Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 8:2
Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.
2. Israel shall cry ] Rather, Unto me they will (then) cry, My God, we Israel know thee. When the punishment comes, they will cry aloud to Jehovah, and lay stress upon their belonging to Him. ‘Israel’ is mentioned, as the title of honour (the kunya, comp. the commentators on Isa 44:5), given by Jehovah, which was the outward sign of His mystic connexion with His worshippers. The speech of the Israelites is the counterpart of that of Jehovah in Isa 43:1, ‘I have called thee by name; thou art mine.’ (The Septuagint and the Peshito, however, omit ‘Israel.’) ‘My God’ seems used distributively, each Israelite professes to feel his individual relation to the national God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Israel shall cry unto Me, My God, we know Thee – Or, according to the order in the Hebrew, To Me shall they cry, we know Thee, Israel, i. e., we, Israel, Thy people, know Thee. It is the same plea which our Lord says that He shall reject in the Day of Judgment. Many shall say unto Me, in that Day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name cast out devils, and in Thy Name done many wonderful works Mat 7:22. In like way, when our Lord came in the flesh, they said of God the Father, He is our God. But our Lord appealed to their own consciences; It is My Father who honoreth Me, of whom ye say, He is our God, but ye have not known Him Joh 8:54. So Isaiah, when speaking of his own times, prophesied of those of our Lord also; This people draweth nigh unto Me, with their mouth and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me Mat 15:8; Isa 29:13. God says, that they shall urge this as a proof, that they know God, and as an argument to move God to have respect unto them, namely, that they are the seed of Jacob, who was called Israel, because he prevailed with God, and they were called by his name. As though they said, we, Thy Israel, know thee. It was all hypocrisy, the cry of mere fear, not of love; from where God, using their own name of Israel which they had pleaded, answers the plea, declaring what Israel had become.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 8:2
My God, we know Thee.
Agnosticism
An agnostic is not one who knows nothing, for some men who are embraced by this term are men of unusual mental attainments and ability. He is one who neither denies nor affirms. The term is applied to those who hold that there are matters pertaining to religion which we not only do not know, but have no means of knowing. An agnostic does not simply assert the incompleteness of human knowledge upon things Divine, but that real knowledge concerning such things is an impossibility to man. An agnostic is not an atheist. He does not deny the existence of a God. He is not a sceptic or doubter. He is positive in affirming that we neither have nor.can get any knowledge of God, or of the unseen world. Mr. Herbert Spencers views have been thus summarised:
1. The proper object of religion is a Something which can never be known, or conceived, or understood; to which we cannot apply the terms emotion, will, intelligence; of which we cannot either affirm or deny that it is either a person, or being, or mind, or matter, or, indeed, anything else.
2. All that we can say of it is that it is an inscrutable existence, or an unknowable cause; we can neither know nor conceive what it is, nor how it came about, nor how it operates. It is notwithstanding the ultimate cause, the all-being, the creative power.
3. The essential business of a religion so understood is to keep alive the consciousness of a mystery that cannot be fathomed.
4. We are not concerned with the question what effect this religion will have as a moral agent, or whether it will make good men and women. Religion has to do with mystery, not with morals. Agnostics reverence the phenomenal and the Great Unknown above and behind it; but, holding that the senses are the only source of knowledge, they do not know, and say we never can know, that the eternal energy behind all phenomena can think, feel, will, and contrive. Agnosticism is open to three objections.
I. It is presumptive. The agnostic begins by a confession of human ignorance, and then proceeds to make a universal assertion which implies the possession of universal knowledge. To assert that the unknown cause can never be known, or conceived, or understood is to assume that the speaker is acquainted with the constitution and calibre of all mind in all ages. To say that the inscrutable existence will never be known by man is to say we know what will be the extent of all mens knowledge in the future. We cannot measure all possible knowledge with our finite minds. He who says that God is unknowable, takes a self-contradictory attitude, and assumes such knowledge as can be attributed only to a Divine Being.
II. Agnosticism is paralysing. The great mainspring of human activity and basis of human happiness is faith. The three steps taken by every man who has achieved ought worthy of remembrance have been these–conception, conviction, and action. The conviction was the faith which stimulated to and sustained the action. United to faith, but distinct from it, is hope, that vigorous principle which enlists in its service both head and heart. Agnosticism bows these two fair angels out of human society. It tells us that we know only the phenomenal; we have no spiritual insight. If every man in society were a consistent agnostic there would be a speedy and inglorious termination to all scientific, social, political, and ecclesiastical enterprises.
