Micah 4:9-13 The Labor Of Redemption

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 29 September 2024

Introduction

v. 9 – The Present Crucible of Pain

v. 10 – God’s Promise To Save After The Future Exile

vs. 11-13 – Dramatic Reversal For God’s Victimized People





Micah 4:9-13A Side-by side comparison of versionsB

DouayC (Vulgate)

LXXD

BrentonE (Vaticanus)

KJVF

NAW

Masoretic HebrewG

9 Now, why art thou drawn to­gether with grief? Hast thou no king in thee, or is thy counsel­or perished, because sorrow hath taken thee as a woman in labour.

9 [Καὶ] νῦν ἵνα τί ἔγνωςH κακά; μὴ βασιλεὺς οὐκ ἦνI σοι; ἢ ἡ βουλή σου ἀπώλετο ὅτι κατ­εκράτησάν σου ὠδῖνες ὡς τικτούσης;

9 [And] now, why hast thou known calamities? was there not a king to thee? or has thy counsel perished that pang[s] as of a woman in travail have seized upon thee?

9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? is there no king in thee? X is thy counsellor perished? for pang[s] have taken thee as a woman in travail.J

9 Why are you raising a hue and cry now? Is there no king with you, or has your counselor perished because labor-pain has gotten hold of you like a woman giving birth?

(ט) עַתָּה לָמָּה תָרִיעִיK רֵעַL הֲמֶלֶךְ אֵין בָּךְ אִםM יוֹעֲצֵךְ אָבָד כִּיN הֶחֱזִיקֵךְ חִיל Oכַּיּוֹלֵדָה.

10 Be in pain and labour, O daughter of Sion, as a woman that bringeth forth: for now shalt thou go out of the city, and shalt dwell in the country, and shalt come even to Babylon, there thou shalt be delivered: there the Lord will redeem thee out of the hand of thy enemies.

10 ὤδινε καὶ ἀνδρίζου [καὶ ἔγγιζεP], θύγατερ Σιων, ὡς τίκτουσα· διότι νῦν ἐξελεύσῃ ἐκ πόλεως καὶ κατα­σκηνώσεις ἐν πεδίῳ καὶ ἥξεις ἕως Βαβυλῶνος· ἐκεῖθεν ῥύσεταί σε καὶ ἐκεῖθεν λυτρώσεταί σε κύριος [ὁ θεός σου] ἐκ χειρὸς ἐχθρῶν σου.

10 Be in pain, and strengthen thyself, and draw near, O daughter of Sion, as a woman in travail: for now thou shalt go forth out of the city, and shalt lodge in the plain, and shalt reach even to Babylon: thence shall the LordQ [thy God] deliver thee, [and] thence shall he redeem thee out of the hand of thine enemies.

10 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.

10 Go into labor and deliver, daughter of Zion, like a woman giving birth, for now you will go out from the walled-city and dwell in the field and then go into Babylon. There you will be rescued; there Yahweh will redeem you from the control of your enemies.

(י) חוּלִי וָגֹחִיR בַּת צִיּוֹן כַּיּוֹלֵדָה כִּי עַתָּה תֵצְאִי מִקִּרְיָה וְשָׁכַנְתְּ בַּשָּׂדֶה וּבָאת עַד בָּבֶל שָׁם תִּנָּצֵלִי שָׁם יִגְאָלֵךְ יְהוָה מִכַּף אֹיְבָיִךְ.

11 And now many nations are gathered together against thee, [and] they say: Let her be stoned: and let our eyeX look upon Sion.

11 καὶ νῦν ἐπισυνήχθη ἐπὶ σὲ ἔθνη πολλὰ οἱ λέγοντες Ἐπιχαρ­ούμεθαS, καὶ ἐπόψονται ἐπὶ Σιων οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἡμῶν.

11 And now have many nations X gathered against thee, X saying, We will rejoice, and our eyes shall look upon Sion.

11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eyeX look upon Zion.

11 But for now, many nations have been assembled against you, who are saying, “Let her be breached, then let our eyes look into Zion!”

