God’s Grace to the Exiles (11:14-25). 

        We have already referred to the attitude of those left in the land to the exiles (see p. 91). Here it comes out again in a cruel and blatant form (ver. 15). They pictured the exiles as far from Jehovah, but He would be to them a sanctuary (i.e. a temple) for a little while (ver. 16, R.V.),1 and would then bring them back to the land. The fruit of the exile should be changed natures. For “one heart” (ver. 19) we should almost certainly read “another heart” with the LXX, or “a new heart” with the Syriac and 18:31; 36:26. In either case the change in Hebrew is small.

        The glory of God had been gradually leaving the defiled temple and city, cf. 8:4; 9:3; 10:19. Now (ver. 23) it leaves the city altogether. The fact that it leaves the city eastward may well suggest that it was going to lodge among the exiles (cf. ver. 16).