Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 7:4
They [are] all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, [who] ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
4. as an oven ] The fire corresponds to sensual lust, the oven is the heart. The baker ceaseth from kindling (so we should render), when the oven has reached a certain heat, and then he leaves the fire to smoulder, till the fermentation of the dough is complete, and a fresh heating is necessary. So after passion has once been gratified, it smoulders for a time, but is afterwards kindled to a greater heat than before, when some attractive object comes within its range.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They are all adulterers – The prophet continues to picture the corruption of all kinds and degrees of people. All of them, king, princes, people; all were given to adultery, both spiritual, in departing from God, and actual, (for both sorts of sins went together,) in defiling themselves and others. All of them were, (so the word means,) habitual adulterers. One only pause there was in their sin, the preparation to complete it. He likens their hearts, inflamed with lawless lusts, to the heat of an oven which the baker had already heated. The unusual construction burning from the baker instead of heated by the baker may have been chosen, in order to express, how the fire continued to burn of itself, as it were, (although at first kindled by the baker,) and was ever-ready to burn whatever was brought to it, and even now was all red-hot, burning on continually; and Satan, who had stirred it, gave it just this respite, from the time when he had kneaded the dough , until the leaven, which he had put into it, had fully worked, and the whole was ready for the operation of the fire.
The world is full of such people now, ever on fire, and pausing only from sin, until the flatteries, whereby they seduce the unstable, have worked and penetrated the whole mind, and victim after victim is gradually leavened and prepared for sin.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. As an oven heated by the baker] Calmet’s paraphrase on this and the following verses expresses pretty nearly the sense: Hosea makes a twofold comparison of the Israelites; to an oven, and to dough. Jeroboam set fire to his own oven-his kingdom-and put the leaven in his dough; and afterwards went to rest, that the fire might have time to heat his oven, and the leaven to raise his dough, that the false principles which he introduced might infect the whole population. This prince, purposing to make his subjects relinquish their ancient religion, put, in a certain sense, the fire to his own oven, and mixed his dough with leaven. At first he used no violence; but was satisfied with exhorting them, and proclaiming a feast. This fire spread very rapidly, and the dough was very soon impregnated by the leaven. All Israel was seen running to this feast, and partaking in these innovations. But what shall become of the oven-the kingdom; and the bread-the people? The oven shall be consumed by these flames; the king, the princes, and the people shall be enveloped in the burning, Ho 7:7. Israel was put under the ashes, as a loaf well kneaded and leavened; but not being carefully turned, it was burnt on one side before those who prepared it could eat of it; and enemies and strangers came and carried off the loaf. See Ho 7:8-9. Their lasting captivity was the consequence of their wickedness and their apostasy from the religion of their fathers. On this explication Ho 7:4-9, may be easily understood.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They are all adulterers, both spiritually and carnally, and this latter adultery is that which here is charged on the courtiers and people of Israel.
As an oven heated by the baker: this vice is grown raging hot among them, as you see the fire in an oven, when the baker, having called up those that make the bread, to prepare all things ready, and the whole mass is leavened, he doth by continued supply of fuel heat the oven to the highest degree. So doth adultery among this people grow by degrees to raging flames. The whole mass of the people are leavened with this vice also, as well as the court, and every one inflamed with this unclean fire, as the oven heated by the baker.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. who ceaseth from raisingrather,”heating” it, from an Arabic root, “to be hot.”So the Septuagint. Their adulterous and idolatrous lust isinflamed as the oven of a baker who has it at such a heat that heceaseth from heating it only from the time that he hath kneaded thedough, until it be leavened; he only needs to omit feeding it duringthe short period of the fermentation of the bread. Compare 2Pe2:14, “that cannot cease from sin” [HENDERSON].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They [are] all adulterers,…. King, princes, priests, and people, both in a spiritual and corporeal sense; they were all idolaters, given to idols try, eager of it, and constant in it, as the following metaphors show; and they were addicted to corporeal adultery; this was a prevailing vice among all ranks and degrees of men. So the Targum,
“they all desire to lie with their neighbours’ wives;”
see Jer 5:7;
as an oven heated by the baker; which, if understood of spiritual adultery or idolatry, denotes their eagerness after it, and fervour in it, excited by their king, or by the devil and his instruments, the priests and false prophets; and if of bodily uncleanness, it is expressive of the heat of that lust, which is sometimes signified by burning; and is stirred up by the devil and the corrupt hearts of men to such a degree as to be raised to a flame, and be like a raging fire, or a heated oven; see Ro 1:27;
