Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Micah · About this commentary
The One Who Breaks Open the Way
Micah 2:12-13
12 I will surely assemble all of you, Jacob. I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the middle of their pasture. They will swarm with people. · WEB
The first cycle ends in a gathering that nothing before it had earned, with God at the head of the column rather than behind it.
Two verses, and they reverse the chapter. The gathering verbs are doubled in Hebrew — assembling I will assemble, gathering I will gather — which is how a promise is made emphatic rather than how a prediction is made likely. What is gathered is the remnant H7611 of Israel, first of five appearances of that word in this book Micah 4:7 Micah 5:7 Micah 7:18.
The image is a fold packed with sheep and noisy with the number of them, and it is worth noticing what the picture concedes: a flock in a pen is collected, not yet safe.
Verse 13 opens the pen. One who breaks through goes up ahead of them; they pass the gate and go out by it. The Hebrew calls him simply the breaker, a participle rather than a title, and the verse ends by naming two figures at the head of the column — their king passing before them, and Yahweh at their head. The text does not distinguish them, and the sentence reads as though it saw no need to.
The chapter opened with men taking houses because it lay in the power of their hand. It ends with a people who have lost everything walking out through a gate behind someone who went first.
held with reason What this mark means