Hosea 2

Hosea 2:1

Jerome: “Tell your brothers and sisters, my people, that they have attained mercy.” LXX: “Say to your brother, my people, and to your sister, having obtained mercy.” Because the day of Jezrael is great, on which Judas and Israel will have one prince, and it will not be said of Israel, “you are not my people,” but on the contrary they will be called the children of the living God. Therefore, O men of the tribe of Judah, do not despair of the ten tribes’ salvation, but daily provoke them to repentance by speech, prayer, vow and letters because they are your brothers and sisters: brothers because they are called “my people,” sisters because they are called “having obtained mercy.” Otherwise: You who believe in Christ, being both from the Jews and from the Gentiles, say to those who have been cut off and to the former people, “You are my people,” because they are your brothers, and “having obtained mercy” because they are your sisters. “For when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, then all Israel shall be saved.” (Romans 11:25). The same thing is prescribed to us, that we do not completely despair of heretics, but that we provoke them to penance: and we desire their salvation with the affection of brotherhood. — Commentary on Hosea 2:1

Richard Challoner: Say ye to your brethren: or, Call your brethren, My people: and your sister, Her that hath obtained mercy. This is connected with the latter end of the foregoing chapter, and relates to the converts of Israel.

Hosea 2:2

Cyril of Alexandria: She has not preserved the genuineness of love toward me, but rather she denied the intimacy and underestimated the purity of spiritual communion with me. Nor was she willing to bring forth the fruits of my will. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 2:11

Richard Challoner: Your mother: The synagogue.

Hosea 2:4

Jerome: “And I will not have pity on her sons, for they are the sons of fornication, because their mother has committed fornication: she is confounded that conceived them, because she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me bread, and water, and clothes, and oil, and drink.” LXX: “And I will not have mercy on her sons, because they are the children of fornication. For their mother has committed fornication. She that conceived them is covered with shame, for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.” I will do more for the one to whom I spoke, not my wife, and I am not your husband, and I will make her like a wilderness, and make her like a barren land. “For when I brought her out of Egypt, I killed their parents and their children entered into the land of promise. But now the children of a harlot mother will perish with their mother the prostitute, since they are sons of fornication and are born of evil. Of them it is said in the Gospel: ‘You brood of vipers’ (Matthew 3:7). They have come to such shamelessness that they are being compared to the “face of a harlot,” and they are disgraced. " (Jeremiah 3:3) Is it not a stubborn and harlot’s boldness that one should boast in their own wrongdoing and say, “I will follow my lovers”; I will go to the idols that have provided me with food and clothing. All that is described by the prophetic work, the Jews have received spiritually from the Lord. And since they denied the Son of God, choosing instead Barabbas, a robber and inciter of sedition, and crucifying the Son of God (John 18). Therefore, even today demons follow and refer God’s blessings to those who have lost their souls to their own cults. The heretics have bread and water, whose bread is sadness, and their water is muddy, which suffocates and kills the baptized. They also have wool from diseased sheep, and flax that remains black, and oil, of which the prophet says: “The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head” (Ps. CLX, 5), and the drink of the waters of Egypt, of which Jeremiah cries out: “What to you is the way of Egypt, that you would drink the water of Geon” (Jeremiah II, 18)? And he said: “Why do you want to drink water from the rivers of the Assyrians? We briefly went through everything, so that we can move on to the rest.” — Commentary on Hosea 2:4-5

Hosea 2:5

Augustine of Hippo: Who is that adulterous woman whom the prophet Hosea points out, who said, “I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, and everything that befits me”? Let us grant that we may understand this also of the people of the Jews who went astray. Yet who else are false Christians (such as are all heretics and schismatics) prone to imitate, except false Israelites? — ON BAPTISM 3:26

Augustine of Hippo: “And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, but she shall not find them. Then shall she say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with me than now.’ ” Then he adds something, in order that they may not attribute to their seducers what they have that is sound and derived from the doctrine of truth, by which they lead them astray to the falseness of their own dogmas and dissensions. And in order that they may not think that what is sound in them belongs to them, he immediately added, “And she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her money; but she made vessels of gold and silver for Baal.” — ON BAPTISM 3:27

