Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 2:12

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These [are] my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

12. her vines and her fig trees ] The Hebrew has ‘her vine and her fig-tree’. It would seem as if here, as in Joe 1:7, Israel personified were represented with a vine and a fig-tree, like any individual Israelite (1Ki 4:25). But A. V. gives the right sense.

my rewards ] The ‘hire’ or ‘reward’ of a prostitute is meant (comp. Hos 9:1, and see on Hos 2:5).

a forest ] A frequent feature in descriptions of desolation (comp. Isa 5:6; Isa 7:23; Isa 32:13; Mic 3:12). ‘A forest’ however is misleading; the word ( ya‘ar) often means low, tangled brushwood (e.g. Son 2:3; Isa 21:13; 1Sa 14:25-26). The idea in the prophet’s mind is inaccessibility, not stateliness (like that of forest-trees).

the beasts of the field ] ‘Field’ = open country. The enemies of Israel are compared to wild beasts in Isa 56:9; Eze 34:25.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees – Before, God had threatened to take away the fruits in their seasons; now He says, that he will take away all hope for the future; not the fruit only, but the trees which bare it. The vine is a symbol of joy, the fig of sweetness (see Jdg 9:11, Jdg 9:13). It was the plague, which God in former times laid upon those, out of the midst of whom He took them to be His people (Psa 105:33; see Jer 5:17). He smote their vines also and their fig trees, and brake the trees of their coasts. Now that they had become like the pagan, He dealt with them as with the pagan.

Of which she said, these are my rewards – Literally my hire. It is the special word, used of the payment to the adulteress, or degraded woman, and so continues the likeness, by which he had set forth the foulness of her desertion of God.

And I will make them a forest – The vines and fig-trees which had aforetime been their wealth, and full of beauty, should, when neglected, run wild, and become the harbor of the wild beasts Which should prey upon them. So to the wicked God causes, that the things which should have been for their wealth should be an occasion of falling Psa 69:22. They contain in themselves the sources of their own decay.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Hos 2:12-13

She decked herself with her ornaments and her Jewels.

The prosperity of the wicked

The wicked–

I. As prospering in the world. Vines and fig-trees stand for prosperity. Wicked men are allowed to prosper on this earth: they are often more successful in worldly enterprises than the righteous. They live for the world and to the world, and they have their reward.

II. As ascribing their prosperity to wrong causes. Israel ascribes to its idols or lovers. The wicked ascribe to fortune, chance, their own industry, their own scheming. The true source is God.

III. Devoting their prosperity to wrong objects. Israel is here accused of burning incense to Baalim, these Deii minores. Wicked men devote their wealth to their own selfish and superstitious ends.

IV. As deprived of their prosperity by the great God. The threatening here is, that God will not only destroy all their prosperity, but punish them for their idolatry. The tinsel glare upon a sinner is too apt to offend the weak eyes of a saint. (Homilist.)

And forgat Me, saith the Lord.

Forgetting God

Such is the character of all engrossing passion, such is the course of sin, to which the soul gives way, in avarice, ambition, worldliness, sensual sin, godless science. The soul, at last, does not rebel against God, it forgets Him; it is taken up with other things, with itself, with the subjects of its thoughts, the objects of its affections, and it has no time for God. So God complains of Judah by Jeremiah, Their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 12. These are my rewards] They attributed all the blessings of Providence as rewards received from the idols which they worshipped.

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

God will do it either by blasting, or by the Assyrians, who, as other invaders, shall spoil all.

Destroy; make very desolate, or lay waste.

Her vines and her fig trees: these two were mentioned, but all other fruit trees are meant.

Whereof she hath said, These are my rewards: this was in peculiar manner the sin for which Israel was punished thus, they gave the praise of the fruitfulness of these trees, and the abundance of them, to idols, robbed God of the praise due for them, therefore God will take them away.

That my lovers have given me: their false gods are here made the givers of all outward blessings to Israel: see Hos 2:5.

I will make them; their vineyards and oliveyards, and places where they planted and fenced in their fig trees, and other fruitful trees.

A forest; wild and uncultivated, the hedges and fences shall be thrown up, and all run into the wildness of a forest, as it came to pass in the Assyrian invasion.

The beasts of the field; savage men, such as the Assyrians were; or rather in the letter, the beasts of the field should break down their branches, and devour them, and pull off the fruit, as foxes pull the grapes, or wild boars of the wood root up and eat the tender and sappy branches and springles.