(יא) וְעַתָּה נֶאֶסְפוּ עָלַיִךְ גּוֹיִם רַבִּיםT הָאֹמְרִים תֶּחֱנָףU וְתַחַזV בְּצִיּוֹן עֵינֵינוּW.

12 But they have not known the thoughts of the Lord, and have not understood his counsel: because he hath gath­ered them together as the hay of the floor.

12 αὐτοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὸν λογισ­μὸν κυρίου καὶ οὐ συνῆκαν τὴν βουλὴν αὐτοῦ, ὅτι συνήγαγεν αὐτοὺς ὡς δράγματαX ἅλωνος.

12 But they know not the thoughtX of the Lord, and have not under­stood his counsel: for he has gathered them as sheaves of the floor.

12 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.

12 But, as for them, they have not known the thoughts of Yahweh, nor have they understood His counsel: that He has gathered them together like sheaves to the threshing-floor.

(יב) וְהֵמָּה לֹא יָדְעוּ מַחְשְׁבוֹת יְהוָה וְלֹא הֵבִינוּ עֲצָתוֹ כִּיY קִבְּצָם כֶּעָמִירZ גֹּרְנָהAA.

13 Arise, and tread, O daughter of Sion: for I will make thy horn iron, and thy hoofs I will make brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples, and X shalt immolate the spoil[s] of them to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of the whole earth.

13 ἀνάστη­θι καὶ ἀλόα αὐτούς, θύγατερ Σιων, ὅτι τὰ κέρατ σου θήσομαι σιδηρᾶ καὶ τὰς ὁπλάς σου θήσομαι χαλκᾶς, καὶ κατατήξεις [ἐν αὐτοῖς ἔθνη καὶ λεπτυνεῖςAB] λαοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ ἀναθήσειςAC τῷ κυρίῳ τὸ πλῆθοςAD αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν ἰσχὺν αὐτῶν τῷ κυρίῳ πάσ­ης τῆς γῆς.

13 Arise, and thresh them, O daughter of Sion: for I will make thine horn[s] iron, and I will make thine hoofs brass: and thou shalt utterly des­troy many nations, and X shalt consecrate their abun­dance to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth.

13 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.

13 Get up and thresh, Daughter of Zion, for I will set your horn with iron and I will set your hooves with bronze, and you will crush many peoples, and {you} will devote their gain to Yahweh and their resources to the Master of all the earth.

(יג) קוּמִי וָדוֹשִׁיAE בַת צִיּוֹן כִּי קַרְנֵךְAF אָשִׂים בַּרְזֶל וּפַרְסֹתַיִךְ אָשִׂים נְחוּשָׁה וַהֲדִקּוֹת עַמִּים רַבִּים וְהַחֲרַמְתִּי לַיהוָהAG בִּצְעָם וְחֵילָם לַאֲדוֹן כָּל הָאָרֶץ.



1And so would Jeremiah later on in 6:24 & 30:6.

2Waltke quoted Renaud as follows: “If there is a reproach it rather bears on the despair of the Daughter of Zion, and the latter is vigorously invited to put her confidence in the true King, who is God, as the rest of the text shows well. There is an obvious connection between this reproach of her despair and this promise of salvation: you do not have the right to cry this way, because there is somebody to save you and to buy you back…. Of course there is a king; of course there is a counselor.”

3Keil and Waltke, however, used this as proof that “counselor” & “king” were parallel words meaning the same person. Waltke underscored that God is intended as the counselor, as He is in v.12.

4Gilby’s commentary agreed that Israel had kings and counselors in Micah’s day, but offered the alternative interpretations that their kings and counselors just weren’t “good” during Micah’s time (which would not be historically accurate since Hezekiah was king and Isaiah was counselor) or that “now” referred to the Babylonian exile when they had no king (the position which M. Henry, C.F. Keil, and B. Waltke also held, but which would also not be entirely accurate since there was a Babylonian king over them, and they had good counselors in the Prophets Daniel and Ezekiel). Kimchi asserted that it was “present distress.” Calvin interpreted it to mean that Micah’s prophecy of exile had brought anxiety to his contemporaries a century before the fact.

