Albert Barnes (died 1870) Predicted Israel's Return To Holy Land (1948)

How do I know that the God of the Bible is the true and living God? How do I know that the Bible is true?

The answer is Israel. Any man can write a book, but no man can create a nation and write the history of that nation in advance.

Israel became a nation in 1948. But the Bible had predicted this long ago in Isaiah 11:11.

In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to bring back the remnant of his people - those who remain in Assyria and northern Egypt; in southern Egypt, Ethiopia, and Elam; in Babylonia, Hamath, and all the distant coastlands. (Isaiah 11:11 NLT)

Albert Barnes (1798-12-01 to 1870-12-24) in his Barnes' Notes on the Bible has this commentary on Isaiah 11:11.
QUOTE
The second time - שׁנית shênı̂yth. This word properly means, as it is here translated, the second time, implying that the prophet here speaks of a deliverance which would resemble, in some respects, a "former" deliverance or recovery. By the former recovery to which he here refers, he cannot mean the deliverance from Egypt under Moses, for at that time there was no recovery from scattered and distant nations. Besides, if "that" was the reference by the former deliverance, then that mentioned here as the 'second' deliverance would be that from the Babylonian captivity. But on the return from that captivity, there was not a collecting of the Jews from all the nations here specified. When the Jews were led back to Judea under Nehemiah, there is no record of their having been collected from 'Egypt,' or from 'Cush,' or from 'the islands of the sea.' It is evident, therefore, I think, that by the former deliverance to which the prophet here alludes - the deliverance which was to precede that designated here as the "second" - he refers to the return from the captivity of Babylon; and by the 'second,' to some still more future recovery that should take place under the administration of the Messiah. This is further confirmed from the fact that the whole scope of the prophecy points to that future period.
UNQUOTE

Remember that Albert Barnes died on Christmas Eve 1870, well before 1948. Yet by careful reading of Isaiah 11:11, he was able to conclude that Isaiah 11:11 refer to "some still more future recovery that should take place".