Verse 4
4. Turn again our captivity The work of returning to their native land from all the parts whither they had been scattered was not accomplished at once. It had now begun gloriously, but was not completed. It was nearly a hundred years from the return of the first caravan, under Zerubbabel, (Ezra 2:1-2,) till that under Nehemiah. Nehemiah 2:5-11.
As the streams in the south As the brooks in the Negeb, or parched country the country of Arabia Petrea, called also “the South,” (Isaiah 21:1,) and often. Here the streams, which dry up in summer, (Job 6:15-20,) rise rapidly in the rainy season. In the region of Sinai, says Palmer, “a single thunderstorm, with a heavy shower of rain falling on the naked granite mountains, will be sufficient to convert a dry and level valley into a roaring river in a few short hours.” Thus the pious Jew prayed that the return of the exiles might be immediate, copious, and refreshing. “The poet proceeds from the idea that the Holy Land yearns after an abundant, re-animating influx of population, as the Negeb thirsts for the rain-water streams.” Delitzsch.
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