Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 9:5
What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
5. What will ye do, &c.] The festivals, which were kept up in N. Israel, even after the schism, were seasons of popular merry-making (see Hos 2:11). But now as each ‘feast of Jehovah’ comes round in the calendar, ye will neither have the mechanical performance of ritual forms, nor the accompanying holiday-mirth, to fill up the vacant hours.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
What will ye do in the solemn day? – Man is content to remain far from God, so that God do not show him, that He has withdrawn Himself from him. Man would fain have the power of drawing near to God in time of calamity, or when he himself likes. He would fain have God at his command, as it were, not be at the command of God. God cuts off this hope altogether. he singles out the great festivals, which commemorated His great doings for His people, as though they had no more share in those mercies. The more solemn the day, the more total mans exclusion, the more manifest Gods withdrawal. To one shut out from His service, the days of deepest religious joy became the days of deepest sorrow. Mirth is turned into heaviness. To be deprived of the ordinary daily sacrifice was a source of continual sorrow; how much more, in the days of their gladness Num 10:10, in which they were bidden to rejoice before the Lord, and in which they seemed to have a nearer and more familiar access to God. True, that having separated themselves from the temple, they had no right to celebrate these feasts, which were to be held in the place which God had chosen to place His name there. Man, however, clings to the shadow of Gods service, when he has parted with the substance. And so God foretold them before, that He would make all their mirth to cease Hos 2:11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 9:5
What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?
Feasting after unaccepted sacrifice
Calvin thinks the allusion is to the time of exile, when the people would be deprived of all their sacrifices. But the better point is that the sacrifices of Ephraim being
1. unauthorised, and
2. unaccompanied with righteousness, could not be accepted;
consequently they could have no joy in their lesser or greater festal times, because all the joy of such times depended on their reconciliation and acceptance with God. What joy can there be in any of the joy times of life when we boar in our hearts the sad conviction of our wilful and persistent estrangement from God? And men do carry that secret conviction even when, to their fellows, they seem to be bold and self-satisfied. There is no sunshine on human life when Gods smile is hidden. Illustrate from the anxiety of Job concerning his children. They were feasting, but he did not feel sure that it was feasting after sacrifice, enjoying themselves with the smile of Gods favour resting on them. So he offered sacrifices to ensure the acceptance which they had missed. In the ordinary ritual of the Jews a feast followed sacrifice, as in the case of Samuel. This was the case with simple sacrifice and with the special sacrifices of solemn days. No joy could be in the feast if the sacrifice had failed to gain acceptance. It is the supreme rule for all the joy times of human life. They never can be to us what they ought to be, unless we enter on them with the full sense of acceptance with God. It must, always be, sacrifice before feast. (Robert Tuck, B. A.)
The solemn days of life
The day here referred to is one of the great Jewish feasts, either Passover, Pentecost, or Tabernacles. What will you children of Abraham do when you are deprived of the privilege of attending these solemn assemblies? There are solemn days awaiting all of us–
