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).