Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 9:15
All their wickedness [is] in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes [are] revolters.
15. All their wickedness is in Gilgal, &c.] The dangerous attractiveness of Gilgal has been mentioned already (Hos 4:15): the corruption of the northern kingdom had its focus there. At Gilgal, then, Jehovah has learned to ‘hate’ His unnatural children (comp. Hos 11:1) so much that He must drive them out of His House (i.e. the Holy Land, as Hos 8:1).
all their princes are revolters ] Those who should be the leaders in cheerful subordination to the revealed will of God, are the foremost in transgression. The same paronomasia as in Isa 1:23 as if he had said, they are not srm but srerm.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
15, 16. Continuation of the speech of Jehovah, which had been interrupted at Hos 9:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
All their wickedness is in Gilgal – Gilgal, having been the scene of so many of Gods mercies, had been, on that very ground, chosen as a popular scene for idol-worship (see the note above at Hos 4:15). And doubtless, Ephraim still deceived himself, and thought that his idolatrous worship, in a place once so hallowed, would still be acceptable with God. There, where God of old was propitious, He would be so still, and whatever they did, should, even for the places sake, be accepted; the hallowed place would necessarily sanctify it. In answer to such thoughts, God says, all their wickedness, the very chief and sum, the head from which the rest flowed, their desertion of God Himself, whatever they hoped or imagined, all their wickedness is there.
For there I hated them – There, in the very place where heretofore I shewed such great tokens of love to, and by My gracious presence with, them, even there I have hated them and now hate them. He saith not, there was I angry, or displeased with them, but in a word betokening the greatest indignation, I hated them. Great must needs be that wickedness which provoked the Father of mercies to so great displeasure as to say, that He hated them; and severe must needs be those judgments which are as effects of hatred and utter aversation of them, in Him.
For the wickedness of their doings – The sin of Israel was no common sin, not a sin of ignorance, but against the full light. Each word betokens evil. The word doings expresses great bold doings. It was the wickedness of their wicked works, a deeper depth of wickedness in their wickedness, an essence of wickedness, for which, God saith, I will drive them out of My house, i. e., as before, out of His whole land (see the note above at Hos 8:1).
I will love them no more – So He saith, in the beginning; I will have no more mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away Hos 1:6. : This was a national judgment, and so involved the whole of them, as to their outward condition, which they enjoyed as members of that nation, and making up one beady politic. It did not respect the spiritual condition of single persons, and their relation, in this respect, to God. As individuals, they were, not cut off from Gods favor and tokens of His love, nor from the power of becoming members of Christ, whenever any of them should come to Him. It only struck them forever out of that house of the Lord from which they were then driven, or from hopes that that kingdom should be restored, which God said, He would cause to cease.
All their princes are revolters – Their case then was utterly hopeless. No one of their kings departed from the sin of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin. The political power which should protect goodness, became the fountain of corruption. : None is there, to rebuke them that offend, to recall, those that err; no one who, by his own goodness, and virtue, pacifying God, can turn away His wrath, as there was in the time of Moses. : Askest thou, why God cast them out of His house, why they were not received in the Church or the house of God? He saith to them, because they are all revolters, departers, i. e., because, before they were cast out visibly in the body, they departed in mind, were far away in heart, and therefore were cast out in the body also, and lost, what alone they loved, the temporal advantages of the house of God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 9:15
All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them.
Punishment proportional to privilege
Translated into modern life, the prophets plea would read thus. All their wickedness is in the house of God; all their wickedness is after coming from the table of the Lord, or after receiving some faithful letter, or after their own painful convictions and sorrowful confession, or after their repeated resolutions and vows. This helps us to realise how a Jew would feel who heard the prophet make this reproach.
1. At Gilgal the covenant of circumcision was renewed for the second time since they came out of Egypt. What circumcision was to the Jew, religious instruction is to us: circumcision was Gods seal to the Jews that He would cleanse them from taint of Egyptian idolatry.
2. At Gilgal they celebrated the passover for the first time after they came out of Egypt. The Lords supper is our passover.
3. It was at Gilgal that God Himself appeared in a most remarkable manner to assure the people of Israel that He would be their deliverer. The captains of the Lords host came. Observe Joshuas momentary surprise, courage, reverence.
Notice the communication.
