Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 7:2
And they consider not in their hearts [that] I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.
2. they consider not in their hearts ] Rather, as margin, they say not to their heart. ‘Heart’ here = self; the meaning is therefore they have no pricks of conscience.
now their own doings have beset them about ] They are so entangled in sin (to use a more familiar figure) that they cannot even try to repent.
they are before my face ] Comp. Psa 90:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And they consider not in their hearts – Literally, (as in the E. M) they say not to their hearts. The conscience is Gods voice to the heart from within; mans knowledge of the law of God, and his memory of it, is mans voice, reminding his heart and rebellious affections to abide in their obedience to God. God speaks through the heart, when by His secret inspirations he recalls it to its duty. Man speaks to his own heart, when he checks its sinful or passionate impulses by the rule of Gods law, Thou shalt not. At first, people feel the deformity of certain sorts of wickedness. When accustomed to them, people think that God is indifferent to what no longer shocks themselves. They say not to their heart anymore, that God remembers them.
I remember all their wickedness – This was the root of all their wickedness, want of thought. They would not stop to say to themselves, that God not only saw, but remembered their wickedness, and not only this, but that He remembered it all. Many will acknowledge that God sees them. He sees all things, and so them also. This is a part of His natural attribute of omniscience. It costs them nothing to own it. But what God remembers, that He will repay. This belongs to Gods attributes, as the moral Governor of the world; and this, man would gladly forget. But in vain. God does remember, and remembers in order to punish. Now, at the very moment when man would not recall this to his own heart, their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face. Unless or until man repent, God sees man continually, encompassed by all his past evil deeds; they surround him, accompany him, whithersoever he goeth; they attend him, like a band of followers; they lie down with him, they await him at his awakening; they live with him, but they do not die with him; they encircle him, that he should in no wise escape them, until he come attended by them, as witnesses against him, at the judgmentseat of God. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. God remembers all their wickedness Pro 5:22.
Then He will requite all; not the last sins only, but all. So when Moses interceded for his people after the sin of the calf, God says to him, go lead the people unto the place, of which I have spoken unto thee; behold My Angel shall go before thee; nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them Exo 32:34; and of the sins of Israel and their enemies; Is not this laid up in store with Me, and sealed up among My treasures? to Me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time Deu 32:34-35. The sins, forgotten by man, are remembered by God, and are requited all together in the end. A slight image of the Day of Judgment, the Day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, against which the hard and impenitent heart treasures up unto itself wrath!
They are before My face – All things, past, present, and to come, are present before God. He sees all things which have been, or which are, or which shall be, or which could be, although He shall never will that they should be, in one eternal, unvarying, present. To what end then for man to cherish an idle hope, that God will not remember, what He is ever seeing? In vain wouldest thou think, that the manifold ways of man are too small, too intricate, too countless, to be remembered by God. God says, They are before My Face.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 7:2
And they consider not in their hearts that I do remember all their wickedness.
The evil of inconsideration
What the prophet affirms of Gods ancient people is gravely distressing.
I. The fact asserted. God remembers the wickedness of men. Wickedness denotes what is hateful and destructive. Men may excuse it, deny it, forget it; but God remembers it.
1. This fact is clear from the declarations of His Word.
2. From the perfections of His nature. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.
3. From the equity of His government and a future judgment. You that forget God, and forget your sins, know that God remembers.
II. The evil stated. That men forget this fact. The evil lamented is inconsideration. The want of consideration appears–
1. In mens continued commission of sin.
2. In their doing this without regret.
3. In their readiness to extenuate sin.
4. In their disregard of future consequences.
Wherein then consists the evil of this want of consideration?
(1) They who are thus chargeable neglect the plainest admonitions of Scripture.
(2) They oppose the frequent dictates of conscience.
(3) They allow themselves in the-practice of secret sins.
(4) They may even proceed to the commission of open vice.
(5) Thus proceeding they eventually ruin the soul.
As to the duty of consideration, the authority of God commands it. The grace of God recommends it. The reason of man approves it. The aversion of man to this duty implies its importance. (T. Kidd.)
Mans sins in Gods mind
God alone knows us perfectly.
