He restored the coast of Israel,.... The cities upon it, which had been taken away from them by their enemies:from the entering of Hamath; which was the northern border of the land of Canaan, the entrance into it from Syria, see Nu 34:8,unto the sea of the plain: of Jordan, called sometimes the salt sea and the Dead Sea; the lake Asphaltites, as Josephus , where formerly stood Sodom and Gomorrah:according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah the son of Amittai; the same with him whose prophecy among the small prophets bears this name; and though his prophecy concerning Jeroboam's success and victories is not there, nor anywhere else, recorded at length, yet needed not to be doubted of; this is the first of the prophets spoken of whose books are extant:which was of Gathhepher; a city in the tribe of Zebulun, Jos 19:13, which contradicts a notion of the Jews, that no prophet came out of Galilee, when the very first of those that were the penmen of the books of prophecies was from thence, see Joh 7:52.
Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 9.) c. 10. sect.