compassion (in the plural) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Isaiah 54:8-10 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer…
Isaiah 54:14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not co…
Psalms 85:10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Ezekiel 37:25-28 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, eve…
John 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the…
Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is r…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Hosea 2:14–end
The state of Israel ruined by their own sin did not look so black and dismal in the former part of the chapter, but that the state of Israel, restrained by the divine grace, looks as bright and pleasant here in the latter part of the chapter, and the more surprisingly so as the promises follow thus close upon the threatenings; nay, which is very strange, they are by a note of connexion joined to, and inferred from, that declaration of their sinfulness upon which the threatenings of their ruin are grounded: She went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord; therefore I will allure her. Fitly therefore is that therefore which is the note of connexion immediately followed with a note of…
"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 (Jer 31:31-37).
righteousness . . . judgment--in rectitude and truth.
loving-kindness, &c.--Hereby God assures Israel, who might doubt the possibility of their restoration to His favor; low, sunk, and unworthy as thou art. I will restore thee from a regard t…
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever,.... Which is taking them into a marriage relation with himself; and is to be understood not of the whole body of God's elect, who were secretly betrothed to in the everlasting covenant from eternity; for is respects what is yet to come; but of the people the Jews, when converted in the latter day, when will be the marriage of the Lamb with them, and with the fullness of the Gentiles then brought in; of which see Revelation 19:7, who will then return to their first husband; and though the Jews have been divorced, they will be received again, and be afresh betrothed; a new covenant or contract will be made with them, and which shall last for ever, Jere…
The Church Fathers
How great is God's mercy! A prostitute fornicates with many lovers, and because of her offense is handed over to the beasts. After she returns to her husband, she is said not at all to be reconciled to him but rather to be betrothed. Now notice the difference between God's union and that of men. When a man marries, he turns a virgin into a woman—that is, a nonvirgin. But when God joins with prostitutes, he changes them into virgins.
A betrothed woman was chosen, so that Christ's church might already be symbolically indicated as bride, according to the words of the prophet Hosea: "I will make you my bride in justice and right; I will make you my bride in mercy and benevolence, and I will espouse you in fidelity." Thus John says, "He who has a bride is the bridegroom." And blessed Paul: "I have promised you to one bridegroom, to present you to Christ as a chaste virgin." She is truly a bride who regenerates the new infancy of Christ by a virginal birth.
First, he [God] betrothed her [Israel] in Abraham (or rather, in Egypt) so that he may have an everlasting spouse. Second, on Mount Sinai in the betrothal, he gave her the equity and judgment of the law and the compassion added to the law, so that whenever she should sin she would be given up into captivity; whenever she should show penitence, she would be brought back to [her] homeland, and she would gain compassion.… By his crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, he [Jesus] betroths [her] not in the equity of the law but rather in faith and the grace of the gospel.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Betroth — To promise “by one’s truth.” Men and women were betrothed when they were engaged to be married. This usually took place a year or more before marriage. From the time of betrothal the woman was…
Marriage — Was instituted in Paradise when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:18-24). Here we have its original charter, which was confirmed by our Lord, as the basis on which all regulations are to be framed (Matt.…
Solomon, Song of — Called also, after the Vulgate, the “Canticles.” It is the “song of songs” (1:1), as being the finest and most precious of its kind; the noblest song, “das Hohelied,” as Luther calls it. The…
Loving-Kindness Of God, The · Saints: Betrothed in — Saints: Betrothed in
Marriage · Illustrative of: God’s union with the Jewish nation — Illustrative of: God’s union with the Jewish nation
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Hosea 2:19-20
19. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
19. Et desponsabo te mihi in perpetuum, et desponsabo te mihi in justicia, et in judicio, et in clementia, (vel, bonitate,) et in misericordiis.
20. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.
20. Et desponsabo te mihi in fide, (vel, veritate:) et cognosces Jehovam.
The Prophet here again makes known the manner in which God would receive into favor his people. As though the people had not violated the marriage vow, God promises to be to them like a bridegroom, who marries a virgin, young…
"And I betroth thee to myself for ever; and I betroth thee to myself in righteousness, and judgment, and in grace and pity. Hos 2:20. And I betroth thee to myself in faithfulness; and thou acknowledgest Jehovah." ארשׂ לו, to betroth to one's self, to woo, is only applied to the wooing of a maiden, not to the restoration of a wife who has been divorced, and is generally distinguished from the taking of a wife (Deu 20:7). ארשׂתּיך therefore points, as Calvin observes, to an entirely new marriage. "It was indeed great grace for the unfaithful wife to be taken back again. She might in justice have been put away for ever. The only valid ground for divorce was there, since she had lived for years…
I will make you my wife: This Hebrew verb, used three times in these verses, can be translated with our seldom-used word betroth. In the ancient world, betrothal entailed all the legal steps of a marriage, including the payment of a bride price by the groom. The only thing missing was the marriage ceremony and sexual consummation. The Lord vowed to betroth Israel to himself forever. To ensure the eternal nature of this new marriage, God provided a bride price that included five priceless qualities: righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion, and faithfulness. As a result, the Lord said, Israel will finally know me (cp. 2:13).
Rashi on Hosea 2:19
and they shall no longer be mentioned I.e. Israel shall no longer be mentioned by the name of the baalim. Or, the baalim shall no longer be mentioned by the name of Israel, saying that they are their gods. Or, the name of the baalim shall no longer be mentioned, as it is stated. (Isa. 2:18) “And the idols shall completely pass away.”
