Hosea 2:20

I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness,.... Which lies in keeping the marriage contract inviolable; Christ will never suffer his faithfulness to fail, nor break his covenant; as he is

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

This verse is a third promise in the same words to comfort and encourage the true Israel, only faithfulness is here added a qualification of this new marriage, which shall continue firm on a mutual, faithful promise, love, and contract. Thou shalt know the Lord; his just anger which hath punished, his rich grace which hath now pardoned and taken into covenant again, his faithfulness and tender compassions, his all-sufficiency and sovereignty, that we may obey him, and rest satisfied in his love, as it is our reward and happiness.

Hosea 2:20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.Ver. 20. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness] Tremellius, Drusius, and Tarnovius render it in fide, in faith, and interpret it of de fide vera et salvifica, of that true justifying faith whereby we are united to Christ; and for this they urge the next words as an exposition of these. "And they shall know the Lord": alleging some other texts of Scripture wherein saving knowledge is put for justifying faith, as Isaiah 53:11 Jeremiah 31:33 John 17:3. The Septuagint also render it επιγνωση. Now επιγνωσις in the New Testament is often used for saving and growing faith, Titus 1:1 Colossians 2:1; Colossians 3:10, which indeed is the bond of the spiritual marriage, and is itself nothing else but a fiducial assent presupposing knowledge. For man is a rational creature, faith a prudent thing, comprehending in itself these three Acts 1:1-26. Knowledge in the understanding; 2. Assent, or rather consent, in the will; 3. Trust or confidence in the heart; certainty of adherence, if not of evidence. The Papists fasten faith in the will as in the adequate subject, that they may the meanwhile do what they will with the understanding and the heart. To which purpose they exclude all knowledge, aud detest trust in Christ’ s promises, expunging the very name of it everywhere by their Indices Expurgatorii. A blind belief, as the Church believes, is as much as they require of their misled and muzzled proselytes. Bellarmine saith that faith may far better be defined by ignorance than by knowledge. But how shall men believe on him of whom they have not heard? Let us leave to the Papists their implicit faith and their blind obedience, and cry after Christ as that poor man did, "Lord, that mine eyes might be opened," and that I may "know the Lord"; yea, "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." "These things have I written unto you" (saith St John to those that were no babies or zanies in faith or knowledge) "that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may (yet more) believe in the Son of God," 1 John 5:13. David, though he had proceeded farther in the discovery of divine truths than those before him, Psalms 119:99, yet he was still to seek of that which might be known, Psalms 119:96. Even as those great discoverers of the newly found lands in America were wont to confess, at their return, that there was still a plus ultra, more yet, to be discovered.

(19, 20) Then Jehovah, turning again to the wife of His youth, says to her, “I will betroth thee” (as at the first, when maiden undefiled). Three times is this phrase repeated. “Righteousness” and “judgment” indicate the equitable terms on which God would accept the penitent; and lest this thought should crush her with fear, “lovingkindness” and “tender mercies” follow; and lest this should seem too good, He adds “with faithfulness” (to myself). I will betroth thee.—It is in the betrothal of humanity to God in Christ’s incarnation that the human race, which had so deeply revolted, returns to Him, and knows the Lord.

Verse 20. In faithfulness] Thou shalt no more prostitute thyself to idols, but be faithful to him who calls himself thy husband. Thou shalt know the Lord.] There shall be no more infidelity on thy part nor divorce on mine; and thou shalt experience me to be the sole, present, and eternal good of thy immortal spirit: and when this conviction is fully rooted, then there can be no more idolatry, for it shall be seen that an idol is nothing in the world.

20. and thou shalt know the Lord] The ‘knowledge’ of Jehovah is repeatedly insisted upon by Hosea (see Hosea 4:1, Hosea 5:4, Hosea 6:3; Hosea 6:6); not however a merely intellectual one, but that which rests upon spiritual experience, and results in moral practice. Such experience was lacking in Hosea’s countrymen; ‘the spirit of whoredom is in the midst of them, and they have not known Jehovah’ (Hosea 5:4). It was natural to describe as an element of the realized ideal that Jehovah’s people should at last ‘know’ him. How much weaker is the alternative reading, ‘know that I am the Lord’, though supported by the precious Babylonian codex, as well as by the Vulgate!

And thou shalt know the Lord - This knowledge of God follows on God’s act of betrothal and of love. “We love God, because God first loved us.” And the true knowledge of God includes the love of God.

18-23. Picture of the ideal future to be realized by the restored wife. Hosea 2:18 speaks of permanent peace, undisturbed by man and beast.