1. Beginning life in humble circumstances may be a Gilgal to us.
2. So may a season of affliction be. Or
3. The loss of a dear friend. But the wickedness of Gilgal may be taken away. (W. G. Barrett.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. All their wickedness is in Gilgal] though we are not directly informed of the fact, yet we have reason to believe they had been guilty of some scandalous practices of idolatry in Gilgal. See Ho 4:15.
For there I hated them] And therefore he determined, “for the wickedness of their doings, to drive them out of his house,” so that they should cease to be a part of the heavenly family, either as sons or servants; for he would “love them no more,” and bear with them no longer.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All; the chief, or sum, or beginning:
Gilgal is not to be understood exclusive to other places, for every city was full, there was all kind of sin elsewhere.
Their wickedness, in rejecting God and his government. Here Saul was made king, and Samuel was rejected. Here they begun to turn the remarkable blessings God gave them in this place into a superstitious and hypocritical veneration of the place, and began their will-worship and idolatries. If all the impiety of Ephraim may be reduced to their horrible degeneracy and corruption in state and church, here it began, and so all was here.
Gilgal; where Israel first pitched their tents after they passed over Jordan: see Hos 4:15.
There I hated them; as there they began to sin so notoriously, there also I began to show that I hated them for the wickedness of their doings; for the continued wickedness which from their first beginning there they have propagated to other places, and increased daily, and with obstinacy.
I will drive them out; as men thrust out of their houses one that is altogether unworthy to dwell longer with them.
Of mine house; by a synecdoche, the house for land; or, out of their house, which though theirs for use, was yet Gods propriety; and when God casts Ephraim out of his house, he sends him into captivity.
I will love them no more; I will cease to express any more love to thee; it is a meiosis, I will add no more love to them, i.e. I will add to hate them and punish them, I will leave them in the hand and under the fury of their enemies in a strange land.
All their princes, their kings and rulers, both civil and ecclesiastical,
are revolters; are and have been idolaters ever since the division in Jeroboam son of Nebat, not one of their kings but were idolaters, and obstinate and perverse in it also.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. All their wickednessthatis, their chief guilt.
Gilgal(see on Ho4:15). This was the scene of their first contumacy in rejectingGod and choosing a king (1Sa 11:14;1Sa 11:15; compare 1Sa8:7), and of their subsequent idolatry.
there I hated themnotwith the human passion, but holy hatred of their sin, which requiredpunishment to be inflicted on themselves (compare Mal1:3).
out of mine houseas inHo 8:1: out of the land holyunto ME. Or, as “love”is mentioned immediately after, the reference may be to the Hebrewmode of divorce, the husband (God) putting the wife (Israel) out ofthe house.
princes . . .revolters“Sarim . . . Sorerim” (Hebrew),a play on similar sounds.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ah their wickedness [is] in Gilgal,…. A place in the ten tribes, where the covenant of circumcision was renewed in Joshua’s time; the first passover was kept in the land of Canaan, and the people of Israel ate the firstfruits of the land; where the tabernacle was for a while, and sacrifices were offered up to the Lord: but now things were otherwise; all manner of iniquity was committed in it, especially idolatry; for which it was chosen by idolaters, because it had formerly been famous for religious worship: here, though not to the exclusion of other places, as Dan and Bethel, was the above sin committed; here it begun and spread itself, and had the measure of it filled up; here began the first departure from the Lord, rejecting him, and asking a king in the days of Samuel, as Kimchi and Abarbinel observe; and here were high places and altars erected for idolatry; and this is now the reason of the above threatenings of God, and the predictions of the prophet. Grotius thinks there is a mystical sense in the words, and that they have reference to the sin of the Jews in crucifying Christ on Golgotha; which, in the Syriac language, is the same with Gilgal; but both the people spoken of, and the place, are different:
for there I hated them; or “therefore” m, because they sinned so greatly against him in a place where they had formerly worshipped him; their sacrifices there, instead of being acceptable, were the more abominable to him, as they were offered there where his tabernacle once was, and sacrifices were offered to him according to his will:
for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house; not out of the house of my sanctuary, or the temple, as the Targum; unless this is to be understood of losing the opportunity of going to the temple at Jerusalem, which those of the ten tribes had while they were in their own land, which the few godly persons among them then took, and made use of; but now their idolatry increasing in Gilgal, and other places, they should be carried captive; and, if they would, could not go up to the house of the Lord, and worship him there: or rather this may design, either the visible church of God, out of which they would be now ejected; or their native country, where they had been, as the family and household of God; but now should be so no more, but, as afterwards said, wanderers among the nations, and no more reckoned as belonging to the Lord, and under his paternal care and protection:
I will love them no more; which is not to be understood of the special love and favour the Lord bears to his own people in Christ, which is everlasting and unchangeable; but of his general and providential favour and regard unto these people, which he had manifested in bestowing many great and good things upon them; but now would do so no more; he would do nothing to them, or for them, that looked like love, or be interpreted of it, but all the reverse; and, by his behaviour to them, show that they were the objects of his aversion and hatred; and this was to continue, and has continued, and will continue unto the time of their conversion in the latter day, when “all Israel shall be saved”, Ro 11:26;
all their princes [are] revolters; from God and his worship, who should have set a good example to the people; and since these were perverse and rebellious against God, it is no wonder that the people in general apostatized. This is to be understood of their king as supreme, and all subordinate rulers; of their judges and magistrates of every order; of all their governors, both civil and ecclesiastic; and not at Gilgal only, but in all the land. There is an elegant play on words n in the original, the beauty of which cannot be expressed in the translation.
