Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 7:7

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: [there is] none among them that calleth unto me.

7. The consequence of all this licence. King after king falls a victim to the violent passions he has fostered in his subjects. Four regicides are recorded within forty years (2 Kings 15). And yet no one calls to Jehovah for help! Sacrifices indeed were not wanting (Hos 6:6), but those who offered them had no true ‘knowledge of God’, and so they profited them not.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges – Plans of sin, sooner or later, through Gods overruling providence, bound back upon their authors. The wisdom of Gods justice and of His government shows itself the more, in that, without any apparent agency of His own, the sin is guided by Him through all the intricate mazes of human passion, malice, and cunning, back to the sinners bosom. Jeroboam, and the kings who followed him, had corrupted the people, in order to establish their own kingdom. They had heated and inflamed the people, and had done their work completely, for the prophet says, They are all hot as an oven; none had escaped the contagion; and they, thus heated, burst forth and, like the furnace of Nebchadnezzar, devoured not only what was cast into it, but those who kindled it. The pagan observed, that the artificers of death perished by their own art.

Probably the prophet is describing a scene of revelry, debauchery, and scoffing, which preceded the murder of the unhappy Zechariah; and so fills up the brief history of the Book of Kings. He describes a profligate court and a debauched king; and him doubtless, Zechariah ; those around him, delighting him with their wickedness; all of them habitual adulterers; but one secret agent stirring them up, firing them with sin, and resting only, until the evil leaven had worked through and through. Then follows the revel, and the ground wily they intoxicated the king, namely, their lying-in-wait. For, he adds, they prepared their hearts like a furnace, when they lie in wait. The mention of dates, of facts, and of the connection of these together; the day of our king; his behavior: their lying in wait; the secret working of one individual; the bursting out of the fire in the morning; the falling of their kings; looks, as if he were relating an actual history. We know that Zechariah, of whom he is speaking, was slain through conspiracy publicly in the open face of day, before all the people, no one heeding, no one resisting. Hosea seems to supply the moral aspect of the history, how Zechariah fell into this general contempt; how, in him, all which was good in the house of Jehu expired.

All their kings are fallen – The kingdom of Israel, having been set up in sin, was, throughout its whole course, unstable and unsettled. Jeroboams house ended in his son; that of Baasha, who killed Jeroboams son, Nadab, ended in his own son, Elah; Omris ended in his sons son, God having delayed the punishment on Ahabs sins for one generation, on account of his partial repentance; then followed Jehus, to whose house God, for his obedience in some things, continued the kingdom to the fourth generation. With these two exceptions, in the houses of Omri and Jehu, the kings of Israel either left no sons, or left them to be slain. Nadab, Elah, Zimri, Tibni, Jehoram, Zechariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, Pekah, were put to death by those who succeeded them. Of all the kings of Israel, Jeroboam, Baasha, Omri, Menahem, alone, in addition to Jehu and the three next of his house, died natural deaths. So was it written by Gods hand on the house of Israel, all their kings have fallen. The captivity was the tenth change after they had deserted the house of David. Yet such was the stupidity and obstinacy both of kings and people, that, amid all these chastisements, none, either people or king, turned to God and prayed Him to deliver them. Not even distress, amid which almost all betake themselves to God, awakened any sense of religion in them. There is none among them, that calleth unto Me.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 7. All their kings are fallen] There was a pitiful slaughter among the idolatrous kings of Israel; four of them had fallen in the time of this prophet. Zechariah was slain by Shallum; Shallum, by Menahem; Pekahiah, by Pekah; and Pekah, by Hoshea, 2Kg 15:8-30. All were idolaters, and all came to an untimely death.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

This verse is a key to the former, and helps us to understand the true sense thereof.

They: see Hos 7:6.

All; in a larger and more vulgar sense, the most, or almost all of them, few excepted.

As an oven: see Hos 7:6.

Have devoured; as fire destroys, so have these conspirators, when successful, destroyed.

Their judges; those that were magistrates and rulers. who having somewhat of integrity, would not join with them, nor promote the interest of usurpers.

All their kings; all that had been since Jeroboam the Seconds reign to the delivery of this prophecy, viz. Zachariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, Pekah; these four fell by the conspiracy of such hot princes, only Menahem died a natural death. Are fallen, by treason and violence from such as would drink them sick with wishes of health.

