Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 1:51

"He hath showed strength with his arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart." — Luke 1:51 (ASV)

He hath shewed strength.—Literally, He effected strength. Here the parallelism with 1 Samuel 2:3 becomes very close. Whom the speaker thought of as among the “proud,” we cannot know. They may have been the potentates of the world in which she lived, Herod and the Emperor of Rome. They may have been the men of Jerusalem, who despised Galilee; or those of the other towns and villages of Galilee, who despised Nazareth; or, though less probably, those of Nazareth itself, who despised the carpenter and his betrothed.