[who] ceaseth from raising; that is, the baker, having heated his oven, ceaseth from raising up the women to bring their bread to the bake house; or he ceaseth from waking, or from watching his oven; he lays himself down to sleep, and continues in it:
after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened; having kneaded the dough, and put in the leaven, he lets it alone to work till the whole mass is leavened, taking his rest in the mean while: as the former clause expresses the vehement desire of the people after adultery, spiritual or corporeal, this may signify their continuance in it; or rather the wilful negligence of the king, priests, and prophets, who, instead of awaking them out of their sleep on a bed of adultery, let them alone in it, until they were all infected with it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To this there is added the passion with which the people make themselves slave to idolatry, and their rulers give themselves up to debauchery (Hos 7:4-7). Hos 7:4. “They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker, who leaves off stirring from the kneading of the dough until its leavening. Hos 7:5. In the day of our king the princes are made sick with the heat of wine: he has stretched out his hand with the scorners. Hos 7:6. For they have brought their heart into their ambush, as into the oven; the whole night their baker sleeps; in the morning it burns like flaming fire. Hos 7:7. They are all red-hot like the oven, and consume their judges: all their kings have fallen; none among them calls to me.” “All” ( kullam : Hos 7:4) does not refer to the king and princes, but to the whole nation. is spiritual adultery, apostasy from the Lord; and literal adultery is only so far to be thought of, that the worship of Baal promoted licentiousness. In this passionate career the nation resembles a furnace which a baker heats in the evening, and leaves burning all night while the dough is leavening, and then causes to turn with a still brighter flame in the morning, when the dough is ready for baking. , burning from the baker, i.e., heated by the baker. is accentuated as milel , either because the Masoretes took offence at being construed as a feminine (Ges. Lehrgeb. p. 546; Ewald, Gramm. p. 449, note 1), or because tiphchah could not occupy any other place in the short space between zakeph and athnach (Hitzig). , excitare, here in the sense of stirring. On the use of the participle in the place of the infinitive, with verbs of beginning and ending, see Ewald, 298, b.
Hos 7:5-7 Both king and princes are addicted to debauchery (Hos 7:5). “The day of our king” is either the king’s birthday, or the day when he ascended the throne, on either of which he probably gave a feast to his nobles. is taken most simply as an adverbial accus. loci. On this particular day the princes drink to such an extent, that they become ill with the heat of the wine. , generally to make ill, here to make one’s self ill. Hitzig follows the ancient versions, in deriving it from , and taking it as equivalent to ot , “they begin,” which gives a very insipid meaning. The difficult expression , “he draws his hand with the scoffers,” can hardly be understood in any other way than that suggested by Gesenius ( Lex.), “the king goes about with scoffers,” i.e., makes himself familiar with them, so that we may compare (Exo 23:1). The scoffers are drunkards, just as in Pro 20:1 wine is directly called a scoffer. In Hos 7:6, Hos 7:7, the thought of the fourth verse is carried out still further. introduces the explanation and ground of the simile of the furnace; for Hos 7:5 is subordinate to the main thought, and to be taken as a parenthetical remark. The words from to ot form one sentence. is construed with loci , as in Jdg 19:13; Psa 91:10: they have brought their heart near, brought them into their craftiness. “Like a furnace” ( ) contains an abridged simile. But it is not their heart itself which is here compared to a furnace (their heart = themselves), in the sense of “burning like a flaming furnace with base desires,” as Gesenius supposes; for the idea of bringing a furnace into an ‘orebh would be unsuitable and unintelligible. “The furnace is rather ‘orbam (their ambush), that which they have in common, that which keeps them together; whilst the fuel is libbam , their own disposition” (Hitzig). Their baker is the machinator doli, who kindles the fire in them, i.e., in actual fact, not some person or other who instigates a conspiracy, but the passion of idolatry. This sleeps through the night, i.e., it only rests till the opportunity and time have arrived for carrying out the evil thoughts of their heart, or until the evil thoughts of the heart have become ripe for execution. This time is described in harmony with the figure, as the morning, in which the furnace burns up into bright flames ( points to the more remote tannur as the subject). In Hos 7:7 the figure is carried back to the literal fact. With the words, “they are all hot as a furnace,” the expression in Hos 7:4, “adulterous like a furnace,” is resumed; and now the fruit of this conduct is mentioned, viz., “they devour their judges, cast down their kings.” By the judges we are not to understand the sarm of Hos 7:5, who are mentioned along with the king as the supreme guardians of the law; but the kings themselves are intended, as the administrators of justice, as in Hos 13:10, where