Matthew Poole and continuators on Micah 4:10

10 Be in pain, and labour to bring forth , O daughter of Zion , like a woman in travel : for now shalt thou go forth out of the city , and thou shalt dwell in the field , and thou shalt go even to Babylon , there shalt thou be delivered : there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies .

It may be read, Thou shalt be in pain, and thou shalt labour, &c. so it will be a prediction of the troubles, sorrows, and dangers that they shall meet with in the Wars against the Babylonians, and in their Captivity under them.

All the house of Iudah, particularly you that dwell in Ierusalem and near mount Zion.

Whose sorrows are very sharp, but somewhat mitigated by expectation of a good delivery, and the birth of a living child, let your hopes so mitigate your sorrows too.

E're long, within a few years you will see or hear that Israel is carried Captive, (which Micah lived to see,) this may be admonition, it is certainly a token that you shall be Captives too, and this came upon them one hundred and thirty years after, when in Zedekiahs time the daughter of Zion was deplorably wasted, conquered and captivated by Nebuchadnezzar.

Forced thereto by the prevailing power of the Babylonians, who took Zedekiah and those that accompanied him when they stole out of the City, these did go out when they could keep in it no longer.

As conquered, made prisoners, and held so in the Fields under a strong Guard untill all the conquered were brought together, that they might in one body be led away. In their journey to Babylon they were forced to lodge in the Fields, also exposed to all the inconveniencies of heat in the day▪ and of cold in the night, weary, hungry, thirsty and faint near to death.

O daughter of Zion thou shalt certainly be carried Captive to Babylon, where thy dwelling shall be little bettered, thou shalt dwell by the River, without the City.

By Cyrus first, and by Dari[illegible: 1 letter]s Hystaspis next, and by Artaxerxes in Nehemiahs time, all this as Type of a greater deliverance,

The Everlasting God, thy God, whose servants the Persian Kings that favoured the Jews were, and by whose motion they did incline to release them.

The Heb. word points out a Redemption by the next Kinsman, and so fairly minds us of the Messiah the great Redeemer of the Church. And to him and the Redemption of the Church by him do these deliverances ultimately and principally point.

Who would have detained the People of God longer in slavery, or who would have hindred the Rebuilding of the Temple, and the re-establishment of the Worship of God, proportionably to this Type doth the Antitype answer, Luk. 1.74, 75.