Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 11:4
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
4. I drew them with cords of a man, &c.] A new image suggested by Hos 10:11, and descriptive of the fatherly love of God. Not with the violence suited to an unruly heifer, but with the ‘cords of men’ (i. e. such as men can bear), did Jehovah win his people’s obedience. But the expression is strange.
that take off the yoke on their jaws ] Rather, that lift up the yoke over their cheeks. Jehovah compares himself to a considerate master, who raises the yoke from the neck and cheeks of the animal, that it may eat its food more conveniently.
and I laid meat unto them ] This version however is impossible. As the text stands, we can only render, either (altering one vowel-point), and I bent towards him and gave him food, or, and (dealing) gently with him I gave him food. Not of course to be interpreted literally; the figure beautifully describes the tender indulgence of Jehovah to his people.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I drew them with the cords of a man – o: Wanton heifers such as was Israel, are drawn with ropes; but although Ephraim struggled against Me, I would not draw him as a beast, but I drew him as a man, (not a servant, but a son) with cords of love. Love is the magnet of love. : The first and chief commandment of the law, is not of fear, but of love, because He willeth those whom He commandeth, to be sons rather than servants. : Our Lord saith, No man cometh unto Me, except the father who hath sent me, draw him. He did not say, lead him, but draw him. This violence is done to the heart, not to the body. Why marvel? Believe and thou comest; love and thou art drawn. Think it not a rough and uneasy violence: it is sweet, alluring; the sweetness draws thee. Is not a hungry sheep drawn, when the grass is shewn it? It is not, I ween, driven on in body, but is bound tight by longing. So do thou too come to Christ. Do not conceive of long journeyings. When thou believest, then thou comest. For to Him who is everywhere, people come by loving, not by traveling. So the Bride saith, draw me and I will run after Thee Son 1:4. How sweet, says Augustine, when converted, did it at once become to me, to want the sweetnesses of those toys; and what I feared to be parted from, was now a joy to part with. For Thou didst cast them forth from me, Thou true and highest Sweetness. Thou castedst them forth, and for them enteredst in Thyself, sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, but more hidden than all depths; higher than all honor, but not to the high in their own conceits .
: Christ drew us also with the cords of a man, when for us He became Man, our flesh, our Brother, in order that by teaching, suffering, dying for us, He might in a wondrous way bind and draw us to Himself and to God; that He might redeem the earthly Adam, might transform and make him heavenly; : giving us ineffable tokens of His love. For He giveth Himself to us for our Food; He giveth us sacraments; by Baptism and repentance He conformeth us anew to original righteousness. Hence, He saith, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all men unto me Joh 12:32; and Paul, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me Gal 2:20. This most loving drawing, our dullness and weakness needoth, who ever, without grace, grovel amidst vile and earthly things.
All the methods and parts of Gods government are twined together, as so many twisted cords of love from Him, so ordered, that they ought to draw man with all his heart to love Him again. : Man, the image of the Mind of God, is impelled to zeal for the service of God, not by fear, but by love. No band is mightier, nor constrains more firmly all the feelings of the mind. For it holdeth not the body enchained, while the mind revolteth and longeth to break away, but it so bindeth to itself the mind and will, that it should will, long for, compass, nought beside, save how, even amid threats of death, to obey the commands of God. Bands they are, but bands so gentle and so passing sweet, that we must account them perfect freedom and the highest dignity.
And I was to them as they that take off – (literally, that lift up) the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them Thus explained, the words carry on the description of Gods goodness, that He allowed not the yoke of slavery to weigh heavy upon them, as He saith, I am the Lord your God, Which brought you out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen, and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright Lev 26:13; and God appealeth to them, Wherein have I wearied thee? testify against Me Mic 6:3.
But the words seem more naturally to mean, I was to them, in their sight, I was regarded by them, as they that lift up the yoke on their jaws, i. e., that raise the yoke, (not being already upon them) to place it over their jaws. For plainly the yoke never rests on the jaws, but only passed over them, either when put on the neck, or taken off. This, God seemed to them to be doing, ever placing some new yoke or constraint upon them. And I, God adds, all the while was placing meat before them; i. e., while God was taking all manner of care of them, and providing for them all things richly to enjoy, He was regarded by them as one who, instead of laying food before them, was lifting the yoke over their jaws. God did them all good, and they thought it all hardship.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 11:4
I drew them with cords of a man.
Gods saving method with the soul
I. God in the action of great solicitude. I drew them. There are two ways by which this thought is confirmed–
1. By Scripture.
2. By experience.
God is represented in the Song of Solomon as drawing us with the odour of a great ointment.
II. God drawing man through the principle of human agency–Cords of a man.
1. God did this in the use of the prophets.
2. God did this in the Person of Christ.
3. God is now doing this in the Christian ministry.
III. God drawing man through the principle of spiritual conditions: With hands of love.
1. There is the voice of the inner life,–telling of wrong, and pointing to right and duty.
2. There is the agency of the Holy Spirit,–pointing to holy decisions. Dr. Doddridge once said to his daughter, My dear, how is it that everybody seems to love you? She answered, I do not know, papa,–unless it is that I love everybody. Jesus loves us. Shall we not love Him? (W. A. Perrins.)
Gods redemptive agency
I. The uncoerciveness of His redemptive agency. He draws, not drives. This Divine mode of action implies two things–
1. That God respects the moral freedom of human nature. He has endowed us with moral agency. We have a consciousness of freedom which defies and spurns all the logic that would prove us slaves. The Holy Father treats us according to the natures He has given us. God neither condemns nor saves men contrary to their own will.