m “ideo”, Rivet. n “Sharehem Sorerim”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Lord thereupon replies in Hos 9:15: “All their wickedness is at Gilgal; for there I took them into hatred: for the evil of their doings will I drive them out of my house, and not love them any more; all their princes are rebellions.” How far all the wickedness of Ephraim was concentrated at Gilgal it is impossible to determine more precisely, since we have no historical accounts of the idolatrous worship practised there (see at Hos 4:15). That Gilgal was the scene of horrible human sacrifices, as Hitzig observes at Hos 12:12, cannot be proved from Hos 13:2. is used here in an inchoative sense, viz., to conceive hatred. On account of their wickedness they should be expelled from the house, i.e., the congregation of Jehovah (see at Hos 8:1). The expression “I will drive them out of my house” ( mibbeth ‘agar e shem ) may be explained from Gen 21:10, where Sarah requests Abraham to drive ( garash ) Hagar her maid out of the house along with her son, that the son of the maid may not inherit with Isaac, and where God commands the patriarch to carry out Sarah’s will. The expulsion of Israel from the house of the Lord is separation from the fellowship of the covenant nation and its blessings, and is really equivalent to loving it no longer. There is a play upon words in the last clause .
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
He says first, that all their evil was in Gilgal; though they thought that they had the best pretence for offering there their sacrifices to God’s honour, because it had been from old times a sacred place. He had said before that they had multiplied to themselves altars to sin, and by these to give way to sins; he now repeats the same in other words, All their evil, he says, is in Gilgal; as though he said, “They indeed obtrude on me their sacrifices, which they offer in Gilgal, and think that they avail to excuse all their wickedness. I might, perhaps, forgive them, if they were given to plunder and cruelty, and were perfidious and fraudulent, provided pure worship had continued among them, and religion had not been so entirely adulterated; but as they have changed whatever I commanded in my law, and turned this celebrated place to be the seat of the basest impiety, so that it is become, as it were, a brothel, where religion is prostituted, it is hence evident, that the whole of their wickedness is in Gilgal.”
It is certain that the people were also addicted to other crimes; but the word כל, cal, all, is to be taken for what is chief or principal. The Prophet speaks comparatively, not simply; as though he had said, that this corruption of offering sacrifices at Gilgal was more abominable in the sight of God than adulteries, or plunder, or frauds, or unjust violence, or any crime that prevailed among them. Their whole evil then was at Gilgal. But why the Prophet speaks thus, I have lately explained; and that is because superstitious men put forth their own devices, when God reproves them, “O! we have still many exercises of religion.” They bring forward these by way of compensation. But the Lord shows that he is far more grievously offended with these superstitions, with which hypocrites cover themselves as with a shield, than with a life void of every appearance of religion: for “these,” he says, “I conceived a hatred against them, on account of the wickedness of their works.”
