The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 98

to Vers,,1-r-5,-Love tlte adulteress. It has .been shown in eh. ii. that the punish- ment ,of Israel is designed to work for the nation's moral recovery. A new symbpl is accordingly employed to set forth this,aspect of .the truth; as formerly the punitive aspects of God's dealing with1the nation had been exhibited in the symbols of eh. i. The symbol is again drawn from the prophet's relations to his wife. I. 'l'HE PROPHET'S CONTINUED LOVE FOR ms UNFAITHFUL WIFE. (Ver. 1.) Gomer, adhering to her adulterous courses, had apparently left her husband, and had suok to e. condition of great wretchedness. The prophet, however, had not lost his love for her. She ·was still a woman " be.Loved of her frieQd," i.e. her husband. Bis lov~ was th~ more remarkable the.tit is rarely a husband retains his l9ve for an adulterous wife. Hosea, it may be inferred, felt the.t there we.a 11omething"'1ncommon in his relations with this woman. He did not, therefore, renounce her when she abandoned him. He still cherished towards her a husband's affection; retained his love for her, thou_gli unworthy; followed her in her devious ways with a. pure, 'steadfast, unalterable, and wholly disinterested regard. In this his love became a fit image of Jehovah's love "toward the children of Israel." It was the image of it then, while the kingdom of Israel stood, and the people were zealous in their pursuit of" other gods;" and it would be still more the image of it when the threatenings of the previous chapter had taken effect, and the people were ea.ting the bitter fruits of their sins. Is it not also the image of God'd love to the sinful worlrl as a whole? We had departed from him, and bad bestowed our affectious adulterously on the creature; but he did not on this acconnt cease to love us. He saw us lost, sinful, and degraded; but he still looked on us with pity, and sought opportunity for our recovery. He so loved us that he gave his Soll as the price of our salvation, 'l'his love of God to sinners finds no explanation in the naturn of it~ objects. It i~ love to the unworthy, to tho wicked, to the ungrateful;  THE HOOK OF HOSE~ [ou. m. 1-5.