VERSE 11. “And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.” And men] That is, the “nations of the saved.” See Rev. 21:24. There shall be no more utter destruction] This is proof positive that it applies after the final destruction connected with the second advent, when the cities of the nations fall, and there is a consumption from the Lord upon the whole earth. See Rev. 16:19; Isa. 28:22. Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited] That is, the New Jerusalem, which is above. Heb. 11:16; Gal. 4:26. The prophet Isaiah contemplated the same event: “Thine eyes shall see [New] Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.” Isa. 33:20. Read the context. Perhaps it was the intention of the Holy Spirit that verses 10 and 11 should furnish some hope to the Jews after the Babylonish captivity, but in the fullest sense they apply at the end of the 1000 years. VERSE 12. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” The eleventh verse having carried us down into the new-earth state, verse 12 opens a new scene, by taking the mind back. And it may here be remarked that many of the prophecies are not consecutive, but the mind is carried backward and forward, according to the nature of the topic being treated. As it were, these sacred predictions are arranged like a sliding scale. But no prophecy ever goes beyond the commencement of the redeemed state. In the twelfth verse we are taken back to events which occur near old Jerusalem, at the beginning of the day of the Lord, during the pouring out of the seven last plagues. But additional particulars are here introduced, which from the nature of the narrative could not be mentioned at the commencement of the chapter. This shall be the plague] An obvious allusion to the seven last plagues, with their terrible effects. Compare with Rev. 16. The “flesh,” “eyes,” and “tongue,” consuming away, are explained by Rev. 16:8–11. Under the awful effects of the fifth vial, men “gnaw their tongues for pain.” Verse 11 says they “blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores.” Isa. 8:21, points to the same awful event: “They shall pass through it [the time of trouble] hardly bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their King and their God, and look upward.” VERSE 13. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them: and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.” This verse predicts the utter confusion that will exist among the armies of the earth that assemble at the field of Armageddon. Satan is the “head center” of this host, and the gathering will be accomplished through the agency of spiritualism. Rev. 16:13, 14. The hosts of earth gather together to fight against the Lamb and his army, Rev. 19:19, but a general tumult is sent among them by the Lord, and they begin to fight one another. See Eze. 38:21, which doubtless refers to the same event. Isaiah says that then the land “shall be soaked with blood,” chap. 34:7; and John says, “Blood came out of the wine-press, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” Rev. 14:20.