16 will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror," consumption, and the burning ague [wasting away, and the burning fever'2] that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart [the soul to pine away]: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your 17 enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee 18 when none pursueth you. And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then 19 I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of 20 your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass and your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, 21 neither shall the trees of the land" yield their fruits. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues 22 upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts [animals] among you, which shall rob you of your children [make you childless'], and destroy your 23 cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for 25 your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of

29

Lomit the quarrel of] my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send a pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the 26 hand of the enemy. [:] And [omit And] when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread 27 again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all 28 this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images," and cast your 31 carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries1 unto desolation, and I will 32 not smell the savour of your sweet odours. And I will bring the land into desola33 tion: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

34

18

Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in 35 your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because [all the days of its desolation it shall

TT'.

TT.

11 Ver. 16. For a -terror the Sam. reads sickness as a general term including the specifications that follow. The word is rendered in the A. V. of Jer. xv. 8 as here, and in Ps. 1xxviii. 33; Isa. lxv. 23, trouble. It does not occur elsewhere. The idea is that of "mens' hearts failing them for fear," Luke xxi. 26.

ever,

12 Ver. 16. — wasting away is well expressed by the consumption of the A. V. in its etymological sense, but is in danger of being misunderstood of the specific disease of that name which is rare in Palestine and Syria. The LXX., howLXX. #ʊρeτós, according to all authorities should be burning fever. Fevers are the most common of all diseases in Syria and the neighboring countries. These words occur only in the parallel, Deut. xxviii. 22. 13 Ver. 16. . The literal translation is more expressive than the paraphrase of the A. V.

נקס

14 Ver. 20. For 8 21 MSS. and the LXX. read 777.

16 Ver. 22. D. The literal rendering is sufficient.

16 Ver. 25. 2-opp lit. "avenging the covenant vengeance." As this cannot be expressed in English the is better left untranslated than rendered by quarrel, which it does not mean.

- ז" .

17 Ver. 30. Dn. In most other places where the word occurs (2 Chr. xiv. 5 (4); xxxiv. 4; Isa. xvii. 8; Ezek. vi. 4) the marg, of the A. V. has sun-images. Such was undoubtedly the original meaning of the word; but Gesenius (Thes.) shows that the word was applied to images of Bal and Astarte as the deities of the sun and moon. The word indicates "idols of the Canaanitish nature-worship." Keil.

18 Ver. 30.

something to be rolled about, a contemptuous expression for idols. The Heb. had three different

words which are rendered idol in the A. V., and seven which are rendered image.

19 Ver. 31. More than 50 MSS., the Sam. and the Syr., have the sing. The plural refers to the holy things of the wor ship of Jehovah, the tabernacle and temple, with their altars, and the rest of their holy furniture, as in Ps. lxviii. 36; lxxiv. 6," Keil; and not to the sanctuaries of false gods (Rosen, and others).

20 Ver. 35. Here also it is better to keep to the literal rendering of the Heb. ẽ nhơn nhưn pi-bɔ;

The land should rest not merely because, but it should actually rest the time which it had not rested.

36 rest that which] it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they 37 shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: 38 and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish 39 among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity22 in your23 enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.

40

If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary 41 unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and 42 they then accept" of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept" of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.

44

And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my 45 covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

46

2 Ver. 36. år. Aey. LXX. detdía, Vulg. pavor. It "signifies that inward anguish, fear, and despair, which rend the heart and destroy the life." Keil. Comp. Deut. xxviii. 65.

22 Ver. 39. j is either iniquity (as here twice and in the next verse twice), or the punishment of iniquity (as in ver. 41). The phrase "perish in one's iniquity" is however sufficiently common, and there is no occasion to change the translation with them at the close of the verse refers to the iniquities.

here. The DN

יז

23 Ver. 39. For your

the text in ver. 41.

more than 80 MSS. read their D, so also the Sam., LXX., Sym., Theod., Vulg. and Syr. as

24 Vers. 41, 43. 187. The same word as is used in vers. 34, 43, the land shall enjoy her sabbaths. The literal rendering is perhaps too bold for our version; but the meaning is really this. "The land being desolate shall have the blessing of rest, and they having repented shall have the blessing of chastisement. So the LXX. and Syriac." Clark. Comp. Isa. xl. 2. A

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Lange here again insists that vers. 1 and 2 are properly the close of the foregoing section. It was already too late to adopt his division when his work appeared; but independently of this the connection with the present chap. is preferred. The verses reiterate the most fundamental requirements of the law, and thus form an appropriate introduction to these concluding promises and threats.

sequent history of the nation is had in view. The chapter contains: first, promises upon their obedience (3-13); it then describes the consequences of disobedience (14-39), which are put hypothetically, but evidently contemplated as likely to occur; and finally, looks forward to the restoration of the covenant on the repentance of the people (40-44), which is also put hypothetically, but is evidently prophetic. Ver. 46 forms the conclusion of this whole series of legislation.