III. Agnosticism is positively pernicious. It disposes of all true religion. For religion is the linking of a soul to a personal God. Agnosticism defines religion as devotion to that which is believed to be best. It has no personal God. Dispensing with religion–
1. Agnosticism strikes away one of the chief supports of society.
2. Begets despair.
There is nothing left for the heart of man but to settle down into a stony state of utter desolation and despair. Agnosticism encourages pessimism. But we affirm that God is known, though our knowledge is incomplete. We have sufficient knowledge to justify and demand our worship of God, our trust in, and love for, and obedience to Him. That God is known is proved by the Scriptures, by the manifestation of Christ, and by the testimony of Christian experience. (J. Hiles Hitchens, D. D.)
The knowledge of God
Israel pretended to know God, but in works denied Him. They would cry and say, We know Thee; when in truth they knew Him not, and were only speaking lies in hypocrisy.
I. Observe the time when they would make this profession. In a season of great affliction and distress, when God would contend with them, when their enemies should be let loose upon them, and everything around them look dark and distressing. When they begin to feel Gods wrath they will begin to humble themselves, and profess themselves to be His people. Troubles will often make those pray who never prayed before. But if they leave off prayer when the trouble is over, this shews that it came out of feigned lips. Conviction is often the fruit of correction, but does not always lead to conversion.
II. The manner in which this profession would be made, They would not only speak, but speak vehemently, and cry with earnestness and confidence. But they called God their God, though they had no interest in Him, and claimed an acquaintance with Him while they were ignorant of His true character.
III. The importance of a right knowledge of God.
1. It is a great thing truly to know the Lord. A perfect knowledge of God is unattainable by us. But a true knowledge of God is vital and efficacious, and has a transforming influence. It is the effect of Divine illumination, so that none have it until it is communicated from above.
2. A profession of this knowledge is of great importance. It is no light matter to be able to say on good ground, My God, I know Thee. With the mouth confession is made unto salvation, but there must first be a believing with the heart unto righteousness. True faith will produce a good confession. Let us see that our acknowledgment of God be accompanied with corresponding affections and dispositions towards Him, going to the grounds of our religion, and tracing it up to its source and origin.
IV. Some of the evidences of a true knowledge of God.
1. All saving knowledge proceeds from God only. All the knowledge we have of Him by the unassisted efforts of reason will come to nothing.
2. Saving knowledge will produce a humble confidence in God. Humility is one of the first fruits of a good understanding.
3. A spiritual acquaintance with God will be accompanied with a conformity of soul to Him. There will be a resemblance of His holy nature, and a subjection to His holy will.
(1) It is a great evil to profess to know God, and yet, in works, to deny Him.
(2) Beware the contrary extreme, of withholding an open profession of the truth after we have been brought to understand and receive it.
(3) The subject shows the reason why many apostatise from their profession. They have received the truth, but not in the love of it.
(4) The enlightening and renewing influences of the Holy Spirit are necessary to form the Christian character. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
The claim to know God
In the Hebrew the order of the words is, To Me they shall cry, My God, we know Thee; Israel. This order hints some observations that would hardly arise from our version. In our Bible it is only a speech of God to them. In the Hebrew they seem to remind God who they wore; as if they said, We are Israel, who know Thee, remember we are not strangers to Thee. Observe–
1. In affliction men see their need of God.
2. Even hypocrites and the vilest wretches in the time of their distress will claim interest in God and cry to Him.
3. Knowledge and acknowledgment of God in an outward and formal way hypocrites think will commend them much to God in time of affliction. They expect favour from God because they have made some profession of Him. We know Thee, as if they said, Lord, we were not as others who forsook Thee; we continued Israel still; we did not turn to the heathens. It is very difficult to take away mens spirits from trusting in formality in outward worship. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. Israel shalt cry] The rapidity of the eagle’s flight is well imitated in the rapidity of the sentences in this place.
My God, we know thee.] The same sentiment, from the same sort of persons, under the same feelings, as that in the Gospel of St. Matthew, Mt 7:22: “Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? Then will I profess unto them, I never KNEW YOU.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Israel, the ten tribes,
shall cry in deep distress; when the Assyrian rangeth over their country, when Samaria is besieged, they will cry out aloud, but hypocritically; they will roar, but not pray.
My God; then they will look to the ancient alliance and league between their fathers and me.
