Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 4:1
Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because [there is] no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
1. ye children of Israel ] The northern kingdom only is addressed (see Hos 4:15, where the prophet turns aside to Judah).
the Lord hath a controversy ] Jehovah is both plaintiff and judge; comp. Hos 12:2; Isaiah 1.
no truth, nor mercy ] Or, ‘no truthfulness and no kindness.’ The Hebrew khesedh includes in its wide range of meaning [55] (1) the love of God to man, as Psa 5:7, (2) the love of man to God, as Hos 6:4, and (3) brotherly love, or the love of a man to his neighbour, as often. Here the context favours the last of these applications. St Jerome well describes the connexion between the two qualities, ‘nec veritas absque misericordi sustineri potest, et misericordia absque veritate facit negligentes, unde alterum miscendum est alteri’. In short, truth without love leads to hardness, love without truth to weakness.
[55] On the Hebrew words for love, comp. Carl Abel, Ueber den Begriff der Liebe in einigen alten und neuen Sprachen, Berlin, 1872, pp. 63.
nor knowledge of God ] This might well have been mentioned first. Moral practice is low, because the heart has no experience of God’s personal dealings with it (see on Hos 2:20).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 3. The people are summoned to hear whereof Jehovah accuses them, viz. the universal prevalence of the most crying sins. The prophet assures them that this is the true cause of the physical calamity which is becoming more and more general in its range.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel – The prophet begins here, in a series of pictures as it were, to exhibit the people of Israel to themselves, that they might know that God did not do without cause all this which He denounced against them. Here, at the outset, He summons, the whole people, their prophets and priests, before the judgment seat of God, where God would condescend, Himself to implead them, and hear, if they had ought in their defense. The title children of Israel is, in itself, an appeal to their gratitude and their conscience, as the title Christian among us is an appeal to us, by Him whose name we bear. Our Lord says, If ye were Abrahams children, ye would do the works of Abraham Joh 8:39; and Paul, let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity 2Ti 2:19.
For the Lord hath a controversy – God wills, in all His dealings with us His creatures, to prove even to our own consciences, the righteousness of His judgments, so as to leave us without excuse. Now, through His servants, He shows people their unrighteousness and His justice; hereafter our Lord, the righteous Judge, will show it through the book of peoples own consciences.
With the inhabitants of the land – God had given the land to the children of Israel, on account of the wickedness of these whom He drave out before them. He gave it to them that they might observe His statutes and keep His laws (Ps. 105 ult.). He had promised that His Eyes should always be upon it from the beginning of the year unto the end of the year Deu 11:12. This land, the scene of those former judgments, given to them on those conditions (see Deu 4:1, Deu 4:40; Deu 6:21-25, etc.), the land which God had given to them as their God, they had filled with iniquity.
Because there is no truth, nor mercy – Truth and mercy are often spoken of, as to Almighty God. Truth takes in all which is right, and to which God has bound Himself; mercy, all beyond, which God does out of His boundless love. When God says of Israel, there is no truth nor mercy, He says that there is absolutely none of those two great qualities, under which He comprises all His own Goodness. There is no truth, none whatever, no regard for known truth; no conscience, no sincerity, no uprightness; no truth of words; no truth of promises; no truth in witnessing; no making good in deeds what they said in words.
Nor mercy – The word has a wide meaning; it includes all love of one to another, a love issuing in acts. It includes loving-kindness, piety to parents, natural affection, forgiveness, tenderness, beneficence, mercy, goodness. The prophet, in declaring the absence of this grace, declares the absence of all included under it. Whatever could be comprised under love, whatever feelings are influenced by love, of that there was nothing.
Nor knowledge of God – The union of right knowledge and wrong practice is hideous in itself; and it must be especially offensive to Almighty God, that His creatures should know whom they offend, how they offend Him, and yet, amid and against their knowledge, choose that which displeases Him. And, on that ground, perhaps, He has so created us, that when our acts are wrong, our knowledge becomes darkened Rom 1:21. The knowledge of God is not merely to know some things of God, as that He is the Creator and Preserver of the world and of ourselves. To know things of God is not to know God Himself. We cannot know God in any respect, unless we are so far made like unto Him. Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love 1Jo 2:3-4; 1Jo 4:7-8.
Knowledge of God being the gift of the Holy Spirit, he who hath not grace, cannot have that knowledge. A certain degree of speculative knowledge of God, a bad man may have, as Balaam had by inspiration, and the Pagan who, when they knew God, glorified Him not as God. But even this knowledge is not retained without love. Those who held the truth in unrighteousness ended (Paul says Rom 1:21, Rom 1:18, Rom 1:28) by corrupting it. They did not like to retain God in their knowledge, and so God gave them over to a reprobate, or undistinguishing mind, that they could not. Certainly, the speculative and practical knowledge are bound up together, through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of Him, or its acts toward Him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, as misbelief corrupts practice. The prophet then probably denies that there was any true knowledge of God, of any sort, whether of life or faith or understanding or love. Ignorance of God, then, is a great evil, a source of all other evils.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 4:1
Hear the Word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
A corrupt people and an expostulating God
In the previous chapters the prophets language had been highly and somewhat perplexingly symbolical. In this chapter he begins to speak more plainly and in sententious utterances.
I. A corrupt people. The depravity of Israel is represented–
1. Negatively. There is no truth, etc. These are the great fontal virtues in the universe; and where they are not, there is a moral abjectness of the most terrible description. A people without reality, their very life a lie. No acts of beneficence performed, and the very spirit of kindliness extinct. The greatest, the holiest Being in the universe utterly ignored.
2. Positively. The absence of these great virtues gives rise to tremendous crimes.
(1) Profanity. Reverence is gone.
(2) Falsehood.
(3) Killing.
(4) Dishonesty.
(5) Incontinence.
(6) Murder.
II. An expostulating God. The Lord hath controversy. Of all controversies this is the most awful.
1. It is a just controversy. Has not the great Ruler of the universe a right to contend against such evils?
2. It is a continuous controversy.
3. It is an unequal controversy. What are all human intellects to His? Sparks to the sun. The sinner has no argument to put before Him. He cannot deny his sins. He cannot plead accidents. He cannot plead compulsion. He cannot plead some merit as a set-off, for he has none. This controversy is still going on. It is held in the court of conscience, and you must know of its existence and character. (Homilist.)
Jehovahs controversy with Israel
In this chapter Israel is cited to appear at Gods tribunal. There the Lord makes the following accusations–
1. Gross violation of both Tables of the Law, both by omission and by commission. God threatens, because of this, to send extreme desolation.
2. Desperate incorrigibleness. He threatens to destroy such, and the false prophets, and the body of the people and Church.
3. God accuseth the priests in Israel, that, through their fault, the people were kept in ignorance. He threatens to cast them and their posterity off. He further accuses the priests of ingratitude towards Elm, for which He threatens to turn their glory into ignominy. And tie even accuses them of sensuality and covetousness, rendering them unfaithful to their calling.
4. He accuses the whole people of gross idolatry, and threatens not to restrain their sin by corrections.
5. He accuses them of the idolatry of the calves, from which He dissuades Judah, as being an evidence of Israels wantonness, and the cause of their ensuing exile.
6. He accuses Ephraim, the kingly tribe, of their incorrigibleness in idolatry, their intemperance, filthiness, and corruption of justice through covetousness. For this He threatens sudden and violent destruction and captivity, where they should be ashamed of their corrupt worship. (George Hutcheson.)
The Divine suit with Israel
I. The suit commenced.
1. The knowledge that any truth is the Word of the Lord is a special means to prepare the heart to receive it with reverence and all due respect, even though it be hard and grievous to flesh and blood.
2. The nearness of a people to God does not exempt them from Gods contending with them for sin.
3. The nearer the relationship the more grievous the controversy.
II. The pleading of God. A suit first is entered against a man; when the court day comes, there is calling for a declaration.
1. God contends not with a people without a cause.
2. God contends not against a people for little things. These are not little things No truth, no mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
3. It is in vain for any man to talk of his religion, if he make no conscience of the second table as well as the first.
III. Judgment pronounced (Hos 4:3, etc.). Therefore shall the land mourn.
1. All the glory and pomp of the men of the world is but as a flower.
2. Times of affliction take down the jollity and bravery of mens spirits, and make them fade, wither, and pine away.
3. The good or evil of the creature depends on man.
4. God, when in a way of wrath, can cause His wrath to reach to those things that seem to be most remote.
5. No creature can help man in the time of Gods wrath, for every creature suffers as well as man.
IV. Exhortation to Judah to beware that she come not into the same condition (Hos 4:15). The prophet Hosea was sent especially to Israel, to the Ten Tribes, but here we see he turns his speech to Judah.
1. Ministers should especially look to those whom they are bound unto by office, but yet so as to labour to benefit others when occasion offers.
2. When we see our labour lost on those we most desire to benefit, we should try what we can do with others. There were many arguments why Judah should not do as Israel did.
V. Execution, God in his wrath giving up Ephraim to himself (verse 17).
1. Ephraim engaging himself in false worship is now so inwrapped in that sin and guilt that he cannot tell how to extricate himself.
2. The Lord has given him up to his idols.
(1) It is a heavy judgment upon a people when the saints withdraw from them.
(2) The Lord here virtually says to Hosea, You can do no good to them, it is in vain for you to meddle with Ephraim. God has a time to give men over to themselves, to say that His Spirit shall no longer strive with them. It is the most woeful judgment of God upon any people, or person, when He saith in His wrath, Let him alone. It is a testimony of very great disregard in God for His creatures. Those thus let alone are going apace to misery. God intends by this to make way for some fearful wrath that is to come upon them. It is a dreadful sign of reprobation. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
The Lords controversy
The court is set, and both attendance and attention are demanded. Whom may God expect to give Him a fair hearing, and take from Him a fair warning, but the children of Israel, His own professing people? Sin is the great mischief-maker; it sows discord between God and Israel. God sees sin in His own people, and a good action He has against them for it. He has a controversy with them for breaking covenant with Him, for bringing a reproach upon Him, and for an ungrateful return to Him for His favours. Gods controversies will be pleaded, pleaded by the judgments of His mouth before they are pleaded by the judgments of His hand, that He may be justified in all He does, and may make it appear that He desires not the death of sinners; and Gods pleadings ought to be attended to, for, sooner or later, they shall have a hearing. (Matthew Henry.)
There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Things that go with the knowledge of God
Truth and mercy are often spoken of as to Almighty God. Truth takes in all which is right, and to which God has bound Himself; mercy all beyond which God does out of His boundless love. When God says of Israel there is no truth nor mercy, He says that there is absolutely none of those two great qualities under which He comprises all His own goodness. There is no truth, none whatever, no regard for known truth; no conscience, no sincerity, no uprightness; no truth of words; no truth of promises; no truth in witnessing; no making good in deeds what they said in words. Nor mercy. This word has a wide meaning; it includes all love to one another, a love issuing in acts. It includes lovingkindness, piety to parents, natural affection, forgiveness, tenderness, beneficence, mercy, goodness. The prophet, in declaring the absence of this grace, declares the absence of all included under it. Whatever could be comprised under love, whatever feelings are influenced by love, of that there was nothing. Nor knowledge of God. The union of right knowledge and wrong practice is hideous in itself; and it must be especially offensive to Almighty God that His creatures should know whom they offend, how they offend Him, and yet, amid and against their knowledge, choose that which displeases Him. And on that ground, perhaps, He has so created us, that when our acts are wrong, our knowledge becomes darkened. The knowledge of God is not merely to know some things of God, as that He is the Creator and Preserver of the world and of ourselves. To know things of God is not to know God Himself. We cannot know God in any respect unless we are so far made like unto Him. Knowledge of God being tim gift of the Holy Ghost, he who hath not grace, cannot have that knowledge. A certain degree of speculative knowledge of God a bad man may have. But even this knowledge is not retained without love. Those who held the truth in unrighteousness ended (St. Paul says) by corrupting it. Certainly, the speculative and practical, knowledge are bound up together through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of Him, or its acts towards Him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, as misbelief corrupts practice. The prophet then probably denies that there was any true knowledge of God, of any sort, whether of life or faith, or understanding or love. Ignorance of God, then, is a great evil, a source of all other sins. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
A national duty
No one can fail to acknowledge in this terrible picture a representation of every people which habitually breaks the laws of God; and who, having set themselves free from the restraints of religion, or, through ignorance, being unconscious of their obligation, are delivered up to the working of their own hearts lusts, and to follow their own imaginations. This consummation of depravity is even found in the chosen people of God. There was no truth where the great Source of all truth had announced the laws of moral perfection: there was no mercy where the prodigies of Divine compassion had been manifested from one generation to another: there was no knowledge of God where alone God could be known, and in the only place in which the principles of His government, and the attributes of His person, had been revealed to man. What rendered the case of Israel desperate, and remedy impossible, was this, that those who had been set apart as the depositaries of Divine knowledge, and who, by their life and doctrine, had been intended by the Almighty to act constantly, as a conservative power, against the corruptions of the mass, had yielded themselves to the popular torrent, and turned rank and station, the dignity of a holy vocation, and the talents of knowledge and intellect to the promotion of those vices which God had given them a solemn commission to withstand. They were weary of resisting the tendencies of the age and the godless spirit which found too complete an echo in their own hearts. So the princes and priests of Israel deserted their post, sealed up the records of Gods Word, and by ceasing to inculcate the awful sanctions of His law, and concealing from the people those oracles in which alone knowledge and wisdom are to be found, filled up to the brim the measure of their iniquity. That measure was filled up because they who had knowledge and had the guardianship of Gods heritage had turned traitors and withheld the Bread of Life from the famishing people. To whatever privileges a people may have been elected, no outward marks of distinction, apart from a corresponding holiness, will avail in the sight of Him who is no respecter of persons, and who trieth the very reins and hearts. The history of Israel is nothing but the annals of those judgments with which tie has visited their abuse of mercies, and their never-ending neglect or perversion of that most awful of all deposits, spiritual knowledge. If men in all times have been made accountable to God for the fate of their fellowcreatures, and most assuredly they have, it behoves us to look well to our own case, and beware how we involve ourselves in the participation of such guilt. Let us not deceive ourselves by supposing that the sins and the sanctions, the moral actions and the moral dealings of the eider covenant are inapplicable to ourselves. Considerable differences there may be, but they are all against us, and an increase of our responsibility. It is known to few of us how vast are the masses of ignorance and vice which undermine the surface of this favoured land. (J. Garbett.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IV
The prophet charges his people with their enormous sins, 1, 2;
in consequence of which they are threatened with heavy
judgments, 3-5.
God himself is then introduced complaining of the ignorance and
obstinacy of Israel; and as their priests had a large share in
the common guilt, it is declared that they shall be visited
with a proportionable share of the common ruin, 6-11.
The sins of idolatry and divination are then particularly
reproved, 12-14;
and Judah admonished to beware of these sins, which would leave
her rebellious sister Israel helpless and desolate as a lamb in
a desert, 15, 16.
In the remaining verses the style is varied, but the subject is
the same. Ephraim is given up to idolatry, and the necessary
consequence declared to be a bitter draught! Immediately we see
him bound in the wings of a mighty tempest, and driven as chaff
before the wind, either to destruction or captivity, 17-19.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Verse 1. The Lord hath a controversy] rib, what we should call a lawsuit, in which God is plaintiff, and the Israelites defendants. It is Jehovah versus Israel and Judah.
But when has God a controversy with any land? – Answer. When there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. These refer to the minds of the people. But wherever these righteous principles are wanting, there will soon be a vicious practice; hence it is added,
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hear; attend, consider, and duly weigh: it is the hearing of the mind, as well as of the ear, is here required.
The word of the Lord; he that speaks is the great God, though the messenger be a man; the message is not mans, but it is the word, the message of the sovereign, holy; just, and mighty Jehovah, who ever speaks most important things, things that respect our duty and safety.
Ye children of Israel; you of the ten tribes, with whose ancestors my covenant was made, who received the law by the disposition of angels, but have not kept it, you that have turned aside from your God to idols.
The Lord; who knoweth your sins, who hateth, threateneth, and will judge, and punish unless you repent, it is he that speaketh, and summoneth you to plead with him.
Hath a controversy; just matter of debate or arguing against you; you have wronged him, and he will right himself, yet so that he will be clear in his judgment, all shall see that the just Lord doth justly, and that this peoples sins are the cause of all their sufferings, that God doth not delight to afflict the children of men.
With the inhabitants of the land; who dwell in the cities and towns of Israel, divided from the house of David, and from the house of God; ye that dwell with idolatrous neighbours: it is not a few, but the generality of the inhabitants; it is the whole land I have an action against.
There is no truth, no faithfulness, in their minds, words, or works; they cover falsehood with fair words, till they may fitly execute their designed frauds. There is neither plain-heartedness nor constancy in their purposes and words.
Nor mercy, kindness or gentleness of mind; all are hardened, and restrain their bowels, which should be opened toward the indigent and necessitous. There is neither compassion nor beneficence among them, they pity not, nor relieve any.
Nor knowledge of God; all generally are ignorant, know not what God hath done for them, or what God is in himself, or what candour and truth, or what tenderness and beneficence, he requires in his word; if they have a slight knowledge of those things, yet they consider them not. They have rased the knowledge of God out of their minds.
In the land: this speaks the universal ignorance, mercilessness, and unfaithfulness of that age.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Israelthe ten tribes.
controversyjudicialground of complaint (Isa 1:18;Jer 25:31; Mic 6:2).
no . . . knowledge ofGodexhibited in practice (Jer22:16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel,…. The people of the ten tribes, as distinct from Judah, Ho 4:15, the prophet having finished his parables he was ordered to take up and deliver, and his explanations of them, and concluded with a gracious promise of the conversion of the Jews in the latter day, enters upon a new discourse, which begins with reproof for various sins; since what had been delivered in parables and types had had no effect upon them, they are called upon to hear what the Lord would say to them by the prophet, in more clear and express terms; silence is ordered, and attention required to what follows:
for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; the land of Israel; against him they had sinned, before him they stood guilty; he had something, yea, many things, against them; a charge is brought into open court, the indictment is read, an answer must be made: God is the antagonist, that moves and brings on the controversy in a judicial way, and who can answer him for one of a thousand? or stand before him, or in court with him, when he marks iniquity? the charge is as follows,
because there is no truth; none that do or speak truth; that are true and faithful men, true to their word, and faithful to their trust; no truth of grace in them, nor truth of doctrine held and received by them; truth failed from among them, and none were valiant for it; no truth or civil faith with respect to men, nor any truth of word or worship with respect to God:
nor mercy: to poor and indigent creatures; no compassion shown them; no offices of humanity or acts of beneficence exercised towards them; though these are more desirable by the Lord than, and are preferred by him to, all ceremonial sacrifices, Ho 6:6, or no piety, religion, godliness, powerful godliness, which has the promise of this life, and that to come:
nor knowledge of God in the land; in the land of Israel, where God was used to be known; where he had been worshipped; were his word had been dispensed, and his prophets had been sent, and his saints that knew him, and his mind and will, formerly had dwelt; but now a company of atheists, at least that lived as such, and had no true spiritual saving knowledge of God, and communion with him; they had not true love to him, nor a godly reverence of him, which this implies; and that was the source of all the wickedness committed by them, afterwards expressed. The Targum is,
“there are none that do truth, nor dispense mercy, nor walk in the fear of the Lord, in the land.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Hos 4:1-5 form the first strophe, and contain, so to speak, the theme and the sum and substance of the whole of the following threatening of punishment and judgment. Hos 4:1. “Hear the word of Jehovah, ye sons of Israel! for Jehovah has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; for there is no truth, and no love, and no knowledge of God in the land.” Israel of the ten tribes is here addressed, as Hos 4:15 clearly shows. The Lord has a controversy with it, has to accuse and judge it (cf. Mic 6:2), because truth, love, and the knowledge of God have vanished from the land. ‘Emeth and chesed are frequently associated, not merely as divine attributes, but also as human virtues. They are used here in the latter sense, as in Pro 3:3. “There is no ’emeth , i.e., no truthfulness, either in speech or action, no one trusting another any more” (cf. Jer 9:3-4). Chesed is not human love generally, but love to inferiors, and to those who need help or compassionate love. Truth and love are mutually conditions, the one of the other. “Truth cannot be sustained without mercy; and mercy without truth makes men negligent; so that the one ought to be mingled with the other” (Jerome). They both have their roots in the knowledge of God, of which they are the fruit (Jer 22:16; Isa 11:9); for the knowledge of God is not merely “an acquaintance with His nature and will” (Hitzig), but knowledge of the love, faithfulness, and compassion of God, resting upon the experience of the heart. Such knowledge not only produces fear of God, but also love and truthfulness towards brethren (cf. Eph 4:32; Col 3:12.). Where this is wanting, injustice gains the upper hand.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Sinfulness of Israel. | B. C. 758. |
1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. 3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. 5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
Here is, I. The court set, and both attendance and attention demanded: “Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for to you is the word of this conviction sent, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear.” Whom may God expect to give him a fair hearing, and take from him a fair warning, but the children of Israel, his own professing people? Yea, they will be ready enough to hear when God speaks comfortably to them; but are they willing to hear when he has a controversy with them? Yes, they must hear him when he pleads against them, when he has something to lay to their charge: The Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, of this land, of this holy land. Note, Sin is the great mischief-maker; it sows discord between God and Israel. God sees sin in his own people, and a good action he has against them for it. Some more particular actions lie against his own people, which do not lie against other sinners. He has a controversy with them for breaking covenant with him, for bringing a reproach upon him, and for an ungrateful return to him for his favours. God’s controversy will be pleaded, pleaded by the judgments of his mouth before they are pleaded by the judgments of his hand, that he may be justified in all he does and may make it appear that he desires not the death of sinners; and God’s pleadings ought to be attended to, for, sooner or later, they shall have a hearing.
II. The indictment read, by which the whole nation stands charged with crimes of a heinous nature, by which God is highly provoked. 1. They are charged with national omissions of the most important duties: There is no truth nor mercy, neither justice nor charity, these most weighty matters of the law, as our Saviour accounts them (Matt. xxiii. 23), judgment, mercy, and faith. The generality of the people seemed to have no sense at all of the thing called honesty; they made no conscience of what they said and did, though ever so contrary to the truth and injurious to their neighbour. Much less had they any sense of mercy, or any obligation they were under to pity and help the poor. And it is not strange that there is no truth and mercy when there is no knowledge of God in the land. What good can be expected where there is no knowledge of God? It was the privilege of that land that in Israel God was made known, and his name was great, which was an aggravation of their sin, that they did not know him, Ps. lxxvi. 1. 2. Hence follows national commissions of the most enormous sins against both the first and second table, for they had no regard at all to either. Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, against the third, ninth, sixth, eighth, and seventh commandments, were to be found in all corners of the land, and among all orders and degrees of men among them, v. 2. The corruption was universal; what good people there were among them were either lost or hid, or they hid themselves. By these they break out, that is, they transgress all bounds of reason and conscience, and the divine law; they have exceeded (Job xxxvi. 9); they have been overmuch wicked (Eccl. vii. 17); they suffer their corruptions to break out; they themselves break over, and break through, all that stands in their way and would stop them in their sinful career, as water overflows the banks. Note, Sin is a violent thing and its power exorbitant; when men’s hearts are fully set in them to do evil (Eccl. viii. 11) what will be restrained from them? Gen. xi. 6. When they break out thus blood touches blood, that is, abundance of murders are committed in all parts of the country, and, as it were, in a constant series and succession. Cdes ali aliis sunt contigu–Murders touch murders; a stream of blood runs down among them, even royal blood. It was about this time that there was so much blood shed in grasping at the crown; Shallum slew Zechariah, and Menahem slew Shallum, Pekah slew Pekahiah, and Hoshea slew Pekah; and the like bloody work, it is likely, there was among other contenders, so that the land was polluted with blood (Ps. cvi. 38); it was filled with blood from one end to the other, 2 Kings xxi. 16.
III. Sentence passed upon this guilty and polluted land, v. 3. It shall be utterly destroyed and laid waste. The whole land is infected with sin, and therefore the whole land shall mourn under God’s sore judgments, shall sit in mourning, being stripped of all its wealth and beauty. As the valleys are said to shout for joy, and sing, when there are plenty and peace, so here they are said to mourn when by war and famine they are made desolate. The whole land shall be brimstone, and salt, and burning, was as threatened in the law, Deut. xxix. 33. They had broken all God’s commandments, and now God threatens to take away all their comforts. The land mourns when there is neither grass for the cattle nor herbs for the service of man; and then every one that dwells therein shall languish for want of nice food to support a wasting life, and fret for want of the usual dainties for delight. The beasts of the field will languish, Jer 14:5; Jer 14:6. Nay, the destruction of the fruits of the earth shall be so great that there shall not be picking for the fowls of the air, to keep them alive; they shall suffer with man, and their dying, or growing lean, will be a punishment to those who used to have their tables replenished with wild-fowl. Nay, the fishes of the sea shall be taken away, or gathered together, that they may go away in shoals to some other coast, and then the fishing trade will be worth nothing. This desolation shall be in that respect more general than that by Noah’s flood, for that did not affect the fishes of the sea, but this shall. It was part of one of the plagues of Egypt that he slew their fish (Ps. cv. 29); when the waters are dried the fish die,Isa 50:2; Zep 1:2; Zep 1:3. Note, When man becomes disobedient to God, it is just that the inferior creatures should be made unserviceable to man. Oh what reason have we to admire God’s patience and mercy to our land, that though there is in it so much swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and adultery, yet there is plenty of flesh, and fish, and fowl, on our tables!
IV. An order of court that no pains should be taken with the condemned criminal to bring him to repentance, with the reason for that order. Observe, 1. The order itself (v. 4): Yet let no man strive nor reprove another; let no means be used to reduce and reclaim them; let their physicians give them up as desperate and past cure. It intimates that as long as there is any hope we ought to reprove sinners for their sins; it is a duty we owe to one another to give and to take reproofs; it was one of the laws of Moses (Lev. xix. 17), Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour; it is an instance of brotherly love. Sometimes there is need to rebuke sharply, not only to reprove, but to strive, so loth are men to part with their sins. But it is a sign that persons and people are abandoned to ruin when God says, Let them not be reproved. Yet this is to be understood as God’s commands sometimes to the prophets not to pray for them, notwithstanding which they did pray for them; but the meaning is, They are so hardened in sin, and so ripened for ruin, that it will be to little purpose either to deal with them or to deal with God for them. Note, It bodes ill to a people when reprovers are silenced, and when those who should witness against the sins of the times, retire into a corner, and give up the cause. See 2 Chron. xxv. 16. 2. The reasons of this order. Let them not reprove one another; for, (1.) They are determined to go on in sin, and no reproofs will cure them of that: Thy people are as those that strive with the priests; they have grown so very impudent in sin, so very insolent, and impatient of reproof, that they will fly in the face even of a priest himself if he should but give them the least check, without any regard to his character and office; and how then can it be thought that they should take a reproof from a private person? Note, Those sinners have their hearts wickedly hardened who quarrel with their ministers for dealing faithfully with them; and those who rebel against ministerial reproof, which is an ordinance of God for their reformation, have forfeited the benefit of brotherly reproof too. Perhaps this may refer to the late wickedness of Joash king of Judah, and his people, who stoned Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, for delivering them a message from God, 2 Chron. xxiv. 21. He was a priest; with him they strove when he was officiating between the temple and the altar; and Dr. Lightfoot thinks the prophet had an eye to his case when he spoke (v. 2) of blood touching blood; the blood of the sacrificer was mingled with the blood of the sacrifice, That, says he, was the apex of their wickedness–thence their ruin was to be dated (Matt. xxiii. 35), as this is of their incorrigibleness, that they are as those who strive with the priest, therefore let no man reprove them; for, (2.) God also is determined to proceed in their ruin (v. 5): “Therefore, because thou wilt take no reproof, no advice, thou shalt fall, and it is in vain for any to think of preventing it, for the decree has gone forth. Thou shalt stumble and fall in the day, and the prophet, the false prophet that flattered and seduced thee, shall fall with thee in the night; both thou and thy prophet shall fall night and day, shall be continually falling into one calamity or other; the darkness of the night shall not help to cover thee from trouble nor the light of the day help thee to flee from it.” The prophets are blind leaders and the people blind followers; and to the blind day and night are alike, so that whether it be day or night both shall fall together into the ditch. “Thou shalt fall in the day, when thy fall is least feared by thyself and thou art very secure; and in the day, when it will be seen and observed by others, and turn most to thy shame; and the prophet shall fall in the night, when to himself it will be most terrible.” Note, The ruin of those who have helped to ruin others will, in a special manner, be intolerable. And did the children think that when they were in danger of falling their mother would help them? It shall be in vain to expect it, for I will destroy thy mother, Samaria, the mother-city, the whole state, or kingdom, which is as a mother to every part. It shall all be made silent. Note, When all are involved in guilt nothing less can be expected than that all should be involved in ruin.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
HOSEA – CHAPTER 4
Verses 1-5:
General Charges Against the People
Verse 1 calls the children of Israel to hear God’s legal charges against the land, the northern kingdom, Mic 6:2; Joe 3:2, because they had:
1) No truth or respect for truth, in conscience or deed, Pro 3:3.
2) No mercy or evidence of the attribute of mercy, for truth cannot be sustained without mercy.
3) And no knowledge or recognition of God was shown in the whole land, so apostate had the northern ten tribes become. Knowledge produces love and fear, and ignorance and injustice prevail without it, as exhibited, Jer 22:16.
Verse 2 recounts five of the ten commandments that were being flagrantly broken, continuously, as a pattern of continual practice:
1) Swearing, Exo 20:7.
2) Lying, Exo 20:16.
3) Stealing, Exo 20:15.
4) Committing adultery, Exo 20:14.
5) Killing or murder, Exo 20:13.
These five named sins were spread like cankerous sores or floods uncontrolled over all the land so that “blood touched blood,” or bloodshed and murder were a continual, daily pattern of life; Evil, violence, was continually spread everywhere.
Verses 3 describes the fruit of their sins and violence so that they mourned because of the judgment of God over their land, causing men, cattle, fowls, and even fish to suffer and die, 1Ki 18:17-18. It was a fierce calamity of the East, Isa 19:8; Isa 24:4; Joe 1:10; Joe 1:12; Isa 19:5. The mourning seemed to be in self-pity, not genuine repentance, Jer 4:28; Jer 12:4; Amo 5:16; Amo 8:8.
Verses 4, 5 advise no one to accuse another for the sufferings they were to receive, as due punishment for their willful, long pursued sins; The sins of the ten tribes were as grave as one who refused to obey when the priests gave a command, at the word of the Lord. The law provided death for such rebellion, Deu 27:12. They were therefore to fall, be killed in broad daylight, a time when battles were not usually expected, Jer 6:4-5; Jer 15:8. The prophet also was to be slaughtered at night, as well as their mother, meaning the state of Northern Israel, of whom they were children, Hos 2:2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
This is a new discourse by the Prophet, separate from his former discourses. We must bear in mind that the Prophets did not literally write what they delivered to the people, nor did they treat only once of those things which are now extant with us; but we have in their books collected summaries and heads of those matters which they were wont to address to the people. Hosea, no doubt, very often descanted on the exile and the restoration of the people, forasmuch as he dwelt much on all the things which we have hitherto noticed. Indeed, the slowness and dullness of the people were such, that the same things were repeated daily. But it was enough for the Prophets to make and to write down a brief summary of what they taught in their discourses.
Hosea now relates how vehemently he reproved the people, because every kind of corruption so commonly prevailed, that there was no sound part in the whole community. We hence see what the Prophet treats of now; and this ought to be observed, for hypocrites wish ever to be flattered; and when the mercy of God is offered to them, they seek to be freed from every fear. It is therefore a bitter thing to them, when threatening are mingled, when God sharply chides them. “What! we heard yesterday a discourse on God’s mercy, and now he fulminates against us. He is then changeable; if he were consistent, would not his manner of teaching be alike and the same today?” But men must be often awakened, for forgetfulness of God often creeps over them; they indulge themselves, and nothing is more difficult than to lead them to God; nay, when they have made some advances, they soon turn aside to some other course.
We hence see that men cannot be taught, except God reproves their sins by his word; and then, lest they despond, gives them a hope of mercy; and except he again returns to reproofs and threatening. This is the mode of address which we find in all the Prophets.
I now come to the Prophet’s words: Hear, he says, the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel, the Lord has a dispute, etc. The Prophet, by saying that the Lord had a dispute with the inhabitants of the land, intimates that men in vain flatter themselves, when they have God against them, and that they shall soon find him to be their Judge, except they in time anticipate his vengeance. But he also reminds the Israelites that God had a dispute with them, that they might not have to feel the severity of justice, but reconcile themselves to God, while a seasonable opportunity was given them. Then the Prophet’s introduction had this object in view — to make the Israelites to know that God would be adverse to them, except they sought, without delay, to regain his favor. The Lord then, since he declared that he would contend with them, shows that he was not willing to do so. for had God determined to punish the people, what need was there of this warning? Could he not instantly execute judgment on them? Since, then, the Prophet was sent to the children of Israel to warn them of a great and fatal danger, God had still a regard for their safety: and doubtless this warning prevailed with many; for those who were alarmed by this denunciation humbled themselves before God, and hardened not themselves in wickedness: and the reprobate, though not amended, were yet rendered twice less excusable.
The same is the case among us, whenever God threatens us with judgment: they who are not altogether intractable or unhealable, confess their guilt, and deprecate God’s wrath; and others, though they harden their hearts in wickedness, cannot yet quench the power of truth; for the Lord takes from them every pretext for ignorance, and conscience wounds them more deeply, after they have been thus warned
We now then understand what the Prophet meant by saying, that God had a dispute with the inhabitants of the land. But that the Prophet’s intention may be more clear to us, we must bear in mind, that he and other faithful teachers were wearied with crying, and that in the meantime no fruit appeared. He saw that his warnings were heedlessly despised, and that hence his last resort was to summon men to God’s tribunal. We also are constrained, when we prevail nothing, to follow the same course: “God will judge you; for no one will bear to be judged by his word: whatever we announce to you in his name, is counted a matter of sport: he himself at length will show that he has to do with you.” In a similar strain does Zechariah speak,
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They shall look on him whom they have pierced,’ (Zec 12:10 🙂
and to the same purpose does Isaiah say, that the Spirit of the Lord was made sad.
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Is it not enough,’ he says, ‘that ye should be vexatious to men, except ye be so also to my God?’ (Isa 7:13.)
The Prophet joined himself with God; for the ungodly king Ahab, by tempting God, did at the same time trifle with his Prophets.
There is then here an implied contrast between the dispute which God announces respecting the Israelites, and the daily strifes he had with them by his Prophets. For this reason also the Lord said,
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My Spirit shall no more strive with man, for he is flesh,’ (Gen 6:3.)
God indeed says there, that he had waited in vain for men to return to the right way; for they were refractory beyond any hope of repentance: he therefore declared, that he would presently punish them. So also in this place, ‘“The Lord has a trial at law”; he will now himself plead his own cause: he has hitherto long exercised his Prophets in contending with you; yea, he has wearied them with much and continual labour; ye remain ever like yourselves; he will therefore begin now to plead effectually his own cause with you: he will no more speak to you by the mouth, but by his power, show himself a judge.’ The Prophet, however, designedly laid down the word, dispute, that the Israelites might know that God would severely treat them, not without cause, nor unjustly, as though he said, “God will so punish you as to show at the same time that he will do so for the best reason: ye elude all threatenings; ye think that you can make yourselves safe by your shifts: there are no evasions by which you can possibly hope to attain any thing; for God will at length uncover all your wickedness.” In short, the Prophet here joins punishment with God’s justice, or he points out by one word, a real (so to speak) or an effectual contention, by which the Lord not only reproves men in words, but also visits with judgment their sins.
It follows, Because there is no truth, no kindness, no knowledge of God. The dispute, he said, was to be with the inhabitants of the land: by the inhabitants of the land, he means the whole body of the people; as though he said, “Not a few men have become corrupt, but all kinds of wickedness prevail everywhere.” And for the same reason he adds, that there was no truth”, etc. in the land; as though he said, “They who sin hide not themselves now in lurking-places; they seek no recesses, like those who are ashamed; but so much licentiousness is everywhere dominant, that the whole land is filled with the contempt of God and with crimes.” This was a severe reproof to proud men. How much the Israelites flattered themselves, we know; it was therefore necessary for the Prophet to speak thus sharply to a refractory people; for a gentle and kind warning proves effectual only to the meek and teachable. When the world grows hardened against God, such a rigorous treatment as the words of the Prophet disclose must be used. Let those then, to whom is intrusted the charge of teaching, see that they do not gently warn men, when hardened in their vices; but let them follow this vehemence of the Prophet.
We said at the beginning, that the Prophet had a good reason for being so warm in his indignation: he was not at the moment foolishly carried away by the heat of zeal; but he knew that he had to do with men so perverse, that they could not be handled in any other way. The Prophet now reproves not only one kind of evil, but brings together every sort of crimes; as though he said, that the Israelites were in every way corrupt and perverted. He says first, that there was among them no faithfulness, and no kindness. He speaks here of their contempt of the second table of the law; for by this the impiety of men is sooner found out, that is, when an examination is made of their life: for hypocrites vauntingly profess the name of God, and confidently ( plenis buccis — with full cheeks) arrogate faith to themselves; and then they cover their vices with the external show of divine worship, and frigid acts of devotion: nay, the very thing mentioned by Jeremiah is too commonly the case, that
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the house of God is made a den of thieves,’ (Jer 7:11.)
Hence the Prophets, that they might drag the ungodly to the light, examine their conduct according to the duties of love: “Ye are right worshipers of God, ye are most holy; but in the meantime, where is truth, where is mutual faithfulness, where is kindness? If ye are not men, how can ye be angels? Ye are given to avarice, ye are perfidious, ye are cruel: what more can be said of you, except that each of you condemns all the rest before God, and that your life is also condemned by all?’
By saying that truth or faithfulness was extinct, he makes them to be like foxes, who are ever deceitful: by saying that there was no kindness, he accuses them of cruelty, as though he said, that they were like lions and wild beasts. But the fountain of all these vices he points out in the third clause, when he says, that they had no knowledge of God: and the knowledge of God he takes for the fear of God which proceeds from the knowledge of him; as though he said, “In a word, men go on as licentiously, as if they did not think that there is a God in heaven, as if all religion was effaced from their hearts.” For as long as any knowledge of God remains in us, it is like a bridle to restrain us: but when men become wanton, and allow themselves every liberty, it is certain that they have forgotten God, and that there is in them now no knowledge of God. Hence the complaints in the Psalms,
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The ungodly have said in their heart, There is no God,’ (Psa 14:1 🙂
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Impiety speaks in my heart, There is no God.’ Men cannot run headlong into brutal stupidity, while a spark of the true knowledge of God shines or twinkles in their minds. We now then perceive the real meaning of the Prophet.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
HOSEAOR GODS AFFECTION FOR AN UNFAITHFUL PEOPLE
Hos 1:1 to Hos 14:9.
IT is our purpose in this series of articles on the Minor Prophets to throw such light upon these twelve Books as to make them meaningful and profitable to our readers. I suppose it may be safely said that the average Christian leaves these Books unstudied, and some of them unreada circumstance due to certain natural difficulties in their interpretation; but in greater measure still, to the poor work of present-day preaching. The custom of taking a text has wrought havoc in Bible study. Our fathers in the ministry were Bible expositors; their successors are textual preachers. The result is described in one of the minor Prophets:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord:
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it (Amo 8:11-12).
There are some simple and yet fundamental facts regarding the prophecy of Hosea that are essential to its proper understanding. It was doubtless written by the man whose name it wears. It refers, unquestionably, to the time of Jeroboam the Second, when Elisha, the Prophet of God, was living, and Isaiah, that great Evangel of the Old Testament, was a babe; and when those kings of Judah Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiahwere successively occupying the throne. The date is supposed to be 790 to 725 B. C.
Hosea was the great Evangel of his time. While he was an Elijah the Tishbite, in his stern denunciation of sin, he was a John the Apostle in his sense of Divine love and his eloquent call to repentance.
Some of the Books of the Bible break easily into divisions, and some of the students of Hosea have seen fit to divide it into two such. But our research does not justify the method. To us it is one grand whole, with not a break in thought from first to last. It is a recital of Israels history in her unfaithfulness, and an illustration of Gods goodness to His own people.
For our convenience, however, we divide it into four sections.
THE SYMBOLISM OF GOMERS SIN
And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim (Hos 8:2-3).
These opening sentences of Hosea have given no small trouble to students. Some have received it historically; while others have insisted that God could not send the Prophet on any such mission, without Himself being a party to sin; and so have attempted to interpret it as a dream or vision. Following the custom which we have found alone to be safe, we believe with those who accept the Book at what it says. And yet we have not found the question involved so difficult of solution as some. When it is remembered that the whole people of Israel had already turned to idolatry, we can understand that any daughter selected from them could be spoken of in this language, since the charge of whoredom, with the false gods of the land, lay against every son and daughter of Israel. And even when the narrative seems to specifically charge this woman with this sin, it does not necessitate Gods participation in evil because He sends Hosea to wed her. You will see, ere the history ends, she is won to a righteous life again. So the Prophet is to her what he has become to all IsraelGods agent of salvation. But her sin is symbolical.
It was a sin against law and love. The seventh commandment antedated Hosea and stood as a protest against the violation of that relation which husband and wife sustain to one another, as the whole decalogue stands as Gods protest against the violation of the relation which He and His people sustain to each other. When, therefore, Gomer forgets the law and despises the love of Hosea, she fitly represents the conduct of the whole kingdom in forgetting Gods Law and despising the Divine love. The man who, today, living under the reign of grace, disregards the moral Law and tramples it beneath his feet with impunity, is guilty of a crime of the first magnitude. But the man who adds to that an equal disregard of the Divine love takes the last step needful in the contemplation of his folly and the sealing of his fate.
Paul wrote to the Hebrews:
If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses;
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of the covenant, wherewith he wets sanctified, an holy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I wilt recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people (Heb 10:26-30).
This sin was again symbolical in that it was against good society.
The moment the foundations of domestic life are undermined the whole fabric of society is endangered. When lust assaults the home it strikes the essential pillar of the State. And when it overrides the law and love of domestic relation, it leaves desolation in its track and brings in a dark day for the people. When such a sin as this can be found in the first houses the very nation has fallen. Dr. Talmage said truly enough that where there is no pure home there are the Vandals and the Goths of Europe; the Numidians of Africa, and the Nomads of Asia. No home, no school; no household, no republic; no family, no church.
But Gomers sin became more significant still, God made it to be a sorrowful instruction! Strange as it seems, it is yet probably according to the natural law in the spiritual world that Gods spokesmen must be sufferers. It was only after the iron had entered Moses soul as he watched the oppression of his own people from his position in the palace, and by his enforced exile spent forty years on the back side of the desert that he was eloquent as Israels leader. Joshua was fitted by forty years of wilderness wandering for his great work of commanding Israel and conquering Canaan.
But no man could read this Book of Hosea without feeling that its authorour Prophethad suffered probably as much as either of these great predecessors. Joseph Parker says, Hoseas sorrow was of the deepest kind. The daughter of Diblaim was the daughter of the devil. He had no peace, no rest, no singing joy within the four corners of his own house. He lived in clouds; his life was a continual passage through a sea deeper than the Red Sea. If we may vary the figure, his wandering was in the wilderness, unblessed; cursed by the very spirit of desolation.
And yet we do believe that strong natures have the very power to transmute their sorrows into eloquent appeals for righteousness; that the very intensity of their suffering adds solidity to their thought and eloquence to its utterance. We seriously doubt if Hoseas wife had not been a scarlet woman, as she was, whether he could ever have properly sympathized with God, the Father, in that Israel turned from Him to moral infidelity, by worshiping at false shrines and living wicked, sensual lives.
John Bright, that marvelous leader of thought in England, started on his career of splendid service in consequence of an unspeakable sorrow. His young wife, to whom he was devoted, lay dead when Richard Cobden called on him. Having expressed, as best he could, sympathy and condolence, Cobden looked up and said, Bright, there are thousands and thousands of homes in England, at this moment, where wives and mothers and children are dying of hunger. Now when the first paroxysm of your grief has passed, I would advise you to come with me and we will never rest until the corn-laws are repealed.
Cobden showed himself a philosopher that day. He knew full well that one way to recover from a personal pain was to take into ones heart as an antidote, the pain of the people.
You will remember what had more to do, perhaps, with the declaration of war with Spain than any other single thing, the destruction of the Maine excepted. It was Senator Thurstons speech. And how did it happen that this Nebraskan, who had never before been eloquent, spoke before the Senate of the United States with such an appeal as to move even opponents to agree with him? That speech opened in these words,
Mr. President: I am here by command of silent lips to speak once and for all upon the Cuban situation, and trust that no one has expected anything sensational from me. God forbid that the bitterness of a personal loss should induce me to color, in the slightest degree, the statements that I feel it my duty to make. I shall endeavor to be honest, conservative and just. Then he proceeded with such an oration as American law-makers of any decade seldom, if ever, heard. Concluding with these words, Mr. President, in the cable that moored me to life and hope the strongest strands are broken. I have but little left to offer at the altar of freedoms shrine. But all I have I am glad to give. I am ready to serve my country as best I can in the Senate or in the field. My dearest hope, my most earnest prayer to God is this, that when death comes to end all I may meet it calmly and fearlessly, as did my Beloved, in the cause of humanity, and under the American flag.
There is but one explanation of such an address as that. The eloquence of it was born of the sorrow of burying a beloved wife in Cuban soil, and feeling in his heart that the pain of the oppressed people of that land had been already the occasion of her death; and to relieve it, was worthy the laying down of his life.
The Psalmist said, I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue.
It was sorrow. It was that suffering that only a righteous man can feel when sinned against by her whom he loves most, that made Hosea understand the Divine Ones suffering in Israels sin, and adequate to its expression.
PHASES OF ISRAELS INFIDELITY
It found first expression in unwarranted forms. There seems to be a general agreement between students of Hosea that the groves and altars, when first chosen and erected, were unto the Lord. But it does not take long for them to go from unwarranted forms to open infidelity. God did not command any of these at their hands. Her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts, became occasions of Baal-worship. Instead of saying any longer, Ishimy husband, they turned to say, Baalimy lord. It is the history of unwarranted forms in all ages.
When Christ came into the world He found the Church of the Old Testament cold in death, slain by the hands of ceremonialists,the Scribes and Pharisees of His time,who, with their hollow ritualism and hypocrisies, had driven many men to the infidelity of Sadduceeism; so that they said, There is neither angel nor spirit. Truly, as Frederick Robertson said,
No self-righteous formalism will ever satisfy the Conscience of man; neither will infidelity give rise to a devoted spirit. Formalism in religion and infidelity in conduct often go hand in hand.
Charles Dudley Warner tells us that after having traveled around the world he came back to Brindisi, Italy, a so-called Christian country, and entered a so-called Christian Church to see a figure of Christ, the Crucified One, set off in a dark corner with dust gathered on it, while a representation of Mary, the mother, clad with the latest mode of French millinery, flamed before an altar, and their knees bowed there.
It was little better than the Baal-worship of Hoseas time. And if Jesus should come to that church He would have occasion to utter the words which He once addressed to Scribes and Pharisees.
Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me.
But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
This degenerate worship was popularized by priest and prince. By reading fourteen verses of the fifth chapter you will see they were its chief patrons. The Prophet of God addressed them Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye House of Israel. Then, after describing their participation in these false and foul ceremonies, he voices God as saying: I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the House of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away: I will take away; and none shall rescue him.
It is a sad day for the Church when the prince, or the man in the place of power, is putrid. It is a darker day when the priest, or the leader in the Church of God, is correspondingly corrupt. When the time came that Tetzel could sell indulgences, with the consent of the priesthood of Rome, the very moral rottenness existing in the Name of Jesus, compelled the Reformation, and gave rise to Luthers opinions, and victory to his appeal. And when, at the present time, a Pastor, either by evil practices, leads his people into iniquity, or by his silence concerning the commercial and other sins of those who contribute to his salary, connives at iniquity, the condition becomes akin to that which Hosea was raised up to rebuke nearly three thousand years ago. And the result for the present day will be the very same as that which came to the Israel of Hoseas time.
It produced the grossest idolatry and immorality.
There is not time to read to you these chapters,4 to 13,but if there were, the reading would only profit you by giving you pain as you looked upon Israels open sore.
It was this principle that Hosea saw and clearly stated so many, many centuries ago,namely, when men become lawless, and are libertines, they cannot hope to keep women upon a plane of chastity and holiness. God distinctly declares that He would not punish their daughters for their sins, in view of the conditions of society, for which priest, prince and peasant were responsible.