Here again the Prophet condemns what men think to be their special holiness. Who indeed can persuade hypocrites that their fictitious modes of worship are the greatest abominations? Nay, they even extol and imagine themselves to be like angels, and, as it were, cover all their wickedness with these disguises; as we see to be the case with the Papists who think, that when they obtrude on God their many masses and other devised forms, every sort of wickedness is redeemed. Since then hypocrites are thus wont to put on a disguise before God, and at the same time flatter themselves, the Prophet here declares that they are the more hated by God for this very wickedness, of daring to corrupt and adulterate his pure worship.
He then adds, I will eject them from my house When God threatens to eject Israel from his house, it is the same as though he said, “I will wholly cast you away;” as when one cuts off a withered branch from a tree, or a diseased member from the body. It is indeed certain that the Israelites were then like bastards; for they were not worthy of any account or station in the Church, inasmuch as they had a strange temple and profane sacrifices; but as circumcision, and the priesthood in name, still remained among them, they boasted themselves to be the children of Abraham, and a holy people; hence the Prophet denounces here such a destruction, that it might appear that they in vain gloried in these superior distinctions, for God would expunge them from his catalogue. We now understand the design of the Prophet: but we shall, to-morrow, notice the remaining portion.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 9:15. Gilgal] where they rejected God and chose a king (1Sa. 8:7; cf. 1Sa. 11:14-15). Hated] Punished their sin (Mal. 1:3).
Hos. 9:16. Smitten] Under the image of a tree, repeats the sentence of God. Smitten from above, by blasting and mildew (Amo. 4:9). Root] withered, and fruit impossible. Though] Before they are entirely dead, fruit may appear, yet will I slay the beloved (lit. the desires) fruit of their bodies.
Hos. 9:17. My God] not theirs; supporting my authority and directing my course. Will cast] Lit. despises them, and banishes them among the nations (Deu. 28:65), a monument of his anger and a warning to all people (Rom. 11:20-21).
HOMILETICS
GREAT WICKEDNESS AND GREAT PUNISHMENT.Hos. 9:15-17
In the last part of this chapter God accuses Israel of idolatry, condemns their princes for abetting it, and threatens to cast them off for ever, for the wickedness of their doings. Notice
I. Their great wickedness. The expressions indicate
1. Their wickedness began with forgetfulness of God. They did not hearken unto him. They rebelled against God, would not do what he commanded, nor abstain from what he forbade. God makes himself known by judgment and mercy; but men disregard his voice, and pursue their ends.
2. Their wickedness was encouraged by their rulers. All their princes are revolters. Political power had no check upon the general corruption. Not one rebuked offence, recalled to virtue, or warned of danger. All had departed, were alienated in heart and mind from God. Judges turned aside, and persisted in sinful ways. Princes committed the sin of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin. He who knows how to dissemble knows how to reign, is the saying of many. But the words of Louis IX. of France are more becoming a prince. If truth be banished from all the rest of the world, it ought to be found in the breast of princes.
3. Their wickedness was malicious in its design. The wickedness of their doings. Their sins were not infirmities, but presumptuous, daring evils; not common sins, but the wickedness of their wicked works, the essence of wickedness which excited the anger of God. All sins are evils; but some are presumptuous sins, sins of greater rebellion and mischief than others. Sins against light and truth, against Divine warnings, and in religious privileges are more wicked than others. Men sin from choice, with eagerness, deliberation, and design. God overthroweth the wicked for their wickedness.
4. Their wickedness was corrupt in its practice. Gilgal was the centre and scene of their corrupt practices. Here God gave their ancestors the first-fruits of Canaan, renewed his covenant with them, and rolled away their reproach. The service and sanctuary of God once made the place holy. Now it is a place of idolatry, chosen as a pretext to cover their sin and to make it acceptable to the people. The nature of the place adds to the guilt of the sin. Sins in England are worse than sins in heathen lands, and sins in the house of God are more abominable than sins in the world. Provocations turn Gods former loving-kindness into anger, and the place of sanctity may become the place of rejection. In the land of uprightness they will deal unjustly (Isa. 26:10); the faithful city is become an harlot (Isa. 1:21).
II. Great punishment. Great must be that wickedness which provokes God to hate and reject his people. The judgments were national, and involved every individual in the loss of outward privileges and position.
1. Exclusion from the house of God. I will drive them out of mine house. He will drive them from the privileges of his house, and drive them out of his land (ch. Hos. 8:1). God will disinherit them, and they shall never be restored to the kingdom. God deprives sinful nations of their prestige and position, removes their candlestick for their ingratitude, and rejects them for their wickedness. Unfaithful professors will be driven from his house and robbed of the means of grace.
