Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 8:7
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
7. The consequences of Israel’s evil conduct and policy are here represented under the figure of sowing and reaping. But the form of the figure is varied. First, Israel sows wind and reaps whirlwind, i.e. his present conduct is unprofitable to himself, and the requital of it shall be actual destruction. Next, though Israel sows a corn-plant, it never grows up to its full size ( it, i.e. Israel, hath no standing corn); or if it does, it either yields the farmer no meal, or its meal is seized upon by the enemy, i.e. the worldly results of Israel’s policy are never good, and any wealth that it attains passes into the hands of the enemy.
the bud shall yield no meal ] In the Hebrew there is a characteristic play upon sounds, the emakh yields no qemakh.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind – They shall reap, not merely as they have sown, but with an awful increase. They sowed folly and vanity, and shall reap, not merely emptiness and disappointment, but sudden, irresistible destruction. They sowed the wind, and, as one seed bringeth forth many, so the wind, pennd up, as it were, in this destructive tillage, should burst forth again, reinforced in strength, in mightier store and with great violence. Thus they reaped the whirlwind, yea, (as the word means) a mighty whirlwind. But the whirlwind which they reap doth not belong to them; rather they belong to it, blown away by it, like chaff, the sport and mockery of its restless violence.
It hath no stalk – If their design should for the time seem to prosper, all should be but empty show, disappointing the more, the more it should seem to promise. He speaks of three stages of progress. First, the seed should not send forth the grain with the ear; it hath no stalk or standing corn; even if it advanced thus far, still the ear should yield no meat; or should it perchance yield this, the enemy should devour it. Since the yielding fruit denotes doing works, the fruit of Gods grace, the absence of the standing corn represents the absence of good works altogether; the absence of the meal, that nothing is brought to ripeness; the devouring by the enemy, that what would otherwise be good, is, through faulty intentions or want of purity of purpose, given to Satan and the world, not to God. : When hypocrites make a shew of good works, they gratify therewith the longings of the evil spirits. For they who do not seek to please God therewith, minister not to the Lord of the field, but to strangers. The hypocrite, then, like a fruitful but neglected ear, cannot retain his fruit, because the ear of good works lieth on the ground. And yet he is fed by this very folly, because for his good works he is honored by all, eminent above the rest; peoples minds are subject to him; he is raised to high places; nurtured by favors. But then will he understand that he has done foolishly, when, for the delight of praise, he shall receive the sentence of the rebuke of God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 8:7
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The consequences of sin
Misery is attached to sin as its inevitable consequence; but the connection does not always appear to a superficial observer. Transgression sometimes appears to be productive of happiness, and obedience to be a source of much affliction and trouble. But the wicked are not really happy now, and they have no reasonable expectation of happiness in the eternal world.
I. Who may be said to sow the wind? To sow the wind is a proverbial expression for labouring in vain. It may be applied to all who seek happiness in the way of sin.
1. To sensualists, who yield themselves up to the gratifications of sense. See confession of Solomon (Ecc 2:1; Ecc 2:10-11).
2. To worldlings. The lovers of this present world hope to obtain, not a momentary gratification, but solid and lasting benefits. But riches are proverbially uncertain. Our cares are generally multiplied by means of them.
3. To formalists. The performance of religious duties seems more calculated to make us happy. No one can be happy who disregards them. But a mere round of services can never satisfy the conscience. Some delude themselves with an idea that it will secure the Divine favour. Under that delusion they may be filled with self-complacency. A sight of sin will speedily dissipate these self-righteous hopes.
4. To false professors. There are many who wish to be thought religious when they are destitute of spiritual life. They may be jealous about doctrines and their own particular form of Church government, but they are not solicitous to live nigh to God in holy duties.
II. What they may expect to reap. A whirlwind is a figure to represent extraordinary calamities. Their calamities will be–
1. Sudden. They receive warnings, but are taken by surprise at last.
2. Irresistible. Illustrate by a whirlwind.
3. Tremendous. See desolation wrought by a whirlwind. Infers
(1) How earnest should we be in redeeming time!
(2) How blessed are they who are living to God! (Sketches of Sermons.)
Reaping the whirlwind
Said Napoleon to La Place, I see no mention of God in your system of theology. No, sire, was the answer, we have no longer any need of that hypothesis. A half-century of anarchy and social disorder in unhappy France was the result–the awful reign of terror. How much wiser was Montesquieu, who said: God is as necessary as freedom to the welfare of France!
