What Does Micah 5:3 Mean in the King James?
Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Hebrew repeats one birth-root for “she which travaileth” and “hath brought forth,” so the “until” ends at birth and opens into the remnant’s return.
THE MEANING
In your present, the verse names a real giving-over and gives it a boundary: “until” the woman has brought forth. Then the remnant of his brothers returns to the children of Israel; the passage’s last movement is return.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that being given over means the story is finished; the verse places an “until” before birth and return.
THE ROOT
יֹלֵדָה
yōlēdāh
GROWS FROM
י־ל־ד
To bear, beget, bring forth.
“travaileth / hath brought forth” in this verse is yōlēdāh. The verse uses the same root twice: first for the woman who is bearing, then for her having borne. English separates travail from birth, while Hebrew repeats one seed across the interval and its arrival.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child.
יֶלֶד
The child belongs to the same root as the act of bringing forth, joining the labor to what emerges from it.
toledot: Generations, descendants, or genealogies.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
What is brought forth continues into generations, extending the root’s movement beyond one birth.
יְשׁוּבוּן
yeshubun
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ו־ב
To turn back, return.
The word for return carries the sense of turning back as well as coming back. Here the remnant’s return is a movement into the children of Israel, not merely arrival at a place.
ALSO GROWS
shav: He returned or turned back.
שָׁב
This verb form makes the directional sense inside “return” visible.
teshuvah: Return, a turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
The noun preserves the same turn within the idea of return, echoing the remnant’s change of direction.
יִתְּנֵם
yittenem
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ן
To give, set, or place.
“give them up” in this verse is yittenem. The root holds the plain action of giving or placing. In this sentence, “until” frames that giving-over, and birth and return name the movement that follows.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
The noun shows the same root’s basic movement of giving in another form.
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
The root verb keeps the action concrete: something is given or placed within the bounded sequence of the verse.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names travail as real pain with a threshold: birth changes what the pain is carrying.
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.THE THREAD
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.Micah 4:10 describes Zion as a woman in travail with the same ילד (yalad, bear or bring forth) root that appears twice in this verse. It keeps the labor and the threat in view, then names deliverance and redemption as the movement that follows.
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