And though the Lord give you, &c.— The prophet here, setting forth the second benefit, tells them, that though at the time of the restoration of their state they should by no means be free from various afflictions, (as Daniel also foretels, Daniel 9:25.) yet these temporal afflictions should be compensated and exceeded by the spiritual blessing by which God would then bless his church: which should be an abundance of instruction from their true teachers, for that is the meaning of the original word מורים morim. The metaphor in the 21st verse is taken from a father or instructor, who follows carefully the children going before him, committed to his care; and when he perceives them turning from the way wherein they should go, teaches and instructs them. The same metaphor is used Psalms 25:4; Psalms 5:8. It is very certain, from the history of that period, that the Jews, after their restoration from Babylon, were a long time in great straits, though they were blessed with many remarkable and excellent instructors, at the head of whom we may conceive Ezra, like a father of a family leading and instructing his people. See Nehemiah 8:2; Nehemiah 8:18. And herein the church had a prelude of that more copious and spiritual instruction, to be diffused by the ministers of the Gospel, under the oeconomy of Jesus Christ.

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