Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. Return unto thy rest ( limªnuwchaayªkiy (H4496)), O my soul. As the dove, when "she found no rest for the sole of her foot, returned unto Noah (the comforter) into the ark" (Genesis 8:9), Israel, according to God's prophetic threat (Deuteronomy 28:65), "among the nations" where she was a captive, had "no ease, neither had the sole of her foot rest; but the Lord gave her there a troubling heart, and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind, and her life hung in doubt before her" (Deuteronomy 28:65-66). But now God has provided her a rest again, and a happy home in the Holy Land; therefore she exhorts herself to enjoy the land of rest so graciously provided. Compare, spiritually, Psalms 23:2, "the still waters," 'the waters of quietnesses,' or 'rest of a manifold kind:' the same Hebrew (only plural) as is here for "rest" (singular) (Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 11:29). The soul had been heretofore restless (cf. Genesis 4:12; Genesis 4:14); but now the altar of God had been already erected, and the foundation of the temple was either laid or immediately about to be so: so that every needful refreshment was in course of being provided for the restored wanderers.
For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee (cf. Psalms 13:6, note, where the Hebrew verb, gaamal (H1580), is the same) - 'hath requited' or 'made up richly to thee for all thy past sufferings.' Not to be fully realized until the final conversion and restoration of Israel (Isaiah 61:7; Zechariah 9:12).