Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 9:1
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as [other] people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every corn floor.
1. for joy ] Rather, too loudly (lit. ‘unto exultation’).
as other people ] Rather, as the peoples. The exuberant joy of the wild nature-worships of Palestine was abhorrent to the calm and deep moral religion of the prophets. To the heathen nations certain material blessings were the final object of the forms of worship; to the prophets and their disciples, the outward gifts of the Deity stood in a close relation to states of the character, as being the rewards of moral obedience (comp. Deu 28:1-4).
for thou hast gone ] The blessings of the ingathering were falsely ascribed by Israel to the Baalim (see on Hos 2:13). As long as they were enjoyed, Israel felt as much pledged by them to her false gods as the harlot is bound by her ‘hire’ to her paramour. At every recurring season of harvest Israel gratefully connected these blessings with her supposed protectors, and offered first-fruits to them, or, as Hosea puts it, she loved a harlot’s hire (comp. on Hos 2:12) upon all corn-floors, alluding to the various local festivals (comp. on Hos 12:9). Observe, Hosea finds fault with the Israelites, not for neglect of a centralizing ordinance, such as Deu 16:15, but for honouring the Baalim in preference to the true spiritual God. Contrast the reference to the autumn festival in a post-exile prophecy (Zec 14:16-19).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 9. A vivid picture of the bitterness of the calamity in prospect. It does but equal the Gibeah-like wickedness of Israel.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people – Literally, rejoice not to exultation, so as to bound and leap for joy (as in Job 3:22). The prophet seems to come across the people in the midst of their festivity and mirth, and arrests them abruptly stopping it, telling them, that had no cause for joy. Hosea witnessed of Israels prosperity under Jeroboam II; the land had peace under Menahem the departure of Pul; Pekah was even strong, so as, in his alliance with Rezin, to be an object of terror to Judah Isa. 7, until Tiglath-Pileser came against him. At some of these times, Israel seems to have given himself to exuberant mirth, whether at harvest-time, or on any other ground, enjoying the present, secure for the future. On this rejoicing Hosea breaks in with his stern, rejoice not. In His presence is fulness of joy, true, solid, lasting joy Psa 16:11. How then could Israel joy, who had gone a whoring from his God? Other nations might joy, for they had no imminent judgment to fear.
Their sins had been sins of ignorance; none had sinned like Israel. They had not even Jer 2:11 changed their gods, which were no gods. If other people did not thank God for His gifts, and thanked their idols, they had not been taught otherwise. Israel had been taught. and so his sin was sin against light. Whence God says by Amos, You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Amo 3:2. : It was ever the sin of Israel to wish to joy as other nations. So they said to Samuel, make us a king to judge us, like all the nations. And when Samuel told the people the word of God, they have rejected Me that I should not reign over them, they still said, Nay, but we will have a king over us, that we may be like all the nations 1Sa 8:5, 1Sa 8:10, 1Sa 8:7, 1Sa 8:19-20. This was the joy of the nations, to have another king than God, and with this joy Israel wished to exult, when it asked for Saul as king; when it followed Jeroboam; when it denied Christ before the presence of Pilate, saying, we have no king but Caesar. But the people who received the law, and professed the worship of God, might not exult as other people who had not the knowledge of God, that, like them, it should, after forsaking God, be allowed to enjoy temporal prosperity, like theirs.
He says, rejoice not like the nations, namely, for it is not allowed thee. Why? for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God. The punishment of the adulteress, who departs by unfaithfulness from her husband, is other than that of the harlot, who had never plighted her faith, nor had ever been bound by the bond of marriage. Thou obtainedst God for thy Husband, and didst forsake Him for another, yea, for many others, in the desert, in Samaria, even in Jerusalem, for the golden calves, for Baal, and the other monstrous gods, and lastly, when, denying Christ, thou didst prefer Barabbas. Rejoice not then, with the joy of the nations; for the curses of the law, written against thee, allow thee not. Cursed shalt thou be in the city, cursed in the field; cursed thy basket and thy store; cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land; the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep; cursed thou in thy coming in, and cursed thou in thy going out Deu 28:16-19. Other nations enjoyed the fruit of their own labors; thou tookest the labors of others as a hire, to observe His laws Psa 105:45.