George Adam Smith reminds us that history in many periods has confirmed the justice of Hoseas observations, and by one strong voice after another, enforced his terrible warnings. The experience of ancient Persia and Egypt, the languor of the Greek cities, the deep weariness and sated lust which in Imperial Rome made human life a hell. It is only another illustration of the Apostle James words,When lust hath conceived, it bring eth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (Joe 1:15).
THE FOLLY WHICH INFIDELITY EFFECTS
There can be traced in this volume a striking parallelism between the conduct of the individual and of the nation. Gomers treatment of Hosea was Israels treatment of God.
There is a supreme insensibility to undeserved favor. The Prophet says, She did not know that I gave her corn, etc.
Insensibility to Divine favor has often marked the conduct of man. We easily forget that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights. We quickly attribute our blessings to our own ingenuity, to the bounty of nature, or to luck, and just as easily forget Godthe Giver of all. Strange isnt it that the one creature made in His image, endowed with the highest faculties, blessed of Him thousands of times beyond all other works of His hands, should be insensible to what he had received, and to what he is receiving, and know not God gave corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied * * silver and gold.
If this spirit were all in the world it were not so bad; but Gomer is the Prophets wife, and Israel is espoused of God; and this insensibility to Divine favor has smitten the Church, and her children forget Me, saith the Lord. Sam Jones had a man come to him who said, Jones, the church is putting my assessment too high. How much do you pay? asked Jones. Five dollars a year, was the reply. Well, said Jones, how long have you been converted? About four years. What did you do before you were converted? I was a drunkard. How much were you worth? I rented land, and was plowing with a steer. What have you got now? I have a good plantation and a pair of horses. Well, said Jones, you paid the devil two hundred and fifty dollars a year for the privilege of plowing a steer on rented land, and now you dont want to give the God who saved you five dollars a year for the privilege of plowing your own horses on your own plantation. Insensibility to Divine favor! Moses had occasion for that passage in his song, They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? hath He not made thee, and established thee? (Deu 32:5-6).
They were slow to realize the Divine intent of judgment. After announcing His purpose in judgment, I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the House of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him (Hos 5:14). The Lord reveals His reasons by adding, I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek My face: in their affliction they will seek Me early (Hos 5:15). Deliverance is always the Divine purpose in Gods judgments against His people. The Psalmist said, Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word. And it was only after the Lord had visited them with judgment that Israel could say, Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up (Hos 6:1).
But, like sinners of all ages, Ephraim must be smitten, her root dried up, so that they shall bear no fruit, and they realize themselves utterly cast away because they did not hearken unto the Lord. It is only after Israel hath destroyed herself that she realizes the source of life in God.
How strikingly this experience parallels that of weak men in all ages! Only when the prodigal, clothed in rags, starved to the point of sustenance on the honeysuckle, and sitting with the swine, does he come to himself. As a rule, the man that follows the lusts of the flesh, and goes the way of the libertine, or the drunkard, never sees the meaning of the Divine judgment until his sins have slain his manhood, wrecked his business, scattered his family, consumed his flesh, and left him as perfectly stranded as was ever a vessel when driven high upon the ragged rocks. It is amazing to study the folly of men who have departed from the Lord! Almost universally they are conceited up to the very day when they are undone. They think that they are going to recover themselves. Like Ephraim, strangers have devoured their strength, and they know it not: gray hairs are here and there upon them, and yet they know it not. They feed on the wind and follow after the east wind, and daily increase in desolation. They make a covenant with the Assyrians and boast their righteousness as Ephraim did, saying, In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.
God can do nothing else with such men than to bring them low; nothing else than to whelm them with sorrow; nothing else than to strike them to the very earth with judgment; for they must be made to see that their condition is not due to circumstances, but to an evil spirit.
Dr. Chapman tells the story of a woman who was seated in Central Park, New York, with her little child playing about her. Suddenly the child was startled by the barking of a dog. In her frightened state she ran into her mothers arms. When the dog ceased his barking she said, Why are you frightened, dear; he is quiet? Oh, yes, I know, mamma; but the bark is still in him.
One thing always being said by unregenerate men is, If I could only remove to a new location; settle myself with new associates, and in new business employment, I would be all right. All right! And yet evil still in you! Better turn over to Gal 5:19-21, and read, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like What one needs is not a change of location, but a change of nature, so that the incoming of the Holy Spirit shall give you the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Such folly is followed only by shame and degradation. The tenth chapter of Hosea illustrates the consequences of Israels conduct.
Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.
Their heart is divided: now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us?
They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shalt mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.
It shall be also carried into Assyria for a present to King Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.
The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.
It is in My desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.
And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.
Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shahnan spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness; in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.
In conclusion we pass to
GODS AFFECTION FOR AN UNFAITHFUL PEOPLE
That affection was expressed in undeserved words and acts. God bares His heart here as He has often done before, crying,
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away (Hos 6:4),
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt,
I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
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 (Hos 11:1; Hos 11:3-4).
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together.
I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city (Hos 11:8-9).
Beloved, one lesson that it seems difficult to learn is thisto remember the goodness of God. One should adopt the custom of thinking upon Divine favor. It is only as we forget the source of our blessings, of every good and perfect gift that we grow indifferent to the grace of our God.
Dr. Torrey says, I was talking one night to one who was apparently most indifferent and hardened. She told me the story of her sin, with seemingly very little sense of shame, and when I urged her to accept Christ, she simply refused. I put a Bible in her hands and asked her to read this verse. She began to read, God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, and before she had finished reading the verse she had broken into tears, softened by the thought of Gods wondrous love to her.
It is a strange thing that more people dont answer temptation as did Joseph,How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
When God executes judgment it is commonly for the purpose of correction. Take the reference in this volume,
Therefore will I return, and take away My com in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness,
And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand,
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts, 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,
And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and for gat Me, saith the Lord (Hos 2:9-13).
What is the purpose? He immediately proceeds to tell us, Therefore(God never employs that word without occasionit is the great conjunction with Him.)
Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her,
And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt (Hos 2:14-15).
Beloved, there is a beneficent purpose when the fiery trial is on. The very whips with which He makes Israels back to bleed are not the expressions of His wrath; but, rather, of His love.
Henry Ward Beecher declares that his father used to make him believe that the end of the rod that he held in his hand was a great deal more painful than the end which he applied to Henry. And the great preacher says, It was a strange mystery to me; but I did believe it, and it seemed a great deal worse to me to be whipped on that account.
It ought to be so with the children of God. I once had in my church a woman who punished her children by vicarious suffering. When they misbehaved at the table she denied herself a meal, and she told me that it broke their hearts.
Would to God that we were as sensitive to the suffering which our sin imposes upon the Heavenly Father, and as sensible concerning the purpose which He has in visiting correction against our sins.
But, after all, God gave best evidence of His affection by,
Keeping for His people an open heart. I like to dwell on the last chapter of this Book,
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; * *
Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously (Hos 14:1-2).
And I like to listen to Gods answer to this cry which He Himself seeks to put into their lips,
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him.
I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? (Hos 14:4-6; Hos 14:8).
It is a beautiful picture! It ought to encourage the children whose hearts have departed from the plain paths of privilege in Christ; it ought to incite hope in the heart of the individual who has played the prodigal and paid the penalty.
I like to reflect upon the words of that sweet-spirited man, F. B. Meyer, as he speaks of Gods attitude toward those who turn again to Him, saying,
Be sure that God will give you a hearty welcome. He has not given you up or ceased to love you. He longs for you. Read the last chapter of the Book of Hosea, which may be well called the backsliders gospel. Read the third chapter of Jeremiah, and let the plaintive pleadings to return soak into your spirit. Read the story of Peters fall and restoration, and let your tears fall thick and fast on John 21: as you learn how delicately the Lord forgave, and how generously He entrusted the backslider with His sheep and with His lambs. Be sure that though your repeated failures and sins have worn out every one else, they have not exhausted the infinite love of God. He tells us to forgive our offending brother unto four hundred and ninety times; how much oftener will He not forgive us? According to the height of heaven above the earth, so great is His mercy.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 4:1. Controv.] = a legal action (cf. Mic. 6:2; Joe. 3:2), or ground of complaint with the ten tribes (Hos. 4:15). Truth] i.e. truthfulness in word or deed, no conscience nor uprightness (Pro. 3:3; Jer. 3:4). Mercy] Affection, tenderness, and love; no compassion to the needy. Truth and love cannot be separated. Truth cannot be sustained without mercy; and mercy without truth makes men negligent; so that the one ought to be mingled with the other. No know.] which produces love and fear; wilfully ignorant; hence injustice the upper hand.
Hos. 4:2. Swearing] a breach of the second, stealing of the eighth commandment. In Heb. these nouns of action give emphasis and picture the scene, nothing but evil, and that continually. Break] out like waters beyond all bounds and restraint (2Sa. 5:20). Blood] Lit. bloods, shed with violence. Toucheth] Murder was so common, that no space was left between its acts [Henderson].
Hos. 4:3. Mourn] by drought (1Ki. 18:17-18). As a consequence vegetation scorched, animal life wastes away, and pools dry, the greatest calamity that could happen in the East.
Hos. 4:4. Strive] Lit. only man, let him not strive, and let not man reprove. God had taken the matter in his own hands, reproof would only aggravate their guilt, man must not interfere. Some give, let none reprove one another; each must look to his own sins. Priest] The judge and tribunal to decide law-suits (Deu. 17:12-13), to dispute with whom was the highest contumacy.
Hos. 4:5.] People and prophet would fall by night and day without intermission. Mother] The whole nation destroyed.
HOMILETICS
GODS CONTROVERSY WITH A GUILTY PEOPLE.Hos. 4:1-5
The prophet now begins to speak more plainly. Israel was bound to God by legal covenant. God only wishes justice to be done, and will not subject them to disadvantages. But they have infringed upon his rights, neglected their obligations, and forgotten their relation to him. Hence the suit-at-law. The land, swept of fidelity, goodness, and love, is brought to shame and desolation.
I. The nation summoned into court. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel. The whole people, with prophets and priests, are called to the judgment-seat of God to make their defence or hear their indictment. Men are inattentive and negligent. They disregard the word of God, and forget things which make for their peace. If Demosthenes had need to reprove the Athenian senate for inattention to his speech on important affairs, how much greater reproof do the careless and indifferent require now. It is sad to be given up to a spirit of slumber, to have eyes and not see, ears and not hear. None so deaf as those who will not hear. God speaks loudly and continually in his providence and wordonce, yea, twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In creation wisdom, power, and goodness are manifest; in works of judgment and mercy Gods voice is heard; by his prophets and his Son God expostulates, but men neglect the warnings. This needful admonition suggests a sad condition. One would think that every one would gather round the feet of Jesus, and, like Samuel, cry, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth! But sinners are
1. Ignorant;
2. Careless;
3. Obdurate. Gods cause will be pleaded by the words of his mouth, and the wonders of his providence. He speaks with authority, demands fair hearing, and gives fair warning. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
II. The nation accused of guilt. The indictment of Israel is given negatively and positively. We have the absence of virtue and the presence of evil. There must be one or the other. The human mind does not like a vacuum. Dethrone good, you set up evil. A mind unoccupied and a life of sin are the impersonations of wretchedness. Some object must engage attention. The heart must have something really good, or thought to be good, to lay hold of. Wrest it away from one thing, without the substitution of another, you leave a void as painful as hunger. It may be dispossessed of one thing, but it cannot be desolated of all. If grace does not abound in thought and conduct, sin will much more abound. In Israel there was
1. A declension of religion. There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land (a) No truth. Truth is the bond of union and the basis of human happiness. Without this virtue, says Jeremy Collier, there is no reliance upon language, no confidence in friendship, and no security in promises and oaths. Neither talent nor genius can be trusted unless based on truthfulness. This is the foundation of personal excellence and human character; this is the health and ornament of the nation; loyal adherence to truth is the secret of a nations power and a nations glory. When there is no truth, but falsehood; when mens acts are at variance with their words; then there is no respect, nor honesty, nor security. What a sad state of society! We depart from truth when we state as true what we do not know to be true, when we intentionally produce a false impression, when we deceive and designedly mislead. Often painful wrongs are inflicted by covert innuendos and malignant insinuations. Half a fact is a whole falsehood, and he who colours truth by false methods of telling it is a liar. Of all duties, says a writer, the love of truth, with faith and constancy in it, ranks first and highest. Truth is God. To love God and to love truth are one and the same. (b) Nor mercy. Mercy is pity or compassion which one man shows toward another in misery; clemency towards our neighbours (Pro. 20:28; Luk. 10:37). Let not mercy and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart. Mercy and truth are the glorious perfections of God always in harmony and action. We rest upon them for salvation, and should copy them in life. The want of one neutralizes the effect of the other. A man may be truthful, and yet not merciful. Just in his dealings to others, yet as hard as flint. Mercy has been urged upon man from the very beginning to counteract his selfishness and cruelty. It becomes the throned monarch better than his crown, and earthly power doth then show likest Gods when mercy seasons justice. Kindness evokes kindness, and our own happiness is increased by our benevolence. Kind words cost little. Friendly conduct may meet with ungrateful return; but absence of gratitude on the part of the receiver cannot destroy the pleasure of the giver. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. (c) Nor knowledge of God. There was no sense of honesty and obligation, no justice nor humanity. Truth and benevolence had been disregarded. The fragmentary man was seen in disordered society and ignorance of God in a land specially his own, and which should have presented his glory and preserved his name. The knowledge of God is a necessity of our moral nature, and lies at the foundation of all morality and religion. Man can have no obligation to mere laws of nature, and feel no sense of responsibility to an impersonal being. God has revealed himself in his works and word. We are related to him as intelligent and moral beings. We owe duty to ourselves and our fellow-men because God wills and commands it. But God is not recognized, and then forgotten in motive and duty. God is not seen through his works, and in Israel and England we have a succession of human beings instructed in the laws and duties of society, with the character and even the existence of the law-giver omitted. We have the means of knowing and worship ping God, but no true, practical knowledge of God. The supreme influence of God is lost in the family and in the land, in custom and law, hence a spirit of subordination and licentiousness. We have sound creeds but ungodly lives; theoretic, but little practical knowledge of God. If men hold the truth in unrighteousness, check the development of it in their lives, and reject the knowledge of God; they begin the downward course to idolatry and grossest sin. The history of the heathen world and the results of the French Revolution prove this knowledge to be the safeguard of the people, to be necessary
(1) to preserve mental vigour. If the knowledge of God is not thought worth keeping in the mind, then the mind itself will become worthless and degenerate, a reprobate mind (Rom. 1:28).
(2) to preserve true morality. Progressive vice, penal suffering, and fearful lusts are the certain results of rejecting the knowledge of God. If there be not a God, we must invent one, cried one of the leading spirits of France. Some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
2. A corrupt morality. Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, were common practices. These, and nothing but these, were seen all around. Religion and morality are bound together. Without the one there can be no true existence of the other. Ignorance of God is a source of wrong practice, a source of all evils. Where there is no love and truth, no regard to God, there will be vices contrary to these virtues. When the soul or the land is empty of good, it will be full of evil. Evils of every description abounded in Israel. Society was penetrated with vice and profligacy. Perjury and falsehood corrupted the morals and manners of the people. Religion and virtue were swamped. Family and home were alike tainted. Domestic purity, religious sanctity, no longer restrained and bound society together. The laws by which God had fenced the estate, the life, and character of men were broken; violence and bloodshed knew no bounds, carried everything before them, and like a flood swept the nation to ruin.
III. The nation punished. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away, &c. General depravity produces general punishment. God in judgment sent a universal drought, such as that which prevailed in the reign of Ahab. Vegetation was to suffer, animal life decay, and sea and land groaned beneath the visitation. If man will not love God, neither shall Gods creatures help man. For mans interests and theirs are bound together in the wondrous providence of God.
1. Mans sins affect inanimate creation. Man was not made for the earth, but the earth was made for man. By successive steps and gradual events the earth was prepared and fitted to be his residence. For him power had stilled the conflict of chaos and restored the reign of law. For his sake goodness had beautified the earth and clothed it with vegetation. In wisdom the various animals were subject to his control, and he had dominion over all the earth. Man had to replenish, subdue, and govern the earth (Gen. 1:28). (a) Man is related to material creation by his physical nature. His name (Adam), man, is formed from the (adamah) material of which his body is composed. He is related to the physical laws of the universe as a physical being, and is amenable to gravitation, mechanical force, and chemical action. As an organized being he is subject to organic laws. Every great characteristic by which vegetable life is distinguished from inorganic matter and animal life, is found in him. He also possesses animal instincts like the inferior creatures. Thus mans constitution in its threefold character, of physical, organic, and sentient, took up the strain of creation which had preceded his coming, in praise of the power, and wisdom, and goodness of God. (b) Man has brought a curse upon material creation by his first sin. The earth is not like the garden of Eden in which he was placed at first; cursed is the ground for thy sake. It does not yield its produce with its original ease and abundance. We have disorder and decay, malformation and barrenness. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth, with all our toil and daily labour. When man fell from his original position with God, the earth lost its fruitfulness and dignity, and now the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain under its bondage and corruption, and is waiting for its freedom and greater blessing (Rom. 8:20-22). (c) Man injures material creation by his immoral conduct. Material forces are largely at his command. He can change and create; beautify and adorn impair and destroy. Solomon saw the field of the slothful all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. (Pro. 24:30-31). A life of mere animal sensual indulgence, manual or mental sloth will bring to poverty. Idleness and neglect will bring drought and failure of crops (Hag. 1:2-11). Vice, idolatry, and licentiousness will spread their effects and spoil the face of nature. Creation is in sympathy with man, responds to his moral life, and is blessed or wasted by his moral conduct. In peace and plenty, under the benediction and providence of God, the valleys shout and sing for joy. In famine and war, under the curse and sin of man, the land shall mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish. How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? (Jer. 12:4; Psa. 107:34).
2. Mans sins affect the animal creation. We should regard the animal world with due feeling. Life in its lowest form is the gift of God. We should not abuse any creature which God pronounced good and intended for our welfare. The inferior creatures have been useful to man and subservient to his interests in many ways. (a) They have been a source of sustenance. (b) A source of commerce. (c) The means of training his powers of body and mind. But they have been punished for mans idolatry. Their growth and continuance have been hindered by mans sin. As necessities of life they have been cut off, and as objects of adoration they have been smitten with the plague. He turned their waters into blood and slew their fish (Psa. 105:29). Internal blessing and outward prosperity shall go hand in hand when man is restored to right relation with God. Then shall the original promise be fulfilled, and God will give peace in the land; rid it of evil beasts: and its inhabitants shall lie down, and nothing shall disturb their rest (Lev. 26:6).
IV. The nation punished without mercy. They had rejected God, and God would leave them to their fate. They had despised the priests, and he would slay their prophets. By degrees they had hardened themselves and grown stubborn in sin, and thus ripened themselves for destruction. When the Lord has a controversy with a people and they will not hear, it is useless to strive with them. They who resist the Spirit and the ministers of God, resist God himself. He that despiseth you despiseth me. Their state is most desperate and deplorable.
1. Punishment without intermission. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night. There would be no time free from destruction, night and day calamities should never cease. Darkness would be no protection, and day would be no security. Terror by night found them helpless and exposed. Arrows from cunning foes and with deadly aims flew by day. Pestilence, shrouded in mystery, marched on unseen, to infect the home and alarm the city. Destruction wasted at noon-day, and there was no shield nor buckler. This reminds us of the Great Plague of London, when evil befell the city, and its inhabitants were stricken with death.
2. Punishment without exemption. People and prophets fell together. Gods judgments are impartial. Rank and title, wealth and worldly distinctions, are of no avail. Label men how you please, says Herbert Spencer, with titles of upper, and middle, and lower, you cannot prevent them from being units of the same society, acted upon by the same spirit of the age, moulded after the same type of character. The mechanical law, that action and reaction are equal, has its moral analogue. The deed of one man to another tends to produce a like effect upon both, be the deed good or bad. In whatever rank you see corruption, be assured it equally pervades all ranks; be assured it is the symptom of a bad social diathesis. Whilst the virus of depravity exists in one part of the body-politic, no other part can remain healthy. Mans evil character and influence blend and bind him up with others. Not a particle is lost, but the whole is taken up and produces its results in the general community. Collectively and individually the destruction of all is declared. Root and branch they were to be cut off. As a nation they could not escape. I will destroy thy mother, and as individuals they could not flatter themselves with hope. Thou shalt fall.
3. Punishment without human sympathy. Let no man strive nor reprove another. Man is forbidden to interfere or aid. God will implead them, and none can contradict or evade his judgments. We know not how to judge. We condemn and acquit without cause. We are ignorant and helpless ourselves. None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him. All are alike guilty, condemned and exposed to death. Christ alone can deliver us. The redemption of the soul is precious, but human efforts, gold and silver, and a world of rubies, could not purchase it. Riches cannot ward off judgment, nor tears avail with God. The Scripture hath concluded, shut up as in a prison, all in unbelief, not that God might condemn, but that he might have mercy upon all men (Gal. 3:22).
4. Punishment without Divine help. Criminals are sometimes recommended to mercy and delivered from punishment; but Israel was stubborn and incorrigible, and God forbids any to remonstrate or reprove. Christian reproof and expostulation bring sinners to repentance and are of immense service in setting them right. It is one of the duties of friendship. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. But when men hate reproof and defy the judgments of God, then they are let alone to reap their folly. Their doom is certain: Thou shalt fall, and I will destroy. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. The fruit of sin in time, says Chalmers, when arrived at full and finished maturity, is just the fruit of sin through eternity. It is merely the sinner reaping what he has sown. It makes no violent or desultory step, from sin in time to hell in eternity. The one emerges from the other, as does the fruit from the flower. It is simply that the sinner be filled with his own ways, and that he eat the fruit of his own devices.
A TERRIBLE DEPRIVATION.Hos. 4:3-5
The words lead us to consider a lamentable deprivationa deprivation that comes upon the people in consequence of their heinous iniquities. Two remarks are suggested concerning this deprivation.
I. It is a deprivation both of material and spiritual good. First: Of material good.
(1) A deprivation of health. Every one that dwelleth therein shall languish. The physical frame loses its wonted elasticity and vigour, and succumbs to decay and depression. Languish, like a dying man on his couch. Sin is inimical to the bodily health and vigour of men and nations; it insidiously saps the constitution.
(2) A deprivation of the means of subsistence. The beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. Literally this refers to one of those droughts that occasionally occur in the East, and is ever one of the greatest calamities. What a dependent creature man is! The beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and the fish of the sea can do better without him, but he cannot do without them. How soon the Eternal can destroy those means of his subsistence! One hot blast of pestilential air could do the whole. It is a deprivation, secondly: Of spiritual good. Let no man strive nor reprove another; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. The meaning seems to be that their presumptuous guilt was as great as that of one who refused to obey the priest when giving judgment in the name of Jehovah, and who, according to law, for that cause was to be put to death (Deu. 17:12). One of the greatest spiritual blessings of mankind is the strife and reproof of godly men. The expostulations and admonitions of Christly friends, parents, teachers, what on earth is more valuable, is so essential as these? Yet these are to be taken away. Let no man strive nor reprove another. The time comes with the sinner when God says, My spirit shall no more strive with thee; Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. Men have become so dog-like in nature that holy things are not to be presented to them; so swinish, that you are to cast before them no more pearls (Mat. 7:6).
II. It is a deprivation leading to a terrible doom. First: The destruction of priests and people. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night. The meaning is that no time, night or day, shall be free from slaughter, both of the people and the priests. This was literally true of the ten tribes at this time. And it is true in a more general and universal sense. Gods law is, that evil shall slay the wicked; and it is always slaying them, whether they be priests or peoplethe laity or the clergy. If they are not true to God, day and night they are being slain. Secondly: The destruction of the social state. And I will destroy thy mother. Who was the mother? The Israelitish state. And it was destroyed. England is our mother, and our mother will be destroyed unless we banish sin from our midst [The Homilist].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
An expostulating God, Hos. 4:1. Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, &c.
1. It is a marvellous controversy. God might forsake, but he strives with men. Princes might hold a controversy with princes, and nations with nations, but for God to plead with his creatures is wondrous love.
2. It is a just controversy. There is abundant reason for it. We have broken his covenant, reproached his name, and been ungrateful for his favours. The demands of moral government, the interests of the universe, require some rectification, some settlement of matters.
3. It is a continual controversy. God is speaking now day by day by his word and servants, carrying on the controversy yet with the most guilty and rebellious, seeking to convince them of sin, and leave them without excuse.
4. It is a hopeless controversy. The sinner has no excuse, no argument or right on his side. He has sinned against light and truth, the voice of conscience and the warnings of providence. Let them bring forth their witnesses, as I do mine, that they may be justified in their works and ways. Or let them hear and say it is truth; let them hear the arguments on my side, and say, after due consideration, if truth is not with me, and that I am perfectly reasonable in my requirements. The sinner is speechless now and will have no plea at the judgment day. The potsherd of the earth may strive with the potsherds, but man is unequal in strife with God. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!
Truth and mercy.
1. Rooted in the knowledge of God.
2. Related one to another.
3. Opposite to the five sins mentioned in Hos. 4:2, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and incontinency. Truth and love are mutually conditions, the one of the other. Truth cannot be sustained without mercy; and mercy without truth makes men negligent; so that the one ought to be mingled with the other [Jerome]. They both have their roots in the knowledge of God, of which they are the fruit (Jer. 22:16; Isa. 11:9); for the knowledge of God is not merely an acquaintance with his nature and will [Hitzig], but knowledge of the love, faithfulness, and compassion of God, resting upon the experience of the heart. Such knowledge not only produces fear of God, but also love and truthfulness towards brethren (cf. Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:12). Where this is wanting injustice gains the upper hand [Keil].
Speculative and practical knowledge are bound up together through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of him or acts towards him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, and misbelief corrupts practice [Pusey].
Priest-strivers.
1. Strife against the means of knowledge. Priests were repositories of knowledge, the oracles and guides of the people (Mal. 2:7).
2. Strife against Divine authority. All difficult cases were taken to the priests (Deu. 17:8-12), who pronounced judgment, and those who refused the sentence were put to death. They represented Gods authority, and spoke in Gods name.
3. Strife against spiritual interests. (a) Even here they, priest-strivers, are often left alone. Let not man strive with those who strive with God; reproof will only irritate and not correct them. (b) Hereafter they suffer the consequence of their evil ways. To strive then with the priest was the highest contumacy, and such was their whole life and conduct. It was the character of the whole kingdom of Israel. For they had thrown off the authority of the family of Aaron which God had appointed. Their political existence was based upon the rejection of that authority. The national character influences the individual. When the whole policy is formed on disobedience and revolt, individuals will not tolerate interference. As they had rejected the priest, so would, and did, they reject the prophets. St Stephen gives it as a characteristic of the Jews, Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye [Pusey].
Hos. 4:5. When false prophets flatter and soothe the people in sin, when sinners rebel against Divine authority and reject Divine teaching, they hasten on their ruin. No degree of prosperity, no human aid, and no mere Church or State can save them from sudden, unexpected, and fearful fall. Thou shalt fall in the day, and I will destroy thy mother.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Hos. 4:1-5. When God has a controversy with a people he appeals to conscience as a witness to his cause. He demands and should secure earnest heed. The speaker is great. The cause is most important, and concerns our spiritual and eternal welfare. If we cannot plead excuse now, how can we stand before the judgment-seat at last?
Consideration is the duty of the Church. Faith cometh by hearing, and every faculty of the mind should be bent to receive Divine teaching.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
ISRAELS INGRATITUDEA LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
TEXT: Hos. 4:1-5
1
Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2
There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
3
Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
4
Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
5
And thou shalt stumble in the day, and the prophet also shall stumble with thee in the night; and I will destroy thy mother.
QUERIES
a.
Why was there no knowledge of God in the land?
b.
What does the prophet mean, blood toucheth blood?
c.
What is wrong with striving with the priest?
PARAPHRASE
Listen to the word of the Lord, you children of Israel. The Lord has an indictment against you and is going to bring judgment against you because there is no truthfulness, nor goodness, nor personal knowledge of God in the hearts of the people of the whole country. On the other hand there is false swearing and covenant breaking, murdering, stealing, adultery everywhere! There are men breaking in and robbing and one bloody death after another throughout the whole land. When the Lord brings drought and famine upon you for your sins, the whole land will mourn. The people and even the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens will grieveyes, even the fish of the sea will perish. When all this happens let no man blame anyone else for such disasterevery man is equally to blame. And so, Gods judgment will come, unceasingly; the slaughter of an unfaithful people and of the false prophets who led them will have no respite neither day nor nightand I will destroy national Israel.
SUMMARY
These first five verses form the first stanza of a long ode of Judgment, They contain the theme of the whole remaining section of the book of Hosea, and especially this fourth chaptercause and resultant judgment of God.
COMMENT
Hos. 4:1 . . . JEHOVAH HATH A CONTROVERSY WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND . . . There is a similar arrangement of the covenant people (Judah in this instance) in Mic. 6:2 ff. God is personified as both the Plaintiff, Prosecutor and the Judge. God has a case against the covenant people. They are arraigned. God presents His case listing the many ways and instances by which the people broke His covenant. He proves their guilt and pronounces sentence. In His prosecution God even bears witness to the causethere is no knowledge of God in the land. This specially blessed and favored people certainly could not claim ignorance of the terms of the covenant as an excuse (for the terms of Gods covenant were reiterated over and over and they were plain enough for the dullest child to understand, cf. Deu. 8:19-20). They could not claim that God had not warned them for He sent one prophet after another attempting to call the people back to covenant keepingall to no avail.
A nation is almost beyond hope when there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. Jerome said, Truth cannot be sustained without mercy; and mercy without truth makes men negligent; so that the one ought to be mingled with the other. When there is no truthfulness no one trusts another (cw. Jer. 9:3-4).
Truth is the basis of all morality. The Bible, Gods revealed will, is the only infallible standard of objective truth. Morality cannot be determined on any subjective basis. Morality cannot be determined on any humanistic basis. Morality cannot be reasoned on any philosophical basis. Morality must be determined by an objective standard and this standard must be infallible, supernatural truth. All other attempts to determine what is moral must ultimately end in complete moral anarchy (which leads to political anarchy) and the autonomous man. The dark ages of the covenant people, during the period of the Judges, was a result of every man doing that which was right in his own eyes! When the divine standard of truth, Gods revealed word, is rejected moral and political suicide is the result. This is exactly what was happening to Israel in Hoseas time and also what happened to Judah in Jeremiahs timecomplete moral and political anarchy! The same will happen to any nation which rejects Gods Word, the Bible.
Hosea depicts the situation in Israel as one in which there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is an experiential knowledge, to be sure, but this experience of God in our hearts only comes as a result of knowing God from His revelation of Himself through His written Word. That God does exist may be known from nature (Rom. 1:20-21; Psalms 19; Act. 14:14-18; etc.), but we must also know that He is a rewarder (Heb. 11:6). In other words, we must know what kind of a Person God is. This can only be known by a knowledge of what He says about Himself and how He has proved Himself through His marvelous deeds in the past (cf. 2Pe. 1:3-9, where we know Him through His precious and very great promises, and also become partakers of the divine nature). Of course, when God tells us what He is like and promises us that His will put to practice in our lives will give us certain blessings such as peace, love, joy, fruitfulness, forgiveness and etc., we cannot know such blessedness until we do what He says. Then our knowledge of God becomes experiential. First, however, our knowledge of God must be intellectual, based upon facts of history which record Gods deeds. We must be able to trust Him with our reason before we can experience Him with our hearts. We must know He is historically trustworthy before we can be convinced that what He says to do is the right thing to do!
Israel had long ago taken the revealed truth of God away from the people. They built false calf gods and instituted a false priesthood. The verbal revelation of God in the Mosaic Law was no longer revered or practiced. So the inevitable consequences of moral rottenness followed.
Hos. 4:2 THERE IS NOUGHT BUT SWEARING AND BREAKING FAITH, AND KILLING, AND STEALING, AND COMMITTING ADULTERY . . . AND BLOOD TOUCHETH BLOOD . . . Here the prophet merely enumerates the sins of the nation. In later chapters he describes in detail the immoral practices of the people. In this list we find violations of five of the ten commandments of the decalogue. The people are guilty of false witnessing, covenant breaking, murder, theft, and adultery. And this is on a national scale. There are not just a few isolated cases of such crimes but the prophet says, to the contrary, there is nothing else going in the land but such criminality! One bloody deed follows another (blood toucheth blood.)
Hos. 4:3 THEREFORE SHALL THE LAND MOURN . . . Such flagrant violations of all that is moral, right, good, reasonable and true inevitably beats fruit. God created the universe and sustains it through inexorable laws, both moral and physical, When those laws are transgressed the penalty must be paid, Where there is no penalty, there is no law; so where there is law there must be penalty, The penalty for violating a physical law of the universe is usually death or some other disastrous consequence, The penalty for violating a moral law is moral ruin, moral darkness, injustice, greed, cruelty, distrust and all the other decadent practices resulting from falsehood.
In Israels case God brought pestilence, drought, plague and other forms of divine chastisement upon them. Not only does the inanimate creation suffer in consequence of the sins and crimes of men, but the moral depravity of man causes the physical destruction of all other creatures through such punishments of God. Even the beasts of the field, the birds and fish, mourn.
Hos. 4:4-5 . . . LET NO MAN STRIVE . . . REPROVE . . . THOU SHALT STUMBLE IN THE DAY . . . The fundamental requirement of Gods covenant was willing, unfaltering, obedience (Exo. 19:5; Exo. 23:20-22; Deu. 6:1-25; 1Sa. 15:22). Three times the people had solemnly pledged obedience (Exo. 19:8; Exo. 20:19; Exo. 24:3-7). But alas, they rebelled only forty days later and continued to rebel until their rebellion was culminated in the divided kingdom. Hosea writes to the people and tells them they are like those who strive with the priest. This is a reference to the Mosaic ordinance which prohibited people from striving or rebelling against a priestly decision (cf. Deu. 17:8-13). It may also indicate that the people were trying to blame the priests for their waywardness. In any case, the nation is a nation of rebels, rebelling against the rule of God. They are like the wicked servants of the parable Jesus told concerning the pounds (cf. Luk. 19:11-27) who said, We do not want this man to reign over us.
So they would have to bear the consequences of their rejection of the light of Gods truth. When the divine Light is rejected the darkness of falsehood and lie must follow, When people love the darkness they will refuse to come to the Light (cf. Joh. 3:18-21). When such people have their say they prefer teachers after their own lusts (cf. 2Ti. 4:3-5) and they will be like the blind leading the blind (cf. Luk. 6:39), they will both fall into the pit! This goes on all the timeday and night. And God is going to destroy the motherthe whole nation.
QUIZ
1.
What picture does the figure of speech controversy paint for us?
2.
What was the cause of Gods controversy against the nation?
3.
Why is truth the basis for all morality?
4.
Why must we have a divine, objective standard of truth?
5.
When does ones knowledge of God become experiential?
6.
Why does the land mourn when people sin?
7.
How were the people like those that strive with the priest?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Controversy.A judicial suit, in which Jehovah is plaintiff as well as judge (Isa. 1:23; Isa. 41:21). By the children of Israel we are to understand the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, as distinguished from Judah.
Mercy.Better rendered love. The Hebrew word chsed expresses (1) the love of God for Israel under covenant relationship; (2) the corresponding quality in man exhibited to God or towards his fellow-men. (See Hupfeld on Psa. 4:4; and Duhm, Theologie der Propheten, p. 100.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1-3. The moral corruption in everyday life.
Hear The prophet solemnly summons Israel to listen to the accusation he brings in the name of Jehovah.
Jehovah hath a controversy Jehovah is both plaintiff and judge (Isa 1:2; compare Hos 12:2; Mic 6:2). He is proceeding against the people because their life and conduct are contrary to his will. All virtue and godliness have disappeared.
Truth Truthfulness and fidelity in their transactions. The lack of it is due to the want of mercy [“goodness”] The same word is translated in Hos 2:19, “loving-kindness”; it is used here in the same sense as there (see on Hos 2:19). The lack of love in turn is due to the absence of the knowledge of God See on Hos 2:20 (compare Hos 4:6; Hos 5:4; Hos 6:3, etc.). Note that Hosea does not say Jehovah; truthfulness and kindness are universally recognized virtues, not confined to the worshipers of Jehovah. Hos 4:2 shows what is found in Israel in the place of virtue.
By swearing Better, with R.V., “There is naught but swearing.”
Lying R.V., “Breaking faith” The two expressions are closely connected, oaths are taken lightly and broken easily; the two combined are almost equivalent to false swearing or perjury (Hos 10:4), the opposite of truthfulness (Hos 4:1). Perjury, murder, theft, and adultery, all caused by the absence of lovingkindness (Hos 4:1), are common; the ninth, sixth, eighth, and seventh commandments are thus broken.
They break out Into acts of violence.
Blood Bloody, violent deeds ( G.-K. 124n) toucheth blood One bloody deed follows closely upon another.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Hear the word of YHWH, you children of Israel, for YHWH has a controversy (legal grounds of dispute) with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor covenant love, nor knowledge of God in the land.’
Hosea, addressing the ‘children of Israel’ (Israel is to be their mother in Hos 4:5), commences the passage by pointing out that he has received ‘the word of YHWH’, and that it is a word that indicates that YHWH has a charge to lay against all who live in the land. Israel here indicates the northern kingdom. And the basis of the charge is rooted in the fact that there is no truth/truthfulness in the land and no compassion towards the poor and needy (chesed is love in accordance with the covenant). And underlying this is the lack of the knowledge of God in the land. Because they do not know God in all that He is, they are without truth and honesty, and without compassion. For God is the God of truth and compassion.
‘In the land.’ Such was their lack of gratitude and appreciation of what He had done that they had no knowledge of God in the very land that God had given them as an inheritance. Thus the land would mourn (Hos 4:3), and they themselves would finally be removed from the land because they no longer deserved it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
YHWH’s Indictment Of Israel And Warning Of The Consequences ( Hos 4:1-5 ).
YHWH now charges ‘the people (children) of Israel’ with being bereft of all truth and compassion because of their lack of the knowledge of YHWH. In consequence they are breaching all the commandments, and engaging in widespread bloodshed, and the final result is that the whole land is suffering through severe drought. But they are in no position to lay charges against YHWH with respect to this, for they are disqualified as being like ‘strivers with the priests’, that is, as being like anarchists, those who reject and despise the verdicts of their own supreme court. In other words they are lawless. That is why they and the prophets to whom they listen will stumble by day and night, and Israel itself (their mother) will be destroyed.
For ‘hear the word of YHWH’ (Hos 4:1) compare ‘hear this, O you priests, and listen you house of Israel, and give ear O house of the king –’ (Hos 5:1). This would seem to confirm that chapter 4 is a separate oracle by itself.
Analysis of Hos 4:1-5 .
a
b There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery (Hos 4:2 a).
c They break out, and blood touches blood (Hos 4:2 b).
b Therefore will the land mourn, and every one who dwells in it will languish, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, yes, the fishes of the sea also will be taken away (Hos 4:3).
a Yet let no man strive, nor let any man reprove, for your people are as those who strive with the priest. And you will stumble in the day, and the prophet also will stumble with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother (Hos 4:4-5).
Note that in ‘a’ YHWH has a controversy with His people, and the land has no truth, goodness or knowledge of God, and in the parallel the people are not to strive with YHWH and they and the prophets stumble whether it be light or dark. In ‘b’ the land is full of breaches of the covenant, and in the parallel the consequence is that the land and all that is in it mourns and languishes. Centrally in ‘c’ bloodshed is widespread.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
ISRAEL’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH IDOLS AND WITH ASSYRIA IS NOW DEPICTED AND WARNINGS GIVEN OF WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCE FOR THEM, AND THIS TOGETHER WITH A REMINDER THAT IF THEY RETURN TO HIM HE CAN PROVIDE ALL THAT BAAL PROVIDES AND MORE ( Hos 4:1 to Hos 6:3 ).
Having illustrated Israel’s position in terms of an adulterous and unfaithful wife, Hosea now charges Israel more directly with their sins, and warns them of what the consequences will be if they do not repent and turn back to YHWH. These words were probably mainly spoken during the earlier phases of his ministry in the times of Jeroboam II and Menahem.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The First Part of the Accusation
v. 1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, v. 2. (By) swearing, v. 3. Therefore shall the land mourn, v. 4. Yet let no man strive nor reprove another, v. 5. Therefore shalt thou, v. 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, v. 7. As they were increased, v. 8. They eat up the sin of My people, v. 9. And there shall be, v. 10. For they shall eat,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Hos 4:1
A new and distinct division of the book commences with this fourth chapter and continues till the close. What had previously been presented in figure and symbol is now plainly and literally stated. The children of Israel are summoned in the first verse of this chapter to hear the charge preferred against them and the sentence pronounced. Having convened, as it were, a public assembly and cited the persons concerned, the prophet proceeds to show cause why they are bound to give an attentive hearing. In God’s controversy with the people of the land the prophet acts as his ambassador, accusing the people of great and grievous sins, and vindicating the justice of God’s judgments in their punishment. The ki with which the last clause of the verse commences may be either causal or recitative, and may thus specify either the ground or subject of controversy. It is commonly understood here in the former sense. Israel is charged with want of truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God. Kimchi comments on this controversy as follows: “With the inhabitants of the land of Israel I have a controversy, for I gave them the land on the condition that they should exercise righteousness and judgment, and on this condition I pledged myself to them that my eyes would be upon them from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. But since they practice the oppositecursing, lying, etc.I also will act with them in a way contrary to what I assured them, and will hide my face from them.” He adds, “There were some righteous among them, but they were few, and they hid themselves from the face of the multitude who were wicked.” Truth and mercy are at once Divine attributes and human virtues; it is in the latter sense, of course, that they are here employed. Truth includes works as well as words, doing as well as saying; it implies uprightness in speech and behaviorthorough integrity of character and conduct, Mercy goes beyond and supplements this. We sometimes say of such a one that he is an honest but a hard man. Mercy combined with truth, on the contrary, makes a man kind as well as honest, benevolent as well as upright. In a somewhat similar sense the apostle conjoins goodness and righteousness when he says, “Scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.” The knowledge of God is the real root of these two virtues of truth and mercy. If we know God as he is in himself and as he stands in his relations to us, we shall conform our conduct to his character and our actions to his will. If we know God to be a God of truth, who delighteth in truth in the inward parts, we shall cultivate truth in our hearts, express it with our lips, and practice it in our lives. If we know God as a God of mercy, who has shown such boundless mercy to us in pardoning our multiplied and aggravated offences, we shall imitate that mercy in our relations to our fellow-man; nor shall we enact the part of the merciless man in the parable, who owed his lord ten thousand talents, and who, having nothing to pay, was freely forgiven the debt; but finding his fellow-servant, who owed him only an hundred pence, laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me that thou owest,” and, deaf to that fellow-servant’s supplications, east him into prison till he should pay the debt. The intimate connection of the knowledge of God with the virtues in question is confirmed by the Prophet Jeremiah, “Did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? he judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me, saith the Lord?”
Hos 4:2
Having given a picture of Israel negatively, he next presents the positive side. The absence of the virtues specified implies the presence of the opposite vices. In the most vivid and impressive manner the prophet, instead of enumerating prosaically the vices so prevalent at the time, expresses them more emphatically by a species of exclamation, using
(1) infinitives absolute instead of finite verbs; thus: “Swearing, and lying, and murdering, and stealing, and committing adultery.” They may, however, be regarded as in the nominative as subjects to . Instead of either supplying , to allot, or closely connecting” allot” with the verb “to lie,” which immediately follows, it is better to understand the two verbs separately, as expressing two different species of sin; that is, swearing and cursing, and lying. So the Septuagint renders them by the nouns , equivalent to “cursing and lying;” as also the Chaldee, “they swear falsely and lie.” The commandments which the children of Israel thus violated were the third, the ninth, the sixth, the eighth, and the seventh.
(2) The construction, adopted in the LXX; Vulgate, and by Luther in his version, takes the infinitives (nounal expressions of habitual or continued actions) as nominatives to the verb paratsu; thus: “Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery abound ( or ) in the land;” “Maledictum, et mendacium, et homicidium, et furtum, et adulterium innndavernut;” and Luther translates, “Gotteslastern, Luger, Morder, Stehlen, and Ehebrechen hat uberhand genommen.” The common mode
(3) of constructing the infinitives independently as above in (1) or gerundively as in the Authorized Version, and in either ease understanding an indefinite subject to paratsu, is preferable on the whole; thus: “By swearing, etc; they break out.” The allusion to the water overflowing its banks and spreading in all directions, implied in the Septuagint Version, is approved by Jerome in his Commentary: “He (the prophet) did not say est, but, to demonstrate the abundance of crimes, introduced inundaverunt (overflowed).” The common meaning of parats is to tear or breakbreak in upon, especially with violence, as robbers and murderers; so paritsim has the sense of murderers and robbers. It is better, therefore, to take the verb here as a present perfect connecting past and present, and to translate it” break through,” or” in to,” that is, as burglars into houses. So Kimchi, though figuratively: “They break through the wall which is the fence of the Law, and multiply transgressions.” Similarly, De Wette has “Gewaltthat uber sie;” and Maurer likewise: “Jurare et mentiri et occidere et furari et adulterari! Violenter agunt et sanguines sanguines altingunt.” The Massoretic accentuation favors (putting athnach at naopt) this construction; while the context, which speaks of bloodshed, is quite in keeping with acts of violence.
Hos 4:3-5
These verses relate, with much particularity, the sufferings consequent on sins, especially such as are specified in the preceding verses. The montaging of the land mentioned in Hos 4:3 may be understood either figuratively or literally. If in the former way, there are many Scripture parallels which represent nature in full accord with human feelings, sympathizing with man, now in joy, again in sorrow; for example: “The little hills rejoice on every side;” the valleys “shout for joy, they also sing;” on the other hand, “The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.” But if the expression be taken literally, it conveys a solemn fact, and one in perfect harmony with the entire tone and character of the old economy, according to which moral evil transmutes itself into physical evil, and impresses itself in dismal characters on the face of inanimate nature. The Hebrew commentators seem to understand the statement literally; thus Rashi: “The land shall be laid waste, and there shall be great mourning;” likewise Kimchi: “The land of Israel shall be laid waste and desolated.” The latter has this further comment: “After the land of Israel shall have been laid waste, man and beast shall be cut off out of it. But under the beasts of the field the prophet does not mean the wild beasts, but the large domestic animals which dwell with the sons of men, likewise called . It is also possible that even the beasts that roam at largo are included, for the wild beast does not come to inhabited places that are laid waste, unless they are partially inhabited.” He also adds, in reference to the fowls of heaven, “When he speaks of the fowls of heaven, it is because most of the fowls do not dwell in the wilderness, but in inhabited places, where they find seeds and fruits and blossoms of trees. Or the fowls of heaven are mentioned by way of hyperbole to represent the matter in its totality; and, according to this sense, it is used in the Prophet Jeremiah; and it explains itself in like manner in one of these two ways.” With the mourning of the land the dwellers therein languish. Nor is this languishing condition confined to rational beings; it comprises the irrational as well, and that without exception. The dominion assigned man at the beginning over the whole creation of God is here reversed in the case of Israel; while the denunciation of wrath has that reversal for its dark background. The terms of the dominion to man by the Creator are, “Have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth;” but in this denunciation these terms are reversed and read backwards, being,” with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also.” Thus all nature, inanimate and animate, and all creation, rational and irrational, are involved in the consequences of Israel’s sin. The particles “yea, even,” preceding “the fishes of the sea” (such as the Sea of Galilee or other inland seas and rivers), show the entirely unexpected as well as unusual nature of the event. The Chaldee paraphrases the clause as follows: “And even the fishes of the sea shall be diminished in number, on account of their (Israel’s) sins.” Earth refuses sustenance to man and beast, no longer yielding grass for the cattle or herb for the service of man; the waters of the sea, being lessened by drought or becoming putrid by stagnation, no longer supply their accustomed quota of fishes for human food. An illustration of the literal sense has been quoted by Rosenmller and Pusey from Jerome. It is the following: “Whoso believeth not that this befell the people of Israel, let him survey Illyricum, let him survey the Thraces, Macedonia, the Pannonias, and the whole land which stretches from the Propoutis and Dosphorus to the Julian Alps, and he will experience that, together with man, all the creatures also fail, which afore were nourished by the Creator for the service of man.” The le before is explained by Abarbanel in the sense of through, as though the inhabitants would be slain by wild beasts: by Hitzig as extending to; by Keil as of in enumeration. It is simply with. Verse 4 looks like an interjected clause, coming in the middle of the enumeration of Divine judgments; and the purpose is not so much to justify the severity of those judgments as to intimate their inefficacy, owing to the incorrigible character of the people. There is
(1) the rendering of the Authorized Version, Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another. This seems to show that mutual reproof was out of place, since one was as bad as another; or that every one was to look to his own sins, and not throw the blame on others; but this rendering is not tenable nor capable of being supported by such an expression as ish beish. The correct rendering
(2) is rather, only let no man strive (with them), and let no man reprove them. This imports
(a) that reasoning with them would be useless, and reproof thrown away, in consequence of the desperate obstinacy of these offenders; or
(b) that they were so self-willed that they would not allow any one to reprove them for their conduct.
