Hos 2:14

“"Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope." LXX: "Therefore, behold, I will seduce her, and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart." Because we have said "to open hope," and the Septuagint translated "to open his understanding," Symmachus interpreted it "into the door of hope," that is, "into the gateway of hope," Theodotion "to renew her patience," that is, "to open her expectation." After the disgrace of Jerusalem, or the whore of Judaea, was revealed in the eyes of her lovers, and the entire solemnity had ceased, whether drought or hail had corrupted the vineyard and fig tree, and reduced it to forests and barren trees devoured by beasts, and the Lord had inflicted torture and torment on her; for she had ignited incense for the demons of the Baals, and did not believe that she could rise from the ashes and embers anymore, then, that is, in the coming of His Son Christ, he will open up the hope of salvation and provide room for repentance, and he will speak kindly to her: for this is what "I will give her milk" means; so that, after the magnitude of punishments, he may assuage her earlier pains with the promise of prosperity. "And I will lead her," he said, "into solitude," that is, I will bring her out of hardships, just as I had led [the people] out of Egyptian slavery previously: "and I will speak to her heart" gentle words, consoling words, so that I may temper sadness with joy, according to the idiom of the Scriptures, by which words Sichem spoke to Dinah's heart (Gen. 34), and Joseph in Egypt to his sad and fearful brothers (Gen. 40), so that mourning may be changed into joy. Quod sequitur.”

“"Behold, I will mislead her" not from what is necessary and useful to life … but from the things that are shameful and harmful to the fulfillment of any enjoyment.… And as her ways are usefully hedged around with thorns so that she may not lay hold of her lovers, in the same manner she believes herself—now running downhill toward ruin and destruction—to be led astray by the mercy of God when she is brought to desire virtue. Having received the light of the knowledge of God in mind and heart, as I said, she is no longer able to find her old path.”

“We who have Christ, the author of necessary things dwelling inside the heart, were at once enriched in every kind of virtue, and in the abundant and inalienable possession of the spiritual gifts.… He promises to speak in her heart. For the synagogue of the Judeans, exactly as the church from the nations, will be called to awareness by taking into mind the divine laws inscribed through the Spirit.”