We know thee, an only Saviour; be ours, for we are thine. Thus in hypocrisy will they carry it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. My God, we know theethesingular, “My,” is used distributively, each one soaddressing God. They, in their hour of need, plead their knowledge ofGod as the covenant-people, while in their acts theyacknowledge Him not (compare Mat 7:21;Mat 7:22; Tit 1:16;also Isa 29:13; Jer 7:4).The Hebrew joins “Israel,” not as EnglishVersion, with “shall cry,” but “We, Israel,know thee”; God denies the claim thus urged on the ground oftheir descent from Israel.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Israel shall cry unto me, my God, we know thee. In their distress they shall cry to the Lord to help them, and have mercy on them, as they used to do when in trouble, Isa 26:16; when the eagle is come upon them, and just ready to devour them; when Samaria is besieged with file Assyrian army, their king taken prisoner, and they just ready to fall into the hands of the enemy, then they shall cry to God, though in a hypocritical manner; own him to be the true God, and claim their interest in him, and pretend knowledge of him, and acquaintance with him; though they have not served and worshipped him, but idols, and that for hundreds of years; like others who profess to know God, but in works deny him, Tit 1:16. Israel is the last word in the verse, and occasions different versions: “they shall cry unto me”; these transgressors of the covenant and the law, these hypocrites, shall pray to God in trouble, saying, “my God, we Israel”, or Israelites, “know thee”; or, “we know thee who are Israel” x; and to this sense is the Targum,
“in every time that distress comes upon them, they pray before me, and say, now we know that we have no God besides thee; redeem us, for we are thy people Israel;”
why may they not be rendered thus, “they shall cry unto me; my God, we know thee, Israel” shall say? Castalio renders them to this sense, “my God”, say they; but “we know thee, Israel”; we, the three Persons in the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, we know thy hypocrisy and wickedness, that it is only outwardly and hypocritically, and not sincerely, that thou criest unto and callest upon God.
x “ad me clamant, Deus mi, novimus te nos Israel”, De Dieu; “clamabunt ad me, O Deus meus, nos Israelitae cognoscimus te”, Tigurine version, so Tarnovius; “mihi vocant, Deus mi, cognovimus, [vel] agnoscimus te Israel”, vel “nos lsrael, seu Israelitae”, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
By the Prophet saying, To me shall they cry, some understand that the Israelites are blamed for not fleeing to God; and they thus explain the Prophet’s words, “They ought to have cried to me.” It seems to others to be an exhortation, “Let the Israelites now cry to me.” But I take the words simply as they are, that is that God here again touches the dissimulation of the Israelites, They will cry to me, We know thee; and to this the ready answer is Israel has cast away good far from himself; the enemy shall pursue him I thus join together the two verses; for in the former the Lord relates what they would do, and what the Israelites had already begun to do; and in the latter verse he shows that their labour would be in vain, because they ever cherished wickedness in their hearts, and falsely pretended the name of God, as it has been previously observed, even in their prayers. Israel, then will cry to me, My God, we know thee. Thus hypocrites confidently profess the name of God, and with a lofty air affirm that they are God’s people; but God laughs to scorn all this boasting, as it is vain, and worthy of derision. They will then cry to me; and then he imitates their cries, My God, we know thee When hypocrites, as if they were the friends of God, cover themselves with his shadow, and profess to act under his guardianship, and also boast at the same time of their knowledge of true doctrine, and boast of faith and of the worship of God; be it so, he says, that these cries are uttered by their mouths, yet facts speak differently, and reprove and expose their hypocrisy. We now then see how these two verses are connected together, and what is the Prophet’s object.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 8:2. We] Heb. joins Israel with the last clause, We know thee, we Israel, a plea of descent to move God to mercy; but hypocrisy, the cry of fear and not love. Dead knowledge cannot deliver.
Hos. 8:3. Cast off] implies dislike, the breaking of relative bonds. Good] (tob) may include God, the supremely good, and all the blessings of salvation. Pursue] in retribution for rejecting God.
Hos. 8:4. Kings] The self-authorized schism from the house of David. All their princes not from God. Many and violent were the usurpations and dethronements. Knew] Approved (Psa. 1:6; Mat. 25:12). Idols] and calf-worship a further sin. They] i.e. the gold and silver, as Hos. 8:6 [Keil]. Lit. that he may be cut off. The whole people destroyed [Pusey]. Though forewarned, yet heedless (Jer. 7:15; Jer. 44:8).
Hos. 8:5. Cast off] disgusts. Israel had cast off God; calf-worship would cast off them or be the means of God casting them off. How long] Lit. how long will they not be able innocency to endure (cf. Isa. 1:14; Psa. 101:5); they were incapable of purity before God (Jer. 19:4).
VAIN RELIGION.Hos. 8:2
Israel in the hour of need call upon God, plead their knowledge of him as the covenant people, and depend upon help for the sake of their relationship to him God denies this claim, and will reject all who honour him with their lips merely, when their hearts are far from him. Knowledge without practice is all in vain. God will not own those who only profess, who cry, My God, and do not forsake iniquity.
