The Lord shall be terrible upon them, and shall consume all the gods of the earth: and they shall adore him every man from his own place, all the islands of the Gentiles.

“Despite all this, they still could not raise up a temple and restore the place in which they would be allowed to observe all these rituals according to the law. For the power of Christ, the power which founded the church, has also destroyed that place. The prophet foretold that Christ would come and that he would do these things, even though he would not come until after the captivity.”

“And neither will you believe that it was foretold that these nations would come to some place of God, as it has been said, "To you the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth." Understand, if you can, that it is to the God of the Christians, who is supreme and the true God, that the people of these nations come, not by walking but by believing. For this same announcement has been made in these words by another prophet: "The Lord shall be terrible upon them and shall consume all the gods of the earth, and they shall adore him every man from his place, all the islands of the Gentiles." One says, "To you the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth"; the other, "They shall adore him every man from his own place." Therefore they will not be required to withdraw from their own place in coming to him, because they will find him in whom they believe in their own hearts.”

“The Lord [will be] terrible unto them To the Moabites and Ammonites in the execution of his judgments upon them, and make their proud hearts tremble; for with him is terrible majesty; he is terrible to the kings of the earth, and cuts off the spirit of princes, ( Job 37:22 ) ( Psalms 76:12 ) or, as Kimchi observes, this may be understood of the people of God reproached by the Moabites and Ammonites, by whom the Lord is to be feared and reverenced with a godly and filial fear: so it may be rendered, "the Lord is to be feared by them" F5; and to this inclines the Targum, ``the fear of the Lord is to redeem them;'' for he will famish all the gods of the earth; particularly of those countries mentioned in the context, the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Ethiopians, and Assyrians; as Dagon, Chemosh, Molech, Bel, and others; called "gods of the earth", in distinction from the God of heaven, to whom they are opposed; and because made of earthly matter, and worshipped by earthly and carnal men; these the Lord, who is above them, and can destroy them at pleasure, threatens to "famish"; or to bring "leanness" F6 upon them, as the word signifies; to bring them into a consumption, and cause them to pine away gradually, by little and little, till they are no more; and that by reducing the number of their worshippers, so that they shall not have the worship and honour paid them, nor the sacrifices offered to them, supposed by the heathens to be the food of their gods; and, this being the case, their priests would be starved and become lean, who used to be fat and plump. The Septuagint version renders it, "he will destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth"; which is approved of by Noldius, and preferred by him to other versions. This had its accomplishment in part, when these nations were subdued by Nebuchadnezzar; for idols were usually demolished when a kingdom was taken; and more fully when the Gospel was spread in the Gentile world by the apostles of Christ, and first ministers of the word; whereby the oracles of the heathens were struck dumb, and men were turned everywhere from the worship of idols; the idols themselves were destroyed, and their temples demolished, or converted to better uses; and will have a still greater accomplishment in the latter day, at the conversion of the Jews, and the bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles, when the worship of idols will cease everywhere. The Syriac version renders it, "all the kings of the earth"; very wrongly: and [men] shall worship him, everyone from his place; or, "in his place" F7; that is, every man shall worship the true God in the place where he is; he shall not go up to Jerusalem to worship, but in every place lift up holy bands to God, pray unto him, praise and serve him; the worship of God will be universal; he will be King over all the earth, and his name and service one, and shall not be limited and confined to any particular place, ( Malachi 1:11 ) : [even] all the isles of the heathen; or "Gentiles"; not only those places which are properly isles, as ours of Great Britain and Ireland; though there may be a particular respect had to such, and especially to ours, who have been very early and long favoured with the Gospel, and yet will be; but all places beyond the seas, or which the Jews went to by sea, they called isles. FOOTNOTES: F5 (Mhyle hwhy arwn) "timendus Jehovah super ipsis", Cocceius, Burkius. F6 (hzr) "emaciabit", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "quasi macie consumit", Vatablus; "quum emaciaverit", Cocceius; "quia emaciavit", Burkius. F7 (wmwqmm) .”