2. That Gods moral power in the Gospel is extraordinarily great.
(1) It is a power to draw souls. Brute force can only drive bodies. Mere might has no magnetism for the soul. There is a moral power, the power of anger, falsehood, disgusting immorality, that can drive souls away–repel them with disgust. But holy moral power alone can draw the entire soul.
(2) It is a power to draw depraved souls. It is something therefore extraordinary–greater than the moral power of nature. It is the power of infinite love, embodied in the life of Christ.
II. The humanity of Gods redemptive agency. It is by a mans intellect, heart, life, example, influence that he draws. God saves man by man.
1. The reasonable draws man. God appeals to our reason through man.
2. The merciful draws man. God appeals to our gratitude through man.
3. The excellent draws man.
4. The desirable draws man. (Homilist.)
The place of love in the Gospel
It is God who speaks of the humanity of His treatment of us. When a man would influence, he must begin by loving. Few can resist that spell. I need not tell any one how mighty, how almighty, in a mans being is the force of love. There are not two definitions of love, though it has many modifications. The symptoms common to all loving are delight in presence, impatience of absence, eagerness for reciprocity, intolerance of coldness, joy in exchange of thought, sympathy in each change of circumstance; delight in the opportunity of benefiting, and corroding grief in the prohibition of intercourse. We have claimed for hope–we have claimed even for fear–a place in the Gospel. Can it be needful to do the same for love? Yet there may be some comparative, if not positive, disparagement of this grace. I have heard men speak slightingly of Gospel love. They judge it better, on the whole, for the character of Christs Gospel, that in its central innermost shrine the Deity of deities should be rather obedience than love. Thus, in improving Christs Gospel, they spoilt, marred, ruined it.
I. The Gospel is a revelation of love. Herein lies its power, the secret of its strength. It reveals the love of God. That God loves virtue, and will compensate and make up for the sufferings of the good, is a tenet which needs not a revelation. But that God loves all men, even the sinner, is that quite right? Must there not be something here not altogether sound in doctrine, because not altogether conducive to morality and good? The Gospel risks this perversion. It refers us to Christ. Did Christs example, did Christs life, encourage or favour sin? There is, in the immeasurable love of God, room for all His creatures. There is a yearning of soul over the scattered, dispersed, erring, and straying race. He loves, therefore He pleads. The whole secret of the drawing lies in the spontaneity of the love. Tell a man,–Seek God, and He will be found of you,–and you waste words. Tell him–God loves you as you are. God has come after you, with far-reaching endeavour. He will find there is strength in that which will not, cannot, be resisted.
II. There is an invitation of love. There is something always pathetic, to the unsophisticated ear, in the petition of love. The outcries of barren, thirsting affection waste themselves oftentimes upon the desert. And yet there was a love for them, would they but have had it, a love better than of son or daughter, better than of wife or husband, a love indestructible, satisfying, eternal. It is permitted to you to love God. Ought not that to be joy enough and privilege enough for any man? God makes it religion to do the thing which will make us happy; and therefore He turns the invitation into the injunction of love, and bids the fallen self-ruined creature just love and be happy–just love and be saved.
III. There is a communication, or transmission, of love. He who has been loved, and therefore loves, is bidden by that love of God to love his brother also; and then, in that transmission, that handing on of the love, the whole of the Gospel–its precept as its comfort–is in deed and in truth perfected. Little, indeed, do they know of the power of the Gospel who think either that obedience will replace the love of God, or duty be a substitute for the love of man. Christ teaches us that both towards God and towards man love goes first and duty follows after. Not, indeed, that we are idly to wait for the feeling, and excuse the not doing on the plea of not loving. There is such a thing as worshipping because I desire to love. So there is such a thing as doing good to my brother, if so be I may love him; a setting myself to every office of patient and self-denying charity, if by any means it may at last become not a labour but a love to me. But how can we love the unlovely? Surely whosoever sees with the eye of Christ, can discern, if he will look for it, on the most tarnished, debased, defaced coin of humanity, that Divine image and superscription in which God created, and for the sake of which Christ thought it no waste to redeem. This is loves place in Christs Gospel. Love revealed, love reciprocated, then love handed on. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)
Good Friday
This is not a day for difficult doctrines, but for the simplest and humblest feelings. The great work of this day is quite beyond, the reach of our understanding. The appeal is not made to our understanding, nor even directly to our conscience. With the cords of a man we are drawn. The human affections which all men share, the feelings which even the poorest, the meanest, the most ignorant partake in, the pity, the tenderness, the love that can only be called forth by love, these are now the cords by which our Father draws us, the cords of a man. To the heart that loves like a child, to the sinner deeply laden with his burden of unhappiness, to the broken spirit that secretly longs to escape from fetters which it is powerless to break, to the soul that is ready to despair, this Gospel speaks, and tells of hope, and love, and eagerness to forgive, and embracing arms, and falling on the neck, and tears of joy, and the welcome of the prodigal son. We cannot study here. We can but surrender our hearts to the love which is too much for them to contain. We are sometimes cold and dead. There are times when our feelings towards God seem to lose their warmth. We can obey and do, but we feel like servants, not like children, and we are unhappy because we cannot rouse any warmer feelings in ourselves. And when this is so, where can we go but to the Cross of Christ? Perhaps under a decent exterior we hide some sinful habit which has long been eating into our souls. It is possible that we may be discharging every duty as far as human eyes behold us. Yet time after time the temptation has proved too strong, or we have been found too weak. Our besetting sin has clung to us, and we cannot get rid of it. Then let us once more turn to God, and gaze upon the Cross of Christ. Or perhaps we have never striven to serve God at all. We have lived as best suited the society in which we were, as most conduced to our own pleasures. Whenever the thought of God or conscience comes across us, we find that but a dull subject to think on, and we turn to pleasanter and more exciting themes. What then shall warm our hearts but this plain story of sadness? If we have human feelings still left us, and sympathy can yet touch our souls, it will be impossible to read of the Cross of Christ without emotion. (Archbishop Temple.)
