I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.
Ver. 8. I will hiss for them and gather them] As a shepherd hisseth or whistleth for his flock. See Judges 5:16, where it should not be translated the bleatings of the flocks, but the hissings or whistlings of the shepherds to their flocks, when they would get them together. God, who hath all creatures at his beck and call, can easily bring back his banished, gather together his dispersed with a turn of a hand, Zechariah 13:7, with a blast of his mouth, as here; as if any offer to oppose him herein, he can blow them to destruction, Job 4:9. He can frown them to death, Psalms 80:16. He can crush them between his fingers, as men do a moth, Psalms 39:11, and crumble them to crattle, Psalms 146:4 "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling," Psalms 49:14 .
For I have redeemed them] I have in part, and that is a pledge of the whole; my hands also shall finish it, as Zechariah 4:9. God doth not his work to the halves, neither must we; but if he shall be All in All unto us, we must be altogether his, Song of Solomon 2:16. His is a covenant of mercy, ours of obedience; which must be therefore full and final, as Christ hath obtained for us an entire and everlasting redemption, Hebrews 9:12 .
And they shall increase as they have increased] By virtue of that promise to Abraham, Genesis 13:16. I will multiply thy seed as the dust of the earth, and Genesis 15:5, as the stars of heaven. This promise was not presently fulfilled; for when they came into Egypt they were but seventy souls of them. But under the Egyptian servitude they increased abundantly, Exodus 1:7, they spawned (as the word signifies), and bred swiftly; so that they went thence 600,000 strong, Exodus 12:37; so that they soon became a mighty and populous nation, Deuteronomy 26:5. Judea was not moer than 200 miles long and 50 miles broad, not near the half of England by much; yet what huge armies had they, when the two tribes and the other ten met in the field, one against another! And even at this day (whatever is become of the ten tribes, whether they are in China or America) the Jews are a very great and numerous people. It is thought that there is not any one nation under heaven so great in number as that is, if the dispersed Jews might all be gathered together into one place. And who knows what we may (some of us) yet live to see? The late Clavis Apocalyptica promiseth great matters to occur within these three or four years.