I. The religion of natural descent. We Israel, the seed of Jacob, who was called Israel. This was the boast of the Jews. We be Abrahams seed. Natural relationship and noble birth avail nothing before God. Yet men boast of their ancestry and pious parents, and trust God will regard them on that account. God has a peerage of his own. The grace of God can create children of Abraham from stones of the wilderness: the outcasts and the heathen. Whose son art thou spiritually? The son of God, or the son of the Devil? He is a Jew which is one inwardly.
II. The religion of formalism. My God, we know thee. Knowledge is a necessity, and may be acquired by all. The knowledge of God is within the reach of every one. There is no excuse for ignorance of God. But many profess and use the name of God who do not know him; orthodox in their creed, but sinful in their life. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him. They cry, Lord, Lord, in their devotions, but in their lives are sinful and iniquitous. The religion of many is mere profession and words; a matter of form and ceremony. We as a nation say, My God, boast of our morality and knowledge, build temples to God and swear by his altar; but our conduct contradicts our profession. To know Gods will and do it not involves greater punishment; to possess great advantages and not to use them brings greater responsibility at the judgment-day. Many, presumptuously boasting of their profession and work, will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
III. The religion of merit. The spirit of the text is a spirit of pride and superior merit. We are Israel and we know thee, and have therefore a claim to thy mercy. God answers the plea in Hos. 8:3. Israel indeed! then why cast off good, and sin against me! You have no plea to urge and no merit to secure my favour. It was a plea of hypocrisy and fear. There is a fearful tendency in men to cling to good works, and hope to merit Divine mercy through religious duties. They mention benevolent deeds, devotional forms, and social morality, in hope of procuring Gods favour. The Papist repeats his prayers, counts his beads, and makes his stated confessions, and feels that he is at peace with his Maker. The Protestant paces the round of religious duties in self-righteousness and pride, and soothes his soul with the hope of heaven. Merit we have none. The most holy and devout only do their duty. There are no works of supererogation. Salvation is of grace, not by works, lest any man should boast.
Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
FORSAKING GOOD AND PURSUING EVIL, THE SUREST WAY TO RUIN.Hos. 8:3-5
These words declare the true position of Israel. They were only Israel in name, and not in reality. They had cast off God, and with him everything good. They set up their own kings and institutions, did not seek to please, and were therefore disowned of God. Like sinners now, they pursued ways, the ends of which were death, and were so infatuated in their folly, that they seemed to act with a view to be cut off and utterly rejected.
I. The abandonment of good. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good.
1. God, the chief good, was cast off. He was forgotten in his law, resisted in his demands, and forsaken in his worship. A thing cast off indicates supreme contempt, utter abhorrence. We neither think of it nor care for it. This casting off of God(a) Is most unreasonable. It is to forget our highest interests and wound our own souls; to offend our best friend, and involve ourselves in the greatest misery, (b) Is most ungrateful. Is not God thy father that hath made thee? Should we, then, despise a fathers love and reject our greatest benefactor? Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
2. All good was cast off. It is good to draw near to God (Psa. 73:28), and is best for us to do so, and therefore perilous to forsake God. It is our honour, peace, safety, and riches to love and worship him. Those who are far from him, those who reject him, cast off all that is good. They despise good in this world and in that which is to come. How sad the condition when men say, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice?
II. Evil pursued. Forsaking God opens up the way to the pursuit of evil. Spiritual good is the only safeguard of the soul. Cast off this, and you open the way for the ravages of sin. Israel had committed two evils.
1. They were guilty of civil apostasy. In founding the kingdom by Jeroboam, and in successive rule, they had set up kings without Divine authority (1Ki. 11:27-40). They rebelled against the royal house of David, encouraged successful conspiracies, and sought their own selfish ends. Men now in family affairs, national politics, and religious life, set up their own and consult not Gods will. They do not acknowledge God in all their ways; they act without his license and approval. As they begin, so they continue. They made and removed princes, as the Roman armies did emperors of old. In the vicissitudes of families and nations we have the rise and the fall of the mighty; the misfortunes of all who live and rule without God. Self-will will ever bring self-destruction. But God, whose power we cannot resist, and whose wisdom we should not dispute, will accomplish his own will in the affairs of men.
2. They were guilty of religious apostasy. Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols.
1. This idolatry was encouraged by nobility. The kings and princes whom they set up patronized their customs and pleased their minds. They were ambitious in their aims, thought themselves absolute and free in their rule, and sought to gratify their own lusts.
2. This idolatry was supported by wealth. The gold and silver which God gave were devoted to the making of the calves or the support of their worship. One sinful change brings another. Civil rebellion must be upheld by ecclesiastical defection. Usurp the throne of men, and the next step is to set up idols on the throne of God. Withhold talents and wealth from God, or be niggardly in maintaining the true, and you will be lavish in upholding a false religion and a selfish scheme. Men employ their wealth against God; are constantly setting up their own kings, casting off Jehovah, and ungratefully abusing the gifts of his providence and grace.
