_Say to your brethren_ Many interpreters consider this verse as being connected with the preceding chapter, thus: When that general restoration of the Jewish nation shall take place, you may change your language in speaking to those of your brethren and sisters whom I had before disowned, and you ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lest I strip her naked_, &c. The punishment frequently inflicted upon harlots was, to strip them naked and expose them to the world. The punishment of adulteresses among the Germans is thus described by Tacitus, “Accisis crinibus nudatam coram propinguis expellit domo maritus.” Or the allusion may... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I will not have mercy on her children_, &c. As an injured husband has no regard for the children which his wife has had by another man; so neither will I have pity on thy children which are trained up to practise thy idolatries. _For they be the children of whoredoms_ Spurious children, not kno... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore I will hedge up thy way with thorns_, &c. That is, with difficulties and distresses; _and make a wall_ Hebrew, גדרה, _a stone fence._ I will effectually block up her way, and surround her with great calamities. _That she shall not find her paths_ That she shall not know which way to turn... [ Continue Reading ]
_For she did not know_ Or, as Bishop Horsley renders it, _But she would not know, that I gave her corn_, &c. She did not, or would not consider that all the necessaries she enjoyed, as well as her riches and ornaments, were my gifts, which yet she ungratefully employed in the service of her idols, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_And now will I discover her lewdness_, &c. The folly and wickedness of her idolatries shall appear by the punishments which I will inflict upon her, which shall be so remarkable that they shall be taken notice of by the idolatrous nations round about her, which have pretended a friendship for her,... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I will destroy her vines_ Those blessings, or fruits of the earth, which she has attributed to her false gods, I will give to the beasts of the field to eat, making the whole land only a wilderness for beasts. Among other objects of their false worship, the Israelites worshipped the celestial l... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore, behold, I will allure her_ As there is a plain alteration of the style here from threatenings to promises, so the first word of this verse should be translated _nevertheless_, or _notwithstanding. And bring her into the wilderness_ Or, _after I have brought her into the wilderness._ The... [ Continue Reading ]
_And at that day thou shalt call me Ishi, &c. Ishi, my husband_, is an appellation of love; _Baali, my lord_, of subjection and fear. _God hath not given_ his people, whom he justifies, accepts, and betroths to himself in righteousness, _the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound... [ Continue Reading ]
_And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field_, &c. That is, a covenant of security from the evils which, in the days of my vengeance, arose from beasts, and birds of prey, and venomous creatures. Or the words may be understood figuratively, of the final conversion of... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will betroth thee unto me for ever_ I will treat thee, who hast been a harlot, like a wife, if hereafter thou become faithful to me. _Yea_, _I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness_, &c. Bishop Horsley translates these verses thus: _To myself I say, I will betroth thee with justice, and with... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will hear the heavens_ When they ask, as it were, to send their rain on the earth. _And they shall hear the earth_ When it supplicates, as it were, for rain. _The earth shall hear the corn and the wine_, &c. When they wish, as it were, to supply the wants of man. _And they shall hear Jezreel_ All... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I will sow_ Or _plant, her unto me in the earth_, &c. The original word, rendered _sow_, or _plant_, alludes to and explains the word _Jezreel_, or _seed of God_, as used Hosea 1:4; Hosea 1:11, and here in the foregoing verse. The prophet foretels a plentiful increase of true believers, like to... [ Continue Reading ]