The Lord hath called thee, to return and come again to him. As a woman forsaken; when thou wast like a woman forsaken. Or, as a husband recalleth his wife. Forsaken by her husband, who hath given her a bill of divorce. Grieved in spirit, for the loss of her husband's flavour and society, and for the reproach attending upon it. And a wife of youth; or, and as (which note of similitude is supplied here by the LXX. and Chaldee interpreters, and is easily understood out of the foregoing clause, in which it is expressed) a wife of youth, i.e. as readily and affectionately as a husband recalleth his wife which no married in her and his own youth, of whom see on Proverbs 5:18, whom though he might through a sudden and violent passion put away, yet he soon repents of it, and his affections work towards her, and he invites her to return to him. When thou wast refused; when thou wast in a desolate estate, and hadst been for some time rejected by me, then I recalled thee. Or, although thou wast refused, or dismissed, or despised by me, and that justly; yet I had mercy upon thee, and freely offered reconciliation to thee. Saith thy God; who will again be, and still show himself to be, thy God, and will renew his covenant with thee.

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