Osea 2:4 Commento

The scope of this chapter seems to be much the same with that of the foregoing chapter, and to point at the same events, and the causes of them. As there, so here, I. God, by the prophet, discovers sin to them, and charges it home upon them, the sin of their idolatry, their spiritual whoredom, their serving idols and forgetting God and their obligations to him (Hos 2:1, Hos 2:2, Hos 2:5, Hos 2:8). II. He threatens to take away from them that plenty of all good things with which they had served their idols, and to abandon them to ruin without remedy (Hos 2:3, Hos 2:4, Hos 2:6, Hos 2:7, Hos 2:9-13). III. Yet he promises at last to return in ways of mercy to them for his own sake (Hos 2:14), to restore them to their former plenty (Hos 2:15), to cure them of their inclination to idolatry (Hos 2:16, Hos 2:17), to renew his covenant with them (Hos 2:18-20), and to bless them with all good things (Hos 2:21-23).

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 2 This chapter is an explanation of the former, proceeding upon the same argument in more express words. The godly Israelites are here called upon to lay before the body of the people their idolatry, ingratitude, obstinacy, and ignorance of the God of their mercies; and to exhort them to repentance, lest they should be stripped of all their good things, and be brought into great distress and difficulties; all their joy and comfort cease, and be exposed to shame and contempt, Hos 2:1, yet, notwithstanding, many gracious promises are made unto them, of their having the alluring and comfortable word of the Gospel; of a door of hope; of salvation being opened to them; of faith in the Lord, and affection to him as their husband; of the removal of all idolatry from them; of safety from all enemies; of their open espousal to Christ; of his hearing of their prayers, and giving them plenty of all good things; and of their multiplication, conversion, and covenant relation to God, Hos 2:14.

And I will not have mercy upon her children,.... The posterity of the Jews in succeeding ages, until the time of their conversion comes; they persisting in the sins of their forefathers, filling up the measure of their iniquities; remaining in their obstinate rejection of the Messiah, and in the same impenitence and unbelief, and having his blood imprecated upon them: for they be the children of whoredoms; begotten and born in whoredom, spurious and illegitimate; or that commit whoredoms; imitate their parents; are guilty of the same vices; a generation of vipers. So the Targum, "for they are children that commit idolatry;'' retain the traditions of the elders; go about to establish their own righteousness, and reject the Messiah.

"And I will not have pity on her sons, for they are the sons of fornication, because their mother has committed fornication: she is confounded that conceived them, because she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me bread, and water, and clothes, and oil, and drink." LXX: "And I will not have mercy on her sons, because they are the children of fornication. For their mother has 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." I will do more for the one to whom I spoke, not my wife, and I am not your husband, and I will make her like a wilderness, and make her like a barren land. "For when I brought her out of Egypt, I killed their parents and their children entered into the land of promise. But now the children of a harlot mother will perish with their mother the prostitute, since they are sons of fornication and are born of evil. Of them it is said in the Gospel: 'You brood of vipers' (Matthew 3:7). They have come to such shamelessness that they are being compared to the "face of a harlot," and they are disgraced. " (Jeremiah 3:3) Is it not a stubborn and harlot's boldness that one should boast in their own wrongdoing and say, "I will follow my lovers"; I will go to the idols that have provided me with food and clothing. All that is described by the prophetic work, the Jews have received spiritually from the Lord. And since they denied the Son of God, choosing instead Barabbas, a robber and inciter of sedition, and crucifying the Son of God (John 18). Therefore, even today demons follow and refer God's blessings to those who have lost their souls to their own cults. The heretics have bread and water, whose bread is sadness, and their water is muddy, which suffocates and kills the baptized. They also have wool from diseased sheep, and flax that remains black, and oil, of which the prophet says: "The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head" (Ps. CLX, 5), and the drink of the waters of Egypt, of which Jeremiah cries out: "What to you is the way of Egypt, that you would drink the water of Geon" (Jeremiah II, 18)? And he said: "Why do you want to drink water from the rivers of the Assyrians? We briefly went through everything, so that we can move on to the rest."

The prophet sounds the alarm of a dreadful calamity, the description of which is most terribly worked up, Joe 2:1-11. Exhortation to repentance, fasting, and prayer, that the Divine judgments may be averted, Joe 2:12-17. God will in due time take vengeance on all the enemies of pure and undefiled religion, Joe 2:18-20. Great prosperity of the Jews subsequent to their return from the Babylonish captivity, Joe 2:21-27. Joel then makes an elegant transition to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, Joe 2:28-30; for so these verses are explained by one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. See Act 2:16-21. Prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, which was shortly to follow the opening of the Gospel dispensation, Act 2:31. Promises of safety to the faithful and penitent; promises afterwards remarkably fulfilled to the Christians in their escape to Pella from the desolating sword of the Roman army, Act 2:32.

They be the children of whoredoms - They are all idolaters; and have been consecrated to idols, whose marks they bear.

APPLICATION OF THE SYMBOLS IN THE FIRST CHAPTER. (Hos. 2:1-23) Israel's spiritual fornication, and her threatened punishment: yet a promise of God's restored favor, when chastisements have produced their designed effect. Say . . . unto . . . brethren, Ammi, &c.--that is, When the prediction (Hos 1:11) shall be accomplished, then ye will call one another, as brothers and sisters in the family of God, Ammi and Ruhamah.

her children--Not even her individual members shall escape the doom of the nation collectively, for they are individually guilty.

"And I will not have compassion upon her children, for they are children of whoredom." This verse is also dependent, so far as the meaning is concerned, upon the pen (lest) in Hos 2:3; but in form it constitutes an independent sentence. Benē zenūnı̄m (sons of whoredoms) refers back to yaldē zenūnı̄m in Hos 1:2. The children are the members of the nation, and are called "sons of whoredom," not merely on account of their origin as begotten in whoredom, but also because they inherit the nature and conduct of their mother. The fact that the children are specially mentioned after and along with the mother, when in reality mother and children are one, serves to give greater keenness to the threat, and guards against that carnal security, in which individuals imagine that, inasmuch as they are free from the sin and guilt of the nation as a whole, they will also be exempted from the threatened punishment.