But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches,
and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to
come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye
shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the
house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited,
and the wastes shall be builded: And I will multiply upon you man
and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will
settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than
at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Yea, I
will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they
shall possess thee and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou
shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men. Thus saith the Lord
God; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast
bereaved thy nations; Therefore thou shalt devour men no more,
neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord God. Neither
will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more,
neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither
shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord God
(verses 8-15).
The address is still to the mountains of Israel. These are beautiful
words which Jehovah, to comfort His people, puts into the lips of the
prophet. The mountains, so long barren, would shoot forth their
branches and prepare fruit for His people. Then their imminent return is
announced: "For they are at hand to come." The near fulfillment was the
return of the remnant from the Babylonian captivity. But that does not
exhaust this prophecy; there is a greater homecoming in store for
Israel, when they will be gathered out of all countries to possess the
land and multiply there as they never did in all their past history.
"And I will multiply men upon you (the mountains), all the house of
Israel, even all of it." No one could claim that this promise found its
fulfillment when a small portion of the house of Judah returned from
Babylon. Here it speaks of all the house of Israel. And the waste places
shall also be builded again as promised by former prophets, for instance
in Isaiah lviii:12, lxi:4; Amos ix:11, 12, 14. Still greater is the
promise, "I will cause you to be inhabited after the former estate, and
will do better unto you than at your beginnings, and ye shall know that
I am the Lord." Such was not the case when they returned from Babylon.
And what blessing will come to them, when at last God does all these
things! "Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you (the mountains), even my
people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their
inheritance and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men." All
would be changed. Jeremiah had announced, "I will bereave them of
children, I will destroy my people since they return not from their
ways" (Jere. xv:7). When the Lord keeps His promise and brings them
back, their sorrows will be at an end. What are the sorrows and
sufferings of the Babylonian captivity in comparison with the sufferings
which befell them in the year 70 and throughout this dispensation! And
the last page of Israel's sorrow is yet to be written. All is preparing
now for the great tribulation, and then there will be the intervention
from above, and the coming Lord will wipe away all their tears. Four
times the prophet uses the words "any more" (verses 14-15), "Neither
shalt thou bear the reproach of the peoples any more, neither shalt thou
cause thy nation to stumble any more, saith the Lord God." Inasmuch as
there is reproach now upon that nation and they are a reproach, and that
they have stumbled, we know that these words still await their
fulfillment.