Behold upon the mountains
Of the land of Israel, as the Targum; or those about Jerusalem: the feet of him that bringeth good tidings;
see how they come one after another with the news of the havoc and slaughter made in the army of Sennacherib by an angel in one night; of his flight, and of the dealt, of him by the hands of his two sons; and, after that, of the destruction of Nineveh, and of the whole Assyrian empire; all which were good tidings to the Jews, to whom the Assyrians were implacable enemies, and whose power the Jews dreaded; and therefore it must be good news to them to hear of their defeat and ruin, and the messengers that brought it must be welcome to them: that publisheth peace;
to the Jewish nation, who might from hence hope for peaceable and prosperous times: like expressions with these are used in ( Isaiah 52:7 ) on account of the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; and are applied by the apostle to Gospel times and Gospel preachers, ( Romans 10:15 ) as these may also, and express the good tidings of victory obtained by Christ over sin, Satan, the world, hell and death; and of salvation wrought out, and peace made by him; it being usual for the prophets abruptly and at once to rise from temporal to spiritual and eternal things, particularly to what concern the Messiah, and the Gospel dispensation; (See Gill on Isaiah 52:7): O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts;
of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles; which had been interrupted or omitted through the invasion of the land, and the siege of Jerusalem, by the enemy; but now, he being gone and slain, they had full liberty, and were at leisure to attend these solemnities: perform thy vows;
which they had made when in distress, when the enemy was in their land, and before their city; promising what they would do, if it pleased God to deliver them out of his hands, and now they were delivered; and therefore it was incumbent on them to make good their promises, and especially to offer up their thanksgivings to God for such a mercy; see ( Psalms 50:14 ) ( Psalms 66:13 Psalms 66:14 ) ( Ecclesiastes 5:4 Ecclesiastes 5:5 ) : for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut
off;
or Belial, the counsellor of Belial, as in ( Nahum 1:11 ) the king of Assyria; who, though he had passed through their land, had invaded it, and made devastation in it, should do so no more; being dead, cut off in a judicial way, through the just judgment of God, suffering his sons to take away his life while in the midst of his idolatrous worship; and this may reach, not only to him, and his seed after him, being wholly cut off, but to the whole Assyrian empire, who should none of them ever give any further trouble to Judah.
