UHoseya 2:7

Izhibhalo Ezingcwele

7 Uya kuzisukela izithandane zakhe, angafiki kuzo; azifune, angazifumani: athi Ndiya kuya ndibuyele endodeni yam yokuqala, kuba bekulungile kum oko kunangoku.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

she shall follow: Hosea 5:13, 2 Chronicles 28:20-22, Isaiah 30:2, Isaiah 30:3, Isaiah 30:16, Isaiah 31:1-3, Jeremiah 2:28, Jeremiah 2:36, Jeremiah 2:37, Jeremiah 30:12-15, Ezekiel 20:32, Ezekiel 23:22

I will: Hosea 5:15, Hosea 6:1, Hosea 14:1, Psalms 116:7, Jeremiah 3:22-25, Jeremiah 31:18, Jeremiah 50:4, Jeremiah 50:5, Lamentations 3:40-42, Luke 15:17-20

first: Jeremiah 2:2, Jeremiah 3:1, Jeremiah 31:32, Ezekiel 16:18, Ezekiel 23:4

for: Hosea 13:6, Deuteronomy 6:10-12, Deuteronomy 8:17, Deuteronomy 8:18, Deuteronomy 32:13-15, Nehemiah 9:25, Nehemiah 9:26, Jeremiah 14:22, Daniel 4:17, Daniel 4:25, Daniel 4:32, Daniel 5:21

Reciprocal: Genesis 20:6 - withheld 1 Samuel 25:39 - kept his servant Psalms 119:67 - but now Ecclesiastes 7:14 - set Jeremiah 2:31 - Have I been Lamentations 1:2 - among Lamentations 1:7 - remembered Hosea 2:13 - she went Hosea 2:16 - Ishi Luke 15:18 - will arise

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 rejecting Christ, and pursuing after other objects, she will take up the following resolution:

I will go and return to my first husband; either the God of Israel, whom the ten tribes departed from by worshipping the calves Jeroboam set up; but in the latter day will seek the Lord their God again, who was a husband to them, and shall cleave to him again, and all Israel shall be saved: so the Targum,

"I will go and return to the service of my first master, for it was well with me when I served him; henceforth I will not serve idols:''

or Christ, who was promised and prophesied of as a husband to the Jewish church, Isaiah 54:5 and whom they believed in, and expected as such, but when he came rejected him; but now being convinced of their error shall seek David their King, appoint themselves one head, and embrace Christ as their husband, and adhere to him; see Hosea 3:5:

for then was it better with me than now; while in the faith, and hope, and expectation of the true Messiah; having a spiritual apprehension of him, true faith in him, and comfort from him, as held forth in the promise; being then possessed of the good land, in the enjoyment of the word and ordinances, and of all religious and civil privileges, but now deprived of them. This may be applied to the case of true believers in Christ, having partially departed from him, and being restored. Christ is a husband to them, who has betrothed them to himself, and they have given themselves to him, and have been loved, nourished, cherished, and provided for by him, and for a while had much nearness, familiarity, and communion with him; but unbelief prevailing, first love waxing cold, and being got into a carnal and sleepy frame, neglect both private and public worship, fall into sin, and removed from church communion, and so may be said to have departed from Christ their husband; but being recovered by divine grace, and sensible of their sins, resolve to return to him again by repentance and acknowledgment, by doing their first works, and by attendance on his word and ordinances; instigated hereunto very much by remembering how it has been with them when they kept close to him, and observing the difference between those times and the present; how they had then the presence of God and Christ, and communion with them, and the secret discoveries of the love of God; in what lively exercise the graces of the Spirit were; what delight and profit they had in ordinances, and what peace, joy, and comfort, in their souls; all which now they want; see Job 29:2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 and return - She encourages herself tremblingly to return to God. The words express a mixture of purpose and wish. Before, she said, “Come, let me go after my lovers;” now, she says, “Come let me go and return,” as the progical in the Gospel, “I will arise and go to my Father.”

To my first husband - “God is the ‘first Husband’ of the soul, which, while yet pure, He, through the love of the Holy Spirit, united with Himself. Him the soul longeth for, when it findeth manifold bitternesses, as thorns, in those delights of time and sense which it coveted. For when the soul begins to be gnawed by the sorrows of the world which she loveth, then she understandeth more fully, how it was better with her, with her former husband. Those whom a perverse will led astray, distress mostly converts.” “Mostly, when we cannot obtain in this world what we wish, when we have been wearied with the impossibility of our search of earthly desires, then the thought of God returns to the soul; then, what was before distasteful, becomes pleasant to us; He whose commands had been bitter to the soul, suddenly in memory grows sweet to her, and the sinful soul determines to be a faithful wife.” And God still vouchsafes to be, on her return, the Husband even of the adulterous soul, however far she had strayed from Him.

For then it was better with me than now - It is the voice of the prodigal son in the Gospel, which the Father hears, “How many hired servants of my Father have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” “I will serve,” Israel would say, “the living and true God, not the pride of people, or of evil spirits, for even in this life it is much sweeter to bear the yoke of the Lord, than to be the servant of men.” In regard to the ten tribes, the “then” must mean the time before the apostasy under Jeroboam. God, in these words, softens the severity of His upbraiding and of His sentences of coming woe, by the sweetness of promised mercy. Israel was so impatient of God’s threats, that their kings and princes killed those whom He sent unto them. God wins her attention to His accusations by this brief tempering of sweetness.