Thou hast loved a reward – (Literally, the hire Hos 2:12; Hos 8:9; Eze 21:31, 34; Mic 1:7 of a harlot) on every grain-floor. Israel had no heart, except for temporal prosperity. This he loved, wheresoever he found it; and so, on every grain-floor, whereon the fruits of the earth were gathered for the threshing, he received it from his idols, as the hire, for which he praised them for the good tilings which he had received from a better Giver. : Perverse love! Thou oughtest to love God to use His rewards. Thou lovedst the reward, despisedst God. So then thou wentest whoring from thy God, because thou didst turn away the love, wherewith thou oughtest to love God, to love the hire: and this not sparingly, nor any how, but on every barnfloor, with avarice so boundless and so deep, that all the barn-floors could not satisfy thee. The first-fruits, and the free-willoffering, they retained, turned them away from the service of God, and offered them to their idols.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 9:1-2
Rejoice not, O Israel, for Joy, as other people.
Unreliable joy
All are not Israel who are of Israel. The merely nominal Christian is not to rejoice as the true Christian should.
I. Merely nominal professors have great cause to mourn. These words suggest a vast number of Israelites preparing for the songs of those that triumph, the shout of those that feast. To them the prophet says, Rejoice not.
1. The first reason why Israel should not rejoice is that they had turned aside from the Lord. In leaving the Lord we leave all true happiness behind.
2. Because they were at ease in Zion.
3. Because they were heaping up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath.
4. Because they were without hope in the world.
5. Because they were under sentence of condemnation. To every merely nominal Christian God sends this message, Rejoice not for joy, as other people.
II. Gods people ought to be a rejoicing people.
1. Christs atonement should make them happy.
2. The Triune God has made with them a covenant, ordered in all things and sure.
3. The joy of the Lord is their strength.
4. The rest of God shall be theirs.
5. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The Lord reigneth, then your lot in this world will be controlled by the King of kings. Then your sorrows, disappointments, crosses, losses, and all the events of your life are controlled by His sceptre. Then the affairs of the home, and the joys and friendships of life are in the bands of the infinitely wise and good, and you may well rejoice. (A. Clayton Thiselton.)
The miseries of sin
The doctrine of this chapter relates to a time wherein Israel flourished much by reason of outward plenty, victories, and confederacies with their neighbours; and therefore did harden and please themselves in their sins, whatever the prophets said to the contrary. Therefore the whole chapter contains a large description of the miseries that were to come upon them for their sins, which may be branched out in four parts.
1. There is a description of the desolation to come upon them, to silence their presumptuous and carnal joy; wherein he declareth they had no cause to be insolent, thinking to prosper in sin as other nations, seeing their sin (idolatry) was more heinous than the sins of other people.
2. This desolation is declared to be near, whereby, the Lord would discover the folly of their false prophets, and their sin in procuring such at Gods hands who, whatever they pretended to, were but snares to the people and causes of Gods anger.
3. They are charged with the sins, of their fathers, whom they imitated, hereby provoking God to call them to an account, particularly with ingrate forsaking of God, for which they are threatened that God would cut them off without hope of prosperity and abandon them,
4. Their superstition and idolatry, wherein their princes had chief hand, is again laid to their charge; for which they are threatened with Gods anger, and rejection; and exile, and with cutting them off root and branch. Such despisers of Gods Word should be rejected, and made to wander in exile. (George Hutcheson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IX
The prophet reproves the Israelites for their sacrifices and
rejoicings on their corn-floors, by which they ascribed to
idols, as the heathen did, the praise of all their plenty, 1.
For which reason they are threatened with famine and exile,
2, 3,
in a land where they should be polluted, and want the means of
worshipping the God of their fathers, or observing the
solemnities of his appointment, 4, 5.
Nay more; they shall speedily fall before the destroyer, be
buried in Egypt, and leave their own pleasant places desolate,
6-9.
God is then introduced declaring his early favour for his
people, and the delight he took in their obedience; but now
they had so deeply revolted, all their glory will take wing,
God will forsake them, and their offspring be devoted to
destruction, 10-16.