5Later on, when Jerusalem was taken into exile by the Babylonians, Jeremiah would use some of this same wording to describe the doubts of the exiles of that day: “...The cry of the daughter of my people From a far country: ‘Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her?’ Why have they provoked Me to anger With their carved images With foreign idols?” (Jer. 8:19, NKJV)

6עַתָּה (now) ... is the ideal present, which the prophet sees in spirit, but which is in reality the near or more remote future.” ~C.F. Keil (Waltke also considered the “now” in v.9 to be the same time as the “now” in v.10, both referring to the events surround the Babylonian captivity a century future to Micah.)

7John 16:33 “These things I have spoken... that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation”
Acts 14:22b “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
1 Thes. 3:3 “...no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.” (NKJV)
1 Peter 2:19-20 “...if, when you do good you also endure suffering, this is gracefulness alongside God. Why, it is for this purpose that y'all were called, because even the Christ suffered on our behalf, leaving behind an example for you...” (NAW)

8Keil agreed that Micah switches back in time, although he placed it at a different time than I do: “[T]he prophet comes back in ve‛attâh from the more remote to the more immediate future.”

9Gilby commented that these verses “declare the state of the Iewes in the dayes of Messiah, for of that tyme all [the Bible commentators before the mid 1500’s] do take it.” However, in the 1200’s, Isaiah de Trani suggested that it referred to the Assyrian assault in Micah’s day, as I did (and so did B. Waltke). Cohen commented, “[T]he age to which this prophecy refers cannot be the Messianic age described in verses 1-4, for there the nations will be at peace.” He followed Metsudath David in assigning the time to “the wars of God and Magog… of the pre-Messianic period” (cf. Zech. 9:13?). Ibn Ezra (along with Keil) assigned it to the “end of days.” Matthew Henry referred it to the Samaritan resistance to Ezra’s and Nehemiah's reconstruction of Jerusalem, to the intertestamental Maccabean war (also supported by Theodoret, Calvin and Hengstenberg, but debunked by Keil on the grounds that “the gōyı̄m rabbı̄m who have assembled against Zion... point to a much greater event than the attacks made by the Syrians and the surrounding tribes upon Jerusalem in the time of the Maccabees… [and] the defeat which they suffer before Jerusalem is much greater than the victory which the Maccabees achieved over their enemies.”), and (following Dr. Pocock) to the growth of the church in the New Testament. Renaud referred it oddly to the time of the Babylonian exile. Because of the cyclical nature of God’s historical deliverances, it could indeed be applied to all of the above to some extent. Calvin expressed this when he commented, “But they have refined too much in allegories, who have thought that this prophecy ought to be confined to the time of Christ: for the Prophet no doubt meant to extend consolation to the whole kingdom of Christ, from the beginning to the end.” Keil initially attempted to disconnect it from any time and place, commenting, “Micah... predicts the carrying away of the daughter Zion to Babel... because Babel, from its very origin, was a type and symbol of the imperial power,” then a few pages later he wrote, “We must therefore understand these verses as referring to the events already predicted by Joel (ch. 3), and afterwards by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 38, 39) and Zechariah (12:1-14), and in Rev. 20:8.: i.e., to the last great attack which the nations of the world will make upon the church of the Lord... to which the [other historical] attacks... furnished but a feeble prelude.”

10He went on to quote J. Lindblom that “various national units made up the imperial Assyrian army.”

11Calvin and Waltke interpreted it in a more forensic manner: “condemned by the nations.” Matthew Henry framed it more in moral terms. Cohen related the various positions together in his commentary, saying that it would be “desecrated” if it were “overrun by heathen hordes.”

