364 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
will He f etc/i tJiee ; and Jehovah thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shaft possess it ; and He will do thee good, and multiply tJiee above thy fathers." *
And He will do this, He says, because " / have redeemed them " with a full and complete redemption, not only from outward captivity, but "from all their iniquities" 2 so that they shall be known and called in that day " The holy people, the redeemed of Jehovah " henceforth to serve and glorify Him, " Who hath ransomed them from the hand of him that was stronger than he." 3
And when thus redeemed and gathered in their own land again, "they shall increase as they have increased" - which latter phrase, as already Kimchi in his commentary explains, is meant to remind us of God s wonderful and gracious dealings with them during the last days of their sojourn in Egypt, where " the children of Israel were fruit ful" because of the blessings of Jehovah upon them, " and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding miglity ; and the land ivas filled with them." 4 And thus, again after the future greater redemption, the spared remnant, who shall have been brought through the fiery purging ordeal described in the last chapters of this very prophecy, shall increase mightily, even " as they have increased " (that is, in Egypt), and become a mighty nation on the earth.
And this increase will characterise the seed of Israel in a striking degree, even while still scattered among the nations. This I believe to be the meaning of the words which follow in the Qth verse: "And I vvill sow them among the peoples ; and they shall remember Me in far countries : and they shall live with their children, and sJiall return! The controversy among commentators as to whether the expression, " / will sow them among the peoples" is to be understood as a prediction of a scattering of the people among the nations subsequent to the partial
1 Deut. xxx. 4, 5. 2 Ps> cxxx g
3 Isa. Ixii. 12 ; Jer. xxxi. u. 4 Ex. i. 7.