Shall eat them; the trees and their fruits.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

12. my rewardsmy hire as aharlot (Isa 23:17; Isa 23:18).

loversidols.

destroy . . . vines . . .make . . . forest (Isa 5:6;Isa 7:23; Isa 7:24).Fulfilled in the overthrow of Israel by Assyria (Hos 9:4;Hos 9:5).

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

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,…. Which are mentioned for the rest, being the most fruitful and beneficial: this was done when Judea was invaded, overrun and wasted, by the Roman army; and when many were cut down, as Josephus observes, to build forts, and cast up mounts against Jerusalem; so that, he, says l, the appearance of the earth was miserable, for what before was adorned with trees and gardens, looked now like a wilderness:

whereof she hath said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me; alluding to the hire of harlots, given them by their gallants; these she ascribed, as she did before her bread, water, wool, flax; and oil, Ho 2:5, not to God, the author and giver of them, but to the people her lovers, as the Targum; or to her idols, or to her beloved tenets, and doing according to them; and which is here mentioned as a reason of the divine resentment, and why he destroyed these fruitful trees:

and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them; make the vines and fig trees like forest trees, barren and unfruitful; the fruitful land of Judea should be turned into a forest, or become like a desert or wilderness, and all the fruits of it should be eaten up by wild beasts; by their enemies, compared to the beasts of the field, particularly the Romans, the fourth beast; see Isa 56:9.

l De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 1. sect. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Lord will put an end to the festive rejoicing, by taking away the fruits of the land, which rejoice man’s heart. Hos 2:12. “And I lay waste her vine and her fig-tree, of which she said, They are lovers’ wages to me, which my lovers gave me; and I make them a forest, and the beasts of the field devour them.” Vine and fig-tree, the choicest productions of the land of Canaan, are mentioned as the representatives of the rich means of sustenance with which the Lord had blessed His people (cf. 1Ki 5:5; Joe 2:22, etc.). The devastation of both of these denotes the withdrawal of the possessions and enjoyments of life (cf. Jer 5:17; Joe 1:7, Joe 1:12), because Israel regarded them as a present from its idols. , softened down from (Hos 9:1), like , in Job 41:18, from (1Ki 22:34; cf. Ewald, 163, h), signifies the wages of prostitution (Deu 23:19). The derivation is disputed and uncertain, since the verb cannot be shown to have been used either in Hebrew or the other Semitic dialects in the sense of dedit , dona porrexit (Ges.), and the word cannot be traced to , to extend; whilst, on the other hand, the , (Hos 8:9-10) is most probably a denominative of . Consequently, Hengstenberg supposes it to be a bad word formed out of the question put by the prostitute, , and the answer given by the man, (Gen 38:16, Gen 38:18), and used in the language of the brothel in connection with an evil deed. The vineyards and fig-orchards, so carefully hedged about and cultivated, are to be turned into a forest, i.e., to be deprived of their hedges and cultivation, so that the wild beasts may be able to devour them. The suffixes attached to and refer to (the vine and fig-tree), and not merely to the fruit. Comp. Isa 7:23. and Mic 3:12, where a similar figure is used to denote the complete devastation of the land.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

I now come to the second kind of nakedness: the Prophet says, I will waste or destroy her vine and her fig-tree, of which she has said, Reward are these to me; that is, These things are wages to me, which my lovers have given to me: and I will make them a forest, and feed on them shall the beast of the field. The second part of the spoiling, as we have said, is, that the Israelites would be reduced to miserable want, who, before, had not only great abundance of good things, but also luxury, as we shall hereafter see more fully in other passages. As then they were swollen with pride on account of their prosperity, the Prophet now announces their future nakedness, I will take away, he says, the vine and the fig-tree. It is a mode of speaking by which a part is to be taken for the whole; for under the vine and the fig-tree the Prophet intended to comprehend every variety of temporal blessings. Whatever then belongs to man’s support, the Prophet here includes in these two words: and he repeats what he had said before, that the Israelites falsely thought, that it was a reward paid them for their superstitions, while they worshipped false gods.

She said, These are my reward. The word is derived from the verb תנה tene: some have rendered it gift, but not rightly. I indeed allow that נתנו “natnu”, which means to give, follows shortly after; from which some derive this word. But we know that in many parts of Scripture אתנה, atne, is strictly taken for reward; and is sometimes applied to hired soldiers: but the Prophets often use this word when they speak of harlots. Hence the Prophet here introduces the people of Israel under the character of a harlot; These are my reward, or, These things are my reward, which to me have my lovers given.

