Zechariah 14:14

Heathen - People; nations; non-Jews.

And Judah also shall fight - They shall have little else to do than take the spoil, the wealth of all the heathen round about; gold, silver, and apparel.

And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem - This seems more probable than the alternative rendering of the English margin, "against." For Judah is united with Jerusalem as one, in the same context Zechariah 14:21; and, if it had shared with the pagan, it must also have shared their lot. It is Judah itself, not "a remnant of Judah," as it is "every one that is left of all the nations" Zechariah 14:16, which is thus united to Jerusalem: it is that same Judah, as a whole, of which it is said, "it shall fight." Nor is anything spoken of" conversion," which is said of those left from the pagan nations, who had fought against her. Yet for Judah to have joined an exterminating pagan war against Jerusalem, even though constrained, had, like the constrained sacrifices to pagan gods, been apostasy. But there is not even a hint that, as Jonathan apologetically paraphrases , they were "constrained."

The war is to be Judah's free act: "Judah also shall fight." Again, those gathered against Jerusalem, and their warfare against it, had been described at the outset, as "all nations" (Zechariah 14:2-3 : here the subject is not the gathering or fighting, but the overthrow. Nor is there any decisive contrary idiom; for, although when used of people, it always means "fight against," yet, of place, it as often, means "fight in". Probably then the prophet means, that not only should God fight for His people, but that "Judah also" should do its part, as Paul says, "We, then, as workers together with Him" 2 Corinthians 6:1; and, "we are laborers together with God" 1 Corinthians 3:9; and, "I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me" 1 Corinthians 15:10; or, "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" Philippians 2:12. God so doth all things in the Church, for the conversion of the pagan, and for single souls, as to wait for the cooperation of His creature. : "God made thee without thee; He doth not justify thee without thee."

And the wealth of all the pagan round about shall be gathered - Whatever the world had taken in their war against the Church shall be abundantly repaid. "All the pagan" had combined to plunder Jerusalem; "the wealth of all the pagan" Zechariah 14:2 shall be gathered to requite them. Lap.: "As Isaiah says, The nations, converted to Christ, brought all their wealth to the Church, whence he congratulates the Church, saying, "Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breasts of kings - For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver" Isaiah 60:16-17; under which he typically understands, (Dionysius), "wisdom, philosophy, eloquence, learning, and all the other arts and sciences, liberal and mechanical, wherewith the pagan shall be adorned, who are converted to the faith. So shall the gifts of nature be perfected by the gifts of grace, and 'they' shall defend the Church who erstwhile attacked it."

14:14 Judah - The Jews, and possibly Judas Maccabeus might be intended.