Hosea
Ver. 7. " And I will favour the house of Judah, and save them through Jehovah their God; and I will not save them through bow, and sword, and war, through horses and through horsemen" By a reference to the opposite lot awaiting Judah, all false trust in the mercy of God is taken away from the Israelites. From the fact that deliverance is promised to the kingdom of Judah throuirh Johovah its God, Israel is to learn that Jehovah is no longer its own God, but that He has dissolved His covenant with the idolatrous race. The expression, " through ♦Jehovah their God," instead of the pronoun " through me" (as, for example, in Gen. xix. 24), is introduced with special emphasis, to show that Jehovah only extends His almighty help to those who acknowledge and worship Him as their God.1 And what follows, viz. " I will not save them by bow," etc., also serves to sharpen the punishment with which the Israelites are threatened; for it not only implies that the Lord does not stand in need of weapons of war and military force, in order to help and save, but that these earthly resources, on which Israel relied (ch. x. 13), could afford no defence or deliverance from the enemies who would come upon it. Milchdmdh, " war," in connection with bow and sword, does not stand for weapons of war, but u embraces everything belonging to war — the skill of the commanders, the bravery of heroes, the strength of the army itself, and so forth" (Hengstenberg). Horses and horsemen are specially mentioned, because they constituted the main strength of an army at that time. Lastly, whilst the threat against Israel, and the promise made to Judah, refer primarily, as ch. ii. 1-3 clearly show, to the time immediately approaching, when the judgment was to burst upon the kingdom of the ten tribes, that is to say, to that attack upon Israel and Judah on
1 " The antithesis is to be preserved here between false gods and Jehovah, who was the God of the house of Judah. For it is just as if the prophet had said: Ye do indeed put forward the name of God; but ye worship the devil, and not God. For ye have no part in Jehovah, i.e. in that God who is the Creator of heaven and earth. For He dwells in His temple; He has bound up His faith with David," etc.— Calvix.
the part of the imperial power of Assyria, to which Israel succumbed, whilst Judah was miraculously delivered (2 Kings xix.; Isa. xxxvii.); it has also a meaning which applies to all times, namely, that whoever forsakes the living God, will fall into destruction, and cannot reckon upon the mercy of God in the time of need.
Vers. 8, 9. u And she weaned Unfavoured, and conceived, and bare a son. And He said, Call his name Not-my-people; for ye are not my people, and I will not he yours." If weaning is mentioned not merely for the sake of varying the expression, but with a deliberate meaning, it certainly cannot indicate the continued patience of God with the rebellious nation, as Calvin supposes, but rather implies the uninterrupted succession of the calamities set forth by the names of the children. As soon as the Lord ceases to compassionate the rebellious tribes, the state of rejection ensues, so that they are no longer u my people," and Jehovah belongs to them no more. In the last clause, the words pass with emphasis into the second person, or direct address, " I will not be to you," i.e. will no more belong to you (cf. Ps. cxviii. 6; Ex. xix. 5; Ezek. xvi. 8). We need not supply ' Elohim here, and we may not weaken D?? 'T™ **> i^to u no more help you, or come to your aid." For the fulfilment, see 2 Kings xvii. 18.
Vers. 10, 11 (Heb. Bib. ch. ii. 1-3). To the symbolical action, which depicts the judgment that falls blow after blow upon the ten tribes, issuing in the destruction of the kingdom, and the banishment of its inhabitants, there is now appended, quite abruptly, the saving announcement of the final restoration of those who turn to the Lord.1
1 The division adopted in the Hebrew text, where these verses are separated from the preceding ones, and joined to the next verse, is opposed to the general arrangement of the prophetic proclamations, which always begin with reproving the sins, then describe the punishment or judgment, and close with the announcement of salvation. The division adopted by the LXX. and Vulg., and followed by Luther (and Eng. ver.: Tr.), in which these two verses form part of the first chapter, and the new chapter is made to commence with ver. 3 (of the Hebrew), on account of its similarity to ver. 4, is still more unsuitable, since this severs the close connection between the subject-matter of ver. 2 and that of ver. 3 in the most unnatural way.
It might appear as though I o made the patriai increase of Israel, w
I the in lse neurit y. ii nut which Wt leas" with ilmost -•n this announ I of u ness of th i in the (!hal i ih, through it i into the i nit with th< I
Israel will be Followed bi the Lord V. p, 1 1./ \dah m
•.1 admh and I ra I, presupi
Jadah will find itself intl I; that hal it w ill I fOf*L The object of the anion b op oat of the The i I to mind the the twelve ti I! rael out Flic turn to J ip oat of the I LO,
! to ling it through the desert to ( ' paralh drawn! d it and the leading up out of] pt in the olden time, It u true that the banishment of tl: i but it followed as elearlj m the banishment into the land of t: kh which even M< sea had thr ened the people in the case of continu* wi.
and Deilt xxviii.). | ' had, in fact. ly described the banishment of a 1st 1 among tl.then in words, as carrying them hack into Egypt (Dent xxviii. 08), and had thereby intimated that Egypt was the type of the heathen world, in the midst of which Israel was to be scattered abroad. On the basis of these threatenings of the law, Hosea also threatens ungodly Ephraim with a return to Egypt in clu viii. 13 and ch. ix. 3. And just as in these passages Egypt is a type of the heathen lands, into which Israel is to be driven away on account of its apostasy from the Lord; so, in the passage before us, Canaan, to which Israel is to be led up out of Egypt, is a type of the land of the Lord, and the guidance of them to Canaan a figurative representation of the reunion of
I ill:i, so is the ta which aw.
. the t: 'u and Benja ith tin as year* rolk I I med bul
I the mo ' -1 ■ was it a full of the words, I A the ing \ali ti ir G i, and hitherto has only bees ningSj which furnish a j fulfilment in the means difticull ing the applical in 1 P 10 and B into hann with this. When Peter quotes th<- words of this prophecy in tie, which nearly all modern i BUp] ii written and when of the calling of th- I the children of ( in Christ; thi terely an application to t! dies of what is affin limply the i f tlieir
• in Old T itament words, as Ilntlier and Wiesinger suppose, but an argument based upon the fundamental thought of this prophecy. Through its apostasy from God, Israel had become like the Gentiles, and had fallen from the covenant of grace with the Lord. Consequently, the re-adoption of the Israelites as children of God was a practical proof that God had also adopted the Gentile world as His children. w Because
> mean* exc! the tt alio were rocci congregation of Jch< on par* s, nan assover a:mt ut tlu*! promise mint alto:
incorporation commoner! with d ai the number of t: has been sj
• art still harden.irta, shall tur miencee with a call t aptly i
I raaHtee, By withdrawing the hleeai] Inch j grace in those wl vo been hun b apart from the children.
this mother. The summon nod to the children to o
Of reason with thifl mother, that she may give Dp her adult apposes that, although the mil i aa a wh( sunken in idolatry, the individual mem! nut all equally sla it, so as to have lost their susceptibility for the divine warning, or the possibility of conversion. Not only had the Lord reserved to Himself seven thousand in Elijah's time who had not bowed their knees to Baal, but at all times there were many individuals in the midst of the corrupt mass,
I abhorred idola I <canee the mother waa no
■ it-hova wu no longer her
I the inward, moral dissolution of I vrnin* idolatry » dtacribed aa « boredom ion becomes i waa more culpable th > I oredom U at ill nnk heaai ■ ith fcenntJiul innt v clothes axid costly ornament*, and ent i the Lord alto prevented and adornt luring the marriaf now take aw;. i the apoata'.;»ut her once more into e state of nakedness, I of the wii -of
Iera pression and bondage in E^rpt, when it wae gives
•ranee out of this bondage was the time of the; and the that of whoi. will no mere;. her an<l children ical, if we trace back the figurative drapery to it« actual. the punishment with which th ned •);
Ight is carried out still further fan |
:ress at fl reases leal in tasee that th find I.ers, *ho are sou itii m! >^A, ry with itrang possession^ putting that the and oil an tide a the land, which Israel i | from These
^hk I and nh inltipli L [go ranee of the fact hovah wa^ tfa se Lie- in. That
Jehovah 1. en the Ian I to J I impressed upon the minds of th. ie for all time, together with the recol-
I0Q of the mighty acts of the Lord, by the manner in which
- iel had been put in possession of Canaan; and not only had Moi.n and again reminded the Israelites most solemnly that it was He who gave rain to the land, and multiplied and ised its froitfulness and its fruits (compare, for example, Deut. vii. 13, XL 14, 15), but this was also perpetually called to their remembrance by the law concerning the offering of the first-fruits at the feasts. The words 'art lalbdal are to be taken as a nlati.use without 'other, though not in an 1 otbex " even though f ^CT? q i sense in itad from I allusion to at it /it il is a general gods in 1 K mpared to actual id ssings it received s^ Died t!