NOTES ON CHAP. IX
Verse 1. Rejoice not] Do not imitate the heathens, nor serve their idols. Do not prostitute thy soul and body in practicing their impurities. Hitherto thou hast acted as a common harlot, who goes even to the common threshing places; connects herself with the meanest, in order to get a hire even of the grain there threshed out.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Rejoice not: this might seem a morose humour of a discontented, sullen preacher: what! forbid a people to rejoice when things prosper with them? when should a people rejoice if not then? The prophet, who had a deeper reach, and took a larger prospect of things. had good cause to advise, or warn, or forbid as he doth, for he saw more cause to grieve than to rejoice, and to mourn than to be merry; the reason you will have presently.
O Israel; you of the ten tribes.
For joy; for any thing that is counted just matter of joy; though at present you prosper either under Jeroboam the Seconds victorious arms, or under Menahem, and the safety he hath procured by a confederacy with Assyria, though at other times these might be matter of rejoicing, now in thy circumstances, O Israel, it is not meet thou shouldst show any gladness.
As other people; with feastings, public games, and triumphs, or with solemn sacrifices of thanksgiving, or with erecting statues to the memory of your great and brave commanders, or for continuing the remembrance of their achievements.
For thou hast gone a whoring from thy God; with thee, O Israel, it is as unseemly as it is for an adulterous wife to rejoice and be jovial, whilst the guilt of her adulteries, and the shame of her lewdnesses, and the displeasure of her husband, fly in her face and whisper reproofs in her ear.
Thou hast loved a reward, such as is given by adulterers to lewd women,
on every corn-floor; thou hast loved to see thy floor full, and hast thought, and said thy idols had so furnished thee, and therefore thou didst love them. Though mirth might become an honest woman, it doth not so well suit with a dishonest adulteress; the very place, the Company and occasion, do upbraid such a one rejoicing with her lewd adulterers: besides, this adulteresss joys will be short, and end in sorrows and shame; so will thine, O Israel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Rejoice not . . . forjoyliterally, “to exultation.” Thy exultation at theleague with Pul, by which peace seems secured, is out of place: sincethy idolatry will bring ruin on thee.
as other peopletheAssyrians for instance, who, unlike thee, are in the height ofprosperity.
loved a reward upon everycorn floorThou hast desired, in reward for thy homageto idols, abundance of corn on every threshing-floor (Ho2:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as [other] people,…. But rather mourn and lament, since such a load of guilt lay upon them, and they had so highly provoked the Lord to anger by their sins, and punishment would quickly be inflicted on them; and though they might be now in prosperity, through Jeroboam’s success against their enemies, who by his victories had enlarged their border; yet they should not rejoice at it, as other people used to do on such occasions, by illumination of houses, making fires in the streets, feasting, and the like, since this prosperity would be but short lived: or if it was on account of the league made by Menahem with the king of Assyria, this would not last long; or on account of a good harvest, they need not so much rejoice as they that rejoice in harvest, since there would quickly be a famine among them: or rather it may respect rejoicing at their idols, and in their idolatrous worship, as other people, which is forbidden; such as instituting plays to the honour of them, making feasts before them, and dancing about them; whatever others might do, who knew not the true God, had not his law before them, nor his prophets sent to them to make known his will; who had been brought up in idolatry, adhered to their gods, and never forsook them; it ill became Israel to do the like. So the words may be rendered, “rejoice not, O Israel”, at an idol q, or idols, “as [other] people”, idolatrous ones; the word signifies “similitude” r or “likeness”, which an idol is:
for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God; playing the harlot with many lovers; committing adultery with stocks and stones; worshipping idols, and so departing from God, the true God, they had professed to be their God, their God in covenant; who stood in the relation of a husband to them, but they proved treacherous to him, and were guilty of spiritual adultery, which is idolatry; and therefore had no cause to rejoice as other nations that never left their gods, but to take shame to themselves, and mourn over their sad departure; see Ho 1:3;
thou hast loved a reward upon every corn floor; alluding to the hire of a harlot, prostituting herself for it on a corn floor, or any where else, and that for a measure of corn, or for bread: it may point either at their giving the times of their corn floors to their idols, instead of giving them to the Lord; or to their ascribing their plenty of corn, and all good things to their worship of them, which they called their rewards, or hires their lovers gave them, Ho 2:5; or to their erecting of altars on their corn floors; as David erected one to the true God on the threshing floor of Araunah, 2Sa 24:24; and which they might do, either by way of thanksgiving for a good harvest, which they imputed to them; or in order to obtain one, but in vain, as follows. The Targum is,
“for you have erred from the worship of your God; you have loved to serve idols on all, corn floors.”