III. Certain ruin results. The course men pursue will determine their fate. Fallen angels cast off allegiance to God, and were driven from him. Many devout men, once true worshippers of God, have fallen into sin and idolatry. The gods you make will govern your life, fashion your character, and determine your destiny. Forsake all good and cast off God, you imperil your soul. Such conduct is ruinous and most destructive, attracts Gods vengeance, and brings down his wrath upon the sinner. If they forsake him he will turn his back upon them, and woe unto them when I depart from them. Woe in trial and distress, woe in the hour of death, woe in the eternal world. Woe unto the wicked, for it will be ill with them.
1. This is the fulfilment of Gods word. God denounced a curse upon them if they forsook him (Deu. 28:15; Deu. 28:25).
2. This is the natural retribution of Divine providence. All the idols of menwealth, ambition, and beautywill fail them in the hour of need. They will be cast off by the gods in whom they trusted. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off. But the Lord will not cast off his faithful people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos. 8:2. Cry, My God. Men are ready enough to cry to God in affliction, when they forget him in health. Trouble drives the stoutest sinners and the most corrupt Church to prayer. But religion, which is the best armour, is the worst cloak; and will serve hypocrites as the disguise Ahab put on, and perished [Trapp].
Hos. 8:3. Casting off God. First, the good God, who is good, original, universal, all-sufficient and satisfactory, proportionate and fitting to our soul. He both is good and doeth good (Psa. 119:68), and that both naturally, abundantly, freely, and constantly (Psa. 86:5). Israel cast, or rather kicked him off, as the word signifieth. So do all gross hypocrites; they are rank atheists, practical atheists, though professed Christians. Secondly, they reject Christ as a Sovereign, though content to have him a Saviour. They will not submit to the laws of his kingdom, nor receive him in all his offices and efficacies. Thirdly, hypocrites reject the good Spirit of God, the fruit whereof is all godliness, righteousness, and truth (Eph. 5:9). When God striveth with them, by yielding to Satans suggestions they grieve that Spirit, by grieving resist him, and by resisting quench him, and by quenching him oppose him maliciously and do despite unto him, and so cast themselves into the punishing hands of the living God (Heb. 10:29; Heb. 10:31). Lastly, they cast off the good word and true worship of God; those right judgments, true laws, good statutes and commandments (Neh. 9:13); they put the promises far from them, and judge themselves unworthy of eternal life (Act. 13:46); they hate instruction, and cast Gods words behind them (Psa. 50:17). In a word, he hath left off to be wise, and to do good; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil (Psa. 36:3-4) [Trapp].
I. The thing cast offGood,God, Christian worship, the Scripture. Despising them, throwing them away as worthless, putting them out of sight as obnoxious. Many boasters of the law did this practically. In these days many cannot endure practical duty and responsibility, contemptuously treat and despise the law of God, as Moses indignantly dashed it on the ground. II. The spirit indicated.
1. Pride.
2. Contempt of Divine authority.
3. Indifference to Divine truth.
4. Atheism of heart.
5. Deadness of conscience and all moral feeling. III. What this leads to. Sooner or later it leads to
(1) open transgression, and
(2) outward rejection. If men cast away the thing that is good there is no wonder when evils pursue and overthrow them (Psa. 140:11; Pro. 5:14).
When men once begin to turn their back on their own happiness and on the way of God, they will still grow more averse from it, till they become to abominate and abhor it; and this fills up the measure of their iniquity. God will not let sin thrive in their hands, but will send on judgments, and let them feel their loss in their strokes who would not see their prejudice in forsaking what was good [Hutcheson].
Hos. 8:4. Set up kings. Such were all their kings except Jehu and his house. During 253 years, for which the kingdom of Israel lasted, eighteen kings reigned over it out of ten different families, and no family came to a close, save by a violent death. The like self-will and independence closed the existence of the Jewish people [Pusey].
In the government of nations and the choice of rulers, in family duties and in individual life, God should be consulted and pleased. For he can put down what we set up, and set up what we put down.
Hos. 8:5. Cast thee off. Rejected by ones own God, disappointed in ones own choice! If Samaria had been firm and faithful to the God of Israel it would have been of great service, a powerful help in need; but the calf was a broken reed, a miserable comforter. So this will ever be the case. Beauty and fame may fade like flowers. Riches take unto themselves wings and fly away. Idols will be shivered to pieces, and the men who trusted on them disappointed for ever. All fail and nothing abides, have God, the only true and permanent good.
