Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
The people ... found grace in the wilderness. Upon the "grace" manifested to Israel "in the wilderness" God grounds His argument for renewing His favours to them now in their exile, because His covenant is "everlasting" (Jeremiah 31:3), and changes not. The same argument occurs Hosea 13:5; Hosea 9:10; Hosea 14:4-5; Hosea 14:8. Babylon is fitly compared to the "wilderness," as in both alike Israel was as a stranger far from his appointed "rest" or home, and Babylon is in Isaiah 40:3 called a "desert" (cf. Jeremiah 50:12).
I went to cause him to rest - namely, in the pillar of cloud and fire, the symbol of God's presence, which went before Israel to search out a resting-place (Numbers 10:33; Isaiah 63:14) for the people-both a temporary one at each halt in the wilderness, and a permanent one in Canaan (Exodus 33:14; Deuteronomy 3:20; Joshua 21:44; Psalms 95:11; Hebrews 3:11).