Gods gracious dealings
I. I dealt with them rationally, as men, not as beasts.
1. My statutes were according to right reason.
2. They were supported by many arguments.
3. And by persuasions, motives, and exhortations.
II. I dealt with them gently, not with rigour and violence.
1. Suiting Myself to their dispositions.
2. Dealing with them when they were in their best temper.
3. Giving them time to consider.
III. I dealt with them honourably, in a manner suitable to that respect which is due to man.
1. My instructions ever exceeded My corrections.
2. Whatever spark of ingenuousness remained in them, I took care to preserve it.
3. I aimed at their good, as well as My own glory, in all things. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Silken cord
s:–No man ever does come to God unless he is drawn. Man is so utterly dead in trespasses and sins that the same Divine power which provided a Saviour must make him willing to accept a Saviour. But many make a mistake about Divine drawings. They seem to fancy that when the time comes, they will, by some irresistible power, without any exercise of thought or reasoning, be compelled to be saved. But no man can make another man lay hold of Christ. Nay, God Himself does not do it by compulsion. He hath respect unto man as a reasoning creature. Love is the power that acts upon men. God draweth no man contrary to the constitution of man, but His methods of drawing are in strict accordance with mental operations.
1. Some are drawn to Christ by seeing the happiness of true believers.
2. Another cord of love is the sense of the security of Gods people, and a desire to be as secure as they.
3. Some will tell you they were first drawn to Christ by the holiness of godly relatives.
4. Not a few are brought to Christ by gratitude for mercies received.
5. Some have been caught by becoming convinced that the religion of Christ is the most reasonable religion in the world.
6. A far larger number, however, are attracted to Jesus by a sense of His exceeding great love.
7. The privileges which a Christian enjoys ought to draw some of you to Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gods goodness to His people
Let us see what this goodness did for Israel, and what it does still for Gods people. Three leading articles.
I. Attraction. I drew them. God attracted the Jews to Himself as their Lord and portion by conviction and affection. The attraction is to Him as well as by Him. In pushing and driving you urge a thing from you; but in drawing it you bring it towards you. Gods aim is to bring us to Himself. This aim regards the state that we are previously in–a state of distance and alienation from Him. As in this state we see his sin, so we equally see his misery, for with God is the fountain of life, and we can never be happy save as we are near Him. Look at the manner in which this attraction is accomplished. With the cords of a man. That Is–
1. Rationally. Hence religion is called a reasonable service.
2. Affectionately. Love is the supreme attraction. There are four heads of goodness which are peculiarly attractive and powerful.
(1) Unreserved kindness is very attractive. So is
(2) Disinterested kindness. And
(3) Magnanimous kindness. And
(4) Costly and expensive kindness.
II. Provision. I laid meat unto them. Meat means food generally. To show the plenitude and riches of the Gospel provision it is represented in the Scriptures by a feast. The provision is found in the Scriptures. It is laid unto you in the preaching of the Gospel.
III. Emancipation. He takes off the yoke from our jaws. What yoke?
1. The yoke of Judaism.
2. Of popery.
3. Of persecution.
4. Of bigotry.
5. Of ignorance. (William Jay.)
Drawn heavenwards
A weeping willow stood by the side of a pond, and in the direction of that pond it hung out its pensive-looking branches. An attempt was made to give a different direction to these branches. The attempt was useless; where the water lay, thither the boughs would turn. However an expedient presented itself. A large pond was dug on the other side of the tree, and as soon as the greater quantity of water was found there, the tree of its own accord bent its branches in that direction. What a clear illustration of the laws which govern the human heart. It turns to the water–the poisoned waters of sin, perhaps–but the only streams with which it is acquainted. Remonstrate with it, and your remonstrances are vain. It knows no better joys than those of earth, and to them it obstinately clings. But open to its apprehension fuller streams, heavenly water; show to it some better thing, some more satisfying joys; and then it is content to abandon what it once worshipped, and turns its yearning affections heavenward. (J. A. Gordon, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. I drew them with cords of a man] This is a reference to leading strings, one end of which is held by the child, the other by the nurse, by which the little one, feeling some support, and gaining confidence, endeavours to walk. God, their heavenly Father, made use of every means and method to teach them to walk in the right and only safe path; for, as the Targum says, “As beloved children are drawn I drew them by the strength of love.”