I. The day of personal affliction.
II. The day of social bereavement.
III. The day of death. This awaits every man. What will ye do in this day, when heart and flesh shall fail?
IV. The day of judgment. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. What will ye do in the solemn day] When ye shall be despoiled of every thing by the Assyrians; for the Israelites who remained in the land after its subjection to the Assyrians did worship the true God, and offer unto him the sacrifices appointed by the law, though in an imperfect and schismatic manner; and it was a great mortification to them to be deprived of their religious festivals in a land of strangers. See Calmet.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Think with yourselves what you are likely to do then: on those days you were wont to cease from your labours, to offer sacrifices to God, (as you thought and said,) to feast with one another, all was full of seeming religion and real feasting and jollity on those days in your own country; but will your hard masters, that love their own profit, that hate your persons, and despise your religion, will they lose your labour, indulge your ease, encourage your religion, and suffer you to exercise it? Is this imaginable?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. (Ho2:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?] Since their sacrifices now were so disagreeable and displeasing to the Lord, and so unavailable to themselves, what would they do when in captivity, “in the solemn day”, the seventh day of the week, appointed by the Lord for rest and religious worship; and in the first day of the month, which also was to be solemnly observed, by offering sacrifice, c. and on feast days of the Lord’s instituting, as the feasts of the passover, pentecost and tabernacles? seeing those that carried and held them captive would not allow them time for such solemnities; nor would they be furnished with proper sacrifices; nor could they be accommodated with a proper place to offer them at; nor be able, in a strange land, and under hardships and miseries, to express that joy that is suitable to such occasions: thus should they learn, by sad experience, the want of those means and opportunities of serving the Lord, which in their own land they rejected and despised. Jarchi and Kimchi interpret this of the destruction of Israel, and of punishment inflicted on them at the time appointed by the Lord; and which would be a solemn time, a feast with the Lord, to which he should invite their enemies, and they should spill their blood as the blood of sacrifices; and when he would display the glory of his justice, truth, and faithfulness, before all the world. And it is asked, what will you do then? whither will you flee for help? or what sacrifice can you offer up to the Lord to atone for sin, or appease his wrath? will you be able to rejoice then? no, your joy will be turned into mourning; see Isa 10:3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Their misery will be felt still more keenly on the feast-days. Hos 9:5. “What will ye do on the day of the festival, and on the day of the feast of Jehovah? Hos 9:6. For behold they have gone away because of the desolation: Egypt will gather them together, Memphis bury them: their valuables in silver, thistles will receive them; thorns in their tents.” As the temple and ritual will both be wanting in their exile, they will be unable to observe any of the feasts of the Lord. No such difference can be shown to exist between yom moed and yom chag Y e hovah , as would permit of our referring moed to feasts of a different kind from chag . In Leviticus 23, all the feasts recurring at a fixed period, on which holy meetings were held, including the Sabbath, are called ; and even though the three feasts at which Israel was to appear before the Lord, viz., the passover, pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles, are described as chaggm in Exo 34:18., every other joyous festival is also called a chag (Exo 32:5; Jdg 21:19). It is therefore just as arbitrary on the part of Grotius and Rosenmller to understand by moed the three yearly pilgrim-festivals, and by chag Y e hovah all the rest of the feasts, including the new moon, as it is on the part of Simson to restrict the last expression to the great harvest-feast, i.e., the feast of tabernacles (Lev 23:39, Lev 23:41). The two words are synonymous, but they are so arranged that by chag the idea of joy is brought into greater prominence, and the feast-day is thereby designated as a day of holy joy before Jehovah; whereas moed simply expresses the idea of a feast established by the Lord, and sanctified to Him (see at Lev 23:2). By the addition of the chag Y e hovah , therefore, greater emphasis is given to the thought, viz., that along with the feasts themselves all festal joy will also vanish. The perfect (Exo 34:6) may be explained from the fact, that the prophet saw in spirit the people already banished from the land of the Lord. , to go away out of the land. Egypt is mentioned as the place of banishment, in the same sense as in Hos 9:3. There will they all find their graves. in combination with is the gathering together of the dead for a common burial, like in Eze 29:5; Jer 8:2; Jer 25:33. , or , as in Isa 19:13; Jer 2:16; Jer 44:1; Eze 30:13, Eze 30:16, probably contracted from , answers rather to the Coptic Membe , Memphe , than to the old Egyptian Men – nefr , i.e., mansio bona, the profane name of the city of Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, the ruins of which are to be seen on the western bank of the Nile, to the south of Old Cairo. The sacred name of this city was Ha-ka-ptah, i.e., house of the worship of Phtah (see Brugsch, Geogr. Inschriften, i. pp. 234-5). In their own land thorns and thistles would take the place of silver valuables. The suffix attached to refers, ad sensum , to the collective , the valuables in silver. These are not “silver idols,” as Hitzig imagines, but houses ornamented and filled with the precious metal, as in the parallel clause clearly shows. The growth of thorns and thistles presupposes the utter desolation of the abodes of men (Isa 34:13).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet here alludes again to their exile, and shows how deplorable the condition of the people would be, when deprived of all their sacrifices. It is indeed true that the Israelites, when they changed the place of the temple, and when new and spurious rites were introduced by Jeroboam, became wholly rejected, so that from that time no sacrifice pleased God, for they sacrificed to idols and demons and not to God, as it is elsewhere stated, (Deu 32:17😉 but yet, as they had some kind of divine worship, as circumcision remained, and sacrifices were offered, as it were, by Moses’ command, and they boasted themselves to be the children of Abraham and lived in the holy land, they were satisfied with their condition. But when in exile they saw no sign of God’s favour, when they were deprived of the temple and altar and all sacrifices, when on every side mere solitude and waste met their eyes, when God thus manifested that he was far removed from them, great sorrow must have entered their hearts. Hence the Prophet says, What will ye do in the solemn day?
