“Betroth” is thrice repeated, implying the intense love of God to His people; and perhaps, also, the three Persons of the Triune God, severally engaging to make good the betrothal. The marriage covenant will be as it were renewed from the beginning, on a different footing; not for a time only, as before, through the apostasy of the people, but “forever” through the grace of God writing the law on their hearts by the Spirit of Messiah (Je 31:31–37).
Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 651). Logos Research Systems, Inc. (Public Domain)
THERE are various figures used in Scripture to represent the care which God will take of his people: but that which is the most endearing, the most honorable, and, perhaps I might add, the most frequent, of any, is a marriage covenant. The Old Testament abounds with expressions to this effect. Jeremiah has whole chapters addressed to the Church as an adulterous wife, and inviting her to be reconciled to her divine Husband. Hosea not only delivers messages in similar terms, but was actually commanded to take an adulteress (i. e. either one who had been so, and was now penitent, or one who, though chaste at the time of his union with her, afterwards proved abandoned) to be his wife, in order that he might be a visible sign unto the Jewish nation. By this, Jehovah, having for a season put away his people for their unfaithfulness, here makes known to them his purpose to restore them yet again to his favor.
Simeon, C. (1832). Horae Homileticae: Hosea to Malachi (Vol. 10, pp. 14–17). Holdsworth and Ball. (Public Domain)
This betrothal assumes that her long-persistent adulteries had ended in divorce. Now the marriage covenant is renewed—renewed “forever;” renewed “in righteousness, in judgment, in loving-kindness, and in great mercy;” where the reiteration is intended to heighten the sense of God’s great love in this transaction. Remarkably, it culminates in faithfulness; as if to say, This covenant must stand, and be broken no more.—“Thou shalt know the Lord,” is one of the most expressive phrases possible to human language, implying to know God in all the great elements of his character, and in all the experiences of his spiritual power; to know with a knowledge other and better far than theory; to know with the heart brought fully under the power of Jehovah’s presence and love.
Cowles, H. (1868). The Minor Prophets; with Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Practical (p. 14). D. Appleton and Company. (Public Domain)
This betrothal assumes that her long-persistent adulteries had ended in divorce. Now the marriage covenant is renewed—renewed “forever;” renewed “in righteousness, in judgment, in loving-kindness, and in great mercy;” where the reiteration is intended to heighten the sense of God’s great love in this transaction. Remarkably, it culminates in faithfulness; as if to say, This covenant must stand, and be broken no more.—“Thou shalt know the Lord,” is one of the most expressive phrases possible to human language, implying to know God in all the great elements of his character, and in all the experiences of his spiritual power; to know with a knowledge other and better far than theory; to know with the heart brought fully under the power of Jehovah’s presence and love.
Cowles, H. (1868). The Minor Prophets; with Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Practical (p. 14). D. Appleton and Company. (Public Domain)
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