I have even from the beginning declared it (comp. Isaiah 48:3). The declaration here made is that God rendered his prophecies more than ordinarily marvellous on account of Israel's obstinacy, not punishing them for it, lint seeking graciously and lovingly to overcome it by adding to the weight of the evidence to which he would fain hare had it yield.
Had his prophecies been less astonishing, had they in a less degree transcended ordinary human experience, Israel might conceivably have ascribed them and the accomplishment of them to the false gods.
As it was, this was barely possible. Mine idol … my molten image. It has been already observed (see the comment on Isaiah 40:18) that there was a strong tendency to idolatry among the Jews, not only before, but during the Captivity.
Ezekiel says that those among whom he lived were "polluted after the manner of their fathers, and committed whoredom after their abominations; made their sons pass through the fire, and polluted themselves with all their idols" (Ezekiel 20:30, Ezekiel 20:31); nay, went so far as to declare boldly, "We will be as the heathen, as the inhabitants of the countries, to serve wood and stone" (Ezekiel 20:32).
The "prevailing tendency," as Delitzsch remarks, was "to combine the worship of Jehovah with heathenism, or else to exchange the former altogether for the latter." We cannot conclude anything concerning the mass of the community from the character of those who returned.
Those who returned were the sincere worshippers of Jehovah—the irreligious did not care to return. It is always to be borne in mind that it was "the great mass even of Judah," no less than of Israel, that "remained behind" (Delitzsch); and these "became absorbed into the heathen, to whom they became more and more assimilated'' (ibid.
). Hath commanded them; i.e. "hath caused them (the events) to take place" (comp. Psalms 33:9).