I. A fact in the Divine providence or government. I remember all their wickedness. Remember, as applied to God in Scripture, does not represent a faculty of the Divine mind, but a state of Gods nature, or the conduct of God in some particular instance. The text means, Your sins are ever before Me.
1. God remembers all kinds and degrees of sin.
2. All the sins of all men.
3. He remembers accurately and completely.
4. Continually and for ever. And–
5. With a practical result, that He may act upon His recollection.
Then how wonderful is Gods patience and forbearance! How entire must Gods pardon be when He forgives a sinner! How complete will be the transactions of the judgment day! How full will future and final punishment be!
II. This fact is forgotten by those who ought to remember it. They do not think or reflect, at least, so as to feel.
III. Gods complaint of this forgetfulness. God complains of forgetfulness, because it sears the conscience, leads to false views of a mans position, is personally offensive to God, and is frequently the occasion of final ruin. God does not hate you as a being, but lie does hate your character. And this offensiveness to God is continually increasing. You can consider this matter, and at once. Enter then the path of serious thought and pursue it. (Samuel Martin.)
Gods remembrance of sin
I. God remembers mens sins. I remember all their wickedness.
1. This is a wonderful fact. When we think of the infinite greatness of Him to whom the universe is as nothing. Sin is no trifle in the eye of Him whose glory is His holiness.
2. This is not only a wonderful, bat a solemn fact. God not only observes and knows my sins, but He remembers them.
II. Men disregard Gods remembrance of their sins. Why, then?
1. Because other thoughts engross their minds–thoughts of worldly wealth and power.
2. Because this thought, if it occurs to them for a moment, is too painful to be entertained.
III. That mens disregard of Gods remembrance of their sins leads them to revel in iniquity. How their own doings have beset them about; they are before My face. Here we have–
1. Their sins in general. They are abundant and daring. Their sins encompass them on all sides, and they perpetrate them without shame under the very face of God.
2. Some of their sins are specified here. They made them glad with their lies, with the lying praises with which they crowned the favourites of the prince, and the lying calumnies and censures with which they blackened those whom they knew the princes disliked. (Homilist.)
Gods record of our sins
The great stone-book of nature reveals many strange records of the past. In the red sandstone there are found in some places marks which are clearly the impressions of showers of rain, and these so perfect that it can even be determined in what direction the shower inclined, and from what quarter it proceeded; and this ages ago! So sin leaves its track behind it, and God keeps a faithful record of all our sins.
Now their own doings have beset them about.
Man beset by his own doings
Down from the dark ages comes the story–if memory is true to its charge–of an expert blacksmith, who was such a master of his trade, and withal so proud of his skill, that he often boasted no man could break a chain made by him. In time the blacksmith himself was imprisoned and manacled. With the hope that he might make his escape, he examined the chain to see if it was possible to break it, when, to his horror, he discovered that the chain was one made by his own hands, which no living man could break, himself included. The chain forged by his own hands made the blacksmith a helpless, hopeless prisoner in that vile dungeon. Is it not the same with us? Each of us is forging a chain we cannot break. Every bad habit becomes a link in the chain, which will bind, in hopeless slavery, the soul that makes it. Acts form habits. Let your acts be beautiful and Christlike, and your habits will be likewise, (Paul S. Biggs Shipley.)
The sin of the people
The prophet now arraigns all the citizens of Samaria, and in their persons the whole people, because they rendered obedience to the king by flattery, and to the princes in wicked things, respecting which their own consciences convicted them. He shows that the defection which then reigned through all Israel ought not to be ascribed to the king or to few men, but that it was a common evil, which involved all in one and the same guilt, without exception. If they wish to east the blame on their governors, it will be done in vain. As soon as Jeroboam formed the calves, as soon as he built temples, religion instantly collapsed, and whatever was before pure, degenerated. How was the change so sudden? Even because the people had inwardly concocted their wickedness, which, when an occasion was offered, showed itself; for hypocrisy did lie hid in all, and was then discovered. It often happens that some vice creeps in, which proceeds from one man, or from a few; but when all readily embrace what a few introduce, it is quite evident that they have no living root of piety, or of the fear of God. They then who are so prone to adopt vices were before hypocrites; and we daily find this to be the case. When men become corrupt in their whole life, and degenerate from the pure worship of God, they are justly deemed adulterers. The prophet compares them to an oven, because they were not corrupted by some outward impulse, but by their own inclination and propensity of mind. They had been set on fire by an inward sinful instinct, and were like a hot oven. The blame rested wholly on themselves. (John Calvin.)