Sowing the wind
This is a proverbial speech, signifying the taking a great deal of pains to little purpose; as if a man should go abroad in the fields, and spread his hands about with effort and yet grasp nothing but air. The wind is an empty creature in respect of things solid, therefore the Scripture often makes use of it to signify the vanity of the hopes and laborious endeavours of wicked men.
1. Many do nothing all their lifetime but sow the wind; they labour and toil, but what comes of it? It is no good account to give to God of our time, to say that we have taken a great deal of pains; we may take pains and yet sow the wind. Who are those that sow the wind?
(1) Some students: men that spend their thoughts and strength about things in no way profitable to themselves or others, such sow the wind: with a great deal of earnestness they do just nothing.
(2) Idolaters. All those who take pains and are at great cost in superstitious worship, all their intentions that they have to honour God, come to nothing, it is but a sowing the wind.
(3) Formalists. Such as content themselves in the outward part of Gods worship, having no power nor life of godliness in the services they perform.
(4) The vainglorious. They who do all that they do out of vainglory, who, to set up themselves among others, spend a long time in prayer, and an ostentatiously scrupulous observance of all rites and ceremonies, a principle of vainglory actuating them throughout. Men of public gifts, who do abundance of good in the Church of God and in the commonwealth, but are moved thereto by a principle of self and vainglory, these lose all, they sow but to the wind.
(5) Such as serve themselves of sin; such as seek to shift for themselves by sinful means when they are in any straits, and forsake lawful courses to help themselves out of trouble. They reap the whirlwind. The Hebrew word has a syllable more than usual added to it to increase its signification. It is not only a whirlwind, but a most terrible whirlwind. There is more in the harvest than in the seed. Sow a little sinful pleasure, and a great deal of misery is the fruit. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
The growth and power of habit
Notice the way in which the acts of daily life influence destiny.
I. We are continually forming habits.
II. The tendency of habits once formed is to increase in strength. Wind–whirlwind.
III. Habits increase in the direction of original tendency. Same in kind, though vastly different in intensity and force.
IV. The tendency of habits is to increase in strength till they pass beyond control. The whirlwind desolates the land and strews the sea with wrecks. Habit is something like appetite: we are led by it, just as a hungry man makes his way towards home. It cannot be explained how it is that actions become easier by being repeated, but that it is so everybody must admit. If we do anything a certain number of times, the doing has an effect upon us, and that effect we call habit. We should therefore be very careful what we accustom ourselves to do, lest we should acquire the appetite or habit of doing things that are hurtful and wrong. Habit is the result of repeated acts, and it is wonderful how soon a little child acquires a habit. The doing of a thing once or twice is sufficient to lead the child to do it again–
All habits gather, by unseen degrees,
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
(A. Hampden Lee.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind] As the husbandman reaps the same kind of grain which he has sown, but in far greater abundance, thirty, sixty, or one hundred fold; so he who sows the wind shall have a whirlwind to reap. The vental seed shall be multiplied into a tempest; so they who sow the seed of unrighteousness shall reap a harvest of judgment. This is a fine, bold, and energetic metaphor.
It hath no stalk] Nothing that can yield a blossom. If it have a blossom, that blossom shall not yield fruit; if there be fruit, the sower shall not enjoy it, for strangers shall eat it. The meaning is, the labours of this people shall be utterly unprofitable and vain.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For; since that; or, for so much as; or, verily; so the Hebrew particle is sometimes used, Isa 7:9.
They have sown the wind; a proverbial speech, to denote either lost labour, or, which is much worse, labour that will undo and tear to pieces him that laboureth: both these are in the verse. Mans life and labour is a seed that will bring forth fruit; but when this life and labour is laid out on sin, as here Israels was, it will bring forth that fruit the sinner is unwilling to reap.
They shall reap the whirlwind; a violent, tearing, and dissipating tempest, which beareth down and destroyeth all that is in its way; an emblem of the wrath of God breaking out against these vain and sinful men: so Ephraim reaped in his civil wars, and much more in the Assyrian war, which ended in a whirlwind, that hath scattered them into unknown countries, and where they have lain buried in forgetfulness above two thousand four hundred years.
It hath no stalk; suppose this seed should have its harvest in no whirlwind, it will end in loss and disappointment, as seed that never springs up into a stalk, nor hath bud or ear: all your worship of and dependence on idols, and foreign assistance, will at best be as seed that yields neither stalk nor bud.
