Behold, I will bring them from the north country Here God himself undertakes to conduct home the remnant of his people from the countries through which they had been scattered; and the promise relates to the ten tribes, as well as to those of Judah and Benjamin; for Assyria and Media, whither they were removed, lay north of Judea as well as Babylon. And the following words speak of a general restoration of this people from their several dispersions; and with them the blind and the lame, &c.
God will compassionate their infirmities, and will conduct them with all imaginable care and tenderness, and furnish the feeble and indigent of them with suitable accommodations. The prophet alludes to the care and compassion which God manifested in conducting his people, of all ages and conditions, through the wilderness, compared to the care with which a parent or nurse carries a tender child, Deuteronomy 1:31. See also Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 49:10. They shall come with weeping The LXX. translate the words, Εν κλαυθμω εξηλθον, και εν παρακλησει αναξω αυτους, they went forth with weeping, but with comfort will I bring them back; which sense agrees exactly with the words of Psalms 136:5-6, which was composed upon occasion of the return from captivity, He that sows in tears shall reap in joy: he that goeth forth weeping, shall come again with rejoicing. Our translation, however, is much more agreeable to the original words, and is also confirmed by Jeremiah 3:21, where we read, A voice was heard, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel; the prophet speaking upon the same subject, and in the same words here used. See also chap. Jeremiah 50:4, where it is said, The children of Israel and Judah shall come together, going and weeping, and seek the Lord their God. All which words imply, that the Jews and Israelites, at the time of their general restoration, shall have their joy tempered with tears of repentance for their former miscarriages; which is more fully expressed Zechariah 12:10, where God promises to pour upon them the spirit of grace and supplication. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters So that they shall not be afflicted with thirst, or the want of any accommodation in their journey. The words allude to God's miraculously supplying the Israelites with water in the wilderness. See notes on Isaiah 35:6-7; Isaiah 41:17-18; Isaiah 49:10. In a straight way wherein they shall not stumble This phrase is an allusion to God's leading the Israelites through the Red sea, and afterward in the wilderness. See Isaiah 63:13; Isaiah 42:16. For I am a father to Israel The remembrance of former connections is here mentioned as the motive of God's returning favour to Israel. And Ephraim is my firstborn Ephraim is often, as here, equivalent to Israel, especially when Israel denotes the ten tribes as distinct from Judah. He is termed the firstborn among the tribes of Israel; because the birthright which Reuben had forfeited was conferred upon the two sons of Joseph, of whom Ephraim had the precedence. “The reader will observe, that all this was but imperfectly verified in the return of the Jews from Babylon, but was fully made good in those who were made partakers of the gospel of Christ, in the miracles, in the preaching of the apostles, in the free grace and pardoning mercy of the Redeemer.”