Verses 12-15. - § 8. Having noted the blessings on the true Israelites, the prophet gives further details concerning the destruction of the enemies: they shall perish by plague, by mutual slaughter, by the sword of Judah. Verse 12. - This shall be the plague. These are the instruments which the Lord uses when he fights against the nations (not the people, as in the Authorized Version), ver. 3. The plague, or smiting (maggephah), is some contagions affliction sent by God, as in Exodus 9:14; Numbers 14:37; 1 Samuel 6:4. Their. It is, in the Hebrew, "his flesh, his feet," etc., to show that the general plague extends to every individual. In the last clause the plural is used, "their mouth." With body, eye, and tongue they opposed the holy city, and took pleasure in its discomfiture: in all their members they shall suffer retributive punishment. While they stand upon their feet. The flesh of each shall putrefy and moulder away, while he is still alive and arrayed against the city of God. Holes; soakers. The eyes had spied out the weak places in the defence, and looked with malicious pleasure on the defeat and fall. Tongue. They had blasphemed God, and cried against his holy place, "Down with it, even to the ground!"

14:8-15 Some consider that the progress of the gospel, beginning from Jerusalem, is referred to by the living waters flowing from that city. Neither shall the gospel and means of grace, nor the graces of the Spirit wrought in the hearts of believers by those means, ever fail, by reason either of the heat of persecution, or storms of temptation, or the blasts of any other affliction. Tremendous judgments appear to be foretold, to be sent upon those who should oppose the settlement of the Jews in their own land. How far they are to be understood literally, events alone can determine. The furious rage and malice which stir up men against each other, are faint shadows of the enmity which reigns among those who have perished in their sins. Even the inferior creatures often suffer for the sin of man, and in his plagues. Thus God will show his displeasure against sin.And this shall be the plagues,.... This respects one or more, or all, of the seven plagues, which will be inflicted on the antichristian states, mentioned in Revelation 15:1,

wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; who have been the enemies and persecutors of his church; and with which plague or plagues they shall be utterly consumed and destroyed:

their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet; antichrist will be consumed with the breath of Christ's mouth; the flesh of the whore of Rome, which is her substance, shall be eaten and devoured by the kings of the earth; and her destruction will be in a moment, suddenly, and at unawares, as is here suggested; see 2 Thessalonians 2:8,

and their eyes shall consume away in their holes; the right eye of the idol shepherd shall be utterly dried up, and the kingdom of the beast will be full of darkness, Zechariah 11:17,

and their tongues shall consume away in their mouth; with which antichrist and his followers have blasphemed the name of God, his tabernacle, and his saints; and which they will gnaw for pain, when the plagues of God are inflicted on them, Revelation 13:5.