The bud shall yield no meal; or suppose it produced stalk and bud, yet it will be no profit, but all lost labour, for the bud shall be lank, shrivelled, and blasted, and never yield meal: so was the fruit Israel reaped, from Pul to Menahem, and from Egypts assistance to Hoshea against Shalmaneser.
If so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up; or, if yet meal be found in the bud, Israel shall be never the better, foreigners devour it: so did Pul and his, and Shalmaneser and his Assyrians, eat up all.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. sown . . . reap (Pro 22:8;Gal 6:7). “Sow . . . wind,”that is, to make the vain show of worship, while faith and obedienceare wanting [CALVIN].Rather, to offer senseless supplications to the calves for goodharvests (compare Ho 2:8); theresult being that God will make them “reap no stalk,” thatis, “standing corn.” Also, the phraseology proverbiallymeans that all their undertakings shall be profitless (Pro 11:29;Ecc 5:16).
the budor, “growth.”
strangersforeigners(Ho 7:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind,…. The sense is, the Israelites took a great deal of pains in the idolatrous worship of the calves, and made a great stir, bustle, and noise in it, like the wind; were very vainglorious and ostentatious, made a great show of religion and devotion, and promised themselves great things from it, peace and plenty, wealth and riches, all prosperity and happiness, enjoyed by Heathen nations; but this was lost labour, it was labouring for the wind, or sowing that; they got nothing by it, or what was worse than nothing; it proved not only useless, but hurtful, to them; for, for their idolatry, and continuance in it, the whirlwind of God’s wrath would be raised up against them, and the Assyrian army, like a vehement storm of wind, would rush in upon them, and destroy them; so they that sow to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption, Ga 6:8;
it hath no stalk; what they sowed did not rise up above ground; or, if it did, it did not spring up in a blade or stalk, which was promising of fruit; no real good, profit, and advantage, sprung from their idolatrous practices:
the bud shall yield no meal; yea, though it rise up into a stalk, and this stalk produced ears of corn, yet those so thin, that no meal or flour could be got out of them, and so of no worth and use:
and if so be it yield: any meal or flour:
the strangers shall swallow it up; the Israelites should not be the better for it; it should till come into the hands of foreigners, the Assyrian army. The meaning is, that if they did prosper and increase in riches, yet they should not long enjoy them themselves, but be pillaged and spoiled of them; as they were by the exactions of Pul, and by the depredations of Shalmaneser, kings of Assyria. So the Targum,
“if they got substance, the nations shall spoil them of it.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This will Israel reap from its ungodly conduct. Hos 8:7. “For they sow wind, and reap tempest: it has no stalks; shoot brings no fruit; and even if it brought it, foreigners would devour it.” With this figure, which is so frequently and so variously used (cf. Hos 10:13; Hos 12:2; Job 4:8; Pro 22:8), the threat is accounted for by a general thought taken from life. The harvest answers to the sowing (cf. Gal 6:7-8). Out of the wind comes tempest. Wind is a figurative representation of human exertions; the tempest, of destruction. Instead of ruach we have , , (nothingness, weariness, wickedness) in Hos 10:13; Job 4:8, and Pro 22:8. In the second hemistich the figure is carried out still further. , “seed standing upon the stalk,” is not to it (viz., that which has been sowed). Tsemach brings no qemach , – a play upon the words, answering to our shoot and fruit. Qemach : generally meal, here probably the grain-bearing ear, from which the meal is obtained. But even if the shoot, when grown, should yield some meal, strangers, i.e., foreigners, would consume it. In these words not only are the people threatened with failure of the crop; but the failure and worthlessness of all that they do are here predicted. Not only the corn of Israel, but Israel itself, will be swallowed up.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet here shows by another figure how unprofitably the Israelites exercised themselves in their perverted worship, and then how vainly they excused their superstitions. And this reproof is very necessary also in the present day. For we see that hypocrites, a hundred times convicted, will not yet cease to clamour something: in short, they cannot bear to be conquered; even when their conscience reproves them, they will still dare to vomit forth their virulence against God. They will also dare to bring forward vain pretences: hence the Prophet says, that they have sown the wind, and that they shall reap the whirlwind. It is an appropriate metaphor; for they shall receive a harvest suitable to the sowing. The seed is cast on the earth, and afterwards the harvest is gathered: They have sown, he says, the wind, they shall then gather the whirlwind, or, the tempest. To sow the wind is nothing else than to put on some appearance to dazzle the eyes of the simple, and by craft and guise of words to cover their own impiety. When one then casts his hand, he seems to throw seed on the earth, but yet he sows the wind. So also hypocrites have their displays, and set themselves in order, that they may appear wholly like the pious worshipers of God.
