And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
Ver. 13. A great tumult from the Lord shall be among them] He shall frighten them, as he did the Philistines, by a sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, 2 Samuel 5:24, and the Syrians by a marching noise in the air, causing a panic terror, 2 Kings 7:6. Therefore some render it, Erit strepitus vel fragor Domini magnus in eis, so 1 Samuel 7:10; cf. 1 Samuel 2:10. Or, he shall exasperate and embitter them one against another; as he did Abimelech and the men of Shechem, by sending an evil spirit between them, Judges 9:23, that is, by letting loose Satan upon them, that old manslayer, that coal kindler and mischief-maker of the world; and this in a way of just revenge for their treacherous conspiracy against the house of Gideon. Thus God first divided, and then destroyed, the Midianites, by setting every one's sword against his fellow, Judges 7:23. So he dealt by the Philistines, 1 Samuel 14:15; 1 Samuel 14:20. So the kings of Syria and Egypt, that succeeded Alexander, and were enemies to the Jews, destroyed one another; so did the primitive persecutors, the Turk and the Persian, the Spaniard and the French. In the year 1526 Charles V, emperor of Germany, set at liberty his prisoner Francis, King of France, upon this condition, among others, that they should join their forces and do their utmost to suppress and root out the Lutheran heresy; that is, the truth of the gospel, out of both their dominions (Scultet. Annal.). But soon after they fell at variance among themselves (the Pope blowing the bellows), whereby the Church had her halcyons, sic canes lingunt ulcera Lazari. so the digs licked the sore of Lazarus.
Shall take the hand of his neighbour] As those younkers a of Helcath-hazzurim did, that sheathed their swords in their fellows' bowels. 2 Samuel 2:16
a A young man generally, in early use esp. a gay or fashionable young man ŒD