But [if] ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, [yet] will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
Ver. 9. But if ye turn unto me] By sin men do wickedly depart from God; as by repentance they return unto him, and close with him.
And keep my commandments] Evangelically keep them; for with a legal obedience none can: our short legs and pursy hearts cannot hold out here.
And do them] Or at least, be doing at them, do them as we can; si praecepta faciamus, etiamsi non perficiamus, sufficit.
Unto the uttermost part of the heaven] That is, of the earth, which seems to our eye terminated with the heaven, and covered as with a half globe. Jews are a dejected people to this present; and a fearful instance of God's heavy indignation against sin. Josephus saith, that in his time they were grown so wicked, that if the Romans had not destroyed and dispersed them, without doubt either the earth would have swallowed them up, or fire from heaven have consumed them.
Yet will I gather them from thence] Else not. God's promises are with a condition, which is as an oar in a boat, and stern of a ship; and turns the promise another way.