And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
Ver. 14. And I will bring again the captivity of my people] There is an elegance in the original that cannot be translated into English, and God seems delighted with such alliteration, as hath been before observed; to show the lawful use of rhetoric in divine discourses, so it be not affected, abused, idolized. This promise is fulfilled when believers are by the gospel brought "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins," Acts 26:18, and be set free from the tyranny of corruption and terror of death, Heb 2:14-15 Col 1:13 Luke 1:74 Zec 9:11 Psalms 68:19 .
And they shall build the waste cities] Restore the sincere service of God, as those noble reformers did in all ages; fetching the Church, as it were, out of the wilderness, where she had long lain hidden, Revelation 12:6, and whence she is said at length to come "leaning upon her beloved," Song of Solomon 8:5 .
And they shall plant vineyards] That is, particular Churches.
And drink the wine thereof] Have the fruit and comfort of their labours in the Lord, which they shall see not to be in vain, 1 Corinthians 15:58 .
They shall also make gardens, and eat of the fruit] While they shall see their people to be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1:8, but far off flourishing, Psalms 92:13, actuosi et fructuosi, Isaiah 51:3. The Popish commentators (as it is the manner of many of them to mar and bemire the text with their absurd glosses) by cities here would have men to understand the state of married people, by vineyards their prelates, and by gardens monks. Is not this to wrest the Scriptures, and so to set them on the rack, as to make them speak more than ever they intended? Is it not to compel them to go two miles when they are willing to go but one? Is it not to taw them, and gnaw them, as Tertullian saith that Marcion, the heretic (that Mus Ponticus, as he therefore calls him), did, to make them serviceable to his vile purposes?