And ye shall flee to. — The Hebrew will not bear the rendering of Luther, “and ye shall flee before.” The Oriental Jews, Targ., LXX., &c., by a different vocalisation, read, “And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped;” but this reading is inappropriate. “My mountains,” the Mount of Olives, which is divided in twain by the advent of the Lord, he calls “my mountains” (Marg.). It seems that they would flee thither for fear of being overwhelmed in the destruction of Jerusalem, “for the valley of the mountains” will afford a ready place of refuge, for it “shall reach unto Azal.” Some suppose Azal to be a place near Jerusalem (some placing it to the west of the Temple-Mount, others to the east of the Mount of Olives), but others take the word as a preposition, and render it “very nigh.” In any case, they flee to the valley because of its convenient proximity.
The earthquake in the days of Uzziah is not mentioned in the sacred history, but it was an event that left such an impression on the popular mind that it became an era from which to date (Amos 1:1). “Similarly in Crete recent events are dated by such eras as in the year before the great earthquake.” (Blakesley’s Herodotus i. 263.) Thus the mention of this earthquake does not “fix the date of the prophecy to the days of Uzziah” as some commentators have affirmed. The second person, “ye fled,” need not be taken as referring directly to the persons addressed; but, considering the fact of the continuity of the national existence, may be understood as denoting the same nation at an earlier period, as in Joshua 24:5. Moreover, if we cared to dwell on the fact of the addition of the words “king of Judah” to the name of Uzziah, it might be taken to imply that the prophecy was delivered so long after the time of Uzziah that it was necessary for the prophet to remind his hearers who this Uzziah was.
Saints. — Better, angels. (Comp. Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalms 89:5 [6].)
With thee. — The change into the second person denotes the prophet’s own joyful waiting for his God’s advent. Some versions and MSS. read “with him.”