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| Photo by Jim Tracy |
1 Now gather thyself 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.
God continues to tell Judah about the coming mistreatment of even their leaders. The Assyrians showed no respect for royalty, but treated them as badly as- or worse than- everyone else.
2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
Isaiah called Christ “The Everlasting Father.” Jesus was from the beginning and will be until the end. The Christ, the Eternal One, will be born in Bethlehem, which He was, and will rule the Kingdom of God forever.
3 Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
When Mary birthed Jesus, the remnant, those few Jews who would choose to really worship God, found salvation, they became TRUE Israelites (worshipers of God).
4 And He shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God; and they shall abide: for now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth.
Jesus is the King of the entire world and those who follow Him will stand and be fed in His strength.
5 And this man shall be the peace, …
Chapter and verse divisions were not added to the Bible until the 1700’s. In fact, this would have originally looked like:
Andheshallstandandfeedinthestrengthofthelordinthemajestyofthenameofthelordhisgodandtheysahllabidefornowshallhebegreatuntotheendsoftheearthandthismanshallbethepeace…
I believe this verse division should have been made here, where I have put it.
“This Man that shall be The Peace” is Jesus, the Prince of Peace. This is the end of the Messianic prophecy.
Now we return to the end of Israelite history.
… When the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
There are many explanations for who these seven and eight men are. Some say these are not exact numbers but symbols of the perfect leadership. Others say they are the Maccabees and Herodian dynasties (though my research doesn’t come up with the right numbers for that to be correct). Still others say they are the authors of the New Testament (the four Gospels, Paul, James, Peter, and Jude).
Because of the wording of verse six, I believe this is speaking of the future (to Micah) armies that will flatten Assyria after the conquest of Israel. This would be the kings of Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece who ruled the Assyrian land before they again had their own powerful king.
If you look at king lists in most sources you will come up with way too many kings. Secular, and sadly, most Christian historians use the dates given by Ptolemy in the second century AD as their basis for all ancient history dates. You will find all textbooks, Wikipedia, and even Bible footnotes based on these dates. Unfortunately, Ptolemy’s dates contradict not just Biblical prophecy, but Jewish and Persian histories, and Josephus (who lived in the 1st century AD) and history pulled from older sources not available to Ptolemy.
For example, to fit the amount of time he gave the Persian Empire, Ptolemy says there were ten kings of Persia, while Josephus, who had access to the library of Alexandria before it burned, says there were only six (two before Cyrus who wouldn’t be counted as men who trampled Assyria). The Bible, Persian, and Hebrew tradition agrees more with Josephus.
Why would Ptolemy give so much time to Persia? He based his history on the work of Greek historians (who didn’t even agree with each other), who had written down Oral Traditions of the Persians (their enemies, by the way). Unfortunately, with all the language differences, the Greeks didn’t realize that “Artaxerxes” was not a name, but a title (“Worthy to be King”). So when they heard stories about “Ahasuerus, son of Darius” and "Artaxerxes, son of Darius” they thought they were hearing about four different people (two Darius’s, Ahasuerus, and Artaxerxes) instead of two (Darius and his son Artaxerxes Ahasuerus). This caused them to record five Darius’ when there were really only two, and even to invent a second Alexander in their own history (that there is no other evidence for), since Persian records say the first Persian king by the name of Darius fought with Alexander of Greece, while they knew for a fact that Alexander the Great had fought with the last Persian Darius (there was, in fact, only one Persian king named Darius. The other Darius was Median). All these doubling of kings greatly expanded the timeline for Persia.
Some use Solar Eclipse dates to support Ptolemy’s timeline, but to do so they must assume the ancients didn’t notice the effects of an extra fourth of a day every year. This seems rather a silly assumption. Wouldn’t you notice if Christmas occurred in the winter when you were a kid, but in the spring when you were an adult? Humans have been aware of the extra fourth day/year just about since the beginning.
If we readjust the dates to match the Bible and Persian and Hebrew tradition, it all fits together perfectly. And after all, who would know what happened better? The men who lived the events and wrote them down themselves, or Ptolemy who lived 600 years later…or even us, who live some 2300 years later?!
