Hosea 2:8

IN reading any of the records concerning the people of Israel and the people of Judah, one stands amazed at two things, and scarcely knows which to wonder at the most. The first thing which causes astonishment is the great sin of the people. And the next thing, which is even more marvelous, is the great patience of God. I scarcely know which of the two things causes me greater surprise—that men should be so guilty, or that God should be so gracious! On every page of Israel's history, the kindness and forbearance of Jehovah are manifested towards the people whom He had betrothed unto Himself. Even in the midst of their backsliding and idolatry, He did not forget the Covenant which He had made with their fathers. Yet, in spite of all this goodness, the people sinned times without number and grieved His Spirit again and again! Instead of being led to repentance, they sinned yet more and more! Their iniquity and the forbearance of God stand like two mountain summits of the history of the chosen yet wayward people. Let us transfer these thoughts to ourselves and see if we can, with any justice, cast a stone at the people who, in spite of such love, went so far astray. Alas, we are condemned by the comparison! We are nothing better than they were! Our case is, perhaps, fuller of contradictions and inconsistencies, if that is possible.

For she did not know - The prophet having, in summary Hos 2:5-7, related her fall, her chastisement, and her recovery, begins anew, enlarging both on the impending inflictions, and the future mercy. She “did not know,” because she would not; she “would not retain God in her knowledge” Rom 1:28. “Knowledge,” in Holy Scripture, is not of the understanding, but of the heart and the will. That I gave her corn ... - The I is emphatic (אנכי( ci). “She did not know, that it was I who gave her.” God gave them the “corn, and wine, and oil,” first, because He gave them the land itself. They held it of Him as their Lord. As He says, “The land is Mine, and ye are strangers and sojourners with Me” Lev 25:23. He gave them also in the course of His ordinary providence, wherein He also gave them “the gold and silver,” which they gained by trading. Silver He had so multiplied to her in the days of Solomon, that it was in “Jerusalem as stones, nothing accounted of” 1Ki 10:27, 1Ki 10:21, and gold, through the favor which He gave him 1Ki 9:14; 1Ki 10:10, 1Ki 10:14, was in abundance above measure. Which they prepared for Baal - Rather, as in the English Margin, “which they made into Baal” (see Hos 8:4; Eze 16:17-19). “Of that gold and silver, which God had so multiplied, Israel, revolting from the house of David and Solomon, made, first the calves of gold, and then Baal.” Of God’s own gifts they made their gods. They took God’s gifts as from their gods, and made them into gods to them. “Baal,” Lord, the same as Bel, was an object of idolatry among the Phoenicians and Tyrians. Its worship was brought into Israel by Jezebel, daughter of a king of Sidon. Jehu destroyed it for a time, because its adherents were adherents of the house of Ahab. The worship was partly cruel, like that of Moloch, partly abominable. […]