Say ye unto your (a) brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
(a) Seeing that I have promised you deliverance, it remains that you
encourage one another to embrace this promise, considering that you
are my people on whom I will have mercy.... [ Continue Reading ]
Plead with your (b) mother, plead: for she [is] not my wife, neither
[am] I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of
her sight, and her adulteries (c) from between her breasts;
(b) God shows that the fault was not in him, that he forsook them, but
in their Synagogue, and their i... [ Continue Reading ]
Lest I strip her naked, and (d) set her as in the day that she was (e)
born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and
slay her with thirst.
(d) For even though his people were as a harlot for their idolatries,
yet he had left them with their dress and dowry and certain signs o... [ Continue Reading ]
And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they [be] the (f)
children of whoredoms.
(f) That is bastards, and begotten in adultery.... [ Continue Reading ]
For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath
done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my (g) lovers, that
give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my
drink.
(g) Meaning the idol which they served, and by whom they thought they
had wealth and... [ Continue Reading ]
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up (h) thy way with thorns, and make a
wall, that she shall not find her paths.
(h) I will punish you so that you may then test whether your idols can
help you, and bring you into such straightness that you will have no
lust to play the harlot.... [ Continue Reading ]
And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake
them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find [them]: then shall
she say, (i) I will go and return to my first husband; for then [was
it] better with me than now.
(i) This he speaks of the faithful, who are truly converted, and a... [ Continue Reading ]
For she did not know that I (k) gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and
multiplied her silver and gold, [which] they prepared for Baal.
(k) This declares that idolaters defraud God of his honour, when they
attribute his benefits to their idols.... [ Continue Reading ]
Therefore will I return, and take away (l) my corn in the time
thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool
and my flax [given] to cover her nakedness.
(l) Signifying that God will take away his benefits, when man by his
ingratitude abuses them.... [ Continue Reading ]
And now will I discover her (m) lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
(m) That is, all her service, ceremonies, and inventions by which she
worshipped her idols.... [ Continue Reading ]
And I will visit upon her the days of (n) Baalim, wherein she burned
incense to them, and she decked herself with her (o) earrings and her
jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
(n) I will punish her for her idolatry.
(o) By showing how harlots trim themselves to ple... [ Continue Reading ]
Therefore, behold, I will (p) allure her, and bring her into the
wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
(p) By my benefits in offering her grace and mercy, even in that place
where she will think herself destitute of all help and comfort.... [ Continue Reading ]
And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley (q) of
Achor for a door of hope: and she shall (r) sing there, as in the days
of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of
Egypt.
(q) Which was a plentiful valley, and in which they had great comfort
when they came... [ Continue Reading ]
And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, [that] thou shalt call me
(s) Ishi; and shalt call me no more (t) Baali.
(s) That is, my husband, knowing that I am united to you by a covenant
which could not be violated.
(t) That is, my master: which name was applied to their idols.... [ Continue Reading ]
For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they
shall no more be remembered by their (u) name.
(u) No idolatry will come into their mouth at all, but they will fear
me purely according to my word.... [ Continue Reading ]
And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the (x) beasts of
the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and [with] the creeping
things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the
battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
(x) Meaning that he will so bl... [ Continue Reading ]
I will even betroth thee unto me in (y) faithfulness: and thou shalt
know the LORD.
(y) With a covenant that will never be broken.... [ Continue Reading ]
And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I
will hear (z) the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
(z) Then will the heaven desire rain for the earth, which will bring
forth things for the use of man.... [ Continue Reading ]