Hosea 2:1

CHAPTER II

The prophet exhorts his people to speak and to act as became

those who obtained mercy of God; and to remonstrate strongly

against the conduct of their mother, (Samaria,) whose captivity

is threatened on account of her forsaking God, and ascribing

her prosperity to idols, 1-5.

As an amplification of this threatening, the prophet

ennumerates a series of afflictions which were to befall her

to bring her to a sense of her duty to God; and of her folly

in seeking after idols, and falsely ascribing to them the

blessings of Providence, 6-13.

After these corrections, however, God promises to conduct

Israel safely to their own land; perhaps alluding to their

restoration from the Babylonish captivity, for this prophecy

is supposed to have been delivered about two hundred and fifty

years prior to this event, 14, 15.

He farther engages to deal with them as a tender husband, and

not as a severe master, as were the idols which they served,

16, 17.

The rest of the chapter promises the people of God, the true

Israel, security from every evil, with the possession of every

blessing, under a new covenant; and that in terms full of

beauty, energy, and consolation. Heaven and earth, and whatever

they contain; all nature, and the God of nature, are

represented as uniting to make the people of God happy; so that

if they only breathe a wish, one part of nature, animate or

inanimate, echoes it to another, and all join in sweet harmony

to transmit it to the ear of the Almighty. "I will hear, saith

the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the

earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and

the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel."

NOTES ON CHAP. II

Verse Hosea 2:1. Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi] I prefer the interpretation of these proper names. Say ye unto your brethren, MY PEOPLE; and to your sisters, who have OBTAINED MERCY.