Thomas Aquinas

Here he sets down the response to those recalled: and first, that of the two tribes, promising them restoration of the homeland: one, concerning the city, because they had been scattered, or because not all had returned. Ezekiel 36: "For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the lands, and bring you into your own land." And the reintegration of justice in the amendment of the prelates: "and I will give you shepherds according to my own heart, and they will feed you with knowledge — as to faith — with doctrine — as to morals." Isaiah 1: "I will restore your judges as they were before, and your counselors as of old." Third, as regards the increase of glory, which he signifies from the forgetting of things past: "and when you have been multiplied (...) they will no longer say: the ark of the covenant of the Lord": as if for nothing they will reckon that in which you now glory: because the ark was hidden and was not found; as is said in 2 Maccabees 1. From the promise of things to come: "in that time they will call Jerusalem" — the whole of it — which was fulfilled in the fame for holiness in which it was held, as is said in 1 Maccabees 3. Ezekiel 43: "the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever." And as regards the enlargement of worship: "and all nations shall be gathered" — some from every nation: for they came from everywhere to pray in Jerusalem. Or it is understood of the conversion of the nations to the faith of Christ. Psalm 85: "All the nations you have made shall come, and shall worship before you, O Lord."

Second, he sets down the conversion of the ten tribes: "in those days the house of Judah shall go to the house of Israel": because even of those who returned, they were joined to the two tribes. This is noted in what he says: "they will come together." Below, 50: "In those days, and at that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel will come, they themselves, and the children of Judah together, walking and weeping they will hasten, and will seek the Lord their God." Some, however, explain all this of the last times.