The Three Kings Of The Neo-Babylonian Empire
(often referred to as “Shepherd Kings”):1. Nebuchadrezzar II 525-482BC- Co-ruled with his father during the subjugation of Assyria. Conquered Judah.
2. Evil-Merodach (s)- 482-462BC
3. Belshazzar- 462- 459 BC- Conquered by Medo/Persia.
Kings of Medo/Persia
4. Darius the Mede who was likely Cyrus’ Uncle/ Father-in-Law. He was King of Media and partnered with Cyrus to conquer the surrounding areas, ruling as senior king for about two years. Cyrus inherited the Median throne upon Darius’ death.459-457BC
5. Cyrus II the Great (his grandpa was a Cyrus, but not a very powerful king) conquered Babylon and its territory (including the land of Assyria) in 457BC. Cyrus possibly only ruled about 3 years after the death of his uncle. Cyrus commanded Israelites to return to Judah. 459-454BC
6. Ahasuerus (Xerexs in Greek) 454-443BC Artaxerxes I (known as “son of Darius”) and was Esther’s husband. (Jewish traditions say his first wife, Vashti, was the daughter of Belshazzar, last king of Babylon. His sister had married Cyrus. He murdered his brother-in-law and sent Cambyses II, his nephew and Jr ruler, to Egypt to control an uprising. He died there. The Bible says (Ester 10:1) Ahasuerus put Greece under tribute, and so was a very powerful king.
Ø Gaumata (possibly Hamedetha according to Jewish histories) was a noble man who didn’t like the transition Cyrus and Ahasuerus were making in the country towards Zoroastrisme (at this time in history a monotheistic religion similar to, possibly a corruption of, Judaism). He killed Ahasuerus and took the kingdom, reestablishing Baal and Asherah worship. He ruled a very short time, too short to say he controlled or had any effect on Assyria at all.
7. Darius II the Great (or The Persian), 443 or 442-406BC- son of Hystaspes, married Ahasuerus’ (and Esther’s?) daughter, returned the country to Zoroastrisme, and killed Gaumata. He would have been the king of Ezra and Nehemiah’s time. He demanded Tribute of dirt and water from Greece. This is just picking a fight. He then killed Alexander the Great’s father, causing Alexander to attack Persia. Darius the Persian was extremely rich.
Ø Artaxerxes V Bessus, an usurper who murdered Darius and continued the resistance against Alexander the Great from 406-408. (Alexander killed him). He would not count as one who trampled Assyria since he spent his entire time as king running from Alexander.
8. Alexander the Great 406-399BC Trampled Assyria on the way to destroying Persia. Was welcomed by the Jews as a liberator. Built the city of Alexandria in Egypt and the famous library there, gathering all historical and legal documents he could get his hands on.
Alexander the Great has some of the greatest conquests in all of history. He took on the king of Persia and ruled over many countries. He was a total dictator.
Alexander died at the height of his strength at the age of 32. His kingdom was divided into four parts, given to his four generals. His Asian conquests were given to Ptolemaeus of Egypt, but the northern part (Assyria, now called Syria) was taken by Ptolomy’s general Seleucus Nicanor, beginning the Seleucid or Syrian Empire.
6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he (God) deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
“The land of Nimrod” was either the city of Calah (a major city located just south of Nineveh) or the entire area of Nimrod’s kingdom (Mesopotamia), which was certainly controlled by all these kings.
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.
The Assyrians and Babylonians both scattered the Jews among many different nations.
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.
Many Jews actually prospered in captivity.
9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.
Under Ahasuerus/Xerxes of Persia (and Queen Ester) the Jews were allowed to kill all their enemies. Also, later during the time of the Seleucid Empire, the Maccabees and the Jews were able to conquer their enemies again.
10 And it shall come to pass in that day, …
We are back to talking about the carrying away into captivity.
…saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:
11 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds:
12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
14 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities.
15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
God is going to destroy the evil out of Jerusalem and punish them for their idolatry, but He will also punish the non-Jews for their wickedness.