2. Smitten by the judgments of God. Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Their national prosperity was smitten, by visitation from God, by blasting and mildew (Amo. 4:9). If a tree be cut down it may sometimes sprout again (Job. 14:7); but there was not hope for Ephraim. Root and branch should wither away and die. Nations have flourishing trade, and nobility grand mottoes; but God can destroy their prosperity, pluck them up by their roots, and leave them without power to revive, inwardly or outwardly. He can overturn a people as easily as men uproot a tree. Utrecht planted me, Louvain watered me, and Csar gave the increase, was the inscription on the gates of the college, built by Pope Adrian. But to reprove his folly, some one wrote underneath, Here God did nothing. We cannot flourish without God. God shall destroy thee for ever; he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwelling-place, and root thee out of the land of the living.
3. Rejected in the providence of God. My God will cast them away. This is the climaxhated, forsaken, and cast away. They became objects of aversion to God, and wanderers among the nations of the earth. (a.) They were divorced from God. I will love them no more. They were not any longer his people, and shared not his love. God put the spouse out of his house (b.) They were forsaken of God. They first forsook him, and he forsook them. Cain was a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. If God scatters his own elect, because they did not hearken unto him, what impunity can any Christian nation or individual professor have, if they neglect Divine warnings, and do not bring forth fruits according to their high calling? If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations (Neh. 1:8). And among these nations thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind (Deu. 28:65).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos. 9:15. The great wickednessidolatry.
1. Turning places of worship and renown into scenes of corruption.
2. Masking present error under the garb of former custom. Plato was reproving a boy for playing at some foolish game on one occasion. Thou reprovest me, said the youth, for a very little thing. But custom, replied Plato, is not a little thing. Bad custom, consolidated into habit, becomes a tyrant and a curse.
3. Originating Gods anger, and
4. Terminating in mans rejection. Bind not one sin upon another, for in one thou shalt not be unpunished (Sir. 7:8). Wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same shall he be punished (Wis. 9:16).
Hos. 9:16. Men, Churches, and nations like trees.
1. Planted and intended to flourish, watered and cared for by God.
2. Sin brings judgments which smite the root and wither the branches. It corrupts and cuts off the offspring. It leaves men to mourn with Edmund Burke at the loss of his only son: The storm has gone over me, and I am like one of those old oaks which the hurricane scatters around me. I am stripped of all my honours; I am torn up by the roots; I lie prostrate on the earth. Men give themselves deadly wounds. Professors are cursed as the fig-tree, smitten as the vine, and beaten to the ground. For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, &c. (1Ki. 14:15).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Hos. 9:13; Hos. 9:16. Root. Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation. The people may seem to be highly civilized, and yet be ready to fall to pieces at the first touch of adversity. Without integrity of individual character they can have no real strength, cohesion, or soundness. They may be rich, polite, and artistic, and yet hovering on the brink of ruin. If living for themselves only, and with no end but pleasure, each little self his own little god, such a nation is doomed, and its decay is inevitable [Smiles].
This is the state of man: To day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost;
And,when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening,nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do [Shakespeare].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(15) Gilgal.On Gilgal as a seat of idolatrous worship, see Hos. 4:15. My house here, and in Hos. 8:1 (Jehovahs house), is interpreted by Wnsche and Nowack, with considerable show of reason, to mean the holy land, Canaan. This interpretation is confirmed by the use of the Assyrian word Btu, corresponding to the Hebrew bth house. The term seems to have blended the conception of a people and the territory they occupied. (See Schrader, Keilinschriften und das alte Testament, p. 540, where the examples are cited Bt-Am-ma-na Ammon, Bt-A-di-ni, Beth-Eden.) Similarly, Egypt is called in Exo. 20:2, the house of slaves. We are reminded by the word house of the domestic episode (Hosea 1-3): Ephraim, like an adulterous wife, is turned out of house and home (comp. Hos. 3:4), and is no longer Jehovahs people (Hos. 1:9).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘All their wickedness is in Gilgal,
For there I hated them.
Because of the wickedness of their doings,
I will drive them out of my house,
I will love them no more,
All their princes are rebels.’