There is none among them that calleth unto me; not one of all these either feared, trusted, or worshipped God. By profession all were idolaters, in practice debauched, and by their company they kept these latter kings of Israel appear under a suspicion of men contemning God, and deriding providence; but they are long since fallen, where they must lie for ever, under Gods justice.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

7. all hotAll burn witheagerness to cause universal disturbance (2Ki15:1-38).

devoured theirjudgesmagistrates; as the fire of the oven devours the fuel.

all their kings . . .fallenSee on Ho 7:1.

none . . . calleth untomeSuch is their perversity that amid all these nationalcalamities, none seeks help from Me (Isa 9:13;Isa 64:7).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

They are all hot as an oven,…. Eager upon their idolatry, or burning in their unclean desires after other men’s wives; or rather raging and furious, hot with anger and wrath against their rulers and governors, breathing out slaughter and death unto them:

and have devoured their judges; that stood in the way of their lusts, reproved them for them, and restrained them from them; or were on the side of the king they conspired against, and were determined to depose and slay:

all their kings have fallen; either into sin, the sin of idolatry particularly, as all from Jeroboam the first did, down to Hoshea the last; or they fell into calamities, or by the sword of one another, as did most of them; so Zachariah by Shallum, Shallum by Menahem, Pekahiah by Pekah, and Pekah by Hoshea; see 2Ki 15:1. So the Targum,

“all their kings are slain:”

[there is] none among them that calleth unto me; either among the kings, when their lives were in danger from conspirators; or none among the people, when their land was in distress, either by civil wars among themselves, or by a foreign enemy; such was their stupidity, and to such a height was irreligion come to among them!

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Prophet repeats what he had said before, that the Israelites were carried away by a mad zeal into their own superstitions and wicked practices, and could not be allayed or quieted by any remedies; and he shows at the same time that this malady or intemperance raged in the whole people, lest the vulgar should accuse a few men, as if they were the authors of all the wickedness. He gives proof of their frenzy, because they could not have been hitherto amended by any corrections. They have eaten, he says, their own judges; their kings have fallen; and in the meantime not one of them cries to me What the Prophet says here I refer to good kings, or to those who were able to uphold an ordinary government among the people. He says that judges as well as kings had fallen; by which words he means, that the Israelites had been deprived of good and wise governors; and this was a sad and miserable disorder to the people; it was the same as if the head were taken from the body. He says, in short, that the body was mangled and mutilated, because the Lord had taken away the kings and judges. We indeed know that kings in continual succession reigned among the Israelites; but we must consider of what kings the Prophet here speaks.

But let us now notice what he says: Judges have been devoured Some hold that the people through their wantonness had risen up against their judges, and, as if freed from all laws, had by main force upset all order; but this seems to me strained. The Prophet, I doubt not, means that the judges had been devoured, because the people had through their own fault made, as it were, entirely void the favor of God, as it often happens daily. God indeed so begins to do good, that he intends to continue his benefits to us to the end; but we devour his benefits; for we dry up, as it were, the fountain of his goodness, which would otherwise be exhaustless and perpetually flow to us. As then the goodness of God, which is otherwise inexhaustible, is in a manner dried up to us, when we allow it not to approach us; it is in this sense that the Prophet now complains that judges had been devoured by the Israelites; for through their impiety they had been deprived of this singular kindness of God; and they had consumed it, as rust or some other fault in brass destroys good fruit. We now comprehend the meaning of this verse.

God first shows that the Israelites were so ardent, that their frenzy could not be corrected or quieted. How so? “I have tried,” he says, “whether their disease was healable; for I have taken away their kings and governors, which was no obscure sign of my displeasure: but I have effected nothing.” Then it follows, אין קרא בהם אלי, ain kora beem ali, There is no one, he says, among them who cries to me He had said that all were burning with the lust of committing sin; now, accusing their stupidity, he excepts none. We hence see that the whole people were so seized with frenzy, that when chastised by God’s hand, they did not yet cry to him. It is indeed certain that the Israelites did cry, but without repentance; and it is usual with hypocrites to howl when God punishes them; but they yet direct not to him their supplications and their groans, for their heart is locked up by obstinacy. Thus then ought this clause to be expounded, that they repented not, nor fled to God for mercy. Then it follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

They are all hot as an oven,

And devour their judges,

All their kings are fallen,

There is none among them who calls to me.

So the people, hot like a stoked oven, stoked by the leaders of the conspiracy, devour their judges and destroy their kings. Both princes and kings fall together to be replaced by a new regime, who will later follow the same path. Such is the perfidy of a people who have forsaken YHWH. For not one of them calls on YHWH. The true Yahwists would not be involved.

