Bible Strands
Micah 4:13
Rise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion, for I will give you horns of iron and hooves of bronze to break to pieces many peoples. Then you will devote their gain to the LORD, their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord addresses the Daughter of Zion, commanding her to rise and thresh the nations He has gathered like sheaves. This directive follows the preceding declaration that God alone has assembled the hostile kingdoms for judgment.
The words — The text employs ק֧וּמִי (Ku.mi) for "arise" and קַרְנֵ֞/ךְ (kar.Ne/kh) for "your horn," explicitly paired with בַּרְזֶל֙ (bar.Zel) meaning "iron." These terms establish the agricultural metaphor of crushing grain through divinely supplied strength.
The thread — The threshing motif appears in Isaiah 41:15, where God promises to fashion His people into a sharp threshing sledge, and points toward Daniel 2:44, which describes God’s kingdom crushing earthly rulers. The harvested wealth is later referenced in Isaiah 18:7 as tribute brought to the Lord.
Why it lands — The passage states that God grants the power to break nations and claims all resulting plunder as His own. It requires the reader to acknowledge divine sovereignty over conflict and to surrender claims to personal victory or material gain.
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
Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
- Daniel 2:44 In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever.
- Isaiah 18:7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.
- Isaiah 23:18 Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.
- Zechariah 6:5 And the angel told me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going forth from their station before the Lord of all the earth.
- Romans 15:25 Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem to serve the saints there.
- 1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a portion of his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will be needed.
- Revelation 2:26 And to the one who overcomes and continues in My work until the end, I will give authority over the nations.
- Revelation 21:24 By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory.
- Joshua 6:19 For all the silver and gold and all the articles of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD; they must go into His treasury.”