Objection has been made to the Mosaic origin of this chap, by rationalistic critics on account of its prophetic character. Certainly it is prophetic, and if this be objected to any portion of Scripture, the objector must be met on other than merely exegetical grounds, but here the rationalistic argument may be fully met in a different way. It is impossible to conceive that the author of the remarkable legislation contained in this book, possessed of as intimate knowledge as he must have been of the people under his charge, should not have foreseen that they would fail to maintain the standard of holisub-ness here required, and that consequently God,

The whole precepts and prohibitions of the Book of Leviticus have now been given, and here the people are incited to their faithful observance by promises of blessings on their obedience and curses upon their disobedience. This arrangement is both natural in itself, and is in accord ance with the analogy of the warnings and promises (Ex. xxiii. 20-33) at the close of the "Book of the Covenant," (Ex. xx. 22-xxiii. 19) and in the parting exhortations of Moses (Deut. xxix., xxx.). The passage in Exodus, however, relates to the conquest of the land, while here the

|

vine government or word blamelessly if the section before us is invested with a less mysterious aspect, we overlook the fact that the course of things immanent in life remains the same although the prophetic character of the word be set aside; that the chapters of calamity remain the same although one seek to erase the superscription from the punishment and from the judgment. Strange that one should think the world will thereupon cheer up when he traces back the dark destiny of a people to a gloomy fate, instead of to the justice of the living God. It is the very nobility of apostate Israel that its Jehovah is, and has been, jealous with such burning jealousy over its fall; and it would even seem worthy of contempt if it were considered as the football of a gloomy destiny-its sorrows without reason, without proportion, and without purpose. Certainly also the continuing motive for the rejection of Israel itself is its ill-will-against Jehovah, or indeed against the Gentiles, in return for which it must acknowledge in its history its well deserved visitation.

whose holiness and majesty it has been his object to set forth, would visit them for their transgressions. It is but a step beyond this to look forward to the effect of chastisement and humiliation in producing repentance, and when this had been effected, his knowledge of the mercy and loving-kindness of God assured him of the restoration of the people to His favor. See this point admirably treated by Keil in a note on p. 468. Lange: "The germ of this whole setting forth of blessing and curse already lies in the decalogue itself (Ex. xx. 5, 12), but especially as a conditional promise of blessing in the section Ex. xxiii. 23-33. It is appropriate to the purpose of Leviticus that this germ now comes here to its development, that by the side of the promise of blessing on the keeping of the covenant comes out very explicitly the threatening of curse on the breach of the covenant; for the contrast of blessing and curse goes forth from the religious behaviour or misbehaviour towards the law of God as a whole, as all particular commands are summed up therein. . . . . It must not be overlooked that the subject is here always Israel "That the bearing of God towards Israel was in its totality, the nation as a whole. The date an impartial bearing, which could only be obof this section is thereby shown to be very an- scured through the idea of a national God, is cient; for it would have been otherwise from the proved even by our section with its threatenings days of Messianic prophecy. Then the contrast in presence of the development of the history of Iscomes forward very strongly: the apostate Israel itself: they have been brought out of Egypt, rael, and the Israel reforming itself; also the and Canaan must become their land; but when contrast the Israel of the mass, and the Israel they apostatize, they must lose Canaan and must be of the poor, of the humble, of the purified rem- scattered among the heathen (Keil, p. 169 [Trans. nant. For this reason it would be a false infer- p. 468]). Not only the impartiality indeed, but ence to consider the conditional prediction of our the jealousy of Jehovah must be made manifest section as apodictical, or indeed to suppose that in this. The idea or key of the whole history the curse would fall upon every individual of the and destiny of Israel is: vengeance of the covenation of Israel. The apostasy of Israel has nant. The people could fall so low because they often been treated as if the flower of its elect had stood so high, because they were the first-fruits, fallen under the curse, although history declares the first-born son, the favorite of God (Jeshuthat the Gentile church was grafted upon the run). But for this reason especially the prostock of the Jewish, and Paul can designate the mise of their restoration is bound up with the unbelieving portion of the Jews as "some," not- prophecy of their curse (Isa., Jer., Ezek., Hos., withstanding its numerical majority, in contrast etc., Rom. xi). Knobel gives prominence to the to the dynamical majority whose central point is peculiarly elevated language of this section; it Christ Himself. The national curse has then cannot be explained by the ordinary mechanicism been fulfilled only in a conditional degree in of Elohistic and Jehovistic documents.'" contrast to the dynamical blessing overmastering all curse; but nevertheless in a degree which has shown in fearful majesty the reality of the threatening of the curse. It is a vain attempt when one seeks to intimate, like Knobel, that our prophecy looks back upon that which has already occurred in isolated particulars; at all events, this creates no prejudice against its Mosaic origin, for its fulfilment has been progressing even to the present day, and is not yet fully accomplished. Yet even at the present day the emphasis falls upon the fearful realization of the curse upon the nation; upon individuals, however, as such, only in proportion as they transmit the fanatical or unbelieving spirit of the community.

