A great tumult - And panic fear, such as God said He would send upon the Canaanites before Israel Deuteronomy 7:23, or on Israel itself, if disobedient Deuteronomy 28:20; or which fell on the Philistines after Jonathan’s capture of the garrison at Michmash, when every man’s “sword was against his fellow” . There is no real unity, except in God; elsewhere, since each seeks his own, all must be impregnated with mutual suspicion, ready at any moment to be fanned into a flame; as when, at the blowing of Gideon’s trumpets, “the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow” Judges 7:22; or when, at Jehoshaphat’s prayer, “the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another” 2 Chronicles 20:32.
And they shall lay hold, every one on the hand of his neighbor - Every one shall be every one’s foe. Each shall, in this tumultuous throng, grasp the other’s hand, mastering him powerfully. “And his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor,” as was prophesied of Ishmael, “his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him” Genesis 16:12.