Hosea 2:9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof… God shews us that His gifts come from Him, either by giving them when we almost despair of them, or taking them away, when they are all but ours. It can seem no chance when He so doeth. The chastisement is severer also, when the good things, long looked for, are at the last taken out of our very hands, and that, when there is no remedy. "Recover My wool." God recovers and, as it were, delivers the works of His hands from serving the ungodly. While He leaves His creatures in the possession of the wicked, they are holden, as it were, in captivity, being kept back from their proper uses, and made the hand maidens and instruments and tempters to sin. It is against the order of nature to use God's gifts to any other end short of God's glory, much more, to turn God's gifts against Himself, and make them serve to pride, or luxury, or sensual sin. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. |