1 At theWhen this noble governor will come, meaning Christ, not only Judah and Israel, but the rest of the world will be called.same time, saith the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus saith the LORD, The people [who were]Who were delivered from the cruelty of Pharaoh.left by the sword found grace in the wilderness;That is, God.[even] Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
3 The LORD appearedThe people thus reason as though he were not so beneficial to them now as he had been of old.of old to me, [saying],Thus the Lord answers that his love is not changeable.I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt againYou will still have opportunity to rejoice which is meant by tabrets and dancing as their custom was after notable victories, (Exo_15:20; Jdg_11:34).be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains ofBecause the Israelites who were the ten tribes never returned to Samaria, therefore this must be spiritually understood under the kingdom of Christ, which was the restoration of the true Israel.Samaria: the planters shall plant, andThat is, will eat the fruit of it, as in (Lev_19:23-25; Deu_20:6).shall eat [them] as common things.
6 For there shall be a day, [that] theThe ministers of the word.watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up toThey will exhort all to the embracing of the gospel, as in (Isa_2:3).Zion to the LORD our God.
7 He shows what will be the concord and love of all under the gospel when none will be refused for their infirmities: and everyone will exhort one another to embrace it.For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: proclaim ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
8 Beholde, I will bring them from the North countrey, and gather them from the coastes of the world, with the blinde & the lame among them, with the woman with childe, and her that is deliuered also: a great companie shall returne hither.
9 They shall come withThat is, lamenting their sins which had not given ear to the prophets and therefore it follows that God received them to mercy, (Jer_50:4). Some take it that they should weep for joy.weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers ofWhere they found no impediments, but abundance of all things.waters in a straight way, in which they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim [is]That is, my dearly beloved as the first child is to the father.my firstborn.
10 Heare the worde of the Lord, O ye Gentiles, and declare in the yles afarre off, and say, Hee that scattered Israel, wil gather him and wil keepe him, as a shepheard doeth his flocke.
11 For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the handThat is, from the Babylonians and other enemies.of [him that was] stronger than he.
12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, forBy these temporal benefits he means the spiritual graces which are in the Church, and of which there would ever be plenty, (Isa_58:11-12).grain, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in theIn the company of the faithful, who ever praise God for his benefits.dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 And I will abundantly satisfy the soul of the priests withMeaning, the spirit of wisdom, knowledge and zeal.fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.
15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, [and] bitter weeping;To declare the greatness of God's mercy in delivering the Jews, he shows them that they were like the Benjamites of the Israelites, that is, utterly destroyed and carried away, so much so that if Rachel the mother of Benjamin could have risen again to seek her children she would have found none remaining.Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they [were] not.
16 Thus saith the Lorde, Refraine thy voyce from weeping, and thine eyes from teares: for thy worke shalbe rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come againe from the land of the enemie:
17 And there is hope in thine ende, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come againe to their owne borders.
18 I have surely heardThat is, the people who were led captive.Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus]; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as aWhich was wanton and could not be subject to the yoke.bull unaccustomed [to the yoke]:He shows how the faithful used to pray, that is, desire God to tame them as they cannot turn of themselves.turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou [art] the LORD my God.
19 Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote upon [my]In sign of repentance and detestation of my sin.thigh: I was ashamed, and even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.
20 [Is] EphraimAs though he would say no for by his iniquity he did what lay in him to cast me off.my dear son? [is he] a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestlyThat is, in piety of him for my promise’s sake.remember him still: therefore my heart is troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.
21 Set thee upMark by what way you went into captivity and you will turn again by the same.waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thy heart toward the highway, [even] the way [which] thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
22 How long wilt thou wander about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath createdBecause their deliverance from Babylon was a figure of their deliverance from sin, he shows how this would be procured that is, by Jesus Christ, whom a woman would conceive and bear in her womb. Which is a strange thing in earth, because he would be born of a virgin without man or he means that Jerusalem which was like a barren woman in her captivity would be fruitful as she that is joined in marriage and whom God blesses with children.a new thing in the earth, A woman shall encompass a man.
23 Thus saith the Lord of hostes, the God of Israel, Yet shall they say this thing in the land of Iudah, and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring againe their captiuitie, The Lorde blesse thee, O habitation of iustice and holy mountaine.
24 And Iudah shall dwell in it, and all the cities thereof together, the husbandmen and they that goe foorth with the flocke.
25 For I haue saciate the wearie soule, and I haue replenished euery sorowfull soule.
26 Upon this I awoke, and beheld; and my sleepHaving understood this vision of the Messiah to come, in whom the two houses of Israel and Judah would be joined, I rejoiced.was sweet to me.
27 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of JudahI will multiply and enrich them with people and cattle.with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
28 And like as I haue watched vpon them, to plucke vp and to roote out, and to throw downe, and to destroy, and to plague them, so wil I watch ouer them, to build & to plant them, saith ye Lord.
29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers haveThe wicked used this proverb when they murmured against God's judgments pronounced by the prophets, saying that their fathers had committed the fault and that the children were punished, (Eze_18:2-3).eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
30 But euery one shall die for his owne iniquitie: euery man that eateth the sowre grape, his teeth shalbe set on edge.
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make aThough the covenant of redemption made to the fathers and this which was given later seemed varied, yet they are all one and grounded on Jesus Christ, save that this is called new, because of the manifestation of Christ and the abundant graces of the Holy Spirit given to his Church under the gospel.new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day [that] I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant theyAnd so were the opportunity of their own divorcement through their infidelity, (Isa_50:1).broke, although I was an husband to them, saith the LORD:
33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; AfterIn the time of Christ, my law will instead of tables of stone be written in their hearts by my Holy Spirit, (Heb_8:10).those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shallUnder the kingdom of Christ there will be no one blinded with ignorance, but I will give them faith, and acknowledge God for remission of their sins and daily increase the same: so that it will not seem to come so much by the preaching of my ministers as by the instruction of my Holy Spirit, (Isa_54:13) but the full accomplishing of it is referred to the kingdom of Christ, when we will be joined with our head.teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
35 Thus saith the LORD, who givethIf the sun, moon and stars cannot but glue light according to my ordinance, so long as this world lasts, so shall my church never fail, neither shall anything hinder it: and as sure as I will have a people, so certain is it, that I will leave them my word forever to govern them with.the sun for a light by day, [and] the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The LORD of hosts [is] his name:
36 If these ordinances depart out of my sight, saith the Lorde, then shall the seede of Israel cease from being a nation before me, for euer.
37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured,The one and the other is impossible.and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
38 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that theAs it was performed, (Neh_3:1). By this description he shows that the city would be as ample and beautiful as it ever was: but he alludes to the spiritual Jerusalem whose beauty would be incomparable.city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner.
39 And the line of the measure shal go foorth in his presence vpon the hil Gareb, and shall compasse about to Goath.
40 And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, & all the fields vnto the brooke of Kidron, and vnto the corner of the horsegate toward the East, shalbe holy vnto the Lorde, neither shal it be plucked vp nor destroyed any more for euer.
