THE FURTHER REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL (Zechariah 10:8-12).
(8) A yet further redemption of Israel was to take place before the consummation of these victorious promises. Some critics have considered this passage as conclusive against the assumption of a post-exilic origin of these latter Chapter s. But Zechariah 8:8 speaks in similar terms: “And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem;” and yet the genuineness of that passage has never been called in question. The fact is that the restoration under Zerubbabel was most incomplete: only some 42,360 returned from exile under him. There was a further return of exiles under Ezra, in 458 B.C., some twenty years posterior to the probable date of the prophecies contained in these last Chapter s, and numbers, no doubt, returned at various other times.
I have redeemed. — The decree had gone forth, and had been already, in part, executed.
As they have increased. — viz., in times past (e.g., Exodus 1:8). Jeremiah communicates a similar promise (Jeremiah 30:19-20).