For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.
Ver. 9. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them] Kings, they say, have long hands; and can easily reach those that are far distant. This is much more true of the King immortal; who can quickly crumble to crackle the mightiest monarchs; he cuts off the spirit of princes, Psalms 76:12, he slips them off (so the Hebrew there imports), as one would slip off a flower between one's fingers, or as one should slip off a bunch of grapes. If the Lord do no more but arise, his enemies shall be scattered, Psalms 68:1. If he do but show himself in the field (as Xerxes used to pitch his tent on high, and stand looking on his army when in fight), the Philistines will be heard to cry out, "God is come into the camp. Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty Gods?" 1 Samuel 4:8. But if he once shake his hand (that mighty hand, as St James calleth it, that spanneth the heavens and shaketh the foundations of the earth), how much more if he smite with the hand and stamp with the foot (as the prophet in another case, Ezekiel 6:11; and as Pompey vainly vaunted, that with a stamp on the ground of Italy he could raise an army), the sinners against Zion are soon afraid; fearfulness surpriseth the hypocrites. Woe unto us, say they, for we are spoiled, Isa 33:14 Jeremiah 4:13. The very shaking of his hand at them shall make their hearts ache, shake, and fall asunder in their bosoms, as drops of water.
And they shall be a spoil to their servants] i.e. To the Jews, whom they lately spoiled and enslaved. This was fulfilled in Esther's days; and afterwards in the time of the Maccabees. Besides what is yet expected to be done by the nation of the Jews; when, at their glorious conversion, Christ shall dwell among them, Zechariah 2:10, and the multitude of nations shall join themselves to Christ, Zechariah 2:11, the Jews inhabiting in their own land, Zechariah 2:12, to the silencing, amusing, and amazing of all flesh, Zechariah 2:13; while the enemies of the Church by them subdued, Zechariah 10:11, and possessed, Isa 14:2 Obadiah 1:17; Obadiah 1:19, shall willingly, or perforce, come under Christ's obedience. The conversion of the Gentiles (saith a learned author) is many times intimated by the Israelites mastering of them, spoiling them, possessing them for servants and for handmaids, as Isa 14:2 Amo 9:11 Obadiah 1:19, and here, which is not meant so much of a temporal subduing as of a spiritual joining with them in seeking of the Lord; yet so as the chief sovereignty and stroke of keeping men within the lists of their subjection and obedience unto Christ, shall remain among the Jews (The Calling of the Jews, by Sir H. Finch). And so St James teacheth us to expound those phrases, Acts 15:17, where that which Amos saith, that the Israelites may possess the remnant of Edom, James rendereth, that the residue of men may seek after the Lord. The enemy whom, indeed, the Jews shall spoil, root out, and destroy, after they have groaned long under his hard yoke and bondage, is Gog and Magog, that is to say, the Turk, Eze 38:1-23 Ezekiel 39:1,29, with whom they shall have a marvellous conflict, as it may seem in their own country, Ezekiel 39:2; Ezekiel 39:4 Daniel 11:44,45, and over whom they shall obtain a noble victory (God from heaven miraculously fighting for them, Ezekiel 38:18,19, &c.; Zec 14:3-5) at, or near Jerusalem, Joe 3:2 Ezekiel 39:16. This enemy is not always represented by one and the same name; but sometimes he is called Moab, Edom, Rabbah, Ashur, Javan; haply because those that inhabit the seat of these people shall join hands with the Turk, and fall in the same destruction. Sometimes he is called leviathan, from his quality; sometimes Gog and Magog, from his country; sometimes the king of the north, from his territory, Isa 27:1 Ezekiel 38:2 Daniel 11:40. But by all these names one and the same enemy is understood, which marvellously cleareth the place in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 38:17, where the Lord by his prophet speaketh to Gog in this wise: "Art thou he of whom I have spoken in ancient time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in these days and years?" He cannot mean himself, nor Daniel, which was but his contemporary, much less Zechariah, that came after; but he meaneth the ancient prophets long before, who spake of the same person, though not by the same name.
And ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me] You shall subscribe to the truth of these promises, which now you can very hardly be brought to believe; when God shall have fulfilled with his hand that which he hath spoken with his mouth, as Solomon's phrase is, 1 Kings 8:15 .