Micah 5:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah— Ephratah was another name for Beth-lehem in the tribe of Judah, and both names are joined together to distinguish it from another Beth-lehem in the tribe of Zebulun. In the gospel by St. Matthew it is said, Thou, Beth-lehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least. In the Hebrew it is, though thou art the least, or, literally, little to be; להיות צעיר zair leheioth. The sense in both is clear and consistent, says Dr. Sharpe; for this city, though far from being the most considerable in extent of all those belonging to the princes of Judah, is nevertheless, on account of the governor or ruler who was to come out of it, not the least among the thousands of Judah. The learned Pococke, on this passage, has shewn, that the original word may signify either great or little. But this is a mode of interpretation not very admissible. If the passage be read, as in the translation from the Syriac in the English Polyglot, with an interrogation, it will have the force of a negative, and then may well be rendered, as in the Arabic and Persic versions, and in the Gospel by St. Matthew; but, if without any interrogation, it will be as it is in the other versions from the Hebrew. Hence it is evident, that the Gospel may be reconciled with the present copies of the Hebrew Bible, without any alteration of the text, which, in matter of evidence, is not to be admitted. It may be proper, however, to observe, that in the original there is neither an affirmative nor a negative particle: literally, the words are, as we before remarked, a little one to be. Now if there be any necessity for adding any thing to clear up the sense, surely an inspired apostle, quoting the decision of the whole Jewish Sanhedrin, should, above all others, be followed; and after him we might well render the passage, Thou, Beth-lehem,—art not a very little one, to be in the thousands of Judah; for, or since out of thee shall come forth, &c. And the context seems to require this, assigning the birth of this ruler in Beth-lehem as a reason why it was not a little one in reality, though such in esteem. It is added, among the thousands; which St. Matthew reads, among the princes of Judah; and for this reason, every tribe was divided into so many thousand men, as shires in England are into hundreds; over which presided an ףּאל alup,—leader, or prince, to command them in battle. Hence the same word came to signify at once a thousand and the leader of a thousand. Beth-lehem was too small in people to be reckoned as one of these thousands, or to be numbered singly in the army against the enemy; but is promised the advantage over them, in giving birth to that ruler in Israel, who is superior to all the princes of the thousands. The Hebrew word יצא ietse, rendered come forth, signifies also to be born; and so this prophesy, as the Scribes and Pharisees understood it, plainly points to Beth-lehem as the place where the ruler or king of Israel was to be born, after the Babylonish captivity was over; and thus it is impossible to accommodate it to any other ruler than the Messiah. But if this circumstance can be accommodated to no other than him, much less can that which follows: Whose goings-forth have been of old, from everlasting; to signify the perfection and excellency of the generation of the person here foretold. The prophet here describes him who, he says, should come out of Beth-lehem, and be ruler in Israel, by another more eminent coming or going forth than that from Beth-lehem, even before Beth-lehem had an existence,—from all eternity; which is so signal a description of the divine generation before all time, or of that going-forth from everlasting of Christ the eternal Son of God, God of the substance of the Father, begotten before all worlds, and afterwards in time (according to what is said, that he should come forth out of Beth-lehem) made man of the substance of his mother, and born in the world,—that this prophesy belongs only to him, and could never be verified of any other. The word ומוצאתיו amotsoothaiv, for goings-forth, that is to say, birth, is plural. It is a common Hebraism to denote the eminency or continuation of a thing or action by the plural number. From these circumstances in the text, the Chaldee paraphrast of the Jews inserts the name of the Messiah before ruler in Israel, to shew of whom the prophet is to be understood; and to signify that what follows relates also to the Messiah. He then who is the subject of this prophesy is that divine Person, who so often went forth in the name of the Lord; who conversed with Abraham and Moses, manifesting by miracles and wonders his Godhead and supreme power: who was from everlasting; and who, at last, was made manifest in the flesh, and came forth from Beth-lehem, the king of the Jews. Of no other person whatever can it be said, that he appeared, or came forth from the beginning; from the days of eternity, as it is well rendered by the LXX: he who was afterwards, in some period of time subsequent to this oracle by Micah, to come forth out of Beth-lehem, as a prince or governor,—unto me; or, before God the Father. See Bishop Chandler's Defence, p. 124. Sharpe's Second Argument, p. 150 and Houbigant.