And he expressly mentions solemn and festal-days. “If the morning and the evening oblation, which is wont to be made, will not be remembered, and if the other sacrifices will not occur to your minds, what will you do when the festal days will come? for the Lord will then show that he has nothing to do with you.” For the trumpets sounded on the festivals, that the people might come from the whole land into the temple; and it was, as it were, the voice of God, sounding from heaven: but when the feast-days were forgotten, when there were no holy assemblies, it was the same as if the Lord, by commanding silence, had proved that he no longer cared for the people. That the Israelites then might not think that exile only was threatened to them, the Prophet here shows that something worse was connected with it, and that was, that the Lord would wholly forsake them, and that there would exist no token of his presence, as though they were cut off from the Church. What then will ye do on the solemn day, on the day of Jehovah’s festivity? That is, “Do you think that something of an ordinary kind is denounced on you when I speak of exile? The Lord will indeed take away the whole of your worship, and will deprive you of all the evidences of his presence. What then will you do? But if a brutish stupor should so occupy your minds, that this should not recur to your thoughts daily, the solemn and festal-days will at least constrain you to think how dreadful it is, that you have nothing remaining among you, which may afford a hope of God’s favour.” We now apprehend the meaning of the Prophet.
We hence learn what I have said before, that nothing worse can happen to us in this world, than to be scattered without any order, when no outward evidence appears by which the Lord collects us to himself. It would therefore be better for us to be deprived of meat and drink, and to go naked, and to perish at last through want, than that the exercises of religion, ( exercita pietatis — exercises of religion) by which the Lord holds us, as it were, in his own bosom, should be taken away from us. When therefore we are deprived of these aids, and God thus hides his face from us, and mournful waste discovers to us dread on every side, it is an extreme calamity, an evidence of the dreadful judgement of God. Let us then learn, when our flesh is touched, when sterility or some other evil impends over us — let us learn to dread this deprivation still more, and to fear lest the Lord should deprive us of our festal-days; that is, take away all the aids of religion by which he holds us together in his house, and shows us to be a part of his Church. This then, in the last place, ought to be noticed: what remains we shall consider in our next lecture.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 9:5. Solemn day] God singles out the great festivals which commemorated his great doings for his people as though they had no more share in these mercies. Sad to be deprived of ordinary sacrifice, how much more to be excluded from feasts of joy!
HOMILETICS
THE SOLEMN DAYS OF LIFE.Hos. 9:5
Israel had sinned away their privileges, and deprived themselves of sacrifices and feasts. What would they do in the solemn day when it was impossible to rejoice before the Lord (Num. 10:10)? In captivity they would not be able to celebrate the festivals. The temple would be in ruins, and they would be exiled into a foreign country. The more solemn the day, the more total mans exclusion, the more manifest Gods withdrawal. There are solemn days in our life which we must all meet. How shall we meet them?
I. The day of affliction is a solemn day. Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. Suffering is the law of our being, and co-extensive with our race. As certain as we are born to live we are born to trouble, and our days are full of trouble. No wealth can purchase, no power effect, deliverance from the common lot. Reverses of fortune, poverty and want, disquietude and fear, prey upon the mind. Inward consumption and outward accidents lay men on beds of sickness. They cannot go to places of amusement, nor enjoy company of pleasure; they are shut out from Christian fellowship, and deprived of all the means of grace; they are on the bed of languishing and sorrow. When the world deserts them, and remembrance of the past distresses them, what will they do? When a Christian is sick God gives ease and health to his soul. Thou wilt make all his bed in sickness. But in the day of adversity what will the sinner do?
II. The day of death is a solemn day. What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Neither by wisdom nor strength can we avoid the common doom. Death spares no rank nor condition, calls with impartial step at the cottage of the poor and the palace of the prince. There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death; and there is no discharge in that war. Charles V. was advised to retire from danger at the battle of Tunis, but refused, and said that an emperor was never slain with great shot. William Rufus declared that kings were never drowned. But the hero of a thousand fights can claim no exemption here. What a solemn day is this day! What will you do when the physicians skill is of no avail? when millions of money would not buy an inch of time? when there is no help from earth or heaven? The wicked may strengthen himself in wickedness, but he can neither outwit nor overcome his enemy. His covenant with death and with hell shall be disannulled. The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.
