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10. The Lord Will Care for Judah

¹ Ask the LORD for rain in the springtime;
   it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms.
He gives showers of rain to all people,
   and plants of the field to everyone.
² The idols speak deceitfully,
   diviners see visions that lie;
they tell dreams that are false,
   they give comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wander like sheep
   oppressed for lack of a shepherd.

    ³ “My anger burns against the shepherds,
   and I will punish the leaders;
for the LORD Almighty will care
   for his flock, the people of Judah,
   and make them like a proud horse in battle.
⁴ From Judah will come the cornerstone,
   from him the tent peg,
from him the battle bow,
   from him every ruler.
⁵ Together they Or ruler, all of them together. / They will be like warriors in battle
   trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.
They will fight because the LORD is with them,
   and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.

    ⁶ “I will strengthen Judah
   and save the tribes of Joseph.
I will restore them
   because I have compassion on them.
They will be as though
   I had not rejected them,
for I am the LORD their God
   and I will answer them.
⁷ The Ephraimites will become like warriors,
   and their hearts will be glad as with wine.
Their children will see it and be joyful;
   their hearts will rejoice in the LORD.
⁸ I will signal for them
   and gather them in.
Surely I will redeem them;
   they will be as numerous as before.
⁹ Though I scatter them among the peoples,
   yet in distant lands they will remember me.
They and their children will survive,
   and they will return.
¹⁰ I will bring them back from Egypt
   and gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon,
   and there will not be room enough for them.
¹¹ They will pass through the sea of trouble;
   the surging sea will be subdued
   and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.
Assyria’s pride will be brought down
   and Egypt’s scepter will pass away.
¹² I will strengthen them in the LORD
   and in his name they will live securely,” declares the LORD.

Here at length he includes the substance of what we have noticed, that there would be sufficient help in God to raise up and support his people, and to render them victorious over all their enemies. He had already proved this by saying, that God had formerly sufficiently testified by many miracles how much superior he was to the whole world; but he briefly completes the whole of this proof, and shows, that the Jews, provided that they relied on God and expected from him what he had promised, would be sufficiently strong, though the whole power of the world were to rise up against them.

He also mentions the name of God, They shall walk, he says, in his name, that is, under his auspices. In short, there is here an implied contrast between the name of God and the wealth and the forces of their enemies, which might have filled the minds of the faithful with fear, and cast them down. Hence the Prophet bids the Jews to give the glory to God, and not to doubt but that they would be victorious, whatever hindrance the world might throw in their way. And by this word walk, he means a continued course of life, as though he had said, that the people indeed had returned from exile, that is, in part; but that more of them were to be expected, for the Lord had not only been a leader in their return, but that he would be also their perpetual guardian, and defend them to the end.