better life might wipe out her former shame, than
one previously chaste, who _was required_ to become unchaste, and to
remain so for a long time, because, [Pg 189] otherwise, the symbolical
action would have lost all its significance. The objection brought
forward, that whatever is unbecoming as an outward action, is so
likewise though it were only an internal action, can scarcely be meant
to be in earnest. For, in this case, every one knew that the prophet
was a mere type; and, with regard to his wife, this circumstance was so
obvious, that mockery certainly gave way to shame and confusion. But a
marriage outwardly entered into is never purely typical. It has always
its significance apart from the typical import, and must be
justifiable, independently of its typical character. Ridicule would, in
this case, have been not only too obvious, but to a certain extent also
well founded.

4. If the action had taken place only outwardly, it would have been
impossible to explain the abrupt transition from the symbolical action
to the mere figure, and again to the entirely naked representation as
we find it here, and _vice versa_. In the first chapter, the symbolical
action is pretty well maintained; but in the prophecy ii. 1-3 (i.
10-ii. 1), which belongs to the same section, it is almost entirely
lost sight of. As the corporeal adultery, and rejection in consequence
of it, were to be the type of the spiritual adultery and rejection, so
the receiving again of the wife, rejected on account of her
faithlessness, but now reformed, was to typify the Lord's granting
mercy to the people. But of this, not a trace is found. And yet, we are
not at liberty to say that the ground of it lies in a difference
betwixt the type and the thing typified,--in the circumstance that the
wife of the prophet did not reform. If there existed such a difference,
the type could not have been chosen at all. The contrary appears also
from ii. 9 (7).--In the whole second section, ii. 4-25 (ii. 2-23),
regard is indeed had to the symbolical action; but in a manner so free,
that it dwindles away to a mere figure, from behind which the thing
itself is continually coming into view. In chap. iii. the symbolical
action again acquires greater prominence. These phenomena can be
accounted for, only if the transaction be viewed as an inward one. In
the case of an outward transaction, the transition from the symbolical
action to the figure, and from the figure to the th