_Return, ye apostate children_ (again there is a play on words--שובבים בנים שובו--_Turn back, ye back-turning sons_, or _ye sons that turn the back_ to Me) _saith Iahvah; for it was I that wedded you_ (ver. 14), and am, therefore, your proper lord. The expression is not stranger than that which the great prophet of the Return addresses to Zion: "Thy sons shall marry thee." But perhaps we should rather compare another passage of the book of Isaiah, where it is said: "Iahvah, our God! other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us" (בְּעָלוּנוּ Isa. xxvi. 13), and render: _For it is I that will be your lord_; or perhaps, _For it is I that have mastered you_, and put down your rebellion by chastisements; _and I will take you, one of a city and two of a clan, and will bring you to Zion_. As a "city" is elsewhere spoken of as a "thousand" (Mic. v. 1), and a "thousand" (אלף) is synonymous with a "clan" (משפחה), as providing a thousand warriors in the national militia; it is clear that the promise is that one or two representatives of each township in Israel shall be restored from exile to the land of their fathers. In other words, we have here Isaiah's doctrine of the remnant, which he calls a "tenth" (Isa. vi. 13), and of which he declared that "the survivors of the house of Judah that remain, shall again take root downwards, and bear fruit upwards" (Isa. xxxvii. 31). And as Zion is the goal of the returning exiles, we may see, as doubtless the prophets saw, a kind of anticipation and foreshadowing of the future in the few scattered members of the northern tribes of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun, who "humbled themselves," and accepted Hezekiah's invitation to the passover (2 Chron. xxx. 11, 18); and, again, in the authority which Josiah is said to have exercised in the land of the Ten Tribes (2 Chron. xxxiv. 6; cf. 9). We must bear in mind that the prophets do not contemplate the restoration of every individual of the entire nation; but rather the return of a chosen few, a kind of "firstfruits" of Israel, who are to be a "holy seed" (Isa. vi. 13), from which the power of the Supreme will again build up the entire people according to its ancient divisions. So the holy Apostle in the Revelation hears that twelve thousand of each tribe are sealed as servants of God (Rev. vii.).
The happy time of restoration will also be a time of reunion. The estranged tribes will return to their old allegiance. This is implied by the promise, "I will bring you to Zion," and by that of the next verse: _And I will give you shepherds after My own heart; and they shall shepherd you with knowledge and wisdom_. Obviously, kings of the house of David are meant; the good shepherds of the future are contrasted with the "rebellious" ones of the past (ii. 8). It is the promise of Isaiah (i. 26): "And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning." In this connexion, we may recall the fact that the original schism in Israel was brought about by the folly of evil shepherds. The coming King will resemble not Rehoboam but David. Nor is this all; for _It shall come to pass, when ye multiply and become fruitful in the land, in those days, saith Iahvah, men shall not say any more, The ark of the covenant of Iahvah_, (or, as LXX., _of the Holy One of Israel); nor shall it_ (the ark) _come to mind; nor shall men remember it, nor miss it; nor shall it be made any more_ (pointing יֵעָשֶׂה although the verb may be impersonal. I do not understand why Hitzig asserts "_Man wird keine andere machen_ (Movers) oder; _sie wird nicht wieder gemacht_ (Ew., Graf) als wäre nicht von der geschichtlichen Lade die Rede, sondern von ihr begrifflich, können die Worte nicht bedeuten." But cf. Exod. xxv. 10; Gen. vi. 14; where the same verb עשה is used. Perhaps, however, the rendering of C. B. Michaelis, which he prefers, is more in accordance with what precedes: _nor shall all that be done any more_, Gen. xxix. 26, xli. 34. But פקד does not mean _nachforschen_: cf. 1 Sam. xx. 6, xxv. 15). _In that time men will call Jerusalem the throne of Iahvah; and all the nations will gather into it_ (Gen. i. 9), _for the name of Iahvah_ [_at Jerusalem_: LXX. om.]; _and they_ (the heathen) _will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil heart_ (vii. 24; Deut. xxix. 19).