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The wall, or, the walls, (the singular number for the plural, than which nothing more frequent,) of the city; or of some great castle or fort in or near the city, in which they were now fortifying themselves; or of some part of the city where they lay. Which might possibly happen through natural causes; but most probably was effected by the mighty power of God, then sending some sudden earthquake, or violent storm of wind, which threw down the wall, or walls, upon them; or doing this by the ministry of angels; which cannot be incredible to any man, except to him that denies the truth of all the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament; which being attested, many of them, by Jews and heathens, it is the height of folly and impudence to deny. For if ever miracle was to be wrought, now seems to have been the proper time and season for it; when the blasphemous Syrians denied the sovereign and infinite power of God, and thereby in some sort obliged him, for his own honour, to give a proof of it; and to show that he was the God of the plains as well as of the mountains, and that he could as effectually destroy them in their strongest holds as in the open fields, and make the very walls, to whose strength they trusted for their defence, to be the instruments of their ruin. But it may be further observed, that it is not said that all these were killed by the fall of this wall; but only that the wall fell upon them, killing some, and wounding others, as is usual in those cases. Nor is it necessary that the wall should fall upon every individual person; but it is sufficient to justify this phrase, if it fell upon the main body of them; for the words in the Hebrew ran thus,
the wall fell upon twenty-seven thousand (not of the men that are left, as we render it, but) which were left of that great army. Into the city; either,
1. Out of the fields, as the rest of his army did; which is distinctly and particularly noted of him, because he was the most eminent person in it, and the head of it. Compare the title of Psa_18:1. Or,
2. At and from the noise and report of that terrible fall of the wall, or walls; which possibly might be in the outside or suburbs of the city; from whence he fled further into the city.
Into an inner chamber; or, a chamber within a chamber; where he supposed he might lie hid, till he had an opportunity of making an escape, or of obtaining mercy.