hey seek thy life."
In Ezek. xxii. 40-42, Jerusalem washes and paints herself, expecting
her lovers, and decks herself with ornaments; then she sits down upon a
stately couch; a table is prepared before her, upon which she places
the incense of the Lord, and His oil. In this last feature in Ezekiel,
the type disappears behind the thing typified, although not so
completely as is the case in the passage under consideration, in the
words, "She burns incense."--From what has been remarked, it appears
that, in substance, Hos. iv. 13, "They sacrifice upon the tops of the
mountains and bum incense upon the hills," is entirely parallel. The
two clauses, "She went after her lovers," and "she forgat Me," both
serve to represent the crime in a more heinous light. Sin must
certainly have already poisoned the whole heart, if occasion for its
exercise be spontaneously sought after. In reference to the latter,
_Calvin_ remarks: "Just as when a wife has for a long time lived with
her husband, and has been kindly and liberally treated by him, and then
prostitutes herself to lovers, and does not entertain or retain any
more love for him; such a depravity is nothing less than brutish."

Ver. 16. "_Therefore, behold, I allure her, and lead her into the
wilderness and speak to her heart._"

The consolation and promise here begin with as great abruptness as in
the first section. It is reported how the Lord gradually leads back His
unfaithful wife to reformation, and to reunion with Him, the lawful
husband. Great difficulty has been occasioned to interpreters by the
[Hebrew: lkN] at the commencement. Very easily, but at the same time
very inconsiderately, the difficulty is got over by those who give it
the signification, "_utique_, _profecto_;" but this cannot be called
interpreting. It must be, above all, considered as settled and
undoubted, that [Hebrew: lkN] can here have that signification only
which it always has; and this all the more, that in vers. 8 and 15 it
occurred in the same signification. This being taken for granted, the
"therefore" might be referred to the words of the wife in ver. 9, "I
will go and return to my first husband," and all which follows be
considered as only a kind of parenthesis. That the Lord begins again to
show Himself [Pg 254] kind to His wife would then have its foundation
in this:--that in her the first symptoms of a change of character
manifested themselves. But this supposition is, after all, too forced.