Hosea 2:7

not overtake… not find them Because the sense of the mystic nearness of the Baalim, formerly enjoyed by their worshippers, will have disappeared together with the prosperity which they were imagined to have granted; prayers and sacrifices will have lost their supposed efficacy.

I will go and return Rather, Let me go and return. A resolution which strikingly resembles that of the Jews in Upper Egypt in the time of Jeremiah, who persisted in worshipping the Queen of Heaven, on the ground that when they had worshipped her in former times -they had plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil" (Jeremiah 44:17). Israel's language here reminds us of a later parallel passage (Hosea 6:1-3); it is not so much the expression of penitence, as of a longing to escape from the sense of misery.

then was it better with me than now For, after all, Israel was better off materially at the opening of her national existence. She had not indeed as yet appropriated the good things of Canaanitish civilization; but her independence was secured, and she had a bright horizon of hope.