shoph e tm is also used as synonymous with , and embraces both king and princes. The clause, “all their kings are fallen,” adds no new feature to what precedes, and does not affirm that kings have also fallen in addition to or along with the judges; but it sums up what has been stated already, for the purpose of linking on the remark, that no one calls to the Lord concerning the fall of the kings. The suffix does not refer to the fallen kings, but to the nation in its entirety, i.e., to those who have devoured their judges. The thought is this: in the passion with which all are inflamed for idolatry, and with which the princes revel with the kings, they give no such heed to the inevitable consequences of their ungodly conduct, as that any one reflects upon the fall of the kings, or perceives that Israel has forsaken the way which leads to salvation, and is plunging headlong into the abyss of destruction, so as to return to the Lord, who alone can help and save. The prophet has here the times after Jeroboam II in his mind, when Zechariah was overthrown by Shallum, Shallum by Menahem, and Menahem the son of Pekahiah by Pekah, and that in the most rapid succession (2Ki 15:10, 2Ki 15:14, 2Ki 15:25), together with the eleven years’ anarchy between Zechariah and Shallum (see at 2Ki 15:8-12). At the same time, the expression, “all their kings have fallen,” shows clearly, not only that the words are not to be limited to these events, but embrace all the earlier revolutions, but also and still more clearly, that there is no foundation whatever for the widespread historical interpretation of these verses, as relating to a conspiracy against the then reigning king Zechariah, or Shallum, or Pakahiah, according to which the baker is either Menahem (Hitzig) or Pekah (Schmidt).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet pursues the same subject in this verse: he says that they were all adulterers. This similitude has already been often explained. He speaks not here of common fornication, but calls them adulterers, because they had violated their faith pledged to God, because they gave themselves up to filthy superstitions, and also, because they had wholly corrupted themselves, for faith and sincerity of heart constitute spiritual chastity before God. When men become corrupt in their whole life, and degenerate from the pure worship of God, they are justly deemed adulterers. In this sense does the Prophet now say, that they were all adulterers, and thus he confirms what I have said before, that as to the corruptions which then prevailed, it was not few men who had been drawn into them, but that the whole people were implicated in guilt; for they were all adulterers To say that they had been deceived by the king, that they had been forced by authority, that they had been compelled by the tyranny of their princes, would have been vain and frivolous, for all of them were adulterers.
He afterwards compares them to a furnace or an oven, They are, he says, as a furnace or an oven, heated by the baker, who ceases from stirring up until the meal kneaded is well fermented The Prophet by this similitude shows more clearly, that the people were not corrupted by some outward impulse, but by their own inclination and propensity of mind; yea, by a mad and furious desire of acting wickedly. He had previously said that they had willfully sinned, when they readily embraced the edict of the king; but now he goes still farther and says that they had been set on fire by an inward sinful instinct, and were like a hot oven. Then he adds that this had not been a sudden impulse, as it sometimes happens; but that it had so continued, that they were confirmed in their wickedness. When he says, that adulterers are like a burning oven, he means, that their defection had not only been voluntary, so that the blame was in themselves; but that they had also ardently seized on the occasion of sinning, and had been heated, as an hot oven. The ungodly often restrain their desires, and suppress them when no occasion is presented, but give vent to them when they have the opportunity of sinning with impunity. So God now declares that the people of Israel had not only been prone to defection, but had also greedily desired it, so that their madness was like a burning flame. (40)
But a third thing follows, and that is, that this fire had not been suddenly lighted up, but had been for a long time gathering strength. Hence he says As an oven heated by the baker, who ceases, he says, from stirring up after the shaking or mixing of the meal, until it be fermented לום, lush, means “to besprinkle,” empaster is what they say here. Some foolishly hold that they were like those who sleep and afterwards awake early in the morning. But the Prophet had a different thing in view, and that was, that by length of time their wickedness had increased, and, as it were, by degrees. He means, in short, that they had not been under a sudden impulse, like men who often break out through want of thought, and immediately repent; and their lust, which had been in a moment set on fire, in a short time abates. The Prophet says, that the frenzy of the people of Israel had been different; for they had been like an oven, which the baker, after having lighted up, allows to grow quite hot even to the highest degree; for he waits while the dough is becoming well fermented. It was not then the intemperance and lust of a few days; but they made their hearts quite hot, as when a baker heats his oven, and puts in a great quantity of fuel, that after a time it may become heated, while the dough is fermenting.