The rendering
(1) is favored by Kimchi: “Let a man not strive, nor reprove his fellow for his wickedness, for it profits him not, because he also does evil like him.” The fact often experienced in a season of public calamity, that every one comes forth as a correcter of morals, and transfers to his neighbor the cause of such calamity, Hitzig illustrates by the following words of Curtius: “Quod in adversis rebus fieri solet, alius in allure culpam transferebat.” The explanation (2, b), which is pretty much that of Ewald, is supported by the comments of Rashi and Aben Ezra. The former explains: “Ye warn the true prophets against striving with you and against reproving you;” the latter: “There is no one that strives with another or reproves him: and yet it was the right of the priest to reprove Israel; but now they turn to reprove the priest, for he also is wicked in his works.” But
(3) Pusey’s rendering, though only a slight modification of the preceding, conveys a different sense. It is “Only men let him not strive, and let not man reprove,” which he explains as follows: “God had taken the controversy with his people into his own hands; the Lord, he said (verse 1), had a controversy (rib) with the inhabitants of the land. Here he forbids man to intermeddle; man let him not strive (he again uses the same word). The people were obstinate and would not hear so God bids man to cease to speak in his Name. He himself alone will implead them, whose pleading none could evade or contradict.” The rendering
(2) is, in our opinion, decidedly entitled to the preference both on the ground of simplicity and agreement with the following clause. That clause, for thy people are as they that strive with the priest, is thought by Abarbanel to allude to the opposition of Korah and his company to Aaron the high priest, as recorded in Num 16:1-50; and referred to in Psa 106:1-48. In the former passage, at the eleventh verse, it is asked, “And what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?” while in the latter, at Psa 106:16, we read the statement: “They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron the saint of the Lord.” This allusion, by which the Israelites of the prophet’s day were compared to the Korathires, will appear to most as far-fetched.
(1) The usual acceptation is both simpler and more satisfactory. It takes the expression to denote such contumacy as is reproved in Deu 17:12, “The man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.” The contumaciousness of Israel is thus compared to that of persons who were so obstinate and presumptuous as neither to obey nor reverence, but rather rebel against, the true priests of Jehovah, who, in his Divine Name and by Divine authority, instructed or reproved. Such persons neither feared God nor regarded man. It was the refractoriness of pupils acting in opposition to their teacher, or of a people rising in rebellion against their spiritual instructors. Thus the Chaldee understands it: “And thy people contend [quarrel] with their teachers.” The last clause of Deu 17:4 is fairly well explained by Kimchi (except that he explains kaph of certainty and not similitude) as follows: “The prophet says, The priest should have taught, striven with, and reproved the people; but at this time the people strive with the priest; for it is not enough that they do not receive his reproof, but they strive with and reprove him, after the way they say, ‘A generation that judges its judges.’ Or the explanation is, ‘The priest is as wicked as they, and if he reproves them so also they reprove him.'”
(2) The LXX. has , as a priest spoken against. The text being thus somewhat doubtful, Michaelis made a very slight change in the pointing, putting a patach instead of tsere in the word for “contend;” thus: instead of , so that the translation would be, “And thy people are as my adversaries (those who contend with me), O priest.” The people that should have learnt the Law from the lips of the priest would not even submit to reproof from the Most High himself. The expression, “priest-disputers” or “priest-gainsayers,” is admittedly an unusual one, and given as a specimen of the peculiarities of this prophet’s style, to which, however, there is a parallel in “boundary-movers” (cf. Hos 5:10). Still, we see no real advantage gained by the conjectural emendation of Michaelis, though some are disposed to accept it on the ground that the representation of the incorrigibleness of a people by gainsaying opposition to the priest appears incongruous with the immediately succeeding denunciation of the priesthood. The objection is obviated by understanding, as above, opposition to the true priests of the Lord. Another conjectural reading is that of Beck, via , equivalent to “and my people are like their priests.” Such conjectural emendation is needless as useless.
Hos 4:5
The parallelism of this verse is marked by the peculiarity of dividing between the two members what belongs to the sentence as one whole. Instead of saying that the people would fall (literally, stumble) in the day, and the prophet with them in the night, the meaning of the sentence, divested of its peculiar form of parallelism, is that people and prophet alike would fall together, at all times, both by day and by night, that is to say, there would be no time free from the coming calamities; and there would be no possibility of escape, either for the sinful people or their unfaithful priests; the darkness of the night would not hide them, the light of the day would not aid them; destruction was the doom of priests and people, inevitable and at all times. And I will destroy thy mother. Their mother was the whole nation as suchthe kingdom of Israel. The expression is somewhat contemptuous, as though he said of the individual members that they were truly their mother’s childrenresembling her erewhile in sin and soon in sorrow.
(1) Though the verb is seldom used in Qal to denote “likeness,” Abarbanel, as quoted by Rosenmller, translates, “I have been like thy mother,” and explains of the people addressing priest and prophet as a mother reproving her petulant children in order to improve them. Besides the far-fetched nature of such a rendering, there is the formidable grammatical objection that, in the sense of “similitude,” this verb requires to be constructed with le or el. so that it should be le immeka or el immeka. “This word, when derived from demuth, likewise has el with seghol after it; but without el, it has the meaning of destroy,” is the statement of Aben Ezra. The LXX; assigning to the verb the sense of “similarity,” renders the phrase by , “I have compared thy mother to night.”
(2) Jerome, connecting the verb with or , understands it in the sense of “silence:” “I have made thy mother silent in the night; that is, “Israel is delivered up in the dark night of captivity, sorrow, and overwhelming distress.” The Syriac likewise has: “And thy mother has become silent” (if shathketh be read). The Chaldee, though more periphrastic, brings out nearly the same sense: “I will overspread your assembly with stupefaction.” To the same purport is the exposition of Rashi: “My people shall be stupefied as a man who sits and is overwhelmed with stupor, so that no answer is heard from his mouth.” The meaning “destroy” is well supported by the cognate Arabic, and gives a good sense; thus Gesenius renders: “I destroy thy mother, that is, lay waste thy country.” Rather, the nation, collectively, is the mother; while the members individually are the children. Nor shall private persons escape in the public catastropheroot and branch are to perish. Kimchi’s comment on is: “I will cut off the whole congregation, so that no congregation shall remain in Israel; for they shall be scattered in the exile, the one here, the other there.”
Hos 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Here the verb is plural and its subject singular, because, being collective, it comprehends all the individual members of the nation. The word is rendered
(1) by Jerome in the sense of “silence:” “conticuit populus incus,” which he explains to mean “sinking into eternal silence.” So also the Chaldee.
(2) The LXX; understands it in the sense of “likeness:” “My people are like () as if they had no knowledge.” Aben Ezra disproves this sense as follows: “This word, if it were from the root signifying ‘likeness,’ would have after it el with seghol, as, ‘To [el with seghol] whom art thou like in thy greatness?’ (Eze 31:2); but without the word el it has the meaning of ‘ cutting off.'” So Kimchi: “Here also it has the sense of ‘cutting off.'” The article before “knowledge” implies renewed mention and refers to the word in verse 1; or it may emphasize the word as that knowledge by way of eminence, which surpasses all other knowledge, and without which no other knowledge can really prove a blessing in the end. The knowledge of God is the most excellent of all sciences. Paul counted all things but loss in comparison with its possession; and our blessed Lord himself says, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;” while the Prophet Isaiah attributed the captivity to its absence: “My people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge.” Because thou hast rejected knowledge seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy Son. The cause of this ignorance is here charged on the unfaithfulness of the priesthood. They rejected knowledge and forgot the Law of their God. The two concluding clauses of this verse may be regarded as “split members” of a single sentence. As rejection implies the presence of the object rejected, while forgetfulness implies its absence from the mind or memory, some have understood rejection of knowledge as the sin of the priest, and forgetfulness that of the people. This separation is not necessary, for what men continue for a time to despise they will by-and-by forget. The forgetfulness is thus an advance upon rejection. The sin of these priests was very great, for, while the priests’ lips were required to keep knowledge, they neither preserved that knowledge themselves nor promoted it among the people; hence the indignant and direct address. Thus Kimchi says: “He addresses the priestly order that existed at that time: Thou hast rejected he knowledge for thyself and to teach it to the people, consequently I will reject thee from being a priest unto me. Since thou dost not exercise the office of priest, which is to teach the Law, I will reject thee so that thou shalt not be a priest in my house.” I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me I will also forget thy children, even I. The punishment resembles the offence; the human delinquency is reflected in the Divine retaliation. To make this the more pointed, the “thou on thy part (attah)” at the head of the sentence has its counterpart, or rather is counterbalanced by the “even I” or “I too (gam ani)” at its close. The severity of the punishment is augmented by the threat that, not only the then existing priests, but their sons after them, would be excluded from the honor of the priesthood. This was touching painfully the tenderest part. It needs scarcely be observed that forgetfulness is only spoken of God in a figurative sense, and after the manner of men, that being forgotten which is no longer the object of attention or affection. “The meaning of fo g,” says Kimchi, “is by way of figure, like the man who forgets something and does not take it to heart.” The unusual form has been variously accounted for. The Massorites mark the aleph before caph as redundant; it is omitted in several manuscripts of Kennicott and De Rossi, as also some of the early printed editions. Kimchi confesses his ignorance of its use. Olshausen treats it as a copyist’s error; but Ewald “regards it as an Aramaean pausal form.” Some take the reference to be to Israel as a kingdom of priests (Exo 19:6) rather than to the actual priesthood.
Hos 4:7, Hos 4:8
As they were increased; rather, multiplied. Whether be taken as infinitive with suffix and prefix, or as a noun, it will amount to the same. The reference is rather to the multitude of the population than to the greatness of their prosperity or the abundance of their wealth. In the latter sense it is understood by the Chaldee paraphrase, but in the former by the Syriac translator. So also Kimchi, where he says, “As for Aaron the priest their father, the Law of truth was in his mouth; but now that his sons have multiplied and spread abroad, they have sinned against me and forgotten my law; according as I did them good they did evil.” He also gives as the explanation of others, “As I increased them in wealth and riches, they sinned against me.” Their glory will I change into shame. The “therefore” of the Authorized Version is inserted unnecessarily. Both the Chaldee and Syriac render, “And they changed their glory into shame;” as they took for the infinitive , and that in the sense of the preterit; or the infinitive in the gerundival sense: “changing their glory into shame.” Kimchi explains the meaning correctly: “Therefore I made them beads over the people and expiators, yet if they do not observe my Law I will change their glory into shame; and the people will contemn and despise them.” Their numbers multiplied with the multiplication of idols, and the apostasy of the people kept pace with both; and now as a fit punishment they are to be deprived of their priestly glorytheir dignity and splendor. They eat up the sin of my people. The word may be understood in either of two senses; and the meaning of the verse will correspond thereto. It may either mean that these faithless priests lived upon the sin of the people, deriving their livelihood and profit from the people’s idolatrous practices; or that they were delighted with their sin, approving rather than reproving them for the same. The other explanation understands the word of sin offering, and is thus expressed by Kimchi: “They are only priests for eating up the sin and trespass offering which the people offer on account of sins, not for teaching the Law or right way.” To their iniquity they lift up (each one) his soul. They set their heart upon and eagerly desire the continued practice of sin on the part of the people that they may profit by the sacrifices. Thus Kimchi explains this clause in accordance with his exposition of the former: “The priests lift up every one his soul to the sin of the people, saying, When will they sin, and bring sin offering and trespass offering that we may eat?”
Hos 4:9
Like people, like priest. As it had fared with the people who had sinned and had been punished, as is stated in the third and fifth verses; so shall it be with the priest or whole priestly order. He has involved himself in sin and punishment like the people, and that as the consequence of his extreme unfaithfulness; whereas by faithful dealing with the people and discharge of his duty he might have delivered his own soul, as stated by Eze 33:9, “Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” It is well explained by Kimchi as follows: “These two caphs of likeness are by way of abbreviation, and the explanation isthe people are like the priest and the priest is like the people. And the meaning is that, as the people and the priest are equal with respect to sin, so shall they be equal in relation to punishment.” And I will visit upon his ways, and his doings I will bring back to him. The retribution here threatened includes the whole priestly order, not people and priest as one man, according to Pusey, who, however, makes the following excellent comment on : “The word rendered doings signifies great doings when used of God, bold doings on the part of man. These bold presumptuous doings against the Law and will of God, God will bring back to the sinner’s bosom,” or rather, down overwhelmingly upon his head. The singular individualizes; so both Aben Ezra and Kimchi: “Upon every one of them.”
Hos 4:10
For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase. This part of the verso states the punishment to be inflicted and the reward to be received; it is thus an expansion of the closing clause of the preceding verse, with an obvious allusion to the sin specified in the eighth verse. To eat and not be satisfied may occur in time of famine, or be the effect of disease or the consequence of insatiable craving. “Since,” says Kimchi, “they eat in an unlawful manner, their food shall not be to them a blessing.” This was one of the punishments threatened for violation of the Law, as we read in Le 26:26, “When I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.” Further, the multiplication of wives or concubines would not increase their posterity; Solomon long previously had been a notable exemplification of this. “So in their cohabitation with their women, since it is in a whorish manner, they shall not increase, for they shall not have children by them; or, if they have, they shall die from the birth.” The Hiph. hiznu has rather the intensive sense of Qal than that of causing or encouraging whoredom. Because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. The verbal lishmor either
(1) has Jehovah for its object, as in the Authorized Version; or
(2) durko or darkair may be supplied, as is done by Kimchi and Aben Ezra. The former has, “To observe his ways, for they have no delight in him and in his ways; to observe his ways they have left off;” the latter has, “They have forsaken Jehovah, to observe his way or his Laws.” But
(3) Kimchi informs us that “Saadiah Gaon of blessed memory has connected the word with the verse that comes after it; they have forsaken the Lord to observe whoredom and wine and new wine.”
Hos 4:11
It makes no great difference whether we regard this verse as concluding the foregoing or commencing a new paragraph, though we prefer the latter mode of connecting it. It states the debasing influence which debauchery and drunkenness are known to exercise over both head and heart: they dull the faculties of the former and deaden the affections of the latter. The heart is not only the seat of the affections, as with us; it comprises also the, intellect and hill; while the word is not so much to take away as to captivate the heart, Rashi gives the former sense: “The whoredom and drunkenness to which they are devoted take away their heart from me.” Kimchi’s explanation is judicious: “The whoredom to which they surrender themselves and the constant drunkenness which they practice take their heart, so that they have no understanding to perceive what is the way of goodness along which they should go.” He further distinguishes the tirosh from the yayin, remarking that the former is the new wine which takes the heart and suddenly intoxicates. The prophet, having had occasion to mention the sin of whoredom in Hos 4:10, makes a general statement about the consequences of that sin combined with drunkenness in Hos 4:10, as not only debasing, but depriving men of the right use of their reason and the proper exercise of their natural affections. The following verses afford abundant evidence of all this in the insensate conduct of Israel at the time referred to.
Hos 4:12-14
The first of these verses exhibits the private life of the people as depraved by sin and folly; the second their public life as degraded by idolatry and lewdness; while the third points to the corresponding chastisement and its cause. My people ask counsel at their stocks (literally, wood), and their staff declareth unto them. Rashi explains “stocks,” or literally, “wood,” to mean “a graven image made out of wood;” while Aben Ezra prefaces his exposition of this by an observation which serves well as a link of connection between the eleventh and twelfth verses. It is as follows: “The sign that they are in reality without heart, is that my people turn to ask counsel of its stocks and wood.” Kimchi not inaptly remarks, “They are like the blind man to whom his staff points out the way in which he should go.” The stupidity of idolatry and the sin of divination are hero combined. By the “wood” is meant an idol carved out of wood; while the staff may likewise have an image carved at the top for idolatrous purposes, or it may denote mode of divination by a staff which by the way it fell determined their course. Theophylaet explains this method of divination as follows: “They set up two rods, and muttered some verses and enchantments; and then the rods falling through the influence of demons, they considered how they fell, whether forward or backward, to the right or the left, and so gave answers to the foolish people, using the fall of the rods for signs.” Cyril, who attributes the invention of rabdomancy to the Chaldeans, gives the same account of this method of divination. Herodotus mentions a mode of divination prevalent among the Scythians by means of willow rods; and Tacitus informs us that the Germans divined by a rod cut from a fruit-bearing tree. “They (the Germans) cut a twig from a fruit tree, and divide it into small pieces, which, distinguished by certain marks, are thrown promiscuously on a white garment. Then the priest or ‘the canton, it’ the occasion be publicif private, the master of the familyafter an invocation of the gods, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, thrice takes out each piece, and as they come up, interprets their signification according to the marks fixed upon them.” The sin and folly of any people consulting an idol of wood about the success or otherwise of an undertaking, or deciding whether by a species of teraphim or staff divination, is sufficiently obvious. But the great aggravation of Israel’s sin arose from the circumstance not obscurely hinted by the possessive “my” attached to “people.” That a people like Israel, whom God had chosen from among the nations of the earth and distinguished by special tokens of Divine favor, and to whom he had given the ephod with the truly oracular Urim and Thummim, should forsake him and the means he had given them of knowing his will, and turn aside to gods of wood, evinced at once stupidity unaccountable and sin inexcusable. “The prophet,” says Calvin, “calls here the Israelites the people of God, not to honor them, but rather to increase their sin; for the more heinous was the perfidy of the people, that, having been chosen, they had afterwards forsaken their heavenly Father Now this people, that ought to be mine, consult their own wood, and their staff answers them!” For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a-whoring from under their God. In this part of the verse the prophet attempts to account for the extreme folly and heinous sin of Israel, as described in the first clause. It was an evil spirit, some demoniac power, that had inspired them with an insuperable fondness for idolatry, which in prophetic language is spiritual adultery. The consequence was a sad departure from the true God and a sinful wandering away from his worship, notwithstanding his amazing condescension and love by which he placed himself in the relation of a husband towards them.
Hos 4:13
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good. The prophet here enlarges on the sin of idolatry mentioned in the preceding verse, and explains fully how it showed itself in the public life of the people. Two places are specified as scenes of idolatrous worship: one was the tops of mountains and hills; the other under every green tree, here specified as oaks, poplars, and terebinths, whether growing alone or in groves, in vale or upland. The hills and mountain-tops were selected on account of their elevation, as though the worshippers were thus brought nearer to the objects of their adoration; the green trees as affording shade from the scorching heat of an Eastern sun, secrecy for their licentious rites, and a sort of solemn awe associated with such shadow. In such scenes they not only slew victims, but burnt odors in honor of their idols. The resemblance to, if not imitation of, the rites of heathenism in all this is obvious. Among the Greeks the oak was sacred to Jupiter at Dodona, and among the old Britons the Druidical priests practiced their superstitions in the shadow of the yaks. The poplar again was sacred to Hercules, affording a most grateful shade; while in Eze 6:13 we read that “under every thick terebinth” was one of the places where “they did offer sweet savor to their idols.” The inveterate custom of these idolaters is implied in the Piel or iterative form of the verb; the singular of the nouns, under oak and poplar and terebinth, intimates that scene after scene of Israel’s sin passes under the prophet’s review, each exciting his deep indignation; the mention of the goodly shadow seems designed to heighten that feeling of just indignation, as though it came into competition or comparison with “the shadow of the Almighty,” the abiding-place of him that “dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High.” Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses (properly, daughters-in-law) shall commit adultery. primarily signifies “bride,” but for the parents of the bridegroom, “daughter-in-law,” its secondary sense. The bad example of the parents acts upon their children and reacts upon themselves; on their children in causing bad conduct, on themselves by way of chastisements. The parents had been guilty of spiritual whoredom by their idolatry; their daughters and daughters-in-law would commit whoredom in the literal and carnal sense. This would wound the parents’ feelings to the quick and pain them in the tenderest part. Their personal honor would be compromised by such scandalous conduct on the part of their daughters; their family honor would be wounded and the fair fame of posterity tarnished by such gross misconduct on the part of the daughters-in-law. The following observations are made on the last member of this thirteenth verse by the Hebrew commentators: “Because the men of the house go out of the city to the high mountains and under every green tree there to serve idols, therefore their daughters and daughters-in-law have opportunity to commit whoredom and adultery” (Kimchi). To like purpose Aben Ezra writes: “The sense isOn the bare mountains and so on the hills they sacrifice; they say to the priests of Baal that they shall sacrifice; and therefore, because the men go out of the cities in order to burn incense, the daughters and daughters-in-law remain in the houses behind, therefore they commit whoredom.” Somewhat different is the explanation of Rashi: “Because ye associate for idolatry after the manner of the heathen, and the heathen associate with you, and ye form affinities with them, your daughters also who are born to you by the daughters of the heathen conduct themselves after the manner of their mothers, and commit whoredom.”
Hos 4:14
I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery. The spiritual adultery of parents and husbands would be punished by the carnal adultery of daughters and wives; sin would thus be punished by sin. Their own dishonor and disgrace, through the unfaithfulness of persons so near to them, would impress them with a sense of the dishonor done to God, the spiritual Husband of his people; their feeling of pain and shame in consequence would convey to them a clearer notion of the abhorrence which their offences had occasioned to God. But their punishment would become more severe, and their pain intensified by the Divine refusal to avenge them by punishing the lewdness that caused such dishonor. While punishment would prevent the sin and consequent reproach, impunity, or the postponement of punishment, would leave the offenders to go on in their course of sin and shame. Aben Ezra comments on this fourteenth verse as follows: “The sense isIt is not to be wondered at if the daughters commit whoredom; for they themselves, when they go up to the tops of the mountains to burn in-cerise, eat and drink with harlots and commit whoredomall of them. And, behold, the sense is, not that he shall not punish them at all, but he speaks in regard to, i.e. in comparison with, the fathers; for they teach them to commit whoredom doing according to their works. Perhaps the daughters are still little, therefore I shall not punish.” Rashi thinks that this threatening refers to the disuse of the bitter waters of jealousy, so that suspected guilt could not be detected. But there is nothing to intimate such a reference; nor would it be in keeping with the scope of the passage. Again, some, as in the margin of the Authorized Version, read the words, not indicatively, but interrogatively”Shall I not punish,” etc.? This would require such a meaning to be read into the passage as the following: “Assuredly I shall punish them; and not the daughters and daughters-in-law only, but the parents and husbands still more severely, because of their greater criminality.” Equally unsatisfactory is the explanation of Theodoret, who, taking in a good sense, which it has with the accusative, understands it of God’s refusing any protection or preservation of their daughters and spouses from outrage at the hands of a hostile soldiery, so that such sins as they themselves had been guilty in private, would be committed with the females of their family in public. For they themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots. The change of person appears to imply that God turns away with inexpressible disgust from such vileness, and, turning aside to a third party, explains the grounds of his procedure. The Qedesheth were females who devoted themselves to licentiousness in the service of Ashtaroth, the Sidonian Venus. Persons of this description were attached to idol temples and idolatrous worship in heathen lands in ancient times, as in India at the present time. The ‘Speaker’s Commentary’ calls them “devotee-harlots,” and cites an allusion to the custom from the Moabite Stone, as follows: “I did not kill the women and maidens, for I devoted them to Ashtar-kemosh.” After stating the humiliating fact that fathers and husbands in Israel, instead of uniting with their wives in the worship of Jehovah, separated themselves, going aside with these female idolaters for the purpose of lewdness, and shared in their sacrificial feasts, the prophet, or rather God by the prophet, impatient of the recital of such shameless licentiousness, and indignant at such presumptuous sinning, closes abruptly with the declaration of the recklessness, and denunciation of the ruin of all such offenders, in the wordsthe people that doth not understand shall fall; margin, be punished; rather, dashed to the ground, or plunge into ruin (nilbat). Both Aben Ezra and Kimchi give from the Arabic, as an alternative sense of silbat, to fall into error.
Hos 4:15-17
In this section the prophet, as if despairing of any improvement or amendment on the part of Israel, still resolutely bent on spiritual whoredom, addresses an earnest warning to Judah. From proximity to those idolatries and debaucheries so prevalent in this northern kingdom, and from the corruption at least of the court in the southern kingdom during the reigns of Joram, Ahaziah, and Ahaz, Judah was in danger; and hence the prophet turned aside, with words of earnest warning, to the sister kingdom not to involve herself in the same or similar guilt. Rashi’s brief comment here is, “Let not the children of Judah learn their ways.”
Hos 4:15
And come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-avert, nor swear, The Lord liveth. From a solemn warning in general terms, he proceeds to a specific prohibition. The prohibition forbids pilgrimages to places of idol-worship, such as Gilgal and Bethaven; it also forbids a profession of Jehovah-worship to be made by persons inclined to idolatrous practices. Gilgal, now the village of Jiljilia, which had been a school of the prophets in the days of Elijah and Elisha, had, as we may rightly infer from passages in Hoses and Amos, become a seat of idolatrous worship. The Hebrew interpreters confound the Gilgal here referred to with the still more renowned Gilgal between Jericho and the Jordan, where Joshua circumcised the people a second time, and celebrated the Passover, and where, manna failing, the people ate of the old corn of the land. “And why,” asks Kimchi, “to Gilgal? Because at Gilgal the sanctuary was at the first when they entered the land; therefore when they went to worship idols they built high places there for the idols. But with respect to the tribe of Judah, what need has it to go to Gilgal and to leave the house of the sanctuary which is in their own cities?” And Beth-el, now Beitin, had become Beth-avonthe house of God a house of idols, after Jeroboam had set up the calf there. Judah was to eschew those places so perilous to purity of worship; also a practice hypocritical in its nature and highly dangerous in its tendency, namely, confessing Jehovah with the lips, and by a solemn act of attestation indicative of adherence to his worship, but belying that confession by complicity in idolatrous practices, like the peoples who “worshipped Jehovah, but served their own gods.” Kimchi observes as follows: “For ye engage in strange worship, and yet swear by the Name of Jehovah; this is the way of incensing and despising him.”
Hos 4:16
For Israel slideth back as a back, sliding heifer: now the Lord will feed them s, a lamb in a large place. This verse conveys the reason of the warning contained in the preceding; and that reason is the punishment which is to overtake Israel as the consequence of their refractoriness. If this view of the connection be correct, it will help to the right understanding of a difficult passage. The “backsliding,” according to the Authorized Version, is rather “stubbornness,” “intractableness,” or “unmanageableness.” Keil renders it “refractory.” This refractoriness was Israel’s sin; the people would have their own way, and became refractory, like an unmanageable heifer, which rebels upon being trained. Aben Ezra explains (which, by the way, has tsere before the tone syllable) as follows: ” is he who turns aside from the way that is appointed him, so that he does not walk in it. And, behold, he compares Israel to a stubborn cow, with which a man cannot plough.” So also Kimchi: “Like a heifer which goes on a crooked way, and curves itself from under the yoke, that a man cannot plough with it; so Israel are crooked under their God, as they have taken upon them the yoke of the Law and of the command-meats which he commanded them, and curve themselves under the yoke, and break from off them the yoke of the commandments.” Israel rebelled against instruction, waxed stubborn and intractable. They would have their own way, and worshipped according to their own will, in indulging all the while with a high hand in vilest lusts. Now the season of punishment is arrived; and as they refused instruction and rebelled against Divine guidance, God, in just judgment and deserved punishment, leaves them to themselves. Carried into captivity, they may worship what they will, and live as they list. In these circumstances they will resemble a lamb taken away into a wilderness, and left there to range the wild and live at large, but without provision and without protection. Untended by the shepherd’s watchful care, unguarded from ravening wolves or other beasts of prey, that lamb is in a lost and perishing condition. So shall it be with Israel. Aben Ezra gives as an alternative sense: “Now (Jehovah will feed them like a lamb) alone in a wide place, and it wanders to and fro.” Kimchi cites as the opinion of others: “Some say, Now will Jehovah let them feed alone in a wide place, like a lamb which bleats and goes to and fro, and neither rests nor feeds.” Another meaning has been attached to the verse, to the effect that Israel, subdued by chastise-meat, will renounce their stubbornness, and, rendered tractable and tame, become like a lamb, which, brought to feel its helplessness amid a wilderness, requires and receives the shepherd’s care. We much prefer the former.
Hos 4:17
Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. Ephraim being the dominant tribe, gave its name to the northern kingdom. The idols were Ephraim’s folly, and to that they were wedded; and in consequence they are left to their folly, and at the same time surrendered to their fate. They may persist in their folly; they cannot be prevented. “Give him rest,” as the words literally mean, from exhortations and expostulations, from remonstrances and reproofs; he will persist in his folly, prepare for his fate, and perish by his sin. This abandonment of Ephraim proves the desperate nature of his case. Left to his own recklessness, he is rushing towards ruin. Judah is warned to stand aloof from the contagion, lest by interference he might get implicated in the sin and involved in the punishment of Ephraim. The Hebrew commentators express the word rendered “joined to” in the Authorized Version (Hos 4:17) by words importing “yoked to,” “allied with,” and “cleaving to.” Again, , imperative of , is explained by them as follows:Rashi: “Leave off, O prophet, and prophesy not to reprove him, for it is of no use.” Aben Ezra: “Let him alone till God shall chastise him; perhaps his eyes shall then open.” Kimchi: “Jehovah says to the prophet, Cease to reprove him, for it is of no use … As a man who is angry with his fellow, because he will not hearken to him when he reproves him, and says, Since thou hearkenest not to me, I will cease for ever to reprove thee.”
Hos 4:18, Hos 4:19
The first of these two verses gives a picture of the degeneracy of the times; the second predicts the destruction that would ensue. Their drink is sour (margin, is gone): they have committed whoredom continually. If the first clause be taken literally,
(1) it denotes a charge of drunkenness preferred against Ephraim. To this vice the people of the northern kingdom, as is well known, were addicted: the wine, from oft-repeated potations, became sour in the stomach and produced loathsome eructations.
(2) Some, connecting closely the first and second clauses, and translating as in the margin, explain the meaning to be that “when their intoxication is gone they commit whoredom.” But though drunkenness and debauchery frequently go together, it is rather during the former than afterwards that the latter is indulged in.
(3) The first clause had better be understood figuratively, and the latter either literally or figuratively, or both. Thus the sense is the degeneracy of principle among the people in general, or rather among the principal men of that day. By the finest wine becoming vapid, the prophet represents the leading men of the nation, on whom so much depended and from whom so much might be expected, as becoming unprincipled, and as being addicted to immorality or idolatry, or probably both (hazneh hiznu): “whoring they have committed whoredom.”
(1) Her rulers (margin, shields) with shame do love, Give ye; or rather,
(2) her shields lore, love shame. The first takes for , as imperative of , to give, and should rather be, “Her shields love, ‘ Give yeshame, as there is no preposition before the word “shame;” even thus it is awkward. Most modern expositors take as a contraction of , and so a repetition of part of the full verb preceding; thus: , equivalent to “loved, loved.” Ewald, Delitzsch, and Pusey understand it so; the latter says this “is probably one of the earliest forms of the intensive verb, repeating a part of the verb itself with its inflection.” And Keil calls it “a construction resembling the pealal form.” Among the sebirin, or conjectural readings, we find both words united into one; thus: , equivalent to “mightily love.” The shields are the princes, or natural protectors of the state, as in Psa 47:9, “The princes of the people are gathered together.; for the shields of the earth be. long unto God.” The shame they loved was the sin which is a shame to either princes or people, causes shame, and ends in shame. Isaiah expounds the thought (in Isa 1:22), a comparison of which confirms the above exposition.
(1) The wind hath bound her up in her wings; or,
(2) she hath bound up the wind with her in her skirts.
In the one case the wind is the strong storm-wind of Divine wrath that will seize on Ephraim, wrap her up with its wings, and carry her away. In the other, Ephraim wraps up the wind, that is, disappointment, the result of her sin, in the fold of her skirt. The
(1) translation of the first clause of verse 19 is supported by Rashi: “The storm takes her in its wings, as that bird which the wind does not let rest until it makes him go far away; so the enemies will come upon them and carry them into exile.” Translation
(2) is favored by Aben Ezra and Kimchi; the former says, “As the man who binds the wind in the folds of his robe without finding anything therein.” And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. Frustrated in her hopes, and disappointed by the idols, from which she hoped so much and got so little, she is ashamed of the sacrifices she offered them; not of the altars (LXX), for the preposition min is indispensable.
HOMILETICS
Hos 4:1-5
Israel’s sin and consequent suffering.
The prophet is Jehovah’s mouth-piece, and as such he calls on his fellow-men to hear the word of the Lord; he thus speaks by commission and with authority. Having thus claimed an attentive hearing in his Master’s Name, he denounces Israel’s sins, and declares the judgments that await them. In this discharge of his duty the prophet has a twofold object in view. By his timely and truthful warning he hopes to reclaim some, at least, of his countrymen, and in any case he means to leave all without excuse. God by his ambassador displays in this way both his mercy and his justice. His mercy in that he speaks to them before he strikes themhe warns them of their danger while it is yet impending, and before they are actually involved in it; his justicefor he condescends to debate the matter with his people, and convince them of the reasonableness of his dealings, that they may see that he does not contend with them without cause, and that when he is forced to execute sentence for their sills, that sentence has been well deserved.
I. RELIGION IS THE SURE FOUNDATION OF MORALITY. True religion begins with a saving knowledge of God. This is the fountain-head; moral duties are the salutary streams that issue from it. Godliness is the source of uprightness; piety towards God produces propriety of conduct in demeaning ourselves and in dealing with others; where the right knowledge of God is absent, we need not expect truth or mercy among men. On the contrary, a profession of piety without the performance of duty to our fellows God will disown; without truth and mercy religion is only a pretence, a painful hypocrisy. Religion, then, is the rich soil in which virtue strikes root and its growth is maintained.
II. THE RELATION OF THE VIRTUES HERE SPECIFIED. With regard to mercy and truth, Kimchi has well remarked that “no truth” imports that there is “no one doing the truth, and no one speaking the truth;” while on the words “nor mercy,” he adds, “Hew much [does it follow thence] that there is no mercy, for mercy is the superabundance of goodness over and above what is meet; and as to him who does not maintain either truth or justice, how much less will he show mercy?” The combination of truth, mercy, and knowledge of God may be compared with the triple duties specified by Micah, as doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God; and with the apostolic triad of living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. In each of these our duty to ourselves, to our neighbor, and to our God is expressed; so, too, in the verse before us. While mercy mainly respects the duty we owe our fellow-man, and knowledge of God our relation to him, truth has to do with a man himself as well as with his neighbor. We are to be true to conscience, seeking to have it enlightened, striving to keep it clear, and having the courage of our convictions. We are to be true to ourselves, in our strangely composite personality; true to the soul by seeking its salvation, for “what shall it profit a man, should he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” true to the body by preserving its purity, maintaining its sobriety, and securing its health, that we may possess a sound mind in a sound body. Of course, truth has large scope in our intercourse with others. We are required to be truthful in our utterances, true to our promises, true in all our engagements, true and just in all our dealings. The duty of mercy, in a world where sin has wrought such ruin and caused such misery, is obvious. As sinful creatures, we need the mercy of our Creator; as suffering, sorrowful beings, we are strongly obligated to the exercise of mercy towards each other.
“The quality of mercy is not strain’d:
It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:
The mightiest in the mightiest;”
while
“In the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation.”
III. OMISSIONS SOON MAKE WAY FOR COMMISSIONS. When the duties of truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God were omitted, the grossest sins succeeded and took their place. But we must notice the expression, “in the land;” this appears to mean more than the general prevalence of such through all this country; it seems to hint at Israel’s ingratitude. God had given them that good land, where God should have had grateful worshippers and a holy people. Kimchi makes the following judicious comment on this subject: “I have a controversy with them (the inhabitants of the land of Israel), for I gave them the land conditionally that they should exercise justice and judgment; and herein I made a covenant with them, that my eyes should be upon it from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. But since they acted in a way contrary to thisperjuring, stealing, and committing adulteryI also will act towards them in a way contrary to what I promised, and hide my face from them; and the land shall mourn, and all the dwellers in it shall languish.” The sins committed by Israel at this period evidence an almost disorganized state of society. The most important duties were omitted and the most enormous sins committed; nor was this strange, when there was no knowledge of God in the land; and yet this very circumstance was the great aggravation both of their omissions and commissions. It was the privilege of the highly favored inhabitants of that land to know God; as we read, “In Judah is God known: his Name is great in Israel. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion.” But while both tables of the Law were transgressed, and fearfully transgressed, the violations of the sixth commandment were something shocking. This black feature in Israel’s iniquity is made prominent by the prophet, and specially noticed by the Hebrew expositors. Rashi says, “They multiply the shedding of bloods until the blood of one slain man touches the blood of his neigh-bout;” and Kimchi’s comment is, “The bloods of the slain touch one another from abundance.” Though we may not be able to fix with certainty the period referred to, it may with considerable probability be conjectured that about this time the numerous and dreadful regicides occurred. Shallum slaying Zechariah; Menahem slaying Shallure; Pekah slaying Pekahiah; and Hoshea slaying Pekah; so that “the land was polluted with blood.”
IV. HUMAN SINFULNESS DRAPES NATURE IN WEEDS OF WOE. We have here at once an expansion and illustration of the sentiment of the psalm (Psa 107:33, Psa 107:34), “He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.” Man and beast, fish and fowl alike, are sufferers in consequence of human sin. The whole creation groaneth and suffereth together in consequence of the creature having been subjected to vanity. “When,” says Jerome, on this verse, “the inhabitant is removed, the beasts also, and fowls of heaven, and fishes of the sea shall fail; and even the dumb elements shall feel the wrath of God.” Many actual illustrations of this state of things, we doubt not, had taken place in the history of Israel, as in the days of Ahab and many a time besides. When rain was long delayed and drought ensued, the land mourned and its inhabitants languished.
V. PERVERSENESS IS A PREPARATIVE FOR DESTRUCTION. When people become so froward and perverse as to be beyond reproof, so that God says of them, as he does in effect of Israel in this passage, “Let them proceed and reproof cease,” they are on the very verge of a fearful precipice. Israel had gone so far towards that perilous position that no private person was permitted to warn, if so disposed, or reason with his neighbor; not even the priest, God’s appointed minister, in those days dared venture to do so, or if he did it was labor lost. They stumble and fall, teacher and taught, prophet and people together. As also both night and day alike; by day, when danger was least and the disgrace greatest; in the night season, when darkness made destruction inevitable. Worst of all, no helper to be hoped for; or, rather, the mothershe that might be expected to hold up or lift up her childrenis herself doomed. That mother, whether Samaria, the mother city, or the commonwealth itself, the mother of them all, was devoted to the silence of destruction.
Hos 4:6-10
Priestly neglect and its consequences.
This section deals with the sin and punishment of the priests, as the preceding one had described the sin and punishment of the people. The priests here referred to were probably Levitical priests still scattered through the northern kingdom, since God speaks of them as his priests; while those which Jeroboam appointed out of other tribes than that of Levi, and from all, even the lowest, ranks of society, were rather priests for the worship of the calves.
I. MINISTERIAL UNFAITHFULNESS. The ignorance of the people is here attributed to priestly negligence. They disliked and despised the knowledge of God for themselves, and consequently had no heart for dispensing it to others. The means available for knowing God they did not take advantage of, and accordingly their own ignorance unfitted them for instructing the people. Idleness combined with indifference in the ease of these unfaithful ministers of religion, so that they were neither rightly instructed themselves nor capable of instructing others; while their carelessness increased their incapacity. It is incumbent on all public teachers to be diligent in their private studies; and a fearful responsibility is incurred by those who, appointed to instruct others in religious matters, refuse to take the pains necessary to qualify them for the efficient discharge of such important duty. It is a grievous sin for ministers of religion to serve God with what costs them nothing, and so to feed God’s people with husks instead of the finest of the wheat. How different is the picture our Lord gives us of one who is faithful to such an important trust! “Therefore,” he says, “every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.”
II. THE PUNISHMENT CORRESPONDS TO THEIR SIN. They had rejected Divine knowledge; God rejects their priestly services. They had forgotten the Law from disuse, no doubt having previously forsaken it; God threatens to forget them, and, what was more galling, their children after them, so that the priesthood would be lost to them forever. Wunsche and some others insist that it is the people and not the priesthood that is here addressed; that the whole nation is addressed as a single person, and that consequently the children are the individual members of the nation. Both priests and people were guilty in this matter. Both had shut their eyes upon the light, and the light was at length withdrawn. Both had said, “Depart from us: we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;” and God in turn had virtually said to them, “Depart from me: I know you not.” The priests, whose duty was to teach the people knowledge, had been unable or unwilling to do so, and the people remained in ignorance; the people, who should have received the Law from the priests’ lips, are represented as striving with, and gainsaying, their spiritual instructors. The consequence was that they destroyed themselves, for the verb nidmu has here the proper reflexive sense of the Niphal; nor is it without knowledge, but because of the want of (mibbeli) the necessary knowledge. The punishment, if it be not a re-echo, yet reminds us of 1Sa 15:26, where Samuel says to Saul, “For thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.” The worst feature of the case was their gross and grievous ingratitude; for just in proportion as,, they increased in numbers and in wealth they multiplied transgression; just as of old when Jeshurun waxed fat, he kicked,” Kimchi, indeed, in mentioning the exposition of those who regarded the increase as financial rather than numerical, says, “Some interpret ‘according to their increase’ as equivalent to as I increased them in wealth and riches so they sinned after the manner of ‘when Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked.'” Their either in number or richesand both we think, are includedministered to the sins of an unthankful people, and afforded occasions of trespassing yet more and more against God. Justly, then, did God turn to shame that which he had given Israel for the Divine glory, but which Israel used for vain-glory. “He,” says Pusey,” not only gives them shame instead of their glory; he makes the glory itself the means and occasion of their shame. Beauty becomes the occasion of degradation; pride is proverbially near a fall; ‘vaulting ambition overleaps itself and falls on the ‘other side;’ riches and abundance of population tempt nations to wars which become their destruction, or they invite other and stronger nations to prey upon them.” Jehoash’s reproof of Amaziah and the result, as recorded in 2Ki 14:9-14, furnishes a good illustration of this subject.
III. GAIN TAKES THE PLACE OF GODLINESS. Whichever interpretation be adopted, the general sense here remains the same. The priests pandered to the sins of the people, and, lest they should lose their influence with them, they connived at and countenanced their sins when they should have sharply censured them. Or they encouraged sin that they might share the sin offerings presented in expiation. What was this in either case but to live by and upon the sin of a people sinful and laden with iniquity? Calvin, who makes the priests and people share the sin in common, says, “There is a collusion between the priests and the people. How so? Because the priests were the associates of robbers, and gladly seized on what was brought; and so they carried on no war, as they ought to have done, with vices, but, on the contrary, urged only the necessity of sacrifices; and it was enough if men brought things plentifully to the temple. The people also themselves showed their contempt for God; for they imagined that, provided they made satisfaction by their ceremonial performances, they would be exempt from punishment. Thus, then, there was an ungodly compact between the priests and the people; the Lord was mocked in the midst of them.”
IV. WHAT IS GOT BY SIN GIVES NO SATISFACTION. “Ill got, ill gone,” is a common proverb and a very pithy one; so with these faithless priests in their ministrations for a sinful people. They said in effect, “The more sin the more sacrifices, and so the greater share of our profits;” but there was no satisfaction in such things and no success by our share of profits;” but there was no satisfaction in such things and no success by them.
1. The pleasures of sin are mostly sensual; they last only for a seasona short one; and they afford no real satisfaction even when they do last. “What profit,” asks the apostle, “had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.”
2. The priests, instead of reproving sin, did practically recommend it by their own godless conduct; and the people were well pleased to have it so. Alike in sin, however, they shall be alike in suffering; they helped each other in sin, they must have their share in punishment. The priests abused their position by neither practicing piety themselves nor inculcating its practice on others; the people, freed from all restraint and having no fear of God before their eyes, sinned with a high hand. Both ran to an excess of riot, and both are to be punished with equal severity; neither can reasonably expect to be spared.
3. The root of the evil was their leaving off to take heed to the Lord. The word shamar, here rendered “to take heed to,” is very expressive; it means to have a sharp eye upon, then to observe attentively. Applied to a person, it signifies to have the eye steadily set on his will, to meet his wishes, to obey. Thus it is said of one waiting on his master, as in Pro 27:18, “He that waiteth on his master shall be honored;” while in the hundred and twenty-third psalm we have a good practical illustration of the observance indicated: “Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us.”
Hos 4:11-14
Faults in the life breed errors in the brain, and errors n the brain produce in turn faults in the life.
Thus it was with Israel. Debauchery and drunkenness, and this to an extreme degree, had darkened the understanding, hardened the heart, paralyzed the will, and seared the conscience. In this enfeebled state of their intellectual and moral powers, they had recourse, in cases of doubt or difficulty, not to the high priest, or prophets of God, or Divine Word, for guidance and direction, but to their images of wood or idolatrous divining staff.
I. SIN LEADS TO SIN. If sorrows love a train, sins like a series. How often the culprit endeavors to conceal his guilt by lying, and thus adds one sin to another! Lewdness and intemperance, as here intimated, frequently go hand in hand. Since, then, sins are so linked to each other, our safety as well as our duty is to resist the very beginnings and buddings of evil in the soul. Every time sin is indulged the power of resistance is weakened, until men become the prey of the evil one, and, after a few weak wrestlings of the spirit against the flesh, the heart is easily taken captive. An effectual way of avoiding vice or any vicious course is to practice the opposite virtues. This is vastly more than forming a theory of virtue in one’s thoughts; for, as Butler has shown, “from our very faculty of habits passive impressions, by being repeated, grow weaker,” but “practical habits are formed and strengthened by repeated acts.”
II. THE FOLLY OF SIN. The stupidity of which Israel gave evidence is traced to a spirit of whoredoms. The ruach, or spirit, in this passage somewhat resembles the personification of Ate by the Greeks, which in Homer denotes the infatuation or spirit of error that prompts to crime, then the crime committed, and also the punishment that overtakes crime. In the allegoric representation of Ate by Homer she has different and apparently contradictory attributes: as infatuation, taking possession of the mind; and blinding its faculties through passion. She has tender feet, does not tread on the ground, but moves gently and noiselessly over men’s heads, surprising them in their unguarded moments, to their unspeakable injury. Again, in the commission of crime her gait is marked by strength of body and firmness of step and strong excitement, while in the punishment of crime the retribution is sudden, powerful, and certain. In these two capacities, that is to say, the perpetration of crime and its punishment, she is vigorous and firm of step. To the spirit of whoredom as an evil spirit of infatuation, like this Greek Ate, bewilderingly misleading men to the perpetration of evil and making them obnoxious to punishment, the prophet traces Israel’s stupidity in consulting idols and similar means of divination on the one hand, and their sin in departing from God, the loving Husband and rightful Head of his people, on the other. Thus the spirit of whoredoms may be compared with similar Scripture expressions, such as a spirit of jealousy, a lying spirit, an unclean spirit; or it may denote the vehement spirit with which men, bent on idolatry and adulteryadultery both in the spiritual and carnal sensewere hurried along; while the faithlessness of the adulteress fitly represents the spiritual infidelity of Israel.
III. ZEAL CONTRARY TO KNOWLEDGE. The people of Israel fancied that they were worshipping God on the high hills and under the tall trees; but this was ignorant will-worship, or worse. God had appointed Jerusalem as the place of his worship, and had commanded sacrifices and incense to be offered there, and nowhere else.
1. The multiplication of altars and memorials elsewhere, however praiseworthy Israel might imagine it, was really a violation of the Divine command; and so God regarded it, for “behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams? Will-worship may have a show of wisdom in it, and may be well meaning, yet it is will-worship all the same. If we will worship God acceptably, then it must be in the place he has appointed and in the manner he has himself prescribed. Mountains have often been associated with sacred service and sacred scenes. Thus the sacrifice of Isaac was to be on a mountain; the giving of the Law was on a mountain; the temple was erected on a mountain; the transfiguration, the crucifixion, and the ascension, were each on a mountain. But mountains became scenes of idolatry and sin, and therefore God, when he forbade such worship, forbade the scenes thereof.
2. Israel’s zeal was worthy of a better cause. That zeal characterized their sacrifices, for it is the intensive form of the verb that is usedyezabbechu (Piel), not yizbechu (Qal); it distinguished their burning of incense, for again it is first yeqatteru, not yaqteru. “The words express,” says Pusey, “that this which God forbade they did diligently; they sacrificed much and diligently; they burned incense much and diligently.” Nor was this all. They performed with equal diligence both the important parts of the servicethe sacrifice and the burning of incense.
3. The blood of the sacrifice signified atonement; the pleasant smell of the incense typified service acceptably offered. “Incense, being fragrant, represented that which is pleasing, and which has in it acceptability; and when offered along with prayer, praise, or any feeling of the soul, exhibited a type of the merits of the Surety enveloping his people’s services.”
IV. MEN‘S OWN SINS ARE OFTEN MADE THEIR SCOURGES. Never did the great poet of human nature give expression to a truer sentiment than that
“The gods are just, and of our pleasant ricer
Make instruments to scourge us.”
This was eminently the case with Israel. They had committed spiritual adultery, renouncing their subjection to him by violation of the marriage covenant, and thereby forfeiting that protection secured to them by the conditions of that covenant. “They,” says an old writer,” who commit idolatry, and follow false religions, and so do renounce subjection to God, and put themselves from under his directions, do also put themselves from under his protection; for in both these respects it is true that Israel went a-whoring from under their God.” They prostituted themselves to idols, and withdrew from under God’s authority, casting off the obedience they owed him and the reverence which was his due. Nay, more, fathers of families and husbands at the head of households were not only guilty of spiritual whoredom or idolatry; they were guilty of carnal whoredom with those vile priestesses to abominable idols and prostitutes to the worshippersdevotee-harlots who had consecrated themselves to a life of sin, as though such shameful desecration of themselves were consecration to Divine service. Now they are in turn disgraced and distressed by the whoredom of their daughters and the adultery of their wives; nor are they allowed to comfort themselves by the hope of a speedy cessation of such corruption, for, unchecked by chastisement, the licentiousness continues, prosperity in sin tempting to perseverance. “So,” says Pusey, “through their own disgrace and bitter griefs, in the persons of those whose honor they most cherished, they should learn how ill they themselves had done, in departing from him who is the Father and Husband of every soul. The sins of the fathers descend very often to the children, both in the way of nature, that the children inherit strong temptations to their parents’ sin, and by way of example, that they greedily imitate, often exaggerate them.”
Hos 4:15-19
A passing word of warning is addressed to Judah.
The prophet pauses in his dark catalogue of Israel’s sins and sorrows, and, turning aside, speaks a word of warning to Judah, that the people of the southern kingdom might be deterred from the crimes and awed by the calamities of their northern neighbors. In the large heart and catholic spirit of the prophet both Judahite and Israelite found a place; he had a message from God for both.
I. PLACES PERILOUS TO PIETY SHOULD BE SHUNNED. Judah had hitherto maintained their superiority to Israel both in religious worship and moral conduct; but their proximity to such neighbors was fraught with peril. Evil communications exercise a fearful potency in corrupting good manners; sensual indulgences, especially in the guise and under the name of religion, present strong inducements; scenes of sin have not infrequently a fatal glamour about them. If Judah would steer clear of the rocks on which the faith of Israel had been wrecked, they must keep aloof from such places of peril and scenes of dissipation as Gilgal and Beth-avon. Wantonness and crime had proved disastrous to Israel, therefore let Judah beware and take warning in time. if men are in earnest in their prayers and in their efforts to avoid temptation, they must keep away from those places and those persons that would tend to lead them into temptation. Hypocritical profession with irreligious practice was both detrimental and dangerous. After this friendly warning to Judah, Hosea resumes his complaint about Israel.
II. PUNISHMENT IS OFTEN A DARK REFLECTION OF MEN‘S SINS. Israel had refused God’s yoke, comparatively easy as it was, and started backward or turned sideward instead of drawing forward. They declined God’s service, and determined to have full liberty and license. They got their desire, but it was given them in judgment. The limits of the law and its straitness provoked their resistance; now they will be permitted to wander forth as captives through the wide wilderness of the East, or as exiles with all the world before them. They had been strong and stubborn as a headstrong, unmanageable heifer; now they are to become solitary as a lamb shut out from its flock or separated from its dam, and in a state as helpless as that same weak creature when exposed to savage beasts of prey, and left alone amid the wasteness of a wilderness. Ephraim, turning away her affections from her Maker as her Husband, got attached to idols, and clave fast to them; and so they are given up to their own hearts’ lusts. They don’t wish to part with their beloved idols, or to be parted from them; nor shall they. They are incorrigible, and God gives the m up as beyond reproof and without hopeabsolutely desperate. They wished to be left to themselves and their own ways, and so they are; not even Judah is to interfere with them. They are to be let go on without check from conscience, or reproof from prophet, or warning from the Divine Word, or any interference by Providence. “It is a sad and sore judgment for any man to be let alone in sin: for God to say concerning a sinner,” He is joined to his idols, the world and the flesh; he is incurably proud, covetous, or profane, an incurable drunkard or adulterer,let him alone; conscience, let him alone; minister, let him alone; providences, let him alone. Let nothing awaken him till the flames of hell do it. The father corrects not the rebellious son any more when he determines to disinherit him. “Those that are not disturbed in their sin will be destroyed for their sin.”
III. PERSISTENCE IN EVIL PROVOCATIVE OF DIVINE DESERTION.
1. Persistence in evil. Idolaters are so attached to their idol-gods that they will not give them up, however hideous those idols or however vile those gods may be.
(1) The people of Israel were bound to their idols; as another prophet says, “They hold fast deceit;” they are even as loath to change as to give up their idols. “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?” The word in the original is the same as that used in Gen 14:1-24. of the kings who came together as confederates unto the valley of Siddim; and never was there a more unholy alliance than that of Israel and Israel’s idols, or that of sinners and their beloved lusts in general. The word is also used of fascination, by binding magical knots; and never was magical knot tighter or fascination stronger than that of an easily besetting sin over its victim. Men have been found to sacrifice their best and dearest interests for the sake of some low lust, some evil propensity, or some sinful habit.
(2) A great disproportion. “But,” says an old writer, “will idolaters thus adhere to their idols? will their hearts be united to them? are they willing to be one spirit with them? Oh, how much more should we be joined to the Lord our God, to Jesus Christ [the Savior, and to the Holy Spirit the Sanctifierthe glorious triune Jehovah], to be as one spirit with him! That exhortation of Barnabas (Act 11:23), that with full ‘purpose of heart they should cleave unto the Lord,’ is seasonable at all times.”
2. Divine desertion. This was implied in the injunction to whomsoever it was addressed.
(1) If addressed to Judah, as it seems, it enjoins them to withdraw from Israel, though their countrymen and brethrento have nothing more to do with them, to leave them to themselves, to let them alone. Few things are worse to bear than spiritual isolation. When the saints withdraw from a man because of the stubbornness of his rebellion against God, and his incorrigible willfulness in the pursuit of sin, it is a heavy judgment from God; it is equal in bitterness to the curse pronounced on the man who loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ, and of whom it is said, “Let him be Anathema-Maranatha.” As if it were said, “Let a curse rest on the devoted head of such a one; let him be left to himself, deserted by the saints and servants of God; in a word, let him alone till the coming of the Lord, and the Lord will deal with him.”
(2) If the injunction is addressed to the prophet, it means that he is to take no further trouble with Ephraim, and cast no more pearls before swine; that he is to cease his ministry in that direction, and shake the very dust off his feet as a testimony against such wayward rebels. So when ministers have exhausted all their powers of persuasion, and all the varied resources of admonition, warning, entreaty, remonstrance with stout-hearted, refractory sinners, a time comes when they must just let them alone, leaving them to be dealt with by the Maser at his coming.
(3) But, worst of all, God himself lets them alone; and when he does so, it is a token of their rejection. A father has used all legitimate means to reclaim his profligate, prodigal, or rebellious son; and when all has proved in vain, he is forced to say, “I have done with him; I disown him; I will have nothing more to do with him; I will leave him to himself, and let him alone.” So God lets men alone when he gives them over to themselves, leaving them to their own devices, to their lusts, to their evil ways, to their doings that are not good. “They would none of me,” saith God, “so I gave them up to their own counsels.” The Spirit of the living God has striven with that man to turn him away from his injustice, or profanity, or drunkenness, or impurity, or hypocrisy; but he has resisted the Spirit, stifled the voice of conscience, and gone on in his way of wickedness, till God, long-suffering though he be, and full of infinite loving-kindness, says at last, “My Spirit shall not always strive. Let him that is filthy be filthy still; let him that is unjust be unjust still.”
(4) Consider the dreadful import of this brief sentence”Let him alone.” It is as if God said, “Let him alonehe is rushing on ruin; let no barrier interpose to stop him; let him take his own way. Hitherto, and for long, he has been checked by the restraints of Providence; now let him alone.” It is all very well when a man is at ease, in safety, or among his friends, to let him alone; but when he is rushing into the sweltering tide of ocean, or into the blazing fire of a widespread conflagration, or in among most deadly enemies, to let him alone is to consign him to destruction. It is not necessary that God should send his power to overwhelm us, in his justice to condemn us, or his wrath to consume us; he has only to let us alone, and our destruction is inevitable. When he let Adam alone, leaving him to himself, he undid himself and his posterity; when he let Hezekiah alone, what misery that good king brought upon himself and his subjects!
(5) Let the fear of this terrible Lord God awe us! Beware of committing willful sin, lest God should say, “Let him alone.” Dread of being thus let alone is a sure sign that God has not let us alone, and safe way of keeping us from being let alone. May the good Lord preserve us from such a fearful fate!
HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN
Hos 4:1-5
The Lord’s lawsuit.
The introduction to the Book of Hoses consists of a symbolical narrative, contained in Hosea 1-3. The body of the book is occupied with discourses, which are full of mingled reproaches, threatenings, and promises. Hos 4:1-19. evidently reflects the condition of the nation during the interregnum which followed the death of Jeroboam II. The key-word of the first strophe (Hos 4:1-5) is the word “controversy” (Hos 4:1), used in the sense of a legal actiona suit at law. Jehovah represents himself as prosecuting Israel for breach of contract.
I. THE SUMMONS. (Hos 4:1) A solemn covenant had been concluded at Sinai between God and the chosen nation. It had the Decalogue for its basis, and it had been ratified by sacrifice (Exodus 20-24). But the people of the ten tribes had infringed the covenant, and exposed themselves (taking the figure of the passage) to legal proceedings for breach of contract. The summons, however, was not served without extreme provocation. For the Lord is not litigious. He is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy” (Psa 103:8). We shall see from the indictment that almost every obligation of the sacred compact had been violated.
II. THE INDICTMENT. (Hos 4:1, Hos 4:2) It is a tremendous one. There are two weighty counts in it, and together they show that by this time the very bonds of society in Israel had been dissolved.
1. Religion was dead. (Hos 4:1) “No truth.” “Truth” may here be taken to cover the entire masculine side of the religious character, and to include all such strong virtues as veracity, faithfulness, integrity, righteousness, immutability. To love truth is one of the first duties of religion. “Igor mercy.” This word represents the feminine side of piety, and includes such graces as pity, clemency, kindness, sympathy. These fatal defects were due to the lack of” knowledge of God in the land.” Mercy and truth are glorious perfections of the Divine nature, and their existence as virtues of social ethics depends upon right conceptions regarding him. But Israel had lost the knowledge of Jehovah. The calf-shrines had been her ruin. The image-worship had destroyed the spiritual service of God. And the failure of the heart knowledge led to the failure of head-knowledge also, and that in turn to the loss of all virtue. How sad that there should be “no knowledge of God in the land.” For was it not the land of Immanuel, and were not its citizens “a people near unto him”? How dreadful such an indictment against the nation of whom the psalmist exultingly sings, “In Judah is God known: his Name is great in Israel” (Psa 76:1)!
2. Immorality was rampant. (Hos 4:2) The sin of Jeroboam I; in setting up the golden calves and encouraging the systematic violation of the second commandment, had become the fruitful source of disobedience to the whole moral Law. It had paved the way for the deeper apostasy of Baalism (1Ki 16:31); and, the first two commandments being overturned, little respect was any longer paid to the others. Hos 4:2 presents a picture of the eleven years which followed the death of Jeroboam II; when the forces of revolution and anarchy were struggling for the upper hand. Then the land was full of perjury and violence. All kinds of evil broke forth like a flood. The third commandment, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, were alike disregarded. One deed of blood trod upon the heels of another; assassination following assassination, and slaughter avenging slaughter. The character of the people, and of their prophets and priests, was hopelessly bad. Reproof would be in vain (Hos 4:4). The men of Israel were as contumacious as those who refused to obey the priest when he gave judgment in Jehovah’s Name (Deu 17:12). Indeed, the sin of the whole kingdom, which began with the renunciation of the Aaronical priesthood, may be symbolically described as that of” striving with the priest.” And now, at last, even the very mercy of God had to be withdrawn from the nation.
III. THE JUDGMENT. (Hos 4:3-5) The Lord does not cite and plead in vain. He is “justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges.” The punishment of Israel’s sin is to be universal and very terrible. The judgment is to fall upon:
1. The soil. (Hos 4:3) The threatening here is that of a universal drought. The very ground is to be cursed because of the people’s guilt. The famine is to be one of fearful severity. In a sense, the soil of Palestine may be said to be lying under that visitation yet. Canaan is naturally “a fruitful land; ‘ but God has turned it “into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwelt therein.”
2. The lower creatures. Animal life is to decline by reason of the drought. The brute creation shall be reduced to an extremity of hunger on account of the people’s sin.
3. The people themselves. They are to be punished with:
(1) Loss of health. “Every one that dwelleth therein shall languish “-the physical frame losing strength and tone, and “joy being withered away from the sons of men” (Joe 1:12).
(2) Loss of food, due to the breaking of the two staffs of lifethe failure of the harvests and the destruction of the animals.
(3) Loss of grace (Hos 4:4). Expostulation with the people would be useless. They hated reproof. God’s Spirit had ceased to strive with Ephraim; he was “joined to idols” (Hos 4:17). The men of Israel were so desperately wicked that it was “impossible to renew them again unto repentance.”
(4) Loss of life (Hos 4:5). “Evil shall slay the wicked.” The people of the ten tribes, with their false prophets, are to perish in their sins. The slaughter is to be continuous, neither day nor night being free from it. It is also to be indiscriminate, and at last universal. And the loss of temporal life is only the shadow of deeper spiritual loss, beyond in eternity.
4. The nation as such. (Hos 4:5) “I will destroy thy mother.” The Israelitish state was the “mother” of the people; and already, by reason of the family wickedness, she is driving fast along the highway to destruction. These closing words, indeed, are her funeral knell.
CONCLUSION. Two lessons of this passage are specially prominent, viz.
(1) the essential connection between religion and morality;
(2) the inevitable connection between national sin and national suffering. Wherever the right knowledge of God is wanting, there sin and Satan are sure to triumph. Ancient Greece gave to Europe the glorious beginnings both of political and intellectual life and was herself resplendent with the choicest triumphs of literature and art; yet some of her wisest philosophers countenanced the practice of unmentionable vices. The sun never shone upon a more brilliant company of scholars, poets, philosophers, orators, jurists, and litterateurs, than that which adorned the court of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome; yet during the Augustan age the Roman people were plunging into depths of moral degradation which ultimately led to the ruin of the empire. On the other hand, when the general overthrow of the continental monarchs took place in 1848, and the throne of Great Britain remained as stable as ever, M. Guizot said one day to Lord Shaftesbury, “I will tell you what saved your empire. It was not your constable; it was not your army; it was not your statesmen. It was the deep, solemn, religious atmosphere that still is breathed over the whole people of England.” For nations, knowledge of God and acceptance of his salvation are necessary, in order to the prevalence of that righteousness which is the source of national stability. And for each citizen in like manner, “This is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent.”C.J.
Hos 4:6-14
Israel’s guilt and punishment.
Priests and people were guilty alike, and would be overtaken by one common doom.
I. THE SIN OF THE PRIESTS.
1. They rejected the knowledge of God (Hos 4:6). They did not engage in the study of the Divine Law, and their lives were a violation of its precepts.
2. They consequently failed to teach the Law to the people (Hos 4:6).
3. They connived at the national idolatry, on account of the material profit which they obtained from it (Hos 4:8). The calf-worship brought them many sacrificial fees; so the priests, instead of rebuking the iniquity, “set their heart” upon its continuance.
II. THE SIN OF THE PEOPLE.
1. They willfully forgot the Law of God (Hos 4:6).
2. The more prosperous they became externally, the more grievously they sinned (Hos 4:7).
3. They addicted themselves to idolatrous divination, using sometimes teraphim, and sometimes divining rods (Hos 4:12). In worshipping wooden gods, they showed themselves to be at once wooden-headed and wooden-hearted (Psa 115:8).
4. They practiced the sensual rites of nature-worship with the temple prostitutes of Ashtaroth, and even were so shameless as sometimes to appear with them at the altar (verses. 13, 14). Impurity in one’s religion is often joined with uncleanness of body.
III. THE DOOM THREATENED UPON BOTH. (Hos 4:9)
1. The priests and their sons would be deprived of their office, and the people would lose their high prerogative of being a priestly nation (Hos 4:6).
2. The glory of the kingdom would be turned into shame by reason of the loss of the numbers, wealth, and power in which they gloried (Hos 4:7).
3. Their sin would also become its own punishment (Hos 4:10, Hos 4:11). The Lord would cause them to “eat of the fruit of their own way.” The result would be surfeit, not satisfaction. Their sin would be their torment.
4. God would “give them up to vile affections;” he would cease to correct them for their idolatry and licentiousness, and thus visit them with reprobation (Hos 4:14).
CONCLUSION. Hos 4:11 contains the solemn statement of a great moral truth respecting all sin, and which is specially applicable to sins of sensuality. Who can place confidence in the moral judgments of an adulterer or a fornicator? How sad when such men occupy positions of influence in Church or state!
“Beware of lust; it doth pollute and foul
Whom God in baptism washed with his own blood:
It blots thy lesson written in thy soul;
The holy lines cannot be understood.
How dare those eyes upon a Bible look,
Much less towards God, whose lust is all their book!”
(George Herbert)
C.J.
Hos 4:9
Like people, like priest.
In this passage’ the Lord charges the priests of the ten tribes with having grievously abetted the idolatry and immorality which were rampant in Israel; and in the verse before us he declares that, as people and priest have been one in guilt, they shall be one also in punishment. When the judgment falls, there shall be no “benefit of clergy.” The four words of the text sound like a proverb (Isa 24:2). We may justly view them as an apothegm respecting the mutual relation of pastor and people. We read the word “priest” here “writ large” as “presbyter.” We use it in its widest sense as denoting a minister of religionone who officiates in the sacred service of the Church.
I. THERE IS A LIKENESS IN THE NATURE OF THINGS. In their relations to God and to their fellow-men, it is “like people, like priest.”
1. The principle applies to matters of personal life. The priest is “taken from among men” (Heb 5:1-3). He is by nature guilty, sinful, polluted, helpless, like every other member of the congregation. If he be a true believer, he has been washed in the blood of Christ, and justified by the grace of God, and made a partaker of the Spirit, like other believers. He is exposed to temptations, and prone to backslidings, as they are. He must “fight the good fight of faith,” just like others.
2. The principle applies to social relations. A minister does not cease to be a man when he becomes a minister. He is to be “one that ruleth well his own house” (l Timothy Hos 3:4). Like other citizens, he ought to interest himself in politics. The cause of liberty and righteousness, the redress of wrongs, and the elevation of the masses, should be specially dear to him. He must not allow himself to seem an emasculated man, who either has no opinions on public questions, or is afraid to avow them.
3. The principle applies to business habits. The priest is to eat his bread “in the sweat of his face,” like other men. Observation of his habits ought not to produce the impression that he is without any engrossing occupation. No man in the congregation should be busier. No other work makes so constant a demand upon all the best energies of human nature as the work of the Christian pastor.
4. The principle applies to the matter of his work itself. According to the spirit of New Testament teaching, no hard-and-fast line is to be drawn between the Christian ministry and other useful occupations. The pastor ministers to a higher part of man’s nature than the merchant does; that is all. “Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17); that is the Christian law of work for all godly men alike. The life of the priesthood has no halo around it which does not belong to the life of the people.
5. The principle applies to spiritual privileges. The pastor enjoys the blessings of grace in common with the peopleall of them, and no more. He has the same access to God which other Christian men and women have; no other access, and no nearer. He does not belong to a sacerdotal caste. He is in no respect a mediator. The special application of the term “priest,” as denoting one who offers sacrifice, is not for the Christian pastor. In that sense the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Priest of the Church. The one respect in which the pastor is a “priest to God” is that in which, as Archbishop Leighton has put it, “all Christians are God’s clergy.”
6. The principle applies to the final account. It shall be “like people, like priest,” at the day of judgment. His reward, like theirs, shall be in proportion to his diligence, efficiency, and success. And, contrariwise, the punishments inflicted for indolence shall be equally impartial. This is the very point of the text: “I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.” This general principle is so obvious, and so constantly enforced in the teaching of the New Testament, that it seems strange that it should ever have been contravened. Yet the subversion of it has been one of the most cherished errors of the Christian Church. Is not the denial of this principle the cornerstone of the Papacy? The Romish Church exalts one man, and one class of men, to absolute control over the consciences of their fellows. And does not the ritualism of our time at home involve the same error? Ritualism might be harmless if it meant only an ornate and beautiful service; but, meaning as it does a return to sacerdotalism, and the fettering of the spiritual liberty of the Christian people, it is full of deadly poison. Many communions, also, which are free from the temptations to clericalism in its grosser forms, are often in danger of separating those responsibilities, on the part of minister and people, which God has joined together. E.g. do not some minds harbor the notion that a higher standard of piety is appropriate for the pulpit than what is necessary for the pew? And are there not some popular amusements which it is thought quite lawful for other members of the Church to indulge in, but which a minister is expected to abstain from, under peril of being judged an unspiritual man? There is, however, no mention in the Bible of a broader and a narrower gauge of righteousness There, it is” like people, like priest.”
II. THERE IS A LIKENESS PRODUCED BY RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE. The relationship between pastor and people is a very sacred one. It is a union in which the one party does not absorb the other; rather, they tend to become filled with the same common life, and to be mutually assimilated in views, sentiments, and spiritual tone. We need not stay to speak of, the influence which the priest has upon the people. For the one direct end of the ministry is to move men to live for God and Christ. ]t is designed, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to influence the hearts and habits of the people, not only upon the Lord’s day, but during every hour of their lives. In what remains we shall rather consider the influence; which the people exercise upon the priest, to mould his character as a man, and to affect his efficiency as a pastor. The text does not read, “Like priest, like people,” although it is frequently misquoted so. It reads, “Like people, like priest;” and thus it invites us to view more especially the influence which the pew has upon the pulpitan influence which is everywhere present, and which is very subtle and powerful. The priest springs from the people. He enters the ministry with his mind already largely molded by the intellectual and religious influences which obtain amongst them. He may be expected to reflect in his own character the prevalent spirit in relation to Divine things amidst which he has been brought up. A long barren period of spiritual indifference will inevitably give to the Church a race of sapless anti-evangelical ministers; but when, on the other hand, there is a general revival of religion, many earnest young men from among the new converts will be found devoting their lives to the work of spreading the knowledge of salvation. Again, this influence is greatly promoted in connection with the more democratic systems of Church government. The writer of this homily, as a Presbyterian, may be allowed to point out that in every free Presbyterian communion the sap of the Church’s influence rises from the people through sessions and presbyteries to the supreme court; and so, peculiarly under this system, it is, “like people, like priest.”
1. Sometimes ibis influence is for evil. Take, e.g; the sin of priestcraft itself. It is the corruption of the people, in the first instance, that makes this sin possible. Look at the case of the golden ox at Horeb (Exo 32:1). Or take that of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. Jeroboam was trading with the spiritual degradation of the ten tribes when he instituted his false gods and his false priests. The malign influence continued down to the time of Hosea, and by-and-by involved the northern kingdom in destruction. Meanwhile, too, the evil leaven was spreading into the yet surviving monarchy of Judah (Jer 5:31). And thus is it still. Whenever the blood of religion runs cold, and opposition to the doctrines of grace prevails, the Church will seek out teachers after her own degenerate heart (2Ti 4:3). At such times the congregation desires to have a tacit understanding with the prophet that he is not to “use great plainness of speech” (Isa 30:10). Every true minister has sometimes to contend against the temptation to suppress unpalatable truth. It is little more than a generation since thousands of pulpits in the United States submitted to be muzzled regarding the wickedness of Negro slavery; and since hundreds of ministers in the Southern States were laboring to prove that slavery was the proper condition of the Negro. In our own country, on the other hand, the warning voice of the pulpit in relation to the evil of the drinking customs is still a somewhat muffled one compared with what it has long been in New England. Finally, here, the priest’s personal relations to his people are so intimate that their attitude towards him goes largely to affect even the moral tone and fiber of his character. If he submit to be continually petted, the danger is that all manliness will gradually ooze out of him, and that he will come to expect on all occasions different treatment from other men. But surely the Christian ministry ought to be the manliest of callings. The pastor should be one of the hardiest of the trees of grace, and not a mere greenhouse plant. He should desire no allowances to be made for him which are not made for men of other callings. The whole Church should take care that it is not her fault if he is not every inch a man.
2. But often the influence of the people upon the priest is good and honorable. A congregation whose conception of the ministry is formed as the result of the devout study of the New Testament, will look and pray for men in the pulpit who possess the tongue of fire, i.e. the power of the Holy Ghost; not the power to compose eloquent paragraphs and perorations, but power to arouse, convert, edifypower under which hearts will melt, and lives will begin anew. When conversions occur, the pastor preaches with an enlarged heart and prays with redoubled fervor, and his path seems bathed in sunshine. After all, too, it is the people, quite as much as the priests, who guard the orthodoxy, purity, liberties, and spiritual life of the Church. For it is they who constitute the body of Christ; the pastors are only the servants of the Church for Jesus’ sake.
CONCLUSION.
1. It is doubtless sometimes the fact that the priest and the people never become assimilated to each other at all. It was so, e.g; in the case of Hosea; in that of Jeremiah; in that of the Lord Jesus himself, during his earthly ministry. But what the text expresses is simply an ordinary tendency in connection with this sacred relationship.
2. Let our closing thought be this, that the obligation involved in the pastoral tie is a mutual one. If his Church responsibilities should weigh heavily upon the minister’s heart, they should also press upon the conscience of each member. Both are responsible for the results of the tie. It is, “like people, like priest.”C.J.
Hos 4:15-19
Ephraim and Judah.
In this passage, as in Hos 1:7, the kingdom of Judah is presented in contrast with that of Israel. Here, for the first time in Hosea, we meet with the name “Ephraim.” As the United Kingdom over which Queen Victoria reigns is often called simply “England,” so the kingdom of the tea tribes sometimes receives the name of” Ephraim,” that tribe being the most powerful of the ten, and having within its bounds the seat of government.
I. EPHRAIM‘S SIN. It consisted in the subversion of the entire moral Law.
1. General ungodliness. He had broken:
(1) The first commandment, by turning from Jehovah to serve the Baalim.
(2) The second commandment, by leaving the one rightful altar, and bowing down to Jeroboam’s graven images. Gilgal had once been a holy place to Jehovah, but it was now noted for the idolatries which were practiced there; and Beth-el, “the house of God,” where Jacob had seen the stairway and the vision of the Almighty, is now for the same reason nicknamed Beth-avon, “house of iniquity” (verse 15).
(3) The third commandment, in swearing by Jehovah while worshipping the calves (verse 15).
2. General licentiousness. The worship of Baal and Ashtaroth became as impure and revolting as it is possible to imagine. The groves were the scenes of the foulest debaucheries. Every bond of truth and justice was broken. The judges loved to say, “Give ye;” i.e. they gaped for bribes, and sometimes sold their judicial decisions to the highest bidder. Morally, Ephraim was utterly degenerate; he had become just like “turned” or “sour” milk (verse 18). He was constant in his sin: “They have committed whoredom continually’ (verse 18). He was refractory: in moral conduct he resembled a stubborn cow (verse 16). And he was obdurate: a fearful and unholy union subsisted between Ephraim and the dead idols which he served (verse 17).
II. EPHRAIM‘S DOOM. It will fall upon him swiftly. It will come in the form of:
1. Banishment. Israel had felt the Lord’s fold to be too tight, and the life within it too slow. So the ten tribes are to be driven into exile. They are to be exposed to danger like a timid” lamb” (verse 16) in the wide wilderness of the world. A tempest of judgment shall suddenly seize them, lift them up, and carry them away like chaff (verse 19).
2. Shame. (Verse 19) As long as the northern kingdom seemed strong and prosperous, its citizens gloried in “their sacrifices” to idols. But now, in these days of conspiracy and revolution, Ephraim will be disappointed in his expectation of help from the Baalim, and will be covered with shame on account of his infamous idolatries. We know that one chief result of the Assyrian and Babylonish captivities was to thoroughly wean the Hebrew nation from its polytheism.
3. Abandonment. (Verse 17) Judah is directed to “let Ephraim alone.” God’s people within the southern kingdom are to send no missionary to reprove him, or to attempt to convert him. They are to leave him to “eat of the fruit of his own way.” This word spoken to Judah is often understood as if it referred to the desertion of incorrigible sinners by the Lord the Spirit. Such, however, is at best only a secondary and inferential meaning. It is evident that in this verse God himself pronounces no decree of final abandonment, for we find him saying afterwards (Hos 11:8), “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” The abandonment here denotes the loss of the “kindness” and “excellent oil” which belong to the reproof of “the righteous.”
III. AN ADMONITION TO JUDAH. (Verses 15, 17) The southern kingdom is cautioned to shun the contagion of Ephraim’s wicked example. For:
1. Judah‘s condition was meanwhile better. Up to the time to which Hos 4:1-19; refers, Judah was comparatively uncorrupted. There had always been a difference morally and spiritually between Ephraim and Judah. The southern kingdom possessed Jerusalem, and the temple, and the Aaronical priesthood, and the royal dynasty of’ David. Many of its monarchs had been godly men, who “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” And God’s restraining grace towards Judah had been so great, that if he had any saints just now in the world, these were in Judah. But:
2. Judah was in danger of contamination. The people of Judah were near neighbors to the ten thousands of Ephraim. They were brethrentwo segments of the same nationality. They possessed the same great history, and inherited the same traditions. Israel, moreover, was the larger state, and the more prosperous. Jehovah, therefore, in his anxiety about Judah, warns him to keep away flora such polluting places as Gilgal and Bethel (Hos 4:15). The Divine counsel to him is, “Let Ephraim alone;” i.e. have no intercourse with him, lest he pollute thee. Stand off from him, for “evil communications corrupt good manners.” No effort on your part will avail to cure him of his idolatry; and perchance you may yourself become a partaker of it.
3. The effect of this admonition. Judah did remember it for a time; at least, a great theocratic revival and religious reformation took place during the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah. Afterwards, however, a deep spiritual decline set in; and Judah, too, fell into the fatal grasp of Babylon only three or four generations after the fall of Ephraim.
LESSONS.
1. We must refuse to partake of other men’s sins, if we would not share their punishment. One cannot touch pitch without being defiled.
2. We must beware of the “large place” outside of the Lord’s fold. The broad way leadeth to destruction. Men of firm Christian principle are sometimes called “narrow;” but we must dare to be as narrow as the straight line of God’s righteousness, and at no time depart from the leading of the good Shepherd.
3. We must cherish shame now for our own spiritual idolatries, and break with every idol, however dear, if we would have confidence before Christ at his coming.C. J.
HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND
Hos 4:17
Insensibility the result of impenitence.
The people of Israel are here designated by the name “Ephraim.” This tribe rapidly rose to influence beneath the shadow of Joshua’s greatness. Under that hero, one of its greatest sons, Ephraim was located in the most fertile part of Palestine, and being less exposed than other tribes to external attack, grew in numbers and affluence. When another Ephraimite, Jeroboam, led the revolt against the house of David, and became the first king of Israel, this tribe, already strong, stood foremost, and its name became henceforth a synonym for Israel. In this chapter Hoses exhibits the sins of the people in a series of graphic pictures. He tacitly asks whether they had anything to urge in stay of judgment. He would prove to their own consciences the righteousness of the Divine decision, so that they would be left without excuse. There ever comes from the throne of God, as once there came from Mount Sinai, a voice which appeals to human conscience to confirm the Divine sentence: “Let all the people say, Amen l” Our text exhibits a nation abandoned by Godto whom all expostulation bad proved useless. It suggests a moral condition similar to the physical condition of some patient on whom the surgeon has operated again and again; who has often pleaded to be left alone, and from whom at last, with heavy heart, the skilful kindly friend turns away, saying, “It is best that he should be left alone now, for his disease is fatal.” That Divine abandonment is possible may be shown from Jer 6:30, compared with Mat 5:13. At times God seems to reply to man’s wish by an echo (compare Job 21:14 with Mat 25:41). The solemnity of the fact that insensibility follows impenitence.
I. THE WICKEDNESS OF IDOLATRY. “Joined to idols” implies vital association with them. Ephraim would not part with idols, and could not be parted from them without death. Three forms o/idolatry prevailed. Each appealed to a distinct section of the people, and all alike drew their hearts from God. The calves introduced by Jeroboam from Egypt were deification of “nature,” and became at Gilgal and Bethel centers for political and national gatherings. Baal, the sun-god, was a deification of “power,” and was worshipped in mountains and high places. Ashtaroth, the Astarte of the Greeks, the Venus of the Romans, was worshipped in the groves, under the shadow of which hideously licentious rites completed the degradation of the people. Each had its own cultus and its own worshippers. We all recognize that an idol may exist in our thought as well as in our sight. The essence of idolatry is the preference of anything to God, so as to allow it to take the place he should fill in our thoughts and affections. The same object does not tempt us all, nor will the same allure us in all the stages of our life. In youth you may worship Astarte; in manhood, Baal; and in old age, the golden calves. Speak of forms of idolatry prevalent in England.
1. The idolatry of wealth. We do not allude to the gaining of money, which is possible to a man who wins it by his shrewdness and skill, by his industry and probity in business. The Lord has given him power to get wealth, which he uses as a steward for God. Describe one who makes money-getting the object of life. lie chooses a business, without any care about its evil associations. He steels his heart to misery and to the claims of his own kin. He ignores the standard of integrity which an enlightened conscience sets up. If advantage is to be gained by bribe or trick, he is not the man to lose it from scrupulousness. He has no time for home duties, for Church work, etc; which claim his efforts. In brief, he dismisses, and feels that he must dismiss, God from his plans; and as the habit grows he becomes “joined to idols,” and in his avaricious hardness God lets him alone.
2. The idolatry of pleasure is not extinct. Picture a young girl introduced to society, in whose gaieties she henceforth finds herself entangled. Simple of heart as she is fair of face, she is insidiously injured by the unwholesome excitement, the late hours, the inane and profitless chit-chat of such an existence. Too tired to pray, too flattered to conquer self, she forgets those solemn realities to which the present life is only a vestibule, until in the scales of Eternal Justice she is “weighed in the balances and found wanting.” Slowly but surely her early sensibility decreases; and she whose heart was once easily touched, whose conscience was keenly sensitive, becomes the hardened, scheming woman of the world. She is joined to idols: let her alone.
3. The idolatry of sensuousness. The halls of entertainment in which the lusts of the flesh and of the eye are pandered to are thronged nightly by lads whose incipient manliness becomes deteriorated. There, and elsewhere, drink exercises a fatal influence. Short of intoxication, the will is weakened, the memory obscured, the imagination so excited as to find pleasure where otherwise there would be none; and so the first step to ruin is often taken half consciously. Little by little the power of drink asserts itself, till self-control is gone, and its victim cannot live without it; and so joined to idols is he that God says, “Let him alone.” In these as in similar temptations many resent holy influence till they cannot feel it; they are “twice dead,” “given over to a reprobate mind.”
II. THE WOEFULNESS OF INSENSIBILITY.
1. Its nature. “Let him alone,” is God’s command to all who have been speaking in his name, the prophet being their representative. A minister preaches, and many under the influence of the truth are moved to thought and penitence. One hears as others do, but, unlike them, is hard and callous. Often has he said to himself, “I wish I could go to a place of worship without feeling uneasy;” and at last God says,” You shall. Ministers, let him alone!” Friends spoke faithfully to another, urging him to prayer, pleading with him, even with tears, to turn from sin. Sometimes he laughed at their anxiety, sometimes he was angry, at their interference, heartily wishing that they would interfere with him no more. Now they do not. One friend has removed to a distance, the voice of another is stilled by death, and another has given up further effort in utter despair of success. God has said, “Let him alone.” Solemn events once stirred to thought, but now their influence is gone. The voice within which warned and entreated is sensibly weaker and less frequently heard. To conscience God has said,” Let him alone,” and now it is sleeping.
2. The dreadfulness of this condition is seen in the fact that the noblest art of man is gone. Suppose your hand was injured so that you were in pain night and day. Driven to desperation, you take a red-hot iron and sear the flesh, destroying nerves and tissue ruthlessly. The sore heals, the pain is gone. Ay, but the band is useless, and nothing can restore it. So may you deal with conscience. Refusing to go to the good Physician when conscious of your peril, you sin deliberately against God, and thus conscience may be “seared as with a hot iron.” Note, also, the ominousness of being left alone. We see all the trees in an orchard pruned with an unsparing yet skilful hand, and are told that they will be the more vigorous and fruitful in the autumn, One tree, however, has been left untouched by the knife. Why? Is it because it is a favorite? You see the answer in the red cross on its trunk, which shows that it is marked for cutting down as a cumberer of the ground. Take another illustration. Two prisoners are convicted of offences against the law. The one, on the ground of his youth and possible reformation, is sent home for his father to chastise, and he goes weeping. The other, a hardened criminal, is to receive no stripes, but may have anything his appetite craves. Yet all look on him with horror. The fact that he is to receive no chastisement is ominous; for he is under condemnation of death. That you are so little troubled by serious thought is no sign of safety; it may be the indication that soon, “being past feeling,” you will be “given over to a reprobate mind.” “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”
CONCLUSION.
1. Address those who fear they are left alone. If the faint desire to return to God yet lingers, if the fear of being forsaken of God makes you tremble, the curse has not yet fallen. The Lord, who is very pitiful and of tender mercy, still says, “Come now, and let us reason together,” etc.
2. Address those in danger of being abandoned. Illustrate their position by the story of two brothers crossing a pass, overtaken by a snow-storm. One longs to sleep. He is dragged on for a time by physical force, is pleaded with earnestly, but at last is of necessity left. He sinks to rest; the snow-flakes fall silently and swiftly, and in the depths he finds his grave, and sleeps the sleep of death. You may say to all good influences, “Let me alone,” until God puts his seal on your choice, and says to all that might save you, “Let him alone.”A.R.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Hos 4:1
Hear the word of the Lord!
The Hebrew prophets were distinguished from other politicians and moralists in this respect, that they did not address the people upon their own authority, or convey to them the counsels of their own wisdom. It was their practice to keep themselves in the background, and to summon their countrymen, in the language of the text, to “hear the word of the Lord.” This language implies
I. THAT GOD HAS SPOKEN TO MAN.
1. This is opposed to the atheistic doctrine, that there is no God to speak; and to the Epicurean doctrine, that the gods care not to concern themselves in the affairs of mortals. It is also opposed to the modern and pseudo-scientific doctrine, that the universe is so bound in the chains of physical law that there is no opportunity for the mind, if such there be, that shapes and controls all things to communicate with the spiritual nature of man.
2. Yet this belief harmonizes with the highest conception we can form of the Eternal. We refuse to believe that he, who is present throughout his material creation, is cut off from the very nature which is most akin to his own.
3. As a matter of fact, revelation is a word of God to man. The prophets, evangelists, and apostles were taken possession of by a supernatural power, that spake to them, in them, and by them, to their fellow-men.
4. Christ himself, the Word of God, sums up in his person, ministry, and sacrifice all that God has of especial interest and value to impart to the minds of men.
II. THAT MAN IS UNDER AN OBLIGATION TO LISTEN TO THE WORD OF GOD.
1. The finite and fallible nature of man stands in need of Divine instruction, guidance, encouragement, and admonition.
2. There is in man a conscience which attests the divinity of the word to which he listens when God speaks.
3. Humility and reverence are becoming to such as thus come into contact with the utterances of Eternal Wisdom.
4. To hear aright involves a prompt and cheerful obedience. For the Word of God conveys not only speculative truth, but the most valuable practical counsels as to conduct, He received aright the word of God who exclaimed, “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth!”T.
Hos 4:1
A controversy.
Language such as this shows how readily the inspired writers made use of human relationships in order to impress upon the minds of the people great moral facts and lessons. There is, of course, great difference between the disputes and controversies which arise among men, and any matter of estrangement between God and men; yet how vigorously and effectively does this language set forth human sin and Divine righteousness!
I. THE PARTIES TO THIS CONTROVERSY. On the one side is a rightful Ruler; on the other, rebellious subjects. The Ruler is possessed of infinite power; the rebels are feeble, and their resistance is vain. The Ruler has established, by his grace and forbearance, the strongest claims upon his subjects’ gratitude and loyal affection; the rebels have shown amazing insensibility and obduracy. This is indeed a just picture of the righteous and merciful God, and of the disobedient and rebellious children of men. The inhabitants of the land, i.e. of Israel, are in this matter representative in their attitude and conduct of an ungodly race.
II. THE GROUND OF THE CONTROVERSY. The prophet, speaking in the name of Jehovah, charges Israel with evil-doing of two kinds.
1. Immorality. The two great classes of human duty are simply described by the two terms, truth and mercy. If men are just and benevolent in their dealing with one another, they fulfill moral obligations; for these virtues comprehend all excellences which may be displayed in human life and intercourse. But where faith is broken and pity is withheld, the bonds of society are loosened, and its dissolution has begun.
2. Impiety. “The knowledge of God in the land” is essential to the well-being of a nation. Where God is unknown, where men live” without God in the world,” where his knowledge is suffered to lapse, and the rising generation are trained with no fear of God before their eyesthere vice and crime will be rampant and unchecked, and there will be no guarantee for social order and peace.
III. THE ISSUE OF THIS CONTROVERSY.
1. It cannot be in the victory of the rebellions.
2. It must be in the maintenance of Divine authority and honor.
3. It should be in the repentance and submission of the disloyal, and in a reconciliation between the penitent offenders and the righteously offended God.
4. The gospel is especially intended to bring this controversy to a close, in a way honoring to God and advantageous to sinful man. “We beseech you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”T.
Hos 4:6
Ignorance and destruction.
All classes in Israel were guilty of forsaking Jehovah, and all classes were reproached with the same sin. It is usually the case that rebellion against a righteous Lord, and neglect of sincere worship and devotion, are chargeable, if not equally so, upon high and low, learned and ignorant. And when none are free from guilt, none are exempt from condemnation.
I. TRUE RELIGION IS BASED UPON KNOWLEDGE. Idolatry and superstition are compatible with ignorance, and are favored by ignorance. But the religion which is alone proper to man and acceptable to God is spiritual, and therefore intelligent. If this was the case with the Mosaic economy, how much more so with the Christian! In the Old Testament, the” fear of the Lord” and “wisdom” were the same; in the New Testament we are taught that life eternal consists in the knowledge of the true God through his Son. A religion of formal assent or observance, a religion of mere feeling and excitement, is vain. Knowledge alone is insufficient, but knowledge is nevertheless indispensable to true Christianity.
II. THOSE SPECIALLY QUALIFIED AND APPOINTED AS MINISTERS OF RELIGION ARE BOUND TO DIFFUSE KNOWLEDGE. In Israel the priests and the prophets seem to have been both, if not equally, to blame for the irreligion and defection of the people. The priests taught religious knowledge by symbol, the prophets by word of mouth. Both orders were chargeable with negligence of these sacred and honorable duties. In the new and spiritual kingdom of Christ, there are no officers exactly corresponding to either the priests or the prophets of the Hebrews. But those whose ministry it is especially to teach, and all who by reason of their own gifts and position have the opportunity of imparting spiritual knowledge, are bound to communicate the Word of life.
III. THE REJECTION OF KNOWLEDGE ON THE PART OF ANY INVOLVES THEIR OWN REJECTION BY GOD. Lack of knowledge is itself destruction. It is the starving of the soul through defect of spiritual nourishment. “They die without wisdom,” is the mournful lamentation of the spectator of moral delinquency am] consequent destruction. Israel was rejected, and punished, was sent into a long captivity, because of religious defection and hardened impenitence. And it [is a law of the Divine government that willful ignorance should entail moral deterioration. The plant cannot be taken into the darkness without suffering; its vitality is at once enfeebled, and gradually diminishes until it dies. It is so with the soul; it is so with the nation. This is a solemn warning to those who love moral darkness rather than light. It is an admonition to those who have the light that they walk therein.
IV. THE HEAVIEST PENALTY FALLS UPON THOSE THROUGH WHOSE NEGLECT THE PEOPLE ARE LEFT IN SIN. Although a prophet himself, Hosea upbraided those called to the prophetic office who left the people in ignorance, and those priests who encouraged and led the people in sacrifices to the gods of’ the heathen. Such were threatened with the Divine displeasure, and assured that they should no more sustain sacred offices, but should be deprived of all that made them honorable. It is ever the case that abuse of trust is worse than neglect of privileges, and that those who not only wander themselves, but lead others astray, as their guilt is greater, shall experience a sorer condemnation.T.
Hos 4:9
Like people, like priest.
This and similar passages show the justice and impartiality with which the inspired prophets fulfilled the office to which they were called. Neither the fear of the priest nor the favor of the people was allowed to act as a motive to deter them from plain speech and faithful dealing with men’s souls.
I. THERE IS ACTION AND REACTION BETWEEN THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RELIGIOUS LEADERS. A spiritual and vigorous ministry tells lamentably upon the moral and religious habits of the community, and a formal and selfish ministry is a check to moral improvement and a hindrance to national purification. The importance is manifest of securing for every community clergy and teachers who shall raise the moral tone of society. Yet it is only here and there that a minister of religion will be found truly alive to God in the midst of a corrupt and worldly society. For good and for evil, teachers and taught, leaders and led, rise and fall together. “Like people, like priest.”
II. THE PEOPLE AND THEIR RELIGIOUS LEADERS ARE ALIKE AMENABLE TO THE RIGHTEOUS RULE OF GOD. If the watchman be faithful amidst general corruption and defection, if he give the people warning, he shall deliver his soul. But if he neglect to do this, and the people perish, shall the slothful or unfaithful watchman escape, in the day of inquisition and of judgment? No! when the people are punished for their ways and rewarded for their doings, the pastors who have encouraged the sheep in their wanderings, and left them to perish in the wilderness, shall be overtaken by the penalties attaching to sinful neglect and abuse of trust. Their official position, even the formal fulfillment of their official duties, shall not exempt them from the fate of the faithless, “Like people, like priest.”
APPLICATION.
1. Let people value a faithful ministry, and give heed to wise and righteous warnings, ere it be too late.
2. Let ministers of religion beware lest they fall into negligent habits, and perform their services in a perfunctory and unspiritual manner, and thus encourage the people in impiety.T.
Hos 4:11
Sensuality is ruin.
Whilst the language of this prophet regarding debauchery is sometimes to be taken figuratively, we have no option but to read this statement in its obvious and literal sense. Evidently the worship of foreign deities in northern Palestine was accompanied by licentious rites and debasing moral habits. In this verse is set forth the general law that the indulgence of the animal nature involves mental and moral deterioration and destruction.
I. SENSUALITY AFFECTS THE MIND THROUGH THE BODY. Whoredom and intoxication have ever been, and are to-day, the two great “sins of the flesh.” Man’s bodily nature is so constituted that these practices derange the nervous system, and render the sinner mentally incapable of many of the serious duties of life. The lunatic asylums are peopled with those who have lost their mental powers through addictedness to wine and to women. And where the evil has not gone to lengths so great, it is nevertheless sufficient to affect the powers of application, the memory, and the judgment.
II. SENSUALITY INJURES THE MIND BY CONSTANTLY DIRECTING IT TO MEANS OF CARNAL GRATIFICATION. The man who is besotted with the hove of pleasure, and is constantly planning new means of animal gratification and excitement, has little energy to spare for loftier flights. Even his intellectual efforts are tainted with the poison. if he be a man of genius, the trail of the serpent is over his works.