q “super similitudine, [seu] idolo” Schmidt. r signifies a likeness of age, stature, and complexion, in Dan. i. 10. an idol is the similitude or likeness of anything in heaven or is earth, Exod. xx. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Warning against false security. The earthly prosperity of the people and kingdom was no security against destruction. Because Israel had fallen away from its God, it should not enjoy the blessing of its field-produce, but should be carried away to Assyria, where it would be unable to keep any joyful feasts at all. Hos 9:1. “Rejoice not, O Israel, to exult like the nations: for thou hast committed whoredom against thy God: hast loved the wages of whoredom upon all corn-floors. Hos 9:2. The threshing-floor and press will not feed them, and the new wine will deceive it.” The rejoicing to which Israel was not to give itself up was, according to Hos 9:2, rejoicing at a plentiful harvest. All nations rejoiced, and still rejoice, at this (cf. Isa 9:2), because they regard the blessing of harvest as a sign and pledge of the favour and grace of God, which summon them to gratitude towards the giver. Now, when the heathen nations ascribed their fights to their gods, and in their way thanked them for them, they did this in the ignorance of their heart, without being specially guilty on that account, since they lived in the world without the light of divine revelation. But when Israel rejoiced in a heathenish way at the blessing of its harvest, and attributed this blessing to the Baals (see Hos 2:7), the Lord could not leave this denial of His gracious benefits unpunished. belongs to , heightening the idea of joy, as in Job 3:22. does not give the object of the joy (“that thou hast committed whoredom:” Ewald and others), but the reason why Israel was not to rejoice over its harvests, namely, because it had become unfaithful to its God, and had fallen into idolatry. , to commit whoredom out beyond God (by going away from Him). The words, “thou lovest the wages of whoredom upon all corn-floors,” are to be understood, according to Hos 2:7, Hos 2:14, as signifying that Israel would not regard the harvest-blessing upon its corn-floors as gifts of the goodness of its God, but as presents from the Baals, for which it had to serve them with still greater zeal. There is no ground for thinking of any peculiar form of idolatry connected with the corn-floors. Because of this the Lord would take away from them the produce of the floor and press, namely, according to Hos 9:3, by banishing the people out of the land. Floor and press will not feed them, i.e., will not nourish or satisfy them. The floor and press are mentioned in the place of their contents, or what they yield, viz., for corn and oil, as in 2Ki 6:27. By the press we must understand the oil-presses (cf. Joe 2:24), because the new wine is afterwards specially mentioned, and corn, new wine, and oil are connected together in Hos 2:10, 24. The suffix refers to the people regarded as a community.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Threatenings of Judgment. | B. C. 740. |
| |
1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every corn-floor. 2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. 3 They shall not dwell in the LORD‘s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. 4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD. 5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD? 6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.
Here, I. The people of Israel are charged with spiritual adultery: O Israel! thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, v. 1. Their covenant with God was a marriage-covenant, by which they were joined to him as their God, renouncing all others. But when they set up idols and worshipped them, when they fled to creatures for succour and put a confidence in them, they went a whoring from God as their God, and honoured the pretenders and rivals with the affection, adoration, and confidence, which were due to God only. Other people were idolaters, but that sin was not, in them, going a whoring from God, as it was in Israel that had been married to him. Note, The sins of those who have made a profession of religion and relation to God are more provoking to him than the sins of others. As a proof of their going a whoring from God, it is charged upon them that they loved a reward upon every corn-floor. 1. They loved to give rewards to their idols, in the offerings and first-fruits they presented to them out of every corn-floor. They took a strange pleasure in serving their idols with that which they would have grudged to consecrate to God and employ in his service. Note, It is common for those that are niggardly in the expenses of their religion to be very prodigal in spending upon their lusts. Or, 2. They loved to receive rewards from their idols; and such they reckoned the fruits of the earth to be: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me, ch. ii. 12. Note, Those are directly disposed to spiritual idolatry that love a reward in the corn-floor better than a reward in the favour of God and eternal life.
