*H Say ye to your brethren: You are my people: and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.
Ver. 1. Brethren, &c. Or, call your brethren, My people; and your sister, Her that hath obtained mercy. This is connected with the latter end of the foregoing chapter, and relates to the converts of Israel. Ch. — I seemed to have abandoned them at the great day of carnage; (H.) but I will still receive (C.) this portion of my people, as well as Juda. H. — Disdain not to call them brethren. More of the ten tribes than of the others embraced the faith of Christ, and more Gentiles than Jews became converts. W.
*H Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.
Ver. 2. Your mother: the synagogue. C. — He addresses Juda, (v. 11, 15.) or all God's people. C. i. 11. This vineyard yields no good fruit. Is. v. Idolatry prevails. Ezec. xvi. 5. and xxiii. 3.
*H Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through and will kill her with drought.
Ver. 3. Drought. In Egypt the people were plunged into idolatry, and oppressed. C.
*H And I will not have mercy on her children. for they are the children of fornications.
Ver. 4. Fornications. They imitate their parents. H. — I will not spare them, as I did some in the wilderness. S. Jer. — Punishment will not cease till people repent. W.
*H For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.
Ver. 5. Lovers: idols, and foreign nations. Ezec. xvi. 15. 33.
*H Wherefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.
Ver. 6. Paths. The aid which she sought from foreigners shall prove vain. — It is often an effect of mercy, when our wicked plans miscarry. S. Jer.
*H And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.
Ver. 8. Baal: or they formed idols.
*H Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its season, and I will set at liberty my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace.
Ver. 9. Season. When the harvest is ripe, the loss is more afflicting. God withdraws what proves an occasion of sin. — Liberty. The creature serves unwillingly. Rom. viii. 21.
*H And now I will lay open her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand:
Ver. 10. Folly, or shame. Gen. xxxiv. 7. Judg. xix. 23.
*H And I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times.
Ver. 11. Times. This was verified during the captivity.
*H And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and decked herself out with her earrings, and with her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.
Ver. 13. Ear. Heb. "nose-rings," or ornaments hanging from the nose. C.
*H Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart.
Ver. 14. I will allure her, &c. After her disloyalties, I will still allure her by my grace, &c. and send her vine-dressers, viz. the apostles, originally her own children, who shall open to her the gates of hope; as heretofore, at her coming into the land of promise, she had all good success after she had satisfied the divine justice by the execution of Achan, in the valley of Achor. Jos. vii. Ch. — Sept. "I will seduce or make her stray;" πλανω. H. — I will permit her to yield to error, in captivity; (Theod.) or will cause her hopes to be frustrated yet in exile I will comfort her. The Jews were not changed till they had seen the vanity of idols, and suffered much. C. — God's grace prevents sinners, that they may be converted. W.
*H And I will give her vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.
Ver. 15. Vine. Heb. "vineyards there," (C.) or "from," &c. H. — Achor. The environs of Jericho were very enchanting. Is. lxv. 10. — Sing is better than Sept. "shall be humbled." Heb. "shall answer," as people singing alternately. C.
*H And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord: That she shall call me: My husband, and she shall call me no more Banli.
Ver. 16. My husband. In Heb. Ishi. — Baali: my lord. The meaning of this verse is: that, whereas, Ishi and Baali were used indifferently in those days by wives speaking to their husbands, the synagogue, whom God was pleased to consider as his spouse, should call him only Ishi, and abstain from the name of Baali, because of his affinity with the name of the idol Baal. Ch. — The very name shall become obsolete. H.
*H And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name.
Ver. 17. Baalim. It is the plural number of Baal; for there were divers idols of Baal. Ch. — The Jews hence styled Esbaal, Isboseth; as boseth means "confusion." 1 Par. viii. 33.
*H And in that day I will make a covenant with them, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I will destroy the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land: and I will make them sleep secure.
Ver. 18. Beasts. The most savage nations shall receive the gospel, and become mild. Is. xi. 6. Theod. — Wild beasts shall not infest the land. Lev. xxvi. 22. C.
*H And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.
Ver. 19. I will espouse thee, &c. This relates to the happy espousals of Christ with his Church, which shall never be dissolved. Ch. — God gives the dowry, justice, &c.
*H And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
Ver. 20. Faith, the root of all virtues. We shall be true to each other. This has been realized only in the Church of Christ. C.
*H And it shall come to pass in that day: I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.
Ver. 21. Hear the heavens, &c. All shall conspire in favour of the Church, which in the following verse is called Jezrahel, that is, the seed of God. Ch. — Harmony shall subsist between all the parts of the universe. The earth shall receive rain, &c. This happiness was enjoyed in figure by the Jews, after their return, and in reality by Christians. Theod.
*H And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and these shall hear Jezrahel.
Ver. 22. Jezrahel. This most fruitful valley shall again be covered with abundant crops. The whole nation of the Jews shall be happy. C.
*H And I will say to that which is not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.
Ver. 24. That which is not my people, &c. This relates to the conversion of the Gentiles, (Ch.) as the apostles explain it. 1 Pet. ii. 10. Rom. ix. W.