1 1 would take them away from it. %mrh\ 3VK
-•ETJ has the I in the sens* n, as it usually r possessii takes away the gifts then, not oi; I more painfully
. but rag:i pni nt far than u hon failure «'t' the crop. I the manner in which ' tin- iiu be land awaj from I 11.
is rendered fre< \y in tin- at it, with it, but su man
Qod for t Id, will be pal tame b ( i ill hcj thai the tin- in which the figurative i the backgn ami all Inr f''6tii> I ive tin;
days of joy, in which Israel was to rejoice before th I it i
God. To bring into prominence this character of the fea
BUTTS, u all her joy," is placed first, and the different festivals are mentioned afterwards. Chdg stands for the three principal festivals of the year, the Passover, Pentecost, and the feast of Tabernacles, which had the character of chdg, i.e. of feasts of joy pa)' excellence, as being days of commemoration of the great acts of mercy which the Lord performed on behalf of His people. Then came the day of the newT moon every
•\hich it celebrated in h Baals, thi it also tu [ Jehovah Into feat '.aals, a lays had tot
• se Baal was worshipped one, fi sense of t: idols initea I:". J. ii. 11;
of the l; 'I es is in which the sin is i t out in it^ d and i d with Hii ghteou anmcert thither, as in the day* >uthy and as in the day ichen $hi '-dine uj> out of the land o p?, therefore (not
», but, nevertheless, which Idkhtn never mea: is co-ordinate with the n in V and 9, and is connected primarily with the last clause of ver. 13. u Because the wife has forgotten God, He calls Himself to her remembrance again, first of all by punishment (vers. 6 and 9); then, when this has answered its purpose, and after she has said, I id it I speak to the heart, as applied ue wed itliful i i In-, ii I thil ssings. Manger has O^p as meaning " as soon as pooeaaoed, an l which rightfully belonged to the faithful wife, igh they had been * thful (1 fruitfulneas, of which i a, but with helpi and the army that against Ai elders, God sho. Joah of die calamity which 1 the whole nation, but the moans ping from the ban and BeoOfePDg the lost fa\«.u; Through the name Aekm thil fall memorial, how the Lord r Hii faTOUC to the church after expiation of the guilt 1 punishment of the transgressor.
And this divine mode of procedure will be repeated in all its:itial characteristics. The Lord will make the valley of troubling a door of hope, i.e. He will so expiate the sins of His church, and cover them with His grace, that the covenant of fellowship with Him will no more be rent asunder by them; or lie will so display His grace to the sinners, that compassion
•it itself even in throup
:• from i answered the 1 ' its rode mean master or loni ^tuor; and when c\
Iges, reveres, and loves Him, as He has revealed other hand, aha ic places iod or.
g other gods along with Jehovah, ■ essential dii o between Jehovah worship of God and idolaigion and heathenb mouthy and they art no more rem A toon ftt the nation ceases t ih Baal, the custom
. when this also is men* hero as the * eased, that the ab< I a work of tljat the hearty and tills with such a I coax* refined forms to take the
•inmaii'l i of the names of oth almo*:
tenant for i \cith the beasts the moving creatures of the t ■ ' reak in three classes of ben iere, a of the of hca\ ire to
Her animals of the land which breaking in piecei of the weapons of v. battle of t: for the extinction i of the instruments of war, hot alao <. m the land. th shahhar per tOMOM. This |! upon I.
xxvi is still furtlier expanded in. 25 th thee to myself in righteousness. went, and in rg). I Lord will now make a new urh aa U made
.toousneat as an attribute of < i.c right, whether in it* j istice, and fa •ok at the 001
£ that 0 coven air 0 part of tbe cbur
1 iod also premise* to show mercy and adds, u in faithfulness or 1 and ' v gives the promis* I no mora wliii-li heaven fulfils t ill things in: without 1 1 the kingdom of 1 bistorical significai moniesot the connected powers of tes as are sustained and moved 1 and moulding Sj used he: nary sense of the v to den 'ion as pardoned and rem ip o4 aaasaw atclf for era nromiai the ranuurki mi.io apoa thai j int at • i». i. 11 and ii. 1
Faithful for that very raaaon rhaatiain.
xxnmand of God be takea a * o Uvea in cor* faithful lore, and placea her in a -louncc her lovers, that ha M lead her Vi L-J contain the lymb© woman bilorod of her companion, and committing aduluty, as Jehovah L um to otker aoa\ vmbolical character of no command is evident from the nature of the command more especially from the peculiar i -/is not to I could hot himself, tlic closest inti- all possibility' of d< lanation of the divine command which foil A Jehovah
1 in m tit half of it in 1. kind of she was dt mtfa any man. Sitting is equivalent taming qui v indicates that this the hnshand9! sake, and that he imposes it upon her out of affection to her, to reform her and train her up as a faithful wife. &m> fWJ, to be or become a man'?, signifies conjugal or sexual connection with him. Commentators differ in opinion as to whether the prophet himself is included or not. In all probability he is not included, as his conduct towards the woman is simply indicated in the last clause. The distinction between n:r and bN6 fPn, fa that the former signifies intercourse with different paramours, the latter conjugal intercourse; here mi/i is rend* are arbitrary p: the worship uf J the J an « nd wi f the ii the I that, when tl. delh plunged filled them frith abhon a latry ( ' ch.
which, they conth rtheo with' out amona bovah-worship, and withoul a pri hood, c it is evident that by I * the ten trib tided, not only from the close connection between tin's prophecy and ch. i., win ly distil d from
Jiulah (ch. i. 7), hut also from tlie prosp Ct held out in vcr. 5,! Earael will return to David their king, which clearly points to the falling away of the ten tribes from the house of David. At the same time, as the carrying away of
> account as i tea to ' ' was I
The first section, in which the prophet demonstrates the necessity for judgment, by exposing the sins and follies of of Gt truthfulness towards they brea'' od reaches to bo aa to f "mi mm idea* Swearing to the breach <>f the secon fifth) the seventh, ami the sixth oommandn* the address passes Lther
: past inl • tOt r, to hr- ak, ngnift reeking in uj purpose of r issari as C'V'^C, i.e. as DHOldl followed a- m.- blood with the land mown r therein, of btxuii and birdi oj the X. icaste.* n t/ie fishes oj the sea perish." These words affirm not only that the inanimate but that the mural I ity of men causes the physical struction of all other cr A> God has j to man the dominion over all beasts, and over all the earth, that he may use it for the glory of God; so does He punish the wickedness of men by pestilences, or by the devastation of the earth. The mourning of the earth and the wasting away of the animals are the natural result of the want of rain and the great drought that ensues, such as was the case in the time of Ahab throughout the kingdom of the ten tribes (1 Kings xvii. 18), and judging from Amos i. 2, viii. 8, may have occurred repeatedly with the continued idolatry of the people. The*verbs are not
. i\. 1' -il without an article in tl finite in the Israel. The i that tl aid fall nd tl: by ni
Lnghter, either of ii n ol of t. n of the whole nut lorn
Tliis thought is cai i it still further in I I strop]
.Jehovah: my nation, that is to sa\. of Jehovah.
This nation hea for lack of the knowledge of God and Hi salvation. Haddaath {tlu knowledge) with tl. nite article
])oints back to daath EloJdm (knowledge of God) in ver. 1. This knowledge Israel might have drawn from the law, in which God had revealed Ilis counsel and will (Deut. xxx. 15), but it would not. It rejected the knowledge and forgot the law of its God, and would be rejected and forgotten by God in consequence. In 'attdh (thou) it is not the priests who are addressed — tlie custodians of the law and promoters of divine knowledge r ap by Jeroboam, with its ill ithood ( 1 Kingi of all I.»au
I would not (Insist from thi am. 1 the priests, from I y directed their soul, i.e. their in or dei that they might i good supply of sacrificial n
I viiKntlv uses the word chattdth^ which to designate the eating of the flesh of the >\ning nV f the: lift uj
■ be soul inythhi cherish s longii pur] f filling tl rish al
;h the retribution threat would fall apon the nee it woald happen to th< iple.
the fact that in \>t. 10 the firat clause still apj to t1 In tl the ] rophecj once to J> i The first cl to the prw a from the threat in \xvi. l<i. The following word
. to practii lorn (with the meanin the kal intensified as in ver. 18, not 1 » to whoredom), refers to the whole nation, and U t ken in its literal •. as the antithesis <5T1D] l6 p [Hires, to spread out, to increase in number, as in Ex. i. 12 and Gen. xxviii. 14. In the last clause ~>2'J7 belongs to Jehovah: they have given up keeping applies to the priests as well as to the people. Therefore God withdraws His blessing from both, so that those who eat are not satisfied, and those who commit whoredom do not increase.
