ortance. That this alone is regarded, appears from ii. 6 (4),
compared with ver. 7 (5). That the children, as children of whoredoms,
deserve no compassion, is founded upon the fact that their mother plays
the harlot. [Hebrew: awt znvniM] is stronger than [Hebrew: zvnh]; it
expresses the idea that the woman is given, soul and body, to
whoredoms. The same emphasis is expressed also by the analogous
designations: man of blood, of deceit, etc.--Calvin says, "She is
called a wife of whoredoms, because she was long accustomed to them,
gave herself over to the lusts of all indiscriminately, did not
prostitute herself once, or twice, or to a few, but to the debauchery
of every one." It is not without reason that "_take_" is connected with
the children also. The prophet shall, as it were, receive and take,
along with the wife, those who, without his agency, have been born of
her. It is self-evident, and has been, moreover, formerly proved, that
we cannot speak of children who were previously born of the prophet's
wife; but that, on the contrary, the children are they whose birth is
narrated in ver. 4 seqq. And that we cannot consider these children as
children of the prophet, as is done by several interpreters (_Drus._:
"_Accipe uxorem et suscipe ex ea liberos_"), is obvious from their
being designated "children of whoredoms;" from the word "take" itself,
which is expressive of the passive conduct of the prophet; from the
fact that, in the subsequent verses, the conceiving and bearing of the
wife are alone constantly spoken of, but never, as in Is. viii. 3, the
begetting by the prophet; and, _finally_, from the relation of the type
to the thing typified. By the latter, it is absolutely required that
children and mother stand in the same relation of alienation from the
legitimate husband and father. The words in ver. 3, "She bare him a
son," are not indeed in opposition to it, for these words are only
intended to mark the deceit of the wife who [Pg 201] offers to her
husband the children begotten in adultery, as if they were his, and, at
the same time, to bring out the patience and forbearance of the husband
who receives them, and brings them up as if they were his, although he
knows that they are not. In like manner, the Lord treated, for
centuries, the rebellious Israelites as if they were His children, and
granted to them the inheritance which was destined only for the
children, along with so many other blessings, until at lengt