O Cromwell, Cromwell,
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Hos. 8:2. Hope. There are few men, even among the most worldly, who do not expect to be converted before they die; but it is a selfish, mean, sordid conversion they wantjust to escape hell and to secure heaven. They desire just experience enough to make a key to turn the lock of the gate of the celestial city. They wish a hope, just as men get a title to an estate. No matter whether they improve the property or not, if they have the title safe. A hope to them is like a passport, which one keeps quietly in his pocket till the time for the journey, and then produces it [Beecher].
Hos. 8:3-4. Casting off good. When children get high notions and despise home, when they throw off parental authority and restraint, they become wayward and self-willed; make the path of life difficult, which their parents had pioneered and made easy. So one who casts off the fear of God and sets up his own, or the authority of others, insults his Maker and injures himself, makes his future miserable, and may be cast off himself at last.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(2) Should be rendered, To me they cry, My God, we know Thee, we Israel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. The reading of the R.V. is to be preferred, “They shall cry unto me, My God, we Israel know thee.” Such attitude will be in great contrast to their former turning from Jehovah; but when no other help is near they will remind him that they belong to him, and this relationship they will urge as a reason why he should help them (compare Isa 43:1).
My God Each individual cries; the singular passes into the plural, including the whole nation. Wellhausen, disregarding the accents and slightly altering the text, gets this translation, “To me they cry, My God! but I (Jehovah) know thee, O Israel.” And knowing their true character he will permit justice to have her way. The time of mercy is past.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘To me they will cry,
“O God of Israel, we know you.”
Israel has cast off what is good,
The enemy will pursue him.
In its extremity Israel will then call out, ‘O God of Israel we know you’. They would assume that because God was their God, the God of Israel, He must listen to them in their need and respond to their call because they ‘knew His Name’. This would include the idea that they knew how to manipulate Him through the cultus and could thus persuade Him to do what they wanted. And they would make this claim even though Hosea and YHWH had both made clear that that was far from the truth (Hos 4:1; Hos 4:6; Hos 5:4; Hos 6:6), for had they truly known Him they would have known that they could not manipulate Him and would have obeyed His commandments. Their failure had lain precisely in the fact that they had seen Him as just another nature god, and not as the living God Who required obedience. In other words they had not had a true knowledge of YHWH.
And because they did not know YHWH they had ‘cast off what was good’, that is the covenant and the Law and true worship and social justice. Thus the consequence was that ‘the enemy would pursue them’. Pursuit by the enemy was one essential aspect of the curses in Deu 28:22; Deu 28:45. Thus the Levitical/Deuteronomic curses are being seen as being fulfilled on faithless Israel.
Some translate as, ‘Israel has cast off the Good One’, but there is no precedent for it elsewhere, and ‘casting off what is good’ fits the context, and indeed includes the idea of casting off the Good One as part of what is good.
‘O God of Israel.’ In the Hebrew text ‘God’ and ‘Israel’ are divided by the word ‘we know you’ (thus producing some of the unusual translations), but in fact the separating up of titles in this way so as to fit in with the metre was a feature of Hebrew poetry.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 8:2. Israel shall cry They shall cry.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1162
THE DANGER OF FALSE CONFIDENCE
Hos 8:2-3. Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
THERE is not a more intimate connexion between any two things than between sin and misery. However specious an appearance any hypocrite may make in the world, God, who sees his heart, will sooner or later expose and punish his hypocrisy. The Israelites on different occasions professed to repent, and to return to God: but they were as a deceitful bow, that effected not the purpose for which it seemed to be bent: on which account God commanded the prophet to set the trumpet to his mouth, and to proclaim their speedy destruction. The prophets testimony is then confirmed by God himself in the words before us: in which we may see,
I.
The vain confidence of the ungodly
All men have, to a certain extent, the very confidence expressed in my text. As amongst the Jews, so amongst ourselves, the grounds of that confidence are diverse, whilst the confidence itself is the same.
[Some found it on their bearing of the Christian name. They have been born of Christian parents, and educated in a Christian country, and therefore they account themselves children of the Most High; exactly as the Jews claimed to be the children of God, because they were descended from the stock of Abraham, and had been admitted into covenant with God by circumcision. Hence we find them confidently asserting that God was their Father [Note: Joh 8:33; Joh 8:39-41.].
Others found it on their belonging to a peculiar Church. As the Jews said of themselves, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these [Note: Jer 7:4.], so persons belonging to the Church of England esteem themselves especially favoured of the Lord on that account, whilst all the various classes of dissenters arrogate to themselves the same high privilege, as arising out of their separation from the Established Church, and the imagined superiority of their respective advantages for spiritual instruction.