That take of the yoke on their jaws] I did every thing that mercy could suggest, and justice permit, to make their duty their delight and profit. There appears to be here an illusion to the moving and pulling forward the collar or yoke of beasts which have been hard at work, to let in the cool air between it and their neck, so as to refresh them, and prevent that heat, which with the sweat would scald their necks, and take off not only the hair, but the skin. I have often done this at the land ends, in ploughing, when at the turnings the cattle were permitted a few moments to draw their breath after the hard pull that terminated the furrow at either end of the field: –
And I laid meat unto them.] Giving them at the same time a bite of grass or hay, to encourage them to go on afresh. The metaphor is strong and expressive; and he who ever had or saw the management of cattle in the plough or cart must admire it. Thus God acted with the people on whose necks was the yoke of his law. How many privileges, advantages, and comforts did he mingle with his precepts, to make them at once a righteous and happy people!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I drew them; I found them backward and unapt to lead, I therefore in my pity laid my hand on them, and, as a father or friend, drew them gently to me.
With cords of a man, i.e. with such obliging kindness as best fits and most prevails with a man, with reason.
With bands of love; those arguments of love, which might, as strong bands, hold them fast to my law and worship for their good. I used all manner of kindnesses towards them to fix them in good.
I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws; as a careful husbandman doth in due season take the yoke from his labouring oxen, and takes off the muzzle with which they were kept from eating when at work, gives them time of rest and feeding: so did God with Israel.
I laid meat unto them; brought them provision in their wants, as the careful husbandman brings fodder and provender for his wearied labouring oxen, by which plain simile God doth inform Israel in Hoseas time what ancient, tender, constant, and vigilant love he had showed to Israel, to their predecessors, and to them also, and hereby discovers their unheard-of ingratitude and wickedness, which began in their fathers, and hath continued with increase to the days of their final ruin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. cords of a manparallel to”bands of love”; not such cords as oxen are led by, buthumane methods, such as men employ when inducing others, asfor instance, a father drawing his child, by leading-strings,teaching him to go (Ho 11:1).
I was . . . as they that takeoff the yoke on their jaws . . . I laid meatas the humanehusbandman occasionally loosens the straps under the jaws by whichthe yoke is bound on the neck of oxen and lays food before them toeat. An appropriate image of God’s deliverance of Israel from theEgyptian yoke, and of His feeding them in the wilderness.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love,…. As Ephraim is compared to a heifer in the preceding chapter, here he is said to be drawn; but not with such cords and bands as cattle are, but with such as men are; in a rational and gentle way, in a kind, loving, tender, humane, friendly, and fatherly way and manner; so the Lord drew Israel on in the wilderness, till he was brought to Canaan’s land, by bestowing kind favours upon them, and by making precious promises to them. So the Lord deals with his spiritual Israel; he draws them out of the present state and circumstances, in which they are by nature, to himself, and to his Son, and to follow after him, and run in the ways of his commandments; and which he does not by force and compulsion against their wills, nor by mere moral persuasion, but by the invincible power of his grace, sweetly working upon them, and attracting them; he does it by revealing Christ in them, in the glories of his person and in the riches of his grace, and by letting in his love into their hearts; and by kind invitations, precious promises, and divine teachings, attended with his powerful and efficacious grace; see Jer 31:3;
and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws; as one that is merciful to his beast; as a kind and humane husbandman, when his cattle have been hard at work, takes off their bridles or muzzles, or the yokes on them, fastened with a halter about their jaws, that they may have liberty to feed on food set before them, as the next clause shows. So the Targum,
“my word was to them as a good husbandman, who lightens the shoulder of oxen, and looses “the bridles” on their jaws.”
This may refer to Israel’s deliverance from their bondage in Egypt; and be spiritually applied to Christ, the essential Word of God, breaking and taking the yoke of sin, Satan, and the law from off his people, and bringing them into the liberty of the children of God. Schmidt reads and interprets the words quite otherwise, “and I was to them as they that lift up the yoke upon their jaws”; not remove it from them but put it on them; expressing their ignorance and ingratitude, who, when the Lord drew them in the kind and loving manner he did, reckoned it as if he put a yoke upon them, and treated them rather as beasts than men; but this seems not to agree with what follows:
and I laid meat unto them: or declined, or brought it down to them, to their very mouths; referring to the manna and quails he rained about their tents. So the Targum,
“and, even when they were in the wilderness, I multiplied to them good things to eat.”
And thus in a spiritual sense the Lord gives meat to them that fear him, while in the wilderness of this world; he brings it near, and sets it before them, in the ministry of the word and ordinances; even that meat which endures to everlasting life, the flesh of Christ, which is meat indeed; and the doctrines of the Gospel, which are milk for babes, and strong meat for more experienced saints.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet states, first, that this people had not been severely dealt with, as either slaves, or oxen, or asses, are wont to be treated. He had said before, that the people of Israel were like a heifer, which shakes off the yoke, and in wantonness loves only the treading of corn. But though the perverseness of the people was so great, yet God shows here that he had not used extreme rigour: I have drawn him, he says, with human cords and lovely bands By the cords of man, he means humane government. “I have not,” he says, “treated you as slaves, but dealt with you as with children; and I have not regarded you as cattle, I have not driven you into a stall; but I have only drawn you with lovely bands.” The sum of the whole is, that the government which God had laid on the people was a certain and singular token of his paternal favour, so that the people could not complain of too much rigour, as if God had considered their disposition, and had used a hard wedge (as the common proverb is) for a hard knot; for if God had dealt thus with the people, they could have objected, and said, that they had not been kindly drawn by him, and that it was no wonder if they did not obey, since they had been so roughly treated. “But there is no ground for them,” the Lord says, “to allege that I have used severity: for I could not have dealt more kindly with them, I have drawn them with human cords; I have not otherwise governed them than as a father his own children; I have been bountiful towards them. I indeed wished to do them good, and, as it was right, required obedience from them. I have at the same time laid on them a yoke, not servile, nor such as is wont to be laid on brute animals; but I was content with paternal discipline.” Since then such kindness had no influence over them, is it not right to conclude that their wickedness is irreclaimable and extreme?