Since then the Israelites had so hardened themselves in their superstitions, that this false persuasion could not be driven out of them, until they were deprived of all their blessings, he announces to them this punishment, — that God would take away whatever they thought had come to them from their idols or false gods: I will turn, he says, all these into a forest, that is, “I will reduce to a waste, both the vineyards and all the well cultivated parts; so that they will produce nothing, as is usually the case with desert places.” We now understand the whole meaning of the Prophet. Let us proceed —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL NOTES.

Hos. 2:12. Vines and fig-trees] Esteemed rewards, wages of prostitution (Deu. 23:19; Isa. 23:17); the choicest produce of earth, denoting sustenance and prosperity, would be destroyed by Assyria (ch. Hos. 9:4-5).

PROSPERITY TURNED INTO ADVERSITY.Hos. 2:12-13

Festive rejoicing was to end. Israel loved new moons and sabbath days not for the sake of religious worship, but for sinful pleasures and delight. The vine and fig-tree, the choicest productions of the land, and the source of great wealth and sustenance, were to be taken away. Orchards, gardens, and vineyards were to be neglected, deprived of defences, and exposed to wild beasts.

I. Prosperity in rich abundance. God is the Giver. There is no moment in all history, in all departments of life, in which he is not giving with a liberal and powerful hand. He is the author of abundance everywhereabundant light, abundant rain, and abundant joys. Israel had a land flowing with milk and honey. The necessities and luxuries of life are given to men in abundance. Giving doth not impoverish him, nor withholding make him rich. But even to those who abuse his gifts, to the wicked and unthankful, God bestows prosperity. The ungodly prosper on earth. They are successful in business. Their bread seems to be gained without care, and their wines without stint. They are often in great power, ruling with the might of Csar and the wealth of Crsus. Spreading themselves like a green bay tree, they are rooted in the world, add house to house, and field to field, rise higher and higher in splendour and pride. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. They escape many anxious cares and killing toil. Gods people smart under the rod while the wicked escape. But to the eye of faith and in the sanctuary of God these perplexities are unriddled. Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious at the prosperity of the wicked.

II. Prosperity greatly abused.

1. Ascribed to wrong sources. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven; but he looks to sinful and secondary causes, and boasts as if he had received nothing. Israel thought all their prosperity was bestowed by their idols. These are my rewards that my lovers have given me. Men look to their neighbours, or thank their stars, for their good fortune. They attribute success in business to their diligence and talent; believe themselves to be the architects of their own fortunes; and cry in the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar, Is not this great Babylon that I have built, &c.

2. Leading to sinful practices. Wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels. Like harlots, the Israelites adorned themselves to attract admirers; and like heathens, they burned incense to idol gods. One sin leads to another. Prosperity begets pride, and pride begets ingratitude. Then when God is deserted, his power, goodness, and love are attributed to another; sacrifices are offered and incense burned to unworthy deities. Ancient and modern idolatry have filled the world with corrupt practices and tendencies. Impurity, unchastity of every description, is most deteriorating. In dishonouring God, men have dishonoured their own bodies (Rom. 1:24). Moral corruption is followed by physical debasement. The grossness of Pagan idolatry is only equalled by the degrading immoralities which it fostered and consecrated. Gluttony, drunkenness, and every sin without the body, only injures, does not alienate the body from God: but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body, commits sacrilege, and makes it like a harlots body (1Co. 6:18-19).

III. Prosperity visited by Divine judgment. I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees. What God gives he can easily take awayturn our joy into mourningour prosperity into adversity.

1. Temporal judgment. Before, God had threatened only to take away the fruits in their season; now he will take away not only fruit, but the trees that bare it. Present enjoyments and future prospects can be cut off; beauty, wealth, and honour wither like a flower; famine and sword can turn our vineyards into a desert. He smote their vines also and their fig-trees; and brake the trees of their coast.

2. Spiritual judgment. I will visit upon her the days of Baalim. Take one step to idolatry, we may be given up to more. God may seem to wink for a time, but a continual course of impenitence will be visited with severe punishment. Change Jehovah for Baal, you change prosperity for adversity, honour for shame, real enjoyment for sensual pleasure. Gods presence is seen and Gods voice is heard in all the vicissitudes of men. Woe to men when their table becomes a snare, and that which should have been for their welfare a trap, a retribution for their departure from God, and their inhumanity to themselves (Psa. 69:22).

