EXPOSITION
After another pause, the prophet enters on another elaborate parallel, after the pattern of Ezekiel 16:1-63; but with a marked variation. There we have the history of one harlot, s.c. of Israel in its collective unity. There we have two sister harlots, the daughters of one mother, and they are Samaria and Jerusalem, as both belonging to Israel. For the purpose of the parable, they are represented as having had a separate existence, even during the period of the sojourn in Egypt. This was probably historically true, the line of cleavage caused by the claims of Ephraim to supremacy appearing again and again long before the revolt of the tea tribes under Jeroboam ( 8:1; 12:1; 2 Samuel 19:43). Both were alike tainted with idolatry, as in the history of the golden calf, when they came out of Egypt (comp. Ezekiel 16:7; Ezekiel 20:7, Ezekiel 20:8). Yet even then Jehovah, like Hoses in the personal history which was to be to him as a parable of that of Israel, had compassion on them, harlots though they were (Hosea 1:2). They became his, and "bare sons and daughters."