The word מעיר, meoir, “from stirring up,” is to be taken for מהעיר, maeoir; for what some say, that the baker rested from the city, that is, to manage public affairs, is frigid. Others render it thus, “He rests from the city,” so as not to be a citizen, — to what purpose? There is then no doubt but that the Prophet here pursues his own similitudes which he will again shortly repeat. It follows —
(40) “The sensuality here, is that of which sensuality is the constant scriptural type, the absurd and wicked passion of idolatry” Bp. Horsley
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 7:4. Oven] In this passionate career the nation resembled a furnace which a baker heats in the evening and leaves burning all night while the dough is leavening, and then causes to burn with a still brighter flame in the morning when the dough is ready for baking [Keil].
Hos. 7:5. Day] Birth or coronation day, probably a feast day. Bottles] Lit. with heat through wine; bottles, not glasses, drunkenness, excess, and debauchery. Hand] In token of fellowship, health-drinking. Scorners] Ridicule of sacred things, derision of God, natural at intoxicating feasts (Dan. 5:3-4).
Hos. 7:6. Ready] Lit. applied (marg. brought near) their heart to sin. For] The reason for the open sin; their heart is ready, and only waiting for the spark to kindle it.
Hos. 7:7. Devoured] Results of their conduct stated. Judges and kings, inflamed by the passion, here consumed and fell into the abyss, the six last kings in succession (2Ki. 15:10; 2Ki. 15:14; 2Ki. 15:25), B. C. 772. None sought help from God in national calamity.
SIN A FURNACE OF FIREHos. 7:4-7
The passion of Israel for idolatry is likened to a furnace, heated by the baker, and left burning during the process of fermentation. There is little or no cessation to their indulgence. All are guilty, and fan the flames which consume them without reflection and return to God. Keeping up the figure, sin is like a furnace,
I. In the method by which it is kindled. Man is capable of warmth and enthusiasm. We are made for fervour. We feel the glow of friendship and the power of principles fondly cherished and firmly defended. We have properties not simply attributed to matter, but possessed by the Seraphim of heaven and attributed to God himself. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts. We are more influenced by evil than good. The heart, with its affections, is kindled into a passion; the temperament warmed, and men are set on fire with lust, and set on fire of hell. Like an oven heated by the baker, they burn with hatred, envy, and adultery; burned in their lusts one toward another. In whatever light we look at sin it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase (Job. 31:12).
II. In the fuel by which it is fed. The same material that kindles must keep alive the fire. It is heated and fed by lust; by constant and unnatural excitement. Respites only ferment; the flames slumber to break out into greater fury. Anger, ambition, and filthy lusts fill the soul, and the fire burns upon the altar and never goes out. Certain sins are mentioned in the text.
1. Prevalent adultery. They are all adulterers. Given up to vile affections, and punished with impurities of heart and life. It is better to marry than burn (1Co. 7:9).
2. Excessive drink. The princes made the king sick, heated him with bottles of wine. Intemperance in any is degrading, but especially in men of place and power. Priest and prophet err through strong drink (Isa. 28:7; Isa. 56:11-12). The glory of Benhadad (1Ki. 20:16), of Belshazzar, and of the princes of Israel, was covered with shame. Philip of Macedon, when drunk, unjustly condemned a woman. She boldly said, I appeal to Philip; but it shall be when he is sober. Roused by the appeal, the king examined the case, and reversed his judgment. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted (Pro. 31:4-5).