The allusion to whoredom leads to the description of the
1 It is evident from this verse, that the sacrificial worship was maintained in the kingdom of Israel according to the ritual of the Mosaic law, and that the Tsraelitish priests were still in possession of the rights conferred by the Pentateuch upon Levitical priests.
idolatrous conduct of the people in the third strophe, v 11-14, which is introduced with a general sentence. Yer. 11. '• 117/ / ing an I wine and new wine take away the heart {the una
/: a itli is Licentiousness in the literal sense of the word, which is alwa I with debauchery. What is true of this, namely, that it weakens the mental power, shows
If in the folly of idolatry into which the nation has fallen.
I by the antithesis my ntt, the ns rah, the living God, and wood made into idols by the people. The next clai " and it is showin future events (higgld as in I xli. 22, • Cyril of Alexandria to refer to the ]»!". >f rhabdomancy, which he calls an invention of the
Chalds ting in this, that two r were hdd upright, and then Allowed to fall while forms of incantation were b and th • oracle was inferred from the w;iv in which they fell, whiti kwards, to the rigl ■ i the left. probably similar to I with tl wishing ro The probably includes both carnal and spiritual whoredom, since idolatry, \ i rship, was connected with licentiousness. The missing object to ~-" may easily be Bupplied from the s HTWC rUT, which differs from i withdraw from subjection to (iod. This whoredom is still further explained in the next verse. Yer. 1 u the tops of the moitntaine, and upon the hills th rn incen$<. poplar and
1 According to Herod, iv. 07. this kind of soothsaying was very common among the Scythians (s Another description of rhab- domancy is described by Abarbancl. according to Maimonides and Moses Mikkotz: cf. Marck and Kosenmuller on this passac
•uitJi, for their shadow therefore your daughters
('(/limit whoredom, and your daughters-in-law commit adult* <■, Mountain-tops and hills were favourite placefl for idolatrous w. rship: because men thought, that there they were nearer to heaven and to the deity (see at Dent. xii. 2). From a comparison o( these and other passages, e.g. Jer. ii. 20 and iii. 6, it is evident that the following words, "under oak," etc., are not to he understood as signifying that trees standing by themselves upon mountains and hills were selected as places for idolatrous worship; but that, in addition to mountains and hills, green shady trees in the plains and valleys were also chosen for this purpose. By the enumeration of the oak, the poplar (tibhneh, the white poplar according to the Sept. in loc. and the Vulg. at Gen. xxxvii. 30, or the storax-tree, as the LXX. render it at Gen. xxxvii. 30), and the terebinth, the frequent expression " under every green tree " (Deut. xii. 2, 1 Kings xiv. 23, Jer. ii. 20, iii. 6) is individualized. Such trees were selected because they gave a good shade, and in the burning lands of the East a shady place fills the mind with sacred awe. \& ^V, therefore, on that account, i.e. not because the shadow of the trees invites to it, but because the places for idolatrous worship erected on every hand presented an opportunity for it; therefore the daughters and daughters-in-law carried on prostitution there. The worship of the Canaanitish and Babylonian goddess of nature was associated with prostitution, and with the giving up of young girls and women (compare Movers, Phonizier, i. pp. 583, 595 sqq.).
Ver. 14. " I will not visit it upon your daughters that they commit whoredom, nor upon your daughters-in-law that they commit adultery; for they themselves go aside with harlots, and with holy maidens do they sacrifice: and the nation that does not see is ruined." God would not punish the daughters and daughters-in-law for their whoredom, because the elder ones did still worse. " So great was the number of fornications, that all punishment ceased, in despair of any amendment" (Jerome). With EH s2 God turns away from the reckless nation, as unworthy of being further addressed or exhorted, in righteous indignation at such presumptuous sinning, and proceeds to speak about it in the third person: for u they (the fathers and husbands, not ' the priests/ as Simson supposes, lilies came with their wii
.11 wives, was the climai elew li ^- A was aflerwwd" chosen m the seal of one form of idolatrous bippei tola, t! it into their monthi ramand d< of Jehovah is conn with the pn G 1 to hit) idols, and would i the dn;t should have what it I tod would hicli being in a the prey of f and wild
MJBJ, bound np with i that it up.
raim, the m< werfnl of the ten tribes, n frequently
I in the lofti( of thi I of the main as Bvei t to bring the
<>f Jehovah are addressed to the prophet re taken from the language of ordinary life, and simply mean: it may continue in its idolatry, the punishment will not long be delayed.
19. Th. so that they are put to shame became of their t n? from ^D, to fall off, degenerate, as in Jer. n. 21. Kjb is probably strong, intoxicating wine (cf. I<a. i. -22: Xali. i. 10); here it signifies the effect of this wine, viz. intoxication. Others take sdr in the usual sense of departing, after 1 Sam. i. 14, and understand the sentence conditionally: " when their intoxication is cone, they commit whoredom." But Hitzig has very properly objected to this, that it is intoxication which leads to licentiousness, m M by tl v n ith this explanat
I cially add] to the and the kind's ho the king and his court, aim.. »n. tin- nation the punishment thai will follow th< I and their idolatry, by which they have pli the people and kingdom headlong into and the kin;.. •,.i!y, in which the coonaellon and adjutant urroundin king are pro- bably included, the boo I 1 1. that la to say, th< the ten tri a family, 1 to h an I kingdom as a wh is nothing to warrant our understanding by the u ■" the heads of the hamm i not mean, It i with yon to know or to defend the right; nor, u JTe « < m iz 1 1 1 to hear the repi plaina in this
Ka re] but the judgment about to I rated by 1 1 to tcpifia (LXX.). The thought is this, The judgment will fall upon you; and Idk) fly to the j and the king's house, as the explanatory clause which follows clearly shows. It is impossible to determine with certainty what king's house is intended. Probably that of Zechariah or Menahem; possibly both, since Hosea prophesied in both reigns, and merely gives the quintessence of his prophetical addresses in his book. Going to Asshur refers rather to Menahem than to Z chariah (comp. 2 Kings xv. 19, 20). In the figures employed, the bird-trap (pack) and the net spread for catching birds, it can only be the rulers of the nation who are represented as a trap and net, and the birds must denote the people generally who are enticed into the net of destruction and roroe baa given a very good <
:o be called sportan. than watcl s of a rout: up in a narrow i.U-.-y. and upon the sum in in i rom i turn sscs, answering to the ' in \. n of
•. -a thought quite in bai with the i lvinc rid tip: undeniable; but kin.:. loins and tin- previous idolatrj I inctione 1 afr by whoredom] try. Th ir works do not allow them 1 their G the works i irely an emanati of the heart, and in their hearts the demon of whored (cf. ch. iv. 12), and the knowledge of the L rdis wanting; that is to say, the demoniacal power of idolatry has ta implete possession of the heart, and stilled the know! of the true God. The rendering, "they do not direct their actions to tin's," is incori and cannot be sustained by an appeal to the use of 33 £3 in Judg. xv. 1 and 1 Sam. xxiv. 8 sqq., or to Judg. iii. 28.
