But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
With united forces they shall subdue their foes (Amos 9:12).
They shall fly - as a bird of prey (Habakkuk 1:8).
Upon the shoulders of the Philistines. This expresses an attack made unexpectedly on one from behind. The image is the more apt, as the Hebrew for shoulders in Numbers 34:11 is used also of a maritime coast. The Philistines occupied the narrow strip of seacoast southwest of Judah. They shall make a sudden victorious descent upon their borders southwest of Judea.
They shall spoil them of the east - Hebrew, the children of the East, the Arabs, who, always hostile, are not to be reduced under regular government, but are only to be despoiled (Jeremiah 49:28-29).
They shall lay their hand upon - take possession of (Daniel 11:42).
Edom - south of Judah, from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea.
Moab - east of Jordan and the Dead Sea.
Ammon - east of Judea, north of Moab, between the Arnon and Jabbok.