Micheas 5:6
And they shall feed the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nemrod with the spears thereof: and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian, when he shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our borders.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et pascent terram Assur in gladio, et terram Nemrod in lanceis ejus, et liberabit ab Assur cum venerit in terram nostram, et cum calcaverit in finibus nostris.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ποιμανοῦσιν τὸν Ἀσσοὺρ ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ τὴν γῆν τοῦ Νεβρὼδ ἐν τῇ τάφρῳ αὐτῆς· καὶ ῥύσεται ἐκ τοῦ Ἀσσούρ, ὅταν ἐπέλθῃ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ὑμῶν καὶ ὅταν ἐπιβῇ ἐπὶ τὰ ὅρια ὑμῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Micheas 5:5
- וְרָע֞וּ אֶת אֶ֤רֶץ אַשּׁוּר֙ בַּחֶ֔רֶב וְאֶת אֶ֥רֶץ נִמְרֹ֖ד בִּפְתָחֶ֑יהָ וְהִצִּיל֙ מֵֽאַשּׁ֔וּר כִּֽי יָב֣וֹא בְאַרְצֵ֔נוּ וְכִ֥י יִדְרֹ֖ךְ בִּגְבוּלֵֽנוּ
Haydock's commentary
They. Hystaspes first laid a tax of money on the Persians, who hence styled him a merchant. (Herodotus iii. 89.)
He was severe, and often at war. (Calmet)
Feed. They shall make spiritual conquests in the lands of their persecutors, with the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, Ephesians vi. 17. (Challoner)
With, &c. Septuagint, "in the ditch." Theodotion, &c., "gates," where sentence was given.
Borders. Seven or eight princes have taken the place of Cambyses, who had invaded Judea, ver. 5. (Calmet)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Victorinus of Pettau Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John, From the seventh chapter
2. “And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.”] He speaks of Elias the prophet, who is the precursor of the times of Antichrist, for the restoration and establishment of the churches from the great and intolerable persecution. We read that these things are predicted in the opening of the Old and New Testament; for He says by Malachi : “Lo, I will send to you Elias the Tishbite , to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, according to the time of calling, to recall the Jews to the faith of the people that succeed them.” And to that end He shows, as we have said, that the number of those that shall believe, of the Jews and of the nations, is a great multitude which no man was able to number. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).