's strength lying in the horns, her strength is implied by giving her a horn of iron (compare 1Ki 22:11).

beat in pieces many--(Da 2:44).

I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord--God subjects the nations to Zion, not for her own selfish aggrandizement, but for His glory (Is 60:6, 9; Zec 14:20, with which compare Is 23:18) and for their ultimate good; therefore He is here called, not merely God of Israel, but "Lord of the whole earth."