, can! Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their guilt; Judah has also stumbled with them" As the meaning "to answer," to bear witness against a person, is well established in the case of 3 nT->' (cf. Xum. xxxv. 30, Deut. xix. 18, and Isa. iii. 9), and D^cn n:y also occurs in Job xvi. 8 in this sense, we must retain the same meaning here, as Jerome and others have done. And there is the more reason for this, because the explanation based upon the LXX., kqX raTreLvcoOrjaeraL rj vftpL?, "the expreath! rael ought t<> ha
Ian children I id in t lu* mainten of the
•n, children whom the Lord could acknowledge tfl 11 i na. " ITk m \ moon will devour them,' i that wen offered it. T hi i: jroor ficial t • pocritictJ woi From bringing jon miration, will rather pr or ruin, c not
Bcial; but the berediU I rael, the land that fell to the ind boa holds, and from the of which they or of the trai I al by which the inhabit:, urning of the dancer that threatened them. I la then mply thai foea had invaded the land. G bealt
(of Saul; see at J<. wiii. 28) and Ramah (of Samn at Josh. wiii. 25) ' rated places on the north boundary of the tribe of Benjamin, which w< 11 adapted for signals, on account of their lofty situation. The introduction of these particular towns, which did not belong to the tribe of Israel, but to that of Judah, is intended to intimate that the enemy has already conquered the kingdom of the ten tribes,
1 It is very evident from this verse, that the feasts and the worship prescribed in the Mosaic law were observed in the kingdom of the ten tribes, at the places of worship in Bethel and Dan.
2 4* The sophar was a shepherd's horn, and was made of a carved horn; the tuba (chdtsdtsfrah) was made of brass or silver, and sounded either in the time of war or at festivals." — Jerome.
Jodah is of the! I.1 and Jodah in I ttion of it on tl rinoet i by th that th
'•ursed, much more he i (II old fall in its fullest = ' ~ which die Assyrian lath-pileser 'Til)
• the instruments; but no ruin or last diet- th the kingdom oi I I I '. which WSJ the Assyrians. >m those jud I 1 and Jodah will not be set
. until in their distress they seek their God, This thought ifl expanded in the next strophe (vers. 11-15). Ver. 11. u Ephrutim. hy ike judgment; / hat wUJiedf hat none according to statute" By the partici] 'dshuq and. the calamity is represented as a lasting condition, which the prophet saw in the spirit as having already begun. The two words are connected together even in Deut. xxviii. 33, to indicate the complete subjection of Israel to the power and oppression of its foes, as a punishment for falling away from the Lord. IFtsids mishpdt does not mean " of broken right,'' or u injured in its right" (Ewald and Hitzig), but "broken in pieces by the judgment" (of God), with a geni- in Is. i. passage.rs, as the wi
:i wr. Ii'. Ijo seen, so far as that which is pmft. an abscess. It has at also in.' en which the d ' indage ha oarchy and civil wai lent imple fact, that Jadah, which was ■ From theae evil. '.l>ed as • m. The disease of the two kin: was a]
d, inji and til, which destn I the vita] - anarchy in the k: ' hraim sought for I in epithet form the prophet him id applied the king of Assyria, not of I u Th ipp<>s,.s.
the fact that i]ijM-llati\-.
Jadah in the I half of the for fact that the prophecy had primrDyand principally: lo with Bphraun, and that Jndah was only cursorily d with min in the tropical nving <>r dri help u expected from Assyria, because the I raim, and like the young lion to tlic house of Judah: L I tear in 10; I ca rer.
In their affiici y w ill seek me ear) '//." Fori 'ire of the lion, wliich seizes it prey, and tears it in pieces without deliverance, see ch. xiii. 7 and Isa. v. 29. NfcfK denotes the carrying away of booty, as in 1 Sam. xvii. 34. For the fact itself, compare Deut. xxxii. 39. The first clause of ver. 15 is still to be interpreted from the figure of the lion. As the lion withdraws into its cave, so will the Lord withdraw into His own place, viz. heaven, and deprive the Israelites of His gracious, helpful presence, until they repent, i.e. not only feel themselves guilty, but feel the guilt by bearing the punishment.
Suffering punishment a in the sense ol c. omi but the I in in th oi M and j (I healing in the future
I [e will alto fulfil upon I ael. By the finition M after two da]. the third da;
aad certain them, o and tl i«l tli" linkin • ther wo nambera follon n the oil the v of what is to t within thi as in ti died nnmerical L9, expr higln I that I with.
Jewiah and Christ itore have tak nnml two daj. the third 'ally. The Rabbins which has not the three peri the tempi • mon, of t: I, and of the one to by the Messiah. Many of the fathers, on the other hand, and i the early Luth anmentatore, have found in them a prediction of the death of Christ and His resorrection on the third day. Compare, for example, <. ad h, /..
where this allusion is defended by a long series of undeniably weak arguments, and where a fierce attack is made, not only upon Calvin, who understood these words as " referring to the liberation of Israel from captivity, and the restoration of the church after two days, i.e. in a very short time;" but also upon Grotius, who found, in addition to the immediate historical allusion to the Israelites, whom God would soon liberate from their death-like misery after their conversion, a foretype, in consequence of a special divine indication, of the time "within which Christ would recover His life, and the church its hope." But any direct allusion in the hope here uttered to the death and
«ensc, and to fur was cone* i the Lord n ill bo fulfil in tli wly qu
J • is, in ti of the fii I oar I led in ch. fully elal lained;
In, in tl afterl of the i raption and culpability in ch. iv. v.,
>th of tli '.-1 moral corruption which hav i injurious, and the judgment about to fall upon the sinful 1. a and | In this, the condemnation of tin and tl. follow another throughout; but in Mich q way that in this Ion exposition the nt of t1 clearly indicated in t'. that in the 6. vi. 1-vii. 16)
the description of the I moral elation of the nation and its princes prevails; in the second (ch. viii. I the threatening of judgment comes into the foreground; and in the third (ch. ix. 10-xX. 11) evidence is adduced, how, from time immemorial, Israel has resisted the gracious guidance of God, so that nothing but the compassion ( can preserve it from utter annihilation. Each of these divisions may be subdivided again into three strophes.
The prophet's address commences afresh, as in ch. ii. 4, without any introduction, with the denunciation of the incurability of the Israelites. Vers. 4-11 form the first strophe.
•lis in the pov till and 10 make alive (compare Isa. xi. 4, lib - The las! * io pointing and dn i lion of the • 't yield any appropriate meaning. mid only be the judgments inflicted upon the nation; but neither the b under th<:;/. omitl aits this explanation.
KT ~*x eannoi mean ui Forth to die light;" norcanltu itand f *>, We must therefor rd the reading the ancient version. IWP "rtKJ *D&fc*D, "my judgment th forth like li original My penal judgment
I forth like the light (the tin- judgment infli upon tlu1 >iin the sun), that i ought to ha it and laid it to ph. iii. 5). The fid division of the words probabh » simply from an onsuitable remini of I*.
Th< d why God wbs oblig i to punish in this man than in bu v 7. But they I ' the ighbour, manifesting itself in right ' which has its roots in the kno • of as in cli. iv. 1. F< v the thought itself, compare the marks on the similar by the prophet Samuel
■rifices with which the wicked fancied they could cover their sins, that are here rejected as displeasing to God. and as abominations in His eg This is apparent also from the antithesis in ver. 7, viz. the reproof of their transgression of the covenant. flBJJ (they) are Israel and Judah, not the priests, whose sins are first referred to in ver. 9. DTS3 not "after the manner of men," or " like ordinary men," — for this explanation would only be admissible if nvri referred to the priests or prophets, or if a contrast were drawn between the rulers
1 The Vulgate in some of the ancient mss. has also judicium meum, instead of the judicia tua of the Sixtina. See Kennicott, Diss, gener. ed. Bruns. p. 55 sqq.
m in vital f th the 1 as was the mountain ca 'elaad or
5criptaon of thctu, and doca t ear to ha.
hi sit, at bigi. eah, tl ig was
I puttin ieath. '-^ so writfe hurrying thil and whom tl. command <>f tl the pri i ties ( f. Si hem was only a J- and not a prie>ts' city at all), this conclusion is founded upon the
1 The fii>- tiih has been entirely mi.-uiiderstood by the JAW.
bare confounded *gn3 with 1 the clause uml /?.
