Bible Strands
Micah 4:10
Writhe in agony, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor. For now you will leave the city and camp in the open fields. You will go to Babylon; there you will be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet Micah addresses the "Daughter of Zion" (Jerusalem) during a moment of impending siege and forced departure. The statement follows a rhetorical question about her anguish and precedes a description of hostile nations gathering to defile her.
The words — ח֧וּלִי (Chu.li) literally means "writhe in pain," paired with כַּ/יּֽוֹלֵדָ֑ה (ka/i.yo.le.Dah) for "like a woman giving birth." These terms frame the coming departure from the city as a forced, agonizing process rather than a voluntary migration.
The thread — The movement to Babylon and subsequent divine rescue echoes the call to "Leave Babylon" in Isaiah 48:20 and parallels the LORD's promise to send against Babylon in Isaiah 43:14. The exile theme also aligns with the prediction that descendants would be taken to Babylon in 2 Kings 20:18.
Why it lands — The text states that physical exile to a foreign capital precedes divine rescue, requiring the reader to accept that redemption arrives through the place of defeat. It demands a recognition that the LORD's intervention operates within historical judgment rather than bypassing it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 48:20 Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare it with a shout of joy, proclaim it, let it go out to the ends of the earth, saying, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!”
- 2 Kings 20:18 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
- Isaiah 43:14 Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake, I will send to Babylon and bring them all as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
- Isaiah 45:13 I will raise up Cyrus in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild My city and set My exiles free, but not for payment or reward, says the LORD of Hosts.”
- Isaiah 52:9 Break forth in joy, sing together, O ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.
- Hosea 2:14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly.
- Hosea 13:13 Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.
- 2 Chronicles 36:20 Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.
- Psalms 106:10 He saved them from the hand that hated them; He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
- Isaiah 66:7 “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before she was in pain, she delivered a boy.