Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud – There is often a fair show of prosperity, out of God; but it is short-lived. The third generation, says the pagan proverb, never enjoys the ill-gotten gain. The highest prosperity of an ungodly state is often the next to its fall. Israel never so flourished, as under Jeroboam II. Bright and glistening with light is the early dew; in an hour it is gone, as if it had never been. Glowing and gilded by the sun is the morning cloud; while you admire its beauty, its hues have vanished. The chaff lay in one heap on the floor with the wheat. Its owner casts the mingled chaff and wheat against the strong wind; in a moment, it is driven by the wind out of the floor. While every gram falls to the ground, the chaff, light, dry, worthless, unsubstantial, is hurried along, unresisting, the sport of the viewless wind, and itself is soon seen no more. The smoke, one, seemingly solid, full, lofty, column, ascendeth, swelleth, welleth, vanisheth . In form, it is as solid, when about to be dispersed and seen no more, as when it first issued out of the chimney. : It is raised aloft, and by that very uplifting swells into a vast globe; but the larger that globe is, the emptier, for from that unsolid, unbased, inflated greatness it vanisheth in air, so that its very greatness injures it. For the more it is uplifted, extended, diffused on all sides into a larger compass, so much the poorer it becometh, and faileth, and disappeareth. Such was the prosperity of Ephraim, a mere show, to vanish forever. In the image of the chaff, the prophet substitutes the whirlwind for the wind by which the Easterns used to winnow, in order to picture the violence with which they should be whirled away from their own land.

While these four emblems, in common, picture what is fleeting, two, the early dew and the morning cloud, are emblems of what is in itself good, but passing ; the two others, the chaff and the smoke, are emblems of what is worthless. The dew and the cloud were temporary mercies on the part of God which should cease from them, good in themselves, but to their evil, soon to pass away. If the dew have not, in its brief space, refreshed the vegetation, no trace of it is left. It gives way to the burning sun. If grace have not done its work in the soul, its day is gone. Such dew were the many prophets vouchsafed to Israel; such was Hosea himself, most brilliant, but soon to pass away. The chaff was the people itself, to be carried out of the Lords land; the smoke, its pride and its errors, whose disappearance was to leave the air pure for the household of God. : So it is written; As the smoke is driven away, so shalt thou drive them away; as wax melteth before the fire, so shall the ungodly perish before the presence of God Psa 68:2; and in Proverbs; As the whirlwind passeth Pro 10:25, so is the wicked no more; but the righteous is an everlasting foundation. Who although they live and flourish, as to the life of the body; yet spiritually they die, yea, and are brought to nothing, for by sin man became a nothing. Virtue makes man upright and stable; vice, empty and unstable. Whence Isaiah says, the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest Isa 57:20; and Job; If iniquity be in thy hand, put it far away; then shalt thou be steadfast. Job 11:14-15.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Hos 13:3

As the morning cloud . . . early dew . . . as the chaff . . . as the smoke out of the chimney.

The life of the wicked

I. It is deceptive. Like the morning cloud. In Palestine and countries of the same latitude, dense clouds often appear in the morning, cover the heavens, and promise fertilising showers that never come. A life without moral goodness is necessarily deceptive. It deceives itself and deceives others. How many lives seem full of promise! But they result in nothing but disappointment.

II. It is evanescent. The early dew that passeth away. In such latitudes too, the copious dews that sparkle on the hedges and the fields soon evaporate and disappear. The millions that make up this generation are only as dewdrops, sparkling for an hour and then lost and gone.

III. It is worthless. Like chaff stowed away from the threshing-floor. Chaff, empty, dead, destined to rot. How empty the life of an ungodly man!

IV. It is offensive. As the smoke out of the chimney. The ancient houses of Palestine were without chimneys: the smoke filled the houses, and smoke is a nuisance. A corrupt life is evermore offensive to the moral sense of mankind. To what conscience is falsehood, selfishness, carnality, meanness and such elements that make up the character of the wicked at all pleasing? To none. (Homilist.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 3. Therefore they shall be as the morning CLOUD – as the early DEW – as the CHAFF – as the SMOKE] Four things, most easy to be driven about and dissipated, are employed here to show how they should be scattered among the nations, and dissipated by captivity.

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

Therefore; for these sins in multiplied idolatries and trusting to idols.

They, Ephraim, his king, his captains, his fortresses, and aids, shall be, in the day of the Assyrian invasion, suddenly, easily, totally, and finally dispersed, expressed here by four similes, every one very apt and full, clear and easy to be understood.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

3. they shall be as the morningcloud . . . dew (Ho 6:4).As their “goodness” soon vanished like the morning cloudand dew, so they shall perish like them.

the floorthethreshing-floor, generally an open area, on a height, exposed to thewinds.

chimneygenerally inthe East an orifice in the wall, at once admitting the light, andgiving egress to the smoke.

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

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud,…. Which, however promising it is, soon disappears when the sun is risen; signifying that the idolatrous Israelites, king, priests, and people, should be no more; their kingdom would cease, all their riches and wealth would depart from them, and they and their children be carried captive into a strange land:

and as the early dew it passeth away; as soon as the heat of the sun is felt, when the earth is left dry; so these people, though they seemed to be in great prosperity, and to be very fruitful in children, and in substance, and promised themselves much more; yet in a little time their land would become desolate, and they stripped of all that was dear and valuable to them these metaphors are used in Ho 6:4;

as the chaff [that] is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor; signifying that these idolatrous people were like chaff, fight and empty, useless and unprofitable, fit for nothing but burning; and that they would be driven out of their own land through the Assyrian, that should come like a whirlwind with great three and power, as easily and as quickly as chaff is drove out of a threshing floor of corn with a strong blast of wind; see Ps 1:5;

and as the smoke out of the chimney; which rises up in a pillar, and is so on dissipated by the wind, or dissolved into air; and is no sooner seen but it disappears; see Ps 68:2. All these similes show how easily, suddenly, and quickly, the destruction of this idolatrous nation would be brought about.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

They prepare for themselves swift destruction in consequence. Hos 13:3. “Therefore will they be like the morning cloud, and like the dew that passes early away, as chaff blows away from the threshing-floor, and as smoke out of the window.” Lakhen , therefore, viz., because they would not let their irrational idolatry go, they would quickly perish. On the figures of the morning cloud and dew, see at Hos 6:4. The figure of the chaff occurs more frequently (vid., Isa 17:13; Isa 41:15-16; Psa 1:4; Psa 35:5, etc.). ‘ is used relatively: which is stormed away, i.e., blown away from the threshing-floor by a violent wind. The threshing-floors were situated upon eminences (compare my Bibl. Archol. ii. p. 114). “Smoke out of the window,” i.e., smoke from the fire under a saucepan in the room, which passed out of the window-lattice, as the houses were without chimneys (see Psa 68:3).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

The Prophet employs here four similitudes to show the condition of Israel. How much soever they flourished for a time, and might be deemed happy, their state would yet be fading and evanescent. They shall be, he says, as the morning cloud: though they be loftily proud, the Lord will yet shake off from them whatever power they may have. Secondly, they shall be as the dew that rises up in the morning — having nothing substantial in them. Thirdly they shall be as the chaff which from the floor is driven by a whirlwind And, lastly they shall be, he says, as the smoke; for as the smoke produces thick darkness, and, after having gone out of the chimney, disperses and disappears, so these proud people, how much soever they may have praised themselves, would not continue in a permanent condition.

We hence conclude, that the Israelites were not so much like the dead, but that yet they had some power remaining in them: for God would have otherwise threatened to no purpose, that they should be made like a cloud, and the dew, and the chaff, and the smoke: but they had been already in a great measure consumed. And God denounces on them here utter destruction, that they might not think that they had already suffered the last punishment, and that they might not suppose that they could gather new strength: for proud men entertain vain confidence, through which they remove to a distance the judgement of God. Lest, then, they should delude themselves with such allurements, the Prophet here declares that their condition would be fading, such as would soon come to ruin. It follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(3) Early dew . . .Better, dew that early passeth away, like chaff that flies in a whirlwind from the threshing-floor, and like smoke from the window (i.e., the lattice beneath the roof through which it vanished).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘Therefore they will be as the morning cloud,

And as the dew which passes early away,

As the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing-floor,

And as the smoke out of the chimney.’

