And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
That is, the military one; signifying that wars shall cease, ( Psalms 46:9 ) : and the horse from Jerusalem;
the warlike one; see ( Micah 5:10 ) . Ephraim designs the ten tribes, and Jerusalem stands for the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; and the sense is, that these shall be one in the days of the Messiah, as Kimchi observes; and that all instruments of war shall be removed from them, and there shall be an entire peace between them; see ( Isaiah 11:13 ) ( Ezekiel 37:16 Ezekiel 37:19 ) : and the battle bow shall be cut off;
another instrument of war. The Targum paraphrases it,
``I will break the strength of those that make war, the armies of the people;''all this does not design so much the outward peace that should be in the world at the birth of Christ, as the spiritual peace of his kingdom; and that, as it is not of this world, so neither is it spread, supported, and defended by carnal weapons; and also the peaceableness and safety of his subjects, and the destruction of their enemies: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen;
``from the sea to the west, and from Euphrates to the ends of the earth.''The phrases are expressive of the extensiveness of Christ's dominion, through the preaching of the Gospel, both in Judea and in the Gentile world, before the destruction of Jerusalem; and especially in the latter day; see ( Psalms 72:8 ) . This and the preceding clause are allowed to belong to the Messiah, by a modern Jewish writer F9.