These last two verses of this book have a double aspect. 1. They look
back to the prophecy of Jeremiah, and show how that was accomplished,
v. 22. God had, by him, promised the restoring of the captives and the
rebuilding of Jerusalem, at the end of seventy years; and that time to
favour Sion, that set time, came at last. After a long and dark night
the day-spring from on high visited them. God will be found true to
every word he has spoken. 2. They look forward to the history of Ezra,
which begins with the repetition of these last two verses. They are
there the introduction to a pleasant story; here they are the
conclusion of a very melancholy one; and so we learn from them that,
though God's church be cast down, it is not cast off, though his people
be corrected, they are not abandoned, though thrown into the furnace,
yet not lost there, nor left there any longer than till the dross be
separated. Though God contend long, he will not contend always. The
Israel of God shall be fetched out of Babylon in due time, and even the
dry bones made to live. It may be long first; but the vision is for an
appointed time, and at the end it shall speak and not lie; therefore,
though it tarry, wait for it.
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