Zech. 14:1

1 Behold, the day [yowm] of the LORD [Yahovah] cometh [bow'], and thy spoil [shalal] shall be divided [chalaq] in the midst [qereb] of thee. KJV-Interlinear

1 Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. NASB

When the Northern armies invade Israel, at the end of the Tribulation, they will pass through rapidly on their way into Northern Africa. Jerusalem and most of Israel will be passed by and left to cleanup units bringing up the rear of the army s advance.

Then the Western and Eastern powers will counterattack into the Northern army s center, and that will cause them to halt their advance, turn around and return to the point of the counter offensives set against them.

Jerusalem and Judah will be caught in the middle of all of the chaos.

We have already seen that two-thirds of the population of the city of Jerusalem will fall to the enemy. They will be captured, taken captive, raped, beaten, killed and probably worse will happen to them. More on those events, will be covered in the next few verses.

The Northern army will take all of the goods that they have captured, and divide them amongst themselves. This dividing up, will occur right in the city itself. Thus, the spoils of Jerusalem will be divided up between the enemy soldiers, while standing among the residents of the city. They will divide up all of the goods while still inside the city and while still fighting against everyone.

So during the attack, enemy soldiers will run in and out of buildings while fighting. They will be taking the goods they find, raping women that they happen upon. All of this activity speaks of a highly undisciplined, poorly led, and ruthless army.

Rather than fighting as a unit, moving from one objective to the next, these folks will be acting like mercenaries, in the fight for themselves and for no other reason. They happen to be a part of an army, where they probably had to enlist in, in order to get food and clothing for themselves.

Remember that the state of the world, by this time in the Tribulation, is extremely depressing. People starving everywhere. Storms having taken out most of the necessary utility services, roads and bridges damaged, goods and services being hard to find, and the anti-christ having outlawed anyone from trading, neither buying nor selling, unless they have registered under his terms, and so forth.

This will force a huge black market operation in all kinds of goods. Huge numbers of folks will join the army, or other government organizations, just to be able to get food and the necessary basics of life. The result? A huge number of untrained, undisciplined, and somewhat disorganized personnel in the armed services, whose leadership over them, is severely lacking.

Without moral standards or training, they will be no better than roving armed gangs, in uniforms, wrecking havoc on the general population, because they will have weapons combined with an evil and extremely selfish attitude toward everyone they meet.

This should tell us something about the armies of the king of the south, who were easily overrun in the initial invasion actions. Those southern army personnel will be in even worse shape with respect to probably all aspects of a military structure.

The army that rapes and pillages while on the move, is a mercenary minded army. They have no loyalties to their country, their cause, or anything but themselves. They will kill, rape, and take as they please. They are the worst kind of army that can advance on a defenseless society

This also indicates the kind of stress and fear that the residents of Judah and Jerusalem will be experiencing. With threats all around, with an army that is comfortable in the ease of their ruthless actions, there will be little opportunity for rest or peace from the tensions. And, by the way, these events will continue for probably several days or even weeks.

For a period of time, the army of the north will have their way with the public. Some folks will even try to gain some business or trading advantage, with these invading forces, and many will fall to the ruthlessness s of the invaders. The oppressed people will receive some relief when the powers to the west and to the east, attack, and distract the northern army s attention, away from the local scene, to the region north of Jerusalem.

In addition, one more point. What goes around comes around. For now, the invading armies will take from the residents of Israel. However, very soon, after Christ returns, then the tables will be turned and all of the spoils taken, will be re-divided up amongst those who will be delivered. In fact, they will have an entire planet full of spoils, to divide up amongst themselves.

Now is the time to post a prayer.