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Selected Verse: Hosea 2:6 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Ho 2:6	Strong Concordance	Therefore, behold, I will hedge [07753] up thy way [01870] with thorns [05518], and make [01443] a wall [01447], that she shall not find [04672] her paths [05410].
	King James	Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
thorns . . . wall-- (Job 19:8; Lam 3:7, Lam 3:9). The hindrances which the captivity interposed between Israel and her idols. As she attributes all her temporal blessings to idols, I will reduce her to straits in which, when she in vain has sought help from false gods, she will at last seek Me as her only God and Husband, as at the first (Isa 54:5; Jer 3:14; Eze 16:8). then--before Israel's apostasy, under Jeroboam. The way of duty is hedged about with thorns; it is the way of sin that is hedged up with thorns. Crosses in an evil course are God's hedges to turn us from it. Restraining grace and restraining providences (even sicknesses and trials) are great blessings when they stop us in a course of sin. Compare Luk 15:14-18, "I will arise, and go to my father." So here, "I will go, and return," &c.; crosses in the both cases being sanctified to produce this effect.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

thorns . . . wall-- (Job 19:8; Lam 3:7, Lam 3:9). The hindrances which the captivity interposed between Israel and her idols. As she attributes all her temporal blessings to idols, I will reduce her to straits in which, when she in vain has sought help from false gods, she will at last seek Me as her only God and Husband, as at the first (Isa 54:5; Jer 3:14; Eze 16:8).

then--before Israel's apostasy, under Jeroboam. The way of duty is hedged about with thorns; it is the way of sin that is hedged up with thorns. Crosses in an evil course are God's hedges to turn us from it. Restraining grace and restraining providences (even sicknesses and trials) are great blessings when they stop us in a course of sin. Compare Luk 15:14-18, "I will arise, and go to my father." So here, "I will go, and return," &c.; crosses in the both cases being sanctified to produce this effect.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Therefore - that is, because she said, "I will go after my lovers," "behold I will hedge up thy ways;" literally, "behold, I hedging." It expresses an immediate future, or something which, as being fixed in the mind of God, is as certain as if it were actually taking place. So swift and certain should be her judgments. Thy way - God had before spoken of Israel; now He turns to her, pronouncing judgment upon her; then again He turneth away from her, as not deigning to regard her. "If the sinner's way were plain, and the soul still had temporal prosperity, after it had turned away from its Creator, scarcely or never could it be recalled, nor would it "hear the voice behind it," warning it. But when adversity befalls it, and tribulation or temporal difficulties overtake it in its course, then it remembers the Lord its God." So it was with Israel in Egypt. When "they sat by the flesh pots, and did eat bread to the full, amid the fish, which they did eat freely, the cucumbers and the melons," they forgat the God of their fathers, and served the idols of Egypt. Then He raised up "a new king, who made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick and in all the service of the field;" then "they groaned by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of their bondage, and God heard their groaning" Exo 16:3; Num 11:5; Exo 1:8, Exo 1:14; Exo 2:23, Exo 2:4. So in the book of Judges the ever-recurring history is, they forsook God; He delivered them into the hands of their enemies; they cried unto Him; He sent them a deliverer. A way may be found through a "hedge of thorns," although with pain and suffering; through a stone "wall" even a strong man cannot burst a way. "Thorns" then may be the pains to the flesh, with which God visits sinful pleasures, so that the soul, if it would break through to them, is held back and torn; the wall may mean, that all such sinful joys shall be cut off altogether, as by bereavement, poverty, sickness, failure of plans, etc. In sorrows, we cannot find our idols, which, although so near, vanish from us; but we may find our God, though we are so far from Him, and He so often seems so far from us. "God hedgeth with thorns the ways of the elect, when they find prickles in the things of time, which they desire. They attain not the pleasures of this world which they crave." They cannot "find their paths," when, in the special love of God, they are hindered from obtaining what they seek amiss. "I escaped not Thy scourges," says Augustine, as to his pagan state, "for what mortal can? For Thou wert ever with me, mercifully rigorous, and with most bitter alloy all my unlawful pleasures, that I might seek pleasure without alloy. But where to find such, I could not discover, save in Thee, O Lord, who teachest by sorrow, and woundest us, to heal, and killest us, lest we die from Thee" (Conf. ii. 4).

