ch the more obvious that we 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
[Greek: palingenesia], 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 [Hebrew: arw], "to espouse" (compare Deut. xx. 7, where it is
contrasted with [Hebrew: lqH]), 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 da