Hosea 2:6

Gregory the Dialogist: For hence is that which the Lord says, under the character of every soul, to Judaea who is weak, and walking in evil ways; “Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will hedge it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths, and she shall follow after her lovers, and she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, and not finding them shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.” For the ways of the Elect are hedged up with thorns, when they find the pain of piercing in that which they desire in this world. He obstructs, as it were, by interposing a wall, the ways of those, whose desires the difficulty of attainment opposes. Their souls truly seek their lovers, and find them not, when by following malignant spirits, they do not gain hold of those pleasures of this world, which they desire. But it is well added that she says immediately in consequence of this very difficulty; “I will go and return to my former husband, for then it was better with me than now.” For the Lord is the first husband, Who united to Himself the chaste soul, by means of the love of the Holy Spirit. And the mind of each one then longs for Him, when it finds manifold bitternesses, as thorns in those delights, which it desires in this world. For when the mind has begun to be stung by the adversities of the world which it loves, it then understands more fully, how much better it was for it with its former husband. Those then, whom an evil will perverts, adversity frequently corrects. — Morals on the Book of Job, Book 34:3

Gregory the Dialogist: For there are some who understand the good things they ought to do, but cease from doing them; they see what they ought to do, but do not follow it out of desire. To these, as we said above, it often happens that the adversity of this world strikes them in their carnal desires; they try to grasp temporal glory and cannot; and while they propose to sail through the deep waters, as it were, toward the greater concerns of this age, they are always driven back by contrary winds to the shores of their own dejection. And when they see themselves broken in their desires, with the world opposing them, they are reminded what they owe to their Creator, so that they return to Him with shame, whom they had abandoned in their pride for love of the world.

For often some who wish to advance toward temporal glory either waste away in prolonged illness, or fall crushed by injuries, or are afflicted when struck by heavy losses, and in the sorrow of the world they see that they should have placed no confidence in its pleasures, and reproaching themselves for their own desires, they turn their hearts to God. Of these indeed the Lord says through the prophet: “Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will wall it in with a barrier, and she shall not find her paths; and she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; she shall seek them, and shall not find them, and she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then than now.” The husband of every faithful soul is God, because she is joined to Him through faith. But that soul which had been joined to God follows after her lovers, when the mind which has already believed through faith still subjects itself in action to unclean spirits, seeks the glory of the world, feeds on carnal delight, and is nourished by exquisite pleasures. But often almighty God mercifully looks upon such a soul and mingles bitterness with her pleasures. Hence He says: “Behold, I will hedge up your ways with thorns.” For our ways are hedged with thorns when in what we wrongly desire we find the pricks of pain. “And I will wall them in with a barrier, and she shall not find her paths.” Our ways are walled in with a barrier when hard obstacles in this world resist our desires. And we cannot find our paths, because we are prevented from obtaining what we wrongly seek. “And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; she shall seek them, and shall not find them”; because the soul does not at all attain the fulfillment of her desires from the malign spirits to whom she had subjected herself in her desires. But what great benefit arises from this salutary adversity He adds when it follows: “And she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then than now.” Therefore, after she finds her ways hedged with thorns, after she cannot overtake her lovers, she returns to the love of her first husband, because often after we cannot obtain what we want in this world, after we grow weary in earthly desires from their impossibility, then we bring God back to mind, then He who displeased us begins to please; and He whose precepts had been bitter to us suddenly becomes sweet in memory; and the sinful soul who had tried to be an adulteress, yet could not through open act, resolves to be a faithful wife. Those therefore who, broken by the adversities of this world, return to the love of God and are corrected from the desires of the present life—what are they, my brothers, but compelled to enter? — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 36

John Cassian: Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed God’s concern and providence toward us. He speaks of the image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardor to the worship of idols. She says, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.” The divine condescension replies, with a view to her salvation and not to her will, “Behold, I will hedge in her paths with thorns, and I will hedge her in with a wall, and she will not find her ways. And she will pursue her lovers and not lay hold of them, and she will seek them and not find them, and she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.’ ” — CONFERENCE 13:8.1

Hosea 2:7

Origen of Alexandria: So, therefore, understand that there were also many lovers of your soul who have been seduced by its splendor with whom it has been a prostitute. It was also said of these, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my wine and my oil.” But the soul has now come to that time that it should say, “I will return to my first husband because it was better for me than now.” You have returned, therefore, to your first husband. You have doubtless displeased your lovers with whom you used to commit adultery. Unless, therefore, you now remain with your husband in total faith and are joined to him in total love, because of the many evil deeds that you committed, your every movement and look and even your walk is suspected by him, if these should be too careless. He must see nothing further in you that is playful, licentious or prodigal. But when you turn aside your eyes in the slightest from your husband, immediately he necessarily is reminded of your former conduct. Therefore, that you may destroy the former things and he henceforth may be able to have confidence in you, not only must you do nothing immodest, but also you must not even think of such. — HOMILIES ON Exodus 8:4