In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine.–
Court intemperance
On the kings birthday, or some other solemnity yearly observed, the princes induced the king to drink until he became sick, and forgot and prostituted his place and authority by joining with scorners, or men eminently dissolute. Doctrine.
I. Days which men will have observed as days of festivity and solemnity do ordinarily prove days of great miscarriage and provocation against God.
2. Drunkenness and sensuality are heinous and crying sins, especially in rulers. It is a sad challenge that they should be given to bottles of wine.
3. Nobles and princes and great courtiers are ordinarily great plagues and snares to kings, who, having their ear and countenance, do make use of it for no other end but to draw them to sin against God.
4. It is the height of sensuality, when men not only become brutish themselves, but dare invite and tempt others to the same excess of riot, and by all means draw them to drunkenness.
5. Men by their intemperance do not only draw on the guilt of misspending time, and abusing the good creatures of God, but of self-murder and abusing their own bodies also.
6. Days of feasting and intemperance do also ordinarily prove days of great insolence and boldness in other sins.
7. It is also the great sin of drunkenness, that by their sensuality they deprive themselves of the use of reason, and render themselves contemptible, and like beasts, that they can neither know their place nor duty. The king debased himself to keep company with lewd persons and look like them. (George Hutcheson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. They consider not in their hearts] They do not consider that my eye is upon all their ways; they do not think that I record all their wickedness; and they know not their own evil doings are as a host of enemies encompassing them about.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They who are thus greatly wicked, notorious sinners,
consider not in their hearts, do not remember, nor will they once seriously ponder this, that I remember all their wickedness; that I see all they do, and remember all I see; and that with more than an idle, unactive looking on, or retaining in memory; I look on, and remember to call them to account, and to punish for their sins. They would flatter themselves into an opinion that I take no notice of their wickedness, and that I will never require it.
Their own doings; the guilt and punishment, the iniquity and mischief, of the works they have done; their own doings, not their fathers, as hypocrites and the incorrigible are ready to complain.
Have beset them about: as cords wrap one taken in them, or as an enemy invests and besiegeth a town on every side, so these profligate people, courtiers, priests, prophets, and citizens, are all held enclosed with their own sins.
They are before my face; what they have done I do see, and what they suffer I do see, and it is but just they should suffer what their sins deserve: they hoped for impunity, because they thought I did not regard, but now by a just punishment, by full measures of sorrows heaped upon them, they shall find all their ways were under my eye, and that I weighed their doings.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. consider not in theirheartsliterally, “say not to,” c. (Ps14:1).
that I rememberandwill punish.
their own doings have besetthem aboutas so many witnesses against them (Psa 9:16Pro 5:22).
before my face (Ps90:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they consider not in their hearts [that] I remember all their wickedness,…. That is, the people of the ten tribes, and the inhabitants of Samaria, whose iniquity and wickedness are said to be discovered, and to be very notorious: and yet “they said not to their hearts” m, as in the original text; they did not think within themselves; they did not commune with their own hearts; they did not put themselves in mind, or put this to their consciences, that the Lord saw all their wicked actions, their idolatry, falsehood, thefts, and robberies, and whatsoever they were guilty of; that the Lord took notice of them, and put them down in the book of his remembrance, in order to call them to an account, and punish them for them:
now their own doings have beset them about; or, “that now their own doings”, c. n they do not consider in their hearts that their sins are all around them, on every side, committed by them openly, and in abundance, and are notorious to all their neighbours, and much more to the omniscient God: and that
they are before my face; so the Targum,
“which are revealed before me;”
were manifest in his sight, before whom all things are; but this they did not consider, and therefore went on in that bold and daring manner they did. Some understand these clauses of the punishment of their sins, which should surround them on every side, that they should not be able to escape, like persons closely besieged in a city, that they cannot get out; alluding to the future siege of Samaria, when it would be a plain case, though they did not now think of it, that all their sins were before the Lord, and were observed by him.
