Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths - (Job 19:18; Lamentations 3:7; Lamentations 3:9, "He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out ... He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone"). The hinderances are referred to which the captivity interposed between Israel and her idols. The Hebrew is, literally, Behold I hedging. It expresses an immediate future, or something which, as being fixed in the mind of God, is as certain as if it were actually taking place. So swift and certain should be her judgments (Pusey).
She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. The words follow after and seek imply her intense eagerness and diligent search х wªridpaah (H7291) ... uwbiqshaatam (H1245)]. Since she attributes all her temporal blessings to idols, I will reduce her to straits in which, when she in vain has sought help from false gods, she will at last seek me as her only God and Husband, as at the first (Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 3:14, "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you;" Ezekiel 16:8).
Then - before Israel's apostasy, under Jeroboam I. The way of duty is hedged about with thorns; it is the why of sin that is hedged up with thorns. Crosses in an evil course are God's hedges to turn us from it. Restraining grace and restraining providences (even sicknesses and trials) are great blessings when they stop us in a course of sin. Compare the sanctifying effects of chastisement on the prodigal son, when they led him to resolve, Luke 15:14-18, "I will arise, and go to my father;" so here, "I will go, and return," etc.; crosses in both cases being sanctified to produce this effect.