I3fl or 1X2" instead of "Ql"l) Itpus 6o6v. Jerome has also rendered 'Z~2 strangely, et quasi fauces (*3n3) latronum ])'irtice; <lotum. Luther, on the other hand, has caught the sense quite correctly on the whole, and simply rendered it rather freely: '• And the priests with their mobs are like footpads, wTho lie in wait for people. "
adopt-. u Iara ha a hanrest fur th h which th< the the ji. W
. 1 i ment shall come upon i ler passages, which aunoun I driving inl I and Judah,
! the captivity ol the be i Saviour.
flit i/ rrounded them, th uhave occurred before my face, jht the king with tl;ness, at nces with their It-. As the dangerous nature of a wound is often first brought out by the attempt to heal it, so was the corruption of Israel only brought truly to light by the effort to stem it. The first hemistich of ver. 1 is not to be referred to the future,
»i.jj hat € fallen; none anu and literal a worsbt ial promoted mtneaa.
a ba itl in I burning all n liurn with ■ • r Bane in ti irhen I
'■ - if accentuated as u Mi ither the kii d be ti ibljr ith the ft 1 in any than tha the
1 farther, 1 introduce! the explanati ground of the simile uf the furnace:: abordinate main thought, an I to bet hive jht their heart near, brought them into their crafti-
But it is not their heart. which is here compared to a a flaming furnace with be ires,'' as Qeeenini sun- pose the idea of brinj furnace into an 90rebh would be together NNith the eleven y Iiv l^iwcni Xechariah ression, 4' all their kingi hare fall dearly, oof only that tht' woi be limit these i bul embrace all the earlier revolutions, bal ilto and ^ t i 1 1 more urly, that then » foundation whai thewid
»rical interpretation of these verses, bating to i c spin uibt the then rei / chariah, ballnnij ox Pekahiah, which the 1 therMenahem
In the Dead itrophe 8 LB) the prophecy] from the intern option of the ki i of the ten tribee to iti licj, and the injurious attitude which it had rdi the heathen natrons, and unfolds the di consequen ma. Ver. 8. " /
I upon him, <in<i i bWmv, from ""-. to mil or oonuning no! ■ future in the f k- it will be disp reed among the ( tentilei;" for, according to the context, the i the punishment the dispersion of Israel anionic the nations, but to the State in which [srael then was. The Lord had separated Israel from the nations, that it might be bolyto Him I.. i.. -1, 26). As Balaam said of it, it was to be ople dwelling alone
(Num. wiii. (.';. Bnl in opposition to this object of its divine calling, the ten tribes had mingled with the nations, Le, with the heathen, learned their works, and served their idols (cf. Ps. cvi. 35, '>b*). The mingling with the nations consisted in the adoption of heathen ways, not in the penetration of the heathen into Israelitish possessions (Hitzig), nor merely in the alliances which it formed with heathen nations. For these were simply the consequence of inward apostasy from its God, of that inward mixing with the nature of heathenism which had already taken place. Israel had thereby become a cake not turned. RML a cake baked upon hot ashes or red-hot stones, which, if it be not turned, is burned at the bottom, and not baked at all above. The meaning of this figure is explained by ver. 9. As the fire will burn an ash-cake when it is left unturned, so have foreigners consumed the strength of Israel, tly by devastating wan, and partly by the heathenish nature which 1 penetrated into Israel in their train. **Grei sprinkled npon lt;w /.<. tl politi ed with 1 I hoari, and is ripening f v~- ig isily be mely, tl vour its strength, and it is growing old. The rendering I by the emphatic N~". and he knoweth it i the <1 ili.
•per dwelling and rocs Mir - about (Kwal er II but that when flying about in
35 pat is | fl pred ohraim in spit ■ *s and not to unmih phdtli ople engthening Bphrain i help from Egypt and i, Th ' be fad that there a n — an Assyrian and an Egyptian. Nor they mean that the who! plied at one time to
Egypt rid of Ass bur, and at another ti Asshnrto pe from Egypt " The situation is rather this: the people being sorely Ysshur, at one time seek help from
. • ust Aathur; whilst it another they try to secure the friendship of the latter n (Hengstenbexg, Chris tologyy i. p. ir»l braasL). Far what threatened Israel was the burden of the u king of princee" (cL viii. 10), i.e. the king of Aathur. And this they tried to avert partly by their coquettish arts (el). viii. 9), and partly by appealing to the help of Egypt; and while doing so, they did not observe that they had fallen into the net of destruction, viz. the power of Assyria. In this net will the Lord entangle them as a punishment. As they go thither, God will spread 1 1 is net over them like a bird-catcher, and bring them down to the earth like flying birds, i.e. bring them down from the open air, that is to say, from freedom, into the net of captivity, Of exile. D^p^N, a rare hiphil formation with Yod mobile, as in Prov. IT. 25 (see Ewald, § 131, c). "According to the tidings (announcement) to their assembly:" i.e. in accordance with the threatening already contained in the law (Lev. xxvi. 14 sqq.; Deut. xxviii. 15 sqq.), and repeatedly uttered to the congregation by the prophets, of the judgments that should fall upon the rebellious, which threatening would now be fulfilled upon Ephraim.
Ver. 13. " Woe to them! for they have flown from me; devastation to them! for they have fallen away from me. I xoould redeem them, but they speak lies concerning me. Yer. 14. They did not cry to me in their heart, but howl upon their beds; they crowd together for corn and new wine, and depart against me." The Lord, thinking of the chastisement, exclaims, Woe to them, because they have fled from Him! Nddad, which is applied to the flying of birds, points back to the figures employed in vers. 11, 12. Shod, used as an exclamation, gives the literal explanation of 9&i (woe). The imperfect 'ephdem cannot be taken as referring to the redemption out of Egypt, because it does not stand for the preterite. It is rather voluntative or optative. " I would (should like to) redeem them (still); but they say I cannot and will not do it." These are the lies which they utter concerning Jehovah, partly with their mouths and partly by their actions, namely, in the fact that they do not seek help from Him, as is explained in ver. 14. They cry to the Lord; yet it does not come from the heart, but Q3 after &6) they howl (W!t, cf. Ges. § 70, 2, note) upon their beds, in unbelieving despair at the distress that has come upon them.
into which tl. re plunged tl and kingdom. W,
I in the lies which they uttered con< •' rah the omnipotence and faithfulness of the Lord, ir stands, according to a dialectical difference in the mode of pronuncia- pt: ool they will fall in Egypt, or perish by the rd of the Egyptians; bat b< they pat their trust in
The coming judgment, via. the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, is predicted in th] containing a ition of the sins of Ksrael (ch. \iii. L— 7), a reference to the fall of the kingdom, which is already about to commence (tots. 8-14), and ■ warning against fall turity (ch. ix. L-9>.
in ch. v. 8, to the prediction of judgment. Vet, 1. u The trumpet to thy mouth '.! f Jehovah!
Th ntence of ver. 1 is an exclamation, and th< rb. The summons issues from Jehovah, as the suffixes in the last sentences show, and is addressed to the prophet, who is to blow the trumpet, as the herald of Jehovah, and give the people tidings of the approaching judgment (see at ch. v. 8). The second sentence gives the alarming message to be delivered: like an eagle comes the foe, or the judgment upon the house of Jehovah. The simile of the eagle, that shoots down upon its prey with the rapidity of lightning, points back to the threat of Moses in Deut. xxviii. 49. The " house of Jehovah" is neither the temple at Jerusalem (Jerome, Theod., Cyr.), the introduction of which here would be at variance with the context; nor the principal temple of Samaria, with the fall of which the whole kingdom would be ruined (Ewald, Sims.), since the temples erected for the calf-worship at Dan and Bethel are called Beth bdmdth, not Beth Yehovdh; nor even the land of Jehovah, either here or at ch. ix. 15 (Hitzig), for a land is not a house; but Israel was the house of Jehovah, as being a portion of the congregation of the Lord.
guilty. The way in which both of them pared the i the throne t in accordance frith die will i, bat i the gather n tribes when they fell av >m the in. And the other asurpei I like the two already whilst the people not onlj rebelL 1 against tl. tful heir to the throne at Solomon's death, from purr dislike to tl. bouse of David, which bed been appointed by & 1 iboam king, but npiesaml their approval of all subsequent sin, viz. the setting op of the idolatrous calf-worship on the part of J oa, to which all the kin I ad adhered. It in connection with this, that the application of the sih
I and silver) may be destroyed, as more full I in ver. 6.
describes the consequence of this conduct, which, though not designed, was nevertheless inevitable, as if it had been distinctly intended.
