to engage for matrimony · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
faithfulness
בֶּאֱמוּנָ֑הbe.'e.mu.Nah
H530
literally firmness · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
know
וְיָדַ֖עַתְּve.ya.Da.'at
H3045
to know (properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
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
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
1 John 4:6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of e…
1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is tr…
Jeremiah 24:7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return un…
Hosea 2:19 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…
Colossians 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Jeremiah 9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, a…
Jeremiah 31:33-34 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inwar…
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…
faithfulness--to My new covenant of grace with thee (Th1 5:24; Heb 10:23).
John Gill on Hosea 2:20
I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness,.... Which lies in keeping the marriage contract inviolable; Christ will never suffer his faithfulness to fail, nor break his covenant; as he is faithful to his Father that appointed him, so he is, and will be, to his church and people, and to every believer, to whom he is espoused; and it is he that makes them faithful unto him, and gives them faith to believe in him, receive, embrace, own, and acknowledge him as their husband: and in this sense some understand it, rendering it, "in faith" (z); so the Targum and others. This is the third time the word "betroth" is used, or this promise made; which, according to Jerome, refers to them espousin…
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…
The Church Fathers
"And it shall come to pass in that day: I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth. And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezrael. And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy. And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God." LXX: "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God." On that day and at that time when I will espouse you to me in faith, and you will know that I am the Lord, I will hear the heavens, which declare the glory of God (Ps. 18), and the heavens will hear the earth, that it may be watered with heavenly rain, and the earth, from which truth arises (Ps. 84) , and into whose field the householder goes forth to sow his seeds (Matt. 13, 3), will yield wheat and wine and oil, of which we have spoken above, and all these things shall hear Jezrael, which is, the seed of God, that is, the abundance and fertility of all things may be attributed to the seed of God, who is Christ, that it is sown in the earth to bring forth manifold fruits, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold (Ibid, 8). And that prostitute, who had been joined to God, and had borne three children, two males and one female; the first named Jezrael, the second, Without mercy; the third, not my people, may she see that the words of things have been changed because of the seed of God, and in the faith of Christ have obtained mercy, which was without mercy, and being called the people of God, who before were not called the people. From this we see that all that has been said can be referred both to the ten tribes called Israel, and under the name of the prostitute, they have borne three children, and to every people of Jewish name. On the hearing of heaven and earth, and of wheat, wine, and oil, and Jezrael, this is what some people believe, that after Christ's coming, everything runs in its own order, and the whole creature serves the…
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…
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).
"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 2:20
with the beasts of the field for I will destroy harmful creatures from the world. And so Scripture states (Isa. 11:9): “They shall neither harm nor destroy etc.”