We hence see that the design of the Prophet’s metaphor, when he says that they sow the wind, is to show this, that though they differ nothing from the true worshippers of God in outward appearance, they yet sow nothing but wind; for when the Israelites offered their sacrifices in the temple, they no doubt conformed to the rule of the law, but at the same time came short of obedience to God. There was no faith in their services: it was then wind; that is, they had nothing but a windy and an empty show, though the outward aspect of their service differed nothing from the true and legitimate worship of God. They then sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. But we cannot finish to-day.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 8:8. Swallowed] up as devoured by beasts of prey. Vessel] worthless and dishonoured (2Ti. 2:20); and broken (Psa. 31:12; Jer. 22:28; Jer. 48:38).
HOMILETICS
A PICTURE OF UNGODLY LIFE.Hos. 8:7-8
Israel is still threatened. Their continual labour is all in vain. They reap no reward, will be grievously disappointed, and not only the harvest, but they themselves will be devoured. Such will be the result of their ungodly conduct.
I. Laborious in its efforts. For they sow the wind.
1. Effort is put forth by all men. They live and labour for goodseek to gain happiness and have a seed-time in life.
2. Painful are the efforts of the ungodly. They plough iniquity, and practice it day by day. They sow the wind, most earnestly and perseveringly, in hope of profit. Sinners are sore labourers. They put themselves to trouble and expense to make and worship their idols, to pursue their aims, but all in vain. They are labouring for the wind (Ecc. 5:16); embracing a shadow; grasping the air; wearying themselves for that which hath no substance nor true felicity in it.
II. Disappointment in its results. It hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal, &c. First no ear, or if an ear, no yield, or if it advance thus far, the enemy will devour the produce.
1. Vanity is reaped. He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity (Pro. 22:8). There is a harvest in sin, and men reap what they sow (Gal. 6:7-8). Vanity, emptiness, and vexation result from sin. Satan is a hard task-master. His service is slavery and the wages miserable. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?
2. Divine retribution is reaped. They shall reap the whirlwind. The wind sown and penned up in ungodly life, will be reinforced in strength and burst forth into a mighty tempest. Men sow and cultivate what at last will make them the sport and mockery of its resistless violence. They will be carried away with their own folly like chaff before the wind. The whirlwind will overthrow their dwellings, wreck their hopes, and drive them away in their wickedness. Sennacherib in olden time reaped the whirlwind (Isa. 10:5-12; Isa. 10:24-25; Isa. 30:31). Napoleon, robbed of empire, shorn of greatness, and driven into exile, reaped the harvest of his own sowing. Spain with its Inquisition, and France with its Black Bartholomew, countries remarkable for persecution, reaped the whirlwind in bloody revolutions and civil wars. The ungodly are consumed by Divine judgments in this life and by Divine wrath in that which is to come. They that plow iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
III. Destructive in its end. Israel is swallowed up. Not mere disappointment, but destruction will be the result of sin. Israel were carried away, the whole nation were swallowed up by foes. They lost their privileges and honour. Their land was devoured and eaten up by strangers. They were dishonoured by God, and despised by men as a broken vessel. Sin and idolatry in gross or refined forms will bring misery and degradation. They undermine the foundations of moral life, beget more place for vanity and more thirst for pleasure. Those who do not love and serve God will be given up by God. There will come, though long delayed, a terrible day of wrath, a harvest of whirlwinds to consume their glory and destroy their hopes. Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos. 8:7. They have sown.
1. Human life a sowing time. Behold a sower went forth to sow. The relation of men one to another like that of seed and soil. Men are sowing by thoughts, words, and deeds. In each a permanent influence, a germ of imperishable life.
2. The kind of lifemoral seed. Some sow good seed, others worthless seed. The pleasure-seeker and the man of the world, the hypocrite and the false professor, are sowing the wind.
3. The accompaniments of lifethe harvest. The harvest is good or bad, the same in measure and quality as the sowing. Men reap to-day what they had sown yesterday, will reap in eternity what they sow in time. Gods laws are unchangeable and will never be reversed. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.
Not only may men expect to reap as they sow, but sinful and vain courses will bring further disadvantages, and raise violent tempests, either in the undertakers conscience, or outward condition, or both; for they have sown the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind [Hutcheson].
