Bible Strands
Micah 4:9
Why do you now cry aloud? Is there no king among you? Has your counselor perished so that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses the Daughter of Zion at a pivot point between the declared restoration of sovereignty and the impending exile to Babylon.
The words — עַתָּה (ʿattâ) translates literally as “now,” and תָרִיעִי (târîʿî) means “do you cry aloud,” anchoring the verse’s sudden shift from promised deliverance to immediate distress.
The thread — The text echoes Jeremiah 8:19, which questions whether the LORD or His King remains in Zion, and Isaiah 3:1, which records the removal of Jerusalem’s supply and support. Lamentations 4:20 documents the capture of the LORD’s anointed during this same period of judgment.
Why it lands — The verse plainly states that human leadership has failed and that present anguish is the direct result of divine judgment, demanding the reader acknowledge this reality before any subsequent redemption is understood.
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
Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? is thy counsellor perished? for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 8:19 Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”
- Isaiah 3:1 For behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts is about to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support: the whole supply of food and water,
- Lamentations 4:20 The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”
- Isaiah 13:8 Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.
- Isaiah 21:3 Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
- Isaiah 26:17 As a woman with child about to give birth writhes and cries out in pain, so were we in Your presence, O LORD.
- Jeremiah 4:21 How long must I see the signal flag and hear the sound of the horn?
- Jeremiah 22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.”
- Jeremiah 30:6 Ask now, and see: Can a male give birth? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor and every face turned pale?
- Jeremiah 50:43 The king of Babylon has heard the report, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor.