To me [belongeth] vengeance and recompense
Or, I will repay, or recompence, as it is quoted in ( Romans 12:19
) ( Hebrews
10:30 ) ; and so all the three Targums, the Septuagint and
Vulgate Latin versions, here, and so Jarchi interprets it.
Vengeance belongs only to a divine Person, not to an Heathen
deity called Dice, or vengeance, ( Acts 28:4 ) ; nor to
Satan and his spiteful angels, nor to any of the sons of men in a
private capacity; though magistrates, being in public office, and
representing God, are revengers to execute wrath on them that do
evil, ( Romans
13:4 ) ; otherwise it is peculiar to God; and there is a
great deal of reason to believe he will recompence it, as it may
be concluded from his hatred of sin, his strict justice, and his
faithfulness to his threatenings as well as his promises; from
the instances of his vengeance on the old world, on Sodom and
Gomorrah, and others; and from his taking vengeance on the
inventions even of good men, whose sins he pardons, and
especially from his sparing his own Son, when standing in the
legal place and, stead of sinners: and this is applicable to
Christ, who not only in the days of his flesh took vengeance
Satan, and his principalities and powers; and, when he came in
his kingdom and power, took vengeance on the Jews his enemies,
who would not have him to rule over them; but also, at his
spiritual coming, he will take vengeance on antichrist, whom he
will destroy with the breath of his mouth, and send that son of
perdition into the perdition appointed for him; and pour out the
vials of his wrath on all the antichristian states, the time of
which is next pointed at:
their foot shall slide in [due] time;
there is a time fixed for the reign of antichrist, when it will
end, forty two months, or 1260 days; that is, so many years; see
( Revelation 11:2 ) (
13:5 ) ; and a little
before the expiration of them, his foot will begin to slide, as
the slipping of the foot is just before a fall; and then will the
foot of antichrist slip and slide, when the witnesses slain by
him shall revive and stand upon their feet, and cause fear to
fall on them that are on the earth; and when they shall ascend up
into heaven, or rise to superior power and authority, greatness
and splendour, than they formerly had, and this in the sight of
their enemies; and when there will be earthquakes and revolutions
in the several antichristian states; and the tenth part of the
great city shall fall, and many persons of renown be slain, and
others frightened, and will give glory to the God of heaven; when
an angel, or a set of Gospel ministers, shall fly in the midst of
heaven, with the everlasting Gospel, to preach to all nations;
which will be immediately followed by another, saying, Babylon is
fallen, is fallen; when the kings of the earth will dislike and
resent various things done by the pope of Rome, and shall hate
him, and meditate his ruin, and then may his foot be said to
slide; see. ( Revelation
11:11 Revelation
11:13 ) (
14:6-8 ) ( 17:16 ) ;
for the day of their calamity [is] at hand;
a cloudy day, as the word signifies, when the kingdom of the
beast will be full of darkness and confusion, ( Revelation
16:10 ) ; and when all those calamities shall come upon
Babylon, expressed in ( Revelation
14:8-19 ) ;
and the things that shall come upon them make
haste;
even all those evil things God has determined in his counsels and
purposes, and which are foretold in prophecy, these shall come
upon antichrist in haste; for, though his judgment and damnation
may seem to linger and slumber, it shall not; God will hasten it
in his due time, and all his judgments will come on Babylon in
one day, ( Revelation
18:8 ) .