The Coming Restoration Will Bring Shame On Jerusalem.
Suddenly in the gloom there comes again the promise of future restoration. With all the blackness of the future before them final restoration is guaranteed, as is the restoration of Sodom and Samaria. But that restoration will fill them with shame as they remember their sins and what they have been.
“And I will restore their fortunes, the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Samaria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in the midst of them, that you may bear your own shame, and may be ashamed because of all that you have done, in that you have become a consolation to them.”
The fortunes of both Sodom and Samaria will be restored. The areas in which both were found will prosper. And Jerusalem and Judah will also be restored that they may learn shame for all that they have done, and especially shame that they were so wicked that they made the other two look righteous in comparison, and that, by the judgment that came on them, they brought consolation to the others. Where they should have been witnesses by the purity of their lives and worship, they had instead become witnesses by the example set by the judgment that came on them.
This was partially fulfilled when Palestine flourished in later centuries as a place faithful to the One God, but found its greater fulfilment through the activities of the Christian church, and will find its final fulfilment in eternity in the New Heaven and the New Earth.
The translation ‘I will turn again their captivity' is a possible alternative translation (so RV). Compare Deuteronomy 30:3. But the equally acceptable translation ‘restore their fortunes' is here more likely, especially in view of the fact that Sodom were not taken into captivity as the others were. The return from captivity is also, however, included.