[456] Hist. Geog., Chap. XVIII.
[457] לֹא רֻחָמָה, probably 3rd pers. sing. fem. Pual (in Pause cf. Prov. xxviii. 13); literally, She is not loved or pitied. The word means love as pity: "such pity as a father hath unto his children dear" (Psalm ciii.), or God to a penitent man (Psalm xxviii. 13). The Greek versions alternate between love and pity. LXX. οὐκ ἠλεημένη διότι οὐ μὴ προσθήσω ἔτι ἠλεῆσαι, for which the Complutensian has ἀγαπῆσαι, the reading followed by Paul (Rom. ix, 25: cf. 1 Peter ii. 10).
[458] Here ver. 7 is to be omitted, as explained above, p. [213].
[459] Do not belong to you; but the I am, אהיה, recalls the I am that I am of Exodus.
[460] Augustine, Ambrose, Theodoret, Cyril Alex. and Theodore of Mopsuestia.
[461] It is interesting to read in parallel the interpretations of Matthew Henry and Dr. Pusey. They are very alike, but the latter has the more delicate taste of his age.
[462] i. 2.
[463] The former is Matthew Henry's; the latter seems to be implied by Pusey.
[464] Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel.
[465] Apparently it was W. R. Smith's interpretation which caused Kuenen to give up the allegorical theory.