‘All their wickedness is in Gilgal’ has in mind that Gilgal was one of Israel’s cultic centres parallel to Bethel (Hos 4:15; Hos 12:11). There Israel engaged in all forms of wickedness, centring on adultery and idolatry. These were central to Canaanite worship, for Baalism was a very ‘earthy’ religion. By engaging in sexual activity before the altar the people hoped to persuade Baal to reproduce through the earth. We can therefore see why it might have been seen as parallel with pleasant Tyre (Hos 9:13) which had produced the Tyrian Baal who worked on the same basis. In Israel’s eyes Gilgal was one of their pleasant places, where they indulged in their ritualistic sexual activities. In God’s eyes it was hateful for that very reason. And as a result of the wickedness of their doings practised there, He would drive them from His house (from Israel) and love them no more, because their whole leadership approved of the worship there, thus proving that they were rebels against YHWH.
Gilgal was also the place where Saul was finally rejected by Samuel because of his gross disobedience and lies ( 1Sa 15:22 ; 1Sa 15:26; 1Sa 15:28) and was thus an example of treachery.
Furthermore Gilgal was not far from Baal-peor. and was the first place at which Israel had erected the Tabernacle after leaving Baal-peor and crossing the Jordan. Thus false worship at Gilgal was almost like a repetition of what had happened at Baal-peor. It was introducing the same curse into the promised land itself. That holy site which had represented a new beginning was now being turned into another Baal-peor by an Israel who were just as wayward as they had been at Baal-peor..
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 9:15. Gilgal; for there I hated them For there they became hateful to me, for their flagitious practices;I will drive them, &c. That is, “I will no longer consider them as my family, my children, and servants.” See chap. Hos 8:1. The first great offence of the Israelites, after their entrance into the holy land, was committed when they were encamped in Gilgal; namely, the sacrilegious peculation of Achan. There, says God, of old was my quarrel with them; and to this, I think, these words allude. Gilgal was the place where the armies of Israel, upon their entering Canaan, first encamped; where Joshua set up the twelve stones, taken by God’s command out of the midst of Jordan, in memorial of the miraculous passage through the river. There the first passover was kept, and the fruits of the promised land first enjoyed. There the captain of the host of Jehovah appeared to Joshua. There the rite of circumcision, which had been omitted during the forty years of the wandering of the people in the wilderness, was renewed. And in the days of the prophet Samuel, Gilgal appears to have been an approved place of worship and burnt-offering. But in later times it appears from Hosea and his cotemporary Amos, that it became a place of great resort for idolatrous purposes. And these are the wickednesses in Gilgal, of which the prophet here speaks. See Bishop Horsley.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hos 9:15 All their wickedness [is] in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes [are] revolters.
Ver. 15. All their wickedness is in Gilgal ] We have had the prophet’s prayer: follows now the Lord’s answer in this and the following verse, where we have the former threats repeated, to show that God was unchangeably resolved upon their ruin; and that, first, for their idolatry, secondly, for their other vile practices, thirdly, for the apostasy of their princes: all this here. Their idolatry was the worse, because committed at Gilgal, where God had done much for their forefathers; See Trapp on “ Hos 4:15 “ The quality of the place adds much to the greatness of the sin, “In the land of uprightness they will deal unjustly,” Isa 26:10 , “the faithful city is become a harlot,” Isa 1:21 ; Isa 5:7 , he looked for judgment, but behold a scab. The devil desireth to set himself up in such places as have been formerly eminent for God’s sincere service, as Gilgal once was, 1Sa 10:8 ; 1Sa 11:15 ; for the ark of the covenant was there, which these idolaters had not. So in the holy land (as they still call it), which is possessed by Mahometans and Papists: so Wittenberg, where Luther first began to reform, is now deformed by divers errors and heresies, as Polanus observeth. Wilkinson against the Familists reports the like of Colchester in Essex.
For there I hated them
For the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out
I will drive them out of mine house, saith he, I will love them no more
All their princes are revolters NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Hos 9:15-17
15All their evil is at Gilgal; Indeed,
I came to hate them there!
Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house!
I will love them no more;
All their princes are rebels.
16Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will bear no fruit.
Even though they bear children,
I will slay the precious ones of their womb.
17My God will cast them away
Because they have not listened to Him;
And they will be wanderers among the nations.