And that is the point. Having rejected YHWH Who had always been their Deliverer in the past, they have had no one to turn to. So in desperation they have tried one king after another, only to discover that each one failed in his turn, quickly to be replaced by another. It is the picture of a nation that has lost its way. And yet still they refuse to turn back to YHWH. It was a picture of obstinacy gone mad, and is typical of those who, having rejected God, spend all their lives looking desperately for another solution when there is none.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Hos 7:7. They are all hot as an oven The prophet here describes the punishment of their crimes, keeping up the similitude under which he represented those crimes; as much as to say, “Because they have grown hot with wine, &c. like an oven, they shall be burned like an oven with the same fire which they have kindled. In this fire their judges, &c. shall be consumed.” See Houbigant.

All their kings are fallen The prophesy looks forward to the fall of the six last kings in perpetual succession, Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, Hoshea.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Hos 7:7 They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: [there is] none among them that calleth unto me.

Ver. 7. They are all hot as an oven ] That none might post it off to others, all are accused of this mad desire to do mischief; as all the Sodomites, full and whole, young and old, came clattering about Lot’s house, Gen 19:4 . ( Dedit haec contagio labem, Et dabit in plures. Juven. Sat. 2.)

And have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen, &c. ] sc. being slain with the sword of those that succeeded them in the throne, as may be read, 2Ki 15:8-9 , &c., and as it was in the Roman state, where all or most of the Caesars, till Constantine, died unnatural deaths. Neither was it much better here in England during the difference between the two houses of York and Lancaster; wherein were slain fourscore princes of royal blood, and twice as many natives of England as were lost in the two conquests of France. This is the fruit of sin: Pro 28:2 , “For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof”; either many at once (as once here in the heptarchy), or many ejecting and succeeding one another, to the great calamity and utter undoing of the people by their new lords, new laws.

There is none among them that calleth unto me ] Though in so great a confusion, and under so heavy calamities: a strange stupor, that there should be none to set to his shoulder to shore up the falling state. None there were (to speak of) in a considerable number of praying people to stand in the gap, and to divert the Divine displeasure. Their sins cried loud for vengeance, their blood guiltiness especially. But had there been but a few voices more of praying saints, their prayers had haply out cried them. A few birds of song are shriller than many crocitating birds of prey; stir up yourselves, therefore, ye that are God’s remembrancers, to take hold of him, and give him no rest. Lie night and day at the gate of his grace, knocking thereat by the hand of faith, and praying for the peace of our Jerusalem. If England’s fears were greater, thy prayers might preserve it, Jer 5:1 ; as, if our hopes were greater, thy sin and security aright undo it, Ecc 9:18 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

all their kings, &c. Compare Hos 8:4. Of the two houses of Omri and Jehu: Nadab, Zimri, Tibni, Jehoram, Zachariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, and Pekah were all slain by their successors, or others.

there is. Some codices, with two early printed editions (one Rabbinic in margin), read “and there”.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

devoured: Hos 8:4, 1Ki 15:28, 1Ki 16:9-11, 1Ki 16:18, 1Ki 16:22, 2Ki 9:24, 2Ki 9:33, 2Ki 10:7, 2Ki 10:14, 2Ki 15:10, 2Ki 15:14, 2Ki 15:25, 2Ki 15:30

there: Hos 7:10, Hos 7:14, Hos 5:15, Job 36:13, Isa 9:13, Isa 43:22, Isa 64:7, Eze 22:30, Dan 9:13

Reciprocal: 2Sa 11:3 – sent Psa 36:4 – deviseth Psa 101:3 – set Isa 31:1 – neither Isa 32:6 – and his heart Hos 7:4 – as Hos 7:6 – they Amo 2:6 – For three Mic 2:1 – when Zep 1:6 – and those

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Hos 7:7. They had not literally devoured their Judges, but the conspiracy was so strong that it engulfed even the rulers and other leading men. This is evidently the meaning, for the result of the heat is directly expressed by the closing words none among them that calleth unto me.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

7:7 They are all hot as an oven, and have {e} devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: [there is] none among them that calleth unto me.

(e) By their doing God has deprived them of all good rulers.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

All of Israel’s past kings had fallen. All the Israelite kings who followed Jeroboam II suffered assassination except Menahem and Hoshea (cf. 2Ki 17:3-6). The Israelites murdered their leaders leaving themselves like a ship without a rudder. A continuing dynasty, as existed in Judah, never succeeded in the North. The reason was that none of the Israelites sought the Lord. Since this prophecy is undated we do not know when Hosea gave it, but it must have been during the tumultuous times when Israel’s final kings reigned (ca. 752-722 B.C.).

"So blinded had the people become that they did not realize that even though their kings had been of their own making, in destroying them they were destroying God’s order (Rom 13:1)." [Note: Ellison, p. 124.]

"Like every revolutionary state that has no faith in anything beyond itself, Israel was burning up in its own anger." [Note: Mays, pp. 106-7.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)