Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it,.... As is frequently done by an earthquake; which, whatever natural causes there may be of it, is always to be ascribed to God. The ancient Heathens m were of opinion that all earthquakes were of God. This respects not the whole earth, but the land of Israel only; and so the Targum,
"thou hast moved the land of Israel, thou hast shaken and rent it;''
and it does not design a natural earthquake in it, but a figurative one; a shaking and rending of their civil and church state; see
heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh; which will be done in the latter day, when they shall return into their own land, and be restored as at the beginning, Isaiah 30:30.
m A. Gell. Noct. Attic. l. 2. c. 28.