vision. The Targum, Calvin, Luther, Osiander, Rivetus, Rosenmuller, Hitzig, Fuerstenthal, and others, treat it as a parabolical representation, in which the prophet appropriates to himself imaginary circumstances, aptly fitted to impress the minds of those whom he addressed with a sense of their wickedness, and the punishment to which it exposed them.

Upon these various opinions I beg to offer the following remarks :

It seems to be granted on all hands that Chapter I. (no matter whether its contents be a narration of an outward real transaction, or an inward real vision, or a message of God to the nation under the form of a parable) forms a sort of introduction or key to the subsequent oracle (Chapter II.), in the same manner as Chapter III. prepares the hearer or reader for Chapter IV. In either of the three views, it is absolutely necessary that Hoshea, when delivering his oracle, should have given his hearers such an explanation about it as Chapter I. contains. In other words, Chapter Î. forms part of the oracle, and was addressed to the people, and in this view we are confirmed by the last verse of the first Chapter, which appears already in the form of an address.

Bearing this in mind I proceed now to examine the different opinions.

According to the Talmud the transaction was real and outward in the history of Hoshea. It may have been so. We must remember, that it is the style of the Scriptures, and of all languages, sometimes to give to persons, and likewise to inanimate things, the qualities they formerly had, though they have them no more. Thus Moses's rod is called a rod, when it was changed into a serpent. Why should we then not easily conceive that the wife of Hoshea had only been addicted to harlotry before he married her? There being nothing in this action of marrying such a woman that was contrary to the law of God, which only prohibited the priests to marry such women, and supposed when it allowed others to marry them, that they were to behave themselves modestly and virtuously for the future. There is nothing in this unworthy of the prophet, and it exactly answers God's dealing towards that people whom he espoused and adopted, notwithstanding their former wickedness; and the example of Hoshea's wife, who had given over her base and scandalous ways of living, and to whom the prophet did the honour of marrying her, was very proper to make the Israelites understand, that they were indispensably obliged to alter their wicked way of living, if they would have God to be favourable to them, lest, after having given them so many instances of his love, he should be provoked to divorce and abandon them.

As regards my own opinion of the view to be adopted, I do not see any essential difference between the one which takes the whole as an inward vision, and the other which considers it as a mere parable. In both cases the matter was imparted by God, and was to be re-imparted by the prophet to the nation. The text admits of either explanation. The scope of the oracle, which was, to make a vivid impression upon the hearers, so as to render them the more fit for the full appreciation of the subsequent oracle, would have been accomplished equally well

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"harlotry, departing from the Lord." So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim; and

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in either case. The prophet is to represent God in his then position to the Jewish nation. For that purpose he must have a wife as a type of the nation; that wife must be addicted to harlotry, to represent the moral state of the nation; and there must be children, to represent the nation individually. All this the prophet must have at once. Accordingly it is said: 'Go, take a woman addicted to harlotry, and children addicted to harlotry, for," etc. Nor can it be without good reason that Hoshea mentions the name of the woman. It has certainly a meaning. This may be either the symbolical signification of the names, as most of the Jewish interpreters, Jerome, and many of the modern commentators, as Rosenmuller, Hengstenberg, and others suppose, or, what appears to me more probable (though I cannot bring historical testimony in support of my supposition) this Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, might have been a woman generally known at the time for her profligacy, acting, perhaps, a prominent part in the orgies of the idolatrous Jews. The natural consequence of the faithless conduct of the nation towards God is, as the parallel type of the wife of Hoshea shows, Jezreel, Lo-Ruchamah, Lo-Ammi, (God will scatter; Not pitied; Not my people ;) but in case of repentance : Ammi and Ruchamah (My people; Pitied.) These names are mere personifications of abstract ideas, relating here to the manner in which God will act towards the nation.

I shall now adduce a parallel, where we also find a prophet making himself the subject of a parable.

We read in Jeremiah xxv., v. 15. "For thus saith the Lord God "of Israel to me: Take this cup of wrath-wine at my hands, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee, to drink it. v. 16.

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they may drink, and stagger, and rage, because of the sword which "I will send among them. v. 17. And I took the cup out of the hand "of the Lord, and caused all the nation to drink, unto whom the Lord "had sent me. Then (v. 18 and following) follows a list of these nations, which is thus summed up (v. 26) : "And all the kings of the "north, far and near, one after the other, and all the kingdoms of the "world, which are upon the face of the earth; and the king of "Sheshach shall drink after them." We have here a narration of what seems to be an outward transaction, as in Hoshea. (That in Hoshea the third person is used of the prophet himself, and here the first person, is not the slightest consequence, if it be granted that Hoshea is the author of the first chapter.) Here, as in Hoshea, not the slightest hint is given, that the circumstances are fictitious. Jeremiah exhibits himself here as fully as the representative of God inflicting punishment, as Hoshea represents God in his relation towards the Israelites. But who would venture to say that Jeremiah indeed went to all the kings and all the nations of the earth, and making them all drink of a cup of wine? In Hoshea therefore, as well as here, I think it really was a figurative or parabolic representation or illustra tion.-Children addicted to harlotries.-By the power of example.

