nd it is quite admissible--that "love" implies, at the
same time, "to take out of love," and "to love constantly." Instead of
"beloved by _thee_" it is said, "beloved by her _friend_." Many have
been thereby misled; but it only serves to make the contrast more [Pg
276] prominent.[1] [Hebrew: re] has only one signification--that of
_friend_. It never, by itself, means "fellow-man," never "fellow-Jew,"
never "one with whom we have intercourse." The Pharisees were quite
correct in understanding it as the opposite of enemy. In their gloss,
Matt. v. 43, [Greek: kai miseseis ton echthronsou], there was one thing
only objectionable--the most important, it is true--that by the friend,
they understood only him whom their heart, void of love, loved indeed;
not him whom they ought to have loved, because God had united him to
them by the sacred ties of friendship and love. Thus, what ought to
have awakened them to love, just served them as a palliation for their
hatred. Now this signification, which alone is the settled one, is here
also very suitable. He whom the wife criminally forsakes, is not a
severe husband, but her loving friend, whom she herself formerly
acknowledged as such, and who always remains the same. Entirely
parallel is Jer. iii. 20: "As a wife is faithless towards her _friend_,
so have ye been faithless to Me;" compare ver. 4: "Hast thou not
formerly called me. My father, _friend_ of my youth art thou?" Compare
also Song of Sol. v. 16. The correct meaning was long ago seen by
_Calvin_: "There is," says he, "an expressiveness in this word. For
often, when women prostitute themselves, they complain that they have
done it on account of the too great severity of their husbands, and
that they are not treated by their husbands with sufficient kindness.
But if a husband delight in having his wife with him, if he treat her
kindly and perform the duties of a husband, she is then less excusable.
Hence, it is this most heinous ingratitude of the people that is here
expressed, and set in opposition to the infinite mercy and kindness of
the Lord." For a still better insight into the meaning of the first
half of this verse, we subjoin the _paraphrasis_ by _Manger_: "Seek
thee a wife in whom thou art to have thy delight, and whom thou art to
treat with such love, that, even if she, by her unfaithfulness, violate
the sacred rights of matrimony, and thou, for that reason, canst no
longer live with her, [Pg 277] she shall still remai