In accordance with which follows,

2. A prediction of the future restoration of the people Israel, implied in that same mention of their land and "the holy Mountain"; ver. 11-end:

11. "And it shall come to pass in that day,

That the Lord shall set His hand again, the second time,
To recover the remnant of His people which shall be left,
From Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and
from Cush,

And from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath,
and from the isles of the sea1.

12. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, And he shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,

And gather together the dispersed of Judah

From the four corners of the earth.

13. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart,

And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off:

Ephraim shall not envy Judah,

And Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

14. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines towards the west;

They shall spoil them of the east together:

They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab;

And the children of Ammon shall obey them.

15. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea;*

And with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river,"

1 Rather, "the western regions": see First Series of these Lectures, Lect. VI. p. 127, note.

" Or "extremities"; "the ends of the earth" Job xxxvii. 3; &c. Or "the hostile of Judah" those of them hostile to "Ephraim" or Israel: compare ch. xxix. 19, Heb. &c. (Henderson and Hengstenberg.)

And shall smite it in the seven streams,'

And make men go over dryshod.

16. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people which shall be left from Assyria

Like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."

I say a prediction of the future restoration of that people determined by several distinct and unequivocal proofs: viz.2

First-That it is a restoration, not from one country or region only, but "from the four quarters of the earth ;" answering to their present dispersion, but not to the captivity in Babylon: ver. 11, 12.

Second-The formal reunion of "Ephraim", or Israel, and "Judah", which has never taken place since the separation of the two kingdoms: ver. 13. (Compare the remarkable prophecy of this event Ezek. xxxvii. 16-19, and context.)

Third-The triumphant character of their return, specially as regards those countries or districts which of old harboured enemies to the nation: ver. 14.

Fourth-The miraculous circumstances attending it, such as to render it a parallel even to their "coming up out of the land of Egypt," ver. 15, 16: -a second Exodus to put it out of mind; as said

1

Or, "into seven streams", Bp. Lowth, Hengstenberg, and Henderson, with Vitringa.

* These have been noticed in quoting this passage in a former Work-Lectures on the Second Advent and attendant Events,' Lect. V,-but are here recapitulated.

in another prophecy of it, quoted also, with this, on a former occasion1-Jer. xxiii. 5-8; and where it stands in the same connection, with the kingdom of "The Branch" to be raised unto David :

5. "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a KING shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

6. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD

OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

7. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

8. But, The LORD liveth, which brought up, and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land."

And last, and most conclusive of all, is the context in which it stands-the words " And it shall come to pass in that day" : by which it is determined to take place subsequent to that event which is the theme of the foregoing part of the chapter, the coming of the Messiah. For even they who can see there only His first coming must admit that there has been no semblance of a fulfilment of this section of it since then: but, on the contrary, (as already observed) the First Advent was the day of that people's visitation, and of that dispersion their recovery from which is here foretold, but which still continues. An accumulation of evidence so decisive, that on this single chapter-read as one

1 See the first Series of these Lectures: Lect. VI., pp. 127— 129, and the prophecies referred to in the Appendix there.

context, this question might confidently be left to rest.1 (Appendix II.).

The Prophecy concludes with a song of Praise, contained in chap. xii. and which (though separated from it by the division of the chapters) is also

1

Accordingly, those who, with Dr. Henderson, would represent this prophecy to have been fulfilled in the return from Babylon, are obliged (notwithstanding the words "and in that day" ver. 10) to take it out of its context, and to assume that it is a distinct prophecy of events interposed between the prophet's time and the appearance of the Messiah predicted ver. 1– 9'! added to the necessity they are under of altogether ignoring the wonders by which it is paralleled to the first Exodus ver. 11 and 15.

The only alternative is the supposition that the whole is a figurative representation, under images borrowed from the Exodus from Egypt, of the spiritual conversion of the Jews: which some, with Jerome, maintain took place at the first Advent (hæc omnia in primo intelligamus adventu'); while others, with Vitringa and Hengstenberg, admit a further fulfilment in a more general conversion of them yet future,—but still to the exclusion of their restoration. An exposition which so wrests the Text from its plain meaning as to be utterly inadmissible.

Bp. Lowth with more candour says "This part of the prophecy (ver 11-end) contains a prophecy which certainly remains yet to be accomplished.' And in what sense, he tells us, by a reference to Lowth the elder (Comment. by Patrick, Lowth, and Whitby) in loco, who says 'I take this part of the chapter, from the 10th verse onward, to foretell those glorious times which shall be ushered in by the restoration of the Jewish nation: when they shall embrace the Gospel and be restored to their own country from the several dispersions where they are scattered'. And on verse 11, "Again the second time”— The words imply that this shall be as great a deliverance as that out of Egypt: (Compare Ps. lxviii. 23; Micah vii. 15).'

proved to belong to this same context, and to be a continuation of chapter xi. by the same words, "And in that day," which introduce it; here for the third time repeated, and again ver. 4:

1. "And in that day thou shalt say :

O Lord I will praise Thee: though Thou wast angry with

me,

Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortedst me. 2. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid:

For the LORD' JEHOVAH is my strength and my song;

He also is become my salvation.

3. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water

Out of the wells of salvation.

4. And in that day shall ye say:

Praise the LORD, call upon His name; declare His doings among the people,

Make mention that His name is exalted.

5. Sing unto the LORD; for He hath done excellent things: This is known in all the earth.

6. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion:

For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."

Where, (notwithstanding the claim made for an exclusive application to the Christian Church), that it is the song of the people Israel is evident, independent of the context, from the first verse,— "Though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away and Thou comfortedst me." And, more express still, the last-the call to praise addressed to the "inhabitant of Zion"; and its theme "The Holy One of Israel." Besides the distinct mention again of the Gentiles, ver. 4,

'Heb. " JAH," as Ps. lxviii. 4, where see Note in 'Commentary.'