Hos 9:15 All their evil is at Gilgal Gilgal means a circle of stones. This was (1) the site of Joshua’s memorial of the stones taken from the Jordan River; (2) it is also the place of Saul’s anointing (cf. 1Sa 11:14-15). Hosea seems to condemn the monarchy (cf. Hos 7:3-7; Hos 8:4; Hos 8:10; Hos 8:13; Hos 13:9-11); (3) this was the place of Saul’s sin (cf. 1Sa 13:1-14); and (4) it may have been a site in the north where fertility worship was practiced.
I came to hate them there This is strong language (hate BDB 971, KB 1338, Qal PERFECT) describing YHWH’s reaction to sin (e.g., Deu 12:31; Isa 63:3-6; Jer 12:8; Amo 5:21; Amo 6:8).
I will drive them out of My house. . .I will love them no more Oh my, what a judgment! The covenant is broken. God has divorced Israel for her unfaithfulness. She is sent from God’s house (i.e., the Promised Land).
This last phrase, I will love them no more is a combination of:
1. do again or do more (BDB 414, KB 418, Hiphil JUSSIVE in form)
2. love (BDB 12, KB 17, Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT)
YHWH is finished with Israel!
All their princes are rebels Their leaders were meant to be God’s representatives, but they were rebellious.
Hos 9:17 My God will cast them away Notice Hosea calling YHWH, My God, with the implication that He is no longer Israel’s covenant God (cf. Deu 31:16-18).
The VERB (BDB 549, KB 540, Qal IMPERFECT) can mean reject, despise, or destroy. It is used in Hosea in Hos 4:6 (twice) and here. They reject His Law (cf. Hos 8:12; Isa 5:24; Isa 30:9; Isa 30:12; Jer 6:19; Jer 8:9; Eze 5:6; Eze 20:16; Amo 2:4); He rejects them (cf. Jer 33:24).
Because they have not listened to Him It is not Assyria’s and Babylonia’s strength, but Israel’s sin that caused the exile. The Mesopotamian gods are not stronger than YHWH. YHWH uses them to judge His people (e.g., Isa 10:5; Isa 44:28 to Isa 45:7).
they will be wanderers among the nations This is the fulfillment of the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 27-29 (cf. Deu 28:58-68)!
wickedness. Hebrew. ra’a’. App-44.
Gilgal. Compare Hos 4:15; Hos 12:11. The place where Jehovah was rejected, and man’s king set up; and where, on account of his impatience and disobedience Saul got his first message of his rejection (1Sa 13:4-15), and his second (1Sa 15:12-33). See note on Hos 4:15.
I hated them = have I come to hate them.
for the wickedness, &c. Compare Hos 1:6.
their princes are revolters. Note the Figure of speech Paronomasia (App-6), for emphasis. Hebrew. sareyhem. sorerim. It may be Englished by “their rulers are unruly”. Compare Isa 1:23, where the same words are used.
is in: Hos 4:15, Hos 12:11, Jos 4:19-24, Jos 5:2-9, Jos 10:43, 1Sa 7:16, Amo 4:4, Amo 5:5, Mic 6:5
I hated: Lev 26:30, Eze 23:18, Zec 11:8
I will drive: Hos 9:3, Hos 9:17, Hos 1:6, Hos 1:9, Hos 3:4, 1Ki 9:7-9, 2Ki 17:17-20, Psa 78:60, Jer 3:8, Jer 11:15, Jer 33:24-26, Amo 5:27
all: Hos 5:1, Hos 5:2, Isa 1:23, Jer 5:5, Eze 22:27, Mic 3:11, Zep 3:3, Act 4:5-7, Act 4:27, Act 5:21
Reciprocal: Psa 5:5 – thou Jer 12:7 – have forsaken Jer 12:8 – therefore Hos 8:1 – the house Zec 1:6 – according to our ways
Hos 9:15. The reference to Gilgal pertains to the sin of Saul who was the first king of the Israelites. From that, time the people had been more or less guilty of disobedience (See 1Sa 13:8; 1Sa 13:12). There I hated them. We generally shrink from using the word hate because we think of it as being always wrong; especially when used with reference to God. But since God cannot do anything wrong, it follows that the word is not always an objectionable one. The English definition is given by Webster as follows: “1, To feel an intense aversion to: detest; abhor. 2. To dislike exceedingly,” Such a sentiment would not necessarily lead to unjust treatment of a person hated. The true application of the word is to think of hating the things a man does and not the man individually. But it is often impossible to deal with the wicked things that are hated without doing so with the persons who are guilty. Hence the nation of Israel was destined to feel the sting of God’s hatred for sin. Will love them no more is to be understood from the same basts as the word hate,” just explained. Gods evidence of ceasing to love the nation was to be seen in the event when He would drive them out of his house, which was to be accomplished by the exile into a foreign land.