12cf. Gilby: “Vnto vs it shall be enoughe whyles that tyme do trye the truthe further too consyder the ennemyes of Israell all mooste tryumphynge ouer it soddenly by the mighty hand of God, destroied such as Pharao, Sanherib, Rabsace, Nebuchadnezer, Antiochus, Herod. And oure ennemyes whyche are the spirituall Israel, wonderfullye vanquished and by Christe and hys woorde put too confusion The Romyshe Antichrist...[T]he Lorde... suffered theym too rage that hee myghte be glorified in the ende.”

14‎Isaiah’s סַחְרָ֜הּ וְאֶתְנַנָּ֗הּ are synonyms to Micah’s‎ בִּצְעָ֔ם וְחֵילָ֖ם.

15“[D]ominion is not to be hoped for by the children of God, that they may abound in worldly pleasures, and appropriate every thing to themselves and also abuse their power, as ungodly men are wont to do; but that all is to be applied to the worship and the glory of God. For what purpose, then does God design his Church to become eminent? That he himself may alone shine forth...” ~J. Calvin

AHebrew Verse 14 will be considered as the first verse of chapter 5 in the English tradition.

BMy original chart includes the following copyrighted English versions: NASB, NIV, ESV, Bauscher’s version of the Peshitta, and Cathcart’s version of the Targums, but I remove these columns from my public, non-copyrighted edition of this chart so as not to infringe on their copyrights. NAW is my translation. When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use of italics or greyed-out text, I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I insert an X. I also place an X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is singular. I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea Scrolls containing Micah 4 are 4Q82 containing part of verses 1-2 and dated between 30-1 BC, The Nahal Hever Greek scroll, containing parts of vs. 3-10 and dated around 25BC and the Wadi Muraba’at Scroll, containing parts verses 1-13 and dated around 135 AD. Where the DSS is legible and in agreement with the MT, the MT is colored purple. Where the DSS supports the LXX/Vulgate/Peshitta with omissions or text not in the MT, I have highlighted with yellow the LXX and its translation into English, and where I have accepted that into my NAW translation, I have marked it with {pointed brackets}.

CDouay Old Testament first published by the English College at Douay, A.D. 1609, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword.

D“Septuagint” Greek Old Testament, edited by Alfred Rahlfs. Published in 1935. As published on E-Sword.

EEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.

F1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.

GFrom the Wiki Hebrew Bible https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9B%D7%94_%D7%91/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA .
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com

HAquilla = εκακωσας (“done harm”) cf. Peshitta.

ILXX is Imperfect tense (“was”), but every other manuscript and version reads present tense (“is”).

JThe word “in” is not in the Hebrew; the Hebrew word that is there is more related to the meaning of “child” than to the meaning of “labor/travail.”

KAccording to the Westminster morphology and Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible morphology, this is Hiphil 2nd feminine singular imperfect of רוע (“cheering/shout” – Isa. 16:10, or “war-whoop/alarm” – Isa. 42:13, or “cry of mourning” – Isa. 15:4). Vulgate and Targums, however, interpreted it as from the root רעה (“draw together/associate”), but the LXX must have misread the resh for daleth and gotten the root ידע (“know”), while the Peshitta and Aquila interpreted it as from the root רעע (“do wrong”). The only one of these roots associated with any form of the word רע elsewhere in the HOT is רעע (“do wrong” – found in 2Sa. 19:7; 1Ki. 16:25; Neh. 2:10; Pro. 11:15, and Jon. 4:1). “Crying out,” however, parallels more closely the sounds of pain in childbirth.

LThis word is only used to denote “noise/shouting” in two other places in the HOT: Exo. 32:17 and Job 36:33. Without the Masoretic pointing introduced in the 900’s AD, it is spelled the same as the Hebrew word for “evil,” and all the ancient versions (Vulgate maerore, LXX κακα, Aquilla εκακωσας, and Peshitta‎ בישׁתא) interpreted it in that sense. This meaning of the word is the only one found in connection with any of the roots for the previous Hebrew word in this sentence. Targums produce the outlier meaning “nations.”

M“expects a negative answer” ~Waltke

NBoth Keil and Waltke considered this a causal (“for” – cf. KJV) rather than an indirect discourse indicator (“that” – cf. NASB, NIV, and ESV). In other words, “Your pain doesn’t mean you have no king!”

