Hosea Chapter 2 verse 14 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 14. - Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. As in vers. 2-5 we have an exposure of Israel's sin, and in vers. 6-13 an enumeration of her sufferings by penal inflictions; so vers. 14-23 contain a touching exhibition of Divine succor and support. The transition is abrupt. Vers. 14-17 exhibit the gradual change wrought in Israel through the progressive means of improvement employed by Jehovah. Israel's future is here reflected in the mirror of her past history. The events of that history are elegantly employed to represent as by type or symbol the mercies in store for Israel, wayward and rebellious though she had proved herself to be. Laken (from le causal, and ken, so, equivalent to "because it is so") at the beginning of this verse (14) is rendered by some, (1) "but" or "yet;" but its natural signification is (2) "therefore." It is like the Greek οϋν (from ω΅ν, Ionic ἔων, neuter ἐόν, contracted οϋν); it being so, therefore, and similar to the Latin phrase, quae cum ita slut, "therefore" implies because Israel can only be turned from her foolish idolatry by the penal measures named. Aben Ezra also understands it here, as elsewhere, in its literal sense; thus: "After she [the unchaste wife representative of Israel] shall know that all this evil has come upon her because that she had forgotten me, and had not known at the beginning that I dealt kindly with her; and when she will say, 'Yet will I go and return to my former husband;' then will I allure her with words." פתה is from the root פת cognate with the Arabic in the sense of "dividing," "being open," "standing open;" thence it signifies "to be susceptible of outward impressions," "allow access and entrance;" in Piel, "to make one open.... be susceptible or inclined," "induce by words." The word laken, "therefore," has somewhat puzzled commentators, because the connection between the judgments threatened in the preceding verses and the mercies proffered in what follows is not to a superficial view at once apparent. Yet it is mercy and truth meeting together, righteousness and peace kissing each other. It is . . .

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(14) Therefore.--This word does not make God's gentle treatment a consequence of the sin of Israel. Some prefer to render by nevertheless, but the Hebrew word lakh?n is sometimes used in making strong transitions, linked, it is true, with what precedes, but not as an inference. (Comp. Isaiah 10:24.) Grace transforms her suffering into discipline. The exile in Babylon shall be a repetition of the experiences of the wilderness in which she was first espoused to Jehovah. There will I speak to her heart; i.e., comfortingly, lovingly.