He then adds I have been to them like those who raise up the yoke upon the cheeks (79) “I have not laden you,” he says, “with too heavy burdens, as oxen and other beasts are wont to be burdened; but I have raised up the yoke upon the cheeks. I have chosen rather to bear the yoke myself, and to ease these ungodly and wicked men of their burden.” And God does not in vain allege this, for we know that when he uses his power, and vindicates his authority, he does this not to burden the people, as earthly kings are wont to do; but he bears the burden which he lays on men. It is no wonder then that he says now, that he had lifted the yoke upon the cheeks of his people, like one who wishes not to burden his ox, but bears up the yoke himself with his own hands, lest the ox should faint through weariness.
He afterwards adds, And I have made them to eat in quietness, or, “I have brought meat to them.” Some think the verb אוכיל, aukil to be in the future tense, and that אוכיל, aukil is put for אאכיל, aakil; that is, I will cause them to eat; and that the future is to be resolved into the past: and it is certain that the word אט, ath, means tranquil sometimes. Then it will be, “I have caused them quietly to eat.” But another exposition is more commonly received; as the word אט, ath, is derived from נטה, nathe, to raise, it is the same as though the Prophet had said, that meat had been brought to them.
God then does here in various ways enhance the ingratitude and wickedness of the people, because they had not acknowledged his paternal kindness, when he had himself so kindly set forth his favour before their eyes; I have, he says, extended meat to them; that is, “I have not thrown it on the ground, nor placed it too high for them; they have not toiled in getting it; but I have, as it were, brought it with mine own hand and set it before them, that they might eat without any trouble.” In short, God declares that he had tried in every way to find out, whether there was any meekness or docility in the people of Israel, and that he had ill bestowed all his blessings; for this people were blind to favours so kind, to such as clearly proved, that God had in every way showed himself to be a Father. It follows —
(79) “It is very probably that the words refer to the custom of raising the yoke forward to cool the neck of the laboring beast.” — Newcome.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) Cords of a man.In contrast with the cords with which unmanageable beasts are held in check. Israel is led with bands of love, not of compulsion. Render the last clause, And gently towards them gave I food to eat, expressing the tenderness, delicacy, and condescension of his personal regard.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘I drew them with cords of a man,
With bands of love,
And I was to them as those who lift up the yoke on their jaws,
And I laid food before them.’
And in spite of their misbehaviour YHWH had not deserted them. He had drawn them along in their leading reins, bands which bound them to Him in love, and He had been to them like the man who takes out the horse’s or oxen’s bit so that he could feed them. He had constantly laid food before them (initially the manna and quails, and then the ‘old corn of the land’ – Jos 5:12).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 11:4. I drew them with cords of a man “I employed, to gain their affection, all the motives which could influence a heart not insensible to love. They cannot complain that I treated them as animals, or as slaves; that I commanded them with rigour, or constrained them by force. I treated them as reasonable men, and as a father treats his children.” Houbigant concludes the verse with the words, Yoke on their jaws; and begins the fifth thus; I drew him gently unto me: he shall not, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1170
THE MANNER IN WHICH GOD DRAWS HIS PEOPLE
Hos 11:4. I drew them with of a man, with bands of love.
THE doctrine of Divine influences is generally considered as enthusiastic and absurd. But though we grant that there is much in it which is above our comprehension, there is nothing in it that is contrary to reason. We know not how mind operates upon matter, when we move any of the members of our body: but does any one, on this account, question the influence of volition upon our motions? So, though there be much in Divine influences that is inexplicable, we affirm, that to them must be ascribed all the good which we do. In fact, we have, in the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, a very striking illustration of the way in which the Spirit of God operates upon the souls of men. In reference to that event God says, I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love [Note: Compare ver. 1. with the text.]: and the same may be said of all who are delivered from the infinitely sorer bondage of sin and Satan.
Let us then consider,
I.
How God drew his people out of Egypt
They were not of themselves seeking deliverance. On the contrary, when Moses interposed for them by slaying one of their oppressors, and proceeded to encourage in them a hope of yet further deliverance, they thrust him from them, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? But when Gods time was fully come, he drew them, as we are told, by the cords of a man, and by bands of love
[He made them to feel their sore bondage, and to cry so bitterly by reason of it, that God himself was afflicted by their afflictions. He then sent them a Saviour, even Moses, whom he commissioned and qualified to effect their deliverance. By him he displayed his almighty power; and in ten successive plagues inflicted upon Egypt, (from all of which they were exempt,) he shewed them, that, under the guidance of Moses, they might safely go forth from Egypt, and cast off the yoke of their oppressors. Thus he drew them by such considerations as are proper to influence a rational being: for it is impossible for a man under the pressure of grievous affliction not to desire relief, and gladly to avail himself of such aid as promises to be effectual: He drew them, I say, with cords of a man.
Further, God put himself at the head of them, and undertook to be their guide: and, when their danger became so imminent, that they were reduced to utter despair, he opened the sea before them, and led them through on dry ground, and overwhelmed all their enemies in the waves, which had just before been a wall for the protection of his chosen people. Here he drew them with the bands of love, as he did afterwards in all their journeys, supplying by miracle their every want, and manifesting his glory to them, and giving them a written revelation of his will and taking them for his own peculiar people above all the people upon the face of the whole earth. To them also he held forth the prospect of an inheritance. even of a land flowing with milk and honey. where they should enjoy such peace and plenty and happiness. as were unknown to the whole world besides.
Now these distinguishing favours were well calculated to bind them to him in such love and gratitude. that nothing should ever be able to draw them from him. or to damp their ardour in his service.
True indeed these means did not produce their full effect upon that generation. all of whom perished in the wilderness. excepting two. What addresses itself to our senses only. is but transient in its operation on the mind; whereas the things which are seen by faith are always present and abidingly influential and uniformly effectual. In this respect. therefore. the parallel between Gods dealings with the Jews and with us will not hold good. But still the manner in which God drew them serves as a shadow of good things to come. and affords to us a striking illustration of the way in which he will draw his people to himself under the better dispensation which we are privileged to enjoy.]
To elucidate this. I will shew.
II.
How he will draw us at this day
We need his influences as much as ever his ancient people did
[No man ever comes to God by any power of his own. Our blessed Lord expressly says. No man cometh unto me. except the Father who hath sent me draw him [Note: Joh 6:44.]. In fact. we have not in ourselves a power to do a good act [Note: Joh 15:5.]. or speak a good word [Note: Mat 12:34.]. or think a good thoughts [Note: 2Co 3:5.]. Our sufficiency for every thing is of God alone; nor without him can we either will or do any one thing that is pleasing in his sight [Note: Php 2:13.]. If any man could have exerted such a power. it would have been the Apostle Paul. But he confesses. By the grace of God I am what I am; and. when constrained to speak of his labours, he recalls. as it were. his words. and. with holy jealousy for Gods honour. adds. yet not I. but the grace of God which was with me [Note: 1Co 15:10.]. If any man think he can renew and sanctify his own soul. let him make the effort; and his own experience shall attest all that the Scriptures have spoken.]
And how is it that God will work in us?
[He will draw us, even as he did them, by rational considerations, and by gracious influences, or, as my text expresses it, by the cords of a man, and by the bands of love
When first God begins a work of grace upon the soul, he shews to a man his fallen state, and his utter incapacity to save himself. Then He makes known to him the Lord Jesus, who has died for the redemption of a ruined world, and shews to him, that through that adorable Saviour he may obtain a deliverance from all guilt and misery, and be made a partaker of everlasting happiness and glory. Now the question necessarily arises in his mind, Shall I persist in ray wickedness? Shall I pour contempt upon these offers of mercy? Shall I plunge my soul into irremediable and endless perdition? No: This were to act more stupidly than the beasts, and to forfeit all title to the rationality of man. Thus is he drawn in the first instance by the cords of a man. But in his further progress he experiences the still more influential drawings of Gods love, which, as bands, constrain him to surrender up himself a willing captive to his God. The Holy Spirit, whose office it is to glorify Christ, takes of the things that are Christs, and shews them to the believing soul [Note: Joh 16:14.], and thus makes Christ more precious to him than ten thousand worlds [Note: 1Pe 2:7.]. In time he enables the soul to comprehend the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of that love of Christ which passeth knowledge [Note: Eph 3:18.]; and by witnessing with the soul that it is an object of Gods love, he enables it with boldness and with confidence to address him by the endearing name of Father [Note: Rom 8:15-16.], and to assure itself of an everlasting participation of his kingdom and glory. With such bands cast around him, the Believer is drawn to God in a way of holy obedience, and can defy all the hosts of hell itself ever to separate him from his love [Note: Rom 8:35-39.]. The abiding feeling of his heart from henceforth is, The love of Christ constraineth me, because I thus judge; that, if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again [Note: 2Co 5:14-15.].]
Observe from hence,
1.
What reason unconverted men have to blush and be ashamed
[They will take occasion from the doctrine of Divine influences to justify themselves, saying, If God do not draw me, how can I go to him? But I ask. Have not the cords of a man been spread around you, yea, and the bands of redeeming love also, and you have burst all these bands asunder, and cast all these cords from you? Do you not know that heaven and hell are before you? and are you acting the part of rational beings, whilst you take no care to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold on eternal life? And have you never heard of what Christ has done and suffered for you, and felt too the influences of his Holy Spirit calling you to repentance? Yet have you not ungratefully slighted all the love of Christ, and wickedly resisted the Holy Ghost? Tell me, then, whether such conduct do not call for the deepest humiliation before God? Verily, you may vindicate yourselves, as you will, now; but you shall stand self-condemned at the judgment-seat of Christ.]
2.
