econd 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 [Pg 275]
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 [Hebrew: re] can be none other than the prophet
himself.--Let us now proceed to particulars, [Hebrew: ahb], "love," is
stronger than [Hebrew: qH], "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 [Hebrew: ahbt re], and
contrasted with the conduct of the wife, which is indicated by [Hebrew:
mnapt], 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--a