The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
Envy also of Ephraim shall depart ... Judah. "The envy" on the part of Ephraim, wherewith they were jealous of any rival in prowess, began as early as the time in Judges 8:1; Judges 12:1, etc. Joshua had sprung from and resided among the Ephraimites (Numbers 13:8; Joshua 19:50). The sanctuary was with them in Shiloh for a long time (Joshua 18:1). The jealousy increased subsequently, when Abner set up Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, to be king of Israel against David, king of Judah (2 Samuel 2:8, etc.; 3:10), and in the rebellions of Absalom and of Sheba, son of Bichri (2 Samuel 19:41; 2 Samuel 20:2). Even before David's time (1 Samuel 11:8; 1 Samuel 15:4) they had appropriated to themselves the national name Israel. It ended in disruption under Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:26, etc.; 12: cf. 2 Kings 14:9; Psalms 78:67-68).
And the adversaries of Judah - rather, 'the adversaries from Judah;' those of Judah hostile to the Ephraimites (Hengstenberg). So Isaiah 29:19, "the poor among (literally, of) men." The contrast to 'the envy of Ephraim,' namely, against Judah, requires this, as also the parallelism to "Judah shall not vex Ephraim" (Ezekiel 37:15; Ezekiel 37:17; Ezekiel 37:19). The only objection is the rule that if a participle be in the construct state, its genitive is that of the object, not of the subject. But tzoreer is often used of an adversary as a noun; so that as such it can be construed with the genitive of the subject.