John Gill Bible Commentary

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense,.... Or, I will repay, or recompence, as it is quoted in Rom 12:19; and so all the three Targums, the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, here, and so Jarchi interprets it. Vengeance belongs only to a divine Person, not to an Heathen deity called Dice, or vengeance, Act 28:4; nor to Satan and his spiteful angels, nor to any of the sons of men in a private capacity; though magistrates, being in public office, and representing God, are revengers to execute wrath on them that do evil, Rom 13:4; otherwise it is peculiar to God; and there is a great deal of reason to believe he will recompence it, as it may be concluded from his hatred of sin, his strict justice, and his faithfulness to his threatenings as well as his promises; from the instances of his vengeance on the old world, on Sodom and Gomorrah, and others; and from his taking vengeance on the inventions even of good men, whose sins he pardons, and especially from his sparing his own Son, when standing in the legal place and, stead of sinners: and this is applicable to Christ, who not only in the days of his flesh took vengeance Satan, and his principalities and powers; and, when he came in his kingdom and power, took vengeance on the Jews his enemies, who would not have him to rule over them; but also, at his spiritual coming, he will take vengeance on antichrist, whom he will destroy with the breath of his mouth, and send that son of perdition into the perdition appointed for him; and pour out the vials of his wrath on all the antichristian states, the time of which is next pointed at: their foot shall slide in due time; there is a time fixed for the reign of antichrist, when it will end, forty two months, or 1260 days; that is, so many years; see Rev 11:2; and a little before the expiration of them, his foot will begin to slide, as the slipping of the foot is just before a fall; and then will the foot of antichrist slip and slide, when the witnesses slain by him shall revive and stand upon their feet, and cause fear to fall on them that are on the earth; and when they shall ascend up into heaven, or rise to superior power and authority, greatness and splendour, than they formerly had, and this in the sight of their enemies; and when there will be earthquakes and revolutions in the several antichristian states; and the tenth part of the great city shall fall, and many persons of renown be slain, and others frightened, and will give glory to the God of heaven; when an angel, or a set of Gospel ministers, shall fly in the midst of heaven, with the everlasting Gospel, to preach to all nations; which will be immediately followed by another, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; when the kings of the earth will dislike and resent various things done by the pope of Rome, and shall hate him, and meditate his ruin, and then may his foot be said to slide; see. Rev 11:11, for the day of their calamity is at hand; a cloudy day, as the word signifies, when the kingdom of the beast will be full of darkness and confusion, Rev 16:10; and when all those calamities shall come upon Babylon, expressed in Rev 14:8, and the things that shall come upon them make haste; even all those evil things God has determined in his counsels and purposes, and which are foretold in prophecy, these shall come upon antichrist in haste; for, though his judgment and damnation may seem to linger and slumber, it shall not; God will hasten it in his due time, and all his judgments will come on Babylon in one day, Rev 18:8.