a. Therefore I have delivered her into the hands of her lovers: Because Israel gave herself to foreign gods and morals, God allowed them to be conquered by those foreign nations. It was God’s way of saying, “You reject Me and lust after these; now you must be conquered by them and live under them.” i. “Throughout the Scriptures it may be discerned that divine retribution operates in such a way that the source of sinful pleasure becomes the source of punishment. Samaria’s