Hosea 2:8

Jerome: And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.” LXX: “And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver: but she turned these things which were made for her into silver and gold for Baal.” She responded to her lovers, for she said: “I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink, all of which she had received, and used in the service of idolatry. But it is bread and wine, which strengthens and makes the heart of man happy (Psalms 103), and oil that illuminates every person coming into this world (John 1), and silver of which we often say: “The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Psalm 12: 6) . And gold of which we read: “Though ye have liad among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with the yellow gold.” (Psalm 68: 13), is turned into idols, and made “Baal,” which is interpreted as “higher and devouring:” while either thinking that they have more important doctrines than the Church, or are devoured in the knowledge of false opinion itself. But that which according to the letter Jerusalem has in abundance - gold and silver and all wealth - will be for the idols Baal demon of the Sidonians, or, as the better opinion holds, of the Babylonians, since he is called “Bel,” as Ezekiel expounds more fully in his book, and as the chorus of the prophets bear witness. — Commentary on Hosea 2:8

Hosea 2:9

Jerome: “Therefore, I will return and take my grain in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will free my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace.” LXX: “Therefore I will return and take my wheat in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will take away my garments, and my coverings, not to cover her nakedness.” A heavier punishment is when, in the time of harvest and the expected vintage, the crops are taken and the wine, and in a sense the tried ones are taken from the hands. But if in the time of harvest and of the harvest moon, when the earth is fruitful with new crops after the passing of the past barrenness, there is a shortage of all things, what should we think of the remaining season of the year, when the old crops are preserved? And wool and flax, that is, clothing and linens, are released, giving no more coverings to a harlot: so that, by the help of God, she might be stripped; and so that she might depart from the protection of all angels from Him. Therefore, the apostle also says that the creature is freed from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. (Romans 8) Many received gold and silver for wisdom and eloquence, from which they made a seven-branched candlestick of pure gold, and a golden table of the proposition, and a mercy seat, and Cherubim shining with golden radiance, and silver columns, and the wheat of the word of God, and the wine of the joy of the Holy Spirit: also the vestments and linens with which the believers were clothed in Christ: all of which they turned into the worship of idols, composing various doctrines of errors, and deceiving others as they were deceived. Which God will take away all things, so that those who had not perceived the giver in abundance may perceive him in scarcity. — Commentary on Hosea 2:9

Origen of Alexandria: “And if [the adulterous spirit] comes and finds the house vacant, clean, and furnished, it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself and enters that house and lives in it. And the last of that man is worse than the first.” If we give attention to these words, how can we give place to carelessness even in a small matter? For the unclean spirit dwelled in us before we believed, before we came to Christ when our soul, as I said previously, was still committing fornication against God and was with its lovers, the demons. But afterward it said, “I will return to my first husband,” and it came to Christ who “created” it from the beginning “in his image.” Necessarily the adulterous spirit yielded when it saw the legitimate husband. We therefore have been received by Christ, and our house has been “cleansed” from its former sins and has been “furnished” with the furnishing of the sacraments of the faithful which they who have been initiated know. But this house does not deserve to have Christ as its resident immediately unless its life and conduct are so holy, so pure and incapable of being defiled that it deserves to be called the “temple of God.” — HOMILIES ON Exodus 8:4

