The three symbolical names of the children of the prophet here once more return. The femin. suffix in זרעתיה, referring to יזרעאל, need not at all surprise us; for, in the whole passage before us, the sign disappears in the thing signified. In point of fact, however, Jezreel is equivalent to Israel to be sowed anew. (It is not the Israel to be planted anew, which is a figure altogether different; the sowing has always a reference to the increase.)
[ [1]] In our authorized version משפט is almost constantly rendered by "judgment," although evidently in the sense pointed out by the author,—for which reason, this rendering has been retained here.—Tr.
[CHAPTER III.]
"The significant couple returns for a new reference" (Rückert). First, in vers. 1-3, the symbolical action is reported. At the command of the Lord, the prophet takes a wife, who, notwithstanding his affectionate and faithful love, lives in continued adultery. He does not entirely reject her; but, in order that she may come to recovery and repentance, he puts her into a position where she must abstain from her lovers. The interpretation of the symbol is given in ver. 4: Israel, forsaken by the world, shall spend a long time in sad seclusion. A glance into the more distant future, without any symbolical imagery, forms the conclusion. The punishment will at length produce conversion. Israel returns to the Lord his God, and to David his king.
Ver. 1. "Then said the Lord unto me, Go again, love a woman beloved of her friend, and an adulteress, as the Lord loveth the sons of Israel, and they turn to other gods and love grape-cakes."
The right point of view for the interpretation of this verse has been already, in many important respects, established; compare p. 183 sqq. We here take for granted the results there obtained. It is of great importance, for an insight into the whole passage, to remark, that the symbolical action in this section, just as in that to which chap. i. belongs, embraces the entire relation of the Lord to the people of Israel, and not, as some interpreters assume, one portion only, viz., the time from the beginning of the captivity. This false view—of which the futility was first completely exposed by Manger—has arisen from the circumstance, that the prophet, in narrating the execution of the divine commission, omits very important events. In the expectation that every one would supply them, partly from the commission itself, and partly from the preceding portions, where they had been treated of with peculiar copiousness, he rather at once passes from the first conclusion of the marriage, to that point which, in this passage, forms his main subject, namely, the disciplinary punishment to which he subjects his wife,—the Lord, Israel. The prophet's aim and purpose is to afford to the people a right view of the captivity so near at hand; to lead them to consider it neither as a merely accidental event, having, no connection at all with their sins; nor as a pure effect of divine anger, aiming at their entire destruction; but rather as being at the same time a work of punitive justice, and of corrective love. Between the second verse, "I purchased her to me," etc., and the third, "Then I said unto her," etc., we must supply. And I took her in marriage and loved her; but she committed adultery. That this is the sound view, appears clearly from ver. 2. According to the right exposition (compare p. 195 sqq.), this verse can be referred only to the first beginning of the relation betwixt the Lord and the people of Israel—to that only by which He acquired the right of property in this people, on delivering them from Egypt. This is confirmed, moreover, by the second half of the verse under consideration: "As the Lord loveth," etc. Here the love of the Lord to Israel in its widest extent is spoken of. Every limitation of it to a single manifestation—be it a renewal of love after the apostasy, or the corrective discipline inflicted from love—is quite arbitrary; and the more so, because, by the addition, "And they turned," etc., the love of God is represented as running parallel with the apostasy of the people. The same result is obtained from a consideration of the first half. For what entitles us to explain "love" by "love again," or even by "restitue amoris signa" as is done by those who hold the opinion, already refuted, that the woman is Gomer? The word "love" corresponds exactly with "as the Lord loveth." If the latter must be understood of the love of the Lord in its whole extent,—if it does not designate merely the manifestation of love, but love itself,—how can a more limited view be taken of the former "love?" How could we explain, as is done by those who defend the reference to a new marriage, the words, "Beloved of her friend, and an adulteress," as referring to a former marriage of the wife, and as tantamount to—who was beloved by her former husband, and yet committed adultery? In that case, there would be the greatest dissimilarity betwixt the type and the antitype. Who, in that case, is to be the type of the Lord? Is it to be the former husband, or the prophet? If the figure is at all to correspond with the reality,—the first member with the second, the רֵעַ can be none other than the prophet himself.—Let us now proceed to particulars, אהב, "love," is stronger than קח, "take," in chap. i. 2. There, marriage only was spoken of; here, marriage from love and in love. This is still more emphatically pointed out by the subsequent words אהבת רע, and contrasted with the conduct of the wife, which is indicated by מנאפת, so that the sense is this: "In love take a wife who, although she is beloved by thee, her friend, commits adultery, and with whom—I tell it to thee beforehand—thou wilt live in a constant antagonism of love, and of ingratitude, the grossest violation of love." The word "love" has a reference to the love preceding and effecting the marriage; the word "beloved," to the love uninterruptedly continuing during the marriage, and notwithstanding the continued adultery, unless we should say—and it is quite admissible—that "love" implies, at the same time, "to take out of love," and "to love constantly." Instead of "beloved by thee" it is said, "beloved by her friend." Many have been thereby misled; but it only serves to make the contrast more prominent.