II. They are forbidden to rejoice as other people do: “Rejoice not, O Israel! for joy. Do not expect to rejoice. What peace, what joy, what hast thou to do with either, while thy whoredoms and witchcrafts are so many?” 2 Kings ix. 19-22. Be not disposed to rejoice, for it does not become thee, but rather to be afflicted, and mourn, and weep, Jam. iv. 9. Judah, that keeps close to the true God, nay, and other people that never knew him nor could ever be charged with revolting from him, may be allowed to rejoice, as not having so much cause to be ashamed as Israel has, that has gone a whoring from him. Some think that they had at this time particular occasions for joy, probably upon the account of some losses recovered, or some advantages gained, or some league made with a potent ally, for which they had public rejoicings, as other people used to have upon such occasions; but God sends to them not to rejoice. Note, Joy is forbidden fruit to wicked people. They must not rejoice, because they have gone a whoring from their God; and therefore, 1. Whatever it was that they rejoiced in, it would be no security nor advantage to them, so long as they were at a distance from God and at war with him. Note, We are likely to have small joy of any of our creature-comforts if we make not God our chief joy. 2. The sense of sin and dread of wrath ought to be a damp upon their joy and a strong alloy to all their comforts. Note, Those who by departing from God have made work for repentance have thereby marred their own mirth, till they return and make their peace with God.
III. They are threatened with destroying judgments for their spiritual whoredoms, according to what was said long before. Ps. lxxiii. 27, Thou hast destroyed all those that go a whoring from thee. It is here threatened,
1. That their land shall not yield its wonted increase. Canaan, that fruitful land, shall be turned into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwell therein. They love the reward in the corn-floor, and are so full of the joy of harvest that they have no disposition at all to mourn for their sins; and therefore God will, for their effectual humiliation, take away from them, not only their delights and dainties, but even their necessary food (v. 2): The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, much less feast them; they shall either be blasted by the hand of God or plundered by the hand of man. The new wine with which they used to make merry shall fail in her. Note, When we make the world, and the things of it, our idol and portion, above what they were designed for, it is just with God to deny us even support and nourishment from them, according to that which they were designed for, to show us our folly and correct us for it. Let those miss of their food in the corn-floor that look for their reward in the corn-floor. We forfeit the good things of this world if we love them as the best things.
2. That their land shall not only cease to feed them, but cease to lodge them and to be a habitation for them; it shall spue them out, as it had done the Canaanites before them (v. 3): They shall not dwell any longer in the Lord’s land. The land of Canaan was in a peculiar manner the Lord’s land, the land of the Shechinah (so the Chaldee), the land of the Lord of the world (so the Arabic); he whose all the earth is (Ps. xxiv. 1) took that for his demesne. The land is mine, says God, Lev. xxv. 23. They had used it, or abused it rather, as if it had been their own, had not paid the rent, nor done the services, due to God as their landlord, and therefore God justly enters, and takes possession of it, they having forfeited their lease. “It is my land” (says God) “and I will make it appear, for they shall be turned off, as bad tenants, and be made to know that, though they thought themselves freeholders, they were but tenants at will.” Note, It is for the honour of God’s justice and holiness that those who go a whoring from God should not be suffered to dwell upon his land; and therefore, sooner or later, the wicked shall be chased out of the world. Or it is called the Lord’s land because it was the holy land, Immanuel’s land, the land that had peculiar tokens of God’s favour to it, and presence in it, where God was known and his name was great, where God’s prophets and oracles were; it was a kind of copy of the earthly paradise, and a type of the heavenly one. It was a great privilege to have a lot in such a land as this. It was a great sin and folly to rebel against God, and go a whoring from him, in such a land as this, to deal unjustly in a land of uprightness, Isa. xxvi. 10. And it was a sad and sore judgment to be driven out from such a land as this; it was like driving our first parents out of the garden of Eden, and almost amounted to an exclusion out of the heavenly Canaan. Note, Those cannot expect to dwell in the Lord’s land that will not be subject to the Lord’s laws, nor be influenced by his love. Those have forfeited the privileges of the church that conform not to the rules of it.
