And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,.... That is, the military one; signifying that wars shall cease, Ps 46:9:and the horse from Jerusalem; the warlike one; see Mic 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 Isa 11:13: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; not only the church of Christ, gathered out of the Jews, should enjoy great spiritual peace, prosperity, and safety; but the Gentiles also should share in it, to whom Christ went, and preached peace; not in his own person, being the minister of the circumcision: but by his apostles, who had the ministration of reconciliation committed to them; and being sent forth by Christ, went everywhere preaching peace by him, who is Lord of all, unto all nations; see Eph 2:17:and his dominion [shall be] from sea [even] to sea, and from the river [even] to the ends of the earth; according to Aben Ezra, from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth: or, as Kimchi cites him, from the south sea, called the sea of Edom, to the north sea, which is the sea of the ocean; from the river that goes out from Eden, which is at the beginning of the east, unto the ends of the earth, which is the end of the west: or, as the Targum paraphrases it,"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 Ps 72:8.
This and the preceding clause are allowed to belong to the Messiah, by a modern Jewish writer . R. Isaac, Chizzuk Emuna, par. 1. c. 1. p. 43, 44. So Kimchi in Isa. lxv.