In consequence of their dismissal of YHWH, YHWH would dismiss them. They would become like the morning mist which simply vanishes as the sun continues to rise, like the dew which arrives early and evaporates into nothingness, like chaff which is blown from the threshing-floor by a whirlwind to disappear for ever, like smoke issuing from a chimney and being wafted away into the sky and vanishing. In other words they would be wafted away into nothingness by YHWH.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

All these figures are strong and expressive, to show the transiency and emptiness of all things in man’s strength, or man’s attainment.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Hos 13:3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff [that] is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

Ver. 3. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud ] They shall vanish and come to nothing: the morning cloud, irradiated by the sun, seems very gay at first, but is soon dispelled by it; the dew lies very lovely upon the grass, and seems to impearl it, but is soon dried up; see Hos 6:4 . The chaff lies hollow and high, but is soon dispersed before a whirlwind; see Psa 35:5 Dan 2:35 Psa 1:5 . The smoke rolls out of the chimney as if it were some solid substance, and would muffle the whole heavens, but is presently scattered evaporat et evanescit, the higher it ascendeth the sooner it vanisheth. See here how that is verified, Hos 12:10 , “I have used similitudes by the ministry of my prophets” (four in a breath we have here), and be hereby advertised. 1. Of man’s weakness; 2. Of God’s power; 3. Of the swiftness of Ephraim’s ensuing misery; 4. The severity of God’s dealing with idolaters; he will leave no sign nor remain of them; he will utterly remove them, as a man takes away dung, till it be gone, 1Ki 14:19 . Sic transit gloria mundi. So passes worldly honour. Life itself is but a shadow, a dream, yea, a dream of a shadow ( ), Psa 144:4 ; profit, an uncertainty, 1Ti 6:17 ; pleasure, a spirt; honour, a blast, pomp, a fancy, Act 25:23 ; the whole world a scheme or notion, that hath nothing in it of any firmness, or solid consistency, 1Co 7:31 . Why then should wicked wordlings brag, and look so big? Why should the saints be affected either with its allurements or affrightments, and not cry out with that heroical Luther, Contemptus est a me Romanus et favor et furor, I care neither for Rome’s favour nor fury, I am neither fond of the one nor afraid of the other, for all is but fumus aut funus, vanity and vexation?

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

dew. Hebrew. tal = the night mist. See note on “Zion”, Psa 133:3.

the = a.

floor = threshingfloor.

chimney = window, or opening. No word for chimney in Hebrew

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

as the morning: Hos 6:4

as the chaff: Psa 1:4, Psa 68:2, Psa 83:12-17, Isa 17:13, Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16, Dan 2:35

Reciprocal: Gen 4:14 – driven Deu 27:15 – maketh Job 21:18 – as stubble Job 30:15 – as a cloud Job 30:22 – liftest me Psa 35:5 – as chaff Isa 9:14 – will cut Isa 9:18 – mount Isa 30:28 – to sift Isa 40:24 – and the Isa 57:13 – but the Jer 4:11 – A Jer 13:24 – as Amo 2:6 – For three Zep 2:2 – as Mat 3:12 – but

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Hos 13:3. A morning cloud and early dew soon disappear, and the comparison is made to the shortness and un-certainty of all false gods and the suc-cess of those who worship them. All of the illustrations in this verse are for the same purpose, and they predict the overthrow of the rule of corruption which the tnen of Israel had maintained i.o the disadvantage of the common. people.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Hos 13:3-5. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, &c. All the comparisons in this verse are intended to express a quick destruction, or that they should soon come to nothing. Yet I am the Lord thy God, &c. Notwithstanding thy recourse to idols, I am the Lord thy God, who delivered thee out of the bondage of Egypt. And thou shalt know That is, thou oughtest to acknowledge; no god but me For thou hast never yet proved, and thou never wilt prove by experience, the power and protection of any other. Those whom thou callest thy gods will be able to do nothing for thee; for there is no saviour besides me No one who can deliver, or preserve thee from evil as I have done. I did know thee in the wilderness, &c. That is, I acknowledged thee as my peculiar people, by my watchful care of thee. I was attentive to thee, protecting thee in all dangers, and supplying all thy wants.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Because they did this the Ephraimites would soon vanish from their land. They would disappear like fog or dew in the morning and like chaff from a threshing floor and smoke from a chimney that the wind blew away. Judgment would come swiftly and surely.

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