And I will execute vengeance in anger, and fury upon the Heathen,.... Or "nations" ; not the Pagan nations only, but the Papal and Mahometan ones, even all that are enemies to Christ, and his church and people:such as they have not heard; such terrible judgments, and dreadful expressions of divine wrath and fury, by earthquakes, hailstones, &c.
as were never known or heard of in the world before; see Re 16:18; or, "which have not heard" ; the people that have not heard and hearkened to the word of God, to the voice of Christ in the Gospel, but have turned a deaf ear to it, and despised it.
So the Targum,"who have not received the doctrine of the law;''but it is much more agreeable to understand it of the doctrine of the Gospel disobeyed by men, and therefore justly punished; see 2Th 1:8.
Mywgh ta "gentes", Junius & Tremellius. wemv al rva "quae non audierunt", Pagninus, Montanus; "quae non auscultaverint", Junius & Tremellius; "quae non obediverunt", Burkius.