2:1 Say ye unto your {a} brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

(a) Seeing that I have promised you deliverance, it remains that you encourage one another to embrace this promise, considering that you are my people on whom I will have mercy.

2:2 Plead with your {b} mother, plead: for she [is] not my wife, neither [am] I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries {c} from between her breasts;

(b) God shows that the fault was not in him, that he forsook them, but in their Synagogue, and their idolatries; Isa 50:1.

(c) Meaning that their idolatry was so great, that they were not ashamed, but boasted of it; Eze 16:25.

2:3 Lest I strip her naked, and {d} set her as in the day that she was {e} born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

(d) For even though his people were as a harlot for their idolatries, yet he had left them with their dress and dowry and certain signs of his favour, but if they continued still, he would utterly destroy them.

(e) When I brought her out of Egypt. See Geneva Eze 16:4

2:4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they [be] the {f} children of whoredoms.

(f) That is bastards, and begotten in adultery.

2:5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my {g} lovers, that give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

(g) Meaning the idol which they served, and by whom they thought they had wealth and abundance.

2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up {h} thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

(h) I will punish you so that you may then test whether your idols can help you, and bring you into such straightness that you will have no lust to play the harlot.

2:7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find [them]: then shall she say, {i} I will go and return to my first husband; for then [was it] better with me than now.

(i) This he speaks of the faithful, who are truly converted, and also shows the use and profit of God's punishments.

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

(k) This declares that idolaters defraud God of his honour, when they attribute his benefits to their idols.

2:9 Therefore will I return, and take away {l} my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax [given] to cover her nakedness.

(l) Signifying that God will take away his benefits, when man by his ingratitude abuses them.

2:10 And now will I discover her {m} lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

(m) That is, all her service, ceremonies, and inventions by which she worshipped her idols.

2:13 And I will visit upon her the days of {n} Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her {o} earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

(n) I will punish her for her idolatry.

(o) By showing how harlots trim themselves to please others, he declares how superstitious idolaters set a great part of their religion in adorning themselves on their holy days.

2:14 Therefore, behold, I will {p} allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

(p) By my benefits in offering her grace and mercy, even in that place where she will think herself destitute of all help and comfort.

2:15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley {q} of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall {r} sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

(q) Which was a plentiful valley, and in which they had great comfort when they came out of the wilderness, as in Jos 7:26, and is called the door of hope, because it was a departing from death and an entry into life.

(r) She will then praise God as she did when she was delivered out of Egypt.

2:16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, [that] thou shalt call me {s} Ishi; and shalt call me no more {t} Baali.

(s) That is, my husband, knowing that I am united to you by a covenant which could not be violated.

(t) That is, my master: which name was applied to their idols.

2:17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their {u} name.

(u) No idolatry will come into their mouth at all, but they will fear me purely according to my word.

2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the {x} beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and [with] the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

(x) Meaning that he will so bless them that all creatures will favour them.

2:20 I will even betroth thee unto me in {y} faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

(y) With a covenant that will never be broken.

2:21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear {z} the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

(z) Then will the heaven desire rain for the earth, which will bring forth things for the use of man.