"Our section, moreover, is characterized as a prophetic word in that it brings into view in grand outlines a future which it cannot and will not describe with verbal definiteness. Yet a progress consonant to nature is to be observed in the gradations of the curse, which one might enjoy as a physiological picture of development. "If we suppose that one may speak of the Di

This chapter forms a part of the same Divine communication with the preceding one.

Vers. 1, 2. These verses include substantially the first table of the decalogue, and by this short summary the whole duty of the Israelites toward God is called to mind and made the basis of the following promises and warnings. On ver. 1 see the Textual Notes. Ver. 2 is a repetition verbatim of xix. 30. Here, at least, it must be understood to include the whole of the "appointed seasons as well as the weekly Sabbaths.

A. The Blessing. Vers. 3-13. With ver. 3 a new Parashah of the law begins, extending to the close of Leviticus. The parallel proper lesson from the prophets is Jer. xvi. 19-xvii. 14. "The subject here is not the isolated good conduct of individuals, but the keeping of the Covenant of the people as a whole and its general tendency to blessing; the contrast to which, the breach of the Covenant, is moulded into the tendency to curse." Lange.

Ver. 4. Lange: "Rain in its season appears here as the first gift of Jehovah. When He gives

B. The Curse. Vers. 14-33.

the rain from heaven, the earth gives its produce | dynamically understood, Jehovah, the personal
and the fruit-trees give their fruit; there is God of Israel, makes Himself security; and He
formed a chain of gifts whose beginning lies in has given them their deliverance from Egypt as
the mysterious hand of God. "The allusion here a proof and pledge. They shall not become the
is to the showers which fall at the two rainy slaves of men through distress, but shall stand
seasons, and upon which the fruitfulness of Pa- upright as the servants of God." That is, the
lestine depends, viz., the early and latter rain yoke of bondage which bowed down their heads
(Deut. xi. 14). The former of these occurs after as beasts of burden had been broken, and God
the autumnal equinox, at the time of the winter- had made them in consequence walk upright.
sowing of wheat and barley, in the latter half of
October or beginning of November. It generally
falls in heavy showers in Nov. and Dec., and
then after that only at long intervals, and not so
heavily. The latter, or so-called latter rain,
falls in March before the beginning of the har-
vest of the winter crops, at the time of the sow-
ing of the summer seed, and lasts only a few
days, in some years only a few hours (see Ro-
binson, Pal. ii., pp. 97 sqq.)." Keil. [Also
Robinson, Phys. Geog. of the H. L., p. 263.]
"In consequence of these rains the land should
yield so rich an increase that your threshing
shall reach unto the vintage, and the vin-
tage shall reach unto the sowing time
(for the next year). [Ver. 5. Comp. Amos
ix. 13.]

Vers. 14, 15. Lange: "The breach of the
Covenant. He begins with the external con-
tempt of the ordinances of the covenant, and
goes on to the internal scorn and rejection of
the covenant law, a transgression therefore of
the commands in their totality." This is care-
fully to be borne in mind in regard to these
warnings. These "judgments are threatened,
not for single breaches of the law, but for con-
tempt of all the laws, amounting to inward con-
tempt of the Divine commandments and a breach
of the covenant (vers. 14, 15)-for presumptuous
and obstinate rebellion, therefore, against God
and His commandments." Keil. Single sins, or
sins of individuals, are not the subject, but the
general apostasy of the nation.

