Hosea 2:19,20 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

I will betroth thee unto me for ever I will treat thee, who hast been a harlot, like a wife, if hereafter thou become faithful to me. Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, &c. Bishop Horsley translates these verses thus: To myself I say, I will betroth thee with justice, and with righteousness, and with exuberant kindness and with tender love. With faithfulness to myself, I say, I will betroth thee, and thou shalt know the Jehovah. The passage, it seems, maybe paraphrased as follows: I will betroth, or take, thee unto me in a way that shall display, or make manifest, my righteousness, or the regard I have to justice and holiness, my beneficence, or inclination to make my creatures happy, my mercy in forgiving offences committed against me, and my faithfulness in fulfilling my promises, and verifying my declarations. And thou shalt know the Lord Experience the exuberant goodness of Jehovah; shalt find that he is and wilt be a gracious Lord to thee. One especial part of the new covenant consists in imparting to the faithful a more perfect knowledge of God as a sin-pardoning God, and of his will and their own duty: see Jeremiah 31:31-34.