For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.
For. The blessed things promised in this and Zephaniah 3:10 are to be the immediate results of the punishment about to be inflicted by God, in behalf of Israel, on the nations mentioned in Zephaniah 3:8 (cf. Zephaniah 3:19).
Then will I turn to the people a pure language - changing their impure language, I will give to them again a pure language (literally, lip). The confusion of languages was the penalty of the sin (probably including idolatry) committed at Babel (margin, Genesis 11:1-6; where also "lip" expresses language, and perhaps also religion; Genesis 9:4, "a tower whose top may reach unto heaven;" or rather, points to heaven-namely, dedicated to the heavens idolized, or Bel); certainly, it was the penalty of rebellion against God's will. An earnest of the removal of this penalty was the gift of tongues on Pentecost (Acts 2:1-47); the full restoration of the earth's unity of language and of worship is yet future, and is connected with the restoration of the Jews, to be followed by the conversion of the world. Compare Isaiah 19:18; Zechariah 14:9; Romans 15:6, "with one mind and one mouth glorify God." The Gentile's lips have been rendered impure through being the instruments of calling on idols and dishonouring God (cf. Psalms 16:4, "nor take up their (the idols') names into my lips;" Hosea 2:17). Whether Hebrew shah be the one universal language or not, the God of the Hebrews shall be the one only object of worship. Until the Holy Spirit purify the lips "with a live coal from off the (heavenly) altar," we cannot rightly call upon God (Isaiah 6:5-7).
To serve him with one consent - literally, with one shoulder or back; metaphor from a yoke or burden "borne between two," as the grapes of Eshcol were carried by the spies (Numbers 13:23): helping one another with conjoint effort. Compare for this Hebrew idiom, 1 Samuel 10:9, margin. If one of the two bearers of a burden, laid on both conjointly, give way, the burden must fall to the earth (Calvin). Christ's rule is called a burden (Matthew 11:30; Acts 15:28; Revelation 2:24: cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14, "yoked," for the same image).