His anger was now turned away, and He was ready to comfort them if they would but turn from the evils which had brought those calamities on their fathers, and return to God with all their hearts. To such a turning the prophet, in the Name of God, now most solemnly invites them:
" Return unto Me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will"
(or that I may ) return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts " the repetition of the august Name of Jehovah being meant to emphasise the Divine authority and sanction of the call, and the certainty of the blessed result which would follow from obedience to it; since He who invites them to come back is none other than " Jehovah of hosts," who, while Lord of all things, at whose call all created forces must marshal themselves as if for war, is at the same time the Covenant God of the history of Redemption, whose very Name is as " a strong tower " for the righteous, and who is only " waiting to be gracious," and would therefore most certainly return unto them.
The gracious invitation and assurance is followed by a warning lest, following in the footsteps of their fathers disobedience, they would incur the like displeasure of God and experience the like punishment:
" Be not ye like to your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried, saying, Turn, we beseech you, from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they heard not, neither did they hearken unto Me, saith Jehovah.”
We have here incidentally given us a kind of inspired resume of one great part of the work " of the former prophets " and its result. The mission of the prophets was comprehensive and many-sided; they spoke to all times, making known to the children of men the counsels of the Eternal. They spoke from the mouth of the Omniscient God, foretelling things to come; but to the current generations in which they lived they were chiefly preachers of righteousness, and their constant cry was, " Repent."
They saw Israel and in this respect Israel is but a type of man wandering ever further from God, and they
