with a mighty hand, and redeemed thee ([Hebrew: vipdK])
from the house of bondmen ([Hebrew: mbit ebdiM]), from the hand of
Pharaoh, king of Egypt." See also Deut. ix. 26. It is upon this
redemption that the exhortation to the people is founded--that, as the
Lord's servants, they should serve Him alone; comp., _e.g._, the
introduction to the Decalogue. Thus, we have here also a feature so
evidently typical, [Pg 197] so plainly transferred from the thing
typified to the type, that we cannot any longer think of an outward
transaction. This argument, however, is, in the main point, quite
independent of the philological interpretation of [Hebrew: krh]. Even
if it be translated "I bought her to me," the circumstance,
notwithstanding, always remains, that the wife was redeemed from
slavery, unless there be a denial of the connection of the sum
mentioned with Exod. xxi. 32, and Zech. xi. 12, where the thirty pieces
of silver likewise appear as the estimate of a servant's value; and
this circumstance evidently suggests the inward character of the
transaction.

The first germs of the representation of God's relation to Israel under
the figure of marriage, are found so early as in the Pentateuch, Exod.
xxxiv. 15, 16; Lev. xx. 5, 6, xvii. 7; Num. xiv. 33--where idolatry,
and apostasy from the Lord in general, are represented as
whoredom--Deut. xxxii. 16, 21; compare the author's _Dissertations on
the Genuineness of the Pent._ vol. i. p. 107 ff.; and commentary on the
Song of Solomon, S. 261. But it was only through the Song of Solomon
that it became quite a common thing to represent the higher love under
the figure of the lower. It is not through accident that this
representation appears so prominent just in Hosea, where it not only
pervades the first three chapters, but returns continually in the
second part also. Hosea, being one of the oldest prophets, was
specially called to fit, as a new link, into the Song of Solomon, which
was the last link in the chain of Sacred Literature. There are,
moreover, in the details, other undeniable references to the Song of
Solomon, which coincide with this connection with it, as regards the
fundamental idea. The basis, however, for this whole figurative
representation is Gen. ii. 24, where marriage appears as the most
intimate of all earthly relations of love, and must, for this very
reason, have a character of absolute exclusiveness.

CHAP. I.-II. 3 (II. 1).

Th