"And now will I uncover her shame before her lovers, and no one shall tear her out of my hand." The ἅπ. λεγ. נבלוּה, lit., a withered state, from נבל, to be withered or faded, probably denotes, as Hengstenberg says, corpus multa stupra passum, and is rendered freely in the lxx by ἀκαθαρσία. "Before the eyes of the lovers," i.e., not so that they shall be obliged to look at it, without being able to avoid it, but so that the woman shall become even to them an object of abhorrence, from which they will turn away (comp. Nahum 3:5; Jeremiah 13:26). In this concrete form the general truth is expressed, that "whoever forsakes God for the world, will be put to shame by God before the world itself; and that all the more, the nearer it stood to Him before" (Hengstenberg). By the addition of the words "no one," etc., all hope is cut off that the threatened punishment can be averted (cf. Hosea 5:14).

This punishment is more minutely defined in Hosea 2:11-13, in which the figurative drapery is thrown into the background by the actual fact. Hosea 2:11. "And I make all her joy keep holiday (i.e., cease), her feast, and her new moon, and her sabbath, and all her festive time." The feast days and festive times were days of joy, in which Israel was to rejoice before the Lord its God. To bring into prominence this character of the feasts, כּל־משׂושׂהּ, "all her joy," is placed first, and the different festivals are mentioned afterwards. Châg stands for the three principal festivals of the year, the Passover, Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles, which had the character of châg, i.e., of feasts of joy par excellence, as being days of commemoration of the great acts of mercy which the Lord performed on behalf of His people. Then came the day of the new moon every month, and the Sabbath every week. Finally, these feasts are all summed up in כּל־מועדהּ; for מועד, מועדים is the general expression for all festive seasons and festive days (Leviticus 23:2, Leviticus 23:4). As a parallel, so far as the facts are concerned, comp. Amos 8:10; Jeremiah 7:34, and Lamentations 1:4; Lamentations 5:15.

Hosea 12:12 Parallel Commentaries

Jacob.

Genesis 27:43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; arise, flee you to Laban my brother to Haran;

Genesis 28:1-29:35 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him, You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan...

Deuteronomy 26:5 And you shall speak and say before the LORD your God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt...

Israel.

Genesis 32:27,28 And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob...

served.

Genesis 29:18-28 And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter...

Genesis 31:41 Thus have I been twenty years in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your cattle...