III. The day of judgment will be a solemn day. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. That will be the most solemn day, when the eternal destinies of men are fixed by the Great Judge. Every work, great and small, public and private; every secret thing, good or bad, the hidden thoughts of the heart and the forgotten sins of youth; every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Simeon, a holy bishop, was saluted on his way to martyrdom by Urthazanes, a Persian courtier, and an apostate. But the courtier was frowned upon by the bishop, and cried, How shall I appear before the great God of heaven, whom I have denied, when Simeon, but a man, will not endure to look upon me? If he frown, how will God behold me when I come before his tribunal? This led to his reclamation. How will you appear before the Judge? What will you do in that solemn day? Will you call to the rocks and to the mountains to fall upon you and hide you? Make your peace with God, and prepare to meet him, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
At his call the dead awaken,
Rise to life from earth and sea;
All the powers of Nature, shaken
By his looks, prepare to flee:
Careless sinner,
What will then become of thee!
A SAD PICTURE.Hos. 9:6-7
Israel fled to Egypt because of the destruction of their own land, hoping to find help in time of need. But they were disappointed. In Egypt they found their graves (Exo. 14:11); they were gathered and buried together (Jer. 8:2; Job. 27:15). Their tents were overrun with nettles, their treasures of silver were in ruins, and the land desolate and without inhabitants. A sad picture of the consequences of sin.
I. Expected refuge turned into destruction. Memphis shall bury them. Men run away from one trouble only to get into another. Wealth, friends, and the world are tried and fail. Places of refuge prove places of death. They are received and gathered only to be buried. Those who flee from God, expecting life, will be certain to meet their death. They flee from the smoke only to fall into the fire. They seek good and find evil. Calamity sooner or later overtakes the Christless and impenitent from which they cannot escape. They choose death and obtain their choice. The eyes of the wicked shall fail and they shall not escape, and their hope the giving up of the ghost (Job. 11:20).
II. Fruitful land turned into desolation.
1. Silver, once treasured, had gone.
2. Nettles and thorns grew amid their habitations.
3. The land was swept of its inhabitants. What a scene of desolation and sadness! Sin has cursed the ground on which we tread, and drained many a nation of its prosperity. The cities of the plain were destroyed and the garden of the Lord turned into barrenness (Gen. 13:10). Where is the glory of Greece, once so famous for arts and sciences? What will become of England, great, glorious, and free, if she forsakes God, her defence? God can empty our stores, demolish our temples, and diminish our people. Let us take warning. He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the water-springs into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
HOMILETICS
DAYS OF VISITATION.Hos. 9:7-9
Israels sin is one, but the tendencies and the manifestations are many. God had shown them what little cause for joy they had, warned them of the coming day; and now, lest they should slight the warning, declares that retribution is near. The days of visitation are come.
I. Days of retribution for guilt. The days of recompence are come. Men deny such days, and seek to delay them, but they come. They come to recompense, to reward men for their ways, and fix their doom. For the Lord God of recompences shall surely requite (Jer. 51:56). There is retribution enough to prove a moral government among menthat justice sees and will avenge the wrong, and that hereafter right will be dealt to all. Nature tells us that every law must have a penalty, or it is no law. Reason teaches that under no government, human or Divine, should the just be as the unjust. As there is no law without penalty, so there is no penalty inflicted but for law violated. For the multitude of thine iniquity are the days of visitation come. Punishment ripens on the tree of evil. Punishment is justice for the unjust. Be sure your sin will find you out.
II. Days of bitter experience. Israel shall know it. Men will not heed Divine warning. They must know by feeling the results of their sins. They cannot check the consequences, not confine them to the outer world when they come. They must experience the bitterness of their course. A man of sin is a man of pains. He lives in sin, eats it up, and it is bitter in his belly (Rev. 10:9). He tastes the wormwood and the gall, and drinks the bitter for the sweet. Everything that I love, everything that belongs to me, is stricken, cried Napoleon. Heaven and mankind unite to afflict me. Lord Byron declared that his days were in the yellow leafthe flowers and the fruits were gone, and the worm, the canker, and the grief are mine alone. The poet Burns said in dying hours, I close my eyes in misery, and open them without hope.
