Why do you now cry aloud? Is there no king among you? Has your counselor perished so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?
Parallel translations
- WEB Now why do you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken hold of you as of a woman in travail?
- KJV Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
- NKJV Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in your midst? Has your counselor perished? For pangs have seized you like a woman in labor.
- NASB ¶“Now, why do you cry out loudly? Is there no king among you, Or has your counselor perished, That agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth?
- NLT But why are you now screaming in terror? Have you no king to lead you? Have your wise people all died? Pain has gripped you like a woman in childbirth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Micah asks why Zion now cries out in anguish like a woman in labor, as if her king and counselor were gone. It acknowledges present distress before deliverance.
Overview
Before the promised glory, Zion must pass through pain pictured as the agony of childbirth. The questions about a vanished king and counselor reflect the coming loss of leadership in exile. The labor imagery suggests that this suffering is the prelude to new birth and deliverance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Jer 8:19Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”
- Isa 3:1–7For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,
- Lam 4:20The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”
- Hos 3:4For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.
- Isa 13:8Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.
- Hos 10:3Surely now they will say, “We have no king, for we do not revere the LORD. What can a king do for us?”
- Jer 22:23O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.”
- Jer 4:21How long must I see the signal flag and hear the sound of the horn?
- Jer 50:43The king of Babylon has heard the report, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor.
- Hos 13:10–11Where is your king now to save you in all your cities, and the rulers to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?
- Isa 26:17As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O LORD.
- Jer 30:6–7Ask now, and see: Can a male give birth? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor and every face turned pale?
- Isa 21:3Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
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Christ at the center
Micah names the town — 'But you, Bethlehem... from you shall come forth one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origins are from of old' — the birthplace of the eternal King.
How Micah 4:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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