Hosea 2:10

Jerome: “And now I will reveal her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand: and I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times. And I will destroy her vines, and her fig-trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her.” LXX: “And now I will reveal her uncleanness in the sight of her lovers; and no one shall take her out of my hand. And I will turn away all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her solemnities. And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me. And I will make her a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her.” What follows: “The birds of the sky and the reptiles of the earth,” must be marked with an obelus. Also, concerning the place that is called Jar in Hebrew, and from which comes the name of the city Cariath Jarim, which means “the city of the forests,” the LXX translated it “testimony.” The similarity of the letters Res and Daleth are false. For if the Res is read as Daleth, it is said “testimony,” given that Jod letter does not precede. Therefore, having been freed from clothing and underwear, lest they should no longer cover the shame of the whore, all the foulness of Jerusalem, or the foolishness through which the foulness had been performed, will be revealed in the sight of her lovers, so that they may scorn openly that which they covertly desired. And when she is handed over to her lovers, the Assyrians or demons, to whom both she and the Assyrians serve, no one, he says, will be able to take her from my hand because of her proven demonic weakness, namely that they who had received all good things are not able to liberate those oppressed by evils. But being handed over to the servitude of Babylon, she will not be able to celebrate the three solemnities of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. She will not observe the new moons, that is, the kalends, nor the Sabbaths with joy, nor all the festivals which are comprehended in one name. The vineyard, fig, and abundance of all things will also be corrupted: understand joy in the vineyard, sweetness and pleasantness in the fig, which are taken away by the evils of the most difficult servitude: and they will be taken away for this reason, because they were not given to themselves by God as a spouse, but they were considered as a prostitute by their lovers for the payment of lust. Then it will by no means have fruiting trees, but all will turn into a wooded thicket. And because it had once taken a metaphor from the forests, it ends in the rest, calling enemies, from whom all things are being devoured, beasts. Unhappy Judea suffered this both in history and metaphor; all of its ugliness was revealed to the eyes of the gentiles, and no one was able to rescue it from the hands of God. All ceremonies ceased, festivity was turned to mourning: everything which it thought would be given to it by demons, it now recognizes was taken away on account of the offense to God. First, Assyrians and Chaldeans devoured it, then the Medes and Persians and Macedonians; at the end, the most savage beast, the Roman Empire, tore it to pieces, whose name is hushed in Daniel so that greater fear may be increased for those who are to be devoured. Refer what we have said about Judaea to the heretics, who promising doctrines and knowledge at first, are abandoned by God after leaving the Church, and all their shame is placed in front of those whom they had previously deceived, and given to beasts which the prophet avoids, saying: “Do not give the soul confessing to you to beasts” (Psalms 73, 19), and by their bites they are abandoned. — Commentary on Hosea 2:10-12

Hosea 2:13

Jerome: “And I will visit upon her the days of the Baals, wherein she burnt incense to them, and adorned herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers: and she forgot me, saith the Lord.” LXX: “And I will take vengeance upon her during the days of the Baals, when she sacrificed to them and adorned herself with her earrings and necklaces. She went after her lovers, forgetting me,” says the Lord. " Keep in mind a prostitute who is adorned with gold and gems, so that she may please her lovers, and whatever beauty she does not have by nature, she acquires through art. She had earrings, with which her ears had been adorned by the doctrine of God, and these pearls that hung from her neck, so that the bridegroom said to her as husband: ‘Your neck is like a chain of gold’ (Song of Solomon 1:9), before the feet of pigs, and gave holy things to dogs (Matthew 7). And what we read in Proverbs was fulfilled: ‘As golden earrings and a necklace of fine gold: so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.’ (Proverbs 25:12). But all this she did, that she might follow her lovers, and leave her husband. And such was the desire of pleasure and lust, that she lost all memory of her marital obligations, and forgot that she had been a wife. Therefore, on those very days on which she burned incense to the demons, she shall be visited with plagues, and shall be seized with punishments. Baal, in the singular number, and Baalim, in the plural, are names of the same idols in the masculine gender. Wherever in the end of a Hebrew word we read the syllable “im,” it is plural in number and masculine in gender; but when we have “oth,” it is plural in number and feminine in gender. Therefore, we understand Seraphim and Cherubim as being plural in number and masculine in gender. Sabaoth, which means “of armies,” “of hosts,” or “of powers,” is plural in number and feminine in gender. Therefore, Baalim is also plural in number and masculine in gender, although some read the feminine gender, incorrectly, as “tai Baaleim” or “al Balim.” But how the heretics deceive their lovers, and are composed in their eloquence and the structure of their words, so that they simulate lies as truth, abandon conjugal chastity, and inflame Baalim, that is, idols, which they have fashioned from their own hearts, we see every day. They do not care for rustic simplicity, which seeks not meretricious ornaments; but rather for the artful and elegant lie, so that they may please their lovers, the devils and demons. — Commentary on Hosea 2:13

Hosea 2:14

Cyril of Alexandria: “Behold, I will mislead her” not from what is necessary and useful to life … but from the things that are shameful and harmful to the fulfillment of any enjoyment.… And as her ways are usefully hedged around with thorns so that she may not lay hold of her lovers, in the same manner she believes herself—now running downhill toward ruin and destruction—to be led astray by the mercy of God when she is brought to desire virtue. Having received the light of the knowledge of God in mind and heart, as I said, she is no longer able to find her old path. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 2:22

Cyril of Alexandria: Since she [Israel] is accessible like a well-watered land to the herds of demons, he [the Lord] promises to treat her as a wilderness.… He will display it to their desires as an austere, untrodden and waterless place, so that finding no resting place they will despise it and depart. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 2:22

Cyril of Alexandria: We who have Christ, the author of necessary things dwelling inside the heart, were at once enriched in every kind of virtue, and in the abundant and inalienable possession of the spiritual gifts.… He promises to speak in her heart. For the synagogue of the Judeans, exactly as the church from the nations, will be called to awareness by taking into mind the divine laws inscribed through the Spirit. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 2:23

