Hosea 2 · The Lantern

Israel’s Adultery Rebuked

Say to your brothers, “My People,” and to your sisters, “Shown Compassion.”

Contend with your mother, contend — for she is not my wife and I am not her husband — that she may put away her whorings from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts,

lest I strip her naked and set her out as on the day she was born, and set her like the wilderness and make her like a land of drought, and kill her with thirst.

And on her children I will not show compassion, for they are children of whorings.

For their mother has whored; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, “I will go after my lovers, who give my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”

Therefore, look, I am hedging up your way with thorns, and I will wall up her wall, and she will not find her paths.

Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will fence it with a wall, and she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now.

Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed God's concern and providence toward us. He speaks of the image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardor to the worship of idols.

For hence is that which the Lord says, under the character of every soul, to Judaea who is weak, and walking in evil ways; "Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will hedge it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths, and she shall follow after her lovers, and she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, and not finding them shall say, I will go an…

And she will pursue her lovers and not overtake them, and she will seek them and not find them. And she will say, “I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.”

And she did not know that I myself gave her the grain and the new wine and the fresh oil, and multiplied silver for her, and gold — which they made into Baal.

Therefore I will turn back and take my grain in its time and my new wine in its season, and I will snatch away my wool and my flax that covered her nakedness.

And now I will uncover her shame before the eyes of her lovers, and no man will deliver her out of my hand.

And I will make all her rejoicing cease — her festival, her new moon, and her Sabbath, and all her appointed times.

And I will lay waste her vine and her fig tree, of which she said, “These are my fee that my lovers have given me.” And I will set them as a forest, and the animals of the field will devour them.

And I will attend to her for the days of the Baals, when she burned incense to them and decked herself with her ring and her jewelry, and went after her lovers — and me she forgot, the utterance of the LORD.

God’s Mercy to Israel

Therefore, look, I am enticing her, and I will lead her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart.

"Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope." LXX: "Therefore, behold, I will seduce her, and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart." Because we have said "to open hope," and the Septuagint translated "to open…

We who have Christ, the author of necessary things dwelling inside the heart, were at once enriched in every kind of virtue, and in the abundant and inalienable possession of the spiritual gifts.… He promises to speak in her heart.

Speaking directly to the heart indicates the promulgation of the law, which shaped the hearts of the listener.

And I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she will answer there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day she came up from the land of Egypt.

"And I will give him its vineyards, from the same place." Because He had previously spoken of flattery and the loneliness of those who left from Egypt, providing it as a similar example. In this example Moses and Aaron had stood as leaders of the Jews, who came from the same people. Now, He promises that he will give him the vineyards from the same place.

[Israel] will be humble and obedient just as in the beginning, when she was born to the knowledge of God through the law and gladly received the decree of the divine adoption. Accordingly, he calls the regeneration to the knowledge of God through the law the "days [of her youth]."

Just as those at that early time have learned through Achan's punishment how serious is the transgression of the law, in the same manner these will come to the realization of their own trespasses through the captivity.

And it will be in that day — the utterance of the LORD — you will call me “My husband,” and you will no longer call me “My Baal.”

And I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they will no longer be remembered by their name.

And I will cut for them a covenant in that day with the animals of the field and with the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground. And bow and sword and battle I will break from the land, and I will make them lie down in security.

And I will betroth you to me forever; and I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in judgment, and in loyal love and in compassion.

You have wisely thought it a subject of inquiry, whether there be any difference in God's love towards those who have believed from their childhood, and those who have believed in the course of their youth or more advanced age; for this also has not been past over nor left unnoticed in the sacred Scriptures.

The sixth degree of chastity is that he not be deluded by the alluring images of women even when asleep. For although we do not believe that this delusion is sinful, nonetheless it is an indication of a desire that is still deeply ingrained. It is evident that this delusion can occur in a number of ways.

A betrothed woman was chosen, so that Christ's church might already be symbolically indicated as bride, according to the words of the prophet Hosea: "I will make you my bride in justice and right; I will make you my bride in mercy and benevolence, and I will espouse you in fidelity." Thus John says, "He who has a bride is the bridegroom." And blessed Paul: "I have promised you…

And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.

And it will be in that day, I will answer — the utterance of the LORD — I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth,

and the earth will answer the grain and the new wine and the fresh oil, and they will answer Jezreel.

And I will sow her for myself in the land, and I will show compassion to Not Shown Compassion. And I will say to Not My People, “You are my people,” and he will say, “My God.”

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

And not only is the operation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit everywhere one but also there is one and the same will, calling, and giving of commands, which one may see in the great and saving mystery of the Church.

"You who were once not a people but now are the people of God, who did not seek after mercy but now have received mercy." By these verses he indicates clearly that he has written this letter to those who had come from the Gentiles to the faith, who were once separated from the way of life of the people of God but then through the grace of faith were joined to his people and obt…

Hosea2

Israel’s Adultery Rebuked

God’s Mercy to Israel