1. And it shall happen in future days. The first four verses of this chapter duplicate Isaiah 2:2–4, constituting the most extensive such duplication between two prophets. There are only minor differences (e.g., when Isaiah says “nations,” Micah says “peoples”). Different explanations have been offered for the duplication: that Micah borrowed from Isaiah, that Isaiah borrowed from Micah, that both drew on a common source, that a later editor inserted the passage in both books. This last alternative seems the least likely; and an unknown common source is merely a conjectural hypothesis. These two prophets were roughly contemporaneous, but given the fact that Isaiah was the more prominent figure—see, for example, the narrative in 2 Kings 20, where the king turns to him at a moment of crisis—it may be more plausible that Micah took from Isaiah. Scrolls of the prophecies evidently had some circulation in the prophet’s lifetime. One point where there are two small additions as well as a substituted term in Micah may provide a clue: verse 3 reads “And He shall judge among many peoples / and be arbiter to vast nations from far away.” In Isaiah it is: “And He shall judge among the nations / and be arbiter for many peoples.” Micah adds “many” in the first verset, heightens “many” to “vast” in the second, and inserts “far away” at the end. By and large, this kind of amplification is a telltale sign of adopting and “improving” a preexisting text. Otherwise, since there are no substantive divergences between the two passages, the comments on Isaiah will be repeated here.

in future days. Older translations represent this Hebrew phrase as “in the end of days,” giving it an emphatically eschatological meaning it does not have. The Hebrew ʾaḥarit, derived from the word that means “after,” refers to an indefinite time after the present.

2. the mount of the LORD. Mount Zion in Jerusalem is imagined as a kind of second Sinai, from which God’s teaching will go out.

3. many peoples. The universalist note struck here is new. It will be elaborated and expanded in the visions of the anonymous prophet of the Babylonian exile whose writing is appended to the Book of Isaiah, beginning with chapter 40.

Nation shall not raise sword against nation. God’s teaching from Zion, then, is to have the effect of inaugurating a reign of universal peace. There is an imaginative boldness, or perhaps rather the courage of desperation, in this vision because it was articulated at a historical moment of continual warfare among imperial powers when the land of Israel itself was threatened with destruction by Assyria.

learn war. Fighting was a skill that required training, as noted in Psalms and elsewhere.

4. And they shall dwell each man beneath his vine. This evocation of an era of tranquillity and peace is stereotypical and does not appear in the Isaiah passage.

5. For all the peoples shall walk / each in the name of his god. This sentence, which appears to express the idea that polytheism will persist, however much the nations take instruction from Zion, is not present in Isaiah.

But we shall walk / in the name of the LORD our God / forevermore. This line, too, has no direct equivalent in Isaiah, though it may have been inspired by the use of the same verb in the concluding line of the Isaiah passage: “O house of Jacob, / come, let us walk in the LORD’s light.”

7. the failing one. The Masoretic nahalaʾah is obscure. Two ancient versions appear to read nahalah or nilʾah, and either of those terms could be rendered as “failing.”

8. come . . . / arrive. The two Hebrew words appear in immediate sequence in the first verset, leaving the second verset without a verb. This translation assumes that one of the verbs should be moved to the second verset.

10. groan. The meaning of the Hebrew verb is obscure.

And you shall come as far as Babylonia. This is not a prophecy of the Babylonian exile. In the eighth century B.C.E., the threat was Assyria, and there were amicable relations between Judah and Babylonia. Thus it figures here as a place of refuge.

11. gloat. As before, this translation represents a Hebrew idiom that means to look upon with schadenfreude.

13. I will make your horn like iron. Although “horn” is idiomatic for “strength,” here the dead metaphor is revived by the addition of the hooves in the next verset. Thus Zion’s Daughter is turned into an ox or bull performing the threshing.

14. Now gash yourself. This verse clearly does not belong to the preceding passage, which is a prophecy of triumphal redemption, whereas this is a prophecy of doom. The gashing is a mourning practice, forbidden by biblical law but licit as poetic expression.

gashing’s Daughter. The phrase bat-gedud is peculiar. Normally, gedud means “troop,” but immediately following the verb titgodedi here, it would have to refer to gashing. Perhaps a pun is intended: Zion’s Daughter, now mourning, has become “the troop’s daughter,” subject to the ravages of the invading forces.