Jerome: “Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope.” LXX: “Therefore, behold, I will seduce her, and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart.” Because we have said “to open hope,” and the Septuagint translated “to open his understanding,” Symmachus interpreted it “into the door of hope,” that is, “into the gateway of hope,” Theodotion “to renew her patience,” that is, “to open her expectation.” After the disgrace of Jerusalem, or the whore of Judaea, was revealed in the eyes of her lovers, and the entire solemnity had ceased, whether drought or hail had corrupted the vineyard and fig tree, and reduced it to forests and barren trees devoured by beasts, and the Lord had inflicted torture and torment on her; for she had ignited incense for the demons of the Baals, and did not believe that she could rise from the ashes and embers anymore, then, that is, in the coming of His Son Christ, he will open up the hope of salvation and provide room for repentance, and he will speak kindly to her: for this is what “I will give her milk” means; so that, after the magnitude of punishments, he may assuage her earlier pains with the promise of prosperity. “And I will lead her,” he said, “into solitude,” that is, I will bring her out of hardships, just as I had led [the people] out of Egyptian slavery previously: “and I will speak to her heart” gentle words, consoling words, so that I may temper sadness with joy, according to the idiom of the Scriptures, by which words Sichem spoke to Dinah’s heart (Gen. 34), and Joseph in Egypt to his sad and fearful brothers (Gen. 40), so that mourning may be changed into joy. Quod sequitur. — Commentary on Hosea 2:14

Julian of Eclanum: Speaking directly to the heart indicates the promulgation of the law, which shaped the hearts of the listener. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 1:2

Richard Challoner: I will allure her: After all her disloyalties, I will still allure her by my grace etc., and send her vinedressers, viz., the apostles: originally her own children, who shall open to her the gates of hope; as heretofore at her coming into the land of promise, she had all good success after she had satisfied the divine justice by the execution of Achan in the valley of Achor. Jos. 7.

Hosea 2:15

Cyril of Alexandria: Whatever is necessary for life and understanding of God’s knowledge in Christ, through whom and in whom we saw the Father, enriched in unfading hope—as I said, in glory, pride of adoption, of grace and of reigning together with Christ himself—these are the possessions of the saints; this is the heavenly wealth. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 2:23

Cyril of Alexandria: [Israel] will be humble and obedient just as in the beginning, when she was born to the knowledge of God through the law and gladly received the decree of the divine adoption. Accordingly, he calls the regeneration to the knowledge of God through the law the “days [of her youth].” — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 2:25

Jerome: “And I will give him its vineyards, from the same place.” Because He had previously spoken of flattery and the loneliness of those who left from Egypt, providing it as a similar example. In this example Moses and Aaron had stood as leaders of the Jews, who came from the same people. Now, He promises that he will give him the vineyards from the same place. The vineyard refers to Israel, which is attested by Scripture in both the Old Testament and the New: “The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel” (Isaiah 5:7) and “You brought a vine out of Egypt” (Psalms 80:8). And in the Gospel (Matt. XXI). The father of the family leased his vineyard and did not receive its fruits. And after his son was killed, he leased it to other vinedressers. Therefore, this prophetic saying promises that the leaders of this vineyard, going out from the nations and captives of the enemies or vices, themselves are of the race of Jews, that is, apostles: and the place of tumult and the valley of turmoil, for this is what “Achor” means, is changed into the gate of hope, or to open up hope and patience, which is why he endured punishments and torments, so that through them he could attain prosperity. But the valley called “Achor,” in which Achan was killed for stealing those things which had been consecrated to God, is interpreted as “trouble” and “tumult”: and some think that it means διαστροφὴ, that is, “perversity,” Jesus himself interpreting when he spoke to Achan: “Because you have troubled us, the Lord shall trouble you in this day” (Joshua VII, 23). Hence that place was called Emec Achor, that is, “the valley of trouble.” At the same time, we understand in this that at the beginning of the Promised Land near Jericho, when the people came out of the wilderness because of the Jordan, the sorrow was changed into joy with the first victory of the Israelites. There hope was opened where there had been despair: so that, with these punished who have sinned in Christ and committed sacrilege, they may be saved of those who have detested blasphemous Jews and killed them as much as they could. This circumcision and our Judaizers refer to the kingdom of a thousand years, which we see in the beginning to have been completed by the apostles, preachers and many thousands of believers from Israel, and which is fulfilled daily in those who want to believe. And what we said: “I will cherish her,” and 70 translated: “I will seduce her,” they refer to the time of the Antichrist: so that those who have not received the truth of Christ may receive his lie, and later, with Christ’s coming, be saved.

