Hosea 2:14

In Hos 2:14 the promise is introduced quite as abruptly as in Hos 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 (Hos 2:14-17), and secondly, the assurance of the renewal of the covenant mercies (Hos 2:18-23). Hos 2:14, Hos 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 Hos 2:6 and Hos 2:9, and is connected primarily with the last clause of Hos 2:13. "Because the wife has forgotten God, He calls Himself to her remembrance again, first of all by punishment (Hos 2:6 and Hos 2:9); then, when this has answered its purpose, and after she has said, I will go and return (Hos 2:7), by the manifestations of His love" (Hengstenberg). That the first clause of Hos 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 state of Israel ruined by their own sin did not look so black and dismal in the former part of the chapter, but that the state of Israel, restrained by the divine grace, looks as bright and pleasant here in the latter part of the chapter, and the more surprisingly so as the promises follow thus close upon the threatenings; nay, which is very strange, they are by a note of connexion joined to, and inferred from, that declaration of their sinfulness upon which the threatenings of their ruin are grounded: She went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord; therefore I will allure her. Fitly therefore is that therefore which is the note of connexion immediately followed with a note of admiration: Behold I will allure her! When it was said, She forgot me, one would think it should have followed, "Therefore I will abandon her, I will forget her, I will never look after her more." No, Therefore I will allure her. Note, God's thoughts and ways of mercy are infinitely above ours; his reasons are all fetched from within himself, and not from any thing in us; nay, his goodness takes occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious, Isa 57:17, Isa 57:18. Therefore, because she will not be restrained by the denunciations of wrath, God will try whether she will be wrought upon by the offers of mercy. Some think it may be translated, Afterwards, or nevertheless, I will allure her. It comes all to one; the design is plainly to magnify free grace to those on whom God will have mercy purely for mercy's sake. Now that which is here promised to Israel is, I. That though now they were disconsolate, and ready to despair, they should again be revived with comforts and hopes, Hos 2:14, Hos 2:15. This is expressed here with an allusion to God's dealings with that peo…

2:14-15 The third judgment (see note on 2:6-7) is completely unexpected. The Lord, who had innocently suffered Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness, announces that he will take the initiative in wooing Israel in order to win her back once again. He will lead her into the desert where he first entered into covenant with her, away from the seductive influences of Canaanite religion. • The Valley of Trouble was the scene of Israel’s first act of disobedience after they entered the Promised Land (Josh 7:24-26). The Lord had both the will and the power to grant Israel a new beginning after their sin and trouble (Josh 8:1-22), so Israel would again be offered a gateway of hope.