Hosea — Chapter 2

Iudicate matrem vestram iudicate

God summons the children to contend with their mother, i.e., the individual faithful are urged to resist the corporate apostasy of the nation. À Lapide applies this morally to the conscience of each soul called to resist communal sin. The stripping of ornaments figures the removal of God's gifts when souls forsake Him.

Ducam eam in solitudinem

'I will lead her into the wilderness' is the great pastoral reversal: judgment becomes courtship. À Lapide, following Theodoret and Jerome, reads the wilderness as the contemplative life and the valley of Achor as hope purified through tribulation. The Babylonian exile is the historical referent; the anagogical sense is purgation of the soul.

Sponsabo te mihi in sempiternum

'I will espouse thee to me for ever'—à Lapide calls this the golden verse of Hosea. The triple repetition of 'sponsabo' signifies the three theological virtues and the indissoluble bond of the New Covenant. He cites St. Bernard extensively: this is the sponsalia of the Incarnation, when the divine Word took human flesh as His bride. Justice, judgment, and mercy are the dowry Christ brings.