Ver. 21. "_And I betroth thee to Me for eternity; and I betroth thee to Me in righteousness and judgment, and in loving-kindness and mercy._"
Ver. 22. "_And I betroth thee to Me in faithfulness, and thou knowest the Lord._"
The word [Hebrew: arw], "to espouse" (compare Deut. xx. 7, where it is contrasted with [Hebrew: lqH]), has reference to the entrance into a marriage entirely new, with the wife of youth, and is, for this reason, chosen on purpose. "Just as if (so _Calvin_ remarks) the people had never violated conjugal fidelity, God promises that they should be His spouse, in the same manner as one marries a _virgo intacta_." It was indeed a great mercy if the unfaithful wife was only received _again_. Justly might she have been rejected for ever; for the only valid reason for a divorce existed, inasmuch as she had lived in adultery for years. But God's mercy goes still further. The old offences are not only _forgiven_, but _forgotten_. A relation entirely new begins, into which there enter, on the one side, no suspicion and no bitterness, and on the other, no painful recollections, such as may pass into similar human relationships, where the consequences of sin never disappear altogether, and where a painful remembrance always remains. The same dealing of God is still repeated daily; every believer may still say with exultation: "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." It is the greatness of this promise which occasions the direct address, whilst hitherto the Lord had spoken of the wife in the third person. She shall hear face to face, the great word out of His mouth, in order that she may be assured that it is she whom it concerns; and in order to express its greatness, its joyfulness, and the difficulty of believing it, it is repeated three times. _Calvin_ says: "Because it was difficult to deliver the people from fear and despair, and because they could not but be [Pg 270] aware how grievously they had sinned, and in how many ways they had alienated themselves from God, it was necessary to employ many consolations, that thus their faith might be confirmed. One likes to hear the repetition of the intelligence of a great and unexpected good fortune which one has some difficulty in realizing. And what could a man, despairing on account of his sins, less readily realize than the greatest of all miracles--viz., that all his sins should be done away with, at once and for ever? But the repetition is, in this case, so much the more full of consolation, that, each time, it is accompanied with the promise of some new blessing; that, each time, it opens up some new prospect of new blessings from this new connection. First, there is the eternal duration,--then, as a pledge of this, the attributes which God would display in bestowing it,--and, finally, there are the blessings which He would impart to His betrothed." The [Hebrew: levlM] points back to the painful dissolution of the former marriage-covenant: This new one shall not be liable to such a dissolution; for "the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the Lord:" Is. liv. 10. The attributes which God will display towards the wife, and the conduct which she shall observe towards Him through His mercy, are connected with [Hebrew: arwtiK li], "I betroth thee to Me," by means of [Hebrew: b], which is often used to mark the circumstances on which some action rests. Thus, in the case before us, the betrothment rests upon what God vouchsafes along with it, inasmuch as thereby only does it become a true betrothment. That the accompanying gifts must be thus distributed--as we have done--first, the faithful discharge of all the duties of a husband on His part, and then, the inward communication of strength to her for the fulfilment of her obligations; and that we are neither at liberty to refer, as do some interpreters, everything to one of the two parties, nor to assume, as others do, that everything refers to both at the same time--is proved not only by the intervening repetition of "I betroth thee to Me," but also by the internal nature of the gift's mentioned. [Hebrew: rHmiM], "mercy," cannot be spoken of in the relation of the wife to God, nor knowledge of God, in the relation of God to the wife. The four manifestations of God which are mentioned here form [Pg 271] a double pair,--righteousness and judgment, loving-kindness and mercy. The two are frequently connected in a similar way; _e.g._, Is. i.