성경 주석서

2. 변론하라--간곡히 책망하라는 뜻이다.

어머니--곧 집합적으로 본 민족을 뜻한다. 이 말은 "그 자녀들", 곧 국가의 개별 시민들에게 하는 것이다(이사야 50:1 비교).

그는 내 아내가 아니요--그녀는 영적 간음으로 말미암아 자기의 높은 특권을 스스로 잃었다.

그 얼굴에서--차라리 "그녀의 얼굴에서"라고 옮길 수 있다. 그녀의 뻔뻔한 얼굴빛 자체가 그녀의 정욕을 드러냈고, 드러난 "가슴"도 그러했다.

너희 어머니와 논쟁하고 논쟁하라 — 선지자들은 다가오는 심판의 위협을 이후의 희망이 밝아 오는 것으로 끝맺고, 그 희망에서 다시 죄에 대한 하나님의 심판으로 돌아가 죄인들의 상처에 포도주와 기름을 붓는다. ‘어머니’는 교회 또는 민족이며, ‘아들들’은 그 구성원 한 사람 한 사람이다. 하나님께 돌아온 이들은 자기 어머니도 돌아오도록 그녀와 논쟁해야 한다. 그녀의 심판에 연루될 때에는 하나님을 비난하지 말고 그녀와 논쟁해야 한다. 하나님께서는 ‘은혜 베푸시기를 잊지 않으셨다.’ 오히려 그녀가 ‘그분의 사랑을 지키지 않고, 그분의 벗 됨을 거절하며, 그분과 나누는 영적 교제의 순결을 멸시하고, 그분의 뜻의 열매를 해산하려 하지 않았다.’ ‘아들들이 어머니와 다른 것은 악을 처음 고안한 자가 그것을 모방하는 이들과 다른 것과 같다. 선한 일에서는 하나님의 영으로 진리의 말씀을 잉태한 영혼이 어머니이고, 그 입에서 교훈의 말씀을 듣고 유익을 얻는 자가 자녀이다. 이와 같이 악한 일에서는 악을 고안하는 영혼이 어머니이고, 그녀에게 미혹되는 자가 아들이다. 그러므로 이스라엘에서는 간음한 어머니가 회당이었고, 그녀에게 미혹된 개인들이 아들들이었다.’

‘그리스도를 믿으며 유대인과 이방인 가운데서 나온 너희는 꺾인 가지들과 버림받은 옛 백성에게 “나의 백성”이라고 말하라. 그가 너희 형제이기 때문이다. 또한 “사랑받는 자”라고 말하라. 그가 “너희 자매”이기 때문이다. 로마서 11:25–26에서 이방인의 충만한 수가 들어오면 온 이스라엘이 구원을 받을 것이기 때문이다. 이와 같이 우리는 이단자들을 두고 절망하지 말며, 그들을 회개로 격려하고 형제 사랑으로 그들의 구원을 갈망하라는 명령을 받는다.’

그녀는 나의 아내가 아니요 — 하나님께서는 자신이 택하신 백성과 맺은 영적 연합을 인간의 가장 가까운 하나 됨인 남편과 아내의 관계로 말씀하신다. 그녀는 더 이상 믿음과 사랑으로 하나님과 연합하지 않았고, 하나님도 더 이상 그녀를 자신의 것으로 인정하지 않으실 것이다. 그러므로 그녀의 죄 때문에 아버지의 보호를 잃은 고아들처럼 그녀와 간절히 논쟁하라.

그러므로 그녀는 음행을 버릴지어다 — 하나님의 부드러운 긍휼이 이처럼 크다. 하나님께서는 그녀가 더러움만 버리면 한 번도 타락하지 않았던 것처럼 다시 회복될 것이라고 말씀하신다. 그녀가 하나님에게서 멀어지게 한 모든 애착의 대상을 버리기만 하면 하나님께서 다시 그녀의 모든 것이 되실 것이다.

간음과 음행 — 하나님께서는 영혼을 자신을 위하여 지으셨고, 성령을 선물로 주심으로 영혼을 자신과 약혼시키셨으며, 자신과 연합시키셨다. 그러므로 하나님을 떠난 모든 사랑은 하나님 대신 다른 대상을 취하는 것이다. ‘하늘에서는 주 외에 누가 내게 있으리요 땅에서는 주밖에 내가 사모할 이 없나이다.’ ‘간음’은 영혼의 유일한 주와 남편이신 하나님이 아닌 다른 이에게 속하는 것이다. 음행은 죄악된 사랑의 대상을 여럿 두는 것이다. 사랑은 한 분을 위한 하나이다. 그 한 분을 버린 영혼은 이리저리 끌려 다니며 많은 대상을 욕망하고, 그 대상들은 서로를 밀어낸다. 어느 것도 만족을 주지 못하기 때문이다. 그러므로 선지자는 ‘음행들, 간음들’이라고 말한다. 하나님 안에서 안식하려 하지 않는 영혼이 하나님의 뜻 밖에서, 또 그 뜻에 어긋나게 수많은 불법적 쾌락을 쌓아 올려 자신의 불안과 불만족에서 주의를 돌리려 하기 때문이다.