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(12) Destroy.For this read, with margin, make desolate. The vine and fig tree are employed as the symbol of possession and peace (1Ki. 4:25; Isa. 36:16, &c.). The desolation may be by fire or drought.

Make them a forest.The LXX. render make them a testimony, reading in the Hebrew text led instead of lyaar. The latter certainly yields a more vivid sense. The rest of the verse in the LXX. is amplified: And the wild beasts of the field, and the birds of the heaven, and the creeping things of the earth shall devour them. While no candid critic will deny the possibility that such words may have originally stood in the text, it is priori more probable that it is a gloss from Hos. 2:18 (Hos. 2:20 in LXX.). Even so late as in Hadrians days wild beasts rushed in upon the blood-stained ruins of Jerusalem.

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

“And I will lay waste her vines and her fig-trees, of which she has said, “These are my hire which my lovers have given me,” and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will eat them.”

The vines and fig-trees, concerning which she had boasted that their fruitfulness was given to her by Baal in consequence of her worship, would become a wild, untamed forest, and the wild fruit that they produced would be eaten by the beasts of the field (the wild animals roaming the empty countryside).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Hos 2:12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These [are] my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

Ver. 12. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees ] Not her wine and her figs only, i.e. her delicious drinks and deserts (even all her plenty), sed vineta ipsa et ficeta, as Rivet observeth: which shows a great deal of anger (for fruit trees were not to be destroyed in an enemies’ country), like as he discovered a great deal of fear of the Spanish Inquisitors, that brought one of them his pears (which he had sent for), tree, and all by the roots. It is wisdom to meet God by repentance, lest he stub up root and branch together, lest he “overturn, overturn, overturn, so as it shall be no more,” Eze 21:27 ; lest he cry, “Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?” since it is not for fruit, let it be for the fire, Luk 13:7 .

Whereof she hath said, These are my rewards ] The wages of my wickedness, the hire of my harlotry, Deu 23:18 Eze 16:34 , pretium meritorium. Adultery is costly. Whores must have their rewards, they lie in wait for a prey, Pro 23:21 , and will soon bring a rich man to beggary, Pro 6:26 . Solomon himself was so exhausted by such she sinners (so they call them, Cruces et crumenimulgas, suck purses the poet calleth them) that he was forced to oppress his subjects to supply his coffers: which occasioned the loss of ten tribes. Harlots know no other language but that of the horse leech, Give, give; and may fitly be compared to the ravens of Arabia, that fully gorged, have a tunable sweet voice; but empty, they screech horribly.

“ Corpus, opes, animum, famam, vim, lumina, scortum,

Debilitat, perdit, necat, aufert, eripit, orbat. ”

Idolatry also is no less costly: witness this harlot’s habit, Hos 2:13 , and the purple whore of Rome, with all her trinkets, and those masses of money that she drains out of many parts of Christendom for the support of her state. Otto (one of her mice catchers, muscipulata res, as the story calleth him), sent hither into England by Gregory IX, after three years’ raking together of money for pardons, and other palterments, at last departing, he left not so much money in the whole kingdom, as he either carried with him or sent to Rome before him. What will not men part with to purchase heaven? Now they persuaded the poor people (and still they do) that good works (and what so good as to gratify the pope with great sums?) were mercatura regni coelestis, the price to be given for heaven (Bellarm.). Idolaters are all merit mongers: they will have heaven as a purchase; they lay claim to it, as wages for their work. They say, with that wretched monk, Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes, Give me eternal life which thou owest me, “Give me the portion that belongeth to me,” Luk 15:12 . God forbid, saith another Papist, that we should enjoy heaven as of mere alms to us. On the other side, the godly disclaim their own merits, beg hard for mercy, expect a recompense of reward from him, but all of free grace; accounting all that they can do for God but a little of that much that is due to him, and that they could well beteem him: they do all righteousness, but rest in none: they know that God’s kingdom is partum et non paratum; that their reward is the reward of inheritance, and not of acquisition; and that if they could do anything this way, yet would it be mercy in God to “reward every one according to his work,” Psa 62:12 .

