Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Plead with your mother, plead - The prophets close the threats of coming judgments with the dawn of after-hopes; and from hopes they go back to God' s judgments against sin, pouring in wine and oil into the wounds of sinners. The "mother" is the Church or nation; the "sons," are its members, one by one. These, when turned to God, must plead with their mother, that she turn also. When involved in her judgments, they must plead with her, and not accuse God. God "had not forgotten to be gracious;" but she "kept not His love, and refused His friendship, and despised the purity of spiritual communion with Him, and would not travail with the fruit of His will." : "The sons differ from the mother, as the inventor of evil from those who imitate it. For as, in good, the soul which, from the Spirit of God, conceiveth the word of truth, is the mother, and whoso profiteth by hearing the word of doctrine from her mouth, is the child, so, in evil, whatsoever soul inventeth evil is the mother, and whoso is deceived by her is the son. So in Israel, the adulterous mother was the synagogue, and the individuals deceived by her were the sons."
"Ye who believe in Christ, and are both of Jews and Gentiles, say ye to the broken branches and to the former people which is cast off, "My people," for it is your brother; and "Beloved," for it is "your sister." For when Romans 11:25-26 the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, then shall all Israel be saved. In like way we are bidden not to despair of heretics, but to incite them to repentance, and with brotherly love to long for their salvation" .
For she is not My wife - God speaketh of the spiritual union between Himself and His people whom He had chosen, under the terms of the closest human oneness, of husband and wife. She was no longer united to Him by faith and love, nor would He any longer own her. Plead therefore with her earnestly as orphans, who, for her sins, have lost the protection of their Father.
Let her therefore put away her whoredoms - So great is the tender mercy of God. He says, let her but put away her defilements, and she shall again be restored, as if she had never fallen; let her but put away all objects of attachment, which withdrew her from God, and God will again be All to her.
Adulteries, whoredores - God made the soul for Himself; He betrothed her to Himself through the gift of the Holy Spirit; He united her to Himself. All love, then, out of God, is to take another, instead of God. "whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides Thee." "Adultery" is to become another' s than His, the Only Lord and Husband of the soul. Whoredom is to have many other objects of sinful love. Love is one, for One. The soul which has forsaken the One, is drawn here and there, has manifold objects of desire, which displace one another, because none satisfies. Hence, the prophet speaks of "fornications, adulteries;" because the soul, which will not rest in God, seeks to distract herself from her unrest and unsatisfiedness, by heaping to herself manifold lawless pleasures, out of, and contrary to the will of, God.
From before her - Literally "from her face." The face is the seat of modesty, shame, or shamelessness. Hence, in Jeremiah God says to Judah, "Thou hadst a harlot' s forehead; thou refusedst to be ashamed" Jeremiah 3:3; and "they were not at all ashamed, neither will they blush" Jeremiah 6:15. The eyes, also, are the "windows" Jeremiah 9:21, through which "death," i. e., lawless desire, "enters into" the soul, and takes it captive.
From her breasts - These are exposed, adorned, degraded in disorderly love, which they are employed to allure. Beneath too lies the heart, the seat of the affections. It may mean then, that she should no more gaze with pleasure on the objects of her sin, nor allow her heart to dwell on tilings which she loved sinfully. Whence it is said of the love of Christ, which should keep the soul free from all unruly passions which might offend him Song of Songs 1:13, "My Well-beloved shall lie all night between my breasts Song of Songs 8:6, as a seal upon the heart" beneath.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Micah 2:13
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