III. SENSUALITY CURSES THE MIND WITH SELFISHNESS. Whatever makes a man selfish takes away his heart. The sensual become machines bent upon the vain task of satisfying the bodily appetites. Those addicted to vice have no room in their souls for generous impulses, and have no disposition to engage in works of philanthropy and public good.
IV. SENSUALITY INDISPOSES THE MIND TO RECEIVE THE ENLIGHTENING AND QUICKENING INFLUENCES OF RELIGION. Christianity is a rebuke to the lover of pleasure; for it summons man to a spiritual life, imposes spiritual service, and proffers spiritual joys. He that liveth in pleasure is dead while he liveth. Christ calls us to mortify the deeds of the body. His religion is, indeed, not ascetic; at the marriage-feast at Cana he sanctioned wedded love and the proper use of wine. But he cannot tolerate a sensual life, and has declared plainly that the debauched and the drunken can have no place in his kingdom. For such have permitted Satan to take away their heart, and they have none left to give to Christ.
APPLICATION. Let the young be warned against the insidious and seductive snares which the world lays for their downfall, and into which their weak and sinful nature is too apt to lead them; there is safety only by the cross, and by the Spirit of the Holy Savior.T.
Hos 4:17
Abandonment.
Ephraim is in this book taken as the representative of the northern tribes, because it was the most numerous and powerful, and seems to have been the leader in the apostasy of Israel. The principle of this verse is one which we can recognize as just, but one upon which it would be dangerous, without authority, for erring man to act.
I. THE CASE DESCRIBED IS ONE OF RESOLUTE APOSTASY AND IDOLATRY. Ephraim is represented, as not only idolatrous, but confirmed in idolatry. Having forsaken the Lord, Israel has gone after strange gods, and is joined unto them as in an adulterous connection. There are those who not only fall into sin, but wallow in sin; who are not only tempted, but delight in yielding to temptation.
II. THE HUMAN ABANDONMENT HERE COUNSELED. “Let him alone.” This presumes that many efforts to reform the sinful have been made. It would not, indeed, be lawful for man to give such a direction as this; but God gives it. Why? Doubtless that the sinner may be left to his own devices, to reap the consequence of his sinful ways. Expostulations, entreaties, threats, have all failed; and man can do no more. It is time for God to work; and he teaches by allowing the disobedient to eat the fruit of their conduct. “The way of transgressors is hard;” and they must walk therein in order to learn that this is so.
III. THOSE ABANDONED BY MEN ARE NOT ABANDONED BY GOD. Mercy dictates the treatment here counseled. Ephraim is “let alone,” in order that, learning by bitter experience the evil of sin, Ephraim may turn unto the Lord, and so seek and find pardon and acceptance. The eye of God is upon the abandoned sinner, and the hand of God is ready, at the right moment, to be stretched forth to deliver and to save. For such the mercy of the Sovereign, the grace of the Savior, may yet avail.T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
Hos 4:1, Hos 4:2
A corrupt people and an expostulating God.
“Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.” In the previous chapters the prophet’s language had been highly and somewhat perplexingly symbolical. It is so much so in the short chapter preceding this, that we pass it by. Here he begins to speak more plainly, and in sententious utterances. From the first to the nineteenth verses of this chapter, he reproves both the people and the priest for their sins during the eleven years’ interregnum that followed Jeroboam’s death. He makes no mention, therefore, either of the king or his family. The subject of these two verses isA corrupt people and an expostulating God.
I. A CORRUPT PEOPLE. The people are “the children of Israel,” or the ten tribes who were living during the terrible period of anarchy which followed on the death of Jeroboam II. Their depravity is here represented both in a negative and a positive form.
1. Negatively. “Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.” These are the great fontal virtues in the universe; and where they are not, there is a moral abjectness of the most terrible description. “No truth!” A people without reality, not only living in fictions, but their very life a lie. “Nor mercy!’ No acts of beneficence performed, and the very spirit of kindliness extinct. All tenderness and genial feeling burnt out. “Nor knowledge of God!” The greatest, the holiest, and the most beneficent Being in the universe utterly ignored.
2. Positively. The absence of these great virtues gives rise to tremendous crimes.
(1) There is profanity. “By swearing.” Where God is ignored, all reverence is gone; the sentiments of sacredness can never exist in a heart “without God.”
(2) There is falsehood. “And lying.” God is the foundation of all realities; and estrangement from him is a universe of lies.
(3) There is cruelty. “Killing.” What is life to a man who has no truth, or mercy, or knowledge of God? It is a cheap and worthless thing; and the work of the assassin and the warrior becomes natural to him.
(4) There is dishonesty. “And stealing.” Rapine and plunder become rife: he who respects not the claims of God will have but little respect for the claims of man.
(5) There is incontinence. “Committing adultery.” Domestic sanctities invaded and the Divine institution of marriage outraged.
(6) There is murder. “Blood toucheth blood.” An expression that means a profusion of slaughter, as in the case of massacres, insurrections, and national wars. “Blood toucheth blood;” the streams of crimson gore run from the slain and mingle together. “It was about this time that there was so much blood shed in grasping at the crown: Shallum stew Zechariah, and Menahem slew Shallum; Pekah slew Pekahiah, and Hoshea slew Pekah; and the like bloody work it is likely there was among other contenders, so that the land was polluted with blood (Psa 106:38); it was filled with blood from one end to the other (2Ki 15:16).” Such are the corrupt people here portrayed. Alas, that there should be so much in modern England like unto this ghastly and revolting picture!
II. AN EXPOSTULATING GOD. “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.” Of all controversies this is the most awful. A controversy between men and men, between individuals, Churches, nations, is sometimes very awful, but nothing approaching to this.
1. It is a just controversy. Many of men’s controversies are most unrighteous, but this is just. Has not the great Ruler of the universe a right to contend against profanity, falsehood, cruelty, etc.? They are repugnant to his nature; they are detrimental to the interests of his creation.
2. It is a continuous controversy. It began with the first sin, has continued through all preceding ages, and is on now as strong as ever.
3. It is an unequal controversy. What are all human intellects to his? Sparks to the sun. The sinner has no argument to put before him. He cannot deny his sins; they are too palpable and patent. He cannot plead accidents, for sin has been the law of his life. He cannot plead compulsion, for he is free. He cannot plead some merit as a set-off, for he has none. No, in this controversy he must be crushed. “Julian strove a great while against the Lord, but at length he was forced to acknowledge, with his blood cast up in the air, ‘Vicisti Galilaee, vicisti!‘ Thou hast conquered, O Galilean, thou hast conquered!”
CONCLUSION. IS this controversy going on with you? It is held in the court of conscience, and you must know of its existence and character.D.T.
Hos 4:3-5
A terrible deprivation.
“Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.” These words lead us to consider a lamentable deprivationa deprivation that comes upon the people in consequence of their heinous iniquities. Two remarks are suggested concerning this deprivation.
I. It is a deprivation both of MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL GOOD.
1. Of material good.
(1) A deprivation of health. “Every one that dwelleth therein shall languish.” The physical frame loses its wonted elasticity and vigor, and succumbs to decay and depression. “Languish” like a dying man on his couch. Sin is inimical to the bodily health and vigor of men and nations; it insidiously saps the constitution.
(2) A deprivation of the means of subsistence. “The beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.” Literally, this refers to one of those droughts that occasionally occur in the East, and is ever one of the greatest calamities. What a dependent creature man is! The beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and the fish of the sea can do better without him, but he cannot do without them. How soon the Eternal can destroy these means of his subsistence! One hot blast of pestilential air could do the whole.
2. Of spiritual good. “Let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.” The meaning seems to be that their presumptuous guilt was as great as that of one who refused to obey the priest when giving judgment in the Name of Jehovah, and who, according to law, for that cause was to be put to death (Deu 17:12). One of the greatest spiritual blessings of mankind is the strife and reproof of godly men. The expostulations and admonitions of Christly friends, parents, teachers. What on earth is more valuable; is so essential as these? Yet these are to be taken away. “Let no man strive, nor reprove another.” The time comes with the sinner when God says, “My Spirit shall no more strive with thee; Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” Men have become so dog-like in nature that holy things are not to be presented to them; so swinish that you are to cast before them no more pearls (Mat 7:6).
II. It is a deprivation LEADING TO A TERRIBLE DOOM.
1. The destruction of priests and people. “Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night.” The meaning is, that no time, night or day, shall be free from the slaughter, both of the people and the priests. This was literally true of the ten tribes at this time. And it is true in a more general and universal sense. God’s law is, that “evil shall slay the wicked;” and it is always slaying them, whether they be priests or peoplethe laity or the clergy. If they are not true to God, day and night, they are being slain.
2. The destruction of the social state. “And I will destroy thy mother,” Who was the mother? The Israelitish state. And it was destroyed. England is our mother, and our mother will be destroyed unless we banish sin from our midst.”D.T.
Hos 4:6
Religious ignorance.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, 1 will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” These words suggest three things in relation to religious ignorance.
I. IT IS DESTRUCTIVE. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Ignorance is not the mother of devotion, it is the mother of destruction.
1. What does it destroy? The growth of the soul in power, beauty, and fruitfulness.
2. How does it destroy? How can the lack of a thing destroy? How can nothing do mischief? The lack of heat and moisture will kill the vegetable kingdom; the lack of air will cause the extinction of all animal life. The soul without knowledge of God is like a plant without heat and moisture; an animal without the salubrious breeze.
II. IT IS WILLFUL. “Because thou hast rejected knowledge.” There is no culpability in a man being ignorant of some things. He may not have the means, the time, or the faculty for the particular attainment. Not so with the knowledge of God; it comes to him whether he will or not. It comes to him in the objects of nature; it comes to him in the necessary deductions of his reason; it comes to him in the intuitions of his moral nature. Besides, in some cases, as with the Israelites, it comes to man by special revelation. He rejects it. Ignorance of God is ever more a criminal ignorance. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”
III. IT IS GOD–OFFENDING. “I will also reject thee.” It is not unnatural or unphilosophic to suppose that the condition of the man ignoring his existence must be to the last degree offensive to him. Hence he deals out retribution.
1. To themselves. “I will also reject thee,” etc.
2. To their children. “I will also forget thy children.” It is a Divine law springing from the constitution of society, that the iniquities of the fathers shall be visited on their children. Parents cannot do wrong without injuring their offspring.D.T.
Hos 4:7
Secular prosperity.
“As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.” The “increase” referred to in the text is in all probability an increase in the number of the population. Israel had become a numerous people. But it might also refer to their increase in wealth; this is the application that we shall make of it, and notice three points.
I. SECULAR PROSPERITY ATTAINED BY THE WICKED. They were an idolatrous and rebellious people, yet they had grown rich. Their lands brought forth plentifully, and their merchandise was prosperous.
1. This is a common fact. Wicked men, in all ages from the beginning, have not only been successful in the accumulation of wealth, but as a rule have been more prosperous than their contemporaries. Two things may account for this fact.
(1) Their secular earnestness. Material good is the one thing that fills and fires an unregenerate soul, and for this he labors with might and main. The more earnest a man is in any pursuit (his aptitudes being equal), the more successful. The mere worldly man is “fervent” in business.
(2) Their moral unscrupulousness. They have no high sense of honor, no inviolable rules of right, no swaying sense of moral responsibilities. Hence they will not reject the fraudulent and the false if they will serve them in their course. Fraud and falsehood are perhaps the chief factors in fortune-making. No wonder, then, that the wicked become rich.
2. This is a trying fact. Men of incorruptible truth, honesty, and high devotion have in all ages been baffled and distressed by this fact. “Wherefore do the wicked prosper?” This has been their puzzle.
II. SECULAR PROSPERITY ABUSED BY THE WICKED. “As they were increased, so they sinned against me.” Wealth has a wonderful power either for good or ill. With it the truly generous and holy can widen the empire of spiritual intelligence and advance the cause of human happiness; and by it the wicked can increase the corruption and swell the tide of human depravity. In the hands of the wicked wealth can:
1. Promote injustice. Wealth gives a man power to baffle the cause of justice, trample on human rights, and oppress the poor and the innocent. Wealth fattens the despotic in human nature.
2. Promote sensuality. It provides means to inflame the low passions of human nature, and to pamper the brutal appetites. It tends to bury the soul in the warm and sparkling stream of animal passions.
3. Promote practical atheism. The man who has an abundance of the things of this life, and who has not the fear of God in his heart, is sure to sink into an utter forgetfulness of the Author of all good. Thus, then, “as they were increased, so they sinned against me.” A terrible fact this.
III. SECULAR PROSPERITY RUINOUS TO THE WICKED. “Therefore will I change their glory into shame.” I will strip them of all they now glory in, all their worldly prosperity, and give them shame instead. I will quench all the lights which they have kindled, and which glare around them, and there shall be darkness. I will bring them into wretchedness and contempt. “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.”
“Today he puts forth
The tender leaves of hopes, tomorrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost:
And,when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening,nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do.”
(Shakespeare)
D.T.
Hos 4:8
Feeding on sin.
“They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.” Dr. Henderson renders these words, “They devour the sin offering of my people.” “The priests greedily devoured what the people brought for the expiation of their sins; and instead of endeavoring to put a stop to abounding iniquity, only wished it to increase, in order that they might profit by the multitude of the victims presented for sacrifice.” The priests lived upon the sacrificial meat (see Le 6:26), and the more they had of this the more they were pleased. But this increased with the increase of the sins of the people: the more the people sinned, the more sin offerings; and the more sin offerings, the more priestly banquets. So they “set their heart on their iniquity.” That is, they longed for its increase; they had an interest in the growth of sin in the country, so that in truth, without figure, they feed upon the sin of the people. “The more sins,” says an old expositor, “the more sacrifice, and therefore they cared not how much sin people were guilty of. Instead of warning the people against sin from the consideration of the sacrifices, which showed them what an offence sin was to God, since it added such an expiation, they emboldened and encouraged the people to sin, since an atonement might be made at so small an expense. Thus they glutted themselves upon the sins of the people, and helped to keep up that which they should have beaten down.” Are there no men now that feed and least on the sins of the people? We think such men can be found.
I. THERE ARE SUCH MEN IN THE ECCLESIASTICAL WORLD. There is a class of ecclesiastics who live in palaces, fare sumptuously every day, and roll in chariots of opulence, who profess to be the chief ministers of him who made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant, and who, when on earth, had nowhere to lay his head. What is it that sustains these men, keeps up the huge imposture? Simply the “sin of the people.” Their credulity, their ignorance, their servility, their superstition. Let these sins die out, and these gorgeous and plethoric hierarchs will have to doff their splendor, live on humble fare, and work as honest men or starve. A story is related of a prelate in Charles V.’s time, who invited his friends to his house, and prepared a hospitable banquet of which they would not partake. “What!” said he, “will you not eat of dainties that are bought at so dear a rate? The meat that I have prepared for you is like to cost me the pains of hell.” The prelate felt that he was a priestly impostor, misrepresenting the Man of sorrows, and shamefully neglecting his duty.
II. THERE ARE SUCH MEN IN THE COMMERCIAL WORLD. There are men who have vested interest in the sin of intemperancebrewers, distillers, and traffickers in alcoholic drinks. They live on the sin of intemperance, and raise themselves in hot antagonism against any effort to weaken its power or to limit its influence. There are men who have vested interest in the sin of war. The sin of war! The phrase is infinitely too weak. War comprises all sins. It is the totality of all abominations. Yet the manufacturers of armories and war-ships, and traders in the implements and equipages of fighting men, live on this sin. They hail every intimation of war. The first groan of the infernal lion falls as music on their greedy ears.
III. THERE ARE SUCH MEN IN THE PROFESSIONAL WORLD. What would the lawyer do without chicaneries, breaches of contract, thefts, violences, seductions, and all kinds of social immoralities and crimes? What would popular journalists do were there no scandals, no tragedies, no crime, no fraudulent advertisements? What would become of the sensational novelist if there was no sinful love in the people for the horrible and the prurient?
CONCLUSION. Alas! that men are sinners, but alas! a thousand times more, that men should feed on sin! Herein is the great obstruction to moral reformations. Destroy a popular sin, and you destroy the livelihood of hundreds, and the pomp and splendor of many. How shall sin be put away flora the world? Who shall destroy this work of the devil? Thank God, we have the answer!D.T.
Hos 4:9
The reciprocal influence of priesthood and people.
“There shall be, like people, like priest.” Though perhaps the translation of Keil and Delitzsch”Therefore it will happen as to the people, so to the priest”may give the literal idea, I take the words as they stand, which have become a proverb, “Like people, like priest.” Instead of taking up the primary idea of the words, viz. that the rank and wealth of the priests would not exempt them from sharing the same fate as the rest of the nation, I would put into prominence for a moment the idea of the reciprocal influence of priesthood and people. And I make two general remarks on this idea.
I. THERE IS SOMETIMES A DISGRACEFUL RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE.
1. It is a disgrace to a true priest to become like the people. A true priestthat is, a God-made priestis a man above the average in brain, heart, being, culture, intelligence, and virtue. He who is not above the average is no priest; he is out of his place. A priest is a man to mould, not to be molded; to control, not to cringe; to lead, not to be led. His thoughts should away the thoughts of the people, and his character should command their reverence. Sometimes, nay, too frequently, you see priests become like the peoplemean, sordid, groveling. There are men who call themselves priests that are the mere creatures of the people. The true priest is the prince of the people; his ministry is a “royal priesthood.”
2. It is a disgrace to a people to become like a bad priest. There are priests whose natures are lean, whose capacities are feeble, whose religion is sensuous, whose sympathies are exclusive, whose opinions are stereotyped, whose spirit is intolerant. Shame on the people that allow themselves to become like such a priest! And yet the transformation is pretty general. How often one meets in a social circle with those who represent the miserable spirit of their little priest!
II. THERE IS SOMETIMES AN HONORABLE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE.
1. It is honorable when people become like a true priest. When they catch his broad spirit, cherish his soul-quickening thought, and grasp his lofty aims, when they feel one with him in spiritual interests and Christly pursuits.
2. It is honorable to the true priest when he has succeeded in making the people like him. He may welt feel a devout exultation as he moves amongst them that their moral hearts beat in unison with his, that their lives are set to the same key-note, that they are of one mind and one heart in relation to the grand purpose of life.
“I venerate the man whose heart is warm,
Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause.
To such I render more than mere respect,
Whose actions say that they respect themselves.”
(Cowper)
D.T.
Hos 4:17
An unholy alliance and a righteous abandonment.
“Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” “Ephraim,” the most powerful of the ten tribes, is frequently used by the prophets for Israel. Notice briefly two things.
I. AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE. “Ephraim is joined to idols,” is welded to them; his heart is rooted in them. What is an idol? Carved wood, stone, or molded metal, living creatures, flowing streams, or heavenly orbs? No. These are mere representations of idols. The idol of a man is the object supremely loved, whatever that object may be. Gold, fame, beauty, power, pleasure,whatever the heart is set on, that is the idol. Here in our England we condemn polytheism, but we abound with polytheists. Men have as many idols here as they have objects of supreme love, and they are many. Thousands of Englishmen are joined to their idols; they are chained to them by the ties of their strongest loves and habits.
II. A RIGHTEOUS ABANDONMENT. “Let him alone.” It is a hopeless case. Waste no more time in argument and moral appliances. The times comes with every sinner when he is abandoned, his character is stereotyped, and his doom is settled. God says to providence, “Let him alone”do not disturb him; to conscience, “Let him alone;” to the Spirit,” Let him alone.” When God abandons the soul, all is over; when the fountain refuses to pour forth its waters, the stream dries up; when the sun refuses to travel up the horizon, all nature will die.D.T.
Hos 4:19
Retributive justice.
“The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.” The simple meaning of this is, Israel shall be borne away from her land, suddenly and violently, as by the winds of heaven. There is retributive justice in the universe. Men are slow to discern it, and it often moves so silently and secretly as to elude the dim vision of the wicked. Still it is in existence, and it works like the thunderstorm; it may sleep silently in the heavens for some time, but break into tempest and fury it must, sooner or later. The verse leads us to notice two things in relation to this retributive justice.
I. ITS EMBLEM. It is here compared to the “wind.” Why is it like “wind?”
1. In its agitatior. Wind is a disturbance or an agitation of the atmosphere. The average condition of the air is silence and serenity. The normal condition of Divine government is quiet, it has no tempest where there is not wickedness. The growing heat of sin so disturbs it that it often breaks into an all-devastating fury, it is like “wind.”
2. In its violent. There is often a mighty power in the wind. It sometimes “rends the mountains and breaks in pieces the rocks.” It has overturned the “mountains by the roots;” it has “broken the cedars, even the cedars of Lebanon, and shaken the wilderness.” Cambyses being once in the wilderness with the soldiers, a strong and violent wind broke and buried thousands of them in the sand. Who can stand before retributive justice when it comes forth in its power? “The wind hath bound her up in her wings.” Avenging justice binds its victim up, and carries it awaywhether it be an individual, a nation, or a worldas tempests carry off the chaff.
II. ITS EFFECT. “And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.” Shamemoral shame, the primary element in the soul’s hellever comes to the victim of retributive justice.
1. There is the shame of disappointment. All plans broken, all purposes thwarted, all hopes destroyed. “Let me not be ashamed of my hope,” said David.
2. There is the shame of exposure. The wicked always live in masquerade; they always appear to be what they are not; they are necessarily hypocrites. Retributive justice takes off the mask and lays bare their hearts in all their revolting foulness.
3. There is the shame of remorse. This is the most burning shame of all. It sends its fires down into the very center of man’s being, and sets all the moral nerves aflame.
CONCLUSION. Take warning, ye wicked sons of men; let not the present stillness of your atmosphere deceive you; your sins are generating a heat that must sooner or later so disturb the elements about you, as to bring on you ruin and fill you with “shame and confusion of face.”
“A year has ended. Let the good man pause,
And think, for he can think, of all its crime
And toil and suffering. Nature has her laws
That will not brook infringement; in all time,
All circumstances, all states, in every clime,
She holds aloft the same avenging sword;
And, sitting on her boundless throne sublime,
The vials of her wrath, with justice stored,
Shall, in her own good hour, on all that’s ill be poured.”
(James Gates Percival)
D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Hos 4:1-5
The Lord’s controversy.
God had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. The essential part of the indictment was that they had forsaken him. “There is no knowledge of God in the land.” Hence
I. A FEARFUL OVERFLOWING OF IMMORALITY.
1. With the knowledge of God there had departed also “truth and mercy” (Hos 4:1). “Truth” and “mercy,” or “kindness,” are root-principles of morals. The subversion of them is the subversion of morality in its foundations. These foundation-virtues, however, had been subverted in Israel. Morality has never proved able to sustain itself in divorce from religion. The bond which binds man to God is also the bond which binds him to the practice of the moral virtues. To cut this bond is to set him adrift. He who ignores the primal obligationthat to his Makeris not likely to have much regard for any other.
2. The result was a fearful overspreading of corruption. “By swearing, and lying, and killing,” etc. (Hos 4:2). Ungodliness ran its course unchecked. It brought forth its natural fruits of rapine, dishonesty, licentiousness, profanity, riotousness, and murder. Society seamed dissolving. Irreligion is the foe, not only of private morality, but of social order. It tends to division, to anarchy, to general disregard of law and rights.
II. SEVERE JUDGMENTS ON THE LAND. “Therefore shall the land mourn,” etc. (Hos 4:3). Man’s sin, in its effects, is not confined to himself or to his kind. It overflows on the animate and the inanimate creation.
1. The ground was cursed at first for man’s sake (Gen 3:17).
2. It is degraded in being compelled to sustain the sinner, and to serve as the instrument of his vices.
3. It is visited on his account with plagues, droughts, and famines (Amo 4:6-12).
4. It is despoiled and down-trodden, and suffers from his neglect, his misuse, and his ruthless devastations.
5. The animal creation shares in these calamities, besides suffering much directly from man’s cruel treatment. Thus in many ways the creature is made subject to vanity (Rom 8:19-22). The consideration should heighten our sense of sin’s enormity.
III. APPROACHING RUIN TO THE NATION. (Hos 4:4, Hos 4:5) A nation in the moral state above described cannot long escape punishment. It “is nigh unto cursing” (Heb 6:8). Its doom hastens on apace. “Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Mat 24:28). The judgment which would fall on Israel would be:
1. Sure. “Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another,” etc. (Hos 4:4). The thing for the people to do was, not to strive with one another, but to cease to strive with God. But this was a remedy not likely to be adopted. A headstrong, presumptuous, contumacious spirit had got possession of them; they were “as they that strive with the priest”a proverbial expression for the highest contumacy (cf. Deu 17:12). It is useless for the wicked to reprove, rebuke, or reproach one another for the miseries which are overtaking them while repentance toward God stands postponed. That is the first and great necessity.
2. Sudden. “Therefore shalt thou fall in the day,” etc. (Hos 4:5). People and prophet would fall continuously, night and day, till all were destroyed. But there seems allusion also to the swiftness with which the calamity would descend. The “day” of their prosperity (Hos 2:11) would suddenly terminate; a “night” of terrible blackness would succeed. This night would be a specially dark one for the “prophet”he who had claimed to be a “seer.” His predictions discredited, his repute gone, his charlatanry exposed, his visions extinguished in blood, he and his dupes would perish miserably together. “The blind lead the blind,” and both at last “fall into the ditch” (Mat 15:14).
3. Complete. The whole nation would be destroyed. “Thy mother” (Hos 4:5).J.O.
Hos 4:6-11
Priests and people.
The prophet addresses himself in this section to both priests and people, but chiefly to the priests, whom he regards as mainly responsible for the people’s defection.
I. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN THE REJECTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. (Hos 4:6)
1. The tack of the knowledge of God. Israel possessed this knowledge of God once. It did not possess it now. There was little right knowledge of God’s character, of God’s Law, and of God’s past gracious dealings. Jehovah was regarded practically as one of the Baals. Destitute of right ideas of his spirituality, holiness, and moral demands, the people in their sinning did not feel how far they were going astray. Right ideas on these subjects could hardly penetrate into minds besotted with wine, whoredom, and the unholy rites of Baal and Astarte worship. In our own land of Bibles and churches, what dense ignorance of God and of Divine things might be found to prevail, if the matter were inquired into!
2. Causes of this lack of knowledge. The knowledge of God was lost, not through any fault on God’s part in not giving the means of knowledge, or in not sufficiently inculcating on the people the importance of using the means. God had given the people a Law (Hos 8:12); he had laid upon the Levites the duty of teaching and of promoting the knowledge of its requirements (Deu 33:10; Mal 3:5-7); he had laid the same duty on parents (Deu 6:6-9); he had warned all of the dangers of inattention and forgetfulness. How, then, came the knowledge to be lost?
(1) The priests failed in teaching (cf. Mal 2:8). A grave responsibility rests on the teachers of a nation. If they are faithful in duty, the knowledge of God can never be absolutely lost. If they do not teach, it is certain that a large number will always remain uninstructed. Their example has an influence on others.
(2) The people tailed in remembering. The priests had rejected (or despised) knowledge; the people had forgotten the Law of their God. The unfaithfulness of the professed teachers did not wholly exonerate those who were neglected. They had other means of knowledge. Had they been diligent in preserving the knowledge they had, and in handing it down by careful parental instruction (Psa 78:4), this, aided by the study of the Law itself, would have kept alive true knowledge, and have saved the nation. We are responsible for the use we make even of scant opportunities.
(3) The cause of failure in both cases was a moral one. Neither priests nor people cared to retain God in their knowledge. This was how they allowed the knowledge of him to be lost (cf. Rom 1:21, Rom 1:28). The departure of the heart from God comes first. There is then the indisposition to hear about him or learn about him. Thus the knowledge of him is lost. Such ignorance is culpable.
3. The fatal effects of this lack of knowledge.
(1) The people were destroyed. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” They had destroyed themselves. How many are thus destroyed who, had they been rightly taught in youth, might now have been foremost in God’s service! Parents, teachers, ministers, cannot too seriously reflect on the measure of their responsibility (cf. Eze 3:17-21; Eze 33:1-33). We must teach men the way of salvation, if we expect them to find it or to walk in it (Act 10:6, Act 10:33; Act 16:17, Act 16:31).
(2) God rejected those who had rejected him. “I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to be.” Place, office, honor, opportunities of usefulness, will be taken from us if we misuse them (Pro 2:5, Pro 2:16).
(3) The children were lost through the unfaithfulness of the parents. “I will forget thy children.”
II. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN SIN. (Hos 4:7, Hos 4:8) The sins alluded to are pride and covetousness.
1. Pride was the sin of the people. “As they were increased, so they sinned against me.” This is the danger of prosperity. “Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked” (Deu 32:15). The heart grows haughty, and rebels at the restraints of the Divine Law. Moses foretold the danger, and warned against it (Deu 8:10-20). Retribution would correspond in character to the sin. “I will turn their glory into shame.”
2. Covetousness was peculiarly the sin of the priests. “They eat up the sin of my people,” etc. The reference is to the flesh of the sin offerings, or, more generally, to revenues derived from transgressions (atonement money, etc). The priests prostituted their sacred office for gain. They were glad at the iniquity of the people, if it brought them more income (cf. the Romish sale of pardons, etc). It is shameful, under any circumstances, to seek gain by conniving at sin.
III. PRIESTS AND PEOPLE ALIKE IN THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. (Hos 4:9-11) “Like people, like priest.” It is difficult to say which has the greater influence on the other, priest or people. The people are readily corrupted by their leaders. The leaders, on the other hand, are too apt to take their tone from the community. They act and react, and tend to a moral level. Alike in sin, priests and people are made alike in punishment. “I will punish them,” etc. The punishment would be:
1. Congruous with the nature of the sin. “They shall eat, and not have enough,” etc. For plenty there would be substituted scarcity; greed would find its recompense in not having enough to satisfy; the nation that boasted of its increase would be made few in number. This is the general character of God’s punishments.
2. In part wrought out by the sins themselves. Sin strikes round to be its own avenger. Luxury and waste lead to poverty. The greed of the priest overreaches itself, and leads to the altar being deserted, and the office held in contempt (Jdg 17:9,Jdg 17:10; 1Sa 2:36). Pampered appetite becomes a tyrant and tormentor. Licentiousness diminishes population.
3. Prepared for by infatuation. “Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.” “Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first madden.” Infatuation precedes doom.J. O.
Hos 4:12-14
Sin’s fatuity.
The people had parted with the knowledge of the true God, and had become possessed of a spirit of whoredoms. See the effects.
I. THEY WEST AFTER SENSELESS FOLLIES. “My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them” (Hos 4:12). The spirit of sin is a spirit of “error.” It robs men of their better judgment. No limit can be put to the wanderings of the mind under its influence. The worship of a “stock” is absurd enough, even when the devotee knows no better. But that Israel, who had “been once enlightened,” and had known the true God, should go back to “stocks” and “staffs,” was a singular instance of fatuity. When the soul has abandoned God, there is no anticipating what crazes it will adopt, what “will-o’-the-wisps” it will follow after (the follies of society, the credulity of skepticism, etc).
II. THEY FELL VICTIMS TO SUPERSTITION. “They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains,’ etc. (Hos 4:13). They attached a superstitious importance to mountains, hills, trees, groves, etc; in connection with their worship. The mountains lifted them nearer to heaven (Num 22:41; Num 23:14, Num 23:28); the shade of the trees filled them with awe, True religion delivers from superstition, irreligion leaves men a prey to it. Feelings of a superstitious nature become with many a substitute for religion. They seek, in the materialistic accompaniments of worship, a satisfaction which the worship itself would not afford them (altars, ritual, architectural gloom, vestments, etc).
III. THEY WERE BEGUILED INTO GROSS IMMORALITY. “Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses [daughters-in-law] shall commit adultery” (Hos 4:13). The seductions of the place, the character of the worship, and the exciting behavior indulged in at the altar, paved the way for lewd practices. These were incorporated as a part of most heathen worship. The heart which has cast off the fear of God is only too eagerly prepared for licentious conduct. Lust is one of the commonest forms of sin.
IV. THEY SET AS EVIL EXAMPLE TO THEIR JUNIORS. “I will not punish your daughters,” etc. (Hos 4:14). The unblushing conduct of the parents in going to the public altars with immoral women made it impossible to blame too severely the younger generation, who simply followed the example set them by their elders. Thus corruption was propagated, and the most shameless deeds were flaunted in the light of open day.
V. THEY BROUGHT DOWN ON THEMSELVES THE VENGEANCE OF GOD. “Therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall” (Hos 4:14). The origin of all was the not understanding. They are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hos 4:6).J.O.
Hos 4:15-19
Warning to Judah.
Judah had not yet sunk so low as Israel. She was, however, far from guiltless. Her princes were like them that remove the bound (Hos 5:10). She is included with Israel in the threatenings that follow (Hos 5:5, Hos 5:10, Hos 5:14; Hos 6:4, Hos 6:11). “The people did yet corruptly,” is the testimony of the history (2Ch 27:2). Still her case was not so hopeless but that judgment might be averted by timely repentance. There was still “some good thing” in Judah to work upon; something to appeal to. The prophet bids her take warning from the sister kingdom, “Come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-avon [Bethel],” etc. (Hos 4:15). Judah should be warned
I. BY ISRAEL‘S INTRACTABLENESS. (Hos 4:16) “Israel is intractable as an intractable heifer.” The nation, that is, had proved unruly, obstinate, refractory, backsliding, unteachable. Nothing that God could do would induce it to walk quietly in his ways. This is a picture of the natural, unrenewed temper. “It is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be’ (Rom 8:7). In Judah, also, this temper was beginning to show itself. Let it be warned. Israel would soon have liberty enough, and more than it cared for. “Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.” Intractableness springs from a false desire of freedom. It counts the yoke of God a bondage. The punishment would correspond. God would relieve the people of his yoke, but would relieve them at the same time of the care and protection they had enjoyed as his nation. Left, in a condition of dispersion, to realize their helplessness, they would learn to long for the yoke they had once despised.
II. BY ISRAEL‘S OBDURACY. (Hos 4:17) Obduracy is defined as that state which implies “a total disregard of Divine calls and warnings, and an insensibility to their importance” (Miller). This is the state to which intractableness tends. In Israel it had been already reached. “Ephraim is joined to his idols: let him alone.”
1. The soul has its idolsits earthly objects, which it puts in the place of God.
2. There comes in time to be such a welding of the soul to the objects of its sinful pursuit, that further remonstrance is useless.
3. When this stage is reached, God “lets it alone.” He ceases remonstrating. He abandons it to its sinful courses. Conscience is silent. The Spirit ceases to strive. These awful words, “Let it alone,” are the soul’s death-knell. Alter this there is no recovery. How solemn the warning to Judahand to us!
III. BY ISRAEL‘S MORAL DEGENERACY. (Hos 4:18) Everything in the kingdom had become spoiled, degenerate, corruptlike wine turned sour. The Hebrew word means literally, “to turn aside.” Life, when turned aside from its right ends, speedily degenerates. So do gifts and blessings. The land is badly tilled; its fruits are wasted in gluttony and debauchery; health degenerates through the waste of the powers of life in profligacy; feasting sinks to mere animalism, etc. This was the state into which Israel had come. “Her rulers [shields] have loved, have loved, shame.” They loved shame, and the print of shame was on them. The spectacle should deter Judah from following in their steps.
IV. BY ISRAEL‘S EXPERIENCE OF THE FUTILITY OF TRUST IN IDOLS. (Hos 4:19) Destruction was about to descend on the nation. The tempest would carry them away on its wings. A fate
(1) swift;
(2) violent;
(3) resistless;
(4) dispersive.
Then it would be manifest how helpless their idols were to aid them. They would be ashamed of the sacrifices they had offered to them. The wicked will one day be driven out of their false confidences.J. O.
Hos 4:15
Offending.
1. We offend when we frequent places notorious for wickedness. This was the character of Gilgal and Bethel.
2. We offend when we lend countenance to impieties practiced in the name of religion. One of Jeroboam’s calves was at Bethel. Its presence changed Beth-el, the “house of God,” into “Beth-aven,” “house of vanity.”
3. We offend when we are partners to any profanation of the Name of God. “Nor swear, The Lord liveth.” An oath is so solemn a thing that it ought not to be taken except on the most solemn occasions. The light use of God’s Name in any connectionespecially in connection with circumstances otherwise dishonoring to himis a heinous transgression.J.O.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Hos 4:1. Hear the word of the Lord, &c. The prophet here begins a third discourse, according to the rabbies; which is manifestly distinct from the preceding, both as to the matter and manner. He was before predicting what should happen in future times, by way of prophetic vision; here he reproves those of the present time for such sins as then reigned among them; such as provoked God to send on them and their posterity the judgments foretold in the former chapter. The word controversy is forensic, and alludes to the actions of suits which one person has against another for injuries or damages received. So the Almighty is here represented as entering into judgment with the inhabitants of the ten tribes for their impieties, as being so many injuries to his honour, for which he demands satisfaction. The reader will find the same evils objected against this people by other prophets.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
PART SECOND
Jehovah pleads with Israel his Beloved but Unfaithful Spouse
Hosea 4-14
___________
FIRST DISCOURSE
Hosea 4-11
I. THE ACCUSATION
Hosea 4-7
A. Against the People as a Whole on Account of their Idolatry and the Corruption of their Morals (Promoted by the Priests)
Hos 4:1-19
1 Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel!
For Jehovah has a difference with the inhabitants of the land,
Because there is no fidelity and no goodness
And no knowledge of God in the land;
2 (Only) cursing and lying,
And murdering and stealing and adultery;
They break in, and murder follows upon murder.
3 Therefore will the land mourn,
And all who dwell therein shall languish,
With the beast1 of the field and the bird of heaven;
And the fish of the sea also shall be swept away.
4 Only let none contend,
And let none reprove (another);
And thy people2 is like those that strive with the priest.
5 And thou shalt fall in the day-time.
And the Prophet also shall fall with thee in the night,
And I will destroy thy mother.
6 My people are destroyed for want of knowledge!3
Because thou despisest knowledge,
So do I despise thee3 to be my Priest;
Because thou dost forget the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.
7 The more they increased the more they sinned against me;
Their glory will I turn into shame.
8 They eat [make profit of] the sin of my people,
And direct their desires after their transgressions.
9 And so it is: as the people, so the priest,
And I will visit their ways upon them,
And reward to them their deeds.
10 Then they shall eat and not be satisfied,
Will practice whoredom and not spread abroad,
Because they forgot4 Jehovah, to regard Him.
11 Whoredom and wine and new wine
Will take (possession of) a heart.
12 My people5 inquires of its wood [idols],
And their staff shall declare to it;
For the spirit of whoredom has deceived them,
And they commit whoredom (departing) from under their God.
13 They sacrifice on the summits of the mountains,
And burn incense on the hills;
Under the oak and poplar and terebinth,
Because their shadow is pleasant.
Therefore your daughters commit whoredom
And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14 Yet I will not visit upon [punish] your daughters because they commit whoredom,
Nor your daughters-in-law because they commit adultery;
For they [you] themselves go aside with prostitutes,
And sacrifice with temple-girls,
And the people without understanding shall be cast down,
15 If thou commit whoredom, O Israel!
Let not Judah become guilty,
Go not to Gilgal,
And ascend not to Beth-aven,
And swear not: by the life of Jehovah.
16 For Israel is as intractable as an unbroken heifer;
Now Jehovah will pasture them
Like a lamb in a wide field.
17 Ephraim is joined to idolslet him be.
18 Their drinking-feast is spoiled;
They keep on whoring.
Their shields [rulers] keep on loving shame.6
19 The tempest seizes them with its wings:
And they shall be ashamed of their sacrifices.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Four strophes may be supposed with Keil (Hos 4:1-5; Hos 4:6-10; Hos 4:11-14; Hos 4:16-19), although it can hardly be maintained in general, that our Prophet observes a strict strophical division.
Hos 4:1. Hear the word of Jehovah, etc. Jehovah appears against Israel as a Judge (that is, Israel of the Ten Tribes, comp. Ver 15), who raises the accusation, and pronounces the sentence and punishment. In a certain sense this first strophe contains the sense of the whole. Jehovah has a contest = legal action, comp. Mic 6:2, and with relation to the heathen, Joe 3:2. is faithfulness, trueness to ones word. is affection, kindness, love. These qualities are frequently mentioned together; usually as divine attributes, but sometimes also as human virtues. is here probably special kindness towards the feeble and distressed (Keil). The opposites are primarily moral defects. But they have their root in the knowledge of God, i.e., they do not know the living God or know Him any longernaturally through their own faultsince they do not care to serve Him.
Hos 4:2. Along with the negative description of the corruption we have the positive. The sins are not described by substantives, but are expressed in a lively manner as actions by verbs, and that with special emphasis by the inf. absol. Five sins are thus mentioned, corresponding to five of the Ten Commandments, and at the fidelity and goodness. Swearing along with lying naturally=false swearing, or, at all events, wanton swearing. forms the transition to the finite verb; the last three sins, especially murder, are represented in the concrete, and at the same time as something fearfully prevalent. [The literal translation of the last three words is: and bloody deed touches bloody deed. meant originally: drops of blood, then transferred to deeds of blood in general, and it is altogether probable that this word was chosen here to present to the imagination the picture of a swift succession of murderous assaults, following so closely that drops of the blood of one victim might be conceived as meeting and mingling with those of another. If so, this is a striking illustration of Hoseas wonderful power of graphic poetical delineation. Henderson: What the Prophet means is that murder was so common that no space was left between its acts. LXX.: . Coverdale: one bloudgiltyness foloweth another. And Ritterhusius powerfully in his poetical metaphrase:
Sic sanguini sanguis
Truditur, et scelerum nullus finisve modusve est.
See 2 Kings 15; Mic 7:2.M.]
Hos 4:3. Therefore will the land mourn, etc. The punishment of that moral deprivation; a great and universal drought, such, e.g., as prevailed under Ahab, was a judgment of God. This is described in its effects: The mourning of the land is a lively figurative expression for the scorching away of all vegetable productions, and the languishing of animal life, and the beasts are named, because the drought was, so to speak, to be described from its natural side (comp. Joe 1:10 ff.). It is just in this condition of nature generally that God executes judgment upon man. The drought is not be conceived of as existing at present, but is threatened, as the whole chapter generally is occupied with threatening. probably does not refer to the men themselves but is specified by the following , and therefore refers to the beasts, etc. [Keil: is used in the enumeration of the individuals as in Gen 7:21; Gen 9:10. The fishes are mentioned last, and introduced by the emphatic to show that the drought would prevail to such an extent that even lakes and other bodies of waters would be dried up. : to be collected, to be taken away, to disappear or perish.M.]
Hos 4:4. Only let none contend, and let none reprove, etc. These words appear quite unexpectedly and are not quite clear. There seems to be a verbal reference to Hos 4:1; and it may be that there is a contrast to that contending there announced on the part of God. The sense would then be: The Lord will contend, but it is presumptuous for men to strive against Him; none are to contend or reprove. Or we might forego the reference to Hos 4:1, and explain generally: let none contend or reprove! The hardened hearts of the people would then be referred to, who would listen to no rebuke. So Luther after the Vulgate: yet let none rebuke, etc. But is thus falsely rendered. It is not=yet. Therefore others hold that there is a demand only to neglect pleading with and rebuking the corrupt people. There would indeed be much to rebuke, but it would be to no purpose (Keil). But this thought is not suitable to the context. It is just on the part of God that the does take place, and is not the whole prophetic discourse a rebuke? Others suppose a demand to the people not to resist God and his judgment. But will not suit here; it must be taken in the sense of censuring: let none censure God and his deeds. The explanation of Wnsche is therefore better: let none quarrel with another and attribute to him the blame of the calamity. And thy people as those who contend with the priest, that is, are like those, etc. With the first explanation of the preceding words, the ones now considered would surround them with still greater difficulties: let none contenduttered with respect to the spirit of contradiction among the peopleand they act as, etc. With the second explanation the words serve to support the preceding, to show the uselessness of contending and rebuking: yet thy people are like, etc. The explanation of Wnsche shows the best connection: the reason is given why none should reproach the others: the whole people are alike. In form however the sentence is not a confirmatory one, being simply cordinated by [This objection is not conclusive. very often introduces a reason. See Green, Gr., 287, 1. The opinion assigned to Wnsche is that not only adopted in E. V. but approved by most of the recent English commentators. Noyes prefers the view assigned above to Keil. On attempts to amend the text for other renderings, see the Textual note.M.] Contend with the priestan unexpected expression, perhaps to be explained by Deu 17:12 f. The people are like those who in the Law are described as rebels against the authority of the priest. They are therefore those who would not allow themselves to be directed aright by those whose prerogative it was to direct them (Hengstenberg, Keil).
Hos 4:5. naturally refers to the punishment [as the cause of the fall (destruction) of the people, whom the Prophet now directly addresses.M.] Prophet, naturally=false prophets (comp. 1Ki 22:6 ff.), who followed prophesying as a source of gain. In the day,by night: a figurative representation distributed according to the members of the sentence. The meaning is: the people and prophets shall fall all the time. And I will destroy thy mother = the whole nation conceived of as the mother of the children of Israel.
Hos 4:5. My people is destroyed. , not: unawares (Meier), but: from want of knowledge [see Gram. note], i.e., chiefly, knowledge of God. Yet the expression is to be taken primarily in its general reference; compare the beginning and end of the next strophe [Hos 4:11-14]. This want of knowledge is blameworthy, a despising of knowledge. This shows the nearer reference to be to the knowledge of God. Israel could have gained this from the law, but had forgotten that law. And I will despise thee from being a priest to me. This does not refer to the priest simply. All Israel, according to Exo 19:6, was to be a priestly people, and to be thus distinguished from the heathen, the profane. But they were to forfeit this high prerogative. The notion therefore=shall be not-my-people, chaps. 12.
Hos 4:7. The more they increased, not merely in numbers, but in prosperity, power, etc.,the more they sinned; comp. Hos 2:7. They ascribed this prosperity to their idols, and were thus confirmed in idolatry. Accordingly Israels glory, consisting in their richness and greatness, shall be turned into shame, i.e., they shall lose their glory and stand dishonored.
Hos 4:8. A transition to the Priests, according to the purport of the words, and the beginning of Hos 4:9. They eat the sin of my people. They live upon, derive their support from, the sin of the people. That is their right to do so, the more the people sin, i.e., serve idols. For the very existence of the idol priesthood depended upon the idolatry of the people. Keil, still more specially, makes = sin-offering of the people (so also Luther). In the Law the priest was enjoined to eat the flesh of the sin-offering to blot out the sin of the people (Lev 6:19). But that became sin to the priests, because (second member of the verse) they directed their desires towards the transgression of the people, that is, wished their transgressions to multiply, so as to acquire a large supply of food from their offerings. The peculiar expression: eat the sin, may still bear allusion to the sacrificial ritual. But the notion is probably more general: they live upon the sin=the idolatry of the people, as they eat the flesh of the sacrifice offered to idols. He lifts up his soul towards = directs his desires towards. The singular suffix is anomalous; it is perhaps distributive: each one lifts up his soul. The meaning of the whole would be: Since they live upon the sin of my people, they wish for nothing more earnestly than that the people should keep on sinning more and more, namely, in idolatry. [So the expositors generally.M.]
Hos 4:9. Since the priests go hand in hand with the people, the people serving idols and the priests desiring their idolatry, a like punishment will overtake them all. [Henderson: The rank and wealth of the priests will not exempt them from sharing the same fate with the rest of the nation.M.]
Hos 4:10. They will eat, etc. Eat refers back to Hos 4:8, and therefore the primary reference is to the priests. The usual force of the hiphil=entice to whoredom, would hardly suit here, although it is the priests who are spoken of. The addition , is unsuitable to this sense, for an extension by the procreation of children, which is here denied of them, could be predicated of those who commit whoredom, but not of those who only seduce others into that sin. Therefore it probably=a strengthened kal, as in Hos 4:18; 2Ch 21:13. The literal signification cannot here be excluded, if we take into account the conclusion of the verse, and especially the parallelism with eat. Hos 4:11, also, necessitates the conjunction of whoredom with wine and must=debauchery, and thus supports the literal interpretation, as also in Hos 4:13-14, the daughters are said to be actual whores. But yet all this is only the consequence of spiritual whoredom=idolatry, and in closest connection with it. It is that which is to be rebuked, and the figurative sense therefore predominates in Hos 4:12, where idolatrous practices are specially denounced, in the expression: spirit of whoredom. Whoredom as a consequence of idolatry, and as connected with it, and idolatry itself, are to the prophet perfectly identical, because inseparably united. The reason why they will not be satisfied or be extended, which are negative expressions affirming strongly their opposite, is that they forsook to regard. The expression refers to Jehovah: they forsook Jehovah, to keep Him, to regard, to honor Him (comp. Psa 31:7; Pro 27:18)=they forsook Him and ceased to regard, honor Him. [See Gram. note.M.]
