John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 5. And ye shall flee [to] the valley of the mountains , etc.] To seek for shelter and safety in them, for fear of the Lord, and the glory of his majesty, whom every eye shall see, ( Isaiah 2:19 Revelation 1:7): for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal ; a name of a place not known; it may be thought to be at some considerable distance: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah ; two years before which Amos prophesied, ( Amos 1:1) and which, according to Josephus f298 , was at the time when King Uzziah was stricken with a leprosy for invading the priest’s office; when, as he says, at a place before the city called Eroge, half part of the mountain towards the west was broken, and rolled half a mile towards the eastern part, and there stood; so that the ways were stopped up to the king’s gardens: and the Lord my God shall come ; the Lord Jesus Christ, who is truly God, and the God of his people; and who will appear to be so at his second coming, which is here meant, by raising the dead, gathering all nations before him, and separating them; by bringing to light all secret and hidden things; judging the whole world, and executing the sentence on them; and particularly by taking his own people to himself: [and] all the saints with thee : the Targum, and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read, “with him”; meaning either the holy angels; so Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech; who will attend him partly for the glory of his majesty, and partly for terror to the wicked, and also for service; or rather glorified saints, the spirits of just men made perfect, whom Christ will bring with him to be united to their bodies, which will now be raised, and to be with him in the new heavens and new earth, which will now be formed, and to be presented to him, and dwell with him, during the thousand years.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-7 - The Lord Jesus often stood upon the Mount of Olives when on earth. He ascended from thence to heaven, and then desolations and distresse came upon the Jewish nation. Such is the view taken of thi figuratively; but many consider it as a notice of events ye unfulfilled, and that it relates to troubles of which we cannot no form a full idea. Every believer, being related to God as his God, ma triumph in the expectation of Christ's coming in power, and speak of i with pleasure. During a long season, the state of the church would be deformed by sin; there would be a mixture of truth and error, or happiness and misery. Such is the experience of God's people, a mingle state of grace and corruption. But, when the season is at the worst and most unpromising, the Lord will turn darkness into light deliverance comes when God's people have done looking for it.
Original Hebrew ונסתם5127 גיא1516 הרי2022 כי3588 יגיע5060 גי1516 הרים2022 אל413 אצל682 ונסתם5127 כאשׁר834 נסתם5127 מפני6440 הרעשׁ7494 בימי3117 עזיה5818 מלך4428 יהודה3063 ובא935 יהוה3068 אלהי430 כל3605 קדשׁים6918 עמך׃5973
