Micah 5:2 (DRB)

Passage

And thou Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda, out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel: and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

Nearby Context

Micah 5:1 Now shalt thou be laid waste, O daughter of the robber: they have laid siege against us, with a rod shall they strike the cheek of the judge of Israel.

Micah 5:2 And thou Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda, out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel: and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

Micah 5:3 Therefore will he give them up even till the time wherein she that travaileth shall bring forth: and the remnant of his brethren shall be converted to the children of Israel.

Micah 5:4 And he shall stand, and feed in the strength of the Lord, in the height of the name of the Lord, his God: and they shall be converted, for now shall he be magnified even to the ends of the earth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "bethlehem", "ephrata", "little", "thousands", "juda", "thee", and "shall". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thou" and "bethlehem", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 1's "Now shalt thou be laid waste O..." into verse 3's "Therefore will he give them up even...", so "thou" and "bethlehem" 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 "thou" and "bethlehem" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.