When haughty guilt exults with impious joy,
Mistake shall blast, or accident destroy;
Weak man, with erring rage, may throw the dart,
But Heaven shall guide it to the guilty heart.
III. Days of discriminating character. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad. The man pretending to have spiritual inspiration, the prophets predicting prosperity, were mad, and retribution would convince them of their folly. The event would show what spirit was in them.
1. Character in public teachers is discriminated. Some called the prophets of God mad men, as Festus thought Paul. Elisha (2Ki. 9:11), Jeremiah (Jer. 29:5), and Christ himself were called mad. For ages the early Christian teachers were considered under the influence of phrenzy or madness. True prophets have never been understood; often called fools and fanatics by those who pretend to higher revelations and superior wisdom. False teachers commend themselves, glory in appearance, and condemn others. Real prophets proclaim their message, are beside themselves to God and sober to men. They are contradicted in words and blackened in character; but God and time defend their cause. The flatterer will be unmasked, the contrast between the false prophet and the true watchman shall be manifest, and it shall be seen that one walked with God and the other was a snare to the people in all his ways. Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.
2. Character in private individuals is discriminated. Christians have often to bear reproach and maintain a dignified silence; but days of Gods visitation, times of persecution, defend their character, and rank them in their position. The wicked tremble and fear, the false professor forsakes God, but the righteous suffer and are glorified. Days of retribution sift character and conduct. Men are forced to confess that the wicked have not the best of itthat there is a God to recompense truth and justice, and reverse the judgments of men. Then shall ye return (to a better state of mind), and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos. 9:7. If we apply the words to religious teachers
1. It is an unreasonable charge. Wise men have grounds for their judgment; but it is most unjust to condemn without a cause. These men are servants of God, pure in their life and noble in their aim.
2. It is a common charge. In every age when selfishness reigns supreme and scepticism abounds, men of deep convictions and unwearied zeal for God have been regarded as fanatics and madmen. But what appears insanity to some are words of truth and soberness to others.
3. It is a dangerous charge. Those who deal plentifully in terms of folly may have them flung upon themselves. Events may reverse the judgments of men, and those who call others fools may prove to be the greatest fools themselves. Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, &c.
The great hatred.
1. Against God. The carnal mind at hostility with God. The question at issue, the casus belli, who shall governGod or the sinner? Many think they can adore and love God as Creator and Benefactor, while they rebel against him as Lawgiver. Many may love Cromwell, the Queen, or any ruler, for piety and courage, yet condemn the government as harsh and despotic. Gods moral government admits not of this distinction. His nature and office, his person and his throne, are inseparable. No neutrality in human affection and conduct. Either at peace or at war with God.
2. Against Gods Law. The law demands supreme and universal obediencenot only takes cognizance of external actions, but touches the inward springs of all action, weighs the motives and thoughts concealed in the heart. Its rigour never relaxes, its demands never cease. Hence the enmity and resistance.
3. Against Gods servants. Ahab said of Michaiah, I hate him (1Ki. 22:8). They hated so intensely (Hos. 9:8) that their whole soul was turned into hatred; they were hatred, as we say, personified; hatred was embodied in them, and they ensouled with hate. They were also the source of hatred against God and man. And this, each false prophet was in the house of his God! for God was still his God, although not owned by him. God is the sinners God to avenge, if he will not allow him to be his God to convert and pardon [Pusey].
Hos. 9:8. Watchmen and fowlers.
1. Watchmen walking with God, warning of danger, and urging the people to duty.
2. Watchmen neglecting their duty, and sleeping at their post.
3. Watchmen turned into fowlers, predicting peace, flattering the people and leading them to destruction. Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
Hos. 9:9. Deeply corrupted. Sin corrupts
(1) the understanding,
(2) the affections, and
(3) the life. Sin corrupts everything it touches. The touch and the taint go together. It leads from bad to worse, and makes men totally and entirely depraved, if not forsaken.
Days of Gibeah (Judges 19).
1. Days of great lewdness.
2. Days of great shame.
3. Days of great punishment.
4. Days which epitomize Israels history in guilt and judgment (Rom. 1:32).
Sins and punishment.