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she conceived, and bare him a son. And the Lord · said unto him: "Call his name JEZREEL: for yet a "little while, and I will avenge the blood of "Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause "the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will "break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." 6. And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And He said unto him: "Call her name "LO-RUCHAMAH: for I will no more have mercy

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4.-Jezreel.-i.e., God will scatter, from "Zara," to scatter, disperse, as in Zech. x., v. 7. So the Targum, and Tosephoth Pesachim, fol. 87. Kimchi, however, refers this to Jeroboam II., who carried on successful wars with his northern neighbours. His interpretation is contrary to the design of the passage. Jezreel was also the proper name of a city in the tribe of Issachar, on the brow of the central valley in the great plain of the same name, and the royal residence of Ahab, and his successors. It was here Jehu exercised acts of the greatest cruelty, II Kings x., vv. 11, 14, 17. These acts were speedily to be avenged in the extinction of the royal family, and the entire cessation of the Israelitish state. It had been announced to Jehu that his sons should occupy the throne till the fourth generation, II Kings x., v. 30. Two of these generations had passed away by the time of the prophet-Jeroboam being the great grand-son. In the following generation the prediction received its accomplishment.

5.-The bow of Israel.-Her military prowess. The valley here mentioned, afterwards called Esdraelon, was famous for the battles fought there from the most ancient times. It consists of the broad elevated plain which stretches from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, near Mount Carmel, and is well adapted for military operations. Dr. C. D. Clarke observes: "" Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Christian Crusaders, Anti-Christian Frenchmen, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, warriors out of every nation which is under heaven, have pitched their tents upon the plains of Esdraelon, and have beheld the various banners of their nations wet with the dews of Tabor and Hermon." Here the Israelites made a stand against the Assyrians, but being overpowered by numbers were obliged to succumb to the enemy.

6.-Lo-Ruchamah.-Not having obtained mercy, or not pitied.How could I forgive them.—So Fuerstenthal. The Targum, the Talmud, and the Midrash also render the verb "Naso" here to forgive. Kimchi and Aben Ezra: "I will transfer them to the land of their enemies." Bishop Horsley renders: "For I will no more cherish with tenderness the house of Israel, inasmuch as to be perpetually forgiving them." Houbigant has given the same sense. Some think the weaker sex of this child represented the weak state of Israel, under their last

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upon the house of Israel; for how could I forgive them! Yet, upon the house of Judah, I "will have mercy, and will help them by the Lord "their God; but I will not help them by bow, "nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by "horsemen.”

Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruchamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then He said: "Call his name Lo-AMMI: for ye are not my people, and I "will not be your God.'

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CHAPTER II.

1. Nevertheless the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that instead of its being said to them: "Ye are not my people," it shall be said unto them: "Ye are

7.-I will have mercy.-I will spare them as a kingdom after Israel has been carried away into captivity by the Assyrians.-And will help them.-Remarkably fulfilled in the supernatural defeat of the army of the Assyrians. See II Kings xix., v. 35.

8.- When she had weaned.-The mention here made of the weaning of Lo-Ruchamah seems designed to fill up the narrative. - And bare a son.-The Targum (who treats the whole chapter as a parable) paraphrases this: "They continued in their wicked ways."

9.-Lo-Ammi.-i.e., not my people. And I will not be your God.The word "God" is not added here by any of the ancient versions or MSS., and yet the construction requires it. Houbigant thinks the present reading lo eheyeh lachem (I will not be to you) a corruption of the word eloheychem (your God).

1.-Nevertheless.-The Prophet here turns abruptly from reproof to consolation, and quite naturally. After having told the nation (ch. i., v. 6) that God would no more have mercy upon them, and (v. 9) that they were no more God's people, nor He their God, the Prophet If God is no more probably thought they might despair and think: “ with us how can we then stand?" He, therefore, comes now to them with words of consolation and says: Repent! Then instead of it being said to you: Ye are not God's people (on account of your wicked ways), it shall be said to you ye are the children of the living God, and He will have mercy upon you.'

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the sons of the living God." And the children of Judah, and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint to themselves one chief, and depart out of the land: for great is the day of Jezreel.

3. Say ye to your brethren, O Ammi,
And to your sisters, O Ruchamah,
4. Plead with your mother, plead:

For she is not my wife, nor I her husband:
That she may remove her harlotries out of her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;

5. Lest I strip and leave her naked,

And set her as in the day when she was born;
And make her as a desert,

And make her as a dry land,

And slay her with thirst;

2.-One chief.--This refers to the re-union of all the tribes, and their return under Zerubbabel to their own land.-Out of the land.The country of Babylon, not excluding those other regions of the East in which the descendants of the different tribes were found.-Jezreel. —This is used here in a different acceptation from that in which it is taken (ch. i., v. 4.) That of sowing is alone appropriate. Illustrious should be the period when the tribes should again be sown in their own country. Compare ch. ii., v. 25; Jerem. xxxi., v. 27.

3.—0 Ammi.—The pious and faithful worshippers of God are here summoned to urge upon their nation the consideration of its wickedness in having departed from God. Of these the nation of the ten tribes was the Mother.

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4.-For she is not my wife. -Dathe and Rückert render "Ki" that, and interpret: "Argue the point with your nation, and show her that in consequence of her wicked conduct, all relations between us have ceased." The casual signification of the conjunction, however, is preferable. The words which it introduces form a parenthesis; and Vesather," which though future, is to be rendered potentially: that she may remove, is connected with "Ribu" plead ye. By harlotries and adulteries are meant the tokens or indications of lewd character :-boldness of countenance, and an immodest exposure of the breasts. Both forms are reduplicate, to express the enormity of the evil. What the Prophet has in view, is the reckless and unblushing manner in which the Israelitish nation practised idolatry. The Sept. reads: "From my face," improperly in this connection.

5.-Lest I strip.-Lest I expose her to infamy, want, and punishment. The punishment of adulteresses among the ancient Germans,