Ver. 5. " Thy c \lf a Is, 0 Samaria; my wrath is kindled aqainst them: how long are they incapable of purity? Ver. 6. / ■ this also is from Israel: a workman made it, and it is not God; hut the calf of Samaria will become splinters" Zdnach (disgusts) points back to ver. 3. As Israel felt disgust at what was good, so did Jehovah at the golden calf of Samaria. It is true that zdnach is used here intransitively in the sense of smelling badly, or being loathsome; but this does not alter the meaning, which is obvious enough from the context, namely, that it is Jehovah whom the calf disgusts. The calf of Samaria will be swallowed up. VVith thi • gh1 the still faith Mt in the is inl \ r. 8« M l idTance in the thn aniahmenl lid lea in tl: d of the thought, that only the frail of the field, bat the whole nation, will be
\ prions. The folly of tills suing w shown in the clause, u wild OH g itself ining and object of which I en quit ■ ho supply a - neither by connecting it with the preceding words thus, •• Israel went to Aashar, like ■ stubborn ass going by it* ( Bwold), nor by attaching it t which follow, " like a wild going alone, Kphraim sued for I get any suitable point of comparison. The thought il rather this: whilst even a wild ass, that stupid animal, keeps by itself to maintain independence, Ephraim tries to form unnatural alliances with the nations of the world, that is to say, alliances that are quite incompatible with its vocation. Hithndh, from tdndli, probably a denom. of 'ethndh (see at ch. ii. 14), to give the reward of prostitution, here in the sense of bargaining for amours, or endeavouring to secure them by presents. The kal liithnu has the same meaning in ver. 10. The word E>'-~-. to which different renderings have been given, can only have a c puniti ind the suffix to Dill, 1 ut only to th-' -ul otained in yiihn. \i. the
J, to indicate the almost innumerable multitude of the *>mmandmenl I lined in the Ian. I: in a misapprehem of the hyperbole that the supposition. that —""-X was a hypothetical future is a noun in the plural with the suffix, and is formed from DTP by reduplication. The slain-offerings of icrificial i.: to I he _r' ings pre ented to me continually, t1 xific as fl( b, ad eel it; that il they are nothing more than Beth, which thej ad not sacrifices in which Jehovah takes delight, or which could piate their Bins. Therefore the Lord will punish their sins; they will return I Iriven away into th< land of word- are simply a special application of the threat, held out by M in Dent, x.wiii. 68, to the dej te ten tribes.
In ver. 14 the sin of Israel is traced hack to its root Thi et fulness of God, and deification of their own power, and manifests itself in the erection of TOyrjj palaces, not idolati temples. Judah also makes itself partaker of this sin, by multiplying the fortified cities, and placing its confidence in fortifications. These castles of false security the Lord will destroy. The 'armanotli answer to the hilchdloth. The suffixes attached to P1JJ3 and WUD1K refer to both kingdoms: the masculine suffix to Israel and Judah, as a people; the feminine to the two as a land, as in Lam. ii. 5.
Ch. ix. 1-9. Warning against false security. The earthly prosperity of the people and kingdom was no security against destruction. Because Israel had fallen away from its God, it should not enjoy the blessing of its field-produce, but should be carried away to Assyria, where it would be unable to keep any joyful feasts at all. Ver. 1. " Rejoice not, 0 Israel, to exult like the nations: for thou hast committed ivhoredom against thy God: hast loved the wages of whoredom upon all corn-floors.
iira • urn to I in ch. viii. 13; but awaj to Assyria mentioned at all; but, on the contr in vcr. G, / only is in trod n to find their grave. This is stil 1 nt from the I that 11 leea th ut speaks of Asshur I of the wrath of God for Hia rebelliona ol Ajahnr is king./(!•), to whom Ephrain and by whom it will be put to shame (ch. v. 18, \. 6) j and it is from the Assyrian king Sabmm that d tion and destruction xi. 5) that Israel will not return to Egypt, but to Aj ihur, who will be its king. Bv the allusion to Egypt, therefore, the carrying away to Assyria ia simply represented as a state of bondage and oppression, resembling the sojourn of Israel in Egypt in the olden time, or else the threat contained in Deut. xxviii. 88 is simply transferred to Ephraim. They will eat unclean things in Assyria, not only inasmuch as when, under the oppression of their heathen rulers, they will not be able to observe the laws of food laid down in the law, or will be obliged to eat unclean things from simple want and misery; but also inasmuch as all food, which was not sanctified to the Lord by the presentation of the first-fruits, was unclean food to Israel (Hengstenberg). In Assyria these offerings would cease with the whole of the sacrificial ritual; and the food which was clean in itself would thereby become unclean outside by thag the idea of joy is brought into gi prominence, and the feast-day is thereby Dated as a day of holy joy ln-fore
Jehovah; whereas mf§d simply expresses the idea of a feast established by the Lord, and sanctified to Him (see at 1 xxiii. 2). By the addition of the ekag Y'hGvnh, therefore, greater emphasis is given to the thought, viz. that along with the feasts themselves all festal joy will also vanish. The perfect wn (ver. 6) may be explained from the fact, that the prophet saw in spirit the people already banished from the land of the Lord, ^n, to go away out of the land. Egypt is mentioned as the place of banishment, in the same sense as in ver. 3. There will they all find their graves. Y^P in combination with "Op is the gathering together of the dead for a common burial, like ^DX in Ezek. xxix. 5, Jer. viii. 2, xxv. 33. *|fo, or ep, as in u my G in which II the true God a- His own, with the G pie. 'I thought indicated would i- K, a rea ling which i> in- words, it does not follow or trust its own prophets, who are not inspired by Jehovah. These are like >nares of a bird-catcher in its road, i.e. they cast the people headlong into destruction. N'2; stands at the head, both collectively and absolutely. In all ays there is the trap of the bird-catcher: i.e. all its projects and all that it does will only tend to ensnare the people. Hostility to Jehovah and His servants the true prophets, is in the house of the God of the Israelites, i.e. in the temple erected for the calf-worship; a fact of which Amos (vii. 10-17) furnishes a practical example. Israel has thereby fallen as deeply into abomination and sins as in the davs of Gibeah, i.e. as at
Even (k\ emphatic) if the sons (the children) groi will make th. D1KD, so that I til be i at the head of the st:. and liere belongs to D!"6:
Yea, woe to them, if I depart from them, or withdraw my favour from them! "W stands for "HD, according to the interchangeableness of c* and D (Aquila and Vulg.). This view has more to support it than the supposition that IVJ* is an error of
•he (ch. ix. 10) is resumed, and the guilt and punishment of Israel still more fully described in two sections, vers. 1-8 and the more of its fruit, the more altars d repare; the better its land, the I liars did they make. Ver. 2. Smooth was their desolate their pillars. Ver. 3. Yea, now will they say, No king to us r 1 inclined to ol themselves advanl from them. Enc F this, right or the punitive judgment of God (Chald, and many others), or right that men have turned into bitter fruit or poison (Amos vi. 12). This spreads about in the kingdom, as weeds spread luxuriantly in the furrows of the field (N"Jl" a poetical form for ~Tf, like Deut. xxxii. 13, Ps. viii. 8). Therefore the judgment cannot be delayed, and is already approaching in so threatening a manner, that the inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the golden calves. The plural ' egluth is used with indefinite generality, and gives no warrant, therefore, for the inference that there were several golden calves set up in Bethel. Moreover, this would be at variance with the fact, that in the sentences which follow we find a the (one) calf" spoken of. The feminine form 'egldth, which only occurs here, is also probably
Samaria, the capital of the kir itself, was destroyed. loes n- - to any particular k is used in a general sense for u the king that in Joel i. 7 I the buildii
1.in Luke xxiii. 30, to the calamities attending the destruction of Jerusalem, and in Eter. vi. 16 to the I of the beei \ ran to the utter ruin of the kingdom, the prophet returns in ver. 9 to the earlier times, for the purpose of exhibiting in a new form the deeply rooted sinfulness of the people, and then, under cover of an appeal to them to return to righteousness, depicting still further the time of
:ation, and (in vers. 14, 15) predicting with still greater clearness the destruction of the kingdom and the overthrow of the monarchy. Ver. 9. u Since the days of Gibeah hast thou sinned, 0 Israel: there have they remained: the war against the sons of wickedness did not overtake them at Gibeah. Ver. 10. According to my desire shall I chastise them; and nations will be in si simple dam] would still be left unexplained. We the pi-' the chcthib as another form, that may Bunted for from would give ai a initable thought; whilst the very same obj< <•- tion may be brought again luppotition that the double- ment, so that thej will be obliged to drag them along like ■f burden. V>\ the two tram, rw we are to understand neither the two golden calves at Bethel and Dan (Hitsig), unfaithfulness towards Jehovah and devotedness to idols, after. I er. ii. L3 il'yr., Theod.); but their apostasy from.Jehovah and the royal house of David, in accordance with ch. iii. 5, where it is distinctly stated that the ultimate conversion of the nation will consist in its seeking Jehovah and David their king.
