the wounded hands and feet of Him whom they once pierced, shall they fully learn the fulness and manifoldness of God's " mercies."
Two or three particular instances and outward signs of " that all-containing mercy " of His restored presence in their midst, are specially named: (a) " My house shall be built in it, saith Jehovah of hosts" as the visible sign and pledge of the restored fellowship between Him and His people; (b} And " a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem" to mark off the space it is to occupy in its restored condition, and the plan upon which it is to be arranged. (c) And not only shall His house be rebuilt and Jerusalem be restored on a grander scale than before, but all the land is to feel the blessed effect of the restored relations between Jehovah and His people. " Cry yet again, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: MY cities " yes, they are peculiarly His, as is the case with no other land and no other cities, even as the people which shall inhabit it is peculiarly His, above all other nations of the earth " through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad" or "overflow," the word being used of the " gushing forth of a fountain " in Prov. v. 1 6, i.e., they shall overflow, not only with spiritual prosperity, but with houses filled with citizens, and with abundance and plenty, (d) Finally, both as the ground and climax of all, come the last of the "good words." " And Jehovah shall yet comfort Zion" after her long night of sorrow, and however contrary to all appearance and human probability, " shall yet choose Jerusalem" or, by the above enumerated and many other acts of loving-kindness toward her, demonstrate in the sight of the whole world the fact and the immutability of His original choice of her this last sentence being the first of a threefold inspired repetition by Zechariah[1] of the words of Isa. xiv. I, where we read, " For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the stranger shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob."
- ↑ Here and in ii. 12 and iii. 2.
