Thou hast increased the nation, Heb. Thou hast added to the nation; which may be understood either,
1. In way of mercy, of adding to their numbers, as our translation takes it; and so we have in effect the same phrase 2 Samuel 24:3, The Lord add to the people, &c., and Psalms 115:14, in the Hebrew text, The Lord shall add upon or to you. Or,
2. In way of judgment, of adding to their plagues or miseries, of which we read Revelation 22:18, in which sense the phrase is found in the Hebrew text, Psalms 120:3, What shall be added to thee ? and in that usual form of imprecation, The Lord do so to me, and more, Ruth 1:17 1 Samuel 3:17, &c., where it is in the Hebrew, The Lord do so to me, and add. And this sense seems to be favoured by the context, as also by the ancient Greek translators, who render the words, add to them evil or punishments. And so the word adding may be used emphatically and sarcastically. God indeed will add to them; but what? Not numbers, and power, and glory, as they expected, but plagues and judgments one after another. This nation is supposed by the current of interpreters to be the people of Israel, emphatically called the nation. Possibly it may be the Assyrians, of whom he spoke in the last verse. But this I propose with submission. Thou art glorified; thy justice is glorified in their punishment or destruction. Thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth; which may be understood either,
1. Of Israel, and that either in a way of mercy, Thou hast by destroying the Assyrians enlarged thy people, who were shut up in Jerusalem, so that now they may go to the remotest parts of the land; or in way of judgment, Thou hast removed thy people out of their own land, and suffered them to be carried captive to the ends of the earth. Or,
2. Of the Assyrians; Thou hast removed them from Jerusalem, which they had besieged, and caused them to flee into their own country, which in Scripture phrase was in the ends of the earth; of which see Isaiah 5:26, Isaiah 13:5.