Hos. 8:8. Sinful courses persisted in may consume the Church, deprive of religious ordinances, and gratify the wishes of the enemy, who greedily devour Gods people (Psa. 14:4).
When professors decline in religion and despise God, then God will despise them before others. So long as Israel was consecrated to the Lord those who sought to injure her were injured themselves (Jer. 2:3); but when they made leagues with idolaters they were swallowed up by them. For them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
Dishonoured vessels.
1. A useless vessel. Empty of everything good, filled with everything bad, and taking the place of vessels more useful and worthy.
2. A broken vessel. Broken in credit and reputations, broken to pieces in hopes and fortunes; broken by their own conduct and by the judgments of God upon that conduct.
3. A vessel put to some vile purpose. Israel given to idolatry. Men dishonouring body and soul by sin, making them objects of loathing and disgust before others. There are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth: and some to honour, and some to dishonour (2Ti. 2:20). All men are vessels of mercy, or vessels of wrath fitted to destruction (Rom. 9:22).
Such has been the history of the ten tribes ever since; swallowed up, not destroyed; among the nations, yet not of them; despised and mingled among them, yet not united with them; having an existence, yet among that large whole, the nations, in whom their natural existence has been at once preserved and lost; everywhere had in dishonour; the Heathen and the Mohammedan have alike despised, outraged, insulted them; avenging upon them, unconsciously, the dishonour which they did to God [Pusey].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(7) Wind . . . whirlwind.The great law of Divine retribution, the punishment for sin being often a greater facility in sinningindifference to God becoming enmity, forgetfulness of duty or truth becoming violent recoil from both. Wind expresses what is empty and fruitless, and the pronoun it refers, in accordance with the metaphor, to such unproductive seed.
It hath no stalk.Not even incipient prosperity, as in the days of Jeroboam II. The growth shall yield no grain, as we might express the play of words in the Hebrew.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
For they sow the wind,
And they will reap the whirlwind,
By their actions, YHWH pointed out, they were ‘sowing the wind’, and the consequence could only be that they would reap the whirlwind. It was a principle built into creation that whatever a man sows that he also reaps. The picture is vivid. They thought that they were only making a small draught by their activities, but it would turn into a fearsome storm that would carry them away.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
He has no standing grain,
The blade will yield no meal,
If so be it yield,
Strangers will swallow it up.’
The ‘he’ refers to Israel. Israel will have no standing grain, all will be flattened, their blades of corn will yield no meal, and any that they do yield will simply be swallowed up by strangers. The picture is one of total devastation and famine, and complete defencelessness (so much for their nature gods, and their kings and princes). Alternately it is an indication that they will be no longer be there but in exile, while their land will be given to others. The strangers who swallowed it up would be wandering tribes (similar to bedouin) who swept down and seized all that was available.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 8:7. For they have sown the wind, &c. Because they have sown the wind, they shall reap the whirlwind: The stalk shall be without grain: It shall yield no meal; and if it yield it, strangers shall devour it. These proverbial expressions are used to signify that the rewards of men will always be according to their works. Jehovah, Jesus, whose right it is to judge, hath thus determined. They who sow iniquity, shall reap vanity. All the pains which the kings of Israel have taken to enrich themselves, and to strengthen their kingdom, being built on the foundation of apostacy and idolatry, shall prove like a blasted crop of corn; the small increase whereof, if there be any, shall become a prey to their enemy. See Lowth and Houbigant.
The first clause of this 7th verse, observes Bishop Horsley, predicts generally the dispersion of the ten tribes, and the demolition of their monarchy by the force of the Assyrian, represented under the image of a scattering wind and destroying whirlwind. The following clauses describe the progressive steps of the calamity, in an inverted order. “There shall be no stem belonging to him:” Nothing standing erect and visible in the field; that is, the nation shall be ultimately so utterly extinguished, that it shall not be to be found upon the surface of the earth. But before this utter ruin takes place, it shall be impoverished, and reduced to great weakness. For “the ear,” upon the stem yet standing, shall be an ear of empty husks, “yielding no meal.” The nation shall not thrive in wealth or power. “And what perchance it may yield, strangers shall consume.” Before the extreme decay, represented by the barren ear, takes place; its occasional temporary successes, in its last struggles, will all be for the enrichment and aggrandizement of foreign allies, at last the conquerors of the country.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1164
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN
Hos 8:7. They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
MISERY is attached to sin as its inevitable consequence. This connexion does not always appear to a superficial observer. On the contrary, transgression often seems productive of happiness; and obedience: to be a source of much affliction and trouble: but, whatever conclusions we may be led to draw from present appearances, we are sure that the wicked are not happy; nor have they any reasonable expectation of happiness in the eternal world. The Israelites had forsaken the true God for idols, and God warned them of the judgments which would ere long come upon them: but the declaration in the text may be understood as a general position. We shall take occasion from it to shew,
I.