“He will famish all the gods of the earth - They shall have no more sacrifices; their worship shall be entirely destroyed. Idolaters supposed that their gods actually fed on the fumes and spirituous exhalations that arose from the burnt-offerings which they made unto their idols. It is in reference to this opinion that the Lord says, "He will famish all the gods of the land."”

“Own place. The Jewish religion could be practised only at Jerusalem, so that this is one of the most striking predictions of the conversion of the world. The Jews in vain attempt to restrain it to the captives returning. See St. Jerome. (Calmet) — They shall inform many of the truth, and be the means of their conversion. (Haydock) — But God shall be adored in every place. (Menochius)”

“famish--bring low by taking from the idols their former fame; as beasts are famished by their food being withheld. Also by destroying the kingdoms under the tutelage of idols (Psa 96:4; Isa 46:1). gods of the earth--who have their existence only on earth, not in heaven as the true God. every one from his place--each in his own Gentile home, taught by the Jews in the true religion: not in Jerusalem alone shall men worship God, but everywhere (Psa 68:29-30; Mal 1:11; Joh 4:21; Co1 1:2; Ti1 2:8). It does not mean, as in Isa 2:2; Mic 4:1-2; Zac 8:22; Zac 14:16 that they shall come from their several places to Jerusalem to worship [MAURER]. all . . . isles of . . . heathen--that is, all the maritime regions, especially the west, now being fulfilled in the gathering in of the Gentiles to Messiah.”

“"Fearful is Jehovah over them, for He destroyeth all the gods of the earth; that all the islands of the nations, every one from its place, may worship Him." Whilst עליהם refers to what precedes, the next clause in the reason assigned points to the announcement of judgment upon the remaining nations of the earth in Zep 2:12.; so that Zep 2:11 cannot be taken either as the conclusion of the previous threat, or as the commencement of the following one, but leads from the one to the other. Jehovah is terrible when He reveals Himself in the majesty of Judge of the world. The suffix appended to עליהם does not refer to עם יהוה, but to the להם in Zep 2:10, answering to the Moabites and Ammonites. Jehovah proves Himself terrible to these, because He has resolved to destroy all the gods of the earth. Râzâh, to make lean; hence to cause to vanish, to destroy. He causes the gods to vanish, by destroying the nations and kingdoms who relied upon these gods. He thereby reveals the nothingness of the gods, and brings the nations to acknowledge His sole deity (Mic 5:12). The fall of the false gods impels to the worship of the one true God. וישׁתּחווּ לו is the consequence, the fruit, and the effect of Jehovah's proving Himself terrible to the nations and their gods. איּי הגּוים, islands of the Gentiles, is an epithet taken from the islands and coastlands of Europe, to denote the whole of the heathen world (see at Isa 41:1). The distributive עישׁ ממּקומו refers to haggōyı̄m as the principal idea, though not in the sense of "every nation," but in that of every individual belonging to the nations. Mimmeqōmō, coming from his place: the meaning is not that the nations will worship Jehovah at their own place, in their own lands, in contradistinction to Mic 4:1; Zac 14:16, and other passages, where the nations go on pilgrimage to Mount Zion (Hitzig); but their going to Jerusalem is implied in the min (from), though it is not brought prominently out, as being unessential to the thought. With regard to the fulfilment, Bucer has correctly observed, that "the worship of Jehovah on the part of the heathen is not secured without sanguinary wars, that the type may not be taken for the fact itself, and the shadow for the body .... But the true completion of the whole in the kingdom of Christ takes place here in spirit and in faith, whilst in the future age it will be consummated in all its reality and in full fruition." Theodoret, on the other hand, is too one-sided in his view, and thinks only of the conversion of the heathen through the preaching of the gospel. "This prophecy," he says, "has received its true fulfilment through the holy apostles, and the saints who have followed them; ... and this takes place, not by the law, but by the teaching of the gospel."”