Hos 4:11. Whoredom and wine and new wine takes possession of the heart, , the centre of the whole spiritual and moral life, the understanding, the will, and the sensibilities (Wnsche). Hence the capture of the heart=the obscuring and perversion of the understanding and the will, expressing generally the intellectually and morally polluting influence of a life given up to sensual enjoyment. Then in the first member of Hos 4:12 a proof of this is adduced,a special instance of apostasy from the living God.
Hos 4:12. , inquire of idols framed of wood, especially teraphim, in order to gain a divine revelation; in direct contrast to . The reproach is made keener by the contrasted words: my people, their wood: the people who are Jehovahs seek to wood, which is made their god instead of Jehovah. Their staff shall instruct them. This was the so-called rhabdomancy: two staves placed upright were allowed to fall while incantations were being repeated, and an oracular response was supposed to be given by the direction of its fall, backwards or forwards, to the right or to the left. [So described by Cyril of Alexandria. Compare the use of divining-rods or wishing-rods.M.] This course of action is expressly attributed to the influence of a spirit of whoredom: idolatry (in connection with its consequences, whoredom and debauchery) is a seductive, demoniacal power, which they could no longer resist. , literally, from under their God, like (Hos 1:2), the normal relation to God is here regarded as one of subjection. It is from this that they withdraw themselves.
Hos 4:13. Upon the summits of the mountains, etc. (comp. Deu 12:2; Jer 2:20; Jer 3:6; Eze 6:13). Mountains and hills, as is well known, were favorite places for idolatrous worship. So also were green and shady trees in pleasant places (here specified instead of the usual general expression, under every green tree). Therefore=because the places of idol-worship everywhere arranged gave abundant opportunity, therefore your daughters commit lewdness (Keil). Lewdness is here, at all events, used in its literal sense, see especially Hos 4:14, second part. The prostitution of young maidens and of wives formed an essential portion of the nature-worship of Babylon and Canaan. It would seem from the mention of temple-girls in Hos 4:14 that the worship of Astarte, or something similar, is implied. But, even apart from this, the sensuous character of idolatry commonly induced unchaste practices.
Hos 4:14. Those who are young cannot be blamed, for those who are older are worse still. : they=husbands and fathers. , here intransitive: to go aside in order to be alone with the . is one who is consecrated to the service of Astarte, or some similar Canaanitish divinity; women who prostituted themselves for gain. Offer with the temple-girls; appear with them at the altar. To such an extent did they carry their impudence and shamelessness. At the end of the strophe want of understanding is again emphasized; it is this that brings them to their fall.
Hos 4:15-19 contain a warning to Judah not to participate in Israels idolatry and shameless conduct, in order to escape the dreadful ruin of the former.
Hos 4:15. If thou, Israel, dost commit whoredom. Whoredom is here predominantly employed in its metaphorical, but includes also the literal sense. A participation in Israels idolatry would have been induced by pilgrimages to the shrines of the ten tribes, which still, presumably, were made. Such places were: Gilgal, southwest from Shiloh, now Djidjilia, formerly the seat of a School of the Prophets (2Ki 2:1; 2Ki 4:38); later a seat of idolatrous worship, and mentioned as such besides in our Prophet, Hos 9:15; Hos 12:12, and Amo 4:4; Amo 5:5; and Bethel, south of Gilgal, near the borders of Israel and Judah; now Betin. This is probably meant here by Beth-Aven, the name being intentionally changed; comp. Amo 5:5; mentioned also in Amo 4:4 along with Gilgal. Swear not: by the life of Jehovah. This cannot be forbidden in itself, for in Deu 6:13; Deu 20:20 it is directly enjoined. Swearing applied to the service of idolatry must be meant, and that in the two places above-mentioned. It appears evident that certain formulas of swearing characteristic of Jehovahs worship were employed in idolatrous service, and that for the purpose of giving to the latter a seeming justification.
Hos 4:16. The punishment of Israel is pointed out in order to strengthen the warning to Judah. , intractable, stubborn, will not be subject to God. God then gives them a free coursebitter irony,like a sheep on a wide plain: that is, they shall be dispersed far and wide. [Henderson: The latter hemistich contains the language of irony. As lambs are fond of ranging at large, but are in danger of being lost or devoured, so God threatens to remove the Israelites into a distant and large country, where they would be separated from those with whom they associated in idolatrous worship, and thus be left solitary and exposed as in a wilderness. The phrase, to feed in a large place, is elsewhere used in a good sense. Isa 30:23.M.]
Hos 4:17. Joined to idols, i.e., joined to them so fast that they cannot give them up; therefore probably = let them, that is, keep on, let them serve idols forever, the punishment will not delay. Ephraim was the most powerful of the ten tribes, and therefore often stands for the ten tribes generally. [The other interpretation, not so much favored, but numbering amongst its supporters Jerome, Grotius, Rosenmller, and Maurer, is that the inhabitants of Judah are commanded to have nothing to do with the idolatry of Israel. This view has also the support of Cowles, but the other is approved by the majority of the English expositors.M.]
Hos 4:18. A difficult one. liquor, then: a drinking-bout. Frst assumes besides to turn aside, another to become worthless or corrupt, here=to be spoiled. So also Keil [so also Ewald, Horsley, Pusey, and others, with E. V.M.]. Meier takes it in the usual sense, to be removed, disappear: their carousing has disappeared. He then takes the following as in sense a dependent sentence: the carousing of those who commit whoredom, whose shields, etc. But this is rather artificial. To be sure, the mention of the punishment might be expected here, but it is just as suitable that Hos 4:18 should describe only their wicked conduct, and Hos 4:19 pictures them as being seized by a storm-wind in the midst of it. [Henderson translates the first clause: when their carousals are over they indulge in lewdness. Here is supposed to be omitted. Cowles suggests the impossible explanation: He (Ephraim) becomes more apostate from God through strong drink.M.] Along with their debauchery they commit whoredom,again in the double sense. [For the construction of the next clause, see Gram. note.M.] The shame which they love is not expressed, but is clearly enough contained in the two preceding hemistichs, therefore=shameful conduct in a moral sense; not=what brings disgrace upon them in its punishment. Her shields = her princes, as defenders of the people. Her refers to Ephraim, regarded as the wife. The princes are named specially: the whole nation is corrupt from the highest to the lowest.
Hos 4:19. In the midst of their sins destruction carries them away like a tempest with irresistible force. =bind together; seize upon. It is the prophetic preterite. The tempest is regarded as already present. . This means either that they shall be shamed away from their sacrifices, because they were proved not to be able to help them, or that they shall be ashamed of their sacrifices. The sense is that both they and their sacrifices would be put to shame.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. With bold freedom and with holy earnestness the Prophet here displays a picture of the religious and moral corruption of the nation, before which we tremble. He has an eye open for both, and expresses most clearly the inseparable connection between religion and morality. Not only is immorality censured, but the religious depravation also (Hos 4:1-6; Hos 4:10-13), so that it may be clearly perceived that this religious decline is the source of the moral corruption, and therefore the (true) religion, that belief in Jehovah is the root of all morality. Observe here how the knowledge of God is exhibited as the essence of religion, and the want of this knowledge as the great error in connection with religion. Apostasy from God therefore consists or is rooted in the loss of the knowledge of Him, which includes not merely a theoretical cognition, but also belief in Him, as the self-revealed God, and the acquaintance and intimacy with Him thence drawn by experience. It is thus that Hosea elsewhere also insists upon the knowledge of Jehovah (Hos 5:4; Hos 6:3, and especially 6). In contrast hereto the idolater is described as one who is joined to idols (Hos 4:17), enters into conjugal intercourse with them. The Prophet, however, does not, in a one-sided fashion, pay exclusive attention to the conduct of the people with respect to religion, but lays just as much stress upon the moral consequences of their religious decline. In his several pictures he brands and rebukes the depravation of morals; want of fidelity and goodness, swearing, lying, stealing, murder, and adultery. Murdering and stealing, probably includes also deeds of violence committed against the poor, defenseless, etc. Special prominence is given to sins against the Sixth [Seventh] Commandment, which, on the basis of idolatry raged so violently in consequence of the terrible increase of unchaste practices during the prevalence of heathen religion and rites. The morally destructive influence of devotion to sensual and fleshly lusts is aptly described in the rebuke of Hos 4:11 it takes possession of the heart, and the extent of that influence is shown in Hos 4:13-14, where the complete destruction of all morality in domestic life is described. A large element of the moral corruption is the influence exerted by the corruption of the priests who make gain of the peoples sins (Hos 4:8-9), partly also of the prophets. It is also here to be observed how, on the other hand, the moral corruption hastens the religious ruin of the people, drawn as they are ever further from God, and led deeper into idolatry, superstition, and unbelief. Comp. Hos 4:12 in relation to Hos 4:11. In Hos 4:12 b, it is clearly indicated that men, through their estrangement from God and their immoral conduct, lose the power of voluntary self-determination, and become subject to a power, and evil spirit, which they must follow, and, in the end, against their bitter feelings. Where such universal corruption obtains a spirit will prevail by which the individual is easily borne along with it (comp. also Hos 5:4).
2. Jehovah has a contest with Israel (Hos 4:1). The expression evidently rests upon the covenant-relation in which two parties assume obligations conditioned on both sides. Israel with God and God with Israel. The relation is therefore a legal one. The one party is bound only so long as the other fulfills his obligations; if one party does not fulfill them, the other may accuse him of an infringement of the compact and institute legal proceedings against him. Thus Jehovah has a suit-at-law with Israel, because the latter did not fulfill its obligations. In Joel 4:2 the expression has a more general application to the judgment which God is to inflict upon the heathen; for they are also related to Jehovah as the Lord of the world. He will not be unjust with them, will not subject them to disadvantages, and will not do them injustice through his people; but they are not to infringe upon his rights, among which is his special relation to Israel. Attacking this, they attack Him also: hence this controversy with them. But alas! there is a dispute between Jehovah and his own people: instead of being united they are divided into two opposing parties. Because the land, shorn of fidelity, goodness, etc., is brought to shame through sin and infamous deeds (Hos 4:1-2), it shall mourn and languish (Hos 4:3)be visited by droughtas the punishment decreed by God. If this languishing is extended even to the unintelligent creation, such a dispensation would express not merely the extent and degree of the visitation, but would show the lower animals to be also included in the punishment. Man, as lord of creation, has by his sin brought punishment upon the rest of the animal world: though these have not sinned, they must suffer with their master on account of his guilt. The punishment is elsewhere also set closely parallel to the guilt: in Hos 4:9 and especially in Hos 4:6; because Israel has despised and forgotten God, He shall also despise and forget them. In particular, I they show themselves unworthy of the high prerogative of being Jehovahs priest, to which they were really called as being the chosen people.
3. Between Israel and Judah there was always an important distinction morally and religiously. Hence the kingdom of Israel could be held before to the kingdom of Judah as a warning example. And this must be done: for it may easily be understood how the example of Israel was most dangerous to Judah. We feel clearly, when the Prophet utters the warning: If thou dost commit whoredom, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty, how warmly his heart beats for Judah. He regards Judah not merely as a kingdom of kindred origin, but as the one which, after Israels apostasy, represented alone the people of God, and thus he must all the more desire to have Judah preserved from Israels ways. The position of a Prophet like Hosea, who was a citizen of the northern kingdom, was peculiar. In the discord that existed between Israel and Judah, such warm sympathy with the one would hardly be expected from a citizen of the other. But with a Prophet of Jehovah theocratic feelings, higher than natural ones, must prevail. In Judah was Jerusalem with the temple; in Judah the House of David ruled; Judah was always comparatively more faithful to God, and that was decisive. His heart must therefore turn towards Judah. He could regard the separation of Israel from Judah, partly in itself and partly on account of its disastrous consequences especially to Israel, which were so clearly manifested, only as something utterly false and unrighteous, as an act of injustice, and would behold the nation only in both kingdoms, so that the theocratic conception was in the deeper sense also the natural one. Yet in this he displayed his patriotism even in respect to his nearer home, just in his earnest testimony against the prevailing corruption, whose consequence he foresaw would be certain ruin. Hosea certainly does not expect this ruin to be averted, but only expects a religious and moral renovation through its influence, with which he could not but see the restoration of the national unity necessarily united. See further No. 4 in the Doctrinal and Ethical section on chaps. 5 and 6.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Luther: Hos 4:1. Who will stand in the judgment in which he is accused by God? For then it will be no argument of words as before an earthly judge, but we ourselves bring against ourselves the testimony of our consciences as our indictment. What is the source of this evil in the world, that nothing true is found, but everything is done from a false heart, and that nowhere can any evidence of honest kindness be seen? The reason is, because there is no knowledge of God in the land, i. e., because men despise Gods Word.
[Matthew Henry: Sin is the great mischief-maker: it sows discord between God and Israel: Gods controversies will be pleaded; pleaded by the judgments of his mouth before they are pleaded by the judgments of his hand, that He may be justified in all He doth, and may make it appear that He does not desire the death of sinners. And Gods pleadings ought to be attended to, for sooner or later they shall have a hearing.M.]
Hos 4:2. Wrt. Summ.: Faithfulness and sincerity among a people are like great and precious jewels in a land. So also are paternal confidence and love and pure and faithful preachers of the Word of God. So there is no greater need than when these things are absent; and especially when Gods Word and pure teachers and preachers are wanting. This is the fountain of all evil. For Gods Word keeps sin at a distance. Where it is not, or where it is not preached in its simplicity and purity, or men will not be reproved by it, nor follow it, nor amend their ways, there one blood-guiltiness and deadly sin follow after another, and all kinds of evil break in like a flood.
[Pusey: Speculative and practical knowledge are bound up together, through the oneness of the relation of the soul to God, whether in its thoughts of Him or acts towards Him. Wrong practice corrupts belief, and misbelief corrupts practice.M.]
Hos 4:4. Luther: It is not so great an offense for men to sin as for them not to be willing to suffer the reproval of sin. For when they live in such a way as that their hearts have a horror of the cure of their malady, punishment can no longer delay. This sin is the most common of our time. Just look at Christian churches, and you will see everywhere that the teachers are hated for rebuking sin so freely. But this only excites Gods wrath more fiercely against us. For not man but God rebukes and challenges the sinner.
Hos 4:6. God will not be mocked. Men may reject God, but He is still beside them, and shows that He is there in his judgments. The self-deception of sin: in rejecting God (forgetting his commands) thou doest so as one who is rejected by Him.
[Matthew Henry: Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion that it is the mother of destruction.
Pusey: In an advanced stage of sin, men may come to forget what they once despised.M.]
Hos 4:8. There is nothing more shameful than to draw profit from the sin of our neighbor, and thus to strengthen him in his sin, or become the occasion of his sinning; doubly shameful if we abuse our office and more exalted position to do so.
[Pusey: What else is to extenuate or flatter sin than to dissemble it, not to see it, not openly to denounce it, lest we lose our popularity, or alienate those who commit it?M.]
[Hos 4:9. Matthew Henry: Sharers in sin must expect to be sharers in ruin.M.]
[Hos 4:10. Pusey: Single marriage, according to Gods law: they twain shall be one flesh, yields in a nation a larger increase than polygamy. Illicit intercourse God turns to decay. His curse is upon it.M.]
Hos 4:11. Luther: These two vices, whoredom and debauchery, so take possession of a man that he does not know what he thinks, speaks, or does. The boy Cyrus in Xenophon admirably says, that wine is mixed with poison. And the saying of Archilochus, with reference to impure love, is well known:
,
.
Comp. Luk 21:34; Eph 5:18.
Hos 4:12. Luther: The spirit of whoredom is that evil spirit which takes away from mens hearts true thoughts of God, and either perverts their hearts, or entirely subdues them by filling them with trust in the creature, which is true and sheer idolatry. For idolatry does not consist merely in calling upon idols, but also in trust in our own righteousness, works, and service, in riches and human influence and power. And this, as it is the most common, is also the most harmful idolatry.
[Pusey: The sins of the fathers descend very often to the children, both in the way of nature, that the children inherit strong temptations to their parents sin, and by way of example, that they greedily imitate, often exaggerate them. Wouldst thou not have children which thou wouldst wish unborn, reform thyself.M.]
Hos 4:13. Wrt. Summ.: Corporeal and spiritual whoredom are commonly united, and mutually dependent. For how should he who does not abhor a departure from God through idolatry, abhor a life abandoned to fleshly lusts? For idolatry is a much greater sin than corporeal indulgence: the one offends against the first table of the law and against God Himself, but the other against the second table and our neighbor.
Starke: When worship is performed in any other way than God has appointed, God is honored no longer, and idolatry is committed.
Hos 4:14. Experience teaches that children are prone to imitate the shameful and unchaste lives of their parents. When such is the case the parents are most responsible; they deserve the chief punishment.
Luther: If God gives his Word to men, and they will not receive his instructions, what else should He do with them, than give them up to a reprobate mind, i.e., let them live on according to their own counsel and pleasure, until they finally perish?
[Clarke: While there is hope, there is correction.
Pusey: To be chastened severely for lesser sins is a token of the great love of God toward us. To sin on without punishment is a token of Gods extremest displeasure and a sign of reprobation. Great is the offense, if, when thou hast sinned, thou art undeserving of the wrath of God.M.]
Hos 4:15. Pfaff. Bibelwerk: Ye pious and true believers, let not the ungodly seduce you to follow their steps, but beware of them lest ye also have part in their punishment. But ye sinners, if ye will go on sinning, do not seduce the innocent, and thus heap up the measure of your iniquities. Comp. Gal 5:9.
[Matthew Henry: The nearer we are to the infection of sin, the more need have we to stand upon our guard. Those that would be steady in their adherence to God must possess themselves with an awe and reverence of God, and always speak of Him with solemnity and seriousness; for those who can make a jest of the true God will make a god of anything.M.]
Hos 4:16. The Prophet employs this simile of a lamb in the desert, because nothing is more pitiable than a little lamb which has lost its shepherd. For the same reason Christ employs this figure of the lost sheep, when He would show the piteous condition of the sinner, and his great compassion towards him.
Schmieder: He who will not submit to the restraints imposed by God, shall obtain a freedom which will at last become most irksome. This applies both to nations and to individuals.
[Scott: While sinners obstinately reject the easy yoke of Christ, they are bringing down the heavy load of his vengeance upon themselves.
Pusey: Woe is it to that man, whom, when he withdraws from Christs easy yoke, God permits to take the broad road which leadeth to destruction.M.]
Hos 4:19. Starke: God does indeed bear with sinners in great patience and long-sufferings, and calls them to repentance; but when they do not amend, his punishment is swift. 1Th 5:3.
[Pusey: So does God, by healthful disappointment, make us ashamed of seeking out of Him those good things which He alone hath, and hath in store for them that love Him.M.]
Footnotes:
[1][Hos 4:3. . is used here as in Gen 7:21; Gen 9:10, to specify or enumerate objects indicated before in the general. In usage, though not in grammatical function, it is equivalent to our namely.M.]
[2][Hos 4:4.. Newcome gives a variety of emendations and transpositions, partly from other sources, in order to obtain a more natural sense than the one he draws from the text. He seems to have been misled by the difficulty suggested by Houbigant, who remarks that it could not be a crime to contend with idolatrous priests. These of course, are not meant. See the exposition. Among the ancient translators, the LXX., Aquila, and Arab. read : my people, which seems more natural but is not necessary.M.] Meier would point differently, and reads : with thee, against thee, namely, God, and makes the negation continue: (let no one be) against thee. This is forced. The would be necessary, and would not be the proper preposition.
[3][Hos 4:6.We must not read unexpectedly (Meier). The article is essential. According to the Masora the third is superfluous, and therefore probably a chirographical error. According to Ewald it is an Aramaic pausal form. [Henderson: The third is not found in a great number of Kennicotts and De Rossis manuscripts, nor in some of the earlier printed editions; in others it is marked as redundant, and a few have .M.]
[4]Hos 4:10.. Meier attaches this word to the following verse: to practice lewdness, etc. But this is forced. [Henderson cites the similar view of Saadias, Arnold, and Horsley, but thinks there is something so repugnant to Hebrew usage in the combination: to observe fornication, wine and new wine, that it is altogether inadmissible. But his choice of the term observe is arbitrary. In thus opposing Horsley, he overlooks the fact that the latter renders: to give attention to, a sense of the word which is not at all repugnant to Hebrew usage. It must be remembered that they neglected Jehovah or dropped Him from their thoughts; the antithesis would naturally be: to keep in mind lewdness, etc. This is the exact usage of the word in Gen 37:11; Psa 130:3. Horsleys arguments are mainly based upon the double anomaly of the construction as formerly assumed, in which was supposed to govern its object indirectly (and irregularly) by means of with the infinitive, and was regarded as governing (against usage) as its direct object: they forsook to regard Jehovah. is now admitted by some to govern directly, and the pers pron.: him, is supplied after regard, as is done by Schmoller. But, even with this construction, the omission of the object in the original after would he unaccountable and very abrupt. To these considerations this other may be added, that under the present division of the verses, Hos 4:11 is made unusually brief. These difficulties in the way of the ordinary constructions should lead us to regard the subversion of the mark of division between the verses with more favor than should ordinarily be shown to attempts at amending the text. The proposed change would give the translation: because they have neglected Jehovah to set their minds on whoredom and wine and new wine, (which) will take possession of the heart.M.]
[5][Hos 4:12.Henderson: The LXX. and most versions which follow them connect with at the end of the preceding verse; a mode of construction adopted by Michaelis and Dathe, but otherwise disapproved by modern translators.M.]
[6]Hos 4:18. perhaps belong together, a pialal form from , except that the doubling has been separated in an extraordinary manner. It is therefore really instead of . Wnsche would read resembling the preceding . [On this combination see Green, Gr., 92 a, 122, 1; Ewald, 120 a; Bttcher, 1055 b. These grammarians, as well as the best critics generally, regard it as one word. The form with which it is usually compared is , Psa 88:17. The last named author calls our form a Qetaltal, corresponding to the form adopted by Schmoller. The notion conveyed by such forms is that of intensity, or repetition. So Ewald: es lieben lieben Schmach seine Schilde. Comp the rendering of Delitzsch in the passage just cited: vernichtnichtigt. It the alternative of separate words be adopted, it would be almost necessary to adopt some such expedient as that of Wnsche given above; for the rendering of E. V.: her rulers with shame do love; give ye, is almost unintelligible.M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here a very sorrowful Chapter. A picture is drawn of the people’s transgressions; and the Lord’s threatened punishment follows.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Here is an awful account of sin in some of the deadly branches of it. But the most awful part of it is, that it is Israel, the Israel of God, that is here spoken of. Sin is sin in any nation, and the crimes here enumerated are horrible wherever they are found. But when God’s people are the first in the transgression, this makes sin exceeding sinful. Reader! do not overlook this; it is a sad proof which the whole world daily affords of our fallen nature, in the mass of corruption everywhere abounding. But Moses speaks of the peculiar offence of sin which the Lord saw, because of the provoking of his sons and daughters, Deu 32:9-29 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ephraim and His Idols
Hos 4:17
These words are not intended as a threatening of the cessation of the Divine pleadings. There are no people about whom God says that they are so wedded to any sin that it is no use trying to do anything for them.
I. Ephraim is the name of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, one of the two into which the nation was divided. It is the people in the other, the neighbouring nation, that are spoken to; and what is meant by the ‘letting alone’ is plainly enough expressed for us in the previous verse: ‘Though thou, Israel, be faithful, yet let not Judah offend….
Ephraim (Israel) is joined to idols; (Judah) let him alone’. That is to say, do you not go and walk in his ways, and meet a snare to your soul.
II. Between God’s Church and the contiguous world let there be a gulf. Ephraim and the idols are confused and melted together, and the world and its idols are confused and moulded together in the same fashion. So then, if you are joined to them you are joined to their idols; and if you do not let Ephraim alone, you have community with the idolatry which belongs to him.
III. It is a very bad sign of a Christian man when his chosen companions are people that have no sympathy with him in his religion. There may be a great many things about religious people that may repel religious people as religious people of other characters, yet between you, if you are a Christian man, and the most unlike you of your brethren, there is a far deeper sympathy than there is between you and the irreligious man that is most like you in all these things.
A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vi. p. 56.
References. IV. 17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1140. Bishop Woodford, Occasional Sermons, vol. i. p. 32.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Lord’s Controversy
Hos 4:1-6
“Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land” ( Hos 4:1 ).
It was a wonderful thing to try to conceive supposing it to be merely an act of the imagination what God would say if he condescended to use human speech. Who can find words fit for the lips of such a God as is described in Holy Scripture? We have been so accustomed to read words said to have been uttered by God that our familiarity has deprived us of a good deal of rich profit that would have arisen from a deep consideration of the inquiry, What words are worthy of the lips of such a God as is portrayed in the Bible? There are gods for whom we could find words too good; we would not allow their livid lips to touch some of our words; they would spoil them. They are mean gods images that are nailed to their own timber; idols that are stained into the plaster of the wall; frescoed divinities, imaginary deities, who revel and riot and practise wickedness in their cloudy residences. There are words of ours we would not allow them to touch as father, mother, child, home, love, purity, honour; if they ventured to touch one of these words, and turn it to their own uses, we should say, Stop, thief! Our inquiry relates to the kind of God, the quality of deity, that is indicated in the Bible. Who can find words for such a God? Who can make him speak in fit eloquence? It must be dignified, lofty without measure; yet it must have in it a mystery of condescension, a touch of familiarity, a home colour that will not affright even the eyes of children.
This question of inspiration is a much larger one than comes within the four corners of any mechanical theory. Here is a God, real or invented; if invented, a greater wonder than if he is real. Invented by whom? Here is a choice of words that cannot be amended. Men may try to elevate and refine this language, and they confessedly fail. Even when they want to speak their mother tongue they come back to the old Bible; when they want to touch the heart most deeply, and bring it to humiliation and tears of sympathy and heroic act, they go to the uninspired man-made Bible for their eloquence. Can this be so? The heart has its rights here as well as the intellect; the natural and cultivated instincts have their claim as well as the pedantic critical faculty. Man is not all finger, he is not all mere criticism; he has within him, and as necessary parts of him, soul, feeling, sympathy, conscious need, a wondrous other deeper self that is sure of the spiritual, the supernatural, the angelic, the divine. The Bible is full of “the word of the Lord,” and the claim of prophet, major and minor, is, Hear it! We are brought, as it were, together in this conversation, namely, God and man. Here is no mysterious attempt to mediate between the speaker and the hearer, as who should say, I only, selected functionary of heaven, have heard God speak, and I will tell you what he has said to me, and you must not go further than myself; you must finish your inquiry with my personality; my priestly authority must begin and end the limit of the interview. There is no such intolerable impiety and senselessness in the Scripture. The great word is, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Know your election to this apostleship of hearing by the sensitiveness of your ears. There are ears that hear nothing, eyes that see nothing, hearts that understand nothing; he who has the faculty has the election, and is chosen of God to hear the word immediately and directly, and to answer it with many prayers and rivers of tears.
What is announced by the prophet after this bold appeal to human attention? “The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.” All controversy does not lie between man and man; it is not an affair of words, it is not a contention of rival claims, or a collision of competitive ambitions; when we have adjusted and settled all our little uproars by some method of arbitration the world is still not at rest; there is an unsettled claim, there is a plea that cannot be easily silenced. We may try to stifle the utterance of that plea, but at unexpected times the plea reasserts itself with aggravated poignancy. What are these broader and grander contentions that trouble our history, and will not let us find rest on the pillows of our compromises? They are God’s challenges, appeals, scrutinies, and judgments. There are religious questions to settle before the world can be tranquillised. This fact is not realised by many students of history. They do not touch the reality of the cases because they deal with policies, covenants, commercial treaties, social relationships, and the like; as if the world were complete in itself, and had no relation to the highest court; as if the world were self-existing, forgetting that it hangs upon the hands of God. We cannot settle questions by coming to an understanding amongst ourselves. Nothing is right until we have acquainted ourselves with God through his Son Jesus Christ, the Priest of the universe, and have realised peace through the Cross. After that all adjustments become easy. Why is it that even human contentions are difficult of settlement? Simply because they lack atmosphere. What is meant by the term “atmosphere” in this connection? Spirit. The actions themselves are square, well cut, cleverly arranged, and the policy drawn with a skilled hand, away to its last iota; but the atmosphere of good feeling, high reason, noble philanthropy, Christianised humanity is wanting, and for lack of spiritual atmosphere our mechanisms cannot cohere; they fall to pieces, and require continual rebuilding that they may perpetrate the trick of continual dissolution. Realise God’s action, divine providence, the ghostly ministry; and remember that right is a word which is not to be defined by other words, but is to be realised after communion with the eternal righteousness.
Why has God a controversy? The reason is self-commending and self-vindicating. “Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.” We can subject this charge to the test of facts; here we are upon ground which admits the claim and the function of reason and criticism. God will have a controversy so long as truth is wanting; he will have every wall built plomb; if the wall is not plomb it must come down; the sun will not have it; the stars are annoyed by it; it is a cripple that might be healed and will not, therefore it must be torn to pieces; every star that swings itself around the eternal centre is offended by things that will not bear the test of geometry. God will not have truthlessness, falsity, painted falsity worst of all, for the paint is lost upon it, and the money that paints it might have been given to the poor. God will have all things square, upright, real, good through and through, as good under the cloak as above it, and round about it, and until that is brought about he will have a controversy with the land and with the individual, and with the house and with the business; and when you have piled your money millions high, yet there is at the heart of it a thief; he will tear it down, he will throw it away, and he will leave you to find out the reason of this act of deprivation and scattering. Think; consider; do not play the fool. God will not rest his criticism at the point of truth only; he says there is no “mercy.” In the Hebrew this word “mercy” is a full word; it involves and necessitates everything that is of the nature of love, pity, kindness, brotherly fellowship, philanthropic obligation; it is not a condescending act, as who shall say, I will have mercy upon you, exercising a prerogative almost divine; it is a word that means natural love, spiritual love, real, true, self-sacrificial love. God notices the absence of this; he will not let the earth alone; he will drown it, he will burn it, he will utterly wreck it, and then he will put the pieces all together again, and start afresh. God cannot be at rest whilst there is an unhealed hand in all his universe. The universe was not built as a cripple house. So long as one tongue is silent something is wrong; so long as one act of mercy, pity, love, compassion, tenderness is not done, the anthem cannot be sung in all the infinite breadth and grandeur of its meaning. What a wondrous man he Was who invented this God! We are to infer therefore that God will cease the trouble on the return of truth, mercy, and spiritual knowledge. A mechanical consolation is impossible; only a spiritual revolution and settlement will determine the harmony and tranquillity of the universe.
Thus far, however, the charge may be said to be negative,
“No truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God.” ( Hos 4:1 ).
But the impeachment now assumes a positive aspect:
‘By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood” ( Hos 4:2 ).
We cannot tell the meaning of this in English. In the language in which Hosea wrote these are known as nouns of action; they have nothing abstract or merely suggestive or memorial about them; they are solid actions, as who should say, Turn where you may you will meet swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and the like. The image is awfully concrete. You are not dealing with lying only, but with visible, actual, bare-faced lies; lying has come out of its abstract retirements and gradations of approach, and stands there a concrete effrontery. Well might God have a trouble with the land. The land cannot rest in merely negative impiety. We cannot be agnostics only. The negative prepares for the positive. Where there is no truth the lie will certainly come in and say: Here is an open place where I can build my black house, and invent my next imposture. Where there is no love, no pity, no mercy, cruelty and oppression can come in and say: Here I will whet my axe, and trim the edge of my sword, that I may go out tomorrow and slay and desolate the world. A man cannot rest at not going to church; it is impossible to remain at the point of saying, We will not read the Bible. That “not,” that dreary, desolate negative, becomes an opportunity for the display of all evil ministries and mischievous actions. Take care how you begin the deprivation of the soul. To deplete the mind is to invite ignorance and make it welcome. The Lord, therefore, is himself exercising pity in the very act of delivering this judgment, for he says, “They break out” the action is that of violence; a wicked, malignant, determined trespasser, who will not stop at bounds and lines, but who will outrage all moral limitations, “and blood toucheth blood”; literally bloods touch bloods; and God never made this green earth for any such spectacle. He made the earth for flowers and fruits; he started the world himself with a garden, and he meant that garden to grow until it covered every inch of the responsive land. When therefore blood touches blood, when war goes forth to desolate the nations of the earth, and when through exercise of cruelty and wrong and injustice the whole social fabric bleeds from head to foot, God says he will controvert the case, and plague the doers of the wrong.
“Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away” ( Hos 4:3 ).
The bad man not only spoils his spiritual relations, he spoils the whole earth; the fishes of the sea are uneasy because the altar has been thrown down; the birds of the air, once so clear of voice, so tender and expressive in note, are choked and stifled because the sanctuary is violated and the Cross is abandoned by scornful hearts; the earth that brought forth autumnally will bring forth no more; she will not feed the beasts that have spoiled her. Behind all mysteries there is an explanation. There is nothing profound in the suggestion of certain scientific men who say, Do not blame God for bad harvests. After all that suggestion is not so awfully profound. When we first heard it we thought it was marvellous; we have lived to see that there is nothing in it. Bad harvests may, after all, under some circumstances have to be accounted for religiously. We are inclined to think that there may be quite as much wisdom on the one side as on the other, and that, after all, the religious suggestion may have in it the more force of reason. The Bible never hesitates to connect the earth and the heaven, the facts of history with the government of God’s throne. It is easy to deny all this; but denial is not a necessary expression and proof of supernatural genius. We may be cheated by the denials of other men. The more positive the denial the more positive should be the assertion; and the more positive the assertion the more exemplary and beautiful should be the life by which that assertion is repeated and sustained.
Perhaps some kindly soul will intervene and endeavour to reconcile God in this matter, but such a suggestion is anticipated and repudiated. “Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another.” By this word the Lord means: This is more than a merely human contention; do not let any man arise and suppose that he can daub this wall effectively or usefully, for he has only untempered mortar at his disposal. This is a divine fight; in this battle it is God against godlessness. The discussion is universal. No man is fit to arbitrate as between the contention of God on the one hand, and the claim of human nature on the other. Human nature must be silent; it is human nature in its totality that is impeached. Where shall a mediator be found? Is there no daysman that may lay his hand upon both, and make a speech that shall represent the actuality of the case and issue in reconciliation and peace, pardon and heaven? Out of such necessities there arises a cry that if it could explain itself would mean the Cross.
The impeachment does not end here: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This representation is cold; it is not the representation which the prophet made; there is a word omitted which gives accent and force to this impeachment. We should read, literally, “My people are destroyed for lack of the knowledge.” There is only one knowledge worth acquiring. Away with information if it be made to take the place of inspiration. Information is useful within very narrow limits, for information is a changeable quantity changing by the very fact of enlargement and self-correction; but inspiration is the spirit, the genius that unites all things, interprets all things, and in a sense governs and directs all things. “My people are destroyed for lack of the knowledge,” the one knowledge, the only knowledge worth having, the knowledge of God. The Bible is consistent in its claim; never does it lower its spiritual tone; not in one instance will it modify the claims and challenges of God. If God be not first, then there can be no settlement of the contention. With God at the right place, all other considerations and ministries and interactions assume their right relation and process. Who has not heard of the man who sold all his possessions that he might buy one with it, called a pearl of great price? Not that all the others represented in their totality the value of the one; when the one was obtained it was not merely a transference of value, it was an added treasure, a treasure beyond all price or arithmetical expression of superiority.
So with the knowledge of God. What a fool is he who knows everything but God! There are men who are so involved in getting scraps and fragments and little pieces of things together that they do not realise the totality of things. A man has a whole sack filled with little pieces of he does not know what, and he does not know what to make of it; he would be a comparatively happy man if he could part with that sack that is filled with little bits of things; he calls them phenomena, and does not get much comfort out of the word. It is possible so to use a microscope as to become its victim. There is a telescope as well as a microscope; there are stars as well as invisible insects. He who knows God knows the totality of the universe. He may be to a large extent ignorant of details; he may not have a microscope, he may not have a telescope, but he has that peculiar spiritual faculty which grasps the whole, and hears a solemn music in the march of the whole which is not heard by persons who take the organ to pieces that they may find where the music came from. Who would not give all he has for one sight of the invisible? Who would not consider all possessions worthless as compared with one face-to-face interview with God? Compared with that conference how small the debates of men, the collisions of human intellect, the uproar of social conflict and contention. We may belittle the very conception of knowing God. We are called upon to enter into a large conception of that fact, and the larger our conception of what is meant by knowing God, the more important will that knowledge become in actual reality. We do not know God who can only spell his name; we know nothing of God who have only heard of him; he only knows God who has lived with him; we live and move and have our being in God. Even this is insufficient, for there is needed one who can reveal God, in all the fulness of his character and being; the only Begotten of the Father, who dwelleth in the Father’s bosom, he hath revealed him. Only Jesus Christ can tell us what God is. The Hebrew piled its epithets that it might scale the height of the divine abode, but Jesus operated in the other direction; instead of scaling his way to the unscalable infinite, he proceeded forth and came from God, and when he arrived, we called him God with us, God Incarnate, God the Son, God the Saviour. We need both the actions: we need a Hebrew in its sublimity that can only get to the clouds, and we need that universal language which comes down and speaks to old men and little children, wisest philosopher and unlettered peasant, in a mystery of simplicity that can be understood, but not explained, felt, but not accounted for, so that it shall be true that a man shall know God by his heart when he cannot comprehend him by his intellect.
Prayer
Almighty God, thine eye is upon us continually; there is not a word on our tongue, there is not a thought in our heart, but, lo! O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Oftentimes dost thou cause us to exclaim in wonder, sometimes in terror, sometimes in joy, All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth; the darkness and the light are both alike unto thee: how then shall we stand before thy judgment seat, in what guise shall we there appear? Thou dost tear away the clothing of the hypocrite; thou dost send a fire upon the simulations of men. Enable us always to remember that thine eye is upon us for good, and not for judgment only; thou shalt guide us with thine eye. The opening of thine eye upon our life shall be as the dawning of the day upon the earth that has long been hidden in darkness. The Lord grant unto us the assurance that his criticism is gracious, and that in judgment he seeks a way for his mercy. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ. We live in the Christian light; we assemble within the shadow of the Cross; we meet at the altar of propitiation. Jesus Christ loved us and gave himself for us the just for the unjust, and now thou art able to grant unto us justification through faith and the peace which comes of being right with God. Show us that we are still under law, but under the larger law of love, under the wider judgment of regulated liberty; and thus may we walk with dignity, steadfastness, patience, humbleness of mind, and all trust of heart, and at the last may we see that thou hast led us by a right way. The mountain was right and the valley, the cold wintry day and the bright summer flowery path, all was right; it was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Forsaking God
Hos 4
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” ( Hos 4:6 ).
The Lord must in some way find our life that he may either reward it or chastise it. In this case he will get at the parents through the children. He would not have done this if there had been any other way into their rebellious and obdurate hearts. We must leave him to explain himself in reference to the children; he will do that which is right and merciful; we need not plague ourselves about that aspect of mystery; rather let us fasten attention upon the fact that God means for our good to get at our souls somehow. He will try all the gates, and even if he has to break down the child-gate he will come in. That is the point upon which we are to fix our devout attention. We can of course be tempted in another direction: why attack the children, why conduct himself towards the innocent as if they were guilty? Why punish the innocent for those who have transgressed? So we metaphysically fritter away God’s noblest meaning; we endeavour to solve the insoluble, when we might be accepting with grace and gratitude the inevitable, the disciplinary, and the high administration of divine righteousness.
Then he will proceed with his punishment, and “change their glory into shame.” He shall make the noblest horse as a mean and stumbling ass; he will cause the genius that set itself against him to do menial work, to sing unworthy songs, to paint pictures for the walls of hell; he will turn their eloquence into a new method of lying; that which was once their crown shall be their disgrace; that which was once their chief glory shall be a cloud upon their lives. God will turn things upside down; he will have night at midday, if thereby he can do good to the sons of men. The lesson is that somehow, at some point, divine judgment will lay hold upon us, that it may prepare the way for divine mercy. Judgment will not come alone if he can help it; judgment is God’s strange work. When the fire comes it is only to burn the stubble; when God strikes it is that he may awaken attention; when God takes away the little child it is that we may look up the look that stirs heaven, the look that means, There must be something beyond; the inexplicable look, the attitude religious, even when the tongue is dumb as to praise. So we recur again and again to the deep sweet true lesson that whatever happens in the way of divine discipline, or in the administration of divine law, is meant not only to rebuke us for sin and judge us with tremendous judgment, but to invite us to thought and prayer, to penitence, and through contrition to pardon.
How vividly the sin of the people represented itself to God. We ought to ask, How do other people view our actions? For we are not judges at all times of our own behaviour. But the question should not end there; that inquiry is itself but a hint of broader criticism. We should ask, How does this life appeal to God? God has a right to be heard upon this subject. It is not for man to say that he is judge, and he knows all, and can settle everything, and that his opinion is final. Even art appeals to criticism; even music seems to say in all its undulation, in all its wizardry of sound: Do you feel this? Does it touch you, heal you, inspire you, have some effect upon you? And man must submit his life to divine criticism; his question should be, Lord, this looks well to me, but I can only see it from one point of view; how does it look from heaven? Things are in reality as God sees them, for God sees them in their reality.
“They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.” They live upon it, they pander to people rather than expose their sins, and so long as those sins are profitable the priests seize the produce, and spend it on their own lust, vanity, and ambition. Think of anointed men living on the produce of sin and shame! The people go out and do the sin, and those who are in the sanctuary say, Bring your gains; we will not ask how you got them; only plentifully dispense them to us, and we will ask nothing concerning processes. So the priest was made fat by the iniquity of the people, and the Lord was moved in heaven in the direction of controversy and judgment, and he shook the heaven in his wrath, and condemned those whom he called by the endearing name “My people.” It is something to have a righteous God, whoever invented him. Say these prophets were inventors of a God, it was a noble God they dreamed. His moral character disposes of the theory of invention; it does not lie within the scope of iniquity to dream holiness; it is not within the power of diseased corrupt humanity to invent a spotless God, walking in righteousness, and judging the earth in equity. The Lord inquires about our gains and our produce and our enjoyments, and he will not have upon his altar the result of sin. We are willing to receive it because we are imperfect. A man who has made money by evil practices may bring it to the Church, and with a kind of Protestant papality we say, The end will sanctify the means; we will take this blood-money, and build holy walls with it; we will accept this treasure of shame, and pray it into a kind of purity. The Lord will not have such sacrifice. He loves honesty, truth, righteousness, reality, and he will not close his eyes in connivance when iniquity would seek to bribe the altar. These are the teachings of the Old Testament; verily those teachings might make it a New Testament every day; this morality never grows old; in this ineffable righteousness there is an infinite novelty. Here is the security of the universe, and the security of the Church.
Then we come to words which are often quoted as a proverb: “And there shall be, like people, like priest.” The people may have what they like, and the priest will say, “You could not help it.” The priest will reproduce what the people are doing, and the people will take encouragement from the priest to go out and do double wickedness, and thus they shall keep the action even. To this degree of corruptness may holiest institutions be dragged. The priest meaning by that word teacher, preacher, minister, apostle should always be strong enough to condemn; he can condemn generally, but not particularly; he can damn the distant, he must pet and flatter and gratify the near. He will outgrow this when he knows Christ better; when he is enabled to complete his faith by feeling that it is not necessary for him to live, but it is necessary for him to speak the truth; when he comes to the point of feeling that it is not at all needful that he should have a roof over his head, but it is necessary that he should have an approving conscience; when he completes his theology by this divinest morality, he will be a rare man in the earth, with a great voice thundering its judgments, and with a tender voice uttering its benedictions and solaces where hearts are broken with real contrition. Priests should lead; priests should not neglect denunciation, even where they are unable to follow their denunciation by examples to the contrary. The word should be spoken boldly, roundly, grandly. It will be a woesome day for the nation when the word is not sounded out in all its simplicity, purity, rigour, and tenderness.
The Lord says, “I will punish them for their ways, and reward them for their doings.” When we find this word “doings” in the Old Testament associated with God it means great doings. This is one of those words which is at once both substantive and adjective. “Doings” associated with the divine name is a word meaning great things marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty and when the word doings in the old Hebrew is associated with men, it means bold doings, audacity, impudence at its highest height; doings that seek to accomplish by boisterousness and audacity and madness what cannot be accomplished by quietness and wisdom and moral strength. The Lord will crush the impertinence and the folly of sinners.
A wonderful discovery the Lord makes as to the sin of the people; he says, “They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills.” That is the bold aspect, that is the public phase; instead of doing all these things, as Ezekiel would say, in a chamber of imagery far down, at which you get through a hole in the wall, they go up to high places, and invite the sun to look upon them; they kiss the calf in public. Some credit should be due to audacity; but there is another sin which cannot be done on the tops of the mountains, so the charge continues “under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good.” Here is the secret aspect of rebellion. Do not believe that the blusterer lives only in public as fool and criminal; do not say, There is a fine frankness about this man, anyhow; when he sins he sins in high places; he goes upon the mountain and stamps his foot upon the high hills, and the great hill throbs and vibrates under his sturdy step. That is not the whole man; he will seek the oak, the poplar, and the elm, because the shadow thereof is good. It is a broad shadow; it makes night in daytime; it casts such a shadow upon the earth which it covers that it amounts to practical darkness. So the blustering sinner is upon the mountain, trying to perpetrate some trick that shall deserve the commendation of being frank, and when he has achieved that commendation he will seek the shadow that is good, the shadow at daytime, the darkness underneath the noontide sun. How the Lord searches us, and tries our life, and puts his fingers through and through us, that nothing may be hidden from him! He touches us at every point, and looks through us, and understands us altogether. There is not a word upon our tongue, there is not a thought in our hearts, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether; thou knowest our thought afar off; ere it is quite rounded into shapeliness thou dost know it in its plasm, in its earliest hint; before the mind knows its own thinking thou knowest it all, and seest it in overt act, in positive malignant disposition.
So the Lord proceeds with his charge, and in a tone of intolerable mockery and irony he returns to Bethaven.
“Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The Lord liveth” ( Hos 4:15 ).
Bethaven substitutes Bethel. In the old, old history Bethel meant house of God, and still means that etymologically; but it has so changed its character that no longer is it Bethel, but Beth-aven house of vanity. Thus the sanctuary may be made a stable; thus the altar may be sold for bread that shall minister to the hunger of wickedness; thus is glory turned into shame: on the temple door is written Ichabod the glory hath departed; the walls are there, let the owls and satyrs find within them what hospitality they can, for the Lord hath gone up with a shout of derision, and Beth-el is Bethaven. Thus do we lose our character; thus the names in which we are baptised become associated with every form of shame, debasement, and disgrace; thus may sweetest memories be depraved; thus may the wine of love become the sour drink of remorse, disappointment, and alienation. How is the fine gold become dim; how are the lofty brought low; and see swirling yonder in the abyss of space the star that made the morning glad! Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
“For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place” ( Hos 4:16 ).
This metaphor is full of suggestion, and full of high philosophy. Israel complained of limitation; Israel was chafed by the yoke, and Israel resented the puncture of the goad. Israel said, “I want liberty, I do not want this moral bondage any longer; I do not want to be surrounded by commandments, I do not want to live in a cage of ten bars called the ten commandments of God: I want liberty; let me follow my reason, my instincts, let me obey myself.” The Lord said, So be it. “The Lord will feed thee as a lamb in a large place”: thou shalt have liberty enough, but it shall be the liberty of a wilderness. You can have liberty, but you will find no garden in it; if you want the garden you must have the law. Here is a lamb that says, “I want liberty; I do not want this pasture and this fold, and this shepherdliness; I want to go where I like.” Very good, saith the great Shepherd in heaven, go: you shall have place enough, but it shall be the place of a wilderness. Let us take care how we trifle with law, obligation, responsibility, limitation. When we are tethered down to a centre it means something; we are tethered for our good. Our brain can only do a certain amount of work: if we want a larger liberty we may take the liberty of insanity. That is open folly. He is the wise man who says, I have but a certain capacity, I have so many talents, I have so much time in which to work: Lord, teach me how to make the best of what thou hast given me to begin the world with; I will not pine for five talents or ten, thou hast given me two: help me to double them; I should like to do as large thinking as some other men, and be as brilliant as they are, but I know I never should be what they are in thy great Church and world; therefore make me contented with what I have, obedient, simple-minded, frank-hearted, always seeking opportunities of doing what little thing or great thing may be in my power. Poor foolish lamb! it was not content with the home pasture; it said, There is food enough here, but I want more than food; the grass is rich and succulent, and green and plentiful, but I want liberty. And the lamb vaulted over the stone wall, or pushed itself through the sheltering hedge, and away it went into the liberty of a stony desert. We still need the commandments, we still need the beatitudes; we are yet mortal. Blessed is he who knows the number of his days, and who spends them in a spirit of wisdom. Do not seek too much liberty. The moment you pass beyond the appointed boundary you are lost, and only he can find you who is willing to leave the unfallen, that he may seek and save that which is lost. Do not run the risk. The devil is so acute that you may be tempted, even in the wilderness, to think you can feed your hunger with stones. Consider and be wise, for there may a time come when the Lord will say, “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone;” that is to say, Give him rest; let him get out of his idols what he can; let there be no longer any expostulation, entreaty, beseechment, importunity, care, anxious love, solicitous philanthropy; he is lost, now let him alone. Awful word, tremendous judgment! For God to let us alone is hell.
