_Who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah_ (Ib. lxiii.), _i.e._ ‘Cyrus has inflicted severe chastisement on Edom, and brought back those who had been carried thither from Jerusalem into captivity, as we read in the fifteenth chapter, where it is said, _The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion._’
_Behold the days will come, saith the Lord, when I shall raise unto David a righteous branch_ (Jerem. xxiii. 5). The individual here referred to our exponent believes to be Zerubabel.
_Know, therefore, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, is seven weeks, and three-score and two weeks ... and after three-score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off and be no more_ (Daniel, ix. 25). ‘The times specified,’ says Villanovanus, ‘refer to those of the exile and the return of the captives by favour of Cyrus, who is the Messiah or Anointed One of God, that is here spoken of. Sixty-two weeks having passed from the great event, Cyrus will have been cut off, and all have gone to wreck again.’
_Then shall Judah and Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head_, &c., _i.e._ ‘Judah and Israel will have become united for a season, as they were under Hezekiah.’
The words of the second verse of chapter vi., _After two days will he revive us; in the third day he will raise us up_, ‘refer to the extraordinary discomfiture of the Assyrians in the reign of Hezekiah.’
_For behold, in those days when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all the nations_, &c. (Joel, iii. 1). ‘These words have a literal application to the defeat of the Assyrians and the glories of Hezekiah’s reign. Disasters many have befallen the chosen seed; but their oppressors will in turn be desolated, and Judah, restored, shall dwell for ever in Jerusalem.’
The texts in MICAH generally spoken of as exclusively prophetical of Christ, our commentator thinks refer literally to Hezekiah and times subsequent to the defeat of the Assyrians. _But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, out of thee shall he come forth to be a ruler in Israel_, viz., ‘Hezekiah, who will deliver the people from the Assyrian.’