m “et non dicebant ad cor suum”, Cocceius; “et non dicunt cordi suo”, Schmidt. n “quod circumdent ipsos opera eorum”, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet shows here that the Israelites had advanced to the highest summit of all wickedness; for they thought that no account was ever to be given by them to God. Hence arises the contempt of God; that is, when men imagine that he is, as it were, sleeping in heaven, and that he rests from every work. They dare not indeed to deny God, and yet they take from him what especially belongs to his divinity, for they exclude him from the office of being a judge. Hence then it is that men allow themselves so much liberty, because they imagine that they have made a truce with God; yea, they think that they can do any thing with impurity, as if they had made a covenant with death and hell, as Isaiah says, (Isa 28:15.) Of this sottishness then does the Prophet here arraign the Israelites, They have not said, he says, in their heart, that I remember all their wickedness; that is, “They so audaciously mock me, as though I were not the judge of the world; they consider not that all things are in my sight, and that nothing is hid from me. Since then they suppose me to be like a dead idol, they have no fear, nay, they abandon themselves to every wickedness.”
He then adds, Now their wicked deeds have surrounded them, for they are in my sight; that is, “Though they promise impunity to themselves, and flatter themselves in their hypocrisy, all their works are yet before me; and thus they surround them;” that is, “They shall at last perceive that they are infolded in their own sins, and that no escape will be open to them.” We now understand the object of the Prophet; for after having complained of the stupidity of the people, he now says that they thus flattered themselves with no advantage, because God is not in the meantime blind. Though then they think that a veil is drawn over their sins, they are yet mistaken; for all their sins are in my sight, and this they themselves shall at last find out by experience, because their sins will surround or besiege them.
Let us learn from this place, that nothing ought to be more feared than that Satan should so fascinate us as to make us to think that God rests idly in heaven. There is nothing that can stir us up more to repentance, than when we adorn God with his own power, and be persuaded that he is the judge of the world, and also when we walk as in his sight, and know that our sins cannot come to oblivion, except when he buries them by pardon. This then is what the Prophet teaches in the first part of the verse. Now when we imagine that we have peace with God, and with death and hell, as Isaiah says in the place we have quoted, the prophet teaches that God is yet awake, and that his office cannot be taken from him, for he knows whatever is carried on in this world; and that this will at length be made openly known, when our sins shall surround us, as it is also said in Genesis chapter 4, (39) ‘Sin will lie down at thy door.’ For we may for a time imagine that we have many escapes or at least hiding-places; but God will at length show that all this is in vain, for he will come upon us, and has no need of forces, procured from this or that quarter; we shall have enemies enough in our own vices, for we shall be besieged by them no otherwise than if God were to arm the whole world against us. Let us go on —
(39) Gen 4:7. — fj.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Have beset them about.The wicked deeds of the nation crowded around them as witnesses to reveal their treason against Jehovah.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And they consider not in their hearts,
That I remember all their wickedness,
Now have their own doings beset them about,
They are before my face.’
But worst of all was the fact that the people were blind to their sins. They did not even consider in their hearts the possibility that YHWH knew about and remembered their wickedness. Rather they went on doing evil things and breaking the covenant to such an extent that their own doings crowded round them and beset them, and all this openly in the face of YHWH. Like Adam they were caught out in their sin.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 7:2. Have beset them about Compass them about.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1158
THE FOLLY OF INCONSIDERATION
Hos 7:2. They consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness.
IT is certain that many who have the Gospel dispensed to them continue ignorant of its very first principles, and perish at last for lack of knowledge. But there are still more who destroy their own souls through inconsideration. They will not attend to the things they do know, or suffer the principles they have received to have any influence upon their minds. Thus it was with Israel of old: they committed all manner of abominations [Note: Hos 6:7; Hos 6:9-10.], and, when God was desirous to heal them, were bent as much as ever on the prosecution of their own evil ways [Note: ver. 1.]: and the reason of this is assigned by God himself in the words of our text: it is justly traced to their inconsideration; the prevalence and folly of which we propose to set before you.
I.
The prevalence of inconsideration
We propose not to speak of inconsideration at large, but only as it respects Gods omniscience, and our accountableness to him.
It is an undoubted truth, that God remembers all our wickedness
[Reason alone were sufficient to determine this point: for if God do not remember all the transactions of men, how can he judge the world?
