But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.
But I said, How shall I? The good land covenanted to Abraham is to be restored to his seed. But the question arises, How shall this be done?
Put thee among the children - the Greek for adoption means, literally, putting among the sons [huiothesia], the children - i:e. my children. How shall I receive thee back into my family, after thou hast so long forsaken me for idols? The answer is, they would acknowledge Him as "Father," and no longer turn away from Him. God assumes the language of one wondering how so desperate apostates could be restored to His family and its privileges (cf. Ezekiel 37:3, "Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest"). [Calvin makes it, How can the race of Abraham be propagated again, being, as it were, dead?] Yet as his purpose has decreed it so, He shows how it shall be effected-namely, they shall receive from Him the spirit of adoption to cry, "My Father." (John 1:12; Galatians 4:6). The elect are "children" already in God's purpose; this is the ground of the subsequent realization of this relationship (Ephesians 1:5; Hebrews 2:13).
Pleasant land - (Jeremiah 11:5, "A land flowing with milk and honey;" Ezekiel 20:6; Daniel 11:16, "The glorious land," margin, Hebrew, 'the land of ornament,' i:e., goodly land).
Heritage of ... hosts - a heritage the most goodly of all nations (Maurer); or a 'heritage possessed by powerful hosts' (Deuteronomy 4:38, "To drive out nations from before thee, greater and mightier than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land for an inheritance;" Amos 2:9). The rendering 'splendours,' instead of "hosts," х tsib'owt (H6635), from tsaabaa' (H6633), a host], is opposed by the fact that the Hebrew for 'splendour' [thªbiy] is not found in the plural.