Others found their confidence on their moral conduct, and their regular observance of all the external duties of religion. But like the Pharisees of old, whilst their regular deportment makes them objects of admiration to those around them, they shew by their whole conduct that they have only the form of godliness without any of its power. Yet do they value themselves as standing high in the favour of God, and would be filled with indignation if their acceptance with him were questioned, or their state before him made even for a moment a subject of doubt.
Others again found their confidence on their having embraced the principles of the Gospel, and professed themselves in a more peculiar manner the followers of Christ. These are apt to consider themselves as lights shining in a dark world [Note: Psa 78:34-37.] and, with more than ordinary boldness, will adopt as their own appropriate and distinctive privilege that assertion of the ancient Church, My Beloved is mine, and I am his. Now I am far from saying that none are entitled to express this confidence; for I know that it is the Christians privilege to possess it, and to hold it fast even to the end. But it is far too easily adopted, and too generally entertained. For thousands who call God their Rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer, do, in fact, only flatter him with their mouths, and lie unto him with their tongues [Note: Mat 7:21-23.]:and many of the most confident among them will meet with that repulse in the last day, Depart from me; I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity [Note: See Isa 58:2.].]
Seeing, then, that there are so many who indulge a vain confidence before God, let me declare to you,
II.
The disappointment that awaits them
Whatever have been the erroneous standards which men have adopted for themselves, there is one, and one only, by which they shall be tried in the last day; and that is, the word of God.
Accordingly God casts in the teeth of self-deceivers their violations of his word
[The Jews, as Jews, were bound to walk according to Gods law. But they had cast off their allegiance to God, transgressing his covenant, and setting at nought his commandments [Note: ver. 1]. And this is the very state of us Christians. What a covenant has God made with us in Christ Jesus, a covenant ordered in all things and sure, and comprehending our every want, both in time and eternity! In this covenant we have the remission of all our sins accorded to us freely for Christs sake, and all needful supplies of the Holy Spirit, for the sanctification of our souls, yea, and eternal glory also vouchsafed to us as the purchase of the Redeemers blood. But how little have we regarded this covenant, or sought an interest in it! In fact, we have rather trodden under foot the Son of God by our continuance in sin, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and have done despite to the Spirit of his grace [Note: Heb 10:29.]. And, as for the laws either of the first or second table, we have never made them the rule of our conduct, or even desired to conform to them any further than suited our own interest or convenience. In our baptism indeed we engaged to walk according to the revealed will of God; but in our whole lives we have rebelled against him, and cast off the thing that was good.]
What then can we expect at Gods hands?
[He told the hypocritical Jews that their Assyrian enemies should pursue them. True, the Assyrians thought only of gratifying their own ambition; but they were a sword in Gods hand to avenge the quarrel of his covenant: and they did fearfully execute on these transgressors the Divine judgments.
And has not God instruments at hand to inflict punishment on us? See the perturbed state of Europe at this moment [Note: Of France and Belgium more particularly, May 1831.], and see how we ourselves are approximating towards it. The outrages and conflagrations which have recently pervaded our land will have been as nothing in comparison of what we may soon behold, if God give us up to that anarchical spirit which now threatens to bear down all before it Truly the occasional prayers which have for some time been in use amongst us by the appointment of our ecclesiastical superiors, may yet well be continued amongst us, for the averting of those judgments which we have so justly merited.
Amongst the professors of religion, too, there is a spirit not unlike to that which prevails in the ungodly world, a spirit of unhumbled inquiry, and of dogmatical assertion, tending only to divide the Church of God, and to diffuse uncharitable feelings amongst those who ought to love one another with a pure heart fervently. To what that also may grow, God alone knows. But it is a sad scandal to the Church of God, and can be pleasing to none but Satan, the author and abettor of all evil.
But there are other enemies that may pursue both the world and the Church of God: for most assuredly the wrath of God shall follow and overtake sin, whether it be found in the openly profane, or in the professors of the Gospel of Christ. The sin of every man, whoever he may be, shall assuredly, in due season find him out. A mans profession may have raised the admiration of all around him: but if it prove at last unsound, he shall sink the deeper into irremediable shame and misery [Note: Job 20:4-7.] ]
Application
1.
