Not for your sakes … but for mine holy Name's sake. Thus Jehovah repudiates the claim of merit on Israel's part (comp. Ezekiel 36:32); and if Israel had no claim on Jehovah for deliverance from the Babylonish exile any more than she had at first to be put in possession of Canaan (Deuteronomy 9:6), much less has fallen man a claim on God for salvation from the condemnation and dominion of sin (Romans 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-10).
As the essential holiness and righteousness of God were the real reason of Israel's exile and dispersion among the nations, so were these qualities in God the ultimate grounds to which Israel's recovery and restoration should be traced.