in the next verse the punishment is still further defined, and also extended to Judah. Ver. 11. "And Epliraim is an instructed COW, which loves to thresh; and I, I have come over the beauty of Iter neck: I yoke Ephraim; Judah will plough^ Jacob harrow itself" M'lummdddh, instructed, trained to work, received its more precise definition from the words u loving to thresh " (ohabldi, a participle with the connecting Yod in the constructive: see Ewald, §211, Z>), not as being easier work in comparison with the hard task of driving, ploughing, and harrowing, but because in threshing the ox was allowed to eat at pleasure (Deut. xxv. 4), from which Israel became fat and strong (Deut. xxxii. l.o). Threshing, therefore, is a figurative representation not of the conquest of other nations (as in Mic. iv. 13, Isa. xli. 15), but of pleasant, productive, profitable labour. Israel had accustomed itself to i, as the Fruit thereof, -lies, in i aa they did not px the pro the kingdom as the; and rain. For they di:. u -' rih tl. > devastation of Beth-Arbeel byShalman; and hence there has alwavs been great uncertainty aa to the meaning ol the words. Shahnan ia no doubt a contracted form of Shalm. the king of Assyria, who d< kingdom of the ten tribes
(2 Bangs xviL 0). Beth- arte I is hardly Arbela of Assyria, which became celebrated through the victory of Alexander (Strab. xvi. 1, 3), since the [sraefites could scarcely have become so well acquainted with such a remote city, as that the prophet could hold up the desolation that befel it as an example to them, but in all probability the Arbela in Galilcea Superior, which is mentioned in 1 Mace. ix. 2, and very frequently in Josephus, a place in the tribe of Naphtali, between Sephoris vali, which began with its deliverance oat of the bond ■ • I ind w.is t • « u i. in the concla Bant anil return out of that land, had the same ngnifl tion to the development of the life of.!• ' r, as it had to the nation of Israel..Just as [srael grew into a nation in Egypt, where it was out of the reach of Canaanitish ways, so was the child JeSUS hidden in Egypt from the hostility of Herod. But ver. 2 is attached thus as an antithesis: this love of its God was repaid hy Israel with base apostasy. *N"!PT, they, viz. the prophets (cf. ver. 7; 2 Kings xvii. 13; Jer. vii. 25, xxv. 4; Zech. i. 4), called to them, called the Israelites to the Lord and to obedience to Him; but they (the Israelites) went away from their countenance, would not hearken to the prophets, or come to the Lord (Jer. ii. 31). The thought is strengthened by j3, with the TOte? of the protasis omitted (Ewald, § 360, a): as the prophets called, so the Israelites drew back from them, and
. or to tak R? fa * -ense of 6, and connect it with the prei done 1 I.XX.. Mi: I other in arbitrary paraphr. t either by taking l6 in ti.: jfef^ and rendering it as a qooation, u Should it not return •" equivalent to u it will certainly return" (Maurer, 1 ill, etc.); or by understanding the return to Egypt as signifying the longing of the people for help from Egypt xliii. 30 and 1 Kings iii. 26, where, instead of the abstract nichumlm, we find the m< 191, the howels as the seat of the emotions. W "~~ ~-'V. to carry out wrath, to cote it ei judgment (as in 1 Sam. xxviii. 18). In the pramion r-:- 3NEfe l6, I will not return to. r:; may he explained from the previous » ""*:. After the heart of God lias changed, it wfl] not return to wrath, to destroy Ephraim; for Jehovah is God, who does not alter His purposes like a man (cf. 1 Sam. xv. 29, Num. xxiii. 19, Mai. iii. 6), and He shows brino- righteous punishment upon the entire posterity of Jacob (xi. 12-xii. 2); whereas the example of their forefather ought to have led them to faithful attachment to their God (vers. 3-6).
outinually, it multiplies lying and violence, through the enumerated in ch. iv. J, by which the kingdom is being internally broken up. Added to this, t: the seeking for alliances with the powers of the world, viz. Assyria and Egypt, by which it hopes to secure their help (ch. v. 13), but only brings about own destruction. Oil is taken to Egypt from the land abounding in olives (Deut. viii. 8; 1 Kings v. 25), not as tribute, but as a present, for the purpose of securing an ally in pt. This actually took place during the reign of Hoshea, who endeavoured to liberate himself from the oppression of Assyria by means of a treaty with Egypt (2 Kings xvii. 4).1
1 Manger has given the meaning correctly thus: " He is looking back to the ambassadors sent by king Hoshea with splendid presents to the king
»g severely oppressed by Asahur, sometimes i> p a^uw t Asihur, and at other times cades tout to awaken • remembrance the ancient history, that they may see towards Jacob, and his resolute firmness tow
• n*.1 The explanation of this is given in the name IS recalled in whir If to Aioses, when
He first called him (Ex. ill 1 " in which He made known to him His true nature. Y'h&vdh zikhrC is taken literally from "rt """" TO "': hut there the name Jehovah is still further u the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,*' here by
1 •• Let it be carefully observed, that God is said to have talked •1 not with Jacob only, but with all hi pity. That is to say, the things which are here said to have been done by Jacob, and to have happened to him, had not regard to himself only, but to all the race that sprang from him, and were signs of the good fortune which they either would, or certainly might enjoy'' (Lackemacher in Rosenmuller's Scholia).
thereby acquired wealth and richeCj and with tin- Mill g] avl:;. thai with all it i acqui ition of pn hither, and that to Him tl • all j ity and good in both past and present b. xiii. 4). B neaa rather than in Him, He will now cause them to dwell in tents again, as in the days of the feast of Tabernacles, i.e. will repeat the leading through the wilderness. It is evident from the context that mo'cd (the feast) is here the feast of Tabernacles. TjriE *'-" (the days of the feast) are the seven days of this festival, during which Israel was to dwell in booths, in remembrance of the fact that when God led them out of Egypt He had caused them to dwell in booths (tabernacles, Lev. xxiii. 42, 43). 1M*K 1* stands in antithesis to WBnn in Lev. xxiii. 43. u The preterite is changed into a future through the ingratitude of the nation" (1! nberg). The
Btmiie, u as in tb that the repetition of the leading through tin* thought of here merely as ■ time of punishment, such as the | the sojourn of th lites in the wilderness for forty j ally ring life in the d m to call to their remembrance the shielding and sheltering care and protection of God in their wan! h the and terrible
I idolatry, the punishment of which cannot be delayed. Gilead and Gilgal represent the two halves of the kingdom of the ten tribes; Gilead the land to the east of the Jordan, and Gilgal the territory to the west. As Gilead is called '; a city (i.e, a rendezvous) of evil-doers" (JJj s^'£) in ch. vi. 8, so is it here called distinctly flK, wortblessness, wickedness; and therefore it Is to be utterly brought to nought. |JK and are synonymous, denoting moral and physical nonentity mptre Job xv. 31). Here the two notions are so distributed, that the former denotes the moral decay, the latter the physical, thlessness brings nothingness after it as a punishment.?]N, only — nothing, but equivalent to utterly. The perfect W is used for the certain future. Gilrral, which is mentioned in ch. iv. 15, ix. 15, as the seat of one form of idolatrous worship, is spoken of here as a place of sacrifice, to indicate with a play upon the name the turning of the altars into heaps of stones (Gallim). The desolation or destruction of the altars involves %'i not only the cessation of the idolatrous worship, but the dis- -f j solution of the kingdom and the banishment of the people out of >"*'J the land. BFlJBf, which only occurs in the plural here, cannot of course be the dative (to sacrifice to oxen), but only the accusative. The sacrifice of oxen was reckoned as a sin on the part of the people, not on account of the animals offered, but on account of the unlawful place of sacrifice. The suffix to mizu'chothdm {their sacrifices) refers to Israel, the subject implied in zibbechu.