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
"Therefore (because the woman says this), behold, thus will I hedge up thy way with thorns, and wall up a wall, and she shall not find her paths." The hedging up of the way, strengthened by the similar figure of the building of a wall to cut off the way, denotes her transportation into a situation in which she could no longer continue her adultery with the idols. The reference is to distress and tribulation (compare Hos 5:15 with Deu 4:30; Job 3:23; Job 19:8; Lam 3:7), especially the distress and anguish of exile, in which, although Israel was in the midst of idolatrous nations, and therefore had even more outward opportunity to practise idolatry, it learned the worthlessness of all trust in idols, and their utter inability to help, and was thus impelled to reflect and turn to the Lord, who smites and heals (Hos 6:1). This thought is carried out still further in Hos 2:7 : "And she will pursue her lovers, and not overtake them; and seek them, and not find them: and will say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now." Distress at first increases their zeal in idolatry, but it soon brings them to see that the idols afford no help. The failure to reach or find the lovers, who are sought with zeal (riddēph, piel in an intensive sense, to pursue eagerly), denotes the failure to secure what is sought from them, viz., the anticipated deliverance from the calamity, which the living God has sent as a punishment. This sad experience awakens the desire to return to the faithful covenant God, and the acknowledgment that prosperity and all good things are to be found in vital fellowship with Him. The thought that God will fill the idolatrous nation with disgust at its coquetry with strange gods, by taking away all its possessions, and thus putting to shame its delusive fancy that the possessions which it enjoyed really came from the idols, is still further expanded in the second strophe, commencing with the eighth verse. Hos 2:8. "And she knows not that I have given her the corn, and the must, and the oil, and have multiplied silver to her, and gold, which they have used for Baal." Corn, must, and oil are specified with the definite article as being the fruits of the land, which Israel received from year to year. These possessions were the foundation of the nation's wealth, through which gold and silver were multiplied. Ignorance of the fact that Jehovah was the giver of these blessings, was a sin. That Jehovah had given the land to His people, was impressed upon the minds of the people for all time, together with the recollection of the mighty acts of the Lord, by the manner in which Israel had been put in possession of Canaan; and not only had Moses again and again reminded the Israelites most solemnly that it was He who gave rain to the land, and multiplied and blessed its fruitfulness and its fruits (compare, for example, Deu 7:13; Deu 11:14-15), but this was also perpetually called to their remembrance by the law concerning the offering of the first-fruits at the feasts. The words ‛âsū labba‛al are to be taken as a relative clause without 'asher, though not in the sense of "which they have made into Baal," i.e., out of which they have made Baal-images (Chald., Rabb., Hitzig, Ewald, and others); for even though עשׂה ל occurs in this sense in Isa 44:17, the article, which is wanting in Isaiah, and also in Gen 12:2 and Exo 32:10, precludes such an explanation here, apart from the fact that habba‛al cannot stand by itself for a statue of Baal. Here עשׂה ל has rather the general meaning "apply to anything," just as in Ch2 24:7, where it occurs in a perfectly similar train of thought. This use of the word may be obtained from the meaning "to prepare for anything," whereas the meaning "to offer," which Gesenius adopts ("which they have offered to Baal"), is untenable, since עשׂה simply denotes the preparation of the sacrifice for the altar, which is out of the question in the case of silver and gold. They had applied their gold and silver to Baal, however, not merely by using them for the preparation of idols, but by employing them in the maintenance and extension of the worship of Baal, or even by regarding them as gifts of Baal, and thus confirming themselves in the zealous worship of that god. By habba'al we are not simply to understand the Canaanitish or Phoenician Baal in the stricter sense of the word, whose worship Jehu had exterminated from Israel, though not entirely, as is evident from the allusion to an Asherah in Samaria in the reign of Jehoahaz (Kg2 13:6); but Baal is a general expression for all idols, including the golden calves, which are called other gods in Kg1 14:9, and compared to actual idols.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

"Therefore (because the woman says this), behold, thus will I hedge up thy way with thorns, and wall up a wall, and she shall not find her paths." The hedging up of the way, strengthened by the similar figure of the building of a wall to cut off the way, denotes her transportation into a situation in which she could no longer continue her adultery with the idols. The reference is to distress and tribulation (compare Hos 5:15 with Deu 4:30; Job 3:23; Job 19:8; Lam 3:7), especially the distress and anguish of exile, in which, although Israel was in the midst of idolatrous nations, and therefore had even more outward opportunity to practise idolatry, it learned the worthlessness of all trust in idols, and their utter inability to help, and was thus impelled to reflect and turn to the Lord, who smites and heals (Hos 6:1).

