In Hosea 2:14 the promise is introduced quite as abruptly as in Hosea 2:1, that the Lord will lead back the rebellious nation step by step to conversion and reunion with Himself, the righteous God. In two strophes we have first the promise of their conversion (Hosea 2:14-17), and secondly, the assurance of the renewal of the covenant mercies (Hosea 2:18-23). Hosea 2:14, Hosea 2:15. "Therefore, behold, I allure her, and lead her into the desert, and speak to her heart. And I give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor (of tribulation) for the door of hope; and she answers thither, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt." לכן, therefore (not utique, profecto, but, nevertheless, which lâkhēn in Hosea 2:6 and Hosea 2:9, and is connected primarily with the last clause of Hosea 2:13. "Because the wife has forgotten God, He calls Himself to her remembrance again, first of all by punishment (Hosea 2:6 and Hosea 2:9); then, when this has answered its purpose, and after she has said, I will go and return (Hosea 2:7), by the manifestations of His love" (Hengstenberg). That the first clause of Hosea 2:14 does not refer to the flight of the people out of Canaan into the desert, for the purpose of escaping from their foes, as Hitzig supposes, is sufficiently obvious to need no special proof. The alluring of the nation into the desert to lead it thence to Canaan, presupposes that rejection from the inheritance given to it by the Lord (viz., Canaan), which Israel had brought upon itself through its apostasy. This rejection is represented as an expulsion from Canaan to Egypt, the land of bondage, out of which Jehovah had redeemed it in the olden time. פּתה, in the piel to persuade, to decoy by words; here sensu bono, to allure by friendly words. The desert into which the Lord will lead His people cannot be any other than the desert of Arabia, through which the road from Egypt to Canaan passes. Leading into this desert is not a punishment, but a redemption out of bondage. The people are not to remain in the desert, but to be enticed and led through it to Canaan, the land of vineyards. The description is typical throughout. What took place in the olden time is to be repeated, in all that is essential, in the time to come. Egypt, the Arabian desert, and Canaan are types. Egypt is a type of the land of captivity, in which Israel had been oppressed in its fathers by the heathen power of the world. The Arabian desert, as the intervening stage between Egypt and Canaan, is introduced here, in accordance with the importance which attached to the march of Israel through this desert under the guidance of Moses, as a period or state of probation and trial, as described in Deuteronomy 8:2-6, in which the Lord humbled His people, training it on the one hand by want and privation to the knowledge of its need of help, and on the other hand by miraculous deliverance in the time of need (e.g., the manna, the stream of water, and the preservation of their clothing) to trust to His omnipotence, that He might awaken within it a heartfelt love to the fulfilment of His commandments and a faithful attachment to Himself. Canaan, the land promised to the fathers as an everlasting possession, with its costly productions, is a type of the inheritance bestowed by the Lord upon His church, and of blessedness in the enjoyment of the gifts of the Lord which refresh both body and soul. דּבּר על לב, to speak to the heart, as applied to loving, comforting words (Genesis 34:3; Genesis 50:21, etc.), is not to be restricted to the comforting addresses of the prophets, but denotes a comforting by action, by manifestations of love, by which her grief is mitigated, and the broken heart is healed. The same love is shown in the renewed gifts of the possessions of which the unfaithful nation had been deprived.

In this way we obtain a close link of connection for Hosea 2:15. By משּׁם ... נתתּי, "I give from thence," i.e., from the desert onwards, the thought is expressed, that on entering the promised land Israel would be put into immediate possession and enjoyment of its rich blessings. Manger has correctly explained משּׁם as meaning "as soon as it shall have left this desert," or better still, "as soon as it shall have reached the border." "Its vineyards" are the vineyards which it formerly possessed, and which rightfully belonged to the faithful wife, though they had been withdrawn from the unfaithful (Hosea 2:12). The valley of Achor, which was situated to the north of Gilgal and Jericho (see at Joshua 7:26), is mentioned by the prophet, not because of its situation on the border of Palestine, nor on account of its fruitfulness, of which nothing is known, but with an evident allusion to the occurrence described in Joshua 7, from which it obtained its name of ‛Akhōr, Troubling. This is obvious from the declaration that this valley shall become a door of hope. Through the sin of Achan, who took some of the spoil of Jericho which had been devoted by the ban to the Lord, Israel had fallen under the ban, so that the Lord withdrew His help, and the army that marched against Ai was defeated. But in answer to the prayer of Joshua and the elders, God showed to Joshua not only the cause of the calamity which had befallen the whole nation, but the means of escaping from the ban and recovering the lost favour of God. Through the name Achor this valley became a memorial, how the Lord restores His favour to the church after the expiation of the guilt by the punishment of the transgressor. And this divine mode of procedure will be repeated in all its essential characteristics. The Lord will make the valley of troubling a door of hope, i.e., He will so expiate the sins of His church, and cover them with His grace, that the covenant of fellowship with Him will no more be rent asunder by them; or He will so display His grace to the sinners, that compassion will manifest itself even in wrath, and through judgment and mercy the pardoned sinners will be more and more firmly and inwardly united to Him. And the church will respond to this movement on the part of the love of God, which reveals itself in justice and mercy. It will answer to the place, whence the Lord comes to meet it with the fulness of His saving blessings. ענה does not mean "to sing," but "to answer;" and שׁמּה, pointing back to משּׁם, must not be regarded as equivalent to שׁם. As the comforting address of the Lord is a sermo realis, so the answer of the church is a practical response of grateful acknowledgment and acceptance of the manifestations of divine love, just as was the case in the days of the nation's youth, i.e., in the time when it was led up from Egypt to Canaan. Israel then answered the Lord, after its redemption from Egypt, by the song of praise and thanksgiving at the Red Sea (Exodus 15), and by its willingness to conclude the covenant with the Lord at Sinai, and to keep His commandments (Exodus 24).

Hosea 13:2 Parallel Commentaries

now.

Numbers 32:14 And, behold, you are risen up in your fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men...

2 Chronicles 28:13 And said to them, You shall not bring in the captives here: for whereas we have offended against the LORD already...

2 Chronicles 33:23 And humbled not himself before the LORD, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.

Isaiah 1:5 Why should you be stricken any more? you will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Isaiah 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children, said the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit...

Romans 2:5 But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasure up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation...

2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

sin more and more. Heb. add to sin. have made.

Hosea 2:8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

Hosea 8:4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not...

Hosea 10:1 Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars...

Psalm 115:4-8 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands...

Isaiah 46:6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he makes it a god: they fall down, yes...

Jeremiah 10:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

Habakkuk 2:18,19 What profits the graven image that the maker thereof has graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies...

according.

Hosea 11:6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.

Psalm 135:17,18 They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths...

Isaiah 44:17-20 And the residue thereof he makes a god, even his graven image: he falls down to it, and worships it, and prays to it, and said...

Isaiah 45:20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you that are escaped of the nations...

Isaiah 46:8 Remember this, and show yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O you transgressors.

Jeremiah 10:8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

Romans 1:22-25 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools...

the men that sacrifice. or, the sacrificers of men. kiss.

1 Samuel 10:1 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it on his head, and kissed him, and said...

1 Kings 19:18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him.

Psalm 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little...

Romans 11:4 But what said the answer of God to him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.