In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers.

“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.”

“In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel,.... Which had its accomplishment when some of the ten tribes, scattered among the nations whither the Gospel came, as well as in the land of Judea, being converted under it, joined together in a Gospel church state, and walked together in all the commandments and ordinances of Christ: and it may also denote the agreement of all Christian confessors, as Judah signifies, and of all Israelites indeed, in worship, whether Jews or Gentiles; becoming through Christ members of one body, fellow heirs and partakers of the same grace, promises, and privileges; and which harmony will still be more manifest in the latter day, Isa 11:7, and they shall come together out of the land of the north; out of these northern kingdoms of ours, and other parts of Europe, where they chiefly are; this will be when the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in, and the Jews are converted and joined to Christian churches: the allusion is to the return of the Jews from Babylon, which lay north of Judea: to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers; for when the Jews are converted they shall return to their own land, which God gave for an inheritance to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their seed after them.”

“Judah . . . Israel . . . together--Two distinct apostasies, that of Israel and that of Judah, were foretold (Jer 3:8, Jer 3:10). The two have never been united since the Babylonish captivity; therefore their joint restoration must be still future (Isa 11:12-13; Eze 37:16-22; Hos 1:11). north-- (Jer 3:12). land . . . given . . . inheritance-- (Amo 9:15).”

“In those days when Jerusalem is glorified by being made the throne of the Lord, Judah along with Israel will come out of the north into the land which the Lord gave to their fathers. As the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple is foretold implicite in Jer 3:16, so here the expulsion of Judah into exile is assumed as having already taken place, and the return not of Israel, only, but of Judah too is announced, as in Hos 2:2, and more fully in Eze 27:16. We should note the arrangement, the house of Judah with (על, prop. on) the house of Israel; this is as much as to say that Israel is the first to resolve on a return and to arise, and that Judah joins itself to the house of Israel. Judah is thus subordinated to the house of Israel, because the prophet is here seeking chiefly to announce the return of Israel to the Lord. It can surely not be necessary to say that, as regards the fulfilment, we are not entitled hence to infer that the remnant of the ten tribes will positively be converted to the Lord and redeemed out of exile sooner than the remnant of Judah. For more on this point see on Jer 31:8.”