SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:5
Y éste será nuestra paz. Cuando Assur viniere a nuestra tierra, y cuando pisare nuestros palacios, entonces levantaremos contra él siete pastores, y ocho hombres principales;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Micah 5:5
Verse 5. And this man shall be the peace] This clause should be joined to the preceding verse, as it finishes the prophecy concerning our blessed Lord, who is the Author and Prince of Israel; and shall finally give peace to all nations, by bringing them under his yoke. When the Assyrian shall come] This is a new prophecy, and relates to the subversion of the Assyrian empire.
Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds] Supposed to mean the seven Maccabees, Mattathias, and his five sons, and Hyrcanus, the son of Simon.
Eight principal men.] Eight princes, the Asmonean race; beginning with Aristobulus, and ending with Herod, who was married to Mariamne. - Sharpe. Perhaps seven and eight are a definite for an indefinite number, as Eccles. xi. 2; Job v. 19. The prophet means the chiefs of the Medes and Babylonians, the prefects of different provinces who took Nineveh, whose number may have been what is here specified. - Newcome.
Calmet considers this as referring to the invasion of Judea by Cambyses, when the Lord raised up against him the seven magi. He of them who passed for king of the Persians was the Smerdis of Herodotus, the Oropastes of Trogus, and the Artaxerxes of Ezra. These magi were put to death by seven Persian chiefs; who, having delivered the empire from them, set one of themselves, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, upon the throne.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 5. And this [man] shall be the peace , etc.] The word man is not in the text, only this; and refers to the person before spoken of, who was to be born in Bethlehem, to be the ruler in Israel, that should stand and feed his people, and should be great to the ends of the earth; and is no other than the Messiah, as Kimchi, and other Jewish writers, own, Kimchi’s note is, “this peace respects the Messiah; for he shall be the cause or author of peace; as it is said, “he shall speak peace unto the Heathen”, ( Zechariah 9:10);” and R. Isaac expresses his sense of the words in much the same language; and it is an observation the Jews sometimes make, and which they give as a sign of the Messiah’s coming, “when you see a Persian horse bound in the land of Israel, look for the feet of the Messiah;” which is the sense of ( Micah 5:5); “this shall be the peace, when the Assyrian comes into our land” f167 , etc. so Jesus the true Messiah is called “our peace”, ( Ephesians 2:14); and is the cause and author of peace, not only between Jew and Gentile, but between God and men; which he has made by the blood of his cross, and speaks and gives peace to men; and he is the author of peace in his churches, whose kingdom is a kingdom of peace, of which there will be an abundance in the latter day; for all which he would not be sufficient was he a mere man; though it was proper he should be a man, that he might have blood to shed, a body to offer up, and in it die to procure peace; and yet be more than a man, God also, to put virtue and efficacy into what he did and suffered to obtain it, as well as to secure and continue the peace of his people, and preserve them from all their enemies: when the Assyrian shall come into our land ; not Sennacherib king of Assyria; though by the invasion of Judea, and siege of Jerusalem, he might have lately been concerned in, and by reason of the terror which that had raised in the people; the Assyrian may be here put for any powerful enemy of the people of God in later times; or Satan, and his principalities and powers, even all the powers of darkness Christ our peacemaker engaged with, at the time he made peace by his sufferings and death; and perhaps may chiefly design the Turk, the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel, as Mr.
Mede thinks, that will enter into the land of Judea, in order to take it out of the hands of the Jews, who will be possessed of it upon their conversion to Christ; but he by his instruments will secure to them the possession of it, and their peace and prosperity in it: and when he shall tread in our palaces ; the palaces of our princes, and nobles, and great men, at least attempt to do it: then shall we raise against him ; the Assyrian, or whatsoever enemy is meant by him: or, “with him”, that is, the Messiah, as Kimchi and others f169 interpret it. The Targum is, “then will we appoint over us;” which sense the above writer wonders at, as being contrary to the Hebrew text: seven shepherds, and eight principal men ; that is, many, as the phrase is used in ( Ecclesiastes 11:2); to which passage Aben Ezra and Kimchi refer us; these are, as the last mentioned writer and others say f170 , the princes of the Messiah; and, according to the ancient Jewish Rabbins, the seven shepherds are particularly these, David in the midst, Adam, Seth, Methuselah, on his right hand (Kimchi has it, Seth, Enoch, and Methuselah), and Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, on his left hand; and the eight principal men are, Jesse, Saul, Samuel, Amos, Zephaniah, Zedekiah (in Kimchi and Rabbot it is Hezekiah), Elijah, and the Messiah; but, as Aben Ezra, not fifteen persons are designed, at most but eight, according to this form of speech in ( Proverbs 30:15,18,21,24,29 Amos 1:3); etc. Calmet takes those seven or eight shepherds to he the seven princes confederate with Darius the son of Hystaspes, who killed Smerdis the Magian, who had possessed himself of the empire of the Persians, after the death of Cambyses; but Smerdis was not an Assyrian, nor is the kingdom of Persia here meant, but the land of Judea; and the prophecy respects the times of the Messiah, who should appear there, and where would be raised up men to support his interest: and if conjecture may be allowed, as this may be understood of the apostles and first preachers of the Gospel, the princes of the Messiah, who were raised up, at the prayer and request of the church, to oppose Satan and his emissaries, in the first times of the Gospel; by these may be meant the writers of the New Testament, the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Apostles Peter, James, and Jude, which make the seven shepherds; and if you add to these the Apostle Paul, they will make eight principal men; or rather I should think the seven angels are pointed at, that shall pour out the last plagues on the antichristian states; to which, if another angel is added, that will proclaim the fall of Babylon, the same number will be made up; (see Revelation 16:1 <661801> 18:1); and who will assist the Jews against the Turks, when they shall attempt to dispossess them of their land, they shall again inherit.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-6 - Having showed how low the house of David would be brought, a predictio of the Messiah and his kingdom is added to encourage the faith of God' people. His existence from eternity as God, and his office as Mediator are noticed. Here is foretold that Bethlehem should be his birthplace Hence it was universally known among the Jews, Mt 2:5. Christ' government shall be very happy for his subjects; they shall be safe an easy. Under the shadow of protection from the Assyrians, is a promis of protection to the gospel church and all believers, from the design and attempts of the powers of darkness. Christ is our Peace as Priest, making atonement for sin, and reconciling us to God; and he is our Peace as a King, conquering our enemies: hence our souls may dwel at ease in him. Christ will find instruments to protect and deliver Those that threaten ruin to the church of God, soon bring ruin of themselves. This may include the past powerful effects of the preache gospel, its future spread, and the ruin of all antichristian powers This is, perhaps, the most important single prophecy in the Ol Testament: it respects the personal character of the Messiah, and the discoveries of himself to the world. It distinguishes his human birt from his existing from eternity; it foretells the rejection of the Israelites and Jews for a season, their final restoration, and the universal peace to prevail through the whole earth in the latter days In the mean time let us trust our Shepherd's care and power. If he permits the assault of our enemies, he will supply helpers an assistance for us.
Original Hebrew
והיה 1961 זה 2088 שׁלום 7965 אשׁור 804 כי 3588 יבוא 935 בארצנו 776 וכי 3588 ידרך 1869 בארמנתינו 759 והקמנו 6965 עליו 5921 שׁבעה 7651 רעים 7462 ושׁמנה 8083 נסיכי 5257 אדם׃ 120
