Hosea 2:7

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)....

God now shows what takes place when he chastises hardened and rebellious people with heavy punishment. In the first clause he shows that perverseness will cleave so completely to their hearts, that they will not immediately return to a sound mind. _She will follow her lovers, he says, and seek them. _Here the Prophet tells us, that though the Israelites should be chastised by frequent punishments, they would yet continue in their obstinacy. It hence appears how hard a neck they had, and how uncircumcised in heart they were; and such did the Prophets, as well as Moses, represent them to be. And we hence learn, that had they been only moderately corrected, it would not have been sufficient for their amendment. Amazing, indeed, was their obstinacy; for God had divorced them, and then led them into great straits; and yet they went on in their course, as though they were utterly stupid and de...

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...

AND SHE SHALL FOLLOW AFTER - The words rendered “follow after and seek” (רדך, בקשׁ) are intensive and express “eager, vehement pursuit,” and “diligent search.” They express, together, a pursuit, whose minuteness is not hindered by its vehemence, nor its extent and wideness by its exactness. She shall seek far and wide, minutely and carefully, everywhere and in all things, and shall fail in all. For eighteen hundred years the Jews have chased after a phantom, a Christ, triumphing, after the manner of the kings of the earth, and it has ever escaped them. The sinful soul will too often struggle on, in pursuit of what God is withdrawing, and will not give over, until, through God’s persevering mercy, the fruitless pursuit exhausts her, and she finds it hopeless. Oh the willfulness of man, and the unwearied patience of God! Then shall she say, I will go 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

AND SHE SHALL FOLLOW AFTER HER LOVERS,.... Before mentioned; that is, in her affections and desires, with great eagerness and earnestness, as men pursue what they are bent upon; otherwise, being hedged in and walled up, she could not go after them in a proper sense: BUT SHE SHALL NOT OVERTAKE THEM; they fleeing from her, and she pent up: SHE SHALL SEEK THEM, BUT SHALL NOT FIND THEM; shall not be able to enjoy them, or act according to her wishes and desires, with respect to the performance of sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies, as before observed: THEN SHALL SHE SAY; in her heart, finding all endeavours fruitless, and that the things sought after were never to be had; the hedges and wall, the obstructions in the way, were never to be removed, while in such a pursuit; wherefore after a long time, many hundreds of years, even in the latter day, being convinced of her sin and folly in rej...

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

FOLLOW AFTER. eagerly follow after. I WILL GO, &C. Compare Hos 6:15.Luke 15:18. FIRST HUSBAND. Compare Ezekiel 16:8. THAN. Supply the _Ellipsis_: "than [it is] now"....