Matthew Poole and continuators on Micah 5:1

1 NOw gather thy self in troops , O daughter of troops : he hath laid siege against us : they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek .

This verse is, say some, a sharp sarcasm against Israels Enemies. Others will have them to be a repetition of the evils, and a description how far those evils should prevail, that were ere long to come upon Iudah and Ierusalem, by either Sennacherib and his Assyrians, or by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonians, to whom Gods people seem thus to speak, we have heard what we must suffer for a time, and how we shall be delivered, and triumph at last, and since that is the order, first afflictions, afterwards Salvation, delay not O thou Enemy, but now.

Summon in thy Forces, appoint thy rendezvous, bring thy spoiling wasting Troops, thy merciless and bloody Troops, and form thy Army, O Assyrian, of whom much like this doth Isaiah Prophesie, Isa. 8.6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. And this passage of Micah may also farther refer to the Babylonian Army under Nebuchadnezzar, under the violence of both which they were to suffer, and from both which the Jews should have a glorious deliverance ere long.

O Nineveh daughter of Troops, from her first founder she was a Csty full of Troops that spoiled, cut off, and destroyed, and had been more then ordinarily, so under Pul, Tiglath-Pilneser, Salmaneser, and Sennacherib for ninety five years together in the successive reigns of these four Monarchs. Babylon also in her time was as troublesome to Iudah and must be this daughter of Troops also.

That is the Enemy, either Assyrian which had taken all but Ierusalem and did invest Ierusalem too. Or Babylonian which afterward besieged and took Ierusalem, sackt the City, burnt the Temple, and captivated the People.

Hath in prophetick stile, certainly will lay siege against the inhabitants of Ierusalem the onely people of God at that time; both King, Judges, and Citizens were all enclosed in the Siege.

The proud, successful and oppressive Enemy.

The King, supream Judge.

Not the Ten Tribes though they are usually called by this name, but the two Tribes that adhered to Davids Family.

This is a proverbial speech expressing a very contemptuous usage of the person spoken of, and 'twas fulfilled partly when Senacheribs General Rabshekab did so villifie good H[illegible: 1 letter]zekiah, and not content herewith villified the God of Israel also as 2 Kings 18.19. &c. and Isa. 37.23. It was more fully and literally accomplisht when Zedekiah, his children, his counsellors, and his Officers of State were most barbarously used by the insulting Babylonians, 2 Kings 25.6, 7. 2 Chron. 36.13.17, 18, &c. and Ier. 52.6. &c. since all this must be done against us, make haste O thou proud Enemy, and do it for 'twill end in our deliverance and thy ruine.