그녀 앞에서 — 문자적으로는 ‘그녀의 얼굴에서’이다. 얼굴은 정숙함과 수치심 또는 뻔뻔함이 자리하는 곳이다. 그러므로 예레미야서에서 하나님께서는 유다에게 ‘네가 창녀의 이마를 가졌으므로 수치를 알지 못하였다’라고 말씀하시며, 예레미야 3:3, 또 ‘그들이 전혀 부끄러워하지 아니하며 얼굴도 붉히지 아니하였다’라고 말씀하신다. 예레미야 6:15. 눈 또한 ‘창문’이며, 예레미야 9:21, 그 창문을 통해 ‘죽음’, 곧 불법적 욕망이 영혼 안으로 ‘들어와’ 영혼을 사로잡는다.

그녀의 가슴 사이에서 — 무질서한 사랑에서는 사람을 유혹하는 데 사용되는 가슴을 드러내고 꾸미며 천하게 만든다. 그 아래에는 애정이 자리하는 마음도 있다. 그러므로 이는 그녀가 더 이상 자기 죄의 대상들을 즐거워하며 바라보지 않고, 죄악되게 사랑한 것들에 마음이 머물도록 두지 말아야 한다는 뜻일 수 있다. 그리스도에 대한 사랑은 그분을 거스를 수 있는 모든 무질서한 욕정에서 영혼을 지켜 자유롭게 해야 하므로 이렇게 말한다. ‘나의 사랑하는 이는 밤새 내 가슴 사이에 누우리라’, 아가 1:13. 또한 그 아래 마음에는 ‘인장처럼’ 있으리라, 아가 8:6.

너희 어머니와 논쟁하라 — 유다 백성아, 너희 어머니(예루살렘)를 고발하라. 그는 나를 예배하기를 버리고 우상을 섬기는 자가 되었으니, 그에게 자신의 어리석음과 악함을 깨닫게 하고, 그토록 깊이 배반하여 떠나온 그분께로 돌아가게 하라.

Plead with your mother, plead,.... The congregation of Israel, as the Targum; the body of the Jewish nation, which, with respect to individuals, was as a mother to her children; see Matthew 21:37, that is, lay before her, her sin in rejecting the Messiah, the Head and Husband of his true church and people; endeavour to convince her of it; reprove her for it; expostulate with her about it; argue the case with her, and show her the danger of persisting in such an evil, as the apostles did, Acts 2:23

for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; for though there had been such a relation between them, yet it was now dissolved; she had broken the marriage covenant and contract, and God had given her a bill of divorce, Jeremiah 31:32 or, however, as she behaved not as a wife towards him, showing love and affection, honour and reverence, and performing duty, and yielding obedience; so he would not carry it as a husband towards her, nourishing and cherishing her, providing for her, and protecting and defending her; but leave her to shift for herself, and to the insults and abuses of others; having been guilty of idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, as the Israelites before the captivity were; and as the Jews in Christ's time were guilty of rejecting the word of God, and preferring their own traditions to it: hence it follows,

let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, or "from her face" (e),

and her adulteries from between her breasts; alluding to the custom of harlots, who used to paint their faces, and to allure with their looks, words, and actions, and to make bare their breasts, or adorn them, or carry in them what were enticing and alluring. These adulteries and whoredoms, which are the same thing, may signify the many idolatries of the people of Israel before their captivity, and which were the cause of it; or the sins of the Jews before their dispersion; or their evil works, as the Targum, by which they departed from God and the true Messiah, and went a whoring after other lovers: thus they rejected, transgressed, and made of none effect the commandments of God by their traditions; paid tithe of mint, anise, and cummin, and neglected the weighty matters of the law; sought not the honour of God, but that which comes from men; and therefore confessed not the true Messiah, though under convictions of him, and went about to establish their own righteousness, and submitted not to his; these were the idols of their hearts, and the whoredoms and adulteries the Jewish converts, that truly believed in Christ, are ordered to exhort them to put away. The Septuagint and Arabic versions are, "I will take away her whoredoms &c.",

(e) "a facie sua", Calvin, Pagninus, Piscator, Cocceius; "a faciebus suis", Montanus, Schmidt.

Plead; argue the case, state it aright between me and your mother, then debate it fully; lay open either my displeasure, how great it is, or the effects of it already upon the house of Israel, or my menaces against them for the future, by my prophet Hosea: and next recollect the carriage of your mother of Israel; consider her sins, her lewdness, her adulteries, her unthankfulness, how notorious, how long, how multiplied and aggravated.

With your mother; the synagogues, the whole body of the people Israel, which were emblemized in Gomer, the wife of whoredoms.

Plead; ye that are sons or daughters of God amidst this degenerate, idolatrous nation, you that have any resentments for your Father, debate, or at least deal plainly with her, who is called your mother, and say how little right she hath to be called my wife, and how little reason I have to own myself her Husband.

