Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 7:6
For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.
6. For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait ] Better, with Ewald, ‘Yea, almost like the oven have they made their heart in their intrigue’, if there were only sufficient justification for the rendering. This view of the verse makes it a climax to Hos 7:5 . Better still, by self-evident corrections of the text, For their inward part is like an oven, their heart burneth in them (the reason for the strong expression ‘scorners’).
their baker ] Better, to follow the vocalizing of Targum and Peshito, and render, their anger, viz. against the destined victims of their intrigue.
sleepeth all the night ] Rather, still retaining the consonants of the text, smoketh all the night (for the phrase, comp Deu 29:20). The night is mentioned as the time when evil devices are matured.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For they have made ready their heart like an oven – He gives the reason old their bursting out into open mischief; it was ever stored up within. They made ready, (literally, brought near) their heart. Their heart was ever brought near to sin, even while the occasion was removed at a distance from it. The oven is their heart; the fuel, their corrupt affections, and inclinations, and evil concupiscence, with which it is filled; their baker, their own evil will and imagination, which stirs up whatever is evil in them. The prophet then pictures how, while they seem for a while to rest from sin, it is but while they lie in wait; still, all the while, they made and kept their hearts ready, full of fire for sin and passion; any breathing-time from actual sin was no real rest; the heart was still all on fire; in the morning, right early, as soon as the occasion came, it burst forth.
The same truth is seen where the tempter is without. Such, whether Satan or his agents, having lodged the evil thought or desire in the soul, often feign themselves asleep, as it were, letting the fire and the fuel which they had inserted, work together, that so the fire pent-in might kindle more thoroughly and fatally, and, the heart being filled and penetrated with it, might burst out of itself, as soon as the occasion should come.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
For; surely.
They; those luxurious and drinking princes, Hos 7:5.
Have made ready their heart like an oven; do keep close some fire of ambition, revenge, or covetousness, like as a baker keeps a hot fire within his oven.
Whiles they lie in wait, either against the life or estate of some of their fellow subjects, or it may be, as appears Hos 7:7, against the life which they seemed in their cups to pray for.
Their baker sleepeth all the night; he who should watch and prevent mischief is swallowed up in the day with feasting and drunkenness, and sleeps in security all the night, never suspecting the projects of conspirators.
In the morning it burneth as a flaming fire; but when he awakes too late, he seeth all in flames, and past quenching. Sedition and rebellion is among these a sin as hateful to God as dangerous to the public, yet frequently acted by the usurpers of those dissolute times.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. they have made readyrather,”they make their heart approach,” namely their king, ingoing to drink with him.
like an ovenfollowingout the image in Ho 7:4. As itconceals the lighted fire all night while the baker sleeps but in themorning burns as a flaming fire, so they brood mischief in theirhearts while conscience is lulled asleep, and their wicked designswait only for a fair occasion to break forth [HORSLEY].Their heart is the oven, their baker the ringleader of the plot. InHo 7:7 their plots appear,namely, the intestine disturbances and murders of one king afteranother, after Jeroboam II.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait,…. The prince, people, and scorners before mentioned, being heated with wine, and their lust enraged, they were ready for any wickedness; for the commission of adultery, lying in wait for their neighbours’ wives to debauch them; or for rebellion and treason against their king, and even the murder of him, made drunk by them, whom they now despised, and waited for an opportunity to dispatch him:
their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire; as a baker having put wood into his oven, and kindled it, leaves it, and sleeps all night, and in the morning it is all burning, and in a flame, and his oven is thoroughly heated, and fit for his purpose; so the evil concupiscence in these men’s hearts, made hot like an oven, rests all night, devising mischief on their beds, either against the chastity of their neighbours’ wives, or against the lives of others, they bear an ill will to, particularly against their judges and their kings, as Ho 7:7; seems to intimate; and in the morning this lust of uncleanness or revenge is all in a flame, and ready to execute the wicked designs contrived; see Mic 2:1. Some by “their baker” understand Satan; others, their king asleep and secure; others Shallum, the head of the conspiracy against Zachariah.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Here the Prophet says, that the Israelites did secretly, and by hidden means, prepare their hearts for deeds of evil; and he takes up nearly the same similitude as he did a little while before, though for a different purpose; for he says that they had prepared their hearts secretly, as the baker puts fire in the night in his oven, and then rests, and in the morning the oven is well heated, having attained heat sufficient to bake the bread. The oven becomes hot in the morning, though the baker sleeps. How so? Because an abundance of fuel had been put together, so that it is heated by the morning. Hence nocturnal rest does not prevent the fire from making hot the oven, when it has a sufficient quantity of fuel, when the baker has so filled his oven, that the fire cannot be extinguished, nor be gradually smothered. When the baker has thus set in order an heap of wood, he then securely rests, for the fire can continue until the morning. We now then see the design of the Prophet.
They have prepared, he says, their hearts insidiously; that is, though they have not at first made evident their wickedness, they have yet previously prepared their hearts, as the oven is lighted up, or as the furnace is heated before the bread is prepared; nay, there is no need of much bustle, — there is no need of much noise when the baker lights up his oven, for he prepares the wood, and then he goes to rest; and, in the meantime, while he sleeps all the night, the fire is burning. So also they, though all do not perceive their wickedness, they have yet, in the meantime, heated their hearts like an oven; that is, evil deeds have, by degrees and during a long period of time, been conceived by them, before they came forth into open acts of wickedness.