This thought is carried out still further in Hos 2:7 : "And she will pursue her lovers, and not overtake them; and seek them, and not find them: and will say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now." Distress at first increases their zeal in idolatry, but it soon brings them to see that the idols afford no help. The failure to reach or find the lovers, who are sought with zeal (riddēph, piel in an intensive sense, to pursue eagerly), denotes the failure to secure what is sought from them, viz., the anticipated deliverance from the calamity, which the living God has sent as a punishment. This sad experience awakens the desire to return to the faithful covenant God, and the acknowledgment that prosperity and all good things are to be found in vital fellowship with Him.

The thought that God will fill the idolatrous nation with disgust at its coquetry with strange gods, by taking away all its possessions, and thus putting to shame its delusive fancy that the possessions which it enjoyed really came from the idols, is still further expanded in the second strophe, commencing with the eighth verse. Hos 2:8. "And she knows not that I have given her the corn, and the must, and the oil, and have multiplied silver to her, and gold, which they have used for Baal." Corn, must, and oil are specified with the definite article as being the fruits of the land, which Israel received from year to year. These possessions were the foundation of the nation's wealth, through which gold and silver were multiplied. Ignorance of the fact that Jehovah was the giver of these blessings, was a sin. That Jehovah had given the land to His people, was impressed upon the minds of the people for all time, together with the recollection of the mighty acts of the Lord, by the manner in which Israel had been put in possession of Canaan; and not only had Moses again and again reminded the Israelites most solemnly that it was He who gave rain to the land, and multiplied and blessed its fruitfulness and its fruits (compare, for example, Deu 7:13; Deu 11:14-15), but this was also perpetually called to their remembrance by the law concerning the offering of the first-fruits at the feasts. The words ‛âsū labba‛al are to be taken as a relative clause without 'asher, though not in the sense of "which they have made into Baal," i.e., out of which they have made Baal-images (Chald., Rabb., Hitzig, Ewald, and others); for even though עשׂה ל occurs in this sense in Isa 44:17, the article, which is wanting in Isaiah, and also in Gen 12:2 and Exo 32:10, precludes such an explanation here, apart from the fact that habba‛al cannot stand by itself for a statue of Baal. Here עשׂה ל has rather the general meaning "apply to anything," just as in Ch2 24:7, where it occurs in a perfectly similar train of thought. This use of the word may be obtained from the meaning "to prepare for anything," whereas the meaning "to offer," which Gesenius adopts ("which they have offered to Baal"), is untenable, since עשׂה simply denotes the preparation of the sacrifice for the altar, which is out of the question in the case of silver and gold. They had applied their gold and silver to Baal, however, not merely by using them for the preparation of idols, but by employing them in the maintenance and extension of the worship of Baal, or even by regarding them as gifts of Baal, and thus confirming themselves in the zealous worship of that god. By habba'al we are not simply to understand the Canaanitish or Phoenician Baal in the stricter sense of the word, whose worship Jehu had exterminated from Israel, though not entirely, as is evident from the allusion to an Asherah in Samaria in the reign of Jehoahaz (Kg2 13:6); but Baal is a general expression for all idols, including the golden calves, which are called other gods in Kg1 14:9, and compared to actual idols.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Hedge up - I will compass thee in with wars, and calamities, that tho' thou love thy sinful courses, thou shalt have little pleasure in them. Make a wall - Yea, I will make the calamities of this people as a strong wall, which they cannot break. Her paths - Wherein thou didst go when thou wentest to Egypt, or Syria for help; but by my judgments, and thine enemies power, thou shalt be so guarded, thou shalt not find how to send to them for relief.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
I will hedge up thy way with thorns - I will put it out of your power to escape the judgments I have threatened; and, in spite of all your attachment to your idols, you shall find that they can give you neither bread, nor water, nor wool, nor flax, nor oil, nor drink. And ye shall be brought into such circumstances, that the pursuit of your expensive idolatry shall be impossible. And she shall be led so deep into captivity, as never to find the road back to her own land. And this is the fact; for those who were carried away into Assyria have been lost among the nations, few of them having ever returned to Judea. And, if in being, where they are now is utterly unknown.

