Hosea 2
PATThe prophet reproves the ten tribes for their ingratitude to God, their great benefactor, and giving the glory of all the good things they possessed to their idols; for which he threatens them with severe judgments, yet.gives them some hopes of obtaining mercy and reconciliation.
Hosea 2:1
&AY ye to your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamalu. Several interpreters join this verse with the foregoing chapter, to this sense: When that general restoration of the Jewish nation shall come to pass, ye may alter your style in speaking to those of your brethren and sisters, whom I had before disowned, and you may call them my people, and such as have obtained mercy. (See ver. 23.) This interpretation gives the plainest and easiest sense. However, other expositors join this verse with the following words, and translate it thus, Ye that are my people, and have obtained mercy, speak to your brethren and sisters, and plead with your mother. But this sense I think not so agreeable with the context, which threatens the teu tribes with the miseries of their ensuing captivity.
Hosea 2:2
Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. The words are directed to those pious persons that still remained among the ten tribes, who are required to reprove, and use their best endeavours to reform, that general corruption which the nation had contracted by its idolatry: whereby they have broken the covenant I had made with them, (frequently expressed in the prophets by a marriage-contract: see Jcr. iii. 1. 8. xxxi. 32.) and made a separation or divorce between them and me. (Sec Isa. 1. 1.) Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts.] Let her leave off her idolatries, usually expressed by the fondne3s Ul gitfc eu oy ivncrosoTi vo/ CHAP,. II.] UPON HOSEA. (Comand caresses which pass between unchaste lovers pare Ezek. xvi. 25, &c.)
Hosea 2:3
Lest I strip her naked, and. set her as in the day wherein she was bom, &c. The punishment commonly inflicted upon harlots was to strip them naked, and expose them to. the world. (See ver. 10. Jer. xiii. 22. 26. Ezek. xvi, 37.) So God threatens to deal with the nation or kingdom of Israel: to deliver her. into the hands of her enemies, who shall strip her of all her wealth and ornaments, and carry her away naked into captivity, (see ver. 9.) in as fprlorn and desolate a condition as she was in during her. bondage in Egypt. (See Ezek. xvi. 4. compare likewise ver. 37. 41. of the dame chapter.) And make her as a wilderness, &c] The State of captivityis fitly compared to being placed in a wilderness, in want of common necessaries. (Compare Ezek. xix. 13.)
Hosea 2:4
And I will not have mercy on her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. As an injured husband has no regard for the children his wife has brought by another man: so neither will I take pity of thy children which are trained np to practise thy idolatries. -..,
Hosea 2:5
For she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, &c. By lovers are meant, in the first place, the idols with whom the Israelites committed spiritual fornication: (see Jer. iii. l.)and then the idolatrous nations, whose alliance the Israelites courted, and in order to it practised their idolatries. (See ver. 10. and the note upon Ezek. xvi. 37.) The word may be.understood here in both senses: they ascribed all the plenty they enjoyed chiefly to the favour of the idol-gods which they worshipped; (see Jer. xliv.17.) and then they placed their trust and confidence in the confederacies they had made with their neighbouring idolaters, and thought the peace and plenty they possessed was very much owing to their protection and alliance.
Hosea 2:6
I ivill hedge up her way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths,. I will bring her under great calamities, that she shall not know which way to turn herself, or get out of them. (Compare Job iii. 23. xix. 8. Lam. iii. 7. 9.)
Hosea 2:7
And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them.". She shall seek for help of her idols, but shall receive none. She shall seek them, but she shall not find them.] A proverbial expression, denoting lost labour, when persons receive no assistance from those whose help they implore. (Seev. 6. Prov. i. 28.) Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with me than now.] Her afflictions will bring her to a sense of her duty, and the happiness she enjoyed as long as she cleaved steadfastly unto God. (See v. 15. and compare Luke xv, 18.)
Hosea 2:8
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Ox, bestowed upon Baal. (Compare 2 Chron. xxiv. 7.) She did not consider, so the first part of the sentence should be translated, (compare vii. 9.) that all the necessaries she enjoyed, as well as her riches and ornaments, were my gift, which yet she ungratefully bestowed upon the service of her idols. (Compare Viii. 4. and Ezek. xvi. 17—19.)
Hosea 2:9
TJierefore I will return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, &c. For a punishment of her ingratitude, I.will take away the good things I have given her: at the very season when she expectsto receive the fruits of the earth, her enemies shall invade her, and destroy them.. I will recover [or take away] my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.] They shall strip her of her very clothes, and carry her away capti ye: without leaving her any covering for her nakedness. (See the note upon Isa. iii. 17.)
Hosea 2:10
And now ivill I discover her lewdness in the sight of her. lovers, &c. The filthiness of her idolatries shall appear by the punishments Twill inflict upon her, which shall be so remarkable, that it shall be taken notice of by the idolatrous nations round about “her. (See ver. 5. and Ezek. xvi. 37. xxiii.29.)
Hosea 2:11
And I will cause allher mirth to cease, her feastdays, &c. The public festivals are frequently called days of joy and gladness: the observation of several of these; festivals was retained in the worship of the golden calves: (see 1 Kings. xii. 32. Amos viii. 5.) God here threatens them, that, under their captivity, they should have no opportunity to celebrate them, since they had so much abused those solemn seasons of Divine ^worship. (See ix. 4, 5. Amos viii. 10. and the note upon Dan. x. 4.)
Hosea 2:12
These are my rewards that my lovers have given me. See ver. 5. and ix. 1.. I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.] I will give up their lands unto their enemies, who shall destroy the fruits of it, or else leave it desolate, for the beasts of the field to devour. (Compare PsaL Ixxx. 12, 13. Isa. v. 7.)
Hosea 2:13
I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, &c.J I will punish her for all the idolatries she has committed from the days of Jeroboam, who first set up the worship of false gods. (See xiii. 1.) The chief god of every country was called by the name of Baal: so Baal-Peor was the god of theMoabites; Baal-z6bubwas the god of Ekron;(2Kings i. 2.) Baal-herith the god of the Phoenicians, (Judg. viii. 33.) Those several deities are called in the plural number Baalim. (See Judg. iii. 7.) And she decked herself with her ear-rings and jewels, and she went after her lovers.] She put on her richest ornaments in their idolatrous festivals. (See Ezek. xxiii. 40. 42.)
Hosea 2:14
Therefore, behold, I will allure her. Here is a plain alteration of the style, from threatenings to promises:” so the first word of this verse should be translated, nevertheless. (See the note upon Isa. xxx. 18.) I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, &c<] Or, After I have brought her into the wilderness. The state * of the Jews’ captivity is elsewhere expressed by a wilderness state. (Sec the note upon Ezek. xx. 35.) It pro-* bably means here the dispersions of the ten tribes, ever since their first captivity by Shalmaneser, 2 Kings xvii. 6. The words, I ivill allure her, and speak comfortably to her, allude to the practice of fond husbands, who, for-’ getting past offences, use all the arts of endearment to persuade their wives, who have parted from them, to return to them again: so God will use the most powerful persuasions to bring the Israelites to the acknowledgment of the truth, notwithstanding all their former abuses of the means of grace. This verse, and the following part of the chapter, ■ import a general promise of the restoration of the Jewish nation: which is a subject often treated of by the prophets: particularly by Ezekiel, chap, xxxiv. xxxvi. xxxvii.