Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
Be in pain, and labour to bring forth - carrying on the metaphor of a pregnant woman. Thou shalt be affected with bitter sorrows before thy deliverance shall come. I do not forbid thy grieving, but I bring thee consolation. Though God cares for His children, yet they must not expect to be exempt from trouble, but must prepare for it.
For now shalt thou go forth out of the city - on its capture. So "went out" and "come out" is used 2 Kings 24:12; Isaiah 36:16.
And thou shalt dwell in the field - namely, in the open country, defenseless, instead of their fortified city. Beside the Chebar (Psalms 137:1; Ezekiel 3:15).
And thou shalt go even to Babylon. Like Isaiah, Micah locks beyond the existing Assyrian dynasty to the Babylonian, and to Judah's captivity under it, and restoration (Isaiah 39:7; Isaiah 43:14). Had they been, as rationalists represent, merely sagacious politicians, they would have restricted their prophecies to the sphere of the existing Assyrian dynasty; because Assyria was then in the meridian height of its power (cf. Isaiah 39:6, "Behold the days come that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon"). But their seeing into the far off future of Babylon's subsequent supremacy, and Judah's connection with her, proves them to be inspired prophet. Not only so, but both contemporary prophets foretell the deliverance from Babylon as well as the captivity in it (Isaiah 48:20).
There shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thee enemies - "there ... there" emphatic repetition. The very scene of thy calamities is to be the scene of thy deliverance. In the midst of enemies, where all hope seems cut off there shall Cyrus the deliverer appear (cf Judges 14:14). Cyrus again being the type of the greater Deliverer who shall finally restore Israel.