Who may be said to sow the wind
To sow the wind is a proverbial expression for labouring in vain. It is applied to idolaters, because the silver and gold lavished on idols was unprofitably spent, and it may well be applied to all who seek happiness in a way of sin:
1.
To sensualists
[They expect to find much comfort in the indulgence of their lusts. Hence they yield themselves up to all the gratifications of sense. But they find that such pursuits can afford them no real happiness. While they forsake the Fountain of living waters, they hew out to themselves only broken cisterns that can hold no water [Note: Jer 2:13.]. Solomon, with the amplest means of enjoyment, confessed this [Note: Ecc 2:1; Ecc 2:10-11.]. And we may address that appeal to all the votaries of pleasure [Note: Rom 6:21.].]
2.
To worldlings
[The lovers of this present world seem to follow something substantial. They hope to obtain, not a momentary gratification, but solid and lasting benefits. They promise to themselves the acquisition of ease, and affluence, and respect. But riches are justly, and on many accounts, termed uncertain [Note: 1Ti 6:17.]. No dependence can be placed on their continuance with us [Note: Pro 23:5.]. Our cares are also generally multiplied by means of them: but if they were more conducive to happiness now, what shall they profit in the day of wrath [Note: Pro 11:4.]? What advantage has he now, who once took such delight in his stores [Note: Luk 12:19.]? or he, who placed his happiness in sumptuous fare, and magnificent apparel [Note: Luk 16:19; Luk 16:23-24.]? Surely all such persons will find ere long, that they sowed the wind.]
3.
To formalists
[The performance of religious duties seems more calculated to make us happy. It is certain that no one can be happy who disregards them. But a mere round of services can never satisfy the conscience. The form of godliness without the power will avail little. It will leave the soul in a poor, empty, destitute condition. Some indeed delude themselves with an idea that it will secure the Divine favour; and, under that delusion, they may be filled with self-complacency [Note: Luk 18:11-12.]. But if God send a ray of light into the mind, these comforts vanish. A sight of sin will speedily dissipate these self-righteous hopes [Note: Rom 7:9.]. Nor will any thing satisfy an enlightened conscience but that which satisfies God. There was but one remedy for the wounded Israelites in the wilderness [Note: Joh 3:14-15.]. Nor can a wounded spirit ever be healed but by a sight of Christ.]
4.
To false professors
[Many wish to be thought religious, when they are destitute of spiritual life. They perhaps are zealous for the doctrines of the Gospel, and for their own particular form of Church government. But they are not solicitous to live nigh to God in holy duties; nor do they manifest the efficacy of religion in their spirit and conduct. Yet, because of their professing godliness, they think themselves possessed of it, and buoy up themselves with expectations of happiness in the world to come. Alas! what disappointment will they one day experience [Note: Mat 25:11-12.]! What will it avail them to have had a name to live, while they were really dead? or to have cried, Lord, Lord! while they departed not from iniquity? The pains they have taken to keep up a profession will all be lost. Nothing will remain to them but shame and confusion of face.]
From the seed which they sow, we may easily perceive,
II.
What they may expect to reap
A whirlwind is a figure used to represent extraordinary calamities. [Note: Pro 1:27.]And such is the harvest which they will reap in due season. Their calamities will be,
1.
Sudden
[The corn ripens gradually for the sickle, and its fate is foreseen; but the destruction of the ungodly cometh suddenly and at an instant. They indeed have many warnings from all which they see around them; but they put the evil day far from them, and think it will never come [Note: 2Pe 3:4.]. Thus it was with the whole world before the Deluge. Though Noah preached to them for many years, they would not regard him; and were taken by surprise at last, as much as if no notice had been given them. [Note: Mat 24:38-39.] Thus also it will be with all who reject the Gospel salvation. Solomon has expressly declared it in reference to those who sow discord [Note: Pro 6:14-15.]. And St. Paul has asserted it respecting all that live in a neglect of God [Note: 1Th 5:2-3.].]
2.
