Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths—
All her appointed feasts.
Of which she has said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.
God’s Mercy on His People
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak1 comfort to her.
And athe Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in bthe days of her youth,
cAs in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me1 ‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me1 ‘My Master,’
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle bI will shatter from the earth,
To make them clie down safely.
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
That aI will answer,” says the Lord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
bAnd I will have mercy on her who had1 not obtained mercy;
Then cI will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are1 My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”
| << Hosea 2:12 | Hosea 2:14 >> |
Hosea 2:13
I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, or Baals - When men leave the one true God, they make to themselves many idols. They act, as if they could make up a god piece-meal out of the many attributes of the One God, and create their Creator. His power of production becomes one God; His power of destroying, another; His providence, a third; and so on, down to the very least acts. So they had many Baals or Lords; a "Baal-berith Judges 8:33, Lord of covenants," who was to guard the sanctity of oaths; "Baal-zebub II Kings 1:2, Lord of flies," who was to keep off the plague of flies, and "Baal-Peor" Numbers 25:3, who presided over sin. All these their various idolatries, and all the time of their idolatries, God threatens to visit upon them at once. "The days of punishment shall equal the days of the wanderings, in which she burnt incense to Baal." God spares long. But when persevering impenitence draws down His anger, He punishes not for the last sin only, but for all. Even to the penitent, God mostly makes the chastisement bear some proportion to the length and greatness of the sin.
Wherein she burnt incence unto them - Incense was that part of sacrifice, which especially denoted thanksgiving and prayer ascending to God.
And she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels - Christ says to the bride, "Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold" Song of Songs 1:10. But what He gave her, she threw away upon another, and "cast her pearls before swine." She "decked herself," i. e., made God' s ornaments her own, used them not as He gave them, but artificially as an adulteress. And what else is it, to use wit or beauty or any gift of God, for any end out of God? : "The ornament of souls which choose to serve idols, is to fulfill those things which seem good to the unclean spirits. Very beautiful to devils must be the sin-loving soul, which chooses to think and to do whatsoever is sweet to, and loved by them." Sins of the flesh being a part of the worship of Baal, this garish trickery and pains to attract had an immediate offensiveness, besides its belonging to idols. He still pictures her as seeking, not sought by her lovers. "She went after her lovers, and forgat Me." The original has great emphasis. "She went after her lovers, and Me she fogat, saith the Lord." She went after vanities, and God, her All, she forgat. Such is the character of all engrossing passion, such is the course of sin, to which the soul gives way, in avarice, ambition, worldliness, sensual sin, godless science. The soul, at last, does not rebel against God; it "forgets" Him. It is taken up with other things, with itself, with the objects of its thoughts, the objects of its affections, and it has no time for God, because it has no love for Him. So God complains of Judah by Jeremiah, "their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal (Jeremiah 23:27; add Judges 3:7; I Samuel 12:9-10; Jeremiah 2:32; Jeremiah 3:20; Jeremiah 13:25; Jeremiah 18:15; Ezekiel 22:12; Ezekiel 23:35; Isaiah 17:10; Psalms 9:17; Psalms 50:22; Psalms 78:11; Psalms 106:13, Psalms 106:21).
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Hosea 2:13:
2 Kings 17:11
Job 42:11
Isaiah 29:1
| << Hosea 2:12 | Hosea 2:14 >> |
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