And I will make them a forest ] See this more fully set forth Isa 5:5-6 . Such is the hatred God beareth to sin that he makes bloody weals, as it were, upon the backs of the insensible creatures for man’s sake. “A fruitful land turneth he into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein,” Psa 107:34 . Thus he dealt by Sodom, which was once as Egypt, yea, as Eden, but is now a place of nettles and salt pits; by Judea, that once lumen totius orbis, the light of the whole world, now laid desolate; as Babylon, where Strabo saith their barley yielded three hundred fold increase, and their palm tree three hundred and sixty several sorts of commodities, as bread, honey, wine, vinegar, &c.; but what devastation befell it by the Medes, see Isa 13:19 , &c. It were easy to instance in the seven Churches of Asia, the Palatinate and other parts of Germany, in Ireland, and now Scotland: and what may England look for? Shall we altogether pass unpunished? Shall we still sit safely under our vines and fig trees, and not be forested, and by those wild beasts of the field devoured? Sure it is, that no beast of the field doth show itself more raging or ravenous than do the wicked, when God suffers, or rather sends, them to break into his vineyard. Witness those breathing devils, the Irish rebels, more cruel than any cannibals. Cursed be their wrath; for it was cruel, transcendently so, extending itself both to the living and the dead. Ursi non saeviunt in cadavera: but these bears, Psa 58:4 , boars, Psa 80:13 , lions, leopards, did rage against dead carcases, and tore them with their teeth. Histories tell us that the first founders of Rome were nourished by a wolf: certain it is that the offspring of that people have the hearts of wolves, being savage and cruel above measure. Their city was first founded in blood, and so was the papacy: for the foundation of that see was laid when Phocas slew his liege lord and emperor, Mauritius, whom he stewed in his own blood. Whence the poet wittily;

“ Suffocas, Phoca, imperium; stabilisque Papatum. ”

The habit of that harlot is, according to her heart, purple and scarlet; and her diet is the diet of the cannibals. “I saw her drunken with the blood of the saints,” Rev 17:6 . They are wholly bloody, both in their positions and dispositions, their plots and practices. The pope is said to be a leopard, or panther, with his feet like a bear, and his head like a lion, Rev 13:2 . See Trapp on “ Rev 13:2 “ And of their St Dominic (the father of the Dominicans) it is reported, that when his mother was with child of him she dreamed that she brought forth a wolf, with a firebrand in his mouth: and he proved, accordingly, a brutish man, skilful to destroy, to devour the man more righteous than himself, by his bloody inquisitors, Eze 21:31 Hab 1:2-3 . I pray that God would deliver his turtle from these savage creatures; that he would cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, Eze 34:25 , that the beasts of the land may no more devour them, Eze 34:28 .

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

destroy = lay waste. Compare Psa 105:33.

whereof. In Hos 2:5.

rewards = my hire, or fee. A technical term. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 23:18). App-92.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

destroy: Heb. make desolate

These: Hos 2:5, Hos 9:1

I will: Psa 80:12, Isa 5:5, Isa 7:23, Isa 29:17, Isa 32:13-15, Jer 26:18, Mic 3:12

Reciprocal: Isa 32:10 – for Eze 16:33 – give Hos 2:15 – I will Hos 9:2 – floor Joe 1:7 – laid Mic 1:7 – the hires

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Hos 2:12. This destruction was to be literal and to be accomplished by the very people with whom Israel had committed spiritual adultery. The land of Palestine was to be left deserted, untilled and unkept, and the beasts were to be allowed to overrun the whole country.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Hos 2:12-13. And I will destroy her vines Those blessings, or fruits of the earth, which she has attributed to her false gods, I will give to the beasts of the field to eat, making the whole land only a wilderness for beasts. Among other objects of their false worship, the Israelites worshipped the celestial luminaries, and, it is likely, attributed the fruits of the earth to them, as self-sufficient, or producing them by their own power, and not as mere instruments in the hands of Jehovah. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim I will punish her for all the idolatries she has committed from the days of Jeroboam, who first set up the worship of false gods: see chap. Hos 13:1. The chief god of every country was called by the name of Baal, which means lord: so Baal-peor was the god of the Moabites, Baal-zebub was the god of Ekron, (2Ki 1:2,) Baal-berith the god of the Phenicians, Jdg 8:33. These several deities are in the plural number called Baalim, lords; for they had lords many, 1Co 8:5. And she decked herself with her ear-rings She put on the richest ornaments on their idolatrous festivals.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Lord would also destroy the vines and fig trees, the sources of Israel’s finest products. Israel regarded these trees as pay from her lovers, but Yahweh would turn these groves of fruit trees into wild forests, and wild beasts would destroy the trees and their fruit. This suggests that there would no longer be Israelites in the land to care for these crops (cf. Isa 5:5-6; Isa 7:23-25; Isa 17:9; Isa 32:9-14; Mic 3:12).

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