The Lord is not content with calling one class to judgment; he is universal in his claim. He says, “Hear ye this, O priests;” that is one class “and hearken, ye house of Israel;” that is another class “and give ye ear, O house of the king;” that is the greatest dignity. So you have the sacerdotal and the popular and the royal; and the reason is that “judgment is toward” them, “because ye have been a snare on Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor.” The Lord charges them all with having been “profound to make slaughter” deep in iniquity, wonderful power of scheming in the art of destruction. Men can be clever in wickedness. There is a bungling criminality that any vulgar mind can imitate; but even crime may be carried on to the point of a fine art; the mind takes eagerly with a fine willingness to certain species of sin and evil. If men would turn these great talents which are prostituted in the cause of wickedness to honest ways of obtaining a livelihood, to what eminence they might attain! How is it that the heart loves to be skilled in evil? Is there no meaning in this? Is it a mere chance in the mystery of life, or does it indicate the solemn tremendous fact that we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; there is none righteous, no, not one?
The Lord says, “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me” ( Hos 5:3 ). In English we do not get the meaning of this fully. The “I” is emphatic. Very seldom in English rhetoric is any emphasis to be laid upon a word like “I”; we should throw the emphasis upon the word “know.” “I know Ephraim,” and in English that would be equal to what it is in Hebrew, namely, “I, even I, know Ephraim”: whether he is on the hill, or whether he is in the shadow which he considers good, wherever he is, whatever he is doing, my eye is fixed upon him; he does not escape criticism; God’s mind is watching judicially everything that the sinner is doing, “Thou God seest me” not in the sense of thou protectest me, and thou knowest me; but in a critical sense thou dost penetrate my reins and my heart, my thought and my unconfessed purpose, and it is not in man to find an inviolable solitude.
“They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them” ( Hos 5:4 ).
They cannot set up any framework of God; they are poor moral carpenters: their fingers lose all skill when they seek to put up something that shall have the appearance at least of morality and goodness. They no sooner set up one side of the edifice than the other falls down, and the framework will not hold together, because the spirit is wrong. Away with your mechanical morality; away with your frameworks of honour and social security, even of education when it is meant as a substitute for moral earnestness and purity. It is the spirit that must be renewed; we do not want a framework, but a genius of heart, an atmosphere of soul, a new manhood “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. Do not trouble yourselves about the framework. You are not carpenters, you are men; you are not mechanics, you are souls. Do not trifle with the tragedy of life.
Prayer
Almighty God, we need thy sweet Word evermore. It is not enough to live to-day; we must never cease to live. This is the mystery of life; with all its pain and shadow, its weakness and disappointment, still it clings to itself, it lingers and yearns after immortality. Thy commandment is exceeding broad, but so is thy promise: thy mercy endureth for ever. This is our joy; into this holy place we come from time to time to renew our life, to sing our hymn of praise and thanks, and to take again into the world redoubled and ennobled strength. Thou hast been our God; thou wilt not forsake us; thou wast our father’s God, and thou didst never exclude the children from thine overflowing and redundant blessing. When didst thou speak alone to those who were living? Thou didst speak beyond them, to all the ages that should come. Why should the Lord speak twice? Doth not his breath fill infinity? Is not the look of his love the look of eternity? We bless thee, therefore, for thy Word once spoken, once delivered unto the saints, once made clear to the hungry, yearning, agonised heart of man. It is enough, it is finished; the river of God is full of water. Pity us in all our littleness; have mercy upon us in all the aggravation of our sin. We thought of sin like an infinite cloud until we saw the Cross; then understood we the Word. Where sin abounded grace hath much more abounded; heaven is broader than perdition; God is mightier than all his enemies; the throne of the Lord covereth all space and all duration. If we have rendered any service to thee, the praise be thine; if aught has been done to make thy kingdom appear in its truest beauty, the vision was from heaven. We praise thee, therefore, with undivided tribute and eulogy for all thy tender grace, for all thy lovingkindness. Bind us up in the bundle of life; see to it that no man pluck us out of thine hand. May we never perish in sight of land, but be brought safely home, quite home, right into the innermost place of home; there not to change, but to continue and heighten our Christian song. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
VII
THE BOOK OF HOSEA PART I
Hos 1:1-4:5
Books commended: (1) “Pulpit Commentary,” (2) “Bible Commentary,” (3) “Cambridge Bible,” (4) Sampey’s Syllabus. Hosea, the prophet, was one of three who bore this name. The other two were Hoshea, afterward called Joshua (Num 13:8-16 ), and Hoshea, the last king of Israel. These are shortened forms of the name “Jehoshea” which means, the Lord is my help, but the short form means savior, or deliverer. Hosea, the prophet, was a son of Beeri, but we know nothing of Beeri; nor do we know where Hosea was born or buried. We know that he was a prophet of Israel and, perhaps, was a native of the Northern Kingdom, but his tribal relation is only a guess with much uncertainty. He had frequent messages for Judah as well as for Israel, and at first he praised Judah but later on he warned and threatened her.
In the title Hosea is said to have prophesied “in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel.” Now the reign of these kings of Judah covered a period of one hundred and twelve years; so he must have lived to be quite an old man. Hosea probably commenced his prophetic work in the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam and in the early part of the reign of Uzziah, and extended it through the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and into the reign of Hezekiah, which would give us a period of fifty or sixty years for his work, say from 780 B.C. to 725 B.C., about fifty-five years. The internal evidence fully corroborates the statement of Hos 1:1 .
The period covered by his prophetic utterances was undoubtedly the darkest in the whole history of the kingdom of Israel. Political life was characterized by anarchy and misrule. The throne was occupied by men who obtained possession by the murder of their predecessors and the people were governed by military despotism. Zechariah was slain after a reign of six months; Shallum, after only one month. A dozen years later Pekahish was assassinated by Pekah, who met the same fate at the hands of Hoshea. All these were ungodly rulers, and the morals of the nation were sinking to the lowest ebb. The conditions were terrible in the extreme; luxurious living, robbery, oppression, falsehood, adultery, murder, accompanied by the most violent intolerance of any form of rebuke. The language of the prophet is influenced by the confusion about him in the nation and the disgrace of his own home. Then Israel being situated midway between Egypt and Assyria, two factions existed: one favoring alliance with Egypt; the other, with Assyria. Such were the circumstances which furnished the occasion of this prophecy.
The genuineness and canonicity of the prophecies of Hosea have never been widely called in question, nor has the book of Hosea been successfully distributed among the several authors differing in character, culture, and date, a division of labor which has played a great part in the criticism of other prophets. The book of Hosea, of a date and authenticity unquestioned, is a witness of the utmost value for previous portions of the Old Testament. A number of allusions put it beyond all reasonable doubt, that Hosea, in the eighth century before Christ, had in his hands a Hebrew literature identical with much of which we possess at this time.
In this book we find several allusions to the history of Genesis: (1) Adam’s sin in paradise and expulsion there from (Hos 6:7 ) ; (2) the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Hos 11:8 ) ; (3) God’s promise to Abraham (Hos 1:10 ); (4) Jacob’s experience (Hos. 12:3-4:15).
In Exodus, besides general allusions to Moses, we have the following verbal references: (1) Hos 1:11 is a reference to Exo 1:10 ; (2) Hos 2:17 , to Exo 23:13 . The curse denounced in Lev 26:14 ff is alluded to in Hos 7:12 . The sin in the matter of Baal-peor discussed in Numbers is alluded to in Hos 9:10 .
There are several verbal citations of passages in Deuteronomy: (1) Deu 31:18 , in Hos 3:1 ; (2) Deu 17:8-13 , in Hos 4:4 ; (3) Deu 19:14 ; Deu 27:17 , in Hos 5:10 , and in many other instances. So we can find allusions to Joshua, Judges, and Samuel, showing that all these books were in the canon of sacred Scriptures in the time of Hosea just as we have them today.
Many of the finest passages in Hosea, practically all of the promises, are treated by the radical critics as interpolations by later writers; most of the references to Judah are stricken out, and the historical allusions to great men and events in the past are also cut out. This is revolutionary criticism and completely reverses the message of Hosea. There is not a scintilla of evidence to justify such a mutilation of “this book.
To show the fallacy of the radical critic theory of the Pentateuch I take the following from Sampey’s Syllabus:
Professor James Robertson, in his able work on the Early Religion of Israel, has delivered heavy blows against the current radical theory of the origin of the Pentateuch, by emphasizing the following facts concerning Amos and Hosea, who are admitted by all parties to have lived and labored in the eighth century, B.C.:
1. These prophets had a rich vocabulary of moral and theological terms, implying a high degree of religious culture prior to their time.
2. They displayed literary skill such as would argue for a high development of the Hebrew language and literature before their time.
3. Both of these prophets, as well as Micah and Isaiah, far from regarding themselves as pathfinders in thought and practice, speak of their work as a return to the law of God given in former times. They plainly regard themselves as reformers, not innovators. These three lines of argument unite in favoring a date for the Pentateuch much earlier than that assigned by Wellhausen and his school.
Hosea, of all the prophets, is the most difficult to translate and interpret. His style is marked by obscure brevity; his mind was so aflame with the fiery message which he brought that he did not stop to weigh words for the sake of clearness. Jerome says, “Hosea is concise, and speaks in detached sentences.” The prophet felt too deeply to express himself calmly. Amos 1-3 is in prose; the rest of the book is rhythmical, but almost destitute of parallelism, a general characteristic of Hebrew poetry. The first three chapters are symbolical and strikingly graphic; the rest is literal, that “he may run who reads,” i.e., “run through it in reading.”
This book naturally divides itself into two parts: a shorter one (Hosea 1-3), and a longer one (Hosea 4-14), as follows:
ANALYSIS HOSEA SPIRITUAL ADULTERY
I. The preparation of the prophet (Hosea
1. His domestic relations and the symbolical import (Hos 1:2-2:1 )
(1) His orders, his marriage, and his family (Hos 1:2-9 )
(2) His vision of hope (Hos 1:10-2:1 )
2. His domestic tragedy, a revelation (Hos 2:2-23 )
(1) The charge explained (Hos 2:2-7 )
(2) The severity of love (Hos 2:8-13 )
(3) The tenderness of love (Hos 2:14-20 )
(4) The promise of enlargement (Hos 2:21-23 )
3. His reclamation of Gomer and its revelation (Hos 3:1-5 )
(1) His orders (Hos 3:1 )
(2) His obedience (Hos 3:2-3 )
(3) His vision of future Israel (Hos 3:4-5 )
II. The preaching of the prophet (Hos 4:1-14:8 )
NOTE: Of all the parts of the Bible, this, perhaps, is the hardest to analyze. Sampey says, “These chapters defy logical analysis,” and Bishop Lowth calls them “scattered leaves of a sibyl’s book.” This section consists of detached selections from Hosea’s prophecies, without regard to logical order. They are perhaps more chronological than logical. There have been several attempts to analyze these chapters but all alike seem to have been baffled with the difficulty of the task. The author ventures, as a kind of analysis to guide us in our study of this section, the following selected outline:
1. Pollution and pursuit (Hos 4:1-6:3 )
2. Pollution and punishment (Hos 6:4-10:15 )
3. Pollution and pity (Hos 10:1-14:8 )
On the three main views of the marriage of Hosea I take the following from Sampey’s Syllabus:
1. That the whole is an allegory or parable. This is the view of Calvin, who objects to an actual marriage of the prophet with an unchaste woman on the ground that it would discredit him with the very people whom he wished to influence. He says: “It would have then exposed the prophet to the scorn of all if he had entered a brothel and taken to himself a harlot.” Calvin insists that the expression “wife of whoredom” could mean nothing less than a common prostitute. He replies to the argument that this was an exceptional case by saying that it seems inconsistent with reason that the Lord should thus gratuitously render his prophet contemptible. He thinks the expression, “Children of wantoness,” also militates against the literal view. Calvin seems to think that the woman referred to in the third chapter was different from the one named in the first, but that we are not to imagine a real occurrence in either case. Calvin’s interpretation, in detail, of the language of Hosea seems to be greatly weakened by his theory of the imaginary character of the marriage.
2. Some think that Hosea actually married a woman who was leading an unchaste life; that she bore three children to him and then lapsed into her old life once more, sinking into a condition of slavery from which she was bought by Hosea and restored to his home, though not at first to the full intimacy of married life. This view, it must be confessed, would seem the most natural to a plain reader. The chief objection is moral. How could the Holy God direct a pure-minded prophet to form such an unnatural union? Some authorities think that Hosea’s language, in describing his marriage has been colored by his later experiences; and that he has interpreted God’s command to him to marry in darker words by reason of the experiences which followed the union. However that may be, it seems exceedingly difficult to believe that God would direct His prophet to marry a woman already living in unchastity.
3. Others hold that Hosea was directed to marry a woman given to idolatry, an idolatry which was often associated with licentiousness, although his bride was not an actually unchaste woman at first, but only a spiritual adulteress. She bore to the prophet three children, to whom symbolical names were given. Later on, idolatry brought forth its natural fruitage, and Hosea’s wife became an actual adulteress. Whether she then deserted Hosea, or whether he divorced her, we are not told. Now Hosea could understand why Jehovah was grieved with unfaithful Israel to the point of casting her off. The unspeakable love and compassion of God for His unfaithful spouse prepared Hosea in some measure to obey the divine command to recover his own unfaithful wife and restore her to his home.
The third view has more to recommend it than either of the other two. Hosea’s bitter domestic sorrow became an object-lessen for himself and his people. His heart was almost broken by shame and grief, but he was thereby fitted to portray the heinousness of apostasy, on the one hand, and, on the other, Jehovah’s tenderness and compassion toward His unfaithful people.
In Hos 1:2-9 we have set forth the condition of the people of Israel at this time and their relation to Jehovah. There are several words and phrases in it that need explanation. “When Jehovah spoke at the first” means the beginning of Hosea’s prophecies in the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II, and refers to God’s first command to him. “Gomer” means failing, or consummation and indicates the decline of Israel at that time because of her sins. “Jezreel,” the name of the first-born means scattered by God and is contrasted with “Israel” which means, prince with God, i.e., “Jezreel” indicates a prophecy of Israel’s scattering which was fulfilled in the destruction of the house of Jehu in which God would avenge the awful deeds of Jehu though he did his work at the command of God, but with the spirit of vengeance and with no thought of the glory of God. The kingdom of Israel, though spared about fifty years, soon ceased, when her bow, the symbol of her strength, was broken in the valley of Jezreel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, & Israel was scattered.
Then a daughter was born to Gomer whom the prophet was instructed to call “Lo-ruhamah,” which means hath not obtained mercy and as applied to Israel at this time, signifies that God had visited her in her wickedness; that Israel was pass-ing beyond the hope of mercy and pardon. Then the prophet contrasts with this condition of Israel the mercy of Jehovah to Judah which was fulfilled in the destruction of Sennacherib’s army and the extension of the life of Judah one hundred and thirty-two years beyond that of Israel. This prophecy concerning Judah was, doubtless, intended to encourage the faithful in Israel.
Then followed a third child born to the woman, whom the prophet was instructed to name “Loammi,” which means not my people and indicates Jehovah’s complete rejection of Israel because of her violation of the marriage covenant. So the prophet’s children symbolized, step by step, the sad gradation of Israel’s fast-coming calamity. The name, “Jezreel,” scattered of God, denotes the first blow dealt to them by divine Providence, from which it was possible for them by repentance to recover; “Loruhamah,” without mercy, imparts another and heavier blow, yet not beyond all hope of recovery; but “Loammi,” not my people, puts an end to hope, implying the rejection of Israel by the Almighty. The national covenant was annulled; God had cast off his people who were left hopeless and helpless, because of their sinful and ungrateful departure from the fountain of all blessing.
In Hos 1:10-2:1 we have set forth clearly the promise of the return and conversion of the Jews. There is, perhaps, a primary fulfilment in the return under Zerubbabel and Joshua but the larger and clearer fulfilment is yet to be realized in the gathering of the Jews and their consequent conversion at which time the millennium will be introduced and the great multitudes of spiritual Israel here referred to will be converted. Then Jezreel will be reversed in its application and made to apply to the planting of Israel in her own land; and right where they are now said not to be God’s people they shall be called God’s people. Israel and Judah shall have one head, the Messiah, and not only will Jezreel be reversed in its application, but also the names of the other two children will lose their negative meaning, and, instead of Loruhamah and Loammi, there will be Ammi, my people and Ruhhamah, the beloved. Such will be the conditions of fellowship on their return. This accords with Rom 9:26-27 and other New Testament quotations.
The charge against the Israelites in Hos 2:2-7 is their idolatries in which they have forgotten him and their obligations to him. The mother here is Israel taken collectively and is represented as a wife, unfaithful to the marriage relation. The threat of stripping her naked is in accord with the Oriental custom of dealing with the harlot, which is the method also of the Germans in dealing with an adulteress. This is described by Tacitus thus: Accisis crimibus nudatam coram propingius expellit domo maritus . Her children are the children of Israel individually who are also barred from the privileges of the covenant and there are no blessings for them. Her lovers mentioned here are her idols to which she had turned for support, for which the Lord pronounces the curse upon them, that will turn them back to himself.
The severity of Jehovah’s love for them is shown in Hos 2:8-13 . For her disregard of Jehovah’s blessings, and attributing them to Baalim, he removes them and subjects Israel to the most severe chastisements, here described as “nakedness,” “shame,” “mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies,” the waste of the land, the visit of the days of Baalim, etc., which are expressions of the severity of his love to bring Israel to repentance. The fulfilment of these predictions we find in part in the conditions of the captivity but the author believes the reference here to the feasts and solemn assemblies to include the fulfilment of them by Christ on the cross as expressed in Col 2:14-17 .
The passage, Hos 2:14-20 , is in contrast with the preceding paragraph and should be translated: “Notwithstanding, I will allure, etc.,” which expresses Jehovah’s kindness to Israel in her captivity, which is intended to allure her to return to him. He shows here his tender love for Israel by making her troubles valley of Achor) the door of her hope. The new relation is expressed by the word, “Ishi,” which means my husband instead of “Baali,” my master. These terms are appellatives and should not be translated as proper names. There is a play upon the word, “Baal,” by which it is made to express their former relation to Jehovah as servant and master, because of Israel’s going after Baalim, as if to say, “If you make Baal your God, then I will be to you as Baali, i.e., master, but in this captivity I will take Baalim out of your mouth.” This is one of the blessings of the captivity, viz: The permanent cure of Israel of all forms of idolatry.
Then his love finds expression in the covenant with the beasts of the field, the doing away with war and the establishing of the betrothal relation in perfect righteousness. The covenant with the beasts here seems to correspond exactly with Isa 11:6-9 in which there is a clear reference to the messianic age, and does not find its larger fulfilment until the millennium. May the good Lord hasten the time when No strife shall rage, nor hostile feuds Disturb these peaceful years; To plowshares men shall beat their swords, To pruning-hooks, their spears. No longer hosts, encount’ring hosts, Shall crowds of slain deplore; They hang the trumpet in the hall, And study war no more.
In Hos 2:21-23 we have a clear and distinct promise of the conversion of the Jews and their consequent evangelization (together with Gentile Christians) of the world in the millennium. The blessings of this period are given in the terms of both the temporal and the spiritual, the temporal referring to the response of the heavens and the earth to the call of God and his people in giving blessings and the spiritual blessings are expressed in the sowing of Israel among the nations and the blessings upon them who were not God’s people. This certainly comprehends the time of the millennium in which the Jews shall play such a signal part in the evangelization of the world, as expressed in Rom 9:23 .
Hos 3 sets forth God’s command to Hosea to go and buy back Gomer, his unfaithful wife, who had been sold as a slave, the prophet’s prompt obedience and his vision of future Israel. This is an illustration of God’s great and boundless love for depraved unfaithful Israel, though like the unfaithful wife, she had forsaken Jehovah, her husband. The prophet kept her many days exercising the restraint upon her necessary to bring her to repentance. So the prophet explains that the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, etc., after which they shall return and seek Jehovah, their God, and shall have his favor upon them in the latter days.
There was a partial fulfilment of Hos 3:4 in the period of the captivity, but surely there is a clear prophecy here of the long period of the tribulation which followed the Jewish rejection of the Messiah and which will continue until the Jews shall look on him whom they have pierced and by faith embrace him as their long looked-for Messiah. As we behold the Jew today we see him “without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim,” but after many days he shall turn and seek Jehovah his God and David (Christ) his king and in the days of their ingathering will be the joy of the harvest.
QUESTIONS
1. Who was Hosea?
2. What was the date of his prophecy?
3. What was the occasion, or circumstances, of his prophecies?
4. What of the genuineness and canonicity of this book?
5. What was its relation, in general, to the sacred canon?
6. What allusions do we find in this book to the book of Genesis?
7. What allusions to the history in Exodus?
8. What allusion to Leviticus?
9. What allusion to Numbers?
10. What allusions to Deuteronomy?
11. How do the Radical Critics deal with the book of Hosea?
12. What was the relation of Amos and Hosea to recent theories of radical criticism respecting the origin of the Pentateuch, as shown by Prof. James Robertson?
13. What can you say of the character and style of this prophecy?
14. What is the outline, or analysis, of the book?
15. What are the three main views of the marriage of Hosea and which is the more commendable?
16. What is the interpretation and application of Hos 1:2-9 ?
17. What was the promise of Hos 1:10-2:1 ?
18. What was the charge against Israel as revealed in the domestic tragedy of Hos 2:2-7 ?
19. How is the severity of Jehovah’s love for them shown in Hos 2:8-13 , and what the fulfilment of the predictions contained therein?
20. How does Jehovah show the tenderness of his love in Hos 2:14-20 and what the fulfilment of its predictions?
21. What is the promise of Hos 2:21-23 and when the ideals here set forth to be realized?
22. What is the contents of chapter III and what is revelation?
23. What is the fulfilment of the predictions of Hos 3:4-5 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
VIII
THE BOOK OF HOSEA PART 2
Hos 4:1-14:9
What has previously been presented in figure and symbol in the first section of the book is now plainly and literally stated. Jehovah’s controversy with Israel is set forth in Hos 4:1-5 . Someone has called this “The Lord’s Lawsuit” in which he brings grave charges against Israel for sins of omission followed by sins of commission. The sins of omission which led to the sins of commission are that there were no truth, no goodness, and no knowledge of God in the land. These omissions led to the gravest sins of commission, viz: profanity, covenant-breaking, murder, stealing, and adultery. The evidence in this case was so strong that there was no plea of “not guilty” entered, and Jehovah proceeded at once, after making the indictment, to announce the sentence: Destruction!
This verdict of destruction was for the lack of knowledge, which emphasizes the responsibility of the opportunity to know. They had rejected knowledge and had forgotten the law of Jehovah, and as the priests were the religious leaders and instructors of the people, the sentence is heavy against them, but “like people, like priest” shows the equality of the responsibility and the judgment. There is no excuse for either. He who seeks to know the agenda, God will reveal the credenda. The sentence is again stated, thus: Rejection, forgetting her children, shame, requite them their doings, hunger and harlotry. Such a sentence hung over them like a deadly pall.
In Hos 4:11-14 whoredom and wine are named together, not by accident but because they are companion evils, which is the universal testimony of those who practice either. Here they are said to take away the understanding, or as the Hebrew puts it, the heart. Both are literally true. That the understanding is marred and blighted by these evils is evidenced in the case of the thousands who have rendered themselves unfit for service anywhere by wasting their strength with wine and harlots. That the heart, the seat of affections, is destroyed by these evils witness the thousands of divorce cases in our courts today. By such a course the very vitals of man are burnt out and he then becomes the prey to every other evil in the catalogue. Let the youth of our country heed the warning of the prophet. Here Israel, engrossed with these sins, is pictured as going deeper and deeper in sin and degradation until they pass beyond the power of description. Notice that the Lord here holds the men responsible and pronounces a mighty invective against the modern double standard of morals. In God’s sight the transgressor is the guilty party, whether man or woman.
Though Israel has played the harlot, Judah is warned in Hos 4:15-19 that she may not follow the example of Israel. The places of danger are pointed out and the example of Israel is used to enforce the warning. Israel is stubborn; Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone. Israel is wrapped in the winds of destruc-tion and shall soon be put to shame, therefore, take heed, Judah.
There are several notable things in the address of Hos 5:1-7 : First, the whole people priests, Israel, and the royal house was involved in the judgment because each one was responsible for the existing conditions, their great centers of revolt against Jehovah being pointed out as Mizpeh, east of the Jordan; and Tabor, west of the Jordan. Second, the fact that Jehovah himself was the rebuker of them. God is the one undisputable judge and he will judge and he will judge them all. Though the mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, With exactness grinds He all,
Third, God’s omniscience: “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me.” So he knows us and there is nothing hid from him. Fourth, men are hindered from turning to God by their gins. Fifth, positive instruction awaits the sinner (Hos 5:5 ). Sixth, sacrifices and seeking are too late after doom is pronounced. Repentance must come within the space allotted for it; otherwise, it is too late.
The cornet and trumpet in Hos 5:8-15 signifies the alarm in view of the approaching enemy. In the preceding paragraph the prophet signified their certain destruction and now he indicates that it is at hand, again assigning the reason, that Judah had become as bold as those who remove the landmarks, and Ephraim was content to walk after man’s commandments. Then he shows by the figure of the moth and the woodworm that he is slowly consuming both Israel and Judah, but they were applying to other powers for help to hold out and that the time would come when he, like the lion, would make quick work of his judgments upon Israel and Judah; that they will not seek him till their affliction comes.
Paragraph Hos 6:1-3 is the exhortation of the Israelites to one another at the time of their affliction mentioned in the last verse of the preceding chapter and should be introduced by the word, “saying,” as indicated in the margin of Hos 5:15 . The expressions, “He hath torn” and “he hath smitten,” evidently refer to the preceding verses which describe Jehovah’s dealing with Israel and Judah as a lion. This exhortation represents them after their affliction, saying to one another, “Come, and let us return unto Jehovah,” etc. The “two days” and the “third day” are expressions representing short periods, not literal or typical days. They are then represented as pursuing knowledge which is the opposite to their present condition in their lack of knowledge. Now they are perishing for the lack of knowledge but then they will flourish as land flourishes in the time of the latter rain. There is a primary fulfilment of this prophecy in the return after the captivity but the larger fulfilment will be at their final return and conversion at which commences the revival destined to sweep the world into the kingdom of God. As Peter says, it will be “the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” (Act 3:19 ).
A paraphrase of Hos 6:4-11 shows its interpretation and application, thus: “O Ephraim, O Judah, I am perplexed as to what remedy next to apply to you; your goodness is so shallow and transitory that my judgments have to be repeated from time to time. I desire goodness, i.e., works of charity, the right attitude of life, and the proper condition of the heart, rather than sacrifice. But instead of this you have, like Adam in the garden of Eden, transgressed my covenant and have dealt treacherously against me, as in the case of the Gileadites and the case of the murderous priests in the way to Shechem, and oh, the horribleness of your crimes! and, O Judah, there is a harvest for you, too.”
In the charges against Israel in Hos 7:1-16 the prophet gives the true state of affairs, viz: that the divine desire to heal was frustrated by the discovery of pollution, and by their persistent ignoring of God; that the pollution of the nation was manifest in the king, the princes, and the judges; that Ephraim was mixing among the people and had widespread influence, over the ten tribes, yet he was as a cake not turned; that he was an utter failure, being developed on one side, and on the other destroyed by burning; that he was unconscious of his wasting strength and ignored the plain testimony of the Pride of Israel; that as a silly dove, he was indicating fear and cowardice. Then the prophet concludes the statement of the case by a declaration of the utter folly of the people whom God was scourging toward redemption, to which they responded by howling, assembling, and rebelling.
Now we take up Hos 8 . From the statement of the case the prophet turned, in Hos 8:1-14 , to the pronouncement of judgment by the figure of the trumpet lifted to the mouth, uttering five blasts, in each of which the sin of the people was set forth as revealing the reason for judgment. The first blast declared the coming of judgment under the figure of an eagle, because of transgression and trespass. The second blast emphasized Israel’s sin of rebellion, in that they had set up kings and princes without authority of Jehovah. The third dealt with Israel’s idolatry, announcing that Jehovah had cast off the calf of Samaria. The fourth denounced Israel’s alliances and declared that her hire among the nations had issued in her diminishing. The fifth drew attention to the altars of sin and announced the coming judgment.
These judgments in detail are given in Hos 9 . Its first note was that of the death of joy. Israel could not find her joy like other peoples. Having known Jehovah, everything to which she turned in turning from him, failed to satisfy. How true is this of the individual backslider! The unsatisfied heart is constantly crying out, Where is the blessedness I knew, When first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing view Of Jesus and his word?
The second note was that of actual exile to which she must pass: back to the slavery of Egypt and Assyria and away from the offerings and feasts of the Lord. The third was that of the cessation of prophecy. The means of testing themselves would be corrupted. The fourth declared the retributive justice of fornication. The prophet traced the growth of this pollution from its beginning at Baal-peor, and clearly set forth the inevitable deterioration of the impure people. The fifth and last was that of the final casting out of the people by God so that they should become wanderers among the nations.
In Hos 10 we have the prophet’s recapitulation and appeal. This closes the section. The whole case is stated under the figure of the vine. Israel was a vine of God’s planting which had turned its fruitfulness to evil account and was therefore doomed to his judgment. The result of this judgment would be the lament of the people that they had no king who was able to deliver them, and chastisement would inevitably follow. The last paragraph is an earnest and passionate appeal to return to loyalty.
Some things in Hos 10 need special explanation: First, note the expression here, “They will say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.” This furnishes the analogue for the final destruction of the world and the judgment as given in Luk 23:30 and Rev 6:16 . Here the expression is used to indicate the horrors of the capture and destruction of the kingdom of Israel, the sufferings and distress of which are a foreshadowing of the great tribulation at the end of the world.
Second, the reference to Gibeah in Hos 10:9 needs a little explanation. This sin of Gibeah is the sin of the shameful outrage which with its consequences is recorded in Judges 19-20. That sin became proverbial, overtopping, as it did, all the ordinary iniquities, by its shameless atrocity and heinousness. By a long-continued course of sin, even from ancient days, Ephraim had been preparing for a fearful doom.
The third reference is to Shalman who destroyed Betharbel (Hos 10:14 ). There are several theories about this incident. Some think that “Shalman” is a short form of “Shalmaneser,” that Shalmaneser IV, who in the invasion which is mentioned (2Ki 17:3 ) fought a battle in the valley of Jezreel, in which he broke the power of Samaria in fulfilment of Hos 1:5 and about the same time stormed the neighboring town of Arbela, but who this “Shalman” was and what place was “Betharbel” are only matters of uncertain conjecture. All that is positively known is that the sack of Betharbel had made upon the minds of the Israelites an impression similar to that which in the seventeenth century was made far and wide by the sack of Madgeburg.
According to our brief outline the title of section Hos 11:1-14:8 is “Pollution and Pity.” This third cycle of the prophecy sets forth the pity which Jehovah has for his sinning people, and contains a declaration of Jehovah’s attitude toward Israel notwithstanding her sin. Chapters 11-13 are for the most part the speech of Jehovah himself. He sums up, and in so doing declares his sense of the awfulness of their sin, pronouncing his righteous judgment thereupon. Yet throughout the movement the dominant notes are those of pity and love, and the ultimate victory of that love over sin, and consequently over judgment. Three times in the course of this great message of Jehovah to his people (Hos 11:1-13:16 ), the prophet interpolates words of his own.
This message of Jehovah falls into three clearly marked elements which deal: (1) with the present in the light of past love (Hos 11:1-11 ); (2) with the present in the light of present love (Hos 12:7-11 ) ; (3) with the present in the light of future love (Hos 13:4-14 ).
The prophet’s interpolations set forth the history of Israel indicating their relation to Jehovah, and pronounce judgment. They form a remarkable obligate accompaniment, in a minor key, to the majestic love song of Jehovah, and constitute a contrasting introduction to the final message of the prophet. The first of them reveals the prophet’s sense of Jehovah’s controversy with Judah, his just dealings with Jacob, and, reminiscent of Jacob’s history, he makes a deduction and an appeal (Hos 11:12-13:6 ). The second traces the progress of Israel to death (Hos 12:12-13:3 ). The third declares their doom (Hos 13:15-16 ).
Then in general, Jehovah’s message in Hos 11:1-11 is as follows:
In this first movement, Jehovah reminded the people of his past love for them in words full of tenderness, setting out their present condition in its light, and crying, “How shall I give thee up?” Which inquiry was answered by the determined declaration of the ultimate triumph of love, and the restoration of the people.
There are two incidents of Israel’s history cited in this first part of Jehovah’s message. The first incident cited is the calling of Israel out of Egypt, which is quoted in Mat 2:15 and applied to our Lord Jesus Christ as a fulfilment of this prophecy. Hosea clearly refers to the calling of Israel out of Egypt, the nation being elsewhere spoken of as God’s son (Exo 4:22 ; Jer 3:9 ). But there is evident typical relation between Israel and the Messiah.
As Israel in the childhood of the nation was called out of Egypt, so Jesus. We may even find resemblance in minute details; his temptation of forty days in the desert, resembles Israel’s temptation of forty years in the desert, which itself corresponded to the forty days spent by the spies (Num 14:34 ). Thus we see how Hosea’s historical statement concerning Israel may have been also a prediction concerning the Messiah, as the Evangelist declares it was. It is not necessary to suppose that this was present to the prophet’s consciousness. Exalted by inspiration, a prophet may well have said things having deeper meanings than he was distinctly aware of, and which only a later inspiration, coming when the occasion arose, could fully unfold BROADUS on Mat 2:15 . The second incident in the history of God’s people cited is the destruction of Adman, Zeboim, Sodom, and Gomorrah, all of which are mentioned in Deu 29:23 as destroyed by Jehovah for their wickedness. The warning is a powerful one to Ephraim, or Israel, who are here threatened with destruction.
The prophet’s message in his first interpolation (Hos 11:12-12:6 ) is a lesson from the history of Jacob showing Israel’s relation to him. The prophet here goes back to the earliest history of Jacob showing God’s dealing with him from his conception to his settlement at Bethel, where God gave him the promise of a multitude of descendants. This bit of history includes the struggle between him and Esau before birth, and his wrestling with the angel.
In Hos 12:7-11 Jehovah sets out their present sin in the light of his present love. The sin of Ephraim and its pride and impertinence are distinctly stated and yet over all, love triumphs. Jehovah declared himself to be the God who delivered them from Egypt, and who would be true to the message of the prophets, to the visions of the seers and to the similitudes of the ministry of the prophets. There is an allusion in verse 7 to Jacob’s deception of Isaac, which characteristic seems to have been handed down to his posterity, as here indicated.
In the prophets second interpolation (Hos 12:12-13:3 ) he traces the progress of Israel to death, beginning at the flight to the field of Aram, through the exodus from Egypt and the preservation to the present, in which Ephraim was exalted in Israel, offended in Baal and died. Their certain doom is here announced.
Then follows Jehovah’s message in Hos 13:4-14 in which he sets forth the present condition of Israel in the light of his future love. Sin abounds, and therefore judgment is absolutely unavoidable. Nevertheless, the mighty strength of love must overcome at last.
There are several things in the passage worthy of special note. First, the allusions here to Jehovah’s dealings with them from Egypt to their destination in Canaan, their exaltation and his destruction of them. Second, the allusion to their history under kings, beginning with Saul, whom he gave them in his anger and whom he took away in his wrath. The statement may apply to the long line of kings of the Northern Kingdom, but it fits the case of Saul more especially and throws light on the problem of Saul’s mission as king of Israel. Third, the promise of their restoration under the figure of a resurrection (Hos 13:14 ), which is quoted and applied to the final resurrection by Paul (1Co 15:55 ) and which shows the typical import of this passage. It is like a flash of light in the darkest hour of despair.
Dr. Pusey on this passage has well said:
God by his prophets mingles promises of mercy in the midst of his threats of punishment. His mercy overflows the bounds of the occasion upon which he makes it known. He had sentenced Ephraim to temporal destruction. This was unchangeable. He points to that which turns all temporal loss into gain, that eternal redemption. The words are the fullest which could have been chosen. The word rendered “ransom” signifies rescued them by the payment of a price; the word rendered “redeem” relates to one who, as the nearest of kin, had the right to acquire anything as his own by paying the price. Both words in their exactest sense, describe what Jesus did, buying us with a price . . . and becoming our near kinsman by his incarnation. . . . The words refuse to be tied down to temporal deliverance. A little longer continuance in Canaan is not a redemption from the power of the grave; nor was Ephraim so delivered.
The expression, “repentance shall be hid from mine eyes,” means that God will never turn from his purpose to be merciful to Israel.
In the prophet’s last interpolation (Hos 13:15-16 ) he goes back to the death sentence showing the complete destruction of Ephraim and Samaria by the Eastern power, Assyria. The reference to Ephraim’s fruitfulness goes back to the promise of Jacob to Joseph, “He shall be a fruitful bough,” though Ephraim had turned this fruitfulness to evil and thus is brought to desolation.
Hos 14 gives us the final call of the prophet with the promise of Jehovah. The call was to the people to return because they had fallen by iniquity. It suggests the method of returning, as being that of bringing words of penitence, and forsaking all false gods. To this Jehovah answered in a message full of hope for the people, declaring that he would restore, renew, and ultimately reinstate them. There is no question but that this final word of prophecy has a reference to the return from the exile but that this return does not exhaust the meaning of this prophecy is also very evident. The larger fulfilment is to be spiritual and finds its expression in the final conversion of the Jews as voiced by Peter: “Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” (Act 3:19 ).
The book closes with a brief epilogue, which demands attention to all the prophet has written, whether for warning, or reproof, or correction in righteousness, or encouragement to piety and virtue. Like the dictates of the Word, so the dispensations of his providence are to some the savor of life, to others the savor of death. So it is added that, while the righteous walk therein, in them the wicked stumble.
In closing this chapter I will say that Hosea occupies a period of transition in developing the messianic idea from the earlier prophets to Micah and Isaiah, in whose writings abounds the messianic element:
(1) Hosea, like Amos, predicts the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, but he looks beyond it to a brighter day, when the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea in number, will be accepted of Jehovah as sons and daughters, and Judah and Israel will have one head, Christ (Hos 1:10-2:1 , et al).
(2) Hosea’s experience with an unfaithful wife is an object lesson of God’s forgiveness of Israel. Their spiritual adultery must lead them into exile but Jehovah will betroth Israel to himself in righteousness, and take the Gentiles into the same covenant (Hos 2:2-3:5 ; Rom 9:25-26 ).
(3) Hos 11:1 was fulfilled in the return of Joseph and Mary from Egypt with the babe, Jesus (Mat 2:15 ). So Jesus the antitype of Adam, Israel, and David.
(4) Hos 11:8-11 expresses Jehovah’s promise to restore Israel.
(5) Hos 13:14 is a messianic promise foreshadowing the resurrection.
(6) Hos 14:1-8 is a messianic promise of Israel’s final repentance, God’s reinstatement of them and their abundant blessings in the millennium.
I quote Dr. Sampey: In general, the earlier prophets describe clearly a terrible captivity of Jehovah’s people, to be followed by a return to their own land, where they were to enjoy the divine blessing. The everlasting love and compassion of Jehovah are repeatedly described, and the future enlargement of Israel is clearly set forth. The person of Messiah, however, is not distinctly brought before the reader. Isaiah and Micah will have much to say of the character and work of the Messaih Himself
QUESTIONS
1. What the character of this division, as contrasted with the first three chapters of Hosea?
2. What Jehovah’s controversy with Israel as set forth in Hos 4:1-5 ?
3. Why the verdict of destruction, as set forth in Hos 4:6-10 ?
4. What two practices are named together in Hos 4:11-14 , and what their effect upon the mind of man?
5. What warning to Judah in Hos 4:15-19 ?
6. What the notable things in the address of Hos 5:1-7 ?
7. What the significance and the application of the cornet and trumpet in Hos 5:8-15 ?
8. What the interpretation and application of Hos 6:1-3 ?
9. Paraphrase Hos 6:4-11 so as to show its interpretation and application.
10. What the charges against Israel in Hos 7:1-16 ?
11. How does the prophet pronounce judgment and what the significance in each case (Hos 8:1-14 )?
12. Describe these judgments in detail as given in Hos 9 .
13. State briefly the prophet’s recapitulation and appeal (Hos 10:1-15 ).
14. What things in Hos 10 need special explanation, and what the explanation in each case?
15. According to our brief outline what the title of section Hos 11:1-14:8 , and what in general, are its contents?
16. What the general features of the message of Jehovah?
17. What the general features of the prophet’s interpolations?
18. What, in general, is Jehovah’s message in Hos 11:1-11 ?
19. What two incidents of Israel’s history cited in this first part of Jehovah’s message, and what their interpretation and application?
20. What the prophet’s message in his first interpolation (Hos 11:12-12:6 )?
21. What, in general, Jehovah’s message in Hos 12:7-11 ?
22. What allusion to an incident in the life of Jacob in this passage?
23. What the substance of the prophet’s second interpolation (Hos 12:12-13:3 )?
24. What, in general, Jehovah’s message in Hos 13:4-14 ?
25. What things in the passage worthy of special note?
26. What the prophet’s message in his last interpolation (Hos 13:15-16 )?
27. What the contents of Hos 14 ?
28. Give a summary of the messianic predictions in the book of Hosea.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Hos 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because [there is] no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Ver. 1. Hear the word of the Lord ] This is the beginning of a new sermon, or judicial act of God against the ten tribes, which are here convented, convinced, sentenced. It begins with an Oyez, like that of St Paul, Act 13:16 , “Men of Israel, and ye that fear God” (if any such be in so general a defection), “give audience.” Ye have heard God’s mind before parabolically delivered and in types; now hear it in plain terms, that you may “see and understand and be converted, and I may heal you.” Hear, and your souls shall live. Hear him that speaketh from heaven, even that excellent speaker as he is called, Dan 10:4-9 , that arch-prophet, whom ye are bound to hear, Deu 18:18 Mat 17:5 , upon pain of death, Heb 12:25 , the Lord Christ I mean, who speaketh with authority, and is mighty in word and deed, Act 10:36 . He it was whom Isaiah saw upon his throne, and heard speaking, Joh 12:41 . And it is a rule in divinity, that where the Old Testament bringeth in God appearing and speaking to the patriarchs, prophets, and people, it is to be understood of the Second Person. “Hear, therefore, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken it,” Jer 13:15 . “The lion hath roared, who will not fear?” Amo 3:8 . The Lord God hath spoken, who can but hear and fear, humble and tremble?
Ye children of Israel
For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land
Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land
Nor mercy
Nor knowledge of God in the land
In the land
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Hos 4:1-3
1Listen to the word of the LORD, O sons of Israel,
For the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land,
Because there is no faithfulness or kindness
Or knowledge of God in the land.
2There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery.
They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3Therefore the land mourns,
And everyone who lives in it languishes
Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky,
And also the fish of the sea disappear.
Hos 4:1
NASBListen to the word of the LORD
NKJV, NRSVHear the word of the LORD
TEVListen to what he says
NJBHear what Yahweh says
The VERB (BDB 1033, KB 1570, Qal IMPERATIVE) means to hear so as to perform. It is used several times in Hosea (cf. Hos 4:1; Hos 5:1; Hos 9:17), but many times in the other eighth century prophets.
1. Amos, Amo 3:1; Amo 3:13; Amo 4:1; Amo 5:1; Amo 7:16; Amo 8:4; Amo 8:11
2. Micah, Mic 1:2; Mic 3:1; Mic 3:9; Mic 5:15; Mic 6:1[twice], Mic 6:2; Mic 6:9; Mic 7:7
See note at Amo 3:1.
the LORD has a case This term (BDB 936) has two main senses.
1. a legal lawsuit, Isa 1:23; Isa 41:21; Jer 2:9; Jer 25:31; Jer 50:34; Hos 4:1; Hos 12:3; Mic 6:2; Mic 7:9
2. a dispute or controversy, Isa 41:11; Isa 58:4; Jer 15:10; Hos 2:2
YHWH is victim, prosecuting attorney, and judge! The court case is one of three common literary techniques used by the prophets.
1. legal case (i.e., divorce case)
2. funeral dirge (judgment oracle)
3. salvation promise (deliverance oracle)
against the inhabitants of the land The land of Palestine/Canaan had a special theological significance. This starts with God’s promise to Abraham to give him a seed, a name, and a land (cf. Gen 12:1-1). This promise is reaffirmed in a special covenant trance in Gen 15:12-21. The land will be cleansed of Canaanite fertility worship (cf. Hos 4:16). When the people of God become involved in the same abominations they, too, must be cleansed from YHWH’s land!
NASB, NRSV,
TEVfaithfulness
NKJVtruth
NJBloyalty
See Special Topic: Believe, Trust, Faith, and Faithfulness in the OT .
NASBkindness
NKJVmercy
NRSVloyalty
TEVlove
NJBfaith
This is the Hebrew word hesed (BDB 338, cf. Hos 6:4). See Special Topic: Lovingkindness (Hesed) .
knowledge This is the theme (e.g., Hos 2:20; Hos 4:6; Hos 5:4; Hos 6:6; Hos 6:6) of the bookthat we should know God not as an object (an it, an idol), but in a personal, intimate relationship (a person). The term know (BDB 395) in the OT is related to a personal, intimate relationship (cf. Gen 2:20; Gen 4:1; Jer 1:5). The marvelous part of this truth is that not only can sinful humans know God, but that they are known by Him (cf. Jer 31:34; Heb 8:1 ff). He seeks us! See Special Topic: Know .
Hos 4:2 Instead of faithfulness, kindness, and knowledge, Israel was depicted by the terms mentioned in Hos 4:2 (all INFINITIVE ABSOLUTES), which refer to the breaking of the Ten Commandments (i.e., specifically the 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 8th). The Ten Commandments are God’s will for mankind in society. They are not given to restrict mankind’s freedom, but to accentuate his communal happiness! But Israel knowingly broke all moral boundaries (BDB 829, KB 971, Qal PERFECT)!
Hos 4:3 everyone who lives in it languishes The term (BDB 51, KB 63, pulal PERFECT) means to become weak and by connotation weak by drought (e.g., Joe 1:10; Isa 16:8; Isa 24:4; Isa 33:9; Jer 12:4). The fire (i.e., drought) of God’s Deuteronomic judgments (cf. Deuteronomy 27-20 and Leviticus 26) has come (cf. Amo 7:4).
1. the land mourns
2. the people languish
3. the animals disappear
Physical creation (especially YHWH’s Promised Land) was affected by mankind’s sin (cf. Gen 3:17-19; Rom 8:18-25). This passage is a divine judgment even more severe than the flood (cf. Genesis 6-9) because even the fish are affected (cf. Zep 1:2-3). Ironically judgment from too much water is now judgment from not enough water (i.e., drought)! Chaos has returned!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the Lord. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
children = sons.
a controversy = a judicial inquiry and cause. Compare Hos 12:2. Isa 1:18, and Isa 3:13, Isa 3:14. Jer 25:31. Mic 6:2.
mercy = lovingkindness, or grace.
knowledge: or, acknowledgement. See note on Hos 2:20. Compare Hos 4:6; Hos 5:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 4
Now we enter into the second part of the book of Hosea, where he declares:
HEAR the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land ( Hsa Hos 4:1 ),
God’s controversy is this:
there is no truth, there is no mercy, there’s no knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touches blood ( Hsa Hos 4:1-2 ).
