This, surely, was a new condition. But they are put into it, that they may be again tested, tested to the full, and thereby proved and convicted to the uttermost. For so it comes to pass that when the trial of them is made in their new circumstances, failure ensues, as it had ever done. The book of Judges had already witnessed against them as a nation; 2 Chronicles had already witnessed against them as a kingdom; now Ezra and Nehemiah, and this prophecy of Malachi witness against them as returned captives.