Hos 2:6

“Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will fence it with a wall, and she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now. " The LXX: "Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop up her paths: and she shall not find her way. And she shall pursue her lovers, and shall not take them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now." The prostitute said: "I will follow after my lovers, who gave me abundance of all things. The Lord answered: "I will hedge thy way with thorns, or with stakes, that thou mayest not be able to go where thou desirest, and I will set a wall, or a rampart, and thou shalt not find the paths which thou hast trodden so often, that thou mayest apprehend those whom thou followedst with such great eagerness, so that, obliged by necessity of affairs thou mayest return to thy husband, and say that from the Gospel: 'How many hired servants in my father's house abound with bread, and I perish here with hunger. I will arise and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, I am not worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants.'" From which we understand that the providence of God often happens to us as evils, so that we may not have those things which we desire, and oppressed with various calamities and miseries of this age, we may be compelled to return to the service of God. But let us understand that the lovers of Jerusalem and the Jewish people, according to the history of that time, include the Assyrians and Chaldeans and Egyptians and other nations, with whose idols they committed fornication, from whom in times of war, and from whom they vainly hoped for help in pressing evils. These lovers, according to spiritual understanding, follow heretics, from whom they are often deserted, and return to the bosom of Mother Church burdened with the weight of their misfortunes. For through all scourges and torments, Israel is taught.”

“Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed God's concern and providence toward us. He speaks of the image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardor to the worship of idols. She says, "I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink." The divine condescension replies, with a view to her salvation and not to her will, "Behold, I will hedge in her paths with thorns, and I will hedge her in with a wall, and she will not find her ways. And she will pursue her lovers and not lay hold of them, and she will seek them and not find them, and she will say, 'I will return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.' "”

“For hence is that which the Lord says, under the character of every soul, to Judaea who is weak, and walking in evil ways; "Behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will hedge it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths, and she shall follow after her lovers, and she shall not overtake them, and she shall seek them, and not finding them shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now." For the ways of the Elect are hedged up with thorns, when they find the pain of piercing in that which they desire in this world. He obstructs, as it were, by interposing a wall, the ways of those, whose desires the difficulty of attainment opposes. Their souls truly seek their lovers, and find them not, when by following malignant spirits, they do not gain hold of those pleasures of this world, which they desire. But it is well added that she says immediately in consequence of this very difficulty; "I will go and return to my former husband, for then it was better with me than now." For the Lord is the first husband, Who united to Himself the chaste soul, by means of the love of the Holy Spirit. And the mind of each one then longs for Him, when it finds manifold bitternesses, as thorns in those delights, which it desires in this world. For when the mind has begun to be stung by the adversities of the world which it loves, it then understands more fully, how much better it was for it with its former husband. Those then, whom an evil will perverts, adversity frequently corrects.”

“For there are some who understand the good things they ought to do, but cease from doing them; they see what they ought to do, but do not follow it out of desire. To these, as we said above, it often happens that the adversity of this world strikes them in their carnal desires; they try to grasp temporal glory and cannot; and while they propose to sail through the deep waters, as it were, toward the greater concerns of this age, they are always driven back by contrary winds to the shores of their own dejection. And when they see themselves broken in their desires, with the world opposing them, they are reminded what they owe to their Creator, so that they return to Him with shame, whom they had abandoned in their pride for love of the world. For often some who wish to advance toward temporal glory either waste away in prolonged illness, or fall crushed by injuries, or are afflicted when struck by heavy losses, and in the sorrow of the world they see that they should have placed no confidence in its pleasures, and reproaching themselves for their own desires, they turn their hearts to God. Of these indeed the Lord says through the prophet: "Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will wall it in with a barrier, and she shall not find her paths; and she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; she shall seek them, and shall not find them, and she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then than now." The husband of every faithful soul is God, because she is joined to Him through faith. But that soul which had been joined to God follows after her lovers, when the mind which has already believed through faith still subjects itself in action to unclean spirits, seeks the glory of the world, feeds on carnal delight, and is nourished by exquisite pleasures. But often almighty God mercifully looks upon such a soul and mingles bitterness with her pleasures. Hence He says: "Behold, I will hedge up your ways with thorns." For our ways are hedged with thorns when in what we wrongly desire we find the pricks of pain. "And I will wall them in with a barrier, and she shall not find her paths." Our ways are walled in with a barrier when hard obstacles in this world resist our desires. And we cannot find our paths, because we are prevented from obtaining what we wrongly seek. "And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; she shall seek them, and shall not find them"; because the soul does not at all attain the fulfillment of her desires from the malign spirits to whom she had subjected herself in her desires. But what great benefit arises from this salutary adversity He adds when it follows: "And she shall say: I will go and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then than now." Therefore, after she finds her ways hedged with thorns, after she cannot overtake her lovers, she returns to the love of her first husband, because often after we cannot obtain what we want in this world, after we grow weary in earthly desires from their impossibility, then we bring God back to mind, then He who displeased us begins to please; and He whose precepts had been bitter to us suddenly becomes sweet in memory; and the sinful soul who had tried to be an adulteress, yet could not through open act, resolves to be a faithful wife. Those therefore who, broken by the adversities of this world, return to the love of God and are corrected from the desires of the present life—what are they, my brothers, but compelled to enter?”