ed by that large measure of
faith which perceives, behind the visible effect, the invisible Author
of it; compare, _e.g._, Gen. xviii. 10, where the Lord says to Abraham,
that He would return to him at the same period in the following year;
whereas He did not return in a visible form, as then, but only in the
fulfilment of His promise. Thus God had formerly appeared to Israel as
the Giver; and now that they did not acknowledge Him as such. He
returns as the God that takes away. "She did not know that I gave,
therefore I shall return and take." That the words were to be thus
understood, the prophet, as it appears, intended to indicate by the
change of the tenses. It is quite natural that a verb, used as an
adverb, should be as closely as possible connected with that verb which
conveys the principal idea; and it would scarcely be possible to find a
single instance--at all events there are not many instances--where, in
such a case, a difference of the tense takes place. Altogether
analogous is Jer. xii. 15: "And it shall come to pass after I have
destroyed them, [Hebrew: awvb vrHmtiM], I will return and have
compassion on them;" where the sense would be very much weakened if we
were to translate, "I shall _again_ have compassion." There appears to
be the same design in the change of the tenses in iii. 5 also. What is
there said of Israel forms a remarkable parallel to what is here said
of God. God had formerly come, giving--Israel, taking; God now returns,
taking--Israel giving,--a relation which opens up an insight into the
whole economy of the sufferings.--"_My_ corn," etc., forms a contrast
to ver. 7, where Israel had spoken of all these things as _theirs_.
Whatever God gives, always remains [Pg 245] His own, because He gives
only as a loan, and on certain conditions. If any one should consider
himself as the absolute master of it, He makes him feel his error by
taking it away.--"In its time" and "in its season" are added, because
it was _then_, ordinarily, that God had appeared as _giving_, and
because _then_ they therefore confidently expected His gifts. But now
He appears at once as _taking_, because they were already so sure of
the expected gifts that they held them, as it were, already in their
hands; just as if, at Christmas--which corresponds to the harvest, the
ordinary season of God's granting gifts--parents should withdraw from
their children the accustomed presents, and put a rod in their place.
It is better t