FINAL CONFLICT AND DELIVERANCE 427
verb " shall be " ? Ewald and others have rendered it thus : "And also upon Judah shall it be (incumbent to be occupied] in the siege against Jerusalem . Similarly, already the Targum, Kimchi, Jerome, and many of the modern commentators have explained the passage as " containing a prediction that the people of Judah should be arrayed among the hostile forces marshalled against Jerusalem, that they should be forced to assume such a position by reason of the enemies round about, but that after a certain time the people should be able to break away from the ranks of the hostile army, and would ultimately assist the beleagured citizens of Jerusalem."
I cannot enter on a minute examination of the critical grounds on which this view has been advocated, but I believe the explanation to be an erroneous one. It is asserted that it is to be inferred from the context that Judah is regarded as in the camp of the enemy, 1 but I agree with Keil, who truly observes that in what follows
" There is no indication whatever of Judah s having made common cause with the enemy against Jerusalem ; on the contrary, Judah and Jerusalem stand together in opposition to the nations, and the princes of Judah have strength in the inhabitants of Jerusalem (ver. 5), and destroy the enemy to save Jerusalem (ver. 6). Moreover, it is only by a false interpretation that any one can find a conflict between Judah and Jerusalem indicated in chap. xiv. 14. And throughout it is incorrect to designate the attitude of Judah towards Jerusalem in these verses as opposition, a notion upon which Ebrard (Offenb. Joh.} and Kliefoth have founded the marvellous view, that by
The following is from Kimchi s commentary: "The sense of the whole passage is, that when Gog and Magog come against Jerusalem after the redemp tion, they will go up by the land of Judah, for the desire of their faces will be to come against Jerusalem first ; and they will not be anxious first to subdue the whole land of Israel, for they will think, when we have subdued Jerusalem, the whole land will fall before us. But they will go up to Jerusalem by the way of the land of Judah, which is their natural route, and they will take with them the children of Judah against their will to go with them to besiege Jerusalem ; and so Jonathan has interpreted."