Irresistible
[Sinners of every description can withstand the word spoken by their fellow-creatures [Note: Eze 20:49.]; but they will not be able to resist God when he shall call them into judgment. Then, if the whole universe should enter into a confederacy to protect one sinner, they would fail in their attempt [Note: Pro 11:21.]. There is not any thing more irresistible to man, in some climates, than a whirlwind. Yet far less power shall the ungodly have to avert the wrath of God. They will be carried to destruction as the chaff before the wind [Note: Psa 1:4-5.]; and call in vain to the rocks to fall upon them, or the hills to cover them [Note: Rev 6:15-17.].]
3.
Tremendous
[Nothing can be conceived more dreadful than the desolation made by whirlwinds. Yet this suggests a very inadequate idea of the ruin that will come on the ungodly. The raining of fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrha must have been exceedingly terrible. But even that was light, when compared with the vials of Gods wrath which will be poured out upon the ungodly world. Who can comprehend the full import of that threatening in the Psalms [Note: Psa 11:6.]? Who can form a just idea of the judgment denounced by Isaiah [Note: Isa 5:24.]? May we never experience such dreadful calamities! May we tremble at the apprehension of them, and seek shelter in Christ [Note: Isa 32:2.]!]
Infer
1.
How earnest should we be in redeeming time!
[The present hours are given us that we may sow for eternity. Every action, word and thought is as seed that will spring up hereafter. According to what we sow now, we shall reap at the last day [Note: Gal 6:7-8.]. Every moment increases our treasure of wrath, or our weight of glory. How should we be affected with this consideration! Let us lay it to heart, and walk, not as fools, but as wise men [Note: Eph 5:15-16.]. And let that just expostulation shame us to a sense of duty [Note: Isa 55:2.].]
2.
How blessed are they who are living to God!
[There is not a work which they perform for him that will not be rewarded. God would esteem himself unjust, if he made them no recompence [Note: Heb 6:10.]. However small and insignificant the service be, it shall not be forgotten [Note: Mat 10:42.]. Some perhaps may complain, that they cannot do any thing for God, and. that they can only weep for their unprofitableness. But the sighs and tears of the contrite are precious seed. They will spring up to a glorious and abundant harvest [Note: Psa 126:6.]. Let the humble then go on sowing in tears till they reap in joy. Let them persist in their labour, assured that it shall not be in vain [Note: 1Co 15:58.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 8:7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
Ver. 7. For they have sown the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind ] To sow the wind is to labour in vain, as Ecc 5:16 , to labour for the wind, and Pro 11:29 , to possess the wind, to feed on the wind, Hos 12:1 , and to be eaten up of the wind, Jer 22:22 . The Greeks express the same by hunting after and husbanding the wind, . The wind, we know, maketh a mighty bustle, as if it were some great business, solid and stable; but presently it blows over, and comes to nothing. Or if it get, as seed, into the bosom of the earth, either it breeds an earthquake, or at least ariseth in a whirlwind, which blows dust into the eyes, and once at least buried a considerable army in the Libyan sands. Solomon saith, “He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity,” Pro 22:8 . But our prophet here saith more. He that soweth the wind of iniquity shall reap the terrible tempest of inconceivable misery. By the “blast of God he shall perish, and by the breath of his nostrils he shall be consumed,” Job 4:8-9 . As the beginnings of idolatry, hypocrisy, vain glory, carnal policy, &c., are empty and unhappy (it is but the sowing of blasted grain, as the Septuagint here hath it, seed corrupted by the wind, ), so the end thereof is very sad and dismal. The word here rendered the whirlwind hath a syllable in it more than ordinary (Suphathah), to note (saith Tremellius) the fearfulness of the divine vengeance that will befall the forementioned; and especially at death, when they are entering upon eternity. Oh what a dreadful shriek gives the guilty soul at death, to see itself launching into an infinite ocean of scalding lead, and must swim naked in it for ever; not having the least cold blast of that wind it sowed all its life long to cool it; but rather to add to its torment! Then will God speak to such, as once he did to Job out of a whirlwind, but after another manner; Go to now, ye formalists, false worshippers, triflers, troublers of Israel; ye that have been mere mutes and ciphers, nullities in the world, superfluities in the earth, or worse than all this; go to now, I say, weep and howl for the miseries that are come upon you. “Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter,” Jas 5:5 . But now an end is come, is come; an evil, an only evil, without mixture of mercy, sorrow without succour (help), mischief without measure, torments without hope of ever either mending or ending, are the portion of your cup; the dregs of that cup of mine must you now drink off, that hath eternity to the bottom. Oh lamentable! Oh did but men forethink what would be the end of sin, they dare not but be innocent. Oh let that terrible tempest at death be timely thought on and prevented: Job 27:20-21 , &c., “Terrors take hold of him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand,” &c.
It hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal] Nihil habet fertilitatis firmitatisque, as Ruffinus expoundeth it. It hath no firmness or fruitfulness; the wind of wickedness that thou hast sown, the blasted grain that thou hast committed to the earth, will yield thee nothing but loss and disappointment. A blade there may be, but not a stalk; or if a stalk, yet not a bud; or if a bud, yet it shall be nipped in the bud, it shall yield no meal, but only dust and chaff; or if it come to the meal, yet strangers shall swallow it up, so that you shall be never the better for it; but after that ye have sown the wind of iniquity, ye shall reap the wirlwind of misery, maledictionem omnimodam, curses of all kinds, which God hath hanged at the heels of your idolatry, a pernicious evil (whatever those superstitious she-sinners bragged to the contrary, Jer 44:17 ). Or if they flourish for a season, and have hopes of a large crop; yet God will curse their blessings, and frustrate their fair hopes, Psa 37:2 , as he dealt by that rich wretch mentioned by Mr Burroughes in his comment on the second chapter of this prophecy. I had certain information, said he, from a reverend minister, that in his own town there was a worldling who had a large crop of grain. A good honest neighbour of his walking by his grain said, Neighbour, you have a very fine crop of grain, if God bless it. Yes, said he, I will have a good grain, speaking contemptuously. And before he could come to get it into the barn, it was blasted, that the grain of the whole crop was not worth sixpence.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wind. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
the bud . . . meal. Note the Figure of speech Paronomasia (App-6), for emphasis. Hebrew. zemach . . . kemach. It may be Englished: “the flower will yield no flour”.
strangers = outsiders. Compare Hos 7:9.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
sown: Hos 10:12, Job 4:8, Pro 22:8, Ecc 5:16, Gal 6:7
it hath: Isa 17:11, Jer 12:13
stalk: or, standing corn
the strangers: Hos 7:9, Deu 28:33, Jdg 6:3-6, 2Ki 13:3-7, 2Ki 15:19, 2Ki 15:29
Reciprocal: Gen 41:23 – thin Job 5:5 – the robber Job 15:31 – for vanity Job 20:18 – swallow Psa 129:7 – he that bindeth Pro 6:14 – soweth Pro 11:29 – inherit Isa 1:7 – strangers Isa 5:17 – strangers Isa 55:2 – do ye Hos 10:13 – plowed Hos 12:1 – feedeth Hag 1:6 – have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 8:7. Sown wind . . . reap whirlwind agrees perfectly with Gal 6:7. The only difference in principle between a wind and a whirlwind is in degree or quantity, lor both are wind. A whirlwind ia a greater and stronger thing than a wind but ia in the same class as a substance. It is likewise In the case of sowing and reaping. If a man sows wheat he expects to reap wheat; but he should get more wheat at the harvest than he sowed. A whirlwind would destroy all the other growth virtually, and if any remained standing after the storm passed by, strangers would get it.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 8:7. For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind, &c. A proverbial expression, to signify, that as mens works are, so must their reward be; that they who sow iniquity shall reap vanity, Pro 22:8. Their labour shall be fruitless, or shall turn to their hurt and damage: As if he had said, All the pains which the kings of Israel and their subjects had taken to enrich themselves, and to strengthen their kingdom, being built upon the foundation of apostacy and idolatry, shall turn to no better account, than countrymen expect from a blasted crop of corn; and whatever advantage they make, it shall at last be a prey to foreigners, to the kings of Syria and Assyria.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:7 For they have {f} sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
(f) Showing that their religion has but a show, and in itself is but vanity.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Normally farmers sowed seed and reaped grain, but Israel had sowed the wind, something foolish and worthless (cf. Job 7:7; Pro 11:29; Ecc 1:14; Ecc 1:17), namely, idolatry. Consequently instead of reaping something beneficial and nourishing he would reap a whirlwind, something equally vain but also destructive. Sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind may have been a proverb in Israel. [Note: Dyer, p. 732.] The literal seed the Israelites sowed would grow up but not produce any grain, only bare stalks without heads. If the land did yield some grain, strangers would confiscate it and the Israelites would not benefit from it.