“And he will sing there beside the days of his youth, and beside the days of his ascension from the land of Egypt.” LXX: “And he shall be humbled according to the days of his infancy, and according to the days of his ascension from the land of Egypt.” In the place where we have put “he will sing,” and the LXX translated, “he shall be humbled,” it is written in Hebrew “Anatha,” which Symmachus interpreted as “he shall be afflicted,” Theodotion “he shall answer,” Aquila “he shall obey,” that is, ὑπακούσει: we take more literally from the Hebrew, that is, “he shall sing;” so that because he had once placed the agitation and leading into the wilderness, and the vintners from the same place, and the valley of Achor, and the whole history of those leaving Egypt and going to the holy land in a brief sentence, now also he keeps the likeness of the story. Just as in that time, when they were leaving the land of Egypt and Pharaoh was submerged in the Red Sea, Mary grabbed a timbrel and, leading the others, rejoiced and said: “Let us sing to the Lord, for he is greatly glorified: horse and rider he has thrown into the sea” (Exodus 15:1): so now too, according to the days of her youth or adolescence, when she departed from the land of Egypt, let her sing and rejoice, and let her sing with the choirs of the Church about the kingdom of Christ and her salvation. And take notice that when we depart from Egypt, and pass over to better things, we are said to ascend: because Jerusalem is situated on hills, from which he who wished to descend to Jericho was wounded (Luke X). But to those who seek the aids of Egypt, that is, of this world, it is said: “Woe to them that go down into Egypt for help” (Isa. XXXI, 1). The translation of Aquila and Theodotion, one of whom put ὑπακούσει, that is, “he will hear,” the other ἀποκριθήσεται, that is, “he will answer,” makes it so that while some sing others answer. “But” he shall be “humbled” and “afflicted,” which the LXX and Symmachus translated, does not fit the time of joy, unless perhaps it imitates Paul, who after being called an apostle, laments his ancient sins, and says that he is unworthy of the call of an apostle, because he persecuted the Church of God (I Cor. XV): so that humiliation and affliction in the conscience of past wounds, are not accepted in the pain of present evils. — Commentary on Hosea 2:15

Theodoret of Cyrus: Just as those at that early time have learned through Achan’s punishment how serious is the transgression of the law, in the same manner these will come to the realization of their own trespasses through the captivity. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 2

Theophylact of Ohrid: The possessions of everyone baptized in Christ are the remission of sins and the mansions above, which someone procures through the way that leads to each one of these. For there are as many ways as there are different mansions. But the one who sins ceases to hold the possessions and is deprived of them, while the divine Word becomes silent in him. Yet whenever he [the Lord] touches his heart, he speaks in it and then gives him those possessions from there, that is, from the heart. For the kingdom of heaven is inside of us. Therefore, either our heart takes these goods away from us or he [the Lord] gives [them to us]. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 2

Hosea 2:16

Richard Challoner: My husband: In Hebrew, Ishi. Baali, my lord. The meaning of this verse is: that whereas Ishi and Baali were used indifferently in those days by wives speaking to their husbands; the synagogue, whom God was pleased to consider as his spouse, should call him only Ishi, and abstain from the name of Baali, because of its affinity with the idol Baal.

Hosea 2:17

Richard Challoner: Baalim: It is the plural number of Baal: for there were divers idols of Baal.

Hosea 2:18

Jerome: And I will strike a deal with them in that day, with the beasts of the field and with the birds of the sky and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will shatter from the land, the bow, the sword, and war. And I will cause them to sleep with security. (LXX) And I will make a covenant with them in that day, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the earth; and I will break the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land, and I will cause them to dwell in hope. When all the words of the opposing religion have been taken away from the people confessing the Lord, and he calls me, “my husband,” and not “Baal,” that is, “my idol,” then I will strike a deal and agreement with them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky and with the creeping things on the ground. From this time on, Isaiah speaks: “The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the lion, and the sheep will live together, and a small child will lead them all. The calf and the bear will graze and their young will rest together. The lion will eat straw like an ox.” (Isaiah 11:6-7) He desires neither flesh nor blood, but feeds on clean and simple foods. When Peter was instructed to welcome Cornelius among the nations (Acts 10:15), it was revealed and commanded that he should eat all kinds of animals and recognize nothing as unclean, which he received with thanksgiving. Later, he was told: “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” (Ephesians 2:1). Therefore, at the coming of the Lord and Savior, after his triumphs in the resurrection, and his ascent to the Father, two walls were joined together by a corner stone, made one by him who made both (“Al.” both): and he called her who was called, “Without mercy, mercy obtained”: and those who were said, “Not my people,” his people: and with all things pacified, the bow and sword shall be brought to nothing, and war shall cease. For there will no longer be a need for weapons of those who fight, when those who fight no more exist. Israel shall be joined to the Gentiles, and that of Deuteronomy shall be fulfilled: “Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people” (Deut. 32:43). “God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.” And: “In peace his habitation shall be, and his dwelling in Sion” (Psalms 75), that is, in the Church, wherein he hath broken the powers of bows, shield, sword, and battle: which being broken and bruised, the faithful sleep securely, and rest under one shepherd, whether they hope, believing in those things which the eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Cor. 2). — Commentary on Hosea 2:18

