Passage
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.
Nearby Context
Micah 4:8 And thou, O cloudy tower of the flock, of the daughter of Sion, unto thee shall it come: yea the first power shall come, the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem.
Micah 4:9 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.
Micah 4:10 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.
Micah 4:11 And now many nations are gathered together against thee, and they say: Let her be stoned: and let our eye look upon Sion.
Micah 4:12 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.
Study Lenses
The verse centers on "pain", "labour", "daughter", "sion", "woman", "bringeth", "forth", and "shalt". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "pain" and "labour", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 9's "Now why art thou drawn together with..." into verse 11's "And now many nations are gathered together...", so "pain" and "labour" belong inside that flow. In Micah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "pain" and "labour" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.