(11, 12) When all the Jews that were in Moab . . .--It lay in the nature of things that many of the dwellers in Judaea fled before the march of the Chaldaean armies, and took refuge in the neighbouring regions. In Ruth 1:2, 1Samuel 22:3, Isaiah 16:4, we find analogous instances of fugitives from Judah finding shelter in the Moabite country. These, on hearing of the generous policy adopted by Gedaliah, took courage and returned in time to profit by his permission to gather the produce which otherwise would have been left to perish on the soil.

40:7-16 Jeremiah had never in his prophecies spoken of any good days for the Jews, to come immediately after the captivity; yet Providence seemed to encourage such an expectation. But how soon is this hopeful prospect blighted! When God begins a judgment, he will complete it. While pride, ambition, or revenge, bears rule in the heart, men will form new projects, and be restless in mischief, which commonly ends in their own ruin. Who would have thought, that after the destruction of Jerusalem, rebellion would so soon have sprung up? There can be no thorough change but what grace makes. And if the miserable, who are kept in everlasting chains for the judgment of the great day, were again permitted to come on earth, the sin and evil of their nature would be unchanged. Lord, give us new hearts, and that new mind in which the new birth consists, since thou hast said we cannot without it see thy heavenly kingdom.Likewise, when all the Jews that were in Moab,.... Who had fled thither, and to the places after mentioned, when the king of Babylon first invaded the land, and where they had continued unto this time:

and among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and that were in all the countries; in all other neighbouring countries, besides Moab, Ammon, and Edom; some fleeing one way, and some another, which lay nearest to their borders, or where they thought themselves safest: when they

heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah; a few of their brethren, to cultivate the land, and repopulated it:

and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan; whom they knew to be a wise and good man; these were engaging motives to them to return to their own land, being more desirable to live in than any other, could they enjoy peace and safety; and to dwell with their brethren, their own countrymen, and of the same religion with them, was more eligible than to dwell in foreign idolatrous countries; and especially since there was a government established to protect and defend them, and that in the hands of so worthy a prince as Gedaliah.