21 Say to them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, where they are gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
The gathering together of the children of Israel was to take effect in the first place in the return from Babylon, when the distinction of Israel and Judah should cease. The full completion concerns times still future, when all Israel shall come in to acknowledge the rule of Christ.
And say unto them, thus saith the Lord God,.... Or, as the Targum,
"thou shalt prophesy to them;''
for what follows is a prophecy of what shall be in the latter day:
behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the Heathen, whither they be gone, or, "from among the Gentiles" (b); not only the Chaldeans, where they were carried captives; but from among the nations where they are now dispersed, and among whom they go freely of their own accord from place to place, for the sake of traffic: and this phrase, "whither they be gone", or "are going" (c), travelling about from one country to another, better describes the present Jews, and their state, than those in the Babylonian captivity:
and will gather them on every side, or, "round about" (d); from the several parts of the world where they are:
and bring them into their own land; the land of Canaan, given by the Lord to their fathers, and to them their posterity, for an inheritance; though now in the possession of others, who, it seems, are not the right owners.
(b) "e medio ipsarum gentium", Junius & Tremellius; "ex gentibus", Starckius; "e vel medio gentium", Piscator, Cocceius. (c) "ambulant, vel ambulantes sunt". (d) "circumquaque", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus, Starckius.
*More commentary available at chapter level.