If we would ascertain the point from matter of fact, we may notice the injunction given to Israel to extirpate the Amalekites, above three hundred years after they had committed the sin for which this judgment was to be inflicted on them [Note: 1Sa 15:2.]. And at the close of Davids reign, a famine of three years was sent as a punishment of Sauls treachery in seeking to destroy the Gibeonites; nor was the punishment removed, till exemplary vengeance had been taken on the family of the departed monarch [Note: 2Sa 21:1-9.].
In Scripture there is, as we might well expect, abundant proof of this fundamental axiom. God declares it, as in many other places [Note: Hos 8:13; Hos 9:9.], so in the very verse from whence our text is taken [Note: They are before my face.]. In matters of more than ordinary importance, God often appeals to men respecting the truth of his own assertions. Accordingly this is made a subject of appeal; Is not the wickedness of men sealed up as in a bag, and deposited among my treasures, to be brought forth against them at the day of judgment [Note: Deu 32:34-35. with Job 14:17.]? Further, because he would have this truth impressed on the minds of all, he even swears in confirmation of it; The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works [Note: Amo 8:7.].]
But plain and important as this truth is, men do not consider it
[No man is so ignorant as not to be acquainted with this truth. There are many indeed who will put forth atheistical sentiments for the sake of vindicating their own conduct, and silencing the accusations of conscience: they will say, like those of old, Tush, God shall not see; neither will the Almighty regard it [Note: Psa 94:7.]: but in their sober hours they will not hesitate to confess, that God both sees all their wickedness, and will remember it in order to a future retribution.
But the evil is, that, though men confess this truth, they do not consider it: they do not like to give it a place in their minds: they cannot bear to have it suggested to them. If the thought of it arise in their minds, they rush into business, or into company and dissipation, to get rid of it. That they do not consider it, is manifest: for could they sin with so much ease, if they did; or could they maintain such tranquility of mind after having committed sin? Would not the thought of Gods eye being upon them, cast some damp upon their pleasure; and the expectation of a future recompence occasion some disquietude? We are sure that many of those evils which are committed under the cover of the night, would not be committed, if only the presence of a superior should be seasonably interposed. How then must the presence of Almighty God awe us, if we would but duly consider it! Suppose a poisonous draught were put into our hands, and we were informed, that, within a few hours after we had drank it, we should be racked with inexpressible agony, and in the space of one day should die through the excess of torment; should we not reflect a moment before we ventured to drink it? And supposing us infatuated enough to sacrifice our lives for a momentary gratification, should we not put the cup to our lips with a trembling hand? and after we had swallowed the contents, should we not feel some concern, some regret, some sense of our folly? Could we go away and laugh at what we had done, and boast of it, and encourage our friends to do the same? If we could not, the reason is obvious. Much more therefore should we be affected with a dread of future sin, and a sorrow for the past, if we considered who is privy to our actions, and how certainly he will remember them to our everlasting confusion.]
To counteract this prevailing thoughtlessness, we will endeavour to expose,
II.
The folly of it
Such inconsideration can be productive of no good, and must be attended with incalculable mischief to the soul
1.
It will not induce forgetfulness in God
[Amongst our fellow-creatures our conduct may have considerable effect: and others may be lulled asleep by means of our security. But God is occupied in his work, whether we be in ours or not. He wakes, though we sleep: he sees, though we think ourselves hid from his sight: he marks, though we are regardless of him: nor does he ever feel more indignation, than when we feel ourselves most secure and composed. We may think wickedly that he is even such an one as ourselves; but he will reprove us for what we have done amiss, and will set it in order before our eyes [Note: Psa 50:21.]. Nor is it the act only of murder or adultery that he will remember, but the look, the desire, the thought, yea all our wickedness, of whatever kind or whatever degree.]
2.
It will rob us of all the benefits we might receive by reflection
[If we did but consider that God has noted down all our wickedness, the next thought would be, How shall we get it blotted out of his book? This would lead us to see the inefficacy of our tears to wash away our guilt; and would stimulate us to inquire after that Saviour, whose blood cleanses from all sin. Thus we might obtain the remission of our sins, and be restored to the favour of our offended God. But inconsideration robs us of all this. We shall never repent of our evil ways, till we have considered them. We shall never seek for mercy, till we have considered our guilt and danger. We shall never flee to Christ, till we have considered our need of him. The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. Can a thoughtless sinner take this view of the subject, and not confess his folly?]