Let us examine well the grounds of our confidence
[I would by no means be understood to condemn all confidence, but only to recommend a careful examination of the grounds on which our confidence is built. We may, if we will attentively discriminate between things which differ, find a very broad distinction between the confidence which is delusive, and that which is truly scriptural. As a general observation, we may say, that that alone is scriptural which is attended with holy fear and jealousy: for even St. Paul himself laboured incessantly to bring all his bodily appetites into subjection, lest, after having preached to others, he himself should become a cast-away. That which stands on a presumptuous conceit about Gods decrees, and is sanctioned only by an appeal to past experience, may well be questioned: but that which is founded rather on the general promises of the Gospel, and is borne out and warranted by an appeal to the present experience of the soul, may safely be treasured up as an invaluable blessing. And if this latter appear more fluctuating than the other, let not that render it less estimable in your minds: for it is far the more scriptural and safe. In fact, Satan exerts himself to the uttermost to strengthen the confidence which is erroneous, that so his vassals may not suspect the delusion under which they labour; whilst, on the other hand, he infuses doubts into the minds of the upright, that they may not reap the full benefit of their confidence in God. Only let your confidence be humble, and its habitual effect be practical, and then you may say boldly, O God, thou art my God! and may hold fast your confidence, and the rejoicing of your hope firm unto the end.]
2.
Let us endeavour to maintain a close walk with God
[Whilst this, as I have already shewn, is the proper test of our confidence, it is also the means whereby our confidence is to be made more and more assured. If we abide with God, he will abide with us: but if we forsake him, he also will forsake us [Note: 2Ch 15:2.]. Here we see, that, if the text is true, so will the converse of it be found true also. Only let us hold fast that which is good, and no enemy whatsoever shall prevail against us. You all know how the Apostle sets all his enemies at defiance [Note: Rom 8:33-39.] And thus may we also do: for, if God be with us, who can be against us? Our office is, to serve the Lord. His office, if I may so speak, is to save us. Only then let us attend to our part, and we may with safety leave to our heavenly Father the execution of his.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 8:2 Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.
Ver. 2. Israel shall cry unto me ] It is their course and custom to do so; they will needs do it, though I take no delight in it. Hypocrisy is impudent, as Hos 5:6 Jer 3:4-5 . No, nay, but it will despite God with seeming honour; and present him with a ludibrious devotion. Israel, though revolted and degenerated into Jezreel, Hos 1:4 , shall cry, yea, cry aloud, vociferabuntur, cry till they are hoarse, as criers do; and unto me, but not with their heart, Hos 7:14 . It is but clamor sine fide fatuus, an empty ring, that God regards not. For, “not every one that saith unto him, Lord, Lord,” &c., Mat 7:21 . Many lean upon the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come unto us,” Mic 3:11 , who yet shall hear, Discedite, Avaunt, ye workers of iniquity; I know you not. Woe then to all profligate professors, carnal gospellers; their prayers shall not profit them, neither shall they be a button the better for their loud cries to the most High, Pro 1:28 , and odious fawnings.
My God, we know thee
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hos 5:15, Hos 7:13, Hos 7:14, 2Ki 10:16, 2Ki 10:29, Psa 78:34-37, Isa 48:1, Isa 48:2, Jer 7:4, Mic 3:11, Mat 7:21, Mat 25:11, Luk 13:25, Tit 1:16, 1Jo 2:4
Reciprocal: Job 35:13 – God Hos 2:23 – Thou art my God Hos 7:8 – a cake Mar 7:6 – honoureth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 8:2. This short verse predicts the distress of Israel when he realizes the results of disobeying the Lord.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 8:2-4. Israel shall cry unto me Namely, when calamities come upon them, My God, we know thee Thou art our God in covenant with us, and we make profession of thy name, and own thee for the only true God: see Mat 7:21-22. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good They have not walked agreeably to their profession, but have cast off obedience to my laws. This is a declaration, that all the worship of Israel, or their crying, My God, was vain, since their actions were wicked, or they had cast off what was good. Christ has made a declaration to the same purpose, to warn us of falling into the like error, in the passage above referred to. They have set up kings Made a defection from the house of David, formed themselves into a distinct kingdom, and chosen what kings and governors they pleased, without ever asking my advice or consent. Not by me Not by my warrant or order. Shallum, and Menahem, and Pekah, usurped the kingdom by murder and treason, 2Ki 15:13-14; 2Ki 15:25, not by any declaration of Gods will, as Jeroboam and Jehu did; nor were any of the kings between Jeroboam and Jehu, nor any after the posterity of Jehu, made by Gods appointment. They have made princes and I knew it not They have appointed judges, or magistrates, such as I approved not of, and had no hand in raising up to that dignity. Of their silver, &c., they have made themselves idols They have abused their wealth to idolatry, which will be the occasion of their destruction: see Hos 2:8.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:2 Israel shall {b} cry unto me, My God, we know thee.
(b) They will cry like hypocrites, but not from the heart, as their deeds declare.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Israelites claimed that they acknowledged (knew) the authority of their God, but their transgressions and rebellion proved that they did not (cf. Hos 4:1; Hos 4:6; Hos 5:4). Their knowledge of Him was only historical and traditional (cf. Joh 8:33).