After the persecutions of the church shall follow great prosperity.
Persecutors shall be punished: so shall all that will not serve God in
his church.
14:1. Behold the days of the Lord shall come, and thy spoils shall be
divided in the midst of thee.
14:2. And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to battle, and the city
shall be taken, and the houses shall be rifled, and the women shall be
defiled: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the
rest of the people shall not be taken away out of the city.
I will gather, etc... This seems to be a prophecy of what was done by
Antiochus.
14:3. Then the Lord shall go forth, and shall fight against those
nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
14:4. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives,
which is over against Jerusalem towards the east: and the mount of
Olives shall be divided in the midst thereof to the east, and to the
west with a very great opening, and half of the mountain shall be
separated to the north, and half thereof to the south.
14:5. And you shall flee to the valley of those mountains, for the
valley of the mountains shall be joined even to the next, and you shall
flee as you fled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Ozias
king of Juda: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with
him.
14:6. And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall be no
light, but cold and frost.
No light... Viz., in that dismal time of persecution of Antiochus, when
it was neither day nor night: (ver. 7) because they neither had the
comfortable light of the day, nor the repose of the night.
14:7. And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day
nor night: and in the time of the evening there shall be light:
In the time of the evening there shall be light... An unexpected light
shall arise by the means of the Machabees, when things shalll seem to be
at the worst.
14:8. And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go
out from Jerusalem: half of them to the east sea, and half of them to
the last sea: they shall be in summer and in winter.
Living waters... Viz., the gospel of Christ.
14:9. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there
shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one.
14:10. And all the land shall return even to the desert, from the hill
to Remmon to the south of Jerusalem: and she shall be exalted, and shall
dwell in her own place, from the gate of Benjamin even to the place of
the former gate, and even to the gate of the corners: and from the tower
of Hananeel even to the king's winepresses.
All the land shall return, etc... This, in some measure, was verified by
the means of the Machabees: but is rather to be taken in a spiritual
sense, as relating to the propagation of the church, and kingdom of
Christ, the true Jerusalem, which alone shall never fall under the
anathema of destruction, or God's curse.
14:11. And people shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more an
anathema: but Jerusalem shall sit secure.
14:12. And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord shall strike all
nations that have fought against Jerusalem: the flesh of every one shall
consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall
consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in
their mouth.
The flesh of every one shall consume, etc... Such judgments as these
have often fallen upon the persecutors of God's church, as appears by
many instances in history.
14:13. In that day there shall be a great tumult from the Lord among
them: and a man shall take the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall
be clasped upon his neighbour's hand.
14:14. And even Juda shall fight against Jerusalem: and the riches of
all nations round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver,
and garments in great abundance.
Even Juda, etc... The carnal Jews, and other false brothers, shall join
in persecuting the church.
14:15. And the destruction of the horse, and of the mule, and of the
camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts, that shall be in those
tents, shall be like this destruction.
Shall be like this destruction... That is, the beasts shall be destroyed
as well as the men: the common soldiers as well as their leaders.
14:16. And all they that shall be left of all nations that came against
Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year, to adore the King, the Lord of
hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
They that shall be left, etc... That is, many of them that persecuted
the church shall be converted to its faith and communion.-Ibid. To keep
the feast of tabernacles... This feast was kept by the Jews in memory of
their sojourning forty years in the desert, in their way to the land of
promise. And in the spiritual sense is duly kept by all such Christians
as in their earthly pilgrimage are continually advancing toward their
true home, the heavenly Jerusalem; by the help of the sacraments and
sacrifice of the church. And they that neglect this must not look for
the kind showers of divine grace, to give fruitfulness to their souls.
14:17. And it shall come to pass, that he that shall not go up of the
families of the land to Jerusalem, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts,
there shall be no rain upon them.
14:18. And if the family of Egypt go not up nor come: neither shall it
be upon them, but there shall be destruction wherewith the Lord will
strike all nations that will not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
14:19. This shall be the sin of Egypt, and this the sin of all nations,
that will not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
14:20. In that day that which is upon the bridle of the horse shall be
holy to the Lord: and the caldrons in the house of the Lord shall be as
the phials before the altar.
That which is upon the bridle, etc... The golden ornaments of the
bridles, etc., shall be turned into offerings in the house of God. And
there shall be an abundance of caldrons and phials for the sacrifices of
the temple; by which is meant, under a figure, the great resort there
shall be to the temple, that is, to the church of Christ, and her
sacrifice.
14:21. And every caldron in Jerusalem and Juda shall be sanctified to
the Lord of hosts: and all that sacrifice shall come, and take of them,
and shall seethe in them: and the merchant shall be no more in the house
of the Lord of hosts in that day.
The merchant shall be no more, etc... Or, as some render it, The
Chanaanite shall be no more, etc., that is, the profane and unbelievers
shall have no title to be in the house of the Lord. Or there shall be no
occasion for buyers or sellers of oxen, or sheep, or doves, in the house
of God, such as Jesus Christ cast out of the temple.