Micah 5:10-15

Micah 5:10-Ezra : . The Purging of Israel.— Some modern commentators, e.g. Wellhausen and Nowack, refer this to Micah; if so, it would anticipate the Deuteronomic denunciation of the “ pillars” and “ Asherim” ( Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 12:3); but the general character of this Divine intervention, to secure a community purified from warfare and idolatry, rather suggests a post-exilic date, when similar references to Asherim, etc., continued to be made ( e.g. Isaiah 27:9), Yahweh will remove from Israel its means of warfare ( Zechariah 9:10, Hosea 14:3; cf. Isaiah 2:7), that it may depend on Himself alone; He will bring to an end its sorceries ( i.e. magical use of spells and mixtures) and its soothsayers (lit. “ murmurers” ). He will destroy images ( Micah 1:7, Judges 17:3, Hosea 11:2, Deuteronomy 12:3), stone pillars ( Genesis 28:18, Deuteronomy 16:22, Isaiah 19:19), and wooden posts (Asherim, Deuteronomy 16:21, Jeremiah 17:2), with their associations of heathenism. Outside Israel, He will take vengeance on the disobedient heathen ( cf. Isaiah 60:12; this verse, introducing a new subject, may be a later addition)

Micah 5:14 . cities should probably be “ idols,” an easy emendation, for the sake of the parallelism.