Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Played the whore - Neither the Vulgate, Septuagint, Targum, nor Josephus, understand this word as implying any act of conjugal infidelity on the woman' s part. They merely state that the parties disagreed, and the woman returned to her father' s house. Indeed all the circumstances of the case vindicate this view of the subject. If she had been a whore, or adulteress, it is not very likely that her husband would have gone after her to speak friendly, literally, to speak to her heart, and entreat her to return. The Vulgate simply states, quae reliquit eum , that she left him; the Septuagint, ͅ , that she was angry with him; the Targum ubserath alohi , that she despised him; Josephus, , that she was alienated, or separated herself, from him. Houbigant translates the clause: quae cum ab eo alienata esset, vel irata in eum esset, eum reliquit ; "who when she was alienated from him, or angry with him, left him;" and he defends this version in his note. I think the true meaning to be among the above interpretations. They had contentions; she ceased to love him, her affections were alienated from him; and she left his house, and went home to her father.
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