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Dear Sir, Since your mind is turned to the prophecy of Hosea, will you excuse the freedom I take in submitting the following for your consideration. Hosea 2:6 "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall that she shall not find her paths". Thus the Israelites when dispersed among the heathen, would not return to their own land, nor unclear the same worries and unclear as formerly. Ver 7. And she shall follow after her lovers, and she shall not overtake them and shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall shall [sic] she say I will go and return to my first husband; for there was it better with me than now." The captive Israelites, not being able to find their former pleasures and associates in idolatry, resolved to quit the company and practices of the heathen, in some degree at least and return to God. (See 1 Esdras 13 ch.) Ver 8-12. "For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine & oil, and multiplied her silver and her gold, which she prepared for Baal" & to the 12th verse.