OThere is actually a definite article here, but it doesn’t translate well into English. Waltke called it an “article of class.”

PThis phrase is not in the MT or other ancient versions, neither is it in the Nahal Hever Greek manuscript.

QThe Greek does not move the subject from the following phrase up into this phrase, but Brenton did so in his English translation because the Greek is active instead of passive (“He will save you”), unlike the Hebrew which is passive (“You will be saved”), but the practical upshot is the same.

RRare verb usually translated “burst forth” – also found in Jdg. 20:33; Job 38:8; 40:23; and Ezek. 32:2, often to describe the moment of birth. The ancient versions took it that way as second-stage labor – the expulsive stage. The contemporary English versions that translated it in terms of “groaning” or “agony” are off-base, as are the Targums which translated it “tremble.” See Waltke’s commentary for extensive treatment of the etymology of this word.

SPerhaps the LXX translator confused חדה (“rejoice”) for חנף? cf. Aquilla = “will fall in fury,” Symmachus = κατακριθησεται (“will be condemned” – Waltke’s preference too). At any rate, the ancient versions did not see this in terms of moral compromise, but in terms of literal military purposes.

TCompare to the “many peoples” who are crushed in v.13. Although “great nations” would be a fair translation, every one of the 16 versions I consulted reads “many,” except that Waltke went both ways in his translation.

UUncommon word translated “corrupt/pollute/profane/defile” in Num. 35:33; Ps. 106:38; Isa. 24:5; Jer. 3:1-2, 9; 23:11; and Dan. 11:32. In many cases, the profanation is by means of sexual violation. Many commentators assumed that this was a moral profanation, but multiple comentators pointed out that it seems unlikely for foreign nations to be concerned with Israel’s moral purity. I think these are the ones laying siege to Jerusalem, hoping to “breach” its walls and get what’s inside, in other words, a physical, rather than a moral infiltration. This would comort with the Targum’s paraphrase “fall of Jerusalem.”
Keil took a slightly different approach: “[P]rofaned: not by the sins or bloodguiltiness of her inhabitants (Jer. 3:2; Isa. 24:5), for this is not appropriate in the mouths of heathen; but through devastation or destruction let her holiness be taken from her…” Waltke followed along those lines: “to profane the sacral relationship between I AM and His holy city… by exposing its sacred sanctuary…” (a convoluted idea but one which seems possible for a pagan) Waltke also quoted the following salient insight from J. L. Mays, “When nations see themselves as the centre of history and seek a destiny that fulfills their power, they can tolerate no Zion; they are gripped with a compelling need to destroy whatever stands in judgment and restraint on their pride.”

VInterchangeable with the more common word for “see” [ראה], but also used in special senses, such as of prophetic visions (Amos, Micah, Habakkuk, and Isaiah 1:1). It is hard to tell whether contemporary English versions read more than is warranted into the meaning of this by translating it “gloat over/gaze upon” when the basic meaning “look at/into” is just as reasonable, especially in light of the fact that the more-common word for “see” is used in this more loaded way in other passages like:
Obadiah 1:12 “But you should not have gazed [ראה] on the day of your brother In the day of his captivity; Nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah In the day of their destruction; Nor should you have spoken proudly In the day of distress.”
Lamentations 2:16 “All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, ‘We have swallowed her up! Surely this is the day we have waited for; We have found it, we have seen [ראה] it!’”
Micah 7:10 “Then she who is my enemy will see [ראה], And shame will cover her who said to me, ‘Where is the LORD your God?’ My eyes will see [ראה] her; Now she will be trampled down Like mud in the streets.” (NKJV)

WThe plural “eyes” is supported only by LXX. Vulgate, Syriac, and Targum are all singular “eye.” It is universally acknowledged that this noun is the subject of the singular verb “see.”

