1. When Jehovah brought back the captivity of Zion, etc. It is unnatural and forced to suppose, with some expositors, that this is a prediction of what was to come.

2. Now shall our mouth be filled with laughter. The adverb of time, אז, az, is commonly translated then; but as the verbs are in the future tense, I have thought that it might not be improper to translate tires – grow shall our mouth be filled, and now shall they say.

4. O Jehovah! bring back our captivity. The second part of the Psalm, as I have said, contains a prayer that God would gather together the residue of the captives.

5. They who sow in tears shall reap in joy. This sentence, in my opinion, ought not less to be extended to the future than understood of the past. The carrying away of the Jews into Babylon was to them as a seed-time; God having, by the prophecy of Jeremiah, encouraged them to hope for the harvest.