From the Gentiles, the Prophet now turns to Israel. The reception of the Gentiles into the Messianic Kingdom is not by any means to take place at the expense of the old covenant-people; even they shall be brought back again, and shall be received into the Kingdom of God. יוסיף must be connected with לקנות, comp. 2 Sam. xxiv. 1: "And the Lord continued to kill," להרג. It is unnecessary and arbitrary to supply לשלח. ידו is Accusative, "as to His hand," equivalent to "with His hand;" comp. Ps. iii. 5, xvii. 10, 11, 13, 14. Just the hand of God, which here comes into consideration as the instrument of _doing_, is repeatedly mentioned in the account of the deliverance from Egypt; comp. Exod. iii. 20, vii. 4, xiii. 9. The expression: "_He shall continue_," in general, points out the idea that it is not a new beginning which is here concerned, but the continuation of former acting, by which believing was rendered so much the more easy. The expression, "a _second time_," points more distinctly to the type of the _deliverance from Egypt_ with which the redemption to be effected by Christ is frequently paralleled; comp. vers. 15, 16; Vol. i. p. 218, 219. "_From Asshur_," &c., must not be connected with לקנות, but with ישאר, comp. v. 16, those who have remained from Asshur, &c., _i.e._, those whom Asshur and the other places of punishment, with their hostile influences, have left, who have been preserved in them. The fact that destructive influences may proceed from those nations also which do not properly belong to the number of the kingdoms of the world, is plainly shown by the history of the Jews after Christ. It would be against the accents, both here and in ver. 6, to connect it with לקנות; the words "which shall remain" would, in that case, appear to be redundant; and, farther, it is opposed by Exod. x. 3: "And eats the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail," equivalent to; which the hail has left to you. Similar to this is 2 Chron. xxx. 6, where Hezekiah exhorts the children of Israel: "Turn again unto the Lord.... in order that He may again return to the remnant which has been left to you from the hand of the kings of Asshur." A question here arises, viz., whether the dispersion of Israel which is here described, had already taken place at the time of the Prophet, or whether the Prophet, transferring himself in the Spirit into [Pg 127] the distant future, describes the dispersion which took place at a later period, after the carrying away of the ten tribes into the Assyrian exile had preceded, viz., that which took place when Judah was carried away into the Babylonish exile, and especially after the destruction of Jerusalem. The latter view is the correct one. The whole tenor of the Prophet's words shows that he supposes a _comprehensive_ dispersion of the people. It is true that, at the time when the prophecy was written, the ten tribes had already been carried away into