John Chrysostom: Therefore in a way similar to those of old who took harlots for wives, even so God too espoused to himself the nature that had played the harlot. This the prophets from the beginning declare to have taken place with respect to the synagogue. But that spouse was ungrateful toward him who had been a husband to her, whereas the church, when once delivered from the evils received from our fathers, continued to embrace the Bridegroom. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF Matthew 3:5

Hosea 2:19

Ambrose of Milan: You have wisely thought it a subject of inquiry, whether there be any difference in God’s love towards those who have believed from their childhood, and those who have believed in the course of their youth or more advanced age; for this also has not been past over nor left unnoticed in the sacred Scriptures. For it is not without meaning that the Lord our God says to the Prophet Joel, Lament to me for the spouse girded with sackcloth and for the husband of her youth, expressing his grief for the Synagogue, who, before, in her virginity, had been espoused to the Word of God, or, it may be, for a soul which had fallen from her good deeds, that by the heinousness of her sins she had incurred hatred, and through the defilement of impiety and the stains of unbelief had become miserable and despised, and far removed from the grace of that Spouse which had before been counted worthy to be told, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness and in mercies. — Letter 31

Jerome: How great is God’s mercy! A prostitute fornicates with many lovers, and because of her offense is handed over to the beasts. After she returns to her husband, she is said not at all to be reconciled to him but rather to be betrothed. Now notice the difference between God’s union and that of men. When a man marries, he turns a virgin into a woman—that is, a nonvirgin. But when God joins with prostitutes, he changes them into virgins. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 1:2

Jerome: First, he [God] betrothed her [Israel] in Abraham (or rather, in Egypt) so that he may have an everlasting spouse. Second, on Mount Sinai in the betrothal, he gave her the equity and judgment of the law and the compassion added to the law, so that whenever she should sin she would be given up into captivity; whenever she should show penitence, she would be brought back to [her] homeland, and she would gain compassion.… By his crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, he [Jesus] betroths [her] not in the equity of the law but rather in faith and the grace of the gospel. — COMMENTARY ON Hosea 1:2

John Cassian: The sixth degree of chastity is that he not be deluded by the alluring images of women even when asleep. For although we do not believe that this delusion is sinful, nonetheless it is an indication of a desire that is still deeply ingrained. It is evident that this delusion can occur in a number of ways. For each person is tempted, even while asleep, according to how he behaves and thinks while awake. Those who have known sexual intercourse are led astray in one way, those who have had no part in union with a woman in another way. The latter are usually disturbed by simpler and purer dreams, such that they can be cleansed more easily and with less effort. But the former are deceived by filthier and more explicit images until, gradually and according to the measure of chastity for which each is struggling, even the mind that has fallen asleep learns to hate what it used to find pleasurable, and, through the prophet, the Lord grants it what is promised to brave men as the highest reward for their labors: “I will destroy the bow and the sword and war from your land, and I will make you sleep securely.” — CONFERENCE 12:7.4–5

Peter Chrysologus: A betrothed woman was chosen, so that Christ’s church might already be symbolically indicated as bride, according to the words of the prophet Hosea: “I will make you my bride in justice and right; I will make you my bride in mercy and benevolence, and I will espouse you in fidelity.” Thus John says, “He who has a bride is the bridegroom.” And blessed Paul: “I have promised you to one bridegroom, to present you to Christ as a chaste virgin.” She is truly a bride who regenerates the new infancy of Christ by a virginal birth. — SERMON 146

Richard Challoner: I will espouse thee: This relates to the happy espousals of Christ with his church: which shall never be dissolved.

