9 I will sow them among the peoples; and they will remember me in far countries; and they will live with their children, and will return.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
He continues the same subject, and employs here a most suitable metaphor -- that the dispersion of the people would have a better issue than what any one then could have conceived, for it would be like sowing. The verb for scattering or sowing is often taken in a bad sense; for when people rested in their country, they ought then to have considered that they were living under God's protection. Dispersion, then, was an evidence of a curse, and it is often so taken by Moses. Now God uses it here in an opposite meaning, as though he had said, that he would at his pleasure turn darkness into light. The meaning then is, that the people had been dispersed through God being angry with them, but that the issue of this dispersion would be joyful; for the Jews would dwell everywhere, and be God's seed, and thus be made to produce abundant fruit. We then see that the meaning is, that God's favor would surpass the wickedness of the people; for those would bear fruit who had been scattered, and scattered because God would no longer exercise care over them, and defend them in the promised land. As God then had so often threatened by Moses that he would scatter the Jews, he now says in another sense, that he would sow them, and for this ends that they might everywhere produce fruit. [1] It was an instance of the wonderful grace of God, that he so ordered his dreadful judgment as to make the dispersion, as it has been said, a sowing of the people; for it hence happened, that the knowledge of celestial truth shone everywhere; and at length when the gospel was proclaimed, a freer access was had to the Gentiles, because Jews were dispersed through all lands. The first receptacles (Hospitia) of the gospel were the synagogues. We see that the apostles everywhere went first to the Jews, and when a few were converted, the door was now opened that more might come, and Gentiles were also added to the Jews. Thus the punishment of exile, which had been inflicted on them, was the means of opening the door for the gospel; and God thus scattered his seed here and there, that it might in due time produce fruit beyond the expectation of all; and this consideration availed not a little to moderate the impatient desires of the people; for the Prophet intimates that this alone ought to have satisfied them -- that their exile would be productive of good, for the Lord would thereby gather much people to himself. Had the Jews been confined within their own borders, the name of the God of Israel would not have been heard of elsewhere; but as there was no part of the East, no part of Asia and of Greece, which had not some Jews -- and they inhabited many cities of Italy -- hence it was that the Apostles found, as we have said, wherever they came, some already prepared to embrace the gospel. He afterwards adds, They shall remember me in distant lands. He shows the manner how the memory of God would be preserved: though the Jews sacrificed not in the temple, though they dwelt not in the holy land, they would yet ever worship the only true God; as then the seed cast on the ground, though it may not appear, and seem even to be wholly lost, being apparently consumed by rottenness, does yet germinate in its season, and produces fruit; so God teaches us, that the memory of his name will occasion this people to fructify in their dispersion. But as God promises this, we hence learn that it is through his singular kindness that we cherish piety in our hearts, when he sharply and severely chastises us. When therefore we cease not to worship God, it is certain that we are kept by his Spirit; for were this in the power of man, this promise would be useless, and even absurd. He says further, They shall live with their sons, and shall return. He again speaks of sons, that the Jews might not make too much haste; for we know that men, having strong desires, hurry on immoderately. That they might not then prescribe time to God, the Prophet reminds them that it ought to have been enough for them that the Lord would quicken them as it were from the dead, together with their children. He however promises them a return, not that they would return to their own country, but that they would be all united by the faith of the gospel. Though then they changed not their place, nor moved a foot from the lands where they sojourned, yet a return to their country would be that gathering which would be made by the truth of the gospel, as it is well known, according to the common mode of speaking adopted by all the Prophets. It follows --
1 - The sowing here, as admitted by all, evidently means scattering; yet the verse is rendered differently. Dathius and Henderson render the first [v] "though," and the second "yet." This and the following verse may be thus translated -- 9. Though I shall scatter them among the nations, Yet in remote parts shall they remember me; And they shall live, even their children, and return: 10. Yea, I will restore them from the land of Egypt, And from Assyria will I gather them; And to the land of Gilead and Lebanon will I bring thm, And no place shall be found for them. "And they shall live" I take to mean, that they should live, not themselves, but in their children. But Dathius and Newcome follow the Septuagint -- "And they shall cherish (or, preserve) their children," which the Hebrew will not bear; and Marckius and Henderson give the same version with Calvin -- "And they shall live with their children." -- Ed.
And I will sow them among the nations - Such had been the prophecy of Hosea; "I will sow her unto Me in the earth," as the prelude of spiritual mercies, "and I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy, and I will say to not-my-people, Thou art My people, and they shall say, my God" . Hosea's saying, "I will sow her in the earth" that is, the whole earth and that "to Me," corresponds to, and explains Zechariah's brief saying, "I will sow them among the nations." The sowing, which was future to Hosea, had begun; but the purpose of the sowing, the harvest, was wholly to come; when it should be seen, that they were indeed sown by God, that "great" should "be the day of Jezreel" (Hosea 1:11. See vol. i. p. 25). And Jeremiah said, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah, with the seed of man and with the seed of beast" Jeremiah 31:27. The word is used of sowing to multiply, never of mere scattering .