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¹⁴ And [1161] when he [846] had spent [1159] all [3956], there arose [1096] a mighty [2478] famine [3042] in [2596] that [1565] land [5561]; and [2532] he [846] began [756] to be in want [5302].
¹⁵ And [2532] he went [4198] and joined himself [2853] to [1520] a citizen [4177] of that [1565] country [5561]; and [2532] he sent [3992] him [846] into [1519] his [846] fields [68] to feed [1006] swine [5519].
¹⁶ And [2532] he would fain [1937] have filled [1072] his [846] belly [2836] with [575] the husks [2769] that [3739] the swine [5519] did eat [2068]: and [2532] no man [3762] gave [1325] unto him [846].
¹⁷ And [1161] when he came [2064] to [1519] himself [1438], he said [2036], How many [4214] hired servants [3407] of my [3450] father's [3962] have bread [740] enough and to spare [4052], and [1161] I [1473] perish [622] with hunger [3042]!
¹⁸ I will arise [450] and go [4198] to [4314] my [3450] father [3962], and [2532] will say [2046] unto him [846], Father [3962], I have sinned [264] against [1519] heaven [3772], and [2532] before [1799] thee [4675],

⁸ Now when I passed [05674] by thee, and looked [07200] upon thee, behold, thy time [06256] was the time [06256] of love [01730]; and I spread [06566] my skirt [03671] over thee, and covered [03680] thy nakedness [06172]: yea, I sware [07650] unto thee, and entered [0935] into a covenant [01285] with thee, saith [05002] the Lord [0136] GOD [03069], and thou becamest mine.

¹⁴ Turn [07725], O backsliding [07726] children [01121], saith [05002] the LORD [03068]; for I am married [01166] unto you: and I will take [03947] you one [0259] of a city [05892], and two [08147] of a family [04940], and I will bring [0935] you to Zion [06726]:

⁵ For thy Maker [06213] is thine husband [01166]; the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] is his name [08034]; and thy Redeemer [01350] the Holy One [06918] of Israel [03478]; The God [0430] of the whole earth [0776] shall he be called [07121].

⁹ He hath inclosed [01443] my ways [01870] with hewn stone [01496], he hath made my paths [05410] crooked [05753].

⁷ He hath hedged [01443] me about, that I cannot get out [03318]: he hath made my chain [05178] heavy [03513].

⁸ He hath fenced up [01443] my way [0734] that I cannot pass [05674], and he hath set [07760] darkness [02822] in my paths [05410].

⁴ And his sister [0269] stood [03320] afar off [07350], to wit [03045] what would be done [06213] to him.

²³ And it came to pass in process [01992] [07227] of time [03117], that the king [04428] of Egypt [04714] died [04191]: and the children [01121] of Israel [03478] sighed [0584] by reason of [04480] the bondage [05656], and they cried [02199], and their cry [07775] came up [05927] unto God [0430] by reason of the bondage [05656].

¹⁴ And they made [04843] their lives [02416] bitter [04843] with hard [07186] bondage [05656], in morter [02563], and in brick [03843], and in all manner of service [05656] in the field [07704]: all their service [05656], wherein they made them serve [05647], was with rigour [06531].

⁸ Now there arose up [06965] a new [02319] king [04428] over Egypt [04714], which knew [03045] not Joseph [03130].

