Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee. The nations on which Babylon had exercised its cruelty (Isaiah 14:12) shall worship Yahweh, awed by the judgment inflicted on Babylon (Isaiah 23:18). Thus the Persians-a strong and terrible people-under Cyrus, glorified God in causing the restoration of the Jews from Babylon to Jerusalem, (Ezra 1:1-11.) The antitypical and ultimate fulfillment shall be the conversion of the powerful Gentile nations, consequent on the deliverance of Israel from Antichrist by the manifested Christ. But see below the Jews' own view, that the strong people mean themselves.
The city of the terrible nations shall fear thee - not Babylon, which shall then be destroyed, but collectively for the cities of the surrounding nations. So the Chaldaic has 'cities' for "city" in Isaiah 25:2. Jerome says, 'The Jews think that this is the voice of the saints when God shall have performed against the whole world what is spoken above, and the prophecies of all the prophets are completed; and they interpret the overthrown city (Isaiah 25:2) to signify Rome, which is to be utterly destroyed; and the strong people, who shall praise Yahweh, and to whom He has been a strength in their distress, they refer to Israel, who shall then be freed from the persecution of the Gentile nations.' Thus, the Jews, though "poor" and "needy" in themselves, are regarded as nevertheless "strong" х `aaz (H5794)] in having Yahweh as their "strength" (Isaiah 25:4) х maa`owz (H4581)]. "The city of the terrible nations" (cf. note, Isaiah 18:2. "terrible") is the whole Gentile world united in one religious polity, with Jerusalem as its theocratic metropolis (cf. Isaiah 25:5, "the terrible ones"), and stands in contrast to the past godless "city of confusion," Babylon (Isaiah 24:10).