Verse 26. - After they have borne their shame (comp. Ezekiel 16:52, 54; Ezekiel 32:24, 30; Ezekiel 34:29; Ezekiel 36:6). The captivity of Israel would not be brought back until her people had been thoroughly chastised for their iniquities, and that chastisement had wrought in them a spirit of penitence and a disposition towards obedience. Then should Jehovah interpose for their deliver-ante by gathering them out of their enemies' lands and leading them back to their own land; and these two experiences, the Captivity and the Restoration, the driving out and the bringing in, should complete their conversion to Jehovah, and secure their perpetual enjoyment of Jehovah's favor.

39:23-29 When the Lord shall have mercy on the whole house of Israel, by converting them to Christianity, and when they shall have borne the shame of being cast off for their sins, then the nations shall learn to know, worship, and serve him. Then Israel also shall know the Lord, as revealed in and by Christ. Past events do not answer to these predictions. The pouring out of the Spirit is a pledge that God's favour will continue. He will hide his face no more from those on whom he has poured out his Spirit. When we pray that God would never cast us from his presence, we must as earnestly pray that, in order thereto, he would never take his Holy Spirit from us.After that they have borne their shame,.... And disgrace, among the nations where they are scattered; being captives, exiles, in distress and affliction, and under the manifest tokens of the divine wrath and vengeance: it may be rendered, "and they shall bear their shame" (m); that is, as Jarchi glosses it,

"when I shall do good to them, and not render to them according to their wickedness, then they shall bear their shame, and be confounded, and not able to lift up their face;''

as penitent persons, under a sense of divine wrath, blush, and are ashamed to look up to God; see Ezra 9:6. Menachem interprets the word in the sense of atonement and forgiveness, as it is used in Psalm 32:11, as if the meaning was, then they shall have their sins, which caused shame, forgiven them. Kimchi's gloss is,

"they shall carry in their mouths, and make mention of their shame they had in captivity.''

And all their transgressions whereby they have transgressed against me; that is, the punishment of all their trespasses in their captivity, or the shame of them, being now brought to repentance; and which will be aggravated to them, when they remember that these were committed by their forefathers, and since approved of by them.

When they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid; as they did in the times of Christ; they were in entire peace, and no enemy disturbed them; and were in the possession of their own land, and enjoyed the blessings of it, and had their religious as well as civil liberties; and yet rejected the Messiah, his doctrine, ordinances, and salvation by him.

(m) "et portabunt", Pagninus, Montanus, V. L. Grotius; "et ferent ignominiam suam", Starckius.