And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.
And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph - i:e., both the kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, and that of the ten tribes. The distinct mention of both Judah and Israel shows that there is yet a more complete restoration than that from Babylon, when Judah alone, and a few Israelites from the other tribes, returned. The Maccabean deliverance is here connected with it, just as the painter groups on the same canvas objects in the foreground and hills far distant; or, as the comparatively near planet and the remote fixed star are seen together in the same firmament. Prophecy ever hastens to the glorious final consummation under Messiah.
And I will bring them again to place them - namely, securely in their own land. The Hebrew verb х wªhowshªbowtiym (H7225)] is compounded of two [the Hiphil of shuwb (H7225), to return], "I will bring again," and "I will place them" х yaashab (H3427)] (Jeremiah 32:37). Maurer, from a different form х wªhowshabtiym (H7225)]. Howshiyb (H7225) for which the form in the text stands, translates, 'I will make them to dwell.'