[1] רֵעַ has only one signification—that of friend. It never, by itself, means "fellow-man," never "fellow-Jew," never "one with whom we have intercourse." The Pharisees were quite correct in understanding it as the opposite of enemy. In their gloss, Matt. v. 43, καὶ μισήσεις τὸν ἐχθρόν σου, there was one thing only objectionable—the most important, it is true—that by the friend, they understood only him whom their heart, void of love, loved indeed; not him whom they ought to have loved, because God had united him to them by the sacred ties of friendship and love. Thus, what ought to have awakened them to love, just served them as a palliation for their hatred. Now this signification, which alone is the settled one, is here also very suitable. He whom the wife criminally forsakes, is not a severe husband, but her loving friend, whom she herself formerly acknowledged as such, and who always remains the same. Entirely parallel is Jer. iii. 20: "As a wife is faithless towards her friend, so have ye been faithless to Me;" compare ver. 4: "Hast thou not formerly called me. My father, friend of my youth art thou?" Compare also Song of Sol. v. 16. The correct meaning was long ago seen by Calvin: "There is," says he, "an expressiveness in this word. For often, when women prostitute themselves, they complain that they have done it on account of the too great severity of their husbands, and that they are not treated by their husbands with sufficient kindness. But if a husband delight in having his wife with him, if he treat her kindly and perform the duties of a husband, she is then less excusable. Hence, it is this most heinous ingratitude of the people that is here expressed, and set in opposition to the infinite mercy and kindness of the Lord." For a still better insight into the meaning of the first half of this verse, we subjoin the paraphrasis by Manger: "Seek thee a wife in whom thou art to have thy delight, and whom thou art to treat with such love, that, even if she, by her unfaithfulness, violate the sacred rights of matrimony, and thou, for that reason, canst no longer live with her, she shall still remain dear to thee, and shall be willingly received again into thy favour, as soon as she shall have reformed her life."—In the second half of the verse, there is a verbal agreement with passages of the Pentateuch, so close that it cannot certainly be accidental. Compare on כאהבת יהוה את־בני ישראל, Deut. vii. 8, מאהבת יהוה אתכם,—an agreement which undoubtedly deserves so much more attention, that we have already established the relationship of the passage with ver. 2. On פנים אל אלהים אחרים, compare Deut. xxxi. 18: "I will hide My face in that day for all the evil they are doing, for they turn to other gods," אשישי ענבים—.פנה אל אלהים אחרים, "grape-cakes," has, as to its substance, been already explained, p. 194 sqq. It is the result of an entire misunderstanding, that some interpreters should here think of the love of feasting and banqueting. Others (as Gesenius) are anxious to prove that such cakes were used at the sacrifices which were offered to idols. The grape-cakes are rather idolatry itself; but the expression, "They love grape-cakes," adds an essential feature to the words, "They turn to other gods." It points, namely, to the sinful origin of idolatry. Earnest and strict religion is substantial and wholesome food; but idolatry is soft food, which is sought only by the dainty and squeamish. That which is true of idolatry, is true also of the service of sin, and of the world in general, which, in Job xx. 12, appears under the image of meat which is, in the mouth, as sweet as honey from the comb, but which is, in the belly, changed into the gall of asps. In the symbolism of the law, honey signified the lust of the world; compare my work Die Opfer der Heil. Schrift, S. 44. It is only the derivation of אשישיט, the signification of which is sufficiently established by parallel passages, which requires investigation. We have no hesitation in deriving it from אֵשׁ, "fire;" hence it means properly, "that which has been subjected to fire (compare אִשֶּׁה) = that which has been baked," "cakes." The derivation from אשש, "to found," has of late become current; but the objections to it are:—partly, that the transition from "founding," to "cake," is by no means an easy one; partly and mainly, that there is not the slightest trace of this root elsewhere in Hebrew. It is asserted, indeed, that אשישים itself is found in Is. xvi. 7, with a signification which renders necessary the derivation from the verb אשש. But, even in that passage, the signification of "cakes" must be retained. The following reasons are in favour of it, and against the signification "ruins," adopted by Gesenius, Winer, and Hitzig. 1. The signification "cakes" deserves, ceteris paribus, a decided preference, because it is established by the other passages. It is only for reasons the most cogent that we can grant that one and the same word has two meanings, and these not at all connected with each other. 2. The transition from the meaning "foundation," which alone can be derived from the verb אשש, to that of "ruins," is by no means so easy as those critics would represent it. With respect to a rebuilding, for which the ruins' afford the foundation, they might, it is true, be called foundations, compare Is. lviii. 12, but not where destruction only is concerned. Who would speak of howling over foundations, instead of howling over ruins? 3. The context is quite decisive. If we translate אשישים by "ruins," the subsequent כי is quite inexplicable. This little word, upon which so much depends, performs also the office of a guide: "For this reason Moab howls, for Moab altogether does he howl, for the cakes of Kirhareseth you do sigh, wholly afflicted; for the vineyards of Heshbon are withered, the vine of Sibmah, the grapes of which intoxicated the lord of the nations," etc. Then, ver. 9, "Therefore I weep with Jaeser for the vine of Sibmah." If there be no more grapes, neither are there any more grape-cakes. The destruction of the vineyards is therefore the cause of the howling for the cakes. That such cakes, moreover, were prepared in many places in Moab, sufficiently appears from the name of the place Dibhlathaim, i.e., town of cakes. It may be remarked further, that we are not entitled to assume a sing. אשיש as given by lexicographers along with דבלה ;אשישה likewise forms the plural דבלים.
Ver. 2. "And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer of barley, and a lethech of barley." Compare the explanation of this verse, p. 195 sqq.