We hence see that the similitude of an oven is set forth here by the Prophet in a sense different from what it had been before; and this ought to be noticed, because interpreters heedlessly pass over this wholly, as if the Prophet meant in both places the same thing. But the meaning, as it is evident, is far different. For he intended only, in the first instance, to reprove the mad lust with which they were burning; but he now speaks of their plots and concealed frauds; that is, that the Israelites before openly showed themselves to be ungodly and wicked, but that they were now wicked before God. How so? Because they were now like an oven lighted up in the night; for as the baker, having closed the door of his house, puts in fire, while none perceive that the furnace or the oven is being heated; so also the people fed and nourished their wickedness before God; and afterwards, in course of time, it broke forth openly, whenever an opportunity was offered.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Render, Yea, they draw nigh together. Like an oven in their heart with their wiles. Their baker sleepeth all the night, &c. The metaphor of Hos. 7:4 is resumed. The baker, having left his dough to become leavened and his fire to smoulder, can afford to sleep. The baker may mean the evil passion which has been raging. Indeed, Wnsche and Schmoller, by a slight change of punctuation, obtain the rendering their anger, instead of their baker, which is supported by the Targum and Syriac version. After the murderous plots and carousal, the conspiracy ripens with the day; then will come the outburst of violence.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘For they have made ready their heart like an oven,
While they lie in wait,
Their baker sleeps all the night,
In the morning it burns as a flaming fire.’
Meanwhile the people, sickened at the behaviour of their leaders, plot a coup in order to remove them. Those who are unfaithful to YHWH and hot after adultery, will equally be unfaithful to their kings, and be hot after replacing them by assassination. Thus their hearts are hot like an oven as they lie in ambush, and once their baker (the king) has slept all night unconscious of what is happening, he awakes to find his treacherous people aflame with rebellion. As we know from the history this was repeated a number of times, moving through Zechariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, and Pekah without any hesitation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 7:6. For they have made ready, &c. Their heart burns as an oven; their fury smoketh forth all the night; and in the morn it burneth as a flame of fire. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hos 7:6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.
Ver. 6. For they have made ready their hearts like an oven ] As an oven red-hot is ready to bake whatsoever is cast into it, so are wicked men’s hearts, heated from hell, prepared for any evil purpose or practice that the devil shall suggest ( ad male cogitandum, Pagnin., ad pessima facinora, Tigur.); but especially to lie in wait for blood, and to hunt every man his brother with a net, Mic 7:2 . David complains of some that lay in wait for his soul, Psa 59:8 , that Satanically hated him, Psa 38:20 ; Psa 7:13 ; Psa 109:4 ; Psa 109:6 ; Psa 109:20 ; Psa 109:29 ; that sought his soul to destroy it; not his life only, but his soul too; as that monster of Milan did, that made his adversary first forswear Christ in hope of life, and then, stabbing him to the heart, said, Now go thy ways soul and body to the devil; and as the Papists dealt by John Huss and Jerome of Prague, to whom they denied a confessor, which he required, after the manner of those times, to fit him for heaven; and for John Huss, after they had burnt him, how despitefully did they beat his heart (which was left untouched by the fire) with their staves! Besides that the bishops, when they put the triple crown of paper (painted with ugly devils on it) on his head, they said, Now we commit thy soul to the devil. Did not these men’s hearts burn like an oven with hellish rage and cruelty?
Their baker sleepeth all the night
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
they, &c. Like the baker in Hos 7:4.
their baker sleepeth = their anger smoketh: reading ye’shan ‘apphem instead of yashen ‘ophehem. Owing to the similarity in pronunciation and in the ancient form of Ayin (‘) and Aleph (‘). these letters were interchanged. The Massorah contains lists of words where Aleph (= ‘) stands for Ayin (= ‘) and vice versa (see Ginsburg’s Massorah, letter, vol. i, p. 57, 514; and letter, vol. ii, p. 390, 352, 360, &c). See notes on Isa 49:7. Amo 6:8. Zep 3:1, &c. The Aram, and Syriac preserve the reading of the primitive text: “their anger smoketh all night” (like the “oven” in Hos 7:4).
it: i.e. the oven.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
they: Hos 7:4, Hos 7:7, 1Sa 19:11-15, 2Sa 13:28, 2Sa 13:29, Psa 10:8, Psa 10:9, Pro 4:16, Mic 2:1
made ready: or, applied
Reciprocal: 2Sa 11:3 – sent Job 24:5 – rising Psa 17:3 – thou hast Psa 36:4 – deviseth Psa 55:10 – Day Psa 101:3 – set Psa 140:2 – imagine Isa 5:11 – rise Isa 32:6 – and his heart Mat 12:44 – he findeth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 7:6. The prophet continues the figure of a baker and his oven, and the thought is the same that was contained In the illustration before. While the people were waiting for the opportunity to practice their wickedness, they were stirring up the fierce anger in their hearts. Baker sleepeth all the night is a figure of speech, referring to the periods of inactivity during which the people were awaiting an opportunity of doing some mischief, at the same time working up their wicked hearts to the point of a blaze. In th& morning (the moment at the end of the period of waiting) the pent up heat bursts out into a flaming fire.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The princes eagerly plotted to overthrow the king. Their anger with him smoldered for a long time and was not obvious to him, like a fire hidden in an oven (Hos 7:4), but at the proper time it flared up and consumed him and his supporters. Hosea saw this happen four times. Shallum assassinated Zechariah, Menahem assassinated Shallum, Pekah assassinated Pekahiah, and Hoshea assassinated Pekah (2Ki 15:10; 2Ki 15:14; 2Ki 15:25; 2Ki 15:30).