What reason believers have to bless and adore their God
[Though the unbeliever must ascribe to himself alone the misery to which he is hastening, you owe to God and to his sovereign grace all the blessedness which you enjoy. Had not God of his infinite mercy drawn you, you had no more turned to him, than Satan himself has done [Note: Joh 6:44.]. In the view of all the good that you either possess or hope for, you must say, He that hath wrought us to the self-same thing is God [Note: 2Co 5:5.]. Give him then the glory due unto his name and look to him for a continuance of his grace, that his work may be carried on and perfected in your souls. Beg of him to fasten his bands yet more firmly about you, that nothing either within or without may break them. And endeavour at all times to yield to his attractive influences, and to comply with the first intimations of his will. And, if you be treated with contempt for this by an ungodly world, comfort yourselves with the reflection, that you are acting the part of rational beings; and that the more closely you are drawn to God in this world, the more intimately you will enjoy him to all eternity in the world to come.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
This is a sweet verse, and serves very blessedly to explain the powerful efficacy of the Lord’s grace, at the same time the tenderness of the methods made use of is as plainly set forth. The cords of a man; not the yoke of the beast of labour; the bands of love; not the compulsive force of terror and fear. We have several beautiful illustrations of this: Jer 31:3 ; Son 1:3-4 ; 2Co 5:14 . It is a sweet doctrine of the gospel this, and thus graciously set forth. The effect produced is not by human persuasion, or human power; but by divine inducements wrought in the soul. The sinner feels constrained in the contemplation, of Jesus love, like the fragrancy of ointment to the senses, or the allurements of music to the ear. See Joh 12:32 . And observe, the same Lord that thus drew them to his love, gave them food for their support. Yes! Jesus is both shelter and food; , the teacher and the feeder of his redeemed. He is the bread of life, and the water of life; the garment of salvation, and the whole glory of his people Israel.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 11:4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
Ver. 4. I drew them with cords of a man ] Not of a beast; though they have deserved to be hampered as unruly heifers, and to be yoked and ruled over with rigour, to be tamed and taken down a link lower, yet I, out of my philanthropy, yea, out of singular grace, have dealt civilly, nay, courteously with them, in an amicable and amiable way, and not as I might have done out of my sovereignty, and according to my justice. I drew them by the cords of a man, that is, 1. Gently and favourably; suiting myself to their dispositions (which are often as different as their faces), hiring them to obedience, afflicting them in measure, with the rods of men, 2Sa 7:14 , fitted to the weakness of men. If God should plead against us with his great power, as Job speaks, Job 23:6 , it would soon grind us to powder; but he hath no such design; he correcteth his children, vel ad demonstrationem debitae miseriae vel ad emendationem labilis vitro, vel ad exercitationem necessariae patientiae, saith Augustine, Tract. in Joan. 124; ad exercitium non ad exitium, saith another ancient, to refine and not to ruin them. 2. Rationally, by cogent arguments and motives, befitting the nature of a man; able to convince them and set them down with right reason, would they but consider, Deu 32:29 , would they but be wise and weigh things aright. This God wisheth they would do, calleth them to reason the case with him, Isa 1:18 , pleads with them in a friendly way, Jer 2:31 , and then appeals to their own consciences, whether they have dealt well with him, yea or no, Isa 5:3 , making them read the sentence against themselves, as did Judas the traitor, Mat 27:4 , and those Pharisees, Mat 21:40 . He bespeaks them, after most clear conviction, as Isa 46:8 . Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Most people are led on in a continued hurry of lusts and passions, and never bethink themselves, as 1Ki 8:47 , never say so much as, What have I done? Si haec duo tecum verba reputasses quid ago? saith Cicero to Nevius: Hadst thou but bethought thyself of those few words, What have I done? thou wouldst never have been so covetous a cormorant. Oh, could men have but so much power over their passions and lusts as to get alone and weigh God’s ways, much good might be done upon them; but for want of this, Fertur equis auriga, &c., they rush into all excess of riot, as a horse into the battle; yea, they are so far unmanned as to think that they have reason to be mad, and that tbere is no small sense in sinning. “I do well to be angry, even unto death,” Joh 4:9 .
With bands of love
And I was to them as they that take off the yoke on the jaws, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I drew = I would draw.
man. Hebrew. ‘adam. App-14.
take off = lift up, or loosen: viz. the straps which hind the yoke to the neck.
I laid meat = holding out [food] to him I let him eat.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
drew: Son 1:4, Isa 63:9, Joh 6:44, Joh 12:32, 2Co 5:14
of a: 2Sa 7:14
I was: Lev 26:13
take off: Heb. lift up
and I laid: Hos 2:8, Psa 78:23-25, Psa 105:40, Joh 6:32-58
Reciprocal: Deu 1:31 – bare thee Jer 31:3 – with lovingkindness have I drawn Jer 31:32 – in the Hos 10:11 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE BANDS OF LOVE
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.
Hos 11:4
The great principle of all Gods works is attraction. We all know how the law of attraction governs the material world. We call it by different names, but the thing itself is everywhere the same.
And is not the natural world in this, as in everything else, a great picture-book? Morally, just as much as physically, it is the will of God that everything should be done by attraction. Therefore, first, God makes Himself so exceedingly attractive. Everything that we know of the beautiful goes to make Gods nature. He is love. Therefore, He has made His Son in all the tendernesses of a man; in all the sympathies of a sufferer; that He may be winning to a mans mind. Therefore the Holy Spirit does His work of comforting. And therefore He has willed it, and decreed it, that all our operations, one upon another, should all be done by attractionby gentleness.
We know, indeed, that as the attracting magnet has also a repelling end which drives, so He, Who is the great fountain and centre of attraction, does sometimes drive a soul; but then, He never drives or repels a soul but in order to place that soul again in the sphere of attraction. The fact is, the habit is as universal as the promise is absoluteI, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. That means, that as the sun, when it rises in the heavens, and rules its course by a secret law of nature, makes all vegetation to turn upwards to that its spring of light and life, so that ascended Saviour moves our world by His providence, and His works, and His grace; and, as He moves, He exercises an essentially attracting power, which no living man can help to feel.
