성경 주석서

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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