3. Impious scorning. He stretched out his hand in friendship, and associated with scorners. The king jested with drunkards, praised idols, and scoffed at God. Atheists and scoffers, wine and mirth, are often found together. Hypocritical mockers at feasts give license to their tongue, and lose control over their conduct. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
III. In the results which it produces. These are innumerable. The temptations to criminality are fearful. Every kind of wickedness burneth as the fire (Isa. 9:18). Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?
1. It influences the heart. For they have made ready their heart. It hardens and encrusts it; disposes it to prepare, practise, and perfect evil. The heart is brought nigh, stirred up to sin, though the occasion for it be taken away. This oven, once heated, gives no breathing time, no real rest. Corrupt passions burn with intense heat, until extinguished and overcome by the grace of God.
2. It consumes its abettors. The fire devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen. Jeroboam and other kings corrupted the people to establish their own authority; were flattered and slain by those who flattered them. Their sins returned to their own bosom. The flames, like the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, devoured those who were thrown into them and those who kindled them. It is ever thus with sin. The heathens taught that the artificers of death perished by their own art. Kindle not the coals of a sinner, lest thou be burnt with the flame of his fire (Sir. 8:10).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos. 7:5. The day of our king. Birthdays and coronation-days of rulers; national fasts and feasts spent in drunkenness and riotingscenes of revelry, scenes of debauchery, scoffing, and murder. Drinking healths and taking lives! Kings falling in feasting and mirth! What a portrait history gives of human folly and Gods providence! Their holy days, like those of so many English now, were days of excess. Their festival they turned into an irreligious and anti-religious carousal; making themselves like the brutes that perish, and tempting their king first to forget his royal dignity, and then to blaspheme the majesty of God [Pusey].
Drink, debauchery, and scoffing a triple association in feasting without God. Fools make a mock at sin.
Hos. 7:6. Their heart like an oven. Men who are wicked and vile may seem to be lying by and doing nothing, yet
1. Their hearts are bent on their course; their oven is heating while they sleep.
2. Their designs are still going on; the heat is tending to burning as a flaming fire while the baker sleeps.
3. Iniquity that is hatched, through abundance of lust, is most violently executed, when opportunity offers; and the more violently that it hath been long delayed [Hutcheson].
Hos. 7:7. Kings are fallen. Those who murdered others are murdered themselves. Plots of sin recoil on those who originate them.
None that calleth on me. God can correct the evils and subdue the sedition of a nation. But mark the stupidity and perversity of sin which make people insensible in danger and neglect God in trouble. Not even distress, in which generally men betake themselves to God, awakened any sense of sin in them. Those are not only heated with sin, but hardened in sin, that continued to live without prayers, even when they are in trouble and distress.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Hos. 7:4-7. Fire. Some few years ago a noble steamer moored in one of the harbours of the United States was discovered to be on fire. The engines were instantly started, and the prow of the vessel directed to the shore. But the flames soon rendered the helm useless, and such of the crew as were on board were obliged to jump into the small boat, and leave the steamer to her fate. Soon the engines worked more fiercely; the wheels revolved with fearful speed and hurried the vessel through the water. The sight was terrible. At last came one tremendous shock, and all was darkness and ruin. Such is man, when seized and heated by an evil passion, whether the spirit of pride or of envy. He grows worse and worse, and is consumed in eternal ruin, unless God interpose.
Hos. 7:5. Feasting. Times of festivity require a double guard. Blasphemy is wit, and ribaldry eloquence, to a man that is turned into a brute [Lawson].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(4) Render, ceaseth heating from the kneading of the dough till its leavening. The baker is unremitting in his exertions to keep up the heat of the oven, the smouldering fire being fed on camels dung and the like fuel, except when he is obliged to occupy himself with preparing the dough for bakingan apt image of the incessant burning rage of lust and violence.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘They are all adulterers,
They are as an oven heated by the baker,
He ceases to stir the fire,
From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.’
