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Expanded Comments |
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| 1 Say unto your brethren Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. |
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| 2 Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: and let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; |
She is not my wife – The Lord permitted domestic troubles for Hosea to impress upon him the Lord's view of Israel as a false wife. R2491:1
She stayed in his house until the sixth year. Then he either put her away from him, or she went her own way. R2491:2*
Her husband – Referring to a union in a less particular sense than the New Testament references to Christ and his Bride. Here the word husband simply means caretaker. R1389:1
God was a most merciful husband to Israel. R1389:1, R2491:1
Her whoredoms – Hosea's wife was unfaithful to him, as Israel had been unfaithful to the Lord. R5809:2
Her adulteries – Christendom is, in the Scriptures, charged with adultery, in that she lives with the world. R4811:5
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| 3 lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her as a dry land, and slay her with thirst. |
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| 4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of whoredoms. |
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| 5 For their mother hath played the harlot; she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. |
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| 6 Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns; and I will fence her in with a wall, that she shall not find her paths. |
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| 7 And she shall pursue after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and shall not find them: and she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now. |
I will go and return – Not a promise from the Lord that he would remarry them. C296; R1341:6
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| 8 And she did not know that I had given her the corn and the new wine and the oil, and had multiplied to her the silver and gold, which they employed for Baal. |
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| 9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my new wine in its season, and will withdraw my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness. |
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| 10 And now will I discover her impiety in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. |
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| 11 And I will cause all her mirth to cease: her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths! and all her solemnities. |
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| 12 And I will make desolate her vine and her fig-tree, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards which my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. |
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| 13 And I will visit upon her the days of the Baals, wherein she burned incense to them, and decked herself with her rings and jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith Jehovah. |
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| 14 Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart. |
Her – The true Church. R1841:6
Into the wilderness – The true Church is the Church in the wilderness. (Rev. 12:6, 14; Luke 15:4; Isa. 51:3; Cant. 8:5) R1841:6
Illustrated by the millions of persecuted Jews in Russia who tell, not only of their suffering, but of their deep desire to return to the land given to Abraham and his seed forever. R394:3*
Speak comfortably – Speaking to their hearts. R394:3*
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| 15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. |
A door of hope – Which the Millennial reign of the true seed of Abraham will open for these rebellious people. C297, C296; R1341:6
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| 16 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me, My husband, and shalt call me no more, Baali; |
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| 17 for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. |
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| 18 And I will make a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will break bow and sword and battle out of the land; and I will make them to lie down safely. |
In that day – The glorious 1000 years. R541:5*
A covenant – The New covenant. R282:6, R4371:2
will break the bow – Dates the "door of hope" (verse 15) by declaring it to be after the time of trouble, when wars shall be no more. C297; R1341:6
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| 19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies; |
Will betroth thee – Possibly the whole house of fleshly Israel, but probably spiritual Israel is meant. C297; R1341:6
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| 20 and I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know Jehovah. |
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| 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; |
Hear the heavens – The Christ, as a heavenly priesthood, shall make successful intercession for the earth. R1434:1*
Hear the earth – Represented through its "princes," and these princes shall answer the people. R1434:1*
The new earth (2 Pet. 3:13), reorganized society. A319
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| 22 and the earth shall hear the corn, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jizreel. |
And the wine – Message of joy. R1695:2
They shall hear Jezreel – Thus the great antitypical day of Jezreel is to be realized. R1434:1*
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| 23 And I will sow her unto me in the land; and I will have mercy upon Lo-ruhamah; and I will say to Lo-ammi, Thou art my people; and they shall say, My God. |
Thou art my people – The spiritual class, selected during the time when fleshly Israel has been cast off. C297; R1341:6
"Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it and the rest are blinded." (Rom. 11:7) C297; R1341:6
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