⁵ We remember [02142] the fish [01710], which we did eat [0398] in Egypt [04714] freely [02600]; the cucumbers [07180], and the melons [020], and the leeks [02682], and the onions [01211], and the garlick [07762]:

³ And the children [01121] of Israel [03478] said [0559] unto them, Would to God [04310] [05414] we had died [04191] by the hand [03027] of the LORD [03068] in the land [0776] of Egypt [04714], when we sat [03427] by the flesh [01320] pots [05518], and when we did eat [0398] bread [03899] to the full [07648]; for ye have brought us forth [03318] into this wilderness [04057], to kill [04191] this whole assembly [06951] with hunger [07458].

⁹ But hast done [06213] evil [07489] above all that were before [06440] thee: for thou hast gone [03212] and made [06213] thee other [0312] gods [0430], and molten images [04541], to provoke me to anger [03707], and hast cast [07993] me behind [0310] thy back [01458]:

⁶ Nevertheless they departed [05493] not from the sins [02403] of the house [01004] of Jeroboam [03379], who made Israel [03478] sin [02398], but walked [01980] therein: and there remained [05975] the grove [0842] also in Samaria [08111].)

⁷ For the sons [01121] of Athaliah [06271], that wicked [04849] woman, had broken up [06555] the house [01004] of God [0430]; and also all the dedicated things [06944] of the house [01004] of the LORD [03068] did they bestow [06213] upon Baalim [01168].

¹⁰ Now therefore let me alone [03240], that my wrath [0639] may wax hot [02734] against them, and that I may consume [03615] them: and I will make [06213] of thee a great [01419] nation [01471].

² And I will make of thee [06213] a great [01419] nation [01471], and I will bless [01288] thee, and make [01431] thy name [08034] great [01431]; and thou shalt be a blessing [01293]:

¹⁷ And the residue [07611] thereof he maketh [06213] a god [0410], even his graven image [06459]: he falleth down [05456] unto it, and worshippeth [07812] it, and prayeth [06419] unto it, and saith [0559], Deliver [05337] me; for thou art my god [0410].

¹⁴ That I will give [05414] you the rain [04306] of your land [0776] in his due season [06256], the first rain [03138] and the latter rain [04456], that thou mayest gather [0622] in thy corn [01715], and thy wine [08492], and thine oil [03323].
¹⁵ And I will send [05414] grass [06212] in thy fields [07704] for thy cattle [0929], that thou mayest eat [0398] and be full [07646].

¹³ And he will love [0157] thee, and bless [01288] thee, and multiply [07235] thee: he will also bless [01288] the fruit [06529] of thy womb [0990], and the fruit [06529] of thy land [0127], thy corn [01715], and thy wine [08492], and thine oil [03323], the increase [07698] of thy kine [0504], and the flocks [06251] of thy sheep [06629], in the land [0127] which he sware [07650] unto thy fathers [01] to give [05414] thee.

⁸ For she did not know [03045] that I gave [05414] her corn [01715], and wine [08492], and oil [03323], and multiplied [07235] her silver [03701] and gold [02091], which they prepared [06213] for Baal [01168].

⁷ And she shall follow [07291] after her lovers [0157], but she shall not overtake [05381] them; and she shall seek [01245] them, but shall not find [04672] them: then shall she say [0559], I will go [03212] and return [07725] to my first [07223] husband [0376]; for then was it better [02896] with me than now [06258].

¹ Come [03212], and let us return [07725] unto the LORD [03068]: for he hath torn [02963], and he will heal [07495] us; he hath smitten [05221], and he will bind us up [02280].

⁷ He hath hedged [01443] me about, that I cannot get out [03318]: he hath made my chain [05178] heavy [03513].

⁸ He hath fenced up [01443] my way [0734] that I cannot pass [05674], and he hath set [07760] darkness [02822] in my paths [05410].

²³ Why is light given to a man [01397] whose way [01870] is hid [05641], and whom God [0433] hath hedged in [05526]?

³⁰ When thou art in tribulation [06862], and all these things [01697] are come [04672] upon thee, even in the latter [0319] days [03117], if thou turn [07725] to the LORD [03068] thy God [0430], and shalt be obedient [08085] unto his voice [06963];

¹⁵ I will go [03212] and return [07725] to my place [04725], till they acknowledge their offence [0816], and seek [01245] my face [06440]: in their affliction [06862] they will seek me early [07836].