In this verse, the reason of the people's joy announced in the preceding verse is stated: it is the deliverance from the world's power, under the oppression of which they groaned, or, in point of fact, were to groan. He who imposes the _yoke_ and the _staff_, the _driver_, (an allusion to the Egyptian taskmasters, masters, comp. Exod. iii. 7; v. 10), is Asshur, and the _whole_ world's power hostile to the Kingdom of God, which is represented by him, and which by Christ was to receive, and has received, a mortal blow. A prelude to the fulfilment took place by the defeat of Sennacherib under Hezekiah, comp. chap. x. 5, 24, 27; xiv. 25. After him. Babel had to experience [Pg 84] the destructive power of the Lord, the single phases of which, pervading, as they do, all history, are here comprehended in one great act. Although the definitive fulfilment begins first with the appearance of Christ in the flesh, who spoke to His people: θαρσεῖτε, ἐγὼ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον, yet after what we remarked on ver. 2, we are fully entitled to consider the former catastrophes also of the kingdoms of the world as preludes to the real fulfilment.--שכם "shoulder" does not suit as the _membrum cui verbera infliguntur_; it comes, as is commonly the case, into consideration as that member with which burdens are borne. The _staff_ or tyranny is a heavy _burden_, comp. chap. x. 27: "His burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder." "_As in the day of Midian_" is equivalent to: as thou once didst break the yoke of Midian. This event was especially fitted to serve as a type of the glorious future victory over the world's power, partly because the oppression by Midian was very hard,--according to Judges vii. 12, Midian, Amalek, and the sons of the East broke in upon the land like grasshoppers for multitude, and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside for multitude--partly because the help of the Lord (_thou_ hast broken) was at that time specially visible. "I will be with thee," says the Lord to Gideon in Judges vi. 16, "and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man;" and Judges vii. 2: "The people that are with thee are too many, as that I could give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying: Mine own hand hath saved me." Vers. 4, (5). "_For every war-shoe put on with noise, and the garment rolled in blood: it is for burning, food of fire._"