John Calvin Commentary Hosea 2:6

"Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths." — Hosea 2:6 (ASV)

The Prophet here continues with the subject we touched upon yesterday; for he shows how necessary chastisement is when people congratulate themselves in their vices. And God, when He sees that people do not immediately confess their sins, defends, as it were, His own cause, like one pleading before a judge. In short, God here shows that He could not do otherwise than punish such great obstinacy in the people, as there appeared no other remedy.

Therefore, He says, behold I — There is a special meaning in these words, for God testifies that He becomes the avenger of ungodliness when people are brought into difficulties. It is as though He said, “Though the Israelites are not ready to confess that they suffer justly, yet I now declare that to punish them will be My work, when they are deprived of their pleasures, and when the source of their pride is removed from them.”

And He intimates by the metaphorical words He uses that He would deal with them in such a way as to keep the people from wandering after their idols, as they had done until now; but He retains the comparison to a harlot. Now when an unfaithful wife goes after her lovers, the husband must either overlook her behavior or be unaware of her shameful conduct. However this may be, wives cannot violate the marriage vow in this way unless they are given freedom by their husbands. But when a husband understands that his wife is promiscuous, he watches her more closely, observing all her movements day and night. God now uses this comparison: I will close up, He says, her way with thorns, and surround her with a mound, so that no way of access may be open to adulterers.

But by this comparison, the Prophet means that the people would be reduced to such difficulties that they might not indulge excessively in their superstitions, as they had done. For while the Israelites enjoyed prosperity, they thought everything was permissible for them; hence their complacency, and hence their contempt for the word of the Lord. By hedge, then, and by thorns, God means those adversities by which He restrains the ungodly, so that they may cease to flatter themselves and may not thoughtlessly follow their own superstitions, as they were previously accustomed to do. She shall not then find her ways; that is, “I will constrain them so to groan under the burden of afflictions, that they shall no longer, as they have done until now, give themselves free rein.”