Vers. 16, 17, contain what Lange describes as
"the punishment in the first grade;" it is the
warning of visitation upon apostasy alone be-
fore it has become complicated with the added
guilt of obdurate persistency. Three punish-
ments are mentioned which are to be sent toge-

"Vers. 6-8. The second yet higher gift of
blessing is peace in the land, and that in relation
to wild beasts", an evil animal, for a
beast of prey, as in Gen. xxxvii. 20. Keil] "as
well as to war; therefore they shall lie down
as a herd which no beast of prey and no robber
shall affright. Yet more: neither shall the
sword go through your land, because theyther, and not singly as they were offered to the
should drive back triumphantly from their bor-
ders the enemies who should make any attack.
The aggressor should fall by the sword upon
the border." On the language in ver. 6 comp.
Job xi. 19; Ps. cxlvii. 14; Ezek. xxxiv. 25-28.
Ver. 8 is "a proverbial mode of expression for
superiority in warlike prowess." Comp. Deut.
xxxii. 30; Josh. xxiii. 10; Isa. xxx. 17.

Vers. 9, 10. Lange: "The third blessing is
fruitfulness: increase upon increase of the peo-
ple, and the strengthening of the Covenant under
the special support of Jehovah." The multipli-
cation of the people was a part of the covenant
promise (Gen. xvii. 4-6), and its fulfillment
established the covenant (ib. 7); not merely
preserved it, but became the means by which it
should be extended ever farther and farther.
In view of this increase the promise of ver. 10
becomes more emphatic: so far from a dearth
being caused by the multitude, the new store
should be reached before the old could be con-
sumed. This constitutes the fourth particular
of the blessing.

Vers. 11-13. Lange: "The fifth blessing is
the highest: the flower of their religion and
religiousness. Jehovah will establish His dwell-
ing (His living habitation) among them.—And
I will walk among you, etc.-This promise
touches typically even upon the height of the
Christological incarnation. Jno. i. 14." [As this
whole chapter has in view their residence in
Canaan, so this promise in particular does not
refer to God's leading His people in their wan-
derings, but to His continual manifestation of
Himself in their midst in their settled home.-
F. G.] "For these promises, spiritually and

choice of David after his sin in numbering the
people (2 Sam. xxiv. 12-14)-disease, famine
and defeat. It is easy to see how all these might
(and historically did) come upon Israel as a
natural consequence of their neglect of the
Divine law; but they were none the less judg-
ments of Him who had commanded that law and
ordained that nature itself should protect it.
Lange justly says: "One must not overlook the
spirit of the Divine action; it is called visita-
tion (ver. 16), and henceforth this is the prin-
cipal thought and purpose which pervades all
the punishments. It is also of a deeper meaning
here that Jehovah will set His face against
them; for their enemies are His instruments,
and they will be smitten." Comp. Ezek. xxxiii.
27-29.

Vers. 18-20. According to Lange, "the pun-
ishment in the second grade," or the first of the
more severe measures to be visited upon obdu-
rate disobedience. Here, and in each of the
three remaining stages (vers. 18, 21, 24, 28),
the expression seven times is used. It is at
once the number of perfection, indicating the
full strength of the visitation, and also the sab-
batical number, reminding the people of the
broken covenant. Comp. Gen. iv. 15, 24; Ps.
lxxix. 12; Prov. xxiv. 16; Luke xvii. 4.
"There are five degrees in the ever seven times
more severe punishment. God punishes so, that
He always in wrath remembers mercy, and gives
time for repentance. But no punishment is so
great that a greater cannot follow it." Von Ger-
lach.

Vers. 21, 22. Lange: "The punishment in
the third grade. The godlessness becomes ag-

66

2 Chron. xxxvi. 21 expressly fixes the length of
the Babylonish captivity with reference to the
number of unobserved Sabbatical years. These
constituted the Sabbaths of the land, the weekly
Sabbath of one day being too brief for effect
upon the soil. Vers. 36-39 describe in fearful
terms the effect of the Divine visitation upon
the remnant who should escape immediate de-
struction. On the language of ver. 38 comp.
Num. xiii. 32; Ezek. xxxvi. 13.

C. The Restoration of the Covenant.
Vers. 40-45.

gressive; they walk inimically towards Jehovah, I desolate. In regard to the kingdom of Judah,
the apostasy advances to bolder idolatry and
contempt of God. But meanwhile, Jehovah yet
stands still, and only sends against them the
forerunners of His vengeance: ravaging beasts
—a symptom of falling into decay: robbers of
children, calamities among live stock, depopu-
lation, desolated highways. The beasts may
here be understood not merely literally." Comp.
Judg. v. 6; Isa. xxxiii. 8; Ezek. v. 17; xir.
15. Dy
(to go to a meeting with a
person, i. e., to meet a person in a hostile man-
ner, to fight against him) only occurs here in
vers. 21 and 23, and is strengthened in vers. 24,
27, 28, 40, 41, into Dy p, to engage
in a hostile encounter with a person." Keil.
Vers. 23-26. Lange: "The punishment in the
fourth grade. Now Jehovah also becomes ag-
gressive and acts inimically towards them, as if
He would destroy them. Now the breach of the
covenant is decided, and the sword comes over
them as the avenger of the covenant. Pictu-
resque delineation of the three dark riders, Rev.
vi., only that here the plague goes before the
famine." The idea of the text is clearly that
by the inroads of the enemy Israel would be
shut up in their cities, and while besieged there,
would be visited with pestilence and famine.
Such calamities were repeatedly experienced, 2
Kings vi. 24-29, etc. Comp. Isa. iii. 1; Jer.
xiv. 18; Ezek. iv. 16; v. 12, and especially the
story of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans.
To break the staff of bread is a frequent prover-i.
bial expression for the infliction of extreme
scarcity. One oven should suffice for the bread
of families ordinarily baked in ten, and in its
scarcity it should be dealt out by weight.