3.
It will lead us only to multiply our offences against God
[The necessary consequence of inconsideration is, that we continue to live each succeeding day and year in the same manner as we did in time past; and, in many cases, harden ourselves more and more in wickedness. If we would at the close of every day call ourselves to an account how the day had been spent, and what God had recorded concerning us in the book of his remembrance, we should certainly abstain from many sins, which we now commit without thought or remorse. Even if the Sabbath alone were spent in this holy exercise, we should be kept from rushing into perdition as the horse into the battle. But we are like a spendthrift, who, never considering how great his debts are, or how he shall discharge them, runs on from one extravagance to another, till he has accumulated a debt which involves him in disgrace and misery. Yea, we resemble a man on the eve of bankruptcy, who, knowing that his affairs are ruined, cannot endure to examine his accounts, but proceeds in the best way he can, till the fatal hour arrives, and his insolvency is declared. But, oh! what madness is it thus to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath!]
4.
It will certainly issue in long and painful reflection
[We may shake off reflection here; but the time is coming when we must and shall consider. God has said, In the latter day ye shall consider it perfectly [Note: Jer 23:20.]. Yes, as soon as we come into the eternal world, we shall have a perfect view of all our past wickedness: we shall see it, not as we do now, through the medium of prejudice and self-love, but as God sees it, in all its enormity and with all its aggravations. The sins of thought as well as of act, the sins of omission as well as of commission, will all be open to our view; and there will be no possibility of diverting our attention from them. God bids us now consider; and we will not: but what shall we do in that day when he shall answer our cries with this severe rebuke, Son, remember [Note: Luk 16:25.]? Remember the sins committed; remember the warnings neglected; remember the mercies abused; remember the opportunities lost. O sad remembrance! O dreary prospect of unalterable irremediable misery! Were it not then better to consider in time, when the most painful reflections will be salutary, than to protract the period of consideration till it shall he ten thousand times more painful, and altogether unavailing?]
Advice
1.
Call your past ways to remembrance
[However long since any sills may have been committed, they are as fresh in Gods memory, and as hateful in his sight, as if they had been committed this very hour. Endeavour then to get the same view of them as he has. Collect them all together: and what a dreadful mass will they appear! If you could suppose them all to have been crowded into the space of one day, and yesterday to have been the day in which they were all committed, what a monster would you appear in your own eyes! Yet, admitting the enormity of each sin to have been precisely such as it was at the moment of its commission, and such as it exists at present, such is the light in which you are viewed by God. Turn not away your eyes from this painful sight: you must behold it sooner or later: if you delay to look at it, the black catalogue of crimes will still increase, and the sight of them be yet more terrible. In the name of God then, I entreat you all, Consider your ways [Note: Hag 1:5; Hag 1:7.].]
2.
Seek to have your sins blotted out from the book of Gods remembrance
[It has already been observed, that this may be done. Though you neither have, nor can have, any thing to merit such a favour, God is willing to bestow it for his own names sake: his word to you is, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins [Note: Isa 43:25.]. He even promises to cast them into the very depths of the sea [Note: Mic 7:19.], from whence they shall never be brought against you: yea, he covenants to efface them, as it were from his own memory; and says, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more [Note: Jer 31:34.]. And will you not seek this mercy? Is it too soon yet awhile for you to enjoy it? Will you not be happier in the possession of it, than in the continuance of your sins? Think how such a proposal would be received by those who are now reflecting upon their ways in hell: would they need to be urged a second time to ask for mercy; O seek it instantly; seek it with all importunity; seek it in the adorable name of Jesus; seek it after the example of the saints of old [Note: Psa 25:7; Psa 79:8.]: and then, though your sins have been as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they have been red like crimson, they shall be white as wool.]
3.
