ralleled; comp. vers. 15, 16; Vol. i. p. 218, 219. "_From
Asshur_," &c., must not be connected with [Hebrew: lqnvt], but with
[Hebrew: iwar], 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 [Hebrew: lqnvt]; 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 captivity; but the kingdom of Judah, the subjects of which,
according to ver. 12, likewise appear as being in the dispersion, had
not yet suffered any important desolation. The few inhabitants of Judah
who, according to Joel iv. 6, (iii. 6), and Amos i. 6, 9, had been sold
as slaves by the Philistines and Ph[oe]nicians, and others, who, it may
be, in hard times had spontaneously fled from their native country,
cannot here come into consideration. Just as here, so by Hosea too, the
future carrying away of the inhabitants of Judah is anticipated; comp.
vol. i., p. 219, 220. The fundame