Hosea 2:6

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. I WILL HEDGE UP THY WAY WITH THORNS, AND MAKE A WALL, THAT SHE SHALL NOT FIND HER PATHS - (Job 19:18; Lamentations 3:7; Lamentations 3:9, "He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out ... He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone"). The hinderances are referred to which the captivity interposed between Israel and her idols. The Hebrew is, literally, Behold I hedging. It expresses an immediate future, or something which, as being fixed in the mind of God, is as certain as if it were actually taking place. So swift and certain should be her judgments (Pusey)....

The Prophet here pursues the subject we touched upon yesterday; for he shows how necessary chastisement is, when people felicitate themselves in their vices. And God, when he sees that men confess not immediately their sins, defends as it were his own cause, as one pleading before a judge. In a word, God here shows that he could not do otherwise than punish so great an obstinacy in the people, as there appeared no other remedy. _Therefore_, he says, _behold I _— There is a special meaning in these words; for God testifies that he becomes the avenger of impieties, when people are brought into straits; as though he said, “Though the Israelites are not ready to confess that they suffer justly, yet I now declare that to punish them will be my work, when they shall be deprived of their pleasures, and when the occasion of their pride shall be removed from them.” And he intimates by the metapho...

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 e...

Verse Hosea 2:6. _I WILL HEDGE UP THY WAY WITH THORNS_] I will put it out of your power to escape the judgments I have threatened; and, in spite of all your attachment to your idols, you shall find that they can give you neither _bread_, nor _water_, nor _wool_, nor _flax,_ nor _oil_, nor _drink_. And ye shall be brought into such circumstances, that the pursuit of your expensive idolatry shall be impossible. And she shall be led so deep into captivity, as never to find the road back to her own land. And this is the fact; for those who were carried away into Assyria have been lost among the nations, few of them having ever returned to Judea. And, if in being, where they are now is utterly unknown....

THEREFORE - that is, because she said, “I will go after my lovers,” “behold I will hedge up thy ways;” literally, “behold, I hedging.” It expresses an immediate future, or something which, as being fixed in the mind of God, is as certain as if it were actually taking place. So swift and certain should be her judgments. THY WAY - God had before spoken of Israel; now He turns to her, pronouncing judgment upon her; then again He turneth away from her, as not deigning to regard her. “If the sinner’s way were plain, and the soul still had temporal prosperity, after it had turned away from its Creator, scarcely or never could it be recalled, nor would it “hear the voice behind it,” warning it. But when adversity befalls it, and tribulation or temporal difficulties overtake it in its course, then it remembers the Lord its God.” So it was with Israel in Egypt. When “they sat by the flesh pots, a...

EXPOSITION HOSEA 2:2 PLEAD WITH YOUR MOTHER, PLEAD: FOR SHE IS NOT THY WIFE, NEITHER AM I HER HUSBAND. In this second chapter the same cycle of events recurs as in the first, with this difference, that what is expressed by symbol in the one is simply narrated in the other. The cycle is the common one of sin: its usual consequences of suffering and sorrow; then succor and sympathy in case of repentance. The persons addressed in the verse before us are those individuals in Israel who had still retained their integrity, and who, notwithstanding surrounding defection and abounding ungodliness, had continued steadfast in their loyalty and love to the Lord. They might be few in number, widely scattered, perhaps unknown to each other, and of comparatively little note; yet they are here called on to raise their voice in solemn warning and earnest prote

THEREFORE, BEHOLD, I WILL HEDGE UP THY WAY WITH THORNS,.... As fields and vineyards are fenced with thorn hedges to keep out beasts; or rather as closes and fields are fenced to keep cattle in, from going out and straying elsewhere; which may be expressive of afflictions, aud particularly wars among them, that they could not stir out and go from place to place: and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths: to go to Dan and Bethel, and worship the calves there, as some; or to go to the Egyptians and Assyrians for help, as Jarchi and Kimchi; though it was by the latter that they were hedged in, and walled and cooped up, when the city of Samaria was besieged three years: rather this respects the straits and difficulties the Jews have been reduced to by the destruction of Jerusalem, and the continuance of them ever since; so that they are not able to offer their daily sacrifice, kill a...

In this chapter God compares Israel to a woman who had been unfaithful to her husband in the very worst and most wicked manner. Hosea 2:5. _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._ She attributed to false gods the gifts which God had given to her. This was great ingratitude to God, and a high insult to his holy majesty. Hosea 2:6. _Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths._ That is what God does to sinners whom he means to save. He will not let them take their own course. He gives them thorny trials which hedge up their way. He puts an obs

CHAPTER 2 Appeal and Punishment for Unfaithfulness The Resumed Relationship _ 1. The appeal and complaint (Hosea 2:1) _ 2. The punishment for Unfaithfulness (Hosea 2:6) 3. The resumed relationship and its great blessing (Hosea 2:14) Hosea 2:1. Who is addressed in the first verse of this chapter? Some think the children of the prophet are meant. The godly in Israel, those who obtained mercy, are addressed, for the Lord acknowledges such still as “Ammi”-my people. The godly are to plead with the rest of Israel their mother, but who is disowned by Jehovah as the wife, on account of her adulterous conduct. Then the Lord th

HOSEA 2:2 (Hebrews 2:4). In this discourse, which seems to be based upon and imply the narrative in Hosea 1, 3, the prophet sets forth the unfaithfulness of the people and land of Israel to her Divine husband, Yahweh. Israel had played the harlot in going after other lovers (the local Baalim) for gifts (the fertility of land, flocks, etc.); the consequent punishment will end in her return to her first husband. The section sub-divides at Hosea 2:13; the first part (Hosea 2:2) predicts severe punishment, and the second (Hosea 2:14) contains a promise of restoration followin