Hosea 2:16,17 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

I can never say enough on the blessedness contained in these words of the Lord Jesus. I say the Lord Jesus; for evidently they are his words. It was neither the person of the Father, nor of the Holy Ghost, that married our nature, by taking a portion of it into union with the Godhead; but it was Jesus: Hence he is emphatically called, the Husband of his people. And there is an uncommon degree of tenderness in the expression Ishi. And thankful I desire to be to the Lord, not only for his unparalleled condescension in calling himself by that name; but also for watching over the Church when the translators of our English Bible were mercifully raised up, and commissioned to translate the scriptures from the original Hebrew into our mother tongue, that they preserved the sweet word of Hebrew Ishi, in its own state, and gave it to us as it is in our Bibles. It is indeed a blessed word, when graciously spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ of himself, and hath a most sweet and loving signification. The word Ishi, and the word Baali, both may be translated Husband: and so the word Baali is rendered in Isaiah. Isaiah 54:5. Thy Maker is thine husband. But there is in Baali somewhat of a lordship, or authority, more than in Ishi. And we cannot with propriety say, Baali, my man; but rather it is my Lord. Whereas Ishi more particularly means, my man. As if Jesus would be known to his Church by that endeared name. And I venture to believe, that this injunction of our Lord Jesus to call him Ishi, had respect to the days of Christ's flesh, when he would in a yet more eminent and endeared manner be known unto his Church and people as the Ishi, that is, the man Christ Jesus. The Reader will forgive me, I hope, if I add one observation more upon this sweet word Ishi. It is well known, that the word of itself contains one of the letters of Jehovah. And this is the highest honor that can be given to any name; so much so, that when at any time (as in the case of Jeconiah, afterwards called Coniah) if the letter be withdrawn it became a decided evidence of divine displeasure. See Jeremiah 22:24. His name had been Jeconiah, but now he hath lost the first and distinguishing letter Jah, he is now only Coniah. So that Ishi, being formed with one of the letters which belongs to the incommunicable name of Jehovah, carried with it great dignity, and implied man's relation to Christ. It is no less certain that the feminine of the Woman in the original hath the same honor, and is a symbol of God's grace in her. So that when, as in the Lord's original appointment, the Man and Woman are united to each other in the Lord; both then having this character in their names, and both being by grace as well as nature united to Him and in Him, they are blessed in Him, and have all blessings from Him, to their mutual joy and comfort. But if their union be only in nature, and not in grace; not formed in Christ; and not from Christ; thus they lose this distinguishing letter in their name, and the word is no longer in the man or woman Ishi, but Esh, that is fire; consuming and destroying one another.