But to get to Mic 5:2, and to see how we should have understood from that the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, first we need to get our bearings in the book of Micah the prophet. First of course would be to see what the prophet says of himself.

“The word of Yahweh that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.”
Mic 1:1

So here we see the grand subject matter of the prophet. Jothham’s reign started around 750 BC and Hezekiah’s reign ended around 686 BC, so we can see the range of years in which included Micah prophesying. You can read of those kings in the books of Kings and Chronicles, and so get some historical background on conditions in those days. This would make Micah and Isaiah contemporaries of each other, and some of the verses in Isaiah chapter two and Micah four overlap each other, but we do not know how this happened.

These were turbulent times in Israel and Judah.

Crime and idolatry and unfaithfulness to the Lord were rampant in those days, and neither most of the rulers or the people were close to really repenting.

The first three chapters of Micah prophesy the destruction of both the Northern kingdom of Israel and the Southern kingdom of Judah, because of their bloodshed and idolatry and other sins.

In Mich 1:2-4 talks about the coming day of the Lord, when Yahweh will come out of His place and bring an end to this world. Some brush this aside as poetry which is irrelevant to us, but they SHOULD NOT! Almost always, the immediate things of history are related to the ultimate end of all things. Mic says that this things will happen because of their sins, Mic 1:5; and talks as if these things are pertinent to them, and to us. Indeed they are, for “they” and “we” will all be there on that final day when

“28 … for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice, 29 and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”
Jn 5:28-29

These are common patterns in prophecy we should recognize: the present things are related to the coming ultimate things. Sometimes the present things seem very distant from the future things, so such things mystify some, but they shouldn’t

So Micah says Samaria, the capital of Israel will be (future) made a ruin, Mich 1:6-8. That happened during Micah’s day in 722 BC with the Assyrian conquest. Then he says that the same will happen to Judah, Mic 1:9. That didn’t happen until 586 BC, another 136 years later, well after Micah’s time. That was not nearby in human terms, but very close by in historical terms, and almost nothing in the grand time scale of Scripture.

Indeed, all of their things and our things are related to that final end which is coming.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901