Hos 9:15-17. All their wickedness is in Gilgal Gilgal is notorious, and has been so of old, for the wickedness of its inhabitants. There I hated them There of old (or therefore) they were an abomination to me. The first great offence of the Israelites, after their entrance into the Holy Land, was committed while they were encamped in Gilgal; namely, the sacrilegious peculation of Achan, (Joshua 7.,) and to this, it seems, these words allude. There, says God, of old, was my quarrel with them. It must be observed further here, that Gilgal was the place where the armies of Israel, upon their entering Canaan, first encamped; where Joshua set up the twelve stones, taken by Gods command out of the midst of Jordan, in memorial of the miraculous passage through the river. There the first passover was kept, and the fruits of the promised land first enjoyed. There the captain of the Lords host appeared to Joshua. There the rite of circumcision, which had been omitted during the forty years of the wandering of the people in the wilderness, was renewed. And, in the days of the prophet Samuel, Gilgal appears to have been an approved place of worship and burnt-offering. But, in later times, it appears from Hosea, and his cotemporary, Amos, that it became a place of great resort for idolatrous purposes. And these are the wickednesses in Gilgal, of which the prophet here speaks. Horsley. I will drive them out of my house
That is, I will no longer consider them as my family, my children, and my servants. All their princes are revolters All their chief men, their rulers and magistrates, have revolted from me and my commands; either by worshipping false gods, or by likening me to images of their own forming, and by worshipping me under the emblems of them. Ephraim is smitten, &c. Or rather, shall be smitten, namely, with barrenness; for that is the punishment which is here chiefly mentioned. Bishop Horsley renders the clause, Ephraim is blighted; their root is dried up, they shall produce no fruit: or, according to the construction and rendering of the Syriac, Ephraim is smitten at the root, he is dried up; so that he shall bear no fruit; which is also, in substance, the version of the LXX. Yea, though they bring forth And if any should bring forth; yet will I slay the beloved fruit, &c. I will soon take away the children, whose birth afforded them great joy and satisfaction, and in whom they placed their delight. My God will cast them away The prophet here calls Jehovah his God; as much as to say he would no longer be the God of the Israelites in general, and no more own them for his people, but leave them to wander and be dispersed among the other nations. They were afterward called by the name of the , or dispersed among the Gentiles.
9:15 All their wickedness [is] in {q} Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes [are] revolters.
(q) The chief cause of their destruction is that they commit idolatry, and corrupt my religion in Gilgal.
Expulsion from the land 9:15-17
"The previous section (Hos 9:10-14) began with a tender expression of Yahweh’s love. This section (Hos 9:15-17) begins with an affirmation of his hatred. The previous section looked back to the wilderness; this section looks back to Gilgal. Hosea views God as acting in history; thus historical events and the geographical sites where they occurred become vehicles of divine truth. The events of the exodus from Egypt spoke volumes about God, as did the events that took place in the wilderness and at Gilgal. To Hosea God’s response to the people at those places forever remains as crystallized truth about the nature of God." [Note: Ibid., p. 154.]
What the Israelites did at Gilgal caused the Lord to hate them. This is covenant terminology meaning He opposed them; personal emotion is not the main point. At Gilgal the Israelites practiced the pagan fertility cult (cf. Hos 4:15; Hos 12:11). Gilgal epitomized the syncretistic worship of Hosea’s day. Yahweh would drive His people out of the land, as He had expelled Adam and Eve and the Canaanites, because they had sinned and had adopted the ways of sinners. He would love (choose to bless) them no more, as He had in the past, because all their leaders rebelled against Him.
Even though God loves (chooses) all the elect (Eph 1:4), He has a special affection for those who comply with His will (cf. Joh 15:14). The Israelites had stopped being compliant and had been rebellious.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)