Xcf. Aquilla and Symmachus αχνη (“chaff”) and Theodotion καλαμη (“straw”), implying with the Vulgate that the grain has already been removed and that this is the last step before disposing of the chaff, but the next verse seems to support the LXX and Aramaic versions, since the threshing – the separation of the grain from the chaff – is yet to come in the next verse.

YAll the older versions render this causal (“for”), supported by commentaries from Keil and Waltke. ESV and NLT Bibles are the only ones who translate it as indirect discourse (“that”). NIV and NET Bibles drop this word entirely.

ZRare word (only here and Jer. 9:21; Amos 2:13, and Zech. 12:6) with a root meaning of “heap/pile,” denoting grain stalks after they have been mown down in the field. Waltke translated it “newly-cut grain,” noting that “stalks were cut off just under the ears so that the word does not mean ‘sheath’”[sic]. The English word “sheaves” refers to this cut wheat after it has been bound together in bundles, but on the threshing floor, it would be unbound and laid in piles.

AAThe he at the end of this word is a directional, translated “to” in most versions.

ABThis appears to be a note of commentary, further defining how they would melt away (after being pounded into fragments) and who they were (the nations). It was not in Fields’ edition of the LXX, but in alternate readings in other mss.

ACFields cites “other” Greek versions that read αναθηματισεις (“you will anathematize”)a meaning related to consecration to the corban ban, consistent with the MT.

ADcf. Symmachus = κερδος (“gain”), Theodotian = ξωρα (“shavings?”), and E = ωφελειαν (“benefits”).

AEWaltke noted that this verb would normally be spelled with a “u” class vowel, but since it is spelled here with an “o” class vowel, he suggested it might be an “intensifying variant” following the “u” class vowel in “arise.”
Regarding this figurative use of “threshing” nations, cf. 2 Ki. 13:7; Isa. 25:10; 41:15; Jer. 50:11; Amos 1:3; Hab. 3:12. The meaning is parallel to “crush/pulverize/beat to peaces” later in the verse.

AFAlthough this word can certainly refer to the horns on the heads of cattle (cf. similar statement in Deut. 33:17), the HOT uses this word more frequently in other figurative meanings. Perhaps oxen use the horns on their head to scatter the stalks, resulting in more-thorough threshing, or perhaps “horn” can simply refer to “keratinous substance” and mean the same thing as “hooves” since they are made of the same physical material and since two words are in parallel. Waltke commented that it “symbolizes her power” while the Targums interpereted it figuratively as “her people… her remnant.” Concerning the “iron” and “bronze,” the transition from bronze to iron in commonly-used tools was only a few hundred years before Micah’s time, so both were in use. The widespread use of steel was still future to Micah.

AGThe verb is first person “I will” in the MT. (Westminster morphology claims it is 2nd person, but OSHB Parsing, Beal/Banks/Smith parsing guide, Keil, and others agree it is 1st person). Waltke suggested it could be an “archaizing” 2fs after all, but I doubt that is actually an archaic form. No DSS has preserved this part of this verse, so the oldest manuscripts we have are the ancient versions (LXX, Vulgate, Peshitta), which all render it 2nd person (“you will”), so they could have been following an original which was spelled differently. Targums, however, are divided between a first person and a second person spelling. Among the old commentators, Theodoret, Marckius, Dathius, Newcome, Henderson, Calvin, and Owen of Thrussington also adopted the 2nd person, the latter of which commented, however, that the meaning could be the same since it is Hiphil, “I will cause [you] to consecrate.”
Such consecration could involve dedicated service of a person to temple work or the death of that person. Similarly, of inanimate objects, it could involve dedicated use in the temple or burning it up on the altar. Malbim applied it in the former sense, noting that the temple treasures looted by the Babylonian army were returned to the temple by Ezra. Waltke took the second meaning by insisting that all the loot recovered by the Israelites after the Assyrian army’s ignominious exit was to be completely destroyed. Gilby’s application was a warning of God’s disfavor on those who take the resources of other nations for their own self-agrandizement rather than dedicating spoils “to the fyndyng of the pore, to the setting forth of godlye learnynge and vertue…”

1