And the
Lord shall stretch forth His hand a _second time_ to redeem the remnant
of His people.... And He sets up an ensign for the nations, and gathers
together the dispersed of Israel, and assembles the scattered of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.... And the Lord smites with a curse
the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and shakes His hand over the river, in
the violence of His wind, and smites it to seven rivers, so that one
may wade through in shoes. And there shall be a highway to the remnant
of His people, ... like as it was to Israel in the day when he came up
out of the land of Egypt." This reference to the typical deliverance
clearly shows, that in the description we have carefully to separate
between the thought and the language in which it is clothed.

[Pg 436]

Ver. 12. The _Infin. absol._, which in both the clauses
precedes the _tempus finitum_, expresses the emphasis which is to be
placed on the _gathering_, as opposed to the carrying away, and the
scattering formerly announced; for the latter, according to the view of
man, and apart from God's mercy and omnipotence, did not seem to admit
of any favourable turn. By "Jacob" and "Israel," several interpreters
understand Judah alone; others, the ten tribes alone; others, both
together. The last view is alone the correct one. This appears from i.
5, where, by Jacob and Israel, the whole nation is designated. The
promise in the passage before us stands closely related to the
threatening uttered there. All Israel shall be given up to destruction
on account of their sins; all Israel shall be saved by the grace of
God. This assumption is confirmed by a comparison of the parallel
passages in Hosea and Isaiah, where the whole is designated by the two
parts, Judah and Israel. Micah does not notice this division, because
that visible separation, which even in the present was overbalanced by
an invisible unity, shall disappear altogether in that future, when
there shall be only one flock, as there is only one Shepherd. The
expression, "remnant of Israel," in the second clause, which
corresponds to, "O Jacob, thee wholly," in the first, indicates, that
the fulfilment of the promise, so far from doing away with the
threatening, rather rests on its preceding realization. The
Congregation of God, purified by the divine judgments, shall be
_wholly_ gathered. Divine mercy has in itself no limits; and those
which in the present are assigned to it by the objects of mercy,