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make them dwell," and " I will bring them back " both ideas, as already the Jewish commentator Kimchi points out, being expressed in the one word, namely, " He will cause them to return to their own land, and will cause them to dwell there in peace and security."
And He will do all this strengthen, save, restore, and establish them, because " He shall have mercy upon them" for, " The goodness and loving-kindness of God, and not any merit of theirs, is the first and principal cause" of Israel s whole salvation and grace, and the words of the inspired Psalmist : " They got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them " ; but
" Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy
countenance, Because Thou hadst a favour unto them "
will be true of the future restoration, as it was true of their original possession of the land !
And His mercy and loving-kindness will blot out all the past of sin and sorrow. " And they shall be," He says, " as though I had not cast them off" (or, literally, " as though I had not loathed them," the word being expressive of God s strong abhorrence of sin, and of sinners when they become wedded to it) which reminds us of the greater promise of the new covenant : " / will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more " ; * and of the promise in Ezekiel : "And 7 will settle you as in your old estates, and I will do better unto you than at your beginnings" 2
The 5th verse ends with a beautiful glimpse of the restored relationship between Jehovah and His long- wandering people :
" For I am JeJwvah" that is, the everlasting, un changeable, covenant-keeping God which is the reason why the sinful sons of Jacob have not been consumed. And He is now " their God" for the Lo-ruhamah and Lo- ammi period of Israel s history shall then be ended, and no
1 Jer. xxxi. 34. 2 Ezek. xxxvi. II.