Hosea 2:20

Jerome: “And it shall come to pass in that day: 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 Jezrael. And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy. And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.” LXX: “And it shall come to pass in that day, 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. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.” On that day and at that time when I will espouse you to me in faith, and you will know that I am the Lord, I will hear the heavens, which declare the glory of God (Ps. 18), and the heavens will hear the earth, that it may be watered with heavenly rain, and the earth, from which truth arises (Ps. 84) , and into whose field the householder goes forth to sow his seeds (Matt. 13, 3), will yield wheat and wine and oil, of which we have spoken above, and all these things shall hear Jezrael, which is, the seed of God, that is, the abundance and fertility of all things may be attributed to the seed of God, who is Christ, that it is sown in the earth to bring forth manifold fruits, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold (Ibid, 8). And that prostitute, who had been joined to God, and had borne three children, two males and one female; the first named Jezrael, the second, Without mercy; the third, not my people, may she see that the words of things have been changed because of the seed of God, and in the faith of Christ have obtained mercy, which was without mercy, and being called the people of God, who before were not called the people. From this we see that all that has been said can be referred both to the ten tribes called Israel, and under the name of the prostitute, they have borne three children, and to every people of Jewish name. On the hearing of heaven and earth, and of wheat, wine, and oil, and Jezrael, this is what some people believe, that after Christ’s coming, everything runs in its own order, and the whole creature serves the usefulness of men, as it was established from the beginning. All of which Jews and Judaizers among us wait for corporally after Antichrist at the end of the world. — Commentary on Hosea 2:20-23

Hosea 2:21

Richard Challoner: Hear the heavens: All shall conspire in favour of the church, which in the following verse is called Jezrahel, that is, the seed of God.

Hosea 2:23

Ambrose of Milan: And not only is the operation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit everywhere one but also there is one and the same will, calling, and giving of commands, which one may see in the great and saving mystery of the Church. For as the Father called the Gentiles to the Church, saying: “I will call her My people which was not My people, and her beloved who was not beloved;” and elsewhere: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,” so, too, the Lord Jesus said that Paul was chosen by Him to call forth and gather together the Church, as you find it said by the Lord Jesus to Ananias: “Go, for he is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name before all nations.” — On the Holy Spirit 2:10.101

Aphrahat the Persian Sage: And the holy people inherited an eternal kingdom; the holy people who were chosen instead of the people. For “he provoked them to jealousy with a people that was not a people. And with a foolish people he angered them.” For even if one has served the heathen, as soon as ever he draws near to the covenant of God, he is set free. The Gentiles are the new people chosen by God to replace the people of the old covenant as foretold by the prophet. — DEMONSTRATIONS 5:23

Bede: “You who were once not a people but now are the people of God, who did not seek after mercy but now have received mercy.” By these verses he indicates clearly that he has written this letter to those who had come from the Gentiles to the faith, who were once separated from the way of life of the people of God but then through the grace of faith were joined to his people and obtained the mercy that they did not know how to hope for. He takes them, however, from the prophet Hosea, who predicted the calling of the Gentiles and said, “I shall call [those who were] not my people my people and [those who did] not receive mercy [a people] having received mercy. And it will be in the place where it was said, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called sons of the living God.” — Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, 1 Peter 2:10

John Chrysostom: Here to prevent their saying that you are deceiving us here with specious reasoning, he calls Hosea to witness, who cries and says, “I will call them my people, who were not my people.” Who then are the not-people? Plainly, the Gentiles. And who are the not-beloved? The same again. However, he says, they shall become at once people, and beloved, and children of God. “For even they shall be called,” he says, “the children of the living God.” But if they should assert that this was said of those of the Jews who believed, even then the argument stands. For if with those who after so many benefits were hardhearted and estranged and had lost their being as a people, so great a change was wrought, what is there to prevent even those who were not estranged after being taken to him but were originally aliens, from being called, and, provided they obey, from being counted worthy of the same blessings? Having then done with Hosea, he does not content himself with him only, but also brings Isaiah in after him, sounding in harmony with him. — HOMILIES ON Romans 16

Origen of Alexandria: Next the promise of God is said for those who hear; if they do what is “commanded: And you will be my people and I will be your God.” Not everyone who says they are a people of God are “a people” of God. Hence, that people who were proclaimed to be a people of God heard, “You are not my people,” in the passage, “Therefore you are not my people.” And it has been said to that people you are “not my people.” Elsewhere this people was called a “people,” for “they have provoked me to jealousy with what is not God”—he speaks concerning the former—“they have provoked me with their idols. So I will provoke them to jealousy with those who are not a people, with a senseless nation I will provoke them.” — HOMILIES ON Jeremiah 9:4

Romans (9:19-29): Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. [Hosea 2:23] Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.