This passage contrasts Israel’s destruction and eventual restoration. Jacob juxtaposes Israel’s iniquities with the eventual turning to belief. He similarly contrasts destructions and scattering with their restoration to their lands of inheritance.
Jacob is setting up a paradigm that he will transfer from the Jews of the Old World to his own people by contrasting the “iniquitous” Jews, who would destroy Jerusalem and later crucify their Messiah, with the repentant and believing Jews, who would be restored in “in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance.” In other words, even though the restoration to their lands is in the future, it is in the human, physical future, not a spiritual heavenly future. Jacob creates an important example of sin and repentance. It shows the literally limitless extent of Yahweh’s mercy and provides dramatic assurance that even a people who have gone so far from righteousness can still return. Against this backdrop, Jacob will discuss the iniquities that his own people, by prophecy, will engage in but also assure them of their ability to repent.