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Then the command is given, with a change in circumstances, to change the names of the children of the Prophet, and to call the one who was not My people - My people, and to call the one who was called unloved beloved; because you, says God, having been worthy of salvation and returning from Babylon, will judge Me and your mother, that is, your ancestors who sinned against Me: Os.2:2. for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. The divorce was made, he says, for reasons filed by her. A similar thing, as we find, is said in Isaiah: and now the house of Judah and those who dwell in Jerusalem, judge between Me and My grapes: while I have waited, let him make a bunch, but create thorns (Isa. 5:3, 4). And here God says: Judge against your mother, judge: for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. And showing that this divorce was not made for her death, he adds: And I will put away her fornications from before Me, and her fornication from the midst of her. Similar to this is what blessed David said: “It is good for me, for you have humbled me, so that I may learn through your justification” (Ps. 119:71). And by punishing her, he promises through this to deliver her from fornication and fornication, not even just to deliver her, but to uproot her from the midst of her breasts. It means the heart lying under the nipples, from which come evil thoughts, envy, murder, adultery, fornication, and the like (Matthew 15:19). Therefore, God's admonition brings great benefit, delivering those admonished from fornication. The Prophet also shows ways of admonition. Hos.2:3. Let me strip her naked and set her down as on her birthday. He calls his stay in Egypt his “birthday”. I will leave her deprived of My providence for her, I will do what she will be in slavery to the Assyrians, as she was slave to the Egyptians, I will do what I will liken to “a waterless land and a desert.” And by “thirst” he means not only a lack of water, but also a deprivation of God’s care. And I will not honor her children with mercy, because they were born of the wicked and imitated their fathers in abomination. For here he calls serving idols “astray.” But in order to more clearly expose her ingratitude, she seems to be saying that she needs to follow the trail of lusts, that is, idols; from them, she says, I get everything I need in abundance. And since she did not know the Giver of blessings, she rightly adds: Hos.2:6. For this reason, I will block her path with thorns, and she will not find the reward of her path and her path. And the punishment itself is full of philanthropy; because it leads to the abandonment of wickedness. While experiencing disasters, she learned the powerlessness of idols; because she called them for protection during the invasion, and did not receive help from them. Hos.2:7. He will seek them, it is said, and will not find them. He will remember God’s care for her and say: I will go and return to my first husband, as if I were kinder then than now. Therefore, who will not justly be amazed at God’s love for mankind? God the Creator and Lord calls Himself a husband, not a Master. Since the love of a wife for her husband is greater than the love of slaves for the ruler, so that people would have such a disposition towards Him, He calls Himself groom and husband. However, this does not motivate the ungrateful to be grateful. That's why he says about them: Hos.2:8. She did not understand, for I had given her wheat, and wine, and oil, and I had multiplied her silver and gold: and these silver and gold shalt thou make unto Baal, The very gifts that she received from God, she brought as a gift to God’s opponents. God, angry for this, threatens to deprive them of both wheat and wine; and so that they would not think that the earth was suffering from infertility, by the way he added: that is, after the wheat and grapes are ripe, during the harvest and gathering of fruits. He even threatens to take away their clothes, so that they will lack what is necessary to cover their nakedness. And her lovers, it is said, seeing this, will not be able to help her. Moreover, through prophetic lips God threatened to stop the holidays, take away every pretext for rejoicing, and destroy the fig trees and vineyards; because, says God, she herself said that she received this from idols, and did not know Me, the real Giver of these gifts. Os.2:12. And I'll put it on a date. Damaged and destroyed by beasts, birds and reptiles will accuse them of wickedness and testify to the punishment I have imposed. She will endure this, because she preferred Baalimla, that is, idols, to My service, and celebrates their holidays in all her trimmings. Os.2:14. For this reason, - it is said, - I will make you sad, and make it like a desert, i.e. I will make sure that, having become a captive, she will wander and wander, and I will deprive her of all these blessings. However, I will console her when she is in these sorrows. For it is said: Os.2:15. And I will give her attractions from there, and the clearing of Achor, reveal her meaning. Instead of: "Akhorova", in the Syriac translation I found "Aharova". Achar, under Joshua, having committed a crime and breaking the oath imposed, was punished for this, publicly stoned. But after his death, the Israelites, remembering how disastrous the transgression of God’s law was, weeping and lamenting, appeased God. Therefore, here the Prophet makes it clear that, just as those who lived then from Akharov’s punishment learned how bad lawlessness is, so they too will be brought into captivity by captivity to the consciousness of their sins. And expressing this with greater clarity, he added: And he will humble himself according to the day of his childhood, and according to the day of his exile from the land of Egypt. Os.2:16. And it shall come to pass in that day that my husband shall call me, saith the Lord, but he shall not call me Baalim. Os.2:17. And I will put away the names of Baalim from her mouth, and their names will not be remembered. As they were enslaved by the Egyptians, so they will be enslaved by the Assyrians; because her “childhood” is called her stay in Egypt. But slavery will serve them for their good and teach them piety; because during the time of captivity Israel will forget about serving idols, but they will call me husband and cohabitant. And I, seeing repentance, Os.2:18. I will make a covenant with them on that day with the wild animals, and with the birds of the air, and with the creatures that creep on the earth. And showing that he was not talking about animals and birds, but about bestial people who fly like birds and are like poisonous reptiles, he added: I will crush the bow, the sword, and the war from the earth. Then he promises them eternal blessings. Blessed Paul speaks of this hope: “By hope we are saved. But visible hope is not hope: who sees and trusts? Or else, we are invisible, we hope, we wait with patience” (Rom. 8:24-25). And what the Prophet speaks about this, and not about another hope, is evidenced by the addition: Os.2:19. And I will betroth you to myself forever: and I will betroth you in righteousness, and in justice, and in mercy, and in generosity. And that forever he betrothed to himself not a Jewish synagogue, but a Church gathered from Jews and pagans, the events themselves testify to this; because the synagogue is rejected, but the Church is united with the Bridegroom, and expects eternal blessings. But he betrothed her to Himself not only “in truth and in justice,” but also “in mercy and in generosity,” because he used truth and justice against the evil tormentor, and showed mercy and generosity to those who were forced to serve this tormentor. And since those who were worthy of mercy had to themselves repay the Savior with something; then he rightly added: Os.2:20. And I will betroth you to myself in faith, and hang the Lord. Those who come are immediately required to have one faith; because they do not have the truth, but accept it in the bath of rebirth from the God who saved. But he who acquires faith comes to know the Lord. Therefore, after foretelling eternal blessings, he also foretells bodily gifts; because they, like earthly creatures and reptiles, cared more about the latter than about the former. Therefore, he promises to bring rain from above and prepare the earth for the growth of good things. For he says the following: Os.2:21. I will listen to heaven, and heaven will listen to earth. Os.2:22. And the earth will listen to wheat, and wine, and oil. And these will listen to Israel. Then he mixes in the spiritual again, Os.2:23. I give it all to myself on earth, that is, I will make it My field, and all the seeds of righteousness. And I will have mercy on the one who did not have mercy, and the river is not My people: you are My people. And they say: You are our God. This was fulfilled symbolically under Zerubbabel, and in reality after the incarnation of the Lord Christ, when he betrothed the Church to Himself forever. For then those who truly believed in Him were called faithful people, and He Himself was called the God of those who sincerely believed in Him.