As the mountains [are] round about Jerusalem,.... There was Mount Zion on the side of the north, and the mount of Olives on the east, and other mountains on the other sides of it; so that it was encompassed with them, and was naturally as well as artificially fortified.
Tacitus describes Jerusalem as inaccessible, walls and mountains, rocks and towers, surrounding it: and the poet Coerilus makes mention of a people that spoke the Phoenician language, by whom he plainly means the Jews, oikoun d'en solumoiv oresi, "that inhabited the mountains of Solyma"; which are spoken of by Homer , from whence, according to Tacitus , Jerusalem had its name: yet, as Kimchi observes, this did not hinder the enemy from taking it; wherefore the Lord is a greater security to his people;so the Lord [is] round about his people, from henceforth even for ever; he encompasses them with his favour and lovingkindness as a shield; he encircles them in the arms of everlasting love; he guards them by his providence all around, and keeps a wakeful and watchful eye over them, that nothing hurts them: he keeps them, as in a garrison, by his almighty power: these are the walls that are around them, yea, he himself is a wall of fire about them, and the glory in the midst of them, Zec 2:5; and so he continues; he never leaves his people, nor forsakes them, but is their God and guide even unto death.
The Targum is,"the Word of the Lord is round about his people;''Christ, the essential Word of God. Hist. l. 5. c. 11. Apud Euseb. Praerar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 9. Odyss. 5. v. 283. Ut supra. (Hist. l. 5.
c. 11.