They are in fact all spiritual adulterers, hot after false gods. And they are so hot and overheated after sin that the baker can, as it were, cease to stir the flames from the time when the dough is kneaded to when it becomes leavened. The baker here is probably the chief priest, who, having stirred up the people in idolatry can safely leave them to pursue it without any further intervention by him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 7:4. They are all adulterers In this and the following verses, Hosea makes a twofold comparison of the Israelites to an oven, and to dough. Jeroboam the son of Nebat set fire to his own oven, and put the leaven in his dough; and afterwards went to sleep; leaving an opportunity to the fire to heat his oven, and the leaven to raise his dough. This prince, determining to make his subjects relinquish their ancient religion, set fire in some measure to his oven, and mixed his dough with leaven. He himself used no violence; he contented himself with exhorting and proclaiming a feast. This fire spread very rapidly; and his bread was very soon infected with leaven. All Israel is seen running to the feast, and participating in these innovations. But what shall become of the oven, and the bread?The oven shall be consumed by the flames. The king, princes, and people, shall be involved in its conflagration, Hos 7:7. Israel was put under the ashes, as a loaf well-baked and leavened; but, no care being taken to turn it, it was intirely burnt on one side, before those who had prepared it could eat it; and enemies and strangers came and carried off the loaf. See. Hos 7:8-9.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hos 7:4 They [are] all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, [who] ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
Ver. 4. They are all adulterers ] , adulterio caleseunt, so Paguine, scalded in their base lusts, as those in Rom 1:27 , all (for the most part) were such; but especially the courtiers and clawback informers, as Hos 7:3 , God, in his just judgment, giving them up to those vile affections or passions of dishonour, and punishing their impieties with impurities, as he did also in those heathens, Rom 1:23 .
As an oven heated by the baker
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
all = all of them (kings, princes, and People are idolaters). “All” is put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Genus), for the greater part.
adulterers: i.e. idolaters. See note on Hos 1:2.
as = [hot] like.
ceaseth = leaves off.
raising = stoking it.
after he hath kneaded, &c. = from [the time of] kneading the dough until it is ready for the fire. Then he heats the oven to stop the fermentation. Even so these idolaters. See note on “baker”, Hos 7:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
are all: Hos 4:2, Hos 4:12, Jer 5:7, Jer 5:8, Jer 9:2, Jam 4:4
as: Hos 7:6, Hos 7:7
who ceaseth: etc. or, the raiser will cease
raising: or, waking.
Reciprocal: Gen 12:15 – princes Jdg 19:25 – and abused Job 31:9 – if I Pro 6:27 – General Isa 57:5 – Enflaming Eze 22:9 – they commit
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 7:4. This is an unusual and highly figurative passage, intended to illustrate the intensity of Israel’s lusts. While the baker is mixing the dough, he is also applying the fuel to the oven. After the mixing Is done it will not require very long for it to rise or become leavened. And it is only during that short space that he does not apply any more fuel to the oven, which indicates that it is hot enough to bake the dough, and hence a fitting comparison for the heat to their corruptions.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 7:4. They are all adulterers The expression may be here metaphorical, implying that they were apostates from God, to whose service they were engaged by the most solemn bond and covenant: compare Jer 9:2; Jas 4:4. If the words be understood literally, the prophet compares the heat of their lust to the flame of an oven heated; or, as Bishop Horsley renders it, Over-heated by the baker. Who ceaseth from raising after he has kneaded the dough, until it be leavened Vulgate, Donec fermentaretur totum, until the fermentation of it be complete. When an oven is sufficiently heated, the baker does not increase the fire, but thinks what he has made sufficient to keep the oven hot till the dough be fit to be put into it. An oven in which the heat is so intense as to be too strong for the bakers purpose, insomuch that it must be suffered to abate before the bread can be set in, is certainly a most apt and striking image of the heart of the sensualist inflamed with appetite by repeated and excessive indulgence, so that it rages by the mere lust of the corrupted imagination, even in the absence of the external objects of desire that might naturally excite it; and works itself up to an excess which is even contrary to the purpose for which the animal appetites are implanted. Horsley.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:4 They [are] all adulterers, as an {c} oven heated by the baker, [who] ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
(c) He compares the rage of the people to a burning oven which the baker heats, until his dough is leavened and raised.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Israelites as a whole were all adulterers, both physically and spiritually. Their passion for wickedness was like the fire in a baker’s oven: very hot and constantly burning.
"The oven was so hot that a baker could cease tending the fire during an entire night-while the dough he had mixed was rising-and then, with a fresh tending of the fire in the morning, have sufficient heat for baking at that time." [Note: Wood, "Hosea," pp. 196-97. See Stuart, p. 119, for a fuller description of the bread-baking process.]