the relation altogether. The [Greek: parektos logou
porneias] applies to spiritual marriages also. The surrender of the
main faculties and powers of our nature to something which is not God,
stands on a par with carnal adultery. Thus, then, the connection
betwixt "contend" and "for" clearly appears.--Many interpreters,
viewing the clause beginning with [Hebrew: ki] as parenthetical, would
connect the last words of the verse with [Hebrew: ribv]: "Contend with
your mother that she may put away." But the words are rather to be
considered as parallel with the first member; for "contend," etc., is
equivalent to: "seek to bring your mother to a better way," or: "let
your mother reform herself." Her crime is designated first as whoredom,
and then as adultery. The relation in which the two stand to one
another is plainly seen from chap. i. 2, where the notion of adultery
is paraphrased by: "whoring away from the Lord." By "whoredom," the
_genus_--carnal crimes in general--is designated; by "adultery," the
_species_, or carnal crime by which the sacred rights of another person
are, at the same time, violated. The idea of whoredom, when transferred
to a spiritual relation, implies chiefly the worldliness of those with
whom God has not entered into any special relation; whilst the idea of
adultery implies the worldliness of individuals and communities with
whom God has entered into a special marriage, and whose apostasy is,
for this reason, far more culpable. Leaving out of [Pg 233] view the
more aggravating circumstance, the prophet first speaks of whoredom in
the case of the children of Israel also.--The reason why the whoredom
is here attributed to the face, and the adultery to the breasts, is
well given by _Manger_: "We need not have any difficulty about seeing
adultery attributed to the very face and breasts. There is a certain
expressiveness in this conciseness which demonstrates, as it were
before our eyes, that, in her whole deportment, the wife was given over
to sensuality, and that her whole aim was only to excite to it, and to
practise it. For the face is, with women, the sign of dissolute
lasciviousness--as _Horace_ expresses it in his Odes, I. 19:--

Urit grata protervitas
Et vultus nimium lubricus aspici.

Ezekiel, too, in chap. xxiii. 3, speaks of 'the pressed breasts of
Israel in Egypt.'" _Schmid_ states as the reason why just the face and
breasts are mentioned, "that Scripture