Direct Fulfillment: Matthew 2:5-6/Micah 5:2

The first kind of prophecy and fulfillment motif is literal prediction and direct fulfillment, as see in Matthew’s quotation of Mic 5:2. After the birth narrative (Matt 1:18-25), Matthew wrote that wise men from the East arrived at the court of King Herod, asking, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?” (Matt 2:2). In response, Herod gathered chief priests and scribes to repeat the wise men’s questions to them. The Jewish scholars in turn cited Mic 5:2 [Hb. 5:1]:

And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah: because out of you will come a leader who will shepherd My people Israel. (Matt 2:6)

The quotation appears to be a loose, paraphrastic translation of the Masoretic version of Mic 5:2[1]:

Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah/one will come form you to be ruler over Israel for Me/His origin [ûmôṣā’ōtāyw] is from antiquity [miqqedem], from eternity [mîmê ‘ôlām, lit. “from days of eternity”].

The literary strategy of Micah follows the common pattern of the prophets, alternating between prophecies of judgment and prophecies of hope. In contrast to the previous paragraph, wherein the gathering of the nations to judge Jerusalem is predicted (4:9-5:1). Micah turned to a prediction of hope and restoration in 5:2-4. There, Micah foretold the coming of a future ruler of Israel who would one day shepherd the flock of Israel. Micah also prophesied that when this king’s greatness would extend to the ends of the earth, then Israel would also live securely in their land. This is clearly a messianic prediction, which conflates the two comings of the Messiah.

Micah’s prophecy in 5:2 speaks of the origins of the king. It foretold that this future ruler of Israel would come forth from Bethlehem. Although this is plainly an allusion to the restoration of the Davidic house, it is also foretelling that once again a king of Israel would be born in Bethlehem. It is not only saying that Messiah would come from the Davidic line but that he would actually come from the town of Bethlehem.

Additionally, Micah predicted that this king’s origins would be from eternity past. The two Hebrew temporal nouns used can speak of eternity when they stand alone, although this is not always the case. Used chronologically, qedem, “antiquity,” can refer to ancient times as in “long ago,” to the earliest imaginable times as when the mountains first came to be (Deut 33:15), or to the “eternal” God and His eternal dwelling place (Deut 33:27; Hab 1:12; Pss 55:19; 68:33). The second term ôlām, “eternity,” usually refers to the distant or unending future also used of ancient times in the past (Ps 24:7) or of the beginning of creation (Ps 25:6; Joel 2:2) or before. According to Ps 93:2, God’s “throne has been established from the beginning [lit. “from then”]; / You are from eternity.” And Ps 90:2 declares, “Before the mountains were born, / before You gave birth to the earth and the world, / from eternity toe eternity, You are God.” When qedem and 'ôlām are used together, however, as in Prov 8:22-23, they always denote eternity past (cf. Deut 33:27). In Mic. 5:2, these words are placed together to emphasize the ruler’s true origin, being far earlier than his arrival in Bethlehem or even antiquity. Rather, he comes from eternity past.

Kaiser accurately describes this juxtaposition of the temporal and eternal origin of Messiah as follows:

According to his human heritage, he will descend from the family of David who lived in Bethlehem and will be born in that same town, even though he has a divine line of descent that takes him clear back to eternity. He will be both human and divine. What a mystery!

Thus, according to Matthew’s record, when Herod asked he priests and scribes where Messiah would be born, the Jewish scholars answered correctly. They chose the correct verse (Mic 5;2) and interpreted it literally. This is a classic example of a literal prediction fulfilled directly. Micah 5:2 and its citation in Matt 2:5-6 are, in the words of Craig Blomberg, “a very straightforward scheme of prediction and fulfillment. . . . Micah prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, and now it has happened.”