According to the explanatory fourth clause, the "adversaries of Judah" in the second clause, can only be those among Judah who vex Ephraim. At the very beginning of the separation of the two kingdoms, their future reunion had been announced by a prophet; and this must now take place as certainly as Jehovah is God, who had promised to David and his house the eternal dominion over all Israel. The separation had taken place because the house of David had become unfaithful to its vocation. In the Messiah, the promise, to the Davidic race is to be completely realized; _and this realization has_, for its necessary consequence, the _removal for ever_ of the separation; comp. Ezek. xxxvii. 22. It was a _prelude_ to the fulfilment, that a portion of the subjects of the kingdom of the ten tribes united with Judah in all those times when, in the blessing accompanying the enterprises of a pious son of David, the promise granted to David was, in some measure realized,--as was the case under Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Even before Christ appeared in the flesh, the announcement here made was all but realized. The exile put an end to the kingdom of the ten tribes, and hence also to the unnatural separation which had been designated as the severest calamity of the past, chap. vii. 17. The other tribes [Pg 131] joined Judah and the restored sanctuary; comp. Acts xxvi. 7; Luke ii. 36. The name of "_Jews_" passed over to the whole nation; the jealousy disappeared. This blessing was conferred upon the people for Christ's sake, and with a view to His future appearance. In Christ, the bond of union and communion is so firmly formed that no new discord can alienate the hearts from one another. Ver. 14. "_And they fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the West, spoil together the children of the East; Edom and Moab shall be their assault, the children of Ammon their obedience._"