1. Contempt of God and his law will draw men into bominable wickedness.
2. When men have plunged into deeper wickedness they cannot recover themselves.
3. There is no wicked course into which men have fallen which the Church, departing from God, may not fall into again.
4. Whatever patience God may have, sinners of one age who fall into guilt will be visited by the same measure as another. As God spared not in the days of Gibeah, so now he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Hos. 9:5-7. While the sun shines upon the earthly horizon the evil days are put to a distance. We scarcely admit the possibility of a change of scene. We exclude the prospect of dark days as an unwelcome intruder. The young revel in their pleasure, as if it would never end. But oh! the folly, the presumption of creatures born for an eternal existence, and to whom the present life is but the preparation time for a never-ending one, and to whom death is but the door of eternity, so wilfully shutting their eyes to this near approach, determining to live for this life only, and to let eternity take its chance [Bridges]. In the day of prosperity there is a forgetfulness of affliction; and in the day of affliction there is no more remembrance of prosperity (Sir. 11:25).
Hos. 9:9-10. Corrupt. O Lord, abhor me not, though I be most abhorrible, said the dying Thos. Scott. My repentance needs to be repented of; my tears want washing, and the very washing of my tears needs still to be washed over again with the blood of my Redeemer [Bp. Beveridge]. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious [Bacon]. The disposition of a liar is dishonourable, and his shame is ever with him (Sir. 20:26).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(5) See Note on Hos. 2:11.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. In exile what can Israel do in the solemn day The religious festivals held on sacred days, such as the sabbath and new moon. In an unclean land these celebrations become impossible. LXX. reads “days,” which may be original.
Day of the feast of Jehovah Feast and solemn assembly are not synonyms; the former is literally pilgrimage, and is used of the three annual pilgrimages (Exo 23:14-17); of these it is applied in particular to the harvest festival ( 1Ki 8:2 ; 1Ki 12:32; Eze 45:25, see on Zec 14:19). When the pilgrimage season comes around, whither will they go?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘What will you do in the day of solemn assembly,
And in the day of the feast of YHWH?’
As there would be no offerings and sacrifices, what would they do on the day of solemn assembly, when, had they been at home, they would have gathered to worship and offer sacrifices? And what especially would they do when the feast of YHWH came around? (For the phrase ‘the feast of YHWH’ see Lev 23:39). They would not only have lost their land, but also things that were at the very centre of their religious thought. They would not be rejoicing then.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 9:5. What will ye do in the solemn day “When the days of your feast shall come, and you shall find yourselves far from your own country, without temple, without prophets, without priests, without sacrifices, without solemn assemblies;what will be your sentiments?” Though the Israelites of the ten tribes were schismatics, and did not go up to the temple at Jerusalem, they omitted not to celebrate, in their own manner, the feast of the Lord in their own country; and as these solemnities were always accompanied with festivity and rejoicings, it must have been a great mortification to be no longer able to celebrate them in the land of their captivity. See Calmet, and Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Reader, I beg of you to observe the Lord’s grace still to Israel. How tenderly doth the Lord mourn over his captives, when beholding them void of ordinances. What will ye do, saith the Lord? If there were no other expressions than these of the kind, I cannot but think that these are enough to prove, that the whole of what is said in judgment, is all with an eye to mercy! Egypt, and Memphis, are here spoken of as the cities of desolation to Israel.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 9:5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
Ver. 5. What will ye do in the solemn day, &c. ] q.d. How will ye do to laugh and leap then, as ye do now? Hos 9:1 . How will you be able to support yourselves, to keep your hearts from dying within you, when you call to mind and consider your former solemnities and festivities, which now (alas!) in your captivity you are utterly deprived of? There was a time when you went with the multitude to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day, Psa 42:4 , with dancing, eating, drinking, and joy, Deu 16:14-15 Jdg 21:19-20 . But now the scene is altered; your singing is turned into sighing, your mirth into mourning, your joy into heaviness; and you must needs hold yourselves so much the more miserable, that you have been happy. The epicures indeed held that a man might be cheerful against the most exquisite torments: 1. In consideration of his honesty and integrity; 2. In consideration of those pleasures and delights that formerly he had enjoyed; and now cheered himself up with the remembrance of them ( Ex praeteritarum voluptatum recordatione. Cic. de Finib. 