Endeavour to walk as in the presence of God
[A sense of the Divine presence will be an excellent preservative from sin. We know how careful we are of our conduct in the presence of any one whose good opinion we value: let us set the Lord always before us [Note: Psa 16:8-9; Psa 51:1-2; Psa 51:7.]. in order that our circumspection may be increased, and that we may be kept as much from secret as from open sin, from sin in the heart as well as sin in the life. Let us commune much with our own hearts in our chamber, and be still [Note: Psa 4:4.]. Let us strive to keep a conscience void of offence, and to approve ourselves in all things to Him, who searcheth the heart, and trieth the reins. Let it be our ambition, that on every day more and more acts of piety may be recorded in the book of Gods remembrance; that so he may remember us for good [Note: See Neh 13:14; Neh 13:22; Neh 13:31 and Psa 106:4-5.] while we are here on earth, and welcome us as good and faithful servants when we enter into the eternal world.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
I include all these verses under one view; for they are all to the same amount. They represent the same melancholy truth, only by different figures. The heart of man ready like an oven, always heated; is a similitude to display the unceasing bias of it to evil. All the other wombs of nature wear out by bringing forth. The earth itself, if not replenished, will at length become barren. The parents of every species are prolific no longer than within certain boundaries. And both must concur, during that period, to produce the like. But the human heart in the oldest age ceaseth not the sending forth sin. This is a womb that is never barren. It needeth no other parent than itself; neither tempting devil nor enticing world, (though both too often work with it) to bring forth its inbred, indwelling sins, into being. To use the figure of the Prophet; the heart is like the baker’s oven, which burneth all the night while he sleepeth, and in the morning it is ready to his hand; so our hearts are always heated by the sin that dwelleth there, and which, unless restrained by grace, breaks out of itself into evil! Reader! think how infinitely precious Jesus ought to be, and indeed is, when once the Holy Ghost hath convinced of sin, and taught to you, or to me, the same lesson as he taught Paul, when he said, I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Rom 7:18 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 7:2 And they consider not in their hearts [that] I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.
Ver. 2. And they consider not in their hearts ] Heb. They say not in their hearts; that is, they set not down themselves with this consideration, they commune not with their consciences upon this most needful, but much neglected matter. A good man’s work lieth much within doors; he loves to be dealing with himself, and working good and wholesome considerations upon his own affections. He is never less alone than when he is alone; for still he hath God and himself to talk to.
That I remember all their wickedness
Now their own doings have beset them about
are before my face
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Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
consider not in: Heb. say not to, Deu 32:29, Psa 50:22, Isa 1:3, Isa 5:12, Isa 44:19
I remember: Hos 9:9, Psa 25:7, Jer 14:10, Amo 8:7, Luk 12:2, 1Co 4:5
their own: Num 32:23, Job 20:11-29, Psa 9:16, Pro 5:22, Isa 26:16, Jer 2:19, Jer 4:18
are before: Job 34:21, Psa 90:8, Pro 5:21, Jer 16:17, Jer 32:19, Heb 4:13
Reciprocal: Deu 4:39 – and consider 1Sa 15:2 – I remember Job 11:11 – he seeth Job 34:25 – he knoweth Psa 33:15 – considereth Psa 49:5 – iniquity Psa 73:11 – is there Psa 109:15 – before Psa 137:7 – Remember Jer 44:21 – did Eze 18:14 – considereth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 7:2. In spite of all the experiences that Israel had known directly, and the record of God’s dealing with unrighteous persons in the past, they seemed to feel as if He did not know what was going on. And even if the Lord had been unable t.o see the future or to know about facts that were invisible, He would have known all about the Iniquity of Israel for it was before his face.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 7:2. And they consider not in their hearts They do not seriously reflect; that I remember all their wickedness To call them to an account, and to punish them for it. Now their own doings Their studied wickedness, their contrived iniquities: their own, not those of their fathers, as the incorrigible are ready to complain; have beset them about
Namely, as an enemy invests a town on every side. The meaning is, the guilt and punishment of their sins shall surround them on all sides, and seize upon them that they shall not escape. Some think that by this expression of besetting them about, the prophet alludes to the future siege of Samaria, wherein these sinners against their own souls were so straitly beset by the enemy, that they could not flee, nor escape the being either taken or destroyed.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Israelites apparently hoped that the Lord would not hold some of their sins against them, but He remembered all their wickedness. Their evil deeds surrounded them like a wall, so they were constantly before His eyes. They reminded Him of their sins whenever He looked in their direction.