It is in my desire, &c.— Houbigant renders it, I will come and chastise them: the nations shall assemble against them, when I shall chastise them for their two transgressions; meaning the two calves of Dan and Beth-el.
In their two furrows— Those who adopt these words in their literal sense seem to agree, that the image which the clause presents is that of a pair of heifers yoked to the plough; which I take to be erroneous. For the furrows are two: when they shall bind themselves, or shall be bound to or upon their two furrows. But a plough, though dragged by a pair of heifers, makes but one furrow at a time; and this is the one furrow of both heifers. If furrows be the true sense of the word עונות onoth, I am inclined to think the being bound, or confined, to their two furrows may be a proverbial expression, not much unlike the more homely proverb of our own language, of "an ass between two bundles of hay;" describing the situation of a person fluctuating in his choice between two things, of which he must choose one. In like manner, the situation of extreme difficulty to which the Israelites were reduced under their latter kings, without any human means of relief, but in the choice of one of the two alliances, between which they were ever fluctuating, that of Assyria and that of Egypt, may be represented under the image of an animal tethered by a short rope, in such a manner that its utmost liberty of feeding is but the breadth of a single ridge between two furrows, one on the one side, one on the other. The only objection of which I am aware, to this interpretation of the image, is, that pasture-grounds are not usually laid down in ridge and furrow, and animals are not usually tethered to feed in corn-land.
But if the original word be taken to signify iniquities, or faults, the passage may be brought to the same general meaning, dismissing the image of a tethered animal, and rendering—when they are tied to their two faults, or, with the Syriac,—their two follies. The two alliances already mentioned might be called the two faults of the people, as both were repeatedly reprobated by the prophets, and yet the people were always courting the one or the other of them. Or they might be called their two follies: for they never formed the one or the other, but they experienced the folly of the measure. Their ally, whichever of the two they chose, always proved a treacherous friend; and yet the name of an alliance with one always drew down the resentment and vengeance of the rival power. They were tied to these two faults, or two follies, when, by God's just desertion of them, they were cut off from all prospect of any better aid, than one or the other of these alliances might offer to their hopes, and felt themselves obliged to make a choice.