We do anything effectually according to the degree we imitate Gods method of doing it. His method we have seen is this, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Oh! God forbid that a poor fellow-worm should ever weave cords or bands of a harder texture than his great Creator and Father is pleased to do!
I. And now to return to Gods drawings. I do not believe that there is a man that breathes and walks this earth who has not had them!It sometimes falls to a minister to be able to put this to a test. He visits upon their sick beds those who, in their gay career, might have seemed, of all others, to have been the least likely to be the subjects of those inward experiences, which we call Gods drawings. I believe every minister would bear witness to the fact that he never met a single person, however thoughtless and however dissipated he may have been, who, in those hours of honest speaking and true confession, when a man lies upon his sick and perhaps his dying bed, is not ready to acknowledge that, more times than he could rememberfrom his infancy, and all through, at least, the earlier stages of his wrong courses,he had been conscious of secret impulses and invisible actings upon his soul, which he felt, all the while, however he treated them, to be nothing else but the hand of God. Now, man is a rational creature, and no cords could be rightly framed to draw man unless they were framed to act upon a mans reason; and the Gospel of God does fit into a mans reason. It is true that there are features of our religion which soar far above reason. But then, God never demands of us to believe anything until He has first made it a reasonable thing that we should go into the chamber of faith and believe it.
II. For example, reason draws us, by the strictest process, unto the inspiration of the Bible, and that once established, it becomes actually reasonable to believe all that that Bible contains, however unfathomable and however inexplicable some of it may seem to our little minds! Surely it is reasonable that, in a communication from a God to His creatures, there should be many things which should baffle mans understanding? But let us remember that the Gospel always invites the investigation of the intellect, and always praises most the men who have brought their minds to bear upon it. Those gigantic minds, the most gigantic we have ever known, such as Paul, or Sir Isaac Newton, or Lord Bacon, responding to that call of the intellect, have afterwards declared that they were drawn by that very cord of a man, reason, to the faith which they have embraced. Is not it the purest reason, in any order of the world, that this world should be a world of probation? There must be in it sin and virtue, misery and happiness. Is not it pure reason that a good and righteous God should provide some way whereby the sinner may be saved, and He be justified in His truth while He saves him? The Fathers wisdom and justice go out in marvellous unity, and yet every guilty and unhappy man can be brought again to his Fathers bosom, and live, for ever and ever, in a perfect felicity! I say, shall we not be right in alleging that there is nothing in all philosophy that so addresses itself to, and fits, a mans highest intelligence as the simple Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?
III. But again, man is also characterised by a heart; he has affections.We wanted, then, a motive adequate to the very work which was to be done in man, which was nothing less than the transformation of the whole man. No other motive could do that but love. To awaken love the whole dispensation was planned. God, freely and absolutely, for Christs sake, forgives, and loves, and invites, and blesses, a poor wretched, miserable sinner! This is the first actthe foundation stone of everything. The Spirit comes, and, having first shown that man his miserable need, then makes him delightfulshows him that all his guilt is pardoned, and that heaven is open to him. And, if he really believes that fact, can he help to give himself nowbody, soul, and spiritto seek, and serve, and love that God to Whom he owes everything?
IV. But man is characterised by will, and therefore, in the will, God works mightily.He might have done otherwise. All praise be to His mercy! that, when He might have studied only His own glory, He has made that glory to consist with our happiness; so that it is our own self-interest to know, and love, and obey God. Though there is a great deal of trial in being a Christian; though the cross is sometimes very heavy, it is a sweet thing to be a child of God! It is the most blessed thing that ever entered into the heart of man to think of! There is nothing gives peace like that! There is nothing satisfies a man like that! There is nothing opens to man a future like that!
V. And yet, once more, a very great part of a man is imagination.It is a poor character that has no imagination. What is imagination? The conception of the unseen. Now, see how God works upon the imagination. He sanctifies it, and raises it, and gives it object. He is always presenting the unseen to the man. Unheard words are to be believed; an unseen Saviour is to be trusted; an unseen world is to be sought. And thus, brethren, from hour to hour, ever since you were born, and at this very momentthrough outward calls and inward echoes,by the ten thousand springs of nature in the world, and ten thousand bands of loveGod is drawing that complex heart of yours. He Who made the heart plays over it His own sweet music, and every note He strikes is a cord. Lean yourself to that hand; let Him tune you, and He will bring out such hidden melodies as will enable you to mingle for ever in the anthems of the blest!
Rev. Jas. Vaughan.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Hos 11:4. Cords of a man and bands of love denote the same thing. God was kind and tender with his people and did not use harsh cords with which he might draw a beast along. Take off the yoke is stated with the same significance, meaning that He would relieve his people of the hardships that an enemy would have imposed upon them. He not only lifted the load from their bodies, but offered food for their nourishment.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
11:4 I drew them with cords {c} of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.
(c) That is, friendly, and not as beasts or slaves.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The restraints that the Lord had placed on Israel in its youth were cords of love designed to protect and preserve the people rather than robbing them of freedom. The Lord freed them from oppressive bondage and made special provision to feed them. The image of a loving herdsman taking care of his animal is in view here. Often a cattleman would lift the yolk from an ox’s shoulders so when it bent over to eat it would not slide down over its face and impede its feeding. [Note: Wood, "Hosea," pp. 212-13.]