Albert Barnes Commentary Hosea 2:3

"lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst." — Hosea 2:3 (ASV)

Lest I strip her naked - “There is an outward, visible nakedness and an inward, which is invisible. The invisible nakedness is when the soul within is bared of the glory and the grace of God.” The visible nakedness is the deprivation of God’s temporal and visible gifts, the goods of this world, or outward distinction.

God’s inward gifts the sinful soul or nation despises, while those outward gifts she prizes. And therefore, when the soul parts with the inward ornaments of God’s grace, He strips her of the outward—His gifts of nature, of His providence, and of His protection—so that perhaps, through her outward misery, shame, and poverty, she may come to feel that deeper misery, emptiness, and disgrace within, which she had lacked the will to feel.

So, when our first parents lost the robe of innocence, they knew that they were naked (Genesis 3:7).

And set her - (Literally, “I will fix her,” so that she will have no power to free herself but must remain as a spectacle) as in the day that she was born, that is, helpless, defiled, uncleansed, uncared for, unformed, cast out, and loathsome. Such she was in Egypt, which is spoken of in Holy Scripture as her birthplace (Ezekiel 16:4); for there she first became a people; from there the God of her fathers called her to be His people.

There she was naked of the grace and love of God, and of the wisdom of the law; indwelt by an evil spirit, as being an idolatress; without God; and under hard bondage, in works of mire and clay, to Pharaoh (the type of Satan), and her little ones a prey. For when a soul casts off the defense of heavenly grace, it is an easy prey to Satan.

And make her as a wilderness, and set her as a dry land, and slay her with thirst - The outward desolation, which God inflicts, is a picture of the inward. Drought and famine are among the four severe judgments with which God threatened the land, and our Lord forewarned them, Your house is left unto you desolate (Matthew 23:38); and Isaiah says, Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee (Isaiah 60:15).

But the prophet does not say, make her a wilderness, but make her as a wilderness. The soul of the sinner is solitary and desolate, for it does not have the presence of God; unfruitful, bearing only briars and thorns, for it is unbedewed by God’s grace, unwatered by the Fountain of living waters; thirsty, not with thirst for water, but of hearing the word of the Lord, yet also burning with desire, which the foul streams of this world’s pleasure never quench.

In contrast with such thirst, Jesus says of the Holy Spirit which He would give to those who believe in Him, Whosoever drinketh of the water, that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water, that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14; John 7:38–39).

“But was not that certain which God had said, I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel? How then does God recall it, saying, ‘Let her put away her fornications, etc., lest I do to her this or that which I have spoken?’ This is not unlike that, when sentence had been passed on Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel saying, This is the decree of the Most High, which is come upon my Lord the king; they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling; (Daniel 4:24–25).

The same Daniel says, Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and redeem thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility (Daniel 4:27).

What should we learn by this, but that it hangs upon our own will whether God suspends the judgment or not?

For we should not impute our own evil to God, or impiously think that fate rules us. In other words, this or that evil comes, not because God foreknew or foreordained it; but, because this evil was to be, or would be done, therefore God both foreknew it and prefixed His sentence upon it.

Why then does God predetermine an irrevocable sentence? Because He foresaw incorrigible malice. Why, again, after pronouncing sentence, does God counsel amendment? That we may know by experience that they are incorrigible.

Therefore, He waits for them, although they will not return, and with much patience invites them to repentance.”

Individuals also repented, although the nation was incorrigible.