Micah 5:5 - Exposition

And this Man shall be the Peace; and he shall be Peace; Vulgate, et erit iste Pax . This same Ruler will not only bring peace, and be the Author of peace, but be himself Peace; as Isaiah ( Isaiah 9:5 ) calls him "Prince of Peace," and St. Paul ( Ephesians 2:14 ) "our Peace." Peace personified (comp. Zechariah 9:9 ). It is best to put a full stop here, and remove the colon at "land" in the next clause. There may be an allusion to Solomon, the peaceful king, who erected the temple and whose reign exhibited the ideal of happy times. .Septuagint, καὶ ἔσται αὐτῇ εἰρήνη , "and to her shall be peace." When the Assyrian shall come. The prophet, in this and the following verses, shows what is that peace which Messiah shall bring. Asshur is named as the type of Israel's deadliest foe, and as that which even then was threatening the kingdom: witness Sennaeherib's invasion in Hezekiah's time, when the angel of the Lord smote the alien army with sudden destruction ( 2 Kings 19:1-37 .). The prophecy looks forward to a far distant future, when the world power is strayed against God's people; the details (as often in such prophecies) do not exactly suit the actual facts in contemporary history. Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds. We, the Israel of God, shall be enabled to repel the enemy. "Shepherds," i.e. princes, and those in abundance. "Seven" is the perfect number, representing completeness and rest. And eight principal men; or, princes among men, appointed by the Ruler as his subordinates and representatives. These are said to be "eight," to imply their great number: there should be a superabundance of able leaders. (On a similar use of numbers, see note on Amos 1:3 .) The LXX . renders, ὀκτὼ δήγματα ἀνθρώπων , "eight attacks of men," reading differently.