She is not my wife; in point of right she is not, for by her adulteries she hath dissolved the marriage covenant, and so abolished the relation, though in point of fact she is not cast off utterly; I have not sued out the divorce, nor turned her out of doors. but yet for all that she is no wife, nor hath any right to the honour, maintenance, or love of a wife.

Neither am I her husband; I do not account myself bound by any covenant of marriage to love, maintain, comfort, or protect her; nor will I long do it, if by her continued lewdness she still violate her faith, and abuse my patience. Tell idolatrous Israel, that her God will deal with her as an abused husband will deal with an unreclaimed adulterous wife.

Let her therefore put away her whoredoms; when you have pleaded, then make an offer to her yet once more, counsel, persuade, entreat, and encourage her to do what becomes a wife that would not be divorced; try if you can prevail with her to cast aside and to remove from her all evil practices and inclinations, to cast off spiritual whoredoms, which all her idolatrous practices are accounted to be.

Out of her sight; either remove the idols, their temples, priests, and gaudy rites, for ever out of her sight, as they did, Isaiah 2:20; or else cease from her whorish looks, her unchaste and immodest framing her face and gestures.

And her adulteries, idolatries, which are spiritual adulteries,

from between her breasts: by an immodest and lascivious manner of framing the breasts, and laying them open, these kinds of women here alluded to did entice adulterers; and so were idolatrous Israelites grown impudent in their idolatries, and courted others in shameless manner to turn idolaters also.

Verse 2. - Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not thy wife, neither am I her husband. In this second chapter the same cycle of events recurs as in the first, with this difference, that what is expressed by symbol in the one is simply narrated in the other. The cycle is the common one of sin: its usual consequences of suffering and sorrow; then succor and sympathy in case of repentance. The persons addressed in the verse before us are those individuals in Israel who had still retained their integrity, and who, notwithstanding surrounding defection and abounding ungodliness, had continued steadfast in their loyalty and love to the Lord. They might be few in number, widely scattered, perhaps unknown to each other, and of comparatively little note; yet they are here called on to raise their voice in solemn warning and earnest protest against the national defection and wickedness. "The congregation in its totality, or whole people taken conjointly, is compared to the mother, but individual members to the children, and the sense is that they are to plead with each other to bring them back to the way of goodness" (Kimchi). The nation as such, and in its impiety, is the mother; the pious persons still found in it are here required to testify for God both by exhortation and example. "The congregation of Israel is compared to an adulteress, and the children of the different generations to the children of whoredoms. Before them the prophet says, 'Plead with your mother'" (Kimchi). Adultery per se is a virtual dissolution of the marriage-tie; idolatry is spiritual adultery; the close and tender relationship into which God has graciously condescended to take Israel is rendered null and void, and that through Israel's own fault. God threatens the renunciation of it, unless perchance the pleading of the still faithful children might recall the erring mother to penitence and purity. A case the converse of this is that presented in Isaiah 1:1, where the mother's divorce is attributed to the unfaithfulness of the children. "Where," asks the Lord in that passage, "is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away?... for your transgressions is your mother put away." Ki before the second clause is either recitative, introducing the words of pleading, or assigns a reason; the latter seems preferable. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts. The word mippaneyha is rather to be rendered "from her face" than "out of her sight." The expression is to be taken literally, as the word "breasts" in the parallel clause proves. Thus Kimchi rightly explains it, saying, "Since he compares her to harlot, he attributes to her the ways of harlots; for the harlot's way is to adorn her face with various kinds of colors, that she may appear fair in the eyes of her paramours." But in addition to ornamenteth as earrings or nose-rings, and other ways of decking herself, as by painting, the expression may imply lascivious looks and wanton expressions of countenance; while the mention of breasts may indicate the making of them bare for the purpose of meretricious blandishments, or as indicating the place of the adulterer (comp. Ezekiel 23:3 and Song of Solomon 1:13). The Jewish commentators adopt the latter sense. Aben Ezra comments on the grammatical form of the words teuncha and naaphupheha (the former by duplication of the second radical, and the latter by that of the third) as intensive; while Rashi and Kimchi refer to the pressure of the breasts. But others understand them figuratively, the countenance indicating boldness, and the breasts shamelessness. Thus Horace speaks of the brilliant beauty (nixor) and coquettishness (protervitas) of Glyeera.

(2) Plead with your mother . . .—Contend, or plead in judgment. Let the awakened conscience of the present generation rise up in judgment with the nation as a whole. By “mother” we are to understand the nation Israel, viewed as a collective abstract; and by the “children” (Hosea 2:4) the inhabitants who are units in the total aggregate. Ammi and Ruhamah without the negative prefix, show that this awakening of conscience has given them back their privileges.

Render, That she may put away her whoredoms from her face: i.e., her meretricious guiles, her unblushing idolatry, her voluptuous service of gods that are no God. This strong image was constantly on the lips of the prophets, and had been burned by cruel sorrow into the very heart of Hosea. It acquired portentous meaning in the hideous impurities of the worship of Baal-peor and Ashtoreth, against which the Jehovah worship was a tremendous protest.