Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Ver. 3. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations] Some read it, among those nations; he shall be the Archistrategus, the commander-in-chief of those armies, which he hath brought together against Jerusalem, to revenge upon her the quarrel of his covenant. But I like the other way better; because it is purposely spoken for the comfort of saints in evil times. When therefore there is dignus vindice nodus, et periculum par animo Alexandri, as he was wont to say, when it is time for God to arise, that his enemies may be scattered, and those that hate him flee before him; he will arise and have mercy upon Zion; he will awake, as in the days of old; he will come forth from his holy place to the rescue of his praying people. "There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah," Psalms 76:3. There he appeared "more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey." There he did, and there he will; for this is a common and current Scriptural medium. God shall fight against those nations, the very rod of his wrath, Isaiah 10:9; which, after he hath worn to the stump, he will cast it into the fire. The wicked are called God's sword, Psalms 17:13. But it will fall out with them as with that sword which Hector gave Ajax: which as long as he used it against his enemies it served for help and defence; but after he began to abase it to the harm of harmless beasts it turned into his own bowels.
As when he fought in the day of battle] With his own bare hand, as it were, Isaiah 52:10, and in a miraculous manner, as he did for Israel at the Red Sea, for Joshua, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, &c., and as he shall do at that last great battle against Antichrist and his adherents, Revelation 20:8,10, which is here haply pointed at. Let the Lord but arise only and his enemies shall be scattered; but if he once take hold of shield and buckler for defence, draw out the spear and sword, these weapons of offence, and appear as a man of war, Exodus 15:3, or as a Lord and victor of wars (so the Chaldee there hath it), he will charge through and through, he will "burn them together," Isaiah 27:4, and in the same place, 2 Samuel 23:7 .