Micah 4:1 - Exposition

But . There is no adversative particle here; the verse is merely connected with what precedes without any expressed contrast. What is implied is that it was impossible that the temple, to which God's high promises attached, should lie waste forever. The passage, Micah 4:1-3 , occurs in Isaiah 2:2-4 , The question as to which prophecy is the earlier cannot be settled. Possibly both prophets borrowed the language of some earlier work, as Isaiah is thought to have done on other occasions, e.g. Isaiah 15:1-9 . and 16. the community of ideas leading them to the same source of testimony. In the last days; literally, at the end of the days; Cheyne, "in the days to come." It is the usual phrase to designate the time of Messiah, unto which the prophet's thoughts are directed, and for which all preceding events and periods are a preparation. Septuagint, ἐπ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν , "at the last days." The phrase may often suitably be rendered, "in latter days," as spoken not absolutely, but relatively to preceding times. The mountain of the house of the Lord. Mount Moriah, the ruin of which was foretold ( Micah 3:12 ). But the term here seems to include Jerusalem itself. Shall be established, firmly and permanently (as 1 Kings 2:45 ), no longer subject to ruin and devastation. In the top of the mountains; better, on the head of the mountains. The idea is that the temple mountain shall be raised above, and stand forth prominently from the lower hills that surround it and form its basis (comp. Ezekiel 40:2 ; Zechariah 14:10 ; Revelation 21:10 ). The prophet speaks as if he contemplated a physical change, expressing thereby with singular force the notion that the worship of the true God (of which the temple was the symbol) shall be promulgated among all nations of the world; that from the old Jewish centre of religion a new order of things shall arise, not transitory, nor local, but extending to all time and pervading the utmost parts of the earth. And people ( peoples ) shall flow unto it. The prophet beholds the nations of the world coming up in formal procession to join in the service of the temple. Thus is adumbrated the comprehension of all nations in the Catholic Church. Isaiah says "all nations" in the parallel passage (comp. Zephaniah 2:11 and Zechariah 8:22 , and notes there).