names which he gives to the children born by the adulterous wife. In chap. ii. 1-3, there follows the announcement of salvation more directly, and only with a simple allusion to the symbol. * * * * * Ver. 1. "_The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel._ Ver. 2. _At the beginning when the Lord spake to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms; for the land is whoring away from the Lord._" דִּבֶּר is never a noun--not even in Jer. v. 13--but always the 3d pers. _Pret. Piel_. The _status constr._ תחלת is explained by the fact, that the whole of the following sentence is treated as one substantive idea: the beginning "of the Lord hath spoken," [Pg 199] etc., for "the beginning of speaking." יום דבר יהוה, _the day of_ "_the Lord spoke_," instead of, "the day on which the Lord spoke." Similar constructions occur also in Is. xxix. 1, and Jer. xlviii. 6.--The _Fut._ with _Vav Conv._, ויאמר, "and then He spoke," carries forward the discourse, as if there had preceded: the Lord began to speak to Hosea. There is here a _constructio ad sensum_. It is intentionally, and in order the more distinctly to point out the idea of the beginning, that the prophet has made use of the noun תחלת, not of the verb. The construction of דבר with ב, with the signification "to speak to some one," may be explained thus:--that the words are, as it were, put into the mind of the hearer in order that they may remain there. Several interpreters erroneously translate, "spoke through:" others, following _Jerome_ (the last is _Simson_), "spoke in;" as if thereby the act of speaking were to be designated as an inward one. The difference between outward and inward speaking disappears in the vision; and, for this reason, we cannot imagine that there is any intention of here noticing it particularly. Everything which takes place in the vision is substantially, indeed, internal, but in point of form it is external. Moreover, דבר with ב several times occurs in other passages also, where the signification, "to speak to some one," is alone admissible. Thus 1 Sam. xxv. 39, where _Simson's_ explanation, "David sent and _ordered_ to speak _about_ Abigail," is set aside by ver. 40. The analogy of the construction of the verbs of hearing and seeing with ב is likewise in favour of our explanation.[1]--A wife of _whoredoms_ and _children of whoredoms_. The wife belongs to whoredoms in so far as she is _devoted to them_; the children, in [Pg 200] so far as they _proceed_ from them. For we cannot suppose that the children themselves are described as given to whoredom. Such a thought would here be altogether out of place. For whoredom is here only the general designation of adultery, as, by way of applying it to the case in