God’s indictment against Israel, God’s controversy with them. As we look at these indications that created the controversy and we think of our present situation: no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land, but by swearing and lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery the land is polluted, blood touching blood.
Therefore [the Lord said] shall the land mourn, and every one that dwells therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fish of the sea and also shall be taken away ( Hsa Hos 4:3 ).
Have you been reading lately how that there are so many various species that are becoming extinct? This is what this particular prophecy would seem to indicate, the extinction of various species, they’ll be taken away.
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. Therefore thou shalt fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. For my people [the Lord said] are destroyed for a lack of knowledge ( Hsa Hos 4:4-6 ).
I think that one of the tragic things about even the church today is the lack of the teaching of the Word of God, which brings a resultant lack of the knowledge of God in the hearts of people. People really do not know the Lord, and the reason why is that it is hard to find a church that really teaches the Word of God. I wish you could read my mail for a week. I wish someone did. But it breaks your heart, the letters that I receive of people who have been transferred from this area or have moved to other areas of the country and have searched and searched for a church where they could just be fed the Word of God, to get some in the kind of environment where there wasn’t a lot of hype and all but just the teaching of the Word of God in simplicity, in purity. And they write back and they tell of the dearth in the land for the teaching of the Word. And I have so many letters, “Would you mind praying about starting a Calvary Chapel here?” We’ve got a stack of letters from people all over that would like to have us start a Calvary Chapel in their community where they can again just go and simply hear the teaching of the Word of God.
My people [God said] are destroyed for the lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you, that you shall be no priest to me: seeing that you have forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children ( Hsa Hos 1:6 ).
You see, the whole problem with Israel began with the priesthood and with the prophets–the corrupted priesthood not teaching the people, not being responsible to teach the people the law of God. They themselves didn’t know the law of God. You have forgotten the law of God, how can you teach the people if you’ve forgotten it yourself?
And as they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. And there shall be, like people, like priest ( Hsa Hos 4:7-9 ):
And so it is, the people have become like the priests.
and thus I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and yet not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD. Whoredom, wine, new wine take away the heart ( Hsa Hos 4:9-11 ).
These things take away your heart from God.
The Lord declares:
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declares unto them ( Hsa Hos 4:12 ):
And they’re no longer seeking counsel from God, they’re seeking counsel from these little wooden idols that they were making.
for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of mountains, they burn incense upon the hills, and under the oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good ( Hsa Hos 4:12-13 ):
The superstitions of, “Oh the shadow of this elm is good, you know, for your divinations and all.”
therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, your spouses shall commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall. Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth ( Hsa Hos 4:13-15 ).
Gilgal used to be the center of worship; it became the place of pagan worship. Bethel, the house of God, became name as Bethaven.
For Israel is sliding back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place. Ephraim is joined to her idols: let him alone ( Hsa Hos 4:16-17 ).
How tragic it is when God says of a people, “Just let them alone.” Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom, joined herself to her idols. “Just let her alone. Don’t warn her anymore, don’t speak to her anymore, don’t pray for her anymore.” God said to Jeremiah, “Don’t pray anymore for their good. If you do, I’m not gonna listen to you.” As we said this morning, God has warned, “My Spirit will not always strive with man” ( Gen 6:3 ). There is a line. You can go beyond those limits of God’s grace. “Let them alone. Ephraim joined to her idols; just let them alone.”
Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye. The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices ( Hsa Hos 4:18-19 ).
And so, God’s indictment against Israel, “Hear the word of the Lord,” the Lord says, “Ye children of Israel,” and this is God’s indictment against them.
Father, teach us Thy ways. Our hearts thirst after Thee oh Lord, that we might walk before Thee in truth. Father, help us that we might learn from history and from the evil of Israel in forsaking Thee, in allowing other interests, other loves to exceed their love for You. Oh God, keep our hearts pure that we might serve Thee and worship Thee and follow Thee. Help us, Lord, to remember that it is You who has blessed us with the corn, and with the oil, with the abundance, and may we then use that which You have given to us not to defile Thee but to glorify Thee. And may we glorify You with our substance, with our lives. Oh God, we pray that You’ll help us be drawn into an ever closer fellowship with Thee as Your Spirit works within our hearts. In Jesus’ name and for His sake. Amen. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Hos 4:1-5
ISRAELS INGRATITUDE-A LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
TEXT: Hos 4:1-5
These first five verses form the first stanza of a long ode of Judgment, They contain the theme of the whole remaining section of the book of Hosea, and especially this fourth chapter-cause and resultant judgment of God.
Hos 4:1 HearH8085 the wordH1697 of the LORD,H3068 ye childrenH1121 of Israel:H3478 forH3588 the LORDH3068 hath a controversyH7379 withH5973 the inhabitantsH3427 of the land,H776 becauseH3588 there is noH369 truth,H571 norH369 mercy,H2617 norH369 knowledgeH1847 of GodH430 in the land.H776
Hos 4:1 . . . JEHOVAH HATH A CONTROVERSY WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND . . . There is a similar arrangement of the covenant people (Judah in this instance) in Mic 6:2 ff. God is personified as both the Plaintiff, Prosecutor and the Judge. God has a case against the covenant people. They are arraigned. God presents His case listing the many ways and instances by which the people broke His covenant. He proves their guilt and pronounces sentence. In His prosecution God even bears witness to the cause-there is no knowledge of God in the land. This specially blessed and favored people certainly could not claim ignorance of the terms of the covenant as an excuse (for the terms of Gods covenant were reiterated over and over and they were plain enough for the dullest child to understand, cf. Deu 8:19-20). They could not claim that God had not warned them for He sent one prophet after another attempting to call the people back to covenant keeping-all to no avail.
Zerr: Hos 4:1. When people depart from the proper rule of life on any one fundamental point, there is no logical reason why they will not take up with other evils. The people of Israel had forsaken the first commandment in the law and had become a nation of idolaters. They did not stop at their corrupting the true religion, but they disregarded the law as to their personal conduct. They carried such abominable ways to such an extent that all respect for the truth was lost. The original word for controversy is defined in Strongs lexicon as, A contest, and it means the same as the trial described in the comments at Hos 3:3.
A nation is almost beyond hope when there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. Jerome said, Truth cannot be sustained without mercy; and mercy without truth makes men negligent; so that the one ought to be mingled with the other. When there is no truthfulness no one trusts another (cw. Jer 9:3-4).
Truth is the basis of all morality. The Bible, Gods revealed will, is the only infallible standard of objective truth. Morality cannot be determined on any subjective basis. Morality cannot be determined on any humanistic basis. Morality cannot be reasoned on any philosophical basis. Morality must be determined by an objective standard and this standard must be infallible, supernatural truth. All other attempts to determine what is moral must ultimately end in complete moral anarchy (which leads to political anarchy) and the autonomous man. The dark ages of the covenant people, during the period of the Judges, was a result of every man doing that which was right in his own eyes! When the divine standard of truth, Gods revealed word, is rejected moral and political suicide is the result. This is exactly what was happening to Israel in Hoseas time and also what happened to Judah in Jeremiahs time-complete moral and political anarchy! The same will happen to any nation which rejects Gods Word, the Bible.
Hosea depicts the situation in Israel as one in which there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God. The knowledge of God is an experiential knowledge, to be sure, but this experience of God in our hearts only comes as a result of knowing God from His revelation of Himself through His written Word. That God does exist may be known from nature (Rom 1:20-21; Psalms 19; Act 14:14-18; etc.), but we must also know that He is a rewarder (Heb 11:6). In other words, we must know what kind of a Person God is. This can only be known by a knowledge of what He says about Himself and how He has proved Himself through His marvelous deeds in the past (cf. 2Pe 1:3-9, where we know Him through His precious and very great promises, and also become partakers of the divine nature). Of course, when God tells us what He is like and promises us that His will put to practice in our lives will give us certain blessings such as peace, love, joy, fruitfulness, forgiveness and etc., we cannot know such blessedness until we do what He says. Then our knowledge of God becomes experiential. First, however, our knowledge of God must be intellectual, based upon facts of history which record Gods deeds. We must be able to trust Him with our reason before we can experience Him with our hearts. We must know He is historically trustworthy before we can be convinced that what He says to do is the right thing to do!
Israel had long ago taken the revealed truth of God away from the people. They built false calf gods and instituted a false priesthood. The verbal revelation of God in the Mosaic Law was no longer revered or practiced. So the inevitable consequences of moral rottenness followed.
Hos 4:2 By swearing,H422 and lying,H3584 and killing,H7523 and stealing,H1589 and committing adultery,H5003 they break out,H6555 and bloodH1818 touchethH5060 blood.H1818
Hos 4:2 THERE IS NOUGHT BUT SWEARING AND BREAKING FAITH, AND KILLING, AND STEALING, AND COMMITTING ADULTERY . . . AND BLOOD TOUCHETH BLOOD . . . Here the prophet merely enumerates the sins of the nation. In later chapters he describes in detail the immoral practices of the people. In this list we find violations of five of the ten commandments of the decalogue. The people are guilty of false witnessing, covenant breaking, murder, theft, and adultery. And this is on a national scale. There are not just a few isolated cases of such crimes but the prophet says, to the contrary, there is nothing else going in the land but such criminality! One bloody deed follows another (blood toucheth blood.)
Zerr: Hos 4:2. This verse is a literal description of the corrupt way of life into which the people of Israel had fallen in Hoseas day. Blood toucheth blood means one act of bloodshed would no sooner be committed than another would be done.
Hos 4:3 ThereforeH5921 H3651 shall the landH776 mourn,H56 and every oneH3605 that dwellethH3427 therein shall languish,H535 with the beastsH2416 of the field,H7704 and with the fowlsH5775 of heaven;H8064 yea, the fishesH1709 of the seaH3220 alsoH1571 shall be taken away.H622
Hos 4:3 THEREFORE SHALL THE LAND MOURN . . . Such flagrant violations of all that is moral, right, good, reasonable and true inevitably beats fruit. God created the universe and sustains it through inexorable laws, both moral and physical, When those laws are transgressed the penalty must be paid, Where there is no penalty, there is no law; so where there is law there must be penalty, The penalty for violating a physical law of the universe is usually death or some other disastrous consequence, The penalty for violating a moral law is moral ruin, moral darkness, injustice, greed, cruelty, distrust and all the other decadent practices resulting from falsehood.
Zerr: Hos 4:3. God sometimes punishes his people by sending some curses upon the land, and this verse is a warning that something of that kind would come upon the nation.
In Israels case God brought pestilence, drought, plague and other forms of divine chastisement upon them. Not only does the inanimate creation suffer in consequence of the sins and crimes of men, but the moral depravity of man causes the physical destruction of all other creatures through such punishments of God. Even the beasts of the field, the birds and fish, mourn.
Hos 4:4 YetH389 let noH408 manH376 strive,H7378 norH408 reproveH3198 another:H376 for thy peopleH5971 are as they that striveH7378 with the priest.H3548
Hos 4:5 Therefore shalt thou fallH3782 in the day,H3117 and the prophetH5030 alsoH1571 shall fallH3782 withH5973 thee in the night,H3915 and I will destroyH1820 thy mother.H517
Hos 4:4-5 . . . LET NO MAN STRIVE . . . REPROVE . . . THOU SHALT STUMBLE IN THE DAY . . . The fundamental requirement of Gods covenant was willing, unfaltering, obedience (Exo 19:5; Exo 23:20-22; Deu 6:1-25; 1Sa 15:22). Three times the people had solemnly pledged obedience (Exo 19:8; Exo 20:19; Exo 24:3-7). But alas, they rebelled only forty days later and continued to rebel until their rebellion was culminated in the divided kingdom. Hosea writes to the people and tells them they are like those who strive with the priest. This is a reference to the Mosaic ordinance which prohibited people from striving or rebelling against a priestly decision (cf. Deu 17:8-13). It may also indicate that the people were trying to blame the priests for their waywardness. In any case, the nation is a nation of rebels, rebelling against the rule of God. They are like the wicked servants of the parable Jesus told concerning the pounds (cf. Luk 19:11-27) who said, We do not want this man to reign over us.
Zerr: Hos 4:4. A glance at some verses ahead will help io grasp the meaning of this one. With that in view. I consider this to mean the common people are all guilty of unfaithfulness. And if the priest, with the advantage that he has, is so hardened in error that he cannot be affected by striving or reasoning with him. there is no use for any man to strive with the common people. Hos 4:5. Thy mother is said of the nation as a whole, and the threat is that the whole group ie destined to fall or be cut off from the land.
So they would have to bear the consequences of their rejection of the light of Gods truth. When the divine Light is rejected the darkness of falsehood and lie must follow, When people love the darkness they will refuse to come to the Light (cf. Joh 3:18-21). When such people have their say they prefer teachers after their own lusts (cf. 2Ti 4:3-5) and they will be like the blind leading the blind (cf. Luk 6:39), they will both fall into the pit! This goes on all the time-day and night. And God is going to destroy the mother-the whole nation.
Questions
1. What picture does the figure of speech controversy paint for us?
2. What was the cause of Gods controversy against the nation?
3. Why is truth the basis for all morality?
4. Why must we have a divine, objective standard of truth?
5. When does ones knowledge of God become experiential?
6. Why does the land mourn when people sin?
7. How were the people like those that strive with the priest?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In any attempt to analyze and tabulate the teaching in this second division of the Book it must be remembered that the prophetic utterances cannot be treated as verbatim reports. As they here appear, they are rather the gathering up of the notes or leading ideas of a long period of preaching. These notes fall into three distinct cycles, pollution and its cause, pollution and its punishment, and the love of Jehovah.
In dealing with pollution and its cause the prophet first preferred a general charge against the nation. Israel was summoned to attend and hear the word of the Lord, because He had a controversy with the people. They were charged with being without truth and mercy and knowledge of God, which resulted in the spread of all kinds of evil. The result was to be seen in the mourning land, the languishing people, and man’s loss of dominion over nature. The prophet next declared the cause of the sin, and more carefully described the results. The cause was the pollution of the priests. Priest and prophet stumbled, and the people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. As the priests multiplied they sinned, and their glory was turned to shame. The result was the pollution of the people. The example of the priests issued in lack of understanding. The prophet declared that God would not punish for the smaller offense of physical harlotry, but for the more terrible outrage of spiritual adultery which lay behind it. In this connection he counseled Judah to take warning from the terrible example of Israel.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Like People, like Priest
Hos 4:1-10
This chapter contains a terrible indictment against the whole kingdom. There was neither truth nor mercy in the land, but swearing, lying, and adultery. Apart from the restraints of religion, such would be the condition of human society today. Even atheists have been known to remove from mining-camps, where there was no semblance of religion, to places within the sound of the church-bell. Notice in Hos 4:3 how mans sin seems to affect even the animals. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth waiting for our adoption as the recognized sons of God, Rom 8:22-23.
Rightly enough, the prophet remonstrates with the priests. They were drunken and sensual; they rejected the knowledge and rule of God; they promoted outward ritual in order to fatten on the offerings of the people; and as it was with them, so it became with the deluded worshipers. What a solemn lesson is contained in the proverb which originated in this passage, Like people, like priest! It is not what we teach, but what we are, that really affects men. The colorless rays of the sun, lying outside the prismatic band of color, give health.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 4
Joined To Idols
The statement we have just been considering (that Israel should abide many days without an image or teraphim), seems all the more remarkable when we remember the gross idolatry into which they had fallen at the time when Hosea was divinely called to declare the mind of Jehovah regarding their state. Idolatry was then the characteristic condition; and from it, as from a parent-stem, sprang all the other evils for which the prophet was obliged to rebuke them.
Because truth had departed, and with it, mercy and all knowledge of God, Jehovah had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. His holy eye beheld only swearing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery, in place of holiness and fidelity to Himself. The covenant entered into at Sinai had been broken in every particular. Not one of the ten words remained inviolate on their part. For all this He must set His face against them in His righteous government, as He had warned them He would, through the lips of the law-giver himself (vers. 1-3).
So utterly fallen and wretched were they that none was fit to reprove another. All were alike sharers in the common guilt. The leaven of idolatry openly introduced in the wilderness, though secretly carried from Egypt and even from beyond the Euphrates (Jos 24:2), had been working unjudged until they were utterly perverted; -so true is it that evil communications corrupt good manners. They had become like those who strive with the priest: that is, they persistently refused to subject themselves when the mind of God was made known (ver. 4).
The lesson for us is a solemn one. Another has well said that evil never dies of old age. Sin unjudged among the people of God becomes like a fretting leprosy or a cancerous sore, ever working and extending its ramifications till the whole mass becomes denied.
With Israel it was not ignorance that led to their downfall in the first place; though, necessarily, light refused resulted in darkness. They were like those who fall in the day, even their prophets doing likewise. Hence they must be cut off (ver. 5).
My people are destroyed through lack of knowledge. Such was Jehovahs lament. But the lack of knowledge was the certain result of their own refusal to hearken. He had pressed His truth upon them, but they would have none of it. Therefore He adds, Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children (ver. 6). Light rejected results in deeper darkness than ever, and involves the offender in sore trouble, and rejection from God.
Often in the history of the Church has a similar state existed to what we have here, and always the issue is the same. When in the 16th century God raised up Luther to sound, with clarion voice, the battle-cry of the Reformation, The just shall live by faith! the mass of the professing Church had no ear for the message, and sank into deeper superstition and folly. The Wesleys and their co-laborers, later, were ordained of God to arouse the lifeless profession of their day with a call to repentance, but the majority refused to hearken, and formalism became more formal and ritualism gained its harvest of lost souls.
When at the beginning of the last century the truths of the unity of the Body of Christ and the presence of the Holy Ghost were recovered, the apostles of what were incorrectly called, The new doctrines, were ridiculed, abused and reproached. As a result, Christendom is rapidly going into apostasy, and the presence of the Holy Ghost is unknown in many places. The Scriptures are rejected as Gods revelation and put on a par with human writings, while pride and arrogance are the order of the day. The Lords words are having a solemn and awful fulfilment, If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness (Mat 6:23).
Is the reader one to whom light has come, which you are afraid or unwilling to obey? Remember that when you act in accordance with the mind of God as made known to you through His Word, your path shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. On the other hand, revealed truth wilfully ignored, or still worse, refused, has a hardening effect upon the conscience. We have known of persons who had learned from Scripture certain truths which, if acted upon, would have delivered them from worldly ways and worldly religious associations, and given them liberty to go forth unto the rejected One, bearing His reproach. They hesitated because of possible worldly loss, or of probable family difficulties. Seeking an easier path to that marked out in the Book, they argued down their consciences and quenched the Spirit of God. Behold the sad result! Bereft of spiritual power, shorn of their strength, the truths they once enjoyed have become as a dead letter to them; their consciences are calloused and their testimony for God is over. In vain they may talk of, and endeavor to make sacrifices on other lines, but this will not do for Him who has said, To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams (1Sa 15:22).
Israels solemn history may well be a warning to us of the dire consequences of resisting the truth, As they were increased, so they sinned against Me: therefore will I change their glory into shame (ver. 7). Prosperity had not turned their hearts to Him, but the contrary, so He must deal with them according to their deserts. Delighting in their iniquity and ignoring Gods word, He would give them up to destruction; and priest and people should suffer together. In their path of self-pleasing they should learn to their cost that there is nothing satisfying apart from going on with Him. Their unholy ways would but take away the heart, and they should stumble and fall because they have left off to take heed to the Lord (vers. 8-11).
They were ready to ask counsel of their idols, but were too haughty and self-sufficient to turn to Him to whom they owed every blessing! It has often been noticed that when people get away from God they can be most punctilious about self-imposed rites and superstitious observances, while counting it a hardship to obey the voice of the Lord. The same is true as to credulity and faith. He who finds it difficult to trust the simplest statement of the Holy Scriptures can accept with amazing ease the most remarkable hypotheses and notions of unbelieving theorists. So was it with Israel at this time. Nothing that their false gods were supposed to demand was too much for them; but the law of Jehovah they could not away with; Therefore, said He against whom they had so openly transgressed, the people that doth not understand shall fall (vers. 12-14). These things are among those written for our admonition. Oh, for grace to learn and act accordingly. It was this the prophet sought to press on Judah. Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend! (ver. 15). But, alas, later on we find the southern kingdom in like apostasy to the northern.
Because Israel had been given over to sliding back, like a backsliding heifer, God would, as it were, give them their way. They should be as a lamb feeding in a large place, left free to go all lengths, but with certain judgment coming: for though they thought they were pleasing themselves, they were like lambs fattening for the slaughter. The word had gone forth, Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone! (vers. 16, 17).
Joined to idols: let him alone! Nothing can be more solemn than this. It is as though God had exhausted every possible means for their recovery, save one, and that one the giving them up to learn, by bitter experience, what they would not take to heart in any other way. In the New Testament it answers to being delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (See 1 Cor. 5.) When a soul proves utterly stubborn and wilful, God may at times say of him as of Israel, he is joined to his idols. Further reproof or brotherly correction is useless. Let him severely alone, till he learns in Satans sieve how far he has got from God and how low he has fallen. Observe: it is only after the failure of all other means to recover the wanderer that God so deals with souls. It was when His patience had come to an end, as it were, that He gave up Ephraim. From the first He had borne with them, ministered to them, chastened, entreated, and disciplined them; but all had been in vain. They were set on having their own way. At last, because He loved them too much to finally give them up forever, He says, Let them alone. Now they are where they shall learn by sad experience the full result of departure in heart from Himself. They should be given up to their own hearts lusts till they should be ashamed because of their sacrifices (vers. 18, 19).
How deep the love that breathes through all this unhappy description. How tender the grace that persisted to the end in seeking the restoration of those so worthless and so undeserving!
And for us too, it is precious to know that His grace is unchanging; and if saved by that precious blood of Christ, we are the objects of that
Faithful and forbearing love
That never turns aside.
Surely, nothing should have so powerful an effect upon our ways, as the fact that our waywardness has not, cannot, quench His love. No change in us results in any corresponding change in Him. Therefore we are bidden, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. It is not to grieve Him away, as people often mistakenly insist it means, for then the words would be in the nature of a threat, instead of the exhortation to every child of God, which comes home to us with the force of so tender an entreaty. How base the soul who would take advantage of love so immeasurable to follow its own bent, and thus do despite to the Spirit of grace!
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Hos 4:17
Spiritual abandonment.
I. We are apt to be surprised at the proneness of the Israelites to the sin of idolatry. And yet it may be doubted whether we have not a great deal in common with idolaters. Let us see what the idolatry of the Israelites was. There was given unto them a religion; it came direct from God. Of their religious system it was the singular characteristic that the chief acts of devotion could only be performed at one place. To Mount Sion the tribes went up for all their solemn observances, three times a year. At other seasons they were scattered over the country, cut off from the possibility of united worship. This, doubtless, was the cause of their manifold idolatry. God had taught them a religious system-that system contained some practical difficulties; it seemed, indeed, to check devotion. The Jews sought to remedy this by self-invented plans; the issue was apostasy. In the history of the Church of Christ we find much that is analogous. It was a zeal for religion which prostrated Israel at the feet of idols; it is zeal without knowledge which makes men forsake the catholic faith for crude theories of their own.
II. And now as to the punishment. “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.” To forsake God is to forsake our own mercies. The judgment threatened in the text is one which would reduce us to the position of Satan himself. For what will follow from God letting a man alone? He will experience no further promptings and warnings, but be left unrestrained by any secret reluctance to work all manner of evil. Memory and conscience have each a home in that lost spirit; but the whispers of the Holy One are never heard therein; and conscience has no voice to move to good, but wields only the fiery scourge for evil done or doing.
Bishop Woodford, Occasional Sermons, vol. i., p. 32.
These are very solemn words, whichever way we take them; but the way in which they are generally understood is distinctly a misunderstanding. They are not intended as a threatening of the cessation of the Divine pleadings with an obstinate transgressor; there are no people about whom God says that they are so wedded to their sin that it is useless to try to do anything with them; and they are not a commandment to God’s servants to fling up in despair, or in impatience, the effort to benefit obstinate and stiffnecked evildoers. The context distinctly shows us that this is not the meaning; and the Book in which they occur is one long pleading with this very Ephraim, just because he is “joined to idols.”
I. Ephraim is another name for the northern kingdom of Israel; one of the two halves into which the nation was divided. Hosea was a prophet of the northern nation, and his whole activity was devoted precisely not to letting Ephraim (that is, his countrymen of Israel) alone. But it is the people of the other, the neighbouring, kingdom that are addressed; and what is meant by letting alone is plainly enough expressed for us in a previous verse: “Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah offend.” The sin of the northern kingdom in the calf-worship is held up as a warning to Judah, which is besought and commanded to keep clear of all complicity therewith, and to avoid entangling alliances with backsliding Israel. This, and this only, is the purpose of our text-a plea with Judah to stand apart from association with evildoers.
II. It is a very bad sign of a Christian man when his chosen companions are people that have no sympathy with him in his religion. Of course there are many things-such as differences of position, culture, and temperament-which cannot but modify the association of Christian people with one another; but still, if you are a Christian man, and the brother most unlike to you in all these particulars, there is a far deeper sympathy, or at least there ought to be, than there is between you and the irreligious man that is most like you in them all. In the measure in which we walk in this world, separate from it because we are joined to Christ, in that measure will our faith be strong, and shall we be doing our Master’s will.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, Sept. 16th, 1886.
References: Hos 4:17.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1140; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 201; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 24. Hos 5:7.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 349. Hos 5:13.-W. Aitken, The Love of the Father; p. 193.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
II. THE MESSAGE OF EXPOSTULATION, JUDGMENT, AND MERCY
CHAPTER 4 The Lords Controversy with His People
1. The condition of the people (Hos 4:1-5)
2. The loss of their priestly relation (Hos 4:6-11)
3. Israels idolatry (Hos 4:12-19)
Hos 4:1-5. This chapter begins with a terse description of the condition of the professing people of God. First, we have the negative side–no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God. And there was no truth, because they had rejected the Word of the Lord, hence the result no mercy and no knowledge of God. It is so still whenever and wherever the Word of God is set aside. Then follows the positive evil which was so prominent in their midst: Swearing, lying, killing, stealing, committing adultery, and abundant shedding of blood. Such was the continued moral condition of the house of Israel, the ten tribes. It was all the result of having rejected the Word of the Lord and having turned away from Him. The result of unbelief, destructive criticism and denial of the truth is today, as it was then, swearing, lying, stealing, killing and the immoralities of our times. Therefore judgment would overtake all, even the land itself.
Hos 4:6-11. The people were destroyed for lack of knowledge, the knowledge of God and His truth. They had lost their place of nearness to the Lord, their priestly character into which the Lord had called the nation Exo 19:1-25. Therefore they would be rejected to be no longer in priestly relationship to Jehovah. And the priestly class was as corrupt as the people–like people like priests. They were to be punished for their ways and their doings.
Hos 4:12-19. Having left Jehovah they had turned to idols, asked counsel of a piece of wood and practiced divination. This abominable idol worship was practiced upon the tops of mountains. There, under trees, they gave themselves over to the vile rites of Baal-peor and Ashtaroth, both men and women abandoned themselves to the grossest sins of the flesh. And the Lord threatens that He would leave them alone in their vileness and not correct them, that they might be brought back. The first chapter of Romans is illustrated by Hos 4:14; they glorified not God, became idolators and then God gave them up to their vile affections.
Then there is a warning to the house of Judah in Hos 4:15. The most sacred places, like Gilgal, had become the scene of the idolatry of the ten tribes. Bethel, the house of God, became a Beth-aven, the house of vanity. If Judah offended and committed the same whoredoms, she would not escape judgment. The warning was unheeded.
Ephraim (the ten tribes) is joined to idols; let him alone. Ephraim was too far gone; further remonstrances would not help, and so the evil is permitted to go unchecked, to run its full course.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Cir, am 3224, bc 780
Hear: 1Ki 22:19, Isa 1:10, Isa 28:14, Isa 34:1, Isa 66:5, Jer 2:4, Jer 7:2, Jer 9:20, Jer 19:3, Jer 34:4, Amo 7:16, Rev 2:11, Rev 2:29
for: Hos 12:2, Isa 1:18, Isa 3:13, Isa 3:14, Isa 5:3, Isa 34:8, Jer 25:31, Mic 6:2
no truth: Isa 59:13-15, Jer 6:13, Jer 7:3-6, Mic 7:2-5
nor knowledge: Jer 4:22, Jer 4:28, Jer 5:4, Joh 8:55, Rom 1:28, 1Co 15:34
Reciprocal: Gen 6:11 – filled Gen 6:13 – filled 2Ki 17:7 – sinned 1Ch 28:9 – know thou Pro 3:3 – mercy Pro 6:17 – lying Isa 24:20 – the transgression Isa 27:8 – thou wilt Isa 59:8 – no Isa 59:15 – truth Jer 5:2 – though Jer 7:9 – steal Jer 7:28 – truth Jer 9:3 – they know Jer 10:1 – General Jer 51:5 – though Eze 16:35 – hear Eze 20:35 – and there Hos 4:6 – for Hos 4:14 – therefore Hos 5:1 – O priests Hos 5:4 – and Hos 6:6 – the Hos 12:6 – keep Amo 2:6 – For three Amo 3:1 – Hear Mic 6:12 – the rich Zec 8:16 – Speak Mat 21:33 – Hear Joh 7:28 – whom 1Ti 1:10 – perjured
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A TERRIBLE INDICTMENT
The Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
Hos 4:1
I. Abandoning the parabolic style, the prophet now turns to very straight and incisive dealing with the sins of Israel.This chapter contains a terrible indictment against the chosen people. There was no truth, mercy, nor knowledge of God among them; swearing, breaking faith, theft, murder, and adultery were rife on every side, so that the very land groaned and travailed in pain. Nothing could avert the judgment of God that must follow on such crimes.
The priests were chiefly guilty, and it is against them that the Divine judgments would be specially directed (Hos 4:6, etc.). How terrible it is when those who should be the leaders in righteousness, both by word and deed, pervert the people! Dante places false priests in the nethermost circle of the lake of fire. And let it always be remembered that one of Satans most subtle temptations is the suggestion that we must be right, because all men think so, and that we have dealt with our own sins because we are so strict in reproving them.
II. What a picture of our own heart is given in these verses!We are reminded of Bunyans words in Grace Abounding. He says: My original and inward pollution was my plague and my affliction. It was always putting itself forth within me, and I had the guilt of it to amazement, by reason of which I was more loathsome in my own eyes than a toad, and I thought I was in Gods eyes also. Sin and corruption would bubble up out of my heart as naturally as water bubbles up out of a fountain. I thought now that every one had a better heart than I had. I could have changed heart with anybody; and thought none but the devil himself could equalise me for inward wickedness and pollution of mind.
Illustration
It is not so great an offence for men to sin as for them not to be willing to suffer the reproval of sin. For when they live in such a way as that their hearts have a horror of the cure of their malady, punishment can no longer delay. This sin is the most common of our time. Just look at Christian churches, and you will see everywhere that the teachers are hated for rebuking sin so freely. But this only excites Gods wrath more fiercely against us. For not man but God rebukes and challenges the sinner.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Hos 4:1. When people depart from the proper rule of life on any one fundamental point, there is no logical reason why they will not take up with other evils. The people of Israel had forsaken the first commandment in the law and had become a nation of idolaters. They did not Stop at their corrupting the true religion, but they disregarded the law as to their personal conduct. They carried such abominable ways to such an extent that all respect for the truth was lost. The original word for controversy is defined in Strongs lexicon as, A contest, and it means the same as the trial described in the comments at chapter 3: 3.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
JEHOVAHS LOVE FOR ISRAEL
With Hosea begins the Minor prophets, extending to the close of the Old Testament, and so-called to distinguish them from the Major, the first four already considered. The major are the more important not as to their contents but their size; and yet the minor prophets are, in principle, only repeating what the major prophets have recorded over and over again.
For this reason the minor prophets will be considered briefly. It may be repeated that we are not attempting to treat every chapter and verse in the Bible in detail. So far as the prophets are concerned, however, we have set forth the great subjects with which they alike deal, and in the laws of recurrence and double reference have indicated the path by which the student may with care find his own way through any of them. Of course, there will always be things calling for explanation which only the larger commentaries or Bible dictionaries can supply, but along the broader lines
of study we trust these comments will be found helpful. In their use it is presupposed the reader is going through the Bible in regular order for the purpose of studying or teaching it in its completeness as a revelation of God.
THE GENERAL CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS
With the above understanding in view, the following chapters in Hosea simply detail what the first three reveal in outline. They speak of Israels unfaithfulness to Jehovah, enlarging on the expressions of that unfaithfulness.
For example, chapter 4 charges the nation with swearing and lying, and killing and stealing, and committing adultery (Hos 4:2). People, priests and prophets are alike (Hos 4:4-5). Idolatry flourishes with all its licentious accompaniments (Hos 4:12-14). Judah is warned by Israels declension (Hos 4:15-19) but the next chapter indicates that the warning will profit her little.
Chapter 6 opens with a prophetic expression of repentance on Israels part – prophetic in the sense that as a nation she has not yet taken that attitude, although she will be led to do so in the latter days (Hos 6:1-3). Suddenly, at Hos 6:4, Jehovah is introduced as pleading with her under the name of Ephraim her chief tribe, and pleading with her sister Judah as well. The plea is accompanied by explanation of their chastisement (Hos 6:4-11).
This thought is continued in the next chapters where Israels folly in turning for help, first to Egypt and then to Assyria, is pointed out (v. 12).
The marginal references direct the reader to Kings where these matters were spoken of in their historic setting.
The style of Hosea is abrupt and broken, but the ejaculations in which it abounds are frequently expressions of Gods wonderful love for His people. Examine especially Hos 11:1-4; Hos 11:8-9. Sometimes it is difficult to determine when the prophet is expressing only his own feelings toward his nation rather than Jehovahs, and yet even in those instances it is the Holy Spirit using the feelings of man to illustrate the tenderness of the heart of God.
THE APPEAL TO THE BACKSLIDER
But the chapter expressing this tenderness the most is the last, and though the reader finds it necessary to hasten over those intervening, he should pause here.
Note Gods appeal coupled with His condemnation (Hos 14:1). Consider His kindness in setting before His people the way to return (Hos 14:2-3). They are to take words, not works words of confession, faith, consecration, repentance. Look at the attitude in which he will meet them, and the promises He gives them (Hos 14:4-7). Here is growth, strength, expansion, loveliness and beneficence all to be theirs in that day.
Verse 8 is a kind of divine soliloquy. Jehovah hears Israels repentance, and her testimony to renewing grace, and assures her of Himself as its source.
The chapter closes with an exhortation as applicable to us as to her.
QUESTIONS
1. To what division of the prophets does Hosea belong?
2. Why are the Major Prophets so-called?
3. How would you describe the contents of the chapters of this lesson as distinguished from the preceding one?
4. What are some of the charges against the nation?
5. What characterizes Hoseas literary style?
6. How would you analyze chapter 14?
7. How would you describe verse 8?
8. Can you quote verse 9 from memory?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Hos 4:1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel The prophet here begins a third discourse, which is manifestly distinct from the preceding, both as to matter and manner. He was before predicting what should happen in future times, by way of prophetic vision; here he reproves those of the present time for such sins as then reigned among them; such as provoked God to send on them and their posterity the judgments foretold in the former chapter. He seems to be addressing chiefly the Israelites of the ten tribes, though not exclusively, his reproofs and exhortations being so formed and expressed as to suit the case of the Jews also. For the Lord hath a controversy, &c. Hebrew, , a cause, contention, or matter of debate. The LXX. render the word, , judgment, or dispute; and so the Vulgate. The expression is taken from the actions, or pleas, which one man brings against another, for injuries or damages received: so here God is represented as entering into judgment, or bringing a plea, or complaint, against the people of the ten tribes, for their injustice and other sins, as being so many injuries to his honour, for which he demands satisfaction. The other prophets bring the same charges against this people, as we find from their writings. Because there is no truth, &c. No faithfulness in their minds, words, or works; they cover falsehood with fair words, till they can conveniently execute their designed frauds. It appears they had no sense of moral honesty; made no conscience of what they said or did, though never so contrary to uprightness, and injurious to their neighbours. Much less had they any sense of mercy, or of the obligation they were under to help the indigent and necessitous. There was neither compassion nor beneficence among them; they neither pitied nor relieved any. Nor knowledge of God in the land Here we have the cause of their want of integrity and benevolence: they had not the true and saving knowledge of God, they were neither acquainted with him, nor with his will, and their own duty: hence they were destitute of true piety, and therefore also of true virtue.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hos 4:1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel. Here a new sermon is built upon a new revelation.
Hos 4:2. Blood toucheth blood, as explained in the words preseding, adultery upon adultery, murder upon murder, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. See 2Ch 24:20.
Hos 4:4. Thy people are as they that strive with the priest, when they murdered Zechariah and his brothers between the porch and the altar; from which time the glory of Israel waned. 2Ch 24:20. To defend sin against a priest with the law of God in his mouth, was the foulest sin of contumacy, and worthy of death. The resistance was against the Lord rather than man; yet such were the jews who opposed the law, and killed the prophets. Deu 17:12. Jer 18:19. Eze 3:26. There is another sense, that a priest once abandoned to heresy in doctrine, or profligacy in morals, is an irreclaimable character.
Hos 4:6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. As original sin breaks out in every new age, like torrents, a nation cannot be saved, unless the worship of God and the institutions of religion be kept in full operation: the children must daily be fed with the milk of the word.
Hos 4:12. Their staff declareth unto them. This custom of divination is mentioned by Eze 21:21. Dr. Pocock says they wrote on one stick, God bids, and on the other, God forbids.
Hos 4:13. Under oaks. The green oaks, or the ilex. Bishop Lowth on Isa 1:29. The chapter should end here.
Hos 4:14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom. Tremellius relieves this text by reading it with interrogationsShould I not? Or as archbishop Newcome, Shall I not visit your daughters because they commit fornication; and your wives because they commit adultery?
Hos 4:15. Come not ye unto Gilgal. This place was near Jericho, and was famous for the circumcision of the Israelites on crossing the Jordan; but now it was an abominable seat of idolatry. Neither go ye up to Beth-aven. Once Beth-el, the house of God; now called Beth-aven, the house of wickedness. The apostate Israelites augmented their crimes, by defiling places which had been sanctified by the marks of divine favour. Genesis 28. The Mazoretics blaspheme our gospel, our churches and chapels, by the polluted name of Aven.
Hos 4:16. The Lord will feed them in a large place. As a flock unpenned at night; and by consequence, exposed to the wild beasts. God withdrew his defence from Samaria till their enemies had cut them short.
REFLECTIONS.
The prophet here opens his ministry with a full stroke at the sins of the nation, connected with very awful consequences. Jeremiah addresses them, as utterly depraved: chap. 5. Solomons errors, and Rehoboams haughty ignorance, occasioned the alienation of the ten tribes. Policy alienated them also from the house of God, and gradual idolatry paved the way for utter ruin. Jezebel introduced a torrent of superstition, impiety, and crimes. Hence follow the dark shades in this chapter, shades of wickedness which must not be detailed; nay, crimes which the shades of hell seem forbidden wholly to disclose.
Ignorance was a leading cause of this high and horrible course of crime. The levites were banished, and new priests were consecrated, of mean and wicked minds. Hence men followed passion, passion inflamed by pagan superstition, and by pagan example. The people, besides Beth-aven and Dan, had high places in every city and hill. Drunkenness followed in the feast; and then Satan, whom they mistakenly adored, taking possession of his own, precipitated them into the last excess of crime. Conspiracy and carnage followed, blood touched blood, when the assassins and the assassinated fell in promiscuous slaughter, 2Ki 15:25. May we be warned to cherish the sacred ministry, and to train up our children in the knowledge of God.
The sins of Ephraim were incurable, the Holy Spirit was quenched, and the remains of conscience extinguished. The sentence followed: Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone; he is gone after wine. Hence also when ministers cease to publish grace, they become ministers of justice, that by preaching the terrors of the Lord a small part may at least be saved. While the people were secure in ignorance and crime, the prophet warned them of approaching war, in which they should fall in one day; and he warned the false prophets that they should meanly fall in the night by assassination. Samaria, the mother of all these calamities, being the crown of Ephraims pride, should likewise be destroyed. He told his people that famine should follow their feasting, and that they should be blown away with the wings of the wind, and be dispersed in all the Assyrian empire.
If Israel could not be saved, the Lord was desirous to make Judah wise by the errors of her sister. Let not Judah offend; come ye not to Gilgal, swear ye not by JEHOVAH in so profane a place; it is a grand scheme of the enemy to join the worship of God with that of idols. Ah, how many sin under some specious pretext of good. Almost every crime the enemy masks with some appearance of good. Oh my soul, shun thou the dalliances of sin, and the feasts of ungodly men. There mighty Samson fell, and lost the favour of God.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hos 4:1-19. The Utter Corruption of the Nation Traced to Irreligion.(The text of Hos 4:15-19 is hopelessly corrupt. Marti regards Hos 4:3 as an insertion and Hos 4:5-6 a as foreign to their present context.) The complete lack of knowledge of God in the land (cf. Hos 4:6, Hos 5:4, Hos 6:3) has, as its inevitable consequence, widespread moral corruptionyet let none reprove, for the people is as the priestling and the prophet as the priest (Hos 4:4 emended). In the present text an apostrophe to the priesthood follows, which is denounced for its profligacy, and profanation of the sacred office. Punishment shall overtake both the priesthood and the misguided people, who are the victims (Hos 4:5-11). A vivid and terrible picture follows of the immoral worship, and its devastating effects on morals generally (Hos 4:12-14). In the present corrupt text of Hos 4:15 ff. Judah is warned not to follow Israels evil example, and the consequences of obstinate idolatry and shameless sin are set forth.
Hos 4:2. swearing and breaking faith belong together, i.e. false swearing.blood toucheth blood: i.e. one act of bloodshed quickly follows another.
Hos 4:3. The verse breaks the connexion between Hos 4:2; Hos 4:4, and introduces the idea that all nature is appalled at the crimes of Israel, and suffers in consequence (cf. Isa 24:3-6).
Hos 4:4. The last clause requires correction. Martis has been given above. Others read, but my striving is with thee, O priest (w immekh rb ha-kohen), thus leading to the address in Hos 4:5 f.
Hos 4:5. thy mother: i.e. either the society to which thou belongest, or the nation. Marti (omitting Hos 4:5 and Hos 4:6 a; note, second person in Hos 4:5 f. changes to third in Hos 4:6) reads Hos 4:6 b, Because they have rejected knowledge I also reject them from being my priests, and (because) they have forgotten the law of their God, I also will forget their children.
Hos 4:7. I will change: read with Targ. and Pesh. they changed.
Hos 4:8. sin: i.e. according to the older interpretation, sin-offering. In order to multiply such offerings the priests encouraged the people to sin. But by sin the cultus generally may be meant; the priests for their own purposes encouraged the peoples delusion that by multiplying offerings they were pleasing Yahweh (cf. Hos 8:11, Amo 4:4).
Hos 4:12. stock: render tree; staff should perhaps be twig. The tree-cultus (p. 100) practised in old Israel may be referred to (cf. Gen 12:6, Deu 11:30, etc., and the frequent reference to high places on every hill and under every green tree). This tree-cultus is referred to in Hos 4:13; oaks and terebinths were specially sacred. Through them oracles were sought, and near the sacred trees sacrifices were offered, and the rites of sacred prostitution practised.burn incense: render offer sacrifice.
Hos 4:15-19. Text corrupt. Judah in Hos 4:15 a can hardly be right. Hos 4:16 b, Hos 4:17 may be a gloss.
Hos 4:18. Render: their carousal over, they indulge in harlotry.
Hos 4:19. A figure for exile: the Assyrian tempest shall sweep them away.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD {a} hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because [there is] no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
(a) Because the people would not obey the admonitions of the Prophets, he accuses them before the judgment seat of God, against whom they chiefly offended; Isa 7:13 Zec 12:10 Mic 6:1-2 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Israel’s breach of covenant 4:1-3
The Lord brought a legal charge against the Israelites for breaking the Mosaic Covenant. Again the literary form of this section is a legal confrontation (Heb. rib, cf. Hos 2:2). Scholars therefore often refer to these courtroom type charges as "rib oracles," pronounced "reeve." Waltke called these messages oracles of reproach in the form of a lawsuit. [Note: Bruce K. Waltke, An Old Testament Theology, p. 836.] The Lord stated His charges against Israel in Hos 4:1-3 and then developed these charges in reverse order.
|
God’s Lawsuit against Israel |
|
The charges |
Stated |
Developed |
|
No faithfulness (trustworthiness) |
Hos 4:1 |
Hos 11:12 to Hos 13:16 |
|
No love (kindness) |
Hos 4:1 |
Hos 6:1 to Hos 11:11 |
|
No acknowledgment of God |
Hos 4:1 |
Hos 4:4 to Hos 5:15 |
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
IV. THE THIRD SERIES OF MESSAGES ON JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION: WIDESPREAD GUILT 4:1-6:3
The remaining messages that Hosea recorded in this book continue to expound the themes introduced in the first two series (chs. 1-3). All five series of messages major on Israel’s guilt and coming judgment, but all conclude on a positive note promising restoration in the future. [Note: See Charles H. Silva, "The Literary Structure of Hosea 4-8," Bibliotheca Sacra 164:655 (July-September 2007):291-306.]
"At this point we leave the account of Hosea’s marriage and begin a new section, which extends to the end of the book and contains oracles of doom and hope. Even in this section, however, we are never far from Hosea’s marriage, for it is always in the background and is the catalyst for his message to his people. We see it in the references to the nation as mother and children, as well as in the numerous allusions to spiritual harlotry and adultery." [Note: McComiskey, p. 56.]
Chapters 4-14 contain speeches that Hosea probably gave at various times in his long prophetic career.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Hosea called on the Israelites to listen to a word from Yahweh because He was charging them with serious crimes. Yahweh was taking the Israelites to court. The basic accusation is that there was no faithfulness (truth, trustworthiness), kindness (loyalty, Heb. hesed), or (evidence of) knowledge of God in the land. The Israelites failed to acknowledge Yahweh as their God (cf. Hos 2:20). These were all things that God had ordered His people to pursue when He covenanted with them at Sinai.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE THICK NIGHT OF ISRAEL
Hos 4:1-19; Hos 5:1-15; Hos 6:1-11; Hos 7:1-16; Hos 8:1-14; Hos 9:1-17; Hos 10:1-15; Hos 11:1-12; Hos 12:1-14; Hos 13:1-16; Hos 14:1-9
It was indeed a “thick night” into which this Arthur of Israel stepped from his shattered home. The mists drive across Hoseas long agony with his people, and what we see, we see blurred and broken. There are stumbling and clashing; crowds in drift; confused rallies; gangs of assassins breaking across the highways; doors opening upon lurid interiors full of drunken riot. Voices, which other voices mock, cry for a dawn that never comes. God Himself is Laughter, Lightning, a Lion, a Gnawing Worm. Only one clear note breaks over the confusion-the trumpet summoning to war.
Take courage, O great heart! Not thus shall it always be! There wait thee, before the end, of open Visions at least two-one of Memory and one of Hope, one of Childhood and one of Spring. Past this night, past the swamp and jungle of these fetid years, thou shalt see thy land in her beauty, and God shall look on the face of His Bride.
Chapters 4-14 are almost indivisible. The two Visions just mentioned, chapters 11 and Hos 14:3-9, may be detached by virtue of contributing the only strains of gospel which rise victorious above the Lords controversy with His people and the troubled story of their sins. All the rest is the noise of a nation falling to pieces, the crumbling of a splendid past. And as decay has no climax and ruin no rhythm, so we may understand why it is impossible to divide with any certainty Hoseas record of Israels fall. Some arrangement we must attempt, but it is more or less artificial, and to be undertaken for the sake of our own minds, that cannot grasp so great a collapse all at once. Chapter 4 has a certain unity, and is followed by a new exordium, but as it forms only the theme of which the subsequent chapters are variations, we may take it with them as far as Hos 7:7; after which there is a slight transition from the moral signs of Israels dissolution to the political-although Hoses still combines the religious offences of idolatry with the anarchy of the land. These form the chief interest to the end of chapter 10. Then breaks the bright Vision of the Past, chapter 11, the temporary victory of the Gospel of the Prophet over his Curse. In chapters 12-14:2 we are plunged into the latter once more, and reach in Hos 14:3 if. the second bright vision, the Vision of the Future. To each of these phases of Israels Thick Night-we can hardly call them Sections-we may devote a chapter of simple exposition, adding three chapters more of detailed examination of the main doctrines we shall have encountered on our way-the Knowledge of God, Repentance, and the Sin against Love.