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Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people ['out of the land of the rising and the land of the setting' (Keil)] from the cast country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. "The east and the west are here put as parts for the whole. The meaning is, 'I will deliver my people from regions whither they have been scattered.' Were there any reason to believe that the prophecy has respect to a restoration of the Jews yet future, there would be a singular propriety in the use of הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ מְבוא, 'the setting of the sun,' the Jews being now, for the most part, found in countries to the west of Jerusalem; but there is every reason to conclude that it has an exclusive reference to what was to take place soon after it was delivered. Vast numbers were carried away captive after the time of Alexander. Not fewer than a hundred thousand were carried by Ptolemy, and were settled in Alexandria and Cyrene" (Henderson). We shall use these words as suggesting a twofold Divine restoration - temporal and spiritual.

I. HERE IS A DIVINE TEMPORAL RESTORATION. "And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem." There is no sound reason for believing that the people here mentioned as those that were brought "from the east country and from the west" refer to the Jews in the far future, who, some suppose, will be restored to Jerusalem at last. I know of no authority lop supposing that such a restoration will ever be effected. Nor does the passage point, I think, to the universal conversion of the Jews to Christianity in the last times. The reference is manifestly to those Jews who had been scattered abroad over various countries through the Babylonian Captivity, and other disastrous causes. The point is that the restoration here promised is a temporal restoration to their own land and city. They had been exiled for many long years, and deeply did they deplore in a foreign land their expatriation. "By the rivers of Babylon we sat down," etc. The Almighty by Cyrus restored them. And he is constantly restoring his people to those temporal blessings they have lost. He restores often

(1) to lost health;

(2) to lost property;

(3) to lost social status.

He is the temporal Restorer of his people. In all their distresses he bids them look to him. "Call upon me in the day of trouble," etc.

II. HERE IS A DIVINE SPIRITUAL RESTORATION, "And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness." This may mean, "I will become their God in good faith, or in reality, both on their side and mine." This is incomparably the most important restoration. In truth, all temporal restorations are of no permanent value without this. Observe:

1. Man may lose his God. He may be without "God in the world." Indeed, the millions are in this state. "They feel after him, if haply they may find him."

2. The loss of God is the greatest toss. A man separated from God is like a branch separated from the root, a river from the fountain, a planet from the sun.

3. Restoration to God is the transcendent good. He who can say, "The Lord is my Portion" possesseth all things. This restoration the Almighty is effecting now in the world. "He is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself." - D.T.

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KJV: Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;

WEB: Thus says Yahweh of Armies: "Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;