Vers. 27-33. Lange: "The punishment in the
fifth grade. Now Jehovah moves against them
verily in fury, and the last catastrophes follow:
despair even to madness; the eating of their
own children (Knobel, Keil, and the Jewish
history) [comp. Deut. xxviii. 53; 2 Kings vi.
28, 29; Jer. xiv. 12; Lam. ii. 20: iv. 10; Ezek.
v. 10.
Also Jos. Bel. Jud. v. 10, 3.-F. G.];
overthrow of their idolatrous cultus, in the sar-
castic conception that the dead bodies of men
fall down on the mock dead bodies of their idols,
carcases upon carcases" [comp. 2 Kings xxiii.
16; Ezek. vi. 4. The high places refer to
places of idolatrous worship as in use among
the Canaanites and most other nations, and
which must have been already sufficiently fami-
liar to Moses and his people.-F. G.]; "over-
throw of even the real historical sanctuary;
repudiation of the sacrificial cultus, ver. 31"
[comp. 2 Kings xxv. 9; Ps. lxxiv. 6, 7]; "de-
solation of the land, so that even the enemies
settling therein recognize the dismal footprints
of punitive justice, deportations of the people
(one after another, comp. the Jewish history
from Alexander to Hadrian)." Comp. Jer. ix.
16-22; xviii. 16; xix. 8; Ezek. v. Also Deut.
iv. 27, 28; xxviii. 37, 64-68.

Effects of these Visitations. Vers. 34-39.
Vers. 34, 35, express the restorative effect
accomplished by the punishment itself. The
land must needs enjoy its Sabbaths while it lay

Lange: "The first thing is the acknowledg
ment and confession of guilt. But the repent-
tance would be thorough only in case the
misdeeds of the fathers were acknowledged
along with their own misdeeds, see Ps. li.
The view that Jehovah has interposed, con-
tending against them because they contended
against Him, is the second thing, ver. 41.-
(Repeated declaration in regard to the cause
of the punishments.) The humiliation under
the judgment of their having an uncircumcised
heart, i. e., of their being heathen in a spiritual
sense, is the third. Yes, they come now to bless
the punishments of their misdeeds, to rejoice
over them, since God has visited them in this
manner (). Keil accepts the translation of
the LXX. evdokhσovσiv tàç dμapríaç avτív, "they
will take pleasure, rejoice in their misdeeds,
e., in the consequences and results of them."
We hold with Luther to the idea of ji (see
Gesen.) as sufficient punishment; the paradox
itself O felix culpa could not be translated: they
have pleasure in their misdeeds. But to salute
the cross is a proof in action of a deeper reli-
giousness, which here already germinates."
[See, however, Textual Note 24.-F. G.]

"Ver. 41. In a religious sense the divine par-
don is the cause, in a moral sense the conse-
quence of the repentance of the people; the
remembrance of the Covenant with Jacob and
Isaac and Abraham, i. e. an ever-deepening,
inward remembrance of the old love, appears to
awake in Jehovah, for it does awake in the con-
sciousness of the people. The holy land itself,
which cannot be forgotten and is kindly, receives
now a peculiarly affecting form. The land
whose mourning is changed to feasts, and the
people whose penitence is changed to feasts,
accord so affectingly with Jehovah, that, so to
speak, He reveals Himself again as justifying:
because, even because they despised my
judgments, and because their soul ab-
horred my statutes. And yet for all that-
their pardon is approaching: viz. the restoration,
and that truly entirely according to the analogy of
the restoration from the land of Egypt. That this
promise is effective for the nation of Israel, but is
not to be understood of the spiritual Israel as
such, needs no argument. At the close again,

when they should repent and turn to the Lord,
"[The promise of mercy upon Israel
was certainly a promise to the covenant people,
and was repeatedly fulfilled in their history,
especially in the restoration from the captivity