1. 2. Senec. de Benef. 1. 4, c. 22.). This last is a very slight and sorry comfort indeed. The former hath much in it; for a good man keeps every day holy day, said Diogenes; and can be merry without music, saith another philosopher. He hath a merry heart, or good conscience, which is a continual feast; and is bound to “rejoice evermore,” 1Th 5:16 , and to keep the feast in all countries, 1Co 5:8 , the calendar of his whole life is crowned with continual festivals ( ); and he is the happiest man, and may be the merriest, if he but understand his own happiness. But this, alas! was not the case of these woeful caitiffs and captives. They had sinned away all their comforts; and with the sad remembrance of their former enjoyments, and with the sense of their present sevitude, they had little mind to keep holy day. Hence this passionate exclamation, “What will ye do,” &c.? God had threatened before, Hos 2:11 , to take away their feast days, new moons, sabbaths, and solemnities; but they heeded him not, tanquam monstra marina Dei verba surda aura praeterierunt; therefore now God fulfilleth what he had forethreatened, and calleth, as in a solemn day, his terrors round about them, Lam 2:22 . What they were wont to do in their solemn days and festivals may be seen, Num 10:10 ; what we do, or should do, at least, upon our Lord’s Day sabbaths (the delight of every good soul) we need not be told. Let us take heed, lest by profane violation or careless observing that holy rest, with all its solemnities, we deprive not ourselves (as these Israelites did) of such a precious privilege. God gave us a good warning, in that the first blow given the German Churches was upon the sabbath day; which is there so ill sanctified, that if it should be named according to their deserving of it, Daemoniacus potius quam Dominicus, the Devil is greater than God, saith Alsted, it should be called not the Lord’s day, but the priest’s day rather. It is very remarkable, that upon that day was Prague lost, and with it all opportunity of hearing, singing, public praying, communicating, on that high and honourable day, Isa 58:13 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
what: Isa 10:3, Jer 5:31
in: Hos 2:11, Joe 1:13
Reciprocal: Hos 9:12 – woe Zep 3:18 – sorrowful Luk 16:3 – What
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 9:5. What will ye do, etc. This is a reminder that when the period of exile comes upon Israel, the nation can have nothing to do with the solemn feast days that they once practiced in the home land.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 9:5-6. What will ye do in the solemn day What will you do in your captivity, when any of your solemn or festival days come? When you shall find yourselves far from your own country, without temple, without prophets, without priests, without sacrifices, without solemn assemblies; what will be your sentiments? You will doubtless be willing to abstain from labour on those days, as you were wont to do; but your masters will not permit that, but force you to your wonted employments. Though the Israelites of the ten tribes were schismatics, and did not go up to the temple at Jerusalem, they omitted not to celebrate, in their own manner, the feasts of the Lord in their own country; and as these solemnities were always accompanied with festivity and rejoicing, it must have been a great mortification to them to be no longer able to celebrate them in the land of their captivity: see Calmet. For lo, they are gone because of destruction Some are already withdrawn, because of the desolation that cometh. A great many of the ten tribes fled into Egypt, when they saw their country laid waste by the Assyrians. The prophet here threatens these, that they should have no better a fate than their brethren who were carried away into Assyria; but should die in Egypt, and never see their native country any more. Egypt shall gather them up Or, gather them, as the word is translated Eze 29:5. It signifies the same in both places, as if it had been said they should be buried there. The pleasant places, &c., nettles shall possess them Their fine houses, which they have purchased at vast prices, shall be ruined, and lie in rubbish till they be overrun with nettles. This signified a vast desolation. These two verses are thus translated by Bishop Horsley: What will ye do for the season of solemn assembly, and for the festival of Jehovah? Behold, all are gone! Total devastation! Egypt shall gather them. Memphis shall bury them. Their valuables of silver! The nettle shall dispossess them, and the thistle, in their dwellings.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:5 What will ye do {f} in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
(f) When the Lord will take away all the occasions of serving him, which will be the most grievous part of your captivity, when you will see yourselves cut off from God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Consequently the Israelites would have nothing to offer the Lord when their annual feasts rolled around. These feasts centered on offerings to the Lord, but those offerings would be unacceptable in exile.