Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Hosea Kapitel 2

Hosea 2:1. Say ye, &c.— Several intepreters join this verse with the foregoing chapter. "When the great day of Jezreel, or the restoration of the Jews, shall be accomplished, you may alter your manner of speaking to those of your brethren and sisters whom I had before disavowed, and you may call them עמי Ammi, or my people; and רחמה Ruhamah, or she that hath obtained mercy. The prophet alludes to the 6th and 9th verses of the preceding chapter. See Rom 9:25 and Pococke.

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Hosea 2:2. Plead, &c.— These words are directed to those pious persons who still remained among the ten tribes, and who were required to reprove, and use their best endeavours to reform that general corruption which the nation had contracted by its idolatry. In the day that she was born, &c., Hosea 2:3., alludes to the situation of the Hebrews in Egypt, plunged in idolatry, oppressed with cruel servitude, and almost deprived of hope. See Ezekiel 16:5-6.

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Hosea 2:3. And make her as a wilderness— Hebrew. And lay her waste like a wilderness. It may seem harsh to say of a woman, that she shall be laid waste like a wilderness, and reduced to the condition of a parched land. But it is to be observed, that the allegorical style makes an intercommunity of attributes between the type and the thing typified. So that when a woman is the image of a country, or of a church, that may be said of the woman which, in unfigured speech, might be said of the country, or the church, which she represents. The country might literally be made a waste wilderness, by unfruitful seasons, by the devastations of war, or of noxious vermin; a church is made a wilderness and a parched land, when the living waters of the Spirit are withheld.

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Hosea 2:7. I will go, and return, &c.— After finding that her attachment to idols and idolatrous nations will not avail her, but rather plunge her into misfortunes, she will through divine grace be brought to a sense of her duty, and of the happiness that she enjoyed, while cleaving stedfastly to her God. See Isaiah 54:5.Jeremiah 3:1; Jeremiah 3:1; Jeremiah 44:17; Jeremiah 44:30. Ezekiel 16:18 :

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Hosea 2:11. I will also cause, &c.— "There shall be no more numerous and magnificent assemblies in the temples of Jerusalem, to celebrate the solemn festivals of the Lord." These threats were literally executed during the time of the Babylonish captivity. See Calmet.

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Hosea 2:13. I will visit, &c.— "I will punish her for all the idolatries that she hath committed, from the days of Jeroboam, who set up the worship of false gods." Days being taken for the sins, or so as to include the sins committed in them, and בעלים Baalim being the plural number of בעל Baal, denotes either a variety of false gods, called by that name, or a variety of images dedicated to Baal.

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Hosea 2:14. Therefore behold, I will allure her— Nevertheless, I will allure her, after I have brought her into the wilderness, [to Babylon], &c. "After having treated her with rigour, and having convinced her of her deviations, I will restore her to my favour and regard." The valley of Achor was near Jericho. It was remarkable for its fertility; and the meaning is, that as, at the first entrance of the Israelites into Canaan, their taking possession of the fruitful valley of Achor gave them encouragement to hope that they should become masters of the whole land flowing with milk and honey; so the same auspicious token of the divine favour should accompany them at their return into their own country. See Isaiah 65:10. But the words especially refer to the times of the gospel; as if Jehovah had said, Speak what shall touch her heart in her outcast state in the wilderness of the Gentile world, by the proffers of mercy in the Gospel. "For the doctrine of the Gospel," says Luther upon this place, "is the true soothing speech with which the minds of men are taken. For it terrifies not the soul, like the Law, with severe denunciations of punishment; but, although it reproves sin, it declares that God is ready to pardon sinners for the sake of his son, and holds forth the sacrifice of the Son of God, that the souls of sinners may be assured that satisfaction has been made by that to God."

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Hosea 2:15. Thence— The English word thence renders either from that place, or from that time, or in consequence of those things; and the original word is used in all these various senses. No one of these senses would be inapplicable in this place; but the last seems the most significant. God declares, that the calamities of the dispersion, together with the soothing intimations of the Gospel, by bringing the Jewish race to a right mind, will be the means of reinstating them in that wealth and prosperity, which God will provide for them in their own land.

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Hosea 2:16. Thou shalt call me Ishi— Houbigant renders this, Thou shalt call me, My husband: Thou shalt no more call me, My lord or master. "Because thou shalt love me, and shalt serve me through affection, and not through fear."

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Hosea 2:17. They shall no more be remembered by their name— It is in vain to look for a purity of religious worship, answerable to this prophecy, among the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity. This part of the prophesy, with all the rest, will receive its accomplishment in the converted race in the latter days. It is said indeed, that, after the return from Babylon, the Jews scrupulously avoided idolatry, and have continued untainted with it to this day. But generally as this is asserted by all commentators, one after another, it is not true. Among the restored Jews there was indeed no public idolatry, patronized by the government, as there had been in times before the captivity, particularly in the reign of Ahaz. But from the time of Antiochus Epiphanes to the last moments of the Jewish polity, there was a numerous and powerful faction, which in every thing affected the Greek manners; and this Hellenizing party were idolaters to a man. The Jews of the present times, as far as we are acquainted with them, seem indeed to be free from the charge of idolatry, properly so called. But of the present state of the ten tribes we have no certain knowledge; without which we cannot take upon us either to accuse or to acquit them.

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Hosea 2:18. A covenant— This covenant with the beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and the reptiles of the earth, is the final conversion of the most ignorant and vicious of the Heathen to the true faith. The effect of which must be, that they will all live in peace and friendship with the re-established nation of the Jews.

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Hosea 2:20. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness— By faith. Houbigant. By that virtue which is the foundation of all religion, and of all other virtues. The perfect accomplishment of this prophesy can belong only to the Christian church.

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