And they shall remember Me in far countries - So Ezekiel had said, "And they that escape of you shall remember Me among the nations, whither they shall be carried captive - and they shall loath themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations, and they shall know that I am the Lord" Ezekiel 6:9.
And shall live - As Ezekiel again says, "Ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up out of your graves, O My people, and shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live" Ezekiel 37:13-14. "With their children." A continuous gift, as Ezekiel, "they and their children, and their children's children forever: and My servant David shall be their prince forever." Ezekiel 37:25.
And turn again - To God, being converted, as Jeremiah had been bidden to exhort them; "Go and proclaim these words toward the north" Jeremiah 3:12, the cities of the Medes whither they were carried captive, "and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you;" "Turn, O backsliding children - and I with take you, one of a city, and two of a family, and will bring you to Zion, and I will give you pastors according to Mine heart" Jeremiah 3:14-15. "Return, ye backsliding children; I will heal your backslidings." And they answer, "Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art the Lord our God" Jeremiah 3:22. So Isaiah had said, "A remnant shall return, the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God" . Dionysius: "They shall return by recollection of mind and adunation and simplification of the affections toward God so as ultimately to intend that one thing, which alone is necessary."
I will sow them among the people - Wherever they have been dispersed, my voice in the preaching of the Gospel shall reach them. And they shall remember me, and they and their children shall turn again to the Lord, through Messiah their King.
And I will (k) sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and (l) turn again.
(k) Though they will yet be scattered and seem to be lost, yet it will be profitable to them: for there they will come to the knowledge of my name, which was accomplished under the Gospel, among whom it was first preached.
(l) Not that they would return into their country, but be gathered and joined in one faith by the doctrine of the Gospel.
And I will sow them among the people, The people of God in the Gentile world: this is to be understood of the conversion of the Jews, when they will become the good seed that hear the word, and understand it, and bring forth fruit; and of their being known, acknowledged, and reckoned among the people of God, who now are not; and of their being planted in Gospel churches, where the word is truly preached; the ordinances are faithfully administered; the Lord grants his presence, and saints have communion one with another; to be in such a fruitful soil, and in such sacred enclosures, fenced by the power and grace of God, is a great happiness:
and they shall remember me in far countries; they shall call to mind what their ancestors did to Christ, and mourn on account of a pierced Saviour; they shall remember him in the ordinance of the supper, being in a Gospel church state; they shall remember what he did and suffered for them, and his love to them in all, and that with faith, affection, and thankfulness:
and they shall live with their children; a very happy, comfortable, temporal life; and they shall live a spiritual life; a life of faith on Christ; of communion with him, and of holiness from him, and to his glory: and their children also shall live the same life, being regenerated and quickened by the same grace; these are the church's children:
and turn again; that is, when they shall turn again, either to the Lord, shall be converted unto him; or return to their own land.
sow them among . . . people--Their dispersion was with a special design. Like seed sown far and wide, they shall, when quickened themselves, be the fittest instruments for quickening others (compare Micah 5:7). The slight hold they have on every soil where they now live, as also the commercial and therefore cosmopolitan character of their pursuits, making a change of residence easy to them, fit them peculiarly for missionary work [MOORE]. The wide dispersion of the Jews just before Christ's coming prepared the way similarly for the apostles' preaching in the various Jewish synagogues throughout the world; everywhere some of the Old Testament seed previously sown was ready to germinate when the New Testament light and heat were brought to bear on it by Gospel preachers. Thus the way was opened for entrance among the Gentiles. "Will sow" is the Hebrew future, said of that which has been done, is being done, and may be done afterwards [MAURER], (compare Hosea 2:23).
shall remember me in far countries-- (Deuteronomy 30:1; 2-Chronicles 6:37). Implying the Jews return to a right mind in "all the nations" where they are scattered simultaneously. Compare Luke 15:17-18, with Psalm 22:27, "All the ends of the world remembering and turning unto the Lord," preceded by the "seed of Jacob . . . Israel . . . fearing and glorifying Him"; also Psalm 102:13-15.
live--in political and spiritual life.
I will sow them - Their increase shall be like the increase of rich soil that hath much seed cast on it. The people - The Heathen. In far countries - Whithersoever they were driven. With their children - The children born to them shall live, and grow up with them. Turn again - To their city and country.
*More commentary available at chapter level.