Verse 15
She shall sing there - There she shall sing the responsive song as on high festival occasions, and in marriage ceremonies. The Book of Song of Solomon is of this sort.
Verse 16
Thou shalt call me Ishi - That is, my man, or my husband; a title of love and affection; and not Baali, my master, a title exciting fear and apprehension; which, howsoever good in itself, was now rendered improper to be applied to Jehovah, having been prostituted to false gods. This intimated that they should scrupulously avoid idolatry; and they had such a full proof of the inefficacy of their idolatrous worship that, after their captivity, they never more served idols.
Verse 18
Will I make a covenant for them - I will make an agreement between them and the birds, beasts, and reptiles, so that they shall not be injured by those; their flocks shall not be destroyed, nor their crops spoiled. I will also prevent every species of war, that they may no more have the calamities that arise from that source. They shall also be safe from robbers and nightly alarms; for I will make them to lie down in safety.
Verse 19
I will betroth thee unto me - The people are always considered under the emblem of a wife unfaithful to her husband.
In righteousness - According to law, reason, and equity.
In judgment - According to what is fit and becoming.
In lovingkindness - Having the utmost affection and love for thee.
In mercies - Forgiving and blotting out all past miscarriages. Or there may be an allusion here to the dowry given by the husband to his wife: "I will give righteousness," etc., as a dowry.
Verse 20
In faithfulness - Thou shalt no more prostitute thyself to idols, but be faithful to him who calls himself thy husband.
Thou shalt know the Lord - There shall be no more infidelity on thy part nor divorce on mine; and thou shalt experience me to be the sole, present, and eternal good of thy immortal spirit: and when this conviction is fully rooted then there can be no more idolatry, for it shall be seen that an idol is nothing in the world.
Verse 21
I will hear, saith the Lord - The sentence is repeated, to show how fully the thing was determined by the Almighty, and how implicitly they might depend on the Divine promise.
I will hear the heavens - The visible heavens, the atmosphere, where vapours are collected. The clouds, when they wish to deposit their fertilizing showers upon the earth.
They shall hear the earth - When it seems to supplicate for rain.
Verse 22
Shall hear the corn, and the wine - When they seem to express a desire to supply the wants of man.
And they shall hear Jezreel - The destitute people who are in want of the necessaries of life.
This most elegant gradation in the exertion of the influences of nature, for the supply of the wants of man, may be considered thus: -
1. There is a concord, harmony, and mutual influence, which God has established in the parts of created nature, in reference to the support and preservation of the human race.
2. God alone is the author of all this; and unless he give his command, communicate his energetic influence to the different parts of nature, these effects will not, cannot be produced.
3. Jezreel, the people who have been dispersed for their iniquities, and now about to be sown or planted in their own land, will require the most fostering care. See on [Hos 2:23] (note).
4. They are heard in desiring oil, wine, and corn. These are necessary to the support and comfort of life; and to those the desire of animal life naturally aspires.
5. These products are looked for from the Earth. On it, and by it, grass grows for the cattle, and corn for the service of man.
6. The seeds or germs, whence proceed corn, wine, and oil, live and grow in the earth; but cannot come to perfection, unless the earth be impregnated with the dews and rains from the clouds. They are therefore represented as imploring the heavens to collect their clouds, to pour down their fructifying moisture upon it.
7. The clouds, or materials of which they are composed, not being able to arrange themselves, nor aggregate themselves so as to meet those demands, prevent drought, and maintain an effective vegetation, are represented as calling upon the heavens to form, arrange, and supply them with the requisite quantity of moisture.
8. God, who is the author of all being and all bounty, dependent on nothing, comes forward and says, I will hear the heavens, the clouds which are gathered in the atmosphere; he will arrange the particles, saturate those that are light, till they become sufficiently impregnated with the necessary fluid; and then direct them In his providence where to deposit their contents. And,
9. When brought to the proper place, he will shake them with his winds, or strike them with his thunder, so as to cause them to fall down in drops to fertilize the earth with their showers.
Thus then: -
1. God works upon the heavens.
2. In them the clouds are collected.
3. The clouds drop their moisture upon the earth.
4. The earth exerts its vegetative influence upon the germs which it contains.
5. They expand, increase, and become matured, under the genial influences of the heavens, sun, air, water, from the clouds, etc.
6. Man receives and applies those bounties of Providence, and variously prepares them for the support and comfort of life.
Take all this in still fewer words: -
As Jezreel or the Israelites are here considered as perishing for want of food, all inanimate nature is represented as invoking God in their behalf.
1. The heavens have prayed that they be stored with clouds, that they may drop down fatness upon the earth.
2. The Lord answers the heavens, and clouds are formed.
3. The earth invokes the clouds, that they may drop down their fatness into its bosom.
4. The bottles of heaven are, consequently, unstopped for this purpose.