And ye shall flee [to] the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, [and] all the saints with thee.
Ver. 5. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains] Or, ye shall flee the valley of the mountains, sc. of mount Olivet, made by God, Zec 14:4 by whom the Romans were set to work to garrison mount Olivet against the Jews; and, by digging down a great part of it, to fill up the brook Kidron, or the town ditch, and to bring a wall (wherewith they compassed about the whole city) through the midst of this mount; whereby the city was greatly pressed, and much annoyed. This mountain ye shall flee (as many of you as are Azal; that is, separated: confer Exodus 24:11 Isa 43:4), and repair to Pella, a place of rest provided for you. Not without some perturbation of spirit (though causeless), as in common calamities it happens; and the like shall befall the very elect also at the last day, till they have recollected themselves, till they remember that now their redemption draweth nigh.
And ye shall flee] sc. With utmost haste and fright; death being that terrible of terribles, as the philosopher calleth it, Nature's slaughterman, hell's purveyor.
Like as ye fled from before the earthquake] Which might be as sad and as sudden at that at Pleures, in Rhetia, A.D. 1618, Aug. 25, the whole town was overcovered with a mountain, which, with its most swift motion, buried 1500 people (Alst. Chronol.).
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah] Whether this earthquake occured just at that instant time when Uzziah offered incense, and was therefore smitten with leprosy (as the Jewish doctors affirm), I have not to say. But of the horror of it, besides Amos 1:1, Josephus relateth, that a mountain towards the west cleft in sunder and removed from its proper place the space of four furlongs, or half a mile; and farther it had proceeded, had not a great mountain towards the east stayed its course. Camden reporteth the like hereunto to have happened in Herefordshire, A. D. 1571, Cal. Martij 12; about six o'clock in the evening, a great hill lifted up itself with a huge noise, and ascending into a higher place, carried along with it trees, flocks of cattle, sheep cotes, walked about from Saturday night till Monday noon, overturned a certain chapel that stood in its way. This kind of earthquake philosophers call Brasmatia, shaking of the earth.
And the Lord my God shall come] q.d. Let scoffers doubt and deride, saying, "Where is the promise of his coming?" My God will effect with his hand what he hath spoken with his mouth, he will, he will, Habakkuk 2:8. There is an emphasis in the word "my" (q.d. The God whose I am, yea, ολως εκεινος, wholly his, as Aristotle saith of a servant), and another in the following apostrophe.
And all the saints with thee] The prophet, in a holy indignation at his hearers' obstinace and untractableness, turns him thus to God; like as doth old Jacob, Genesis 49:18; and our blessed Saviour cried out with the people's perverseness, Matthew 11:25,26. See Trapp on " Gen 49:18 " See Trapp on " Mat 11:25 " See Trapp on " Mat 11:26 "