זכריה, פרק י״ד, פסוק ג׳

At the height of a profound crisis, when half of Jerusalem has already been forced into exile, the tide suddenly turns. Driven by a deep zeal for His people, God seemingly leaves His place in heaven to openly reveal Himself and fight their enemies [אבן עזרא, ביאור שטיינזלץ, מצודת דוד]. This intervention marks a dramatic shift in divine action. The sheer wickedness of the invading nations is so extreme that it causes God's inherent attribute of mercy to transform into the attribute of strict justice, driving Him to strike back against them [צוארי שלל].

This divine retaliation will unfold across multiple fronts. The destruction will not be confined to the area surrounding Jerusalem. Instead, it will begin as a plague that strikes the invading nations in their own homelands, decimating them before they ever fall in the land of Israel [אהבת יהונתן]. On the battlefield itself, God will cast widespread panic among the enemy ranks, causing the fighters to turn their weapons against one another and destroy themselves from within [מלבי״ם].

The primary approach among commentators links this future confrontation directly to the miracle of the Red Sea. Just as God actively fought the Egyptians who pursued the Israelites, drowning them and leaving their spoils for His people, a similar salvation will occur in the future [רש״י, אבן עזרא, מצודת דוד]. This parallel is not merely historical; it defines the very nature of the conflict. In standard warfare, God might punish a nation's spiritual guardian in heaven, leaving the earthly defeat to human armies. However, just as He did at the Red Sea, God will act directly on both the spiritual and physical fronts, simultaneously humbling the heavenly princes above and destroying the physical armies below [צוארי שלל].

The confrontation is further defined by its intimate intensity. Rather than a standard war conducted from a distance using long-range weapons, this conflict is a close-quarters, face-to-face struggle. God will not defeat the enemies from afar through indirect or natural causes. Instead, He will engage them up close, relying entirely on direct, unmediated miraculous power to secure the final victory [מלבי״ם].