3. That, when they are turned out from the Lord’s land, they shall have no rest nor satisfaction in any other land. When Cain was driven out from the presence of the Lord he was a fugitive and a vagabond ever after, and dwelt in the land of trembling. So Israel here. Some shall return into Egypt, the old house of bondage; thither they shall flee from the Assyrian (ch. viii. 13) and they shall lose and ruin themselves where they thought to hide and help themselves. Others shall be carried captives to Assyria and there shall be forced to eat unclean things, either (1.) Such things as were not fit for men to eat, that which is rotten and putrefied, intimating that they shall be reduced to the utmost poverty, as the prodigal that would fain have filled his belly with the husks. Or, (2.) Such things as were not fit for Jews to eat, being prohibited by their law. It is probable that while they were in their own land, however disobedient in other things, they kept up the distinction of meats, and prided themselves in that; but, since they would not keep the law of God in other things, they should not be suffered to keep it in that, and it was a just punishment of their sin in eating things offered to idols. Note, When at any time we suffer in our food, and either through want or for our health are forced to eat or drink that which is unpleasing, we must acknowledge that God is righteous, because we have sinned about our food, and have indulged ourselves too much in that which is pleasing.
4. That in the land of their enemies, to which they shall be driven, they shall have no opportunity either of giving honour to God or obtaining favour with God, by offering any acceptable sacrifice to him; they should not be in a capacity of keeping up any face or show of religion among them; “and so” (as Dr. Pocock expresses it) “should be as it were quite cut off from any expression of relation to him, from all signs of grace, and means of reconciliation with him, which would be to them a token of their being rejected of God, estranged from him, and no more owned by him as his people.” (1.) They shall have no sacrifices to offer, nor any altar to offer them on, nor priests to offer them; they shall not so much as offer drink-offerings to the Lord, much less any other sacrifices. (2.) If they should offer them, neither they nor their sacrifices shall be pleasing to him, for they cannot have any legal offerings, nor are their hearts humbled. (3.) Instead of their sacrifices of joy and praise, they shall eat the bread of mourners; they shall live desolate, and disconsolate, mourning for the death of their relations and their own miseries, so that if they had opportunity of sacrificing they should never be themselves in a frame fit for it; for they were forbidden to eat of the holy things in their mourning, Deut. xxvi. 14 All that eat of the bread of mourners are polluted, and incapacitated to partake of the altar. (4.) Their bread for their soul, the bread which they must either eat or starve, the bread which they shall have for the support of their lives, shall not come into the house of the Lord; they shall have no house of the Lord to bring it to, or, if they had, it is such as is not fit to be brought, nor are they rightly disposed to bring it. (5.) The return of the days of their sacred and solemn feasts would therefore be very melancholy and uncomfortable to them (v. 5): What will you do in the solemn day, in the sabbath, the solemn day of every week, in the new moons, the solemn days of every month, at the return of the times for keeping the passover, pentecost, and feast of the tabernacles, the solemn days of every year, the days of the feasts of the Lord? Note, The feasts of the Lord are solemn days; and, when we are invited to those feasts, we ought to consider seriously what we shall do. But the question is here put to those who were to be deprived of the benefit and comfort of those solemn feasts, “What will you do then? You will then spend those days in sorrow and lamentation which, if it had not been your own fault, you might have been spending in joy and praise. You will then be made to know the worth of mercies by the want of them and to prize spiritual bread by being made to feel a famine of it.” Note, When we enjoy the means of grace we ought to consider what we shall do if ever we should know the want of them, if either they should be taken from us or we be disabled to attend upon them.
5. That they should perish in the land of their dispersion (v. 6): For, lo, they have gone out of the Lord’s land, where they might have spent both their sabbath days and other days with comfort, gone because of destruction, gone to Egypt because of the destruction of their own country by the Assyrians, flattering themselves with hopes that they shall return when the storm is over; but those hopes also shall fail them; they shall find there are graves in Egypt, as their murmuring ancestors said (Exod. xiv. 11), graves for them; for Egypt shall gather them up, as dead men are gathered up and carried forth to the grave, and Memphis (one of the chief cities of Egypt) shall bury them. Gathering and burying are put together, Jer 8:2; Job 27:19. Note, Those that think presumptuously to flee from the judgments of God are likely enough to meet their death where they hoped to save their lives.
