21 'Say ye to your brethren—Ammi, And to your sisters—Ruhamah. 2 Plead ye with your mother—plead, (For she 'is' not My wife, and I 'am' not her husband,) And she turneth her whoredoms from before her, And her adulteries from between her breasts, 3 Lest I strip her naked. And have set her up as 'in' the day of her birth, And have made her as a wilderness, And have set her as a dry land, And have put her to death with thirst. 4 And her sons I do not pity, For sons of whoredoms 'are' they, 5 For gone a-whoring hath their mother, Acted shamefully hath their conceiver, For she hath said, I go after my lovers, Those giving my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.
6 Therefore, lo, I am hedging up thy way with thorns, And I have made for her a wall, And her paths she doth not find. 7 And she hath pursued her lovers, And she doth not overtake them, And hath sought them, and doth not find, And she hath said: I go, and I turn back unto My first husband, For—better to me then than now. 8 And she knew not that I had given to her, The corn, and the new wine, and the oil. Yea, silver I did multiply to her, And the gold they prepared for Baal. 9 Therefore do I turn back, And I have taken My corn in its season, And My new wine in its appointed time, And I have taken away My wool and My flax, covering her nakedness. 10 And now do I reveal her dishonour before the eyes of her lovers, And none doth deliver her out of My hand. 11 And I have caused to cease all her joy, Her festival, her new moon, and her sabbath, Even all her appointed times, 12 And made desolate her vine and her fig-tree, Of which she said, A gift they 'are' to me, That my lovers have given to me, And I have made them for a forest, And consumed them hath a beast of the field. 13 And I have charged on her the days of the Baalim, To whom she maketh perfume, And putteth on her ring and her ornament, And goeth after her lovers, And Me forgat—an affirmation of Jehovah.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Hosea 2:1-13
Commentary on Hosea 2:1-5
(Read Hosea 2:1-5)
This chapter continues the figurative address to Israel, in reference to Hosea's wife and children. Let us own and love as brethren, all whom the Lord seems to put among his children, and encourage them in that they have received mercy. But every Christian, by his example and conduct, must protest against evil and abuses, even among those to whom he belongs and owes respect. Impenitent sinners will soon be stripped of the advantages they misuse, and which they consume upon their lusts.
Commentary on Hosea 2:6-13
(Read Hosea 2:6-13)
God threatens what he would do with this treacherous, idolatrous people. They did not turn, therefore all this came upon them; and it is written for admonition to us. If lesser difficulties be got over, God will raise greater. The most resolute in sinful pursuits, are commonly most crossed in them. The way of God and duty is often hedged about with thorns, but we have reason to think it is a sinful way that is hedged up with thorns. Crosses and obstacles in an evil course are great blessings, and are to be so accounted; they are God's hedges, to keep us from transgressing, to make the way of sin difficult, and to keep us from it. We have reason to bless God for restraining grace, and for restraining providences; and even for sore pain, sickness, or calamity, if it keeps us from sin. The disappointments we meet with in seeking for satisfaction from the creature, should, if nothing else will do it, drive us to the Creator. When men forget, or consider not that their comforts come from God, he will often in mercy take them away, to bring them to think upon their folly and danger. Sin and mirth can never hold long together; but if men will not take away sin from their mirth, God will take away mirth from their sin. And if men destroy God's word and ordinances, it is just with him to destroy their vines and fig-trees. This shall be the ruin of their mirth. Taking away the solemn seasons and the sabbaths will not do it, they will readily part with them, and think it no loss; but He will take away their sensual pleasures. Days of sinful mirth must be visited with days of mourning.