This punishment Israel well deserved. Ver. 12. "And Jacob fled to the fields of Aram; and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife did he keep guard. Ver. 13. And through a prophet Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt, and through a prophet was he guarded. Yer. 14. Ephraim has stinted up bitter wrath; and his Lord will leave his blood wpon him, and turn back his shame upon him" In order to show the people $' still more impressively what great things the Lord had done for them, the prophet recals the flight of Jacob, the tribefather, to Mesopotamia, and how he was obliged to serve many years there for a wife, and to guard cattle; whereas God had redeemed Israel out of the Egyptian bondage, and had faithfully guarded it through a prophet. The flight of Jacob to Aramsea, and his servitude there, are mentioned not " to give prominence to his zeal for the blessing of the birthright, and his obedience to the commandment of God and his parents" (Cyr., Theod., Th. v. Mops.); nor u to bring out the double servitude of Israel, — the first the one which the people had to endure in their forefather, the second the one which they had to endure themselves in Egypt " (Umbreit); nor " to lay stress upon the manif •' b as nothing at all aboal this in ver* L2. The w< i int simply
B lau I ael would not desist from its idolatry, and entirely forgot the goodness of ita God, He would destroy ita might and glory (vera. l-8)« B it did Dot acknowL its capital] but thia judgment would become to all that were dtent a r ition to newness of lii \ er. 1. u When them kiss ealvi." In order to show how deeply [srael had fallen through its apostasy, the prophet points to the distinction which the tribe Ephraim formerly injoyed ami the tribes of Israel. The two clauses of ver. Lacannol connected together as that Kfcfl should be taken aa tin- continuation of the infinitive n-~. The emphatic Kin is irreconcilable with this. We must rather take PIITI (air. \ty.< in Aram: = DD"2, Jer. xli\. 24, terror, i, as the apodoais to Ifdal
'Ephraim (when Ephraim spake), like riKfe> in Gen. iv. 7: u Ai Ephraim spake ther terror,*1 Le. men listened with fear and trembling (cf. Job xxix. 21). Rk>J is used intransitively, as in Nahum i. 5, Ps. lxxxix. 10. Ephraim, i.e. the tribe of Ephraim, <; exalted itself in Israel," — not u it was distinguished among its brethren" (Hitzig), but " it raised itself to the government." The prophet lias in his mind the attempts made by Ephraim to get the rule among the tribes, which led eventually to the secession of the ten tribes from the royal family of David, and the establishment of the kingdom of Israel by the side of that of Judah. When Ephraim had secured this, the object of its earnest endeavours, it offended through Baal; i.e. not only through the introduction of the worship of Baal in the time of Ahab (1 Kings xvi. 31 sqq.), but even through the establishment of the worship of the calves under Jeroboam (1 Kings xii. 28), through which Jehovah was ugh not in the way proposed by Ewald, vi/.. •• i een to th of Hi' D This renderin lowing obj • Dfl Dr6 would have to be taken ai an emphatic repetition of t noun, and we cannofl find any ground for this; and, (2) what is stall m via. the sacrificers from among ra meow]. L I them worship calv< By tl dam, and the fact that die that it stands in immediate contn im, the absurdity of ra n more frequently {rid. Isa. xvii. 13, xli. 15,!•" j Ps. 5. 4, xxxv. 5, etc.). IjbV is used relatively: which is stormed away, i.e. blown away from the threshing-floor by a violent wind. The threshing-floors were situated upon eminences (compare my BILL ArehdoL ii. p. 114). u Smoke out of the window," i.e. smoke from the fire under a saucepan in the room, which passed out of the window-lattice, as the houses were without chimneys (see Ps. lxviii. 3).
Ver. 4. " And yet I am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt hither; and thou biowest no God beside me, and there is no helper beside me. Yer. 5. 1 knew thee in the desert, in the land of burning heats." As in ch. xii. 10, a contrast is drawn here again between the idolatry of the people and the uninterrupted self-attestation of Jehovah to the faithless nation. From Egypt hither Israel has known no other God than Jehovah, i.e. has found no other God to be a helper and
I new train of thought commences with ver. 9. ShicliSOi d not moan I orruptl y here, u in Dent audi. 5, be. 1l\ and cannot plained in any other way than by supplying the pronoun HRH, as a robject taken from the suflix to v~'"' (Marck, and nearly all the modern commentators). "This throws thee into distress, that thou hast r me, who am in the sense of against, as in Gen. xvi. 12, '1 Sam. xxiv. 17, etc. This oj)position did not take place, however, when all Israel demanded ■ king of Samuel (1 Sam. viii. 5). For although this desire is represented there (ver, 7) ai the rejection of Jehovah, Ilosea is speaking here simply of the Israel of the ten trihes. The latter rebelled against Jehovah, when they fell away from the house of David, and made Jeroboam their king, and with contempt of Jehovah put their trust in the might of their kings of their own choosing (1 Kings xii. lfi sqq.). But these kings could not afford them any true help. The question, "Where" (V/a only occurs here and twice in ver. 14, for *X or ITK, possibly simply from a dialectical variation — vid. Ewald, § 104, c — and is strengthened by N^N, as in Job xvii. 15), " Where is thy king, that he may help thee? " does not presuppose that Israel had no king at all at that time, and that the kingdom was in a state of anarchy, but simply that it had no king who could save it, when the foe, the Assyrian, attacked it in all its cities. Before shopliHeyklid (thy judges) we must repeat '#hl (where). The shdph'tlm, as the use of the word sdmm (princes) in its stead in the following clause clearly shows, are not simple judges, but royal counsellors and ministers, who managed the affairs of the kingdom along with the king, and superintended the administration of justice. The stence in tins secession a: equcn: es of the governmo:/. ^ therefore that is repeated • we should the let himself b n, like a child, that at the time of the ur-pains will not enter the opening of the womb and bo come to the birth.
: in order to from despair, the Lord announces in ver. 14 that He will nevertheless redeem people from the power of death. Ver. 14. u ( f the hand of hell will I redeem them; from death will J set them free! Where are thy plagues, 0 de tth t where thy destruction, 0 hell! Repentance U hidden from mine eyes." Tlie fact that this verse contains a promise, and not a threat, would hardly have been overlooked by so many commentators, if they had not been led, out of regard to vers. 13, 15, to put force upon the words, and either take the first clauses as interrogative, " Should I... redeem? " (Calvin and others), or as conditional, " I would redeem them," with "si resipiscerent" supplied -(Kimchi, Sal.
I Mtlv the ptomieed redemption from death must s: in intimate connection with the threatened destruction of the incut, and only attain* ity for all bcli '.i the actual resuiT Bat in order to anticipate all doubt I I i *edingly great; raise, the Loi n from m
The former, which the Septnagint adopt-, does not suit the:, which the latter alone Th is are to I and Ids fountain will dry lip, and his wring become dried. He plunders the I The connection between the first clause and the previous verse has been correctly pointed out by Marck. u Ver. 15," he says, u adduces a reason to prove that the promised grace of redemption would certainly stand firm." ■S cannot be either a particle of time or of condition here (when, or if); for neither of them yields a suitable thought, since Ephraim neither was at that time, nor could become, fruit-bearing among brethren. Ewald's hypothetical view, " Should Ephraim be a fruitful child," cannot be grammatically sustained, since kl is only used in cases where a circumstance is assumed to be real. For one that is merely supposed to be possible, DN is required, as the interchange of
: of th. his addresses with a call to thorough con.: 1 m<1 the promise that the Lord will 'urn
1 Our GolV any more to the manufacture of our own hands; for with Thee the orphan findeth con There is no salva- tion for fallen man without return to God. It is therefore with a call to return to the Lord their God, that the prophet opens the announcement of the salvation with which the Lord will bless His people, whom He has brought to reflection by means of the judgment (cf. Deut. iv. 30, XXX. 1 sqq.). '" ^ *&, to return, to be converted to the Lord, denotes complete conversion; Sj 3RP is, strictly speaking, simply to turn towards God, to direct heart and mind towards Him. By kdshaltd sin is represented as a false step, which still leaves it possible to
:ily as a rc:i>nn! tion no longer to call the manufacture of their own haj the whole of 1 ura^cd their apostasy, i.r. all the injuries which ha d inflicted by their apostasy from Bin, I tern with tspon-
\-. The reading munmennl (from me), which the Babylonian Codices haw after the Mai PI to!. - in a misunderstanding of Jer. ii. 35. This love of the L will manifest itself in abundant blessing. Jehovah will be to Israel a refreshing, enlivening dew (cf. Isa. xxri. 19), through which it will blossom splendidly, strike deep roots, and spread its shoots far and wide. u Like the lilv:" the fragrant white lily, which is very common in Palestine, and grows without cultivation, and " which is unsurpassed in its fecundity, often producing fifty bulbs from a single root" (Pliny h. n. xxi. 5).