But that this comes into consideration only as one especially desolate, and not as the former abode of the Israelites, appears from the following--"in dry land," without the Article, and not, as otherwise we would expect, "in _the_ dry land." _Finally_,--We have a parallel to this in the threatening in Deut. xxviii. 48: "And thou servest thine enemy whom the Lord thy God will send upon thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in great want." Ver. 6. "_And I will not have mercy upon her children, for they are children of whoredoms._" It appears from ver. 7, that the children are to be repudiated on account of their origin (compare the remarks on i. 2), and not on account of their morals. _Michaelis_ says, "They have the same disposition, and follow the same course as their adulterous mother; for a viper bringeth forth a viper, and a bad raven lays a bad egg." The cause of their rejection is, that they are children of whoredoms. That they are such, is proved by the circumstance that their mother is whoring. Compare also v. 7: "They have become faithless to the Lord, for they have born strange children." In point of fact, however, a sinful origin and a sinful nature are identical. Ver. 7. "_For their mother has been whoring, she who bore them has been put to shame; for she has said, I will go after my lovers, the givers of my bread and my water, of my wool and my flax, of my oil and my drink._" הובישה is explained in a two-fold way. The common explanation is: "She has practised what is disgraceful, she has acted [Pg 237] shamefully." Others, on the contrary, explain: "She has been put to shame, she has been disgraced." In this latter way it is explained by _Manger_, who remarks, "that this word is stronger than זנה; that it implies not only an accusation of vile whoredom, but also that she has been convicted of this crime, and as it were apprehended _in flagranti_; so that, even if she were yet impudent enough, she could no longer deny it, but must sink down in confusion and perplexity." This latter exposition is, without doubt, the preferable one; for, 1. הוביש never occurs in the first-mentioned signification. _Winer_ contents himself with quoting the passage before us. _Gesenius_ refers, moreover, to Prov. x. 5. But the בן מביש of that passage is evidently a son bringing disgrace upon his parents,--in xxix. 15 אמּו is added,--or making them ashamed, disappointing their hopes. On the other hand, the signification, "to be put to shame," "to be convicted of a disgraceful deed," is quite an established one. Compare, _e.g._, Jer. ii. 26: "As the disgrace of a thief when he is found, thus the whole house of Israel is _put to shame_;" Jer. vi. 15: "They are put to shame, for they have committed abomination; they shamed not themselves, they felt no shame;" compare also Jer. viii. 9. In all these passages, הוביש signifies the shame forced upon those who have no sense of shame.--2. The signification,