ought to assume a reference to this passage, as Ezekiel also, in xxxiv. 25 ff., copies it almost _verbatim_. On account of the fatal _If_, that promise had hitherto been only very imperfectly fulfilled; and frequently just the opposite of it had happened. But now that the condition is fulfilled, the promise also shall be fully realized. But we must observe, with reference to it, that, when we look to the present course of the world, this hope remains always more or less ideal, because in reference to the condition also, the idea is not yet reached by the reality. The idea is this:--As evil is, as a [Pg 269]punishment, the inseparable concomitant of sin, so prosperity and salvation are the inseparable companions of righteousness. This is realized even in the present course of the world, in so far as everything must serve to promote the prosperity of the righteous. But the full realization belongs to the παλινγενεσία, where, along with sin, evil too (which is _here_ still necessary even for the righteous, in order to purify them) shall be extirpated. Parallel are Is. ii. 4, xi.-xxxv. 9; Zech. ix. 10. Ver. 21. "_And I betroth thee to Me for eternity; and I betroth thee to Me in righteousness and judgment, and in loving-kindness and mercy._" Ver. 22. "_And I betroth thee to Me in faithfulness, and thou knowest the Lord._" The word ארש, "to espouse" (compare Deut. xx. 7, where it is contrasted with לקח), has reference to the entrance into a marriage entirely new, with the wife of youth, and is, for this reason, chosen on purpose. "Just as if (so _Calvin_ remarks) the people had never violated conjugal fidelity, God promises that they should be His spouse, in the same manner as one marries a _virgo intacta_." It was indeed a great mercy if the unfaithful wife was only received _again_. Justly might she have been rejected for ever; for the only valid reason for a divorce existed, inasmuch as she had lived in adultery for years. But God's mercy goes still further. The old offences are not only _forgiven_, but _forgotten_. A relation entirely new begins, into which there enter, on the one side, no suspicion and no bitterness, and on the other, no painful recollections, such as may pass into similar human relationships, where the consequences of sin never disappear altogether, and where a painful remembrance always remains. The same dealing of God is still repeated daily; every believer may still say with exultation: "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." It is the greatness of this promise which occasions the direct address, whilst hitherto the Lord had spoken of the wife in the third person. She shall hear face to face, the great word out of His mouth, in order that she may be assured that it is she whom it concerns; and in order to express its greatness, its joyfulness, and the difficulty of believing it, it is repeated three times. _Calvin_ says: "Because it was difficult to deliver the people from fear and