6. That their land, which they left behind and to which they hoped to return, should become a desolation: As for their tabernacles, where they formerly dwelt and where they kept their stores, the pleasant places for their silver, they shall be demolished and laid in ruins, to such a degree that they shall be overgrown with nettles; so that if they should survive the trouble, and return to their own land again, they would find it neither fruitful nor habitable; it would afford them neither food nor lodging. Note, Those that make their money their god reckon the places of their silver their pleasant places, as those that make the Lord their God reckon his tabernacles amiable and his ordinances their pleasant things, Isa. lxiv. 11. But, while the pleasures of communion with God are out of the reach of chance and change, the pleasant places of men’s silver, which were purchased with silver, or in which they deposited their silver, or which were beautified and adorned with silver, are liable to be laid in ruins, in nettles, and therewith all the pleasure men took in them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
HOSEA – CHAPTER 9
JEHOVAH’S LAMENT AGAINST ISRAEL, CONTINUED
Verses 1-17:
Verse 1 warns Israel against rejoicing over her league made with Assyria. For there is no real success to be gained by alliance with heathen practices, Job 3:22. She is accused of a continual trapping after, a “whoring after”, false gods. She had come to worship and trust in false gods, offering bribes to them for corn, or filled threshing floors, but her expectations were in vain. As a reward for worshipping heathen gods, Israel hoped for prosperity in vain.
Verse 2 prophecies that crops will fail to feed Israel; And new wines, to afford joy, will simply not be available. All the crops of grain and grapes shall disappoint Israel’s expectations in her whoring course of behavior, Hos 2:9; Hos 2:12.
Verse 3 advises that Ephraim shall not dwell in her own land, Deu 30:20, but be forced to go down into Egypt, or into Assyria, similar to Egypt, and suffer for the ties of alliance she had made with heathen rulers and heathen idols and temples; It was a sore trial, as described Dan 1:8. Ephraim had lived like heathens, about heathen altars, and must now go in judgment, to live among them. They shall now be forced to eat unclean things among the heathen, Eze 4:13; 2Ki 17:6.
Verse 4 explains that no offering Israel attempts to make in captivity will be accepted of the Lord. He was full of her lawlessness and ingratitude to Him, Exo 30:9; Lev 23:13. Their pretended sacrifices would be offensive to Him, as bread of mourners which was unclean, Deu 26:14; Jer 16:7; Eze 24:17; Bread touched by mourners, or from the house of the dead, was polluted and could not be offered to God, neither could sacrifices in a foreign land, Num 19:14.
Verse 5 inquires, not for information, but for forceful thought, just what they think they will do in a foreign heathen land on solemn days and festival times God had provided for them alone. To be exiled, excluded, or expelled from making ordinary sacrifices was a grave blow to Israel’s pride. But also to be deprived of feasts of joy, was a double loss, an heavy chastening, Heb 12:5-9.
Verse 6 explains that devastation and destruction shall come to their once glorious land, as they languish in Egypt, like exile and captivity to the Assyrians and Babylonians. Many of the tribe of Ephraim were also to go to their tombs in Egypt, not Palestine, Jer 8:2; Eze 29:5. Memphis was well known for her necrology, preparation for burial of bodies, for their exchange price is silver. She was also noted for the seat of idolatry and worship of Apis, Jerobam’s calf. Nettles should grow over their former fields and residences in Palestine where they had forsaken the law of their God for idols and heathen worship and adulterous standards of low morals and ethics, Isa 34:13. Growth of thorns and nettles signified complete desolation.
Verse 7 announces the arrival of those days of desolation, as days of vengeance from the Lord, Isa 10:3. False prophets, who had prophesied lies of prosperity, were about to be exposed as fools, convicted of folly, though they prophesy ever so madly, with feigned sincerity, pretending inspiration, prophesying false things not given from the Lord, Lam 2:14; Eze 13:3; Mic 3:11. It is those who mock the true prophets who become fools, Isa 9:9. Those who hated God’s prophets and the law were the fools, Luk 19:1.
Verse 8 explains that Ephraim was once God’s watchman and witness with true prophets, witnessing for Him among the heathen nations, but has now become an object of hatred, a cause of apostasy, as her prophets embraced, endorsed, and condoned idolatry with its immorality, Jer 6:17; Jer 31:6; Eze 3:17; Eze 33:7. They thus caused hatred and contempt for the house of their God, referring to, the system of worship and service Moses established, by God’s direction in the wilderness, Heb 3:1-6.
Verse 9 charges them with immersing themselves deeply with corruption, similar to their corruption of Gibeah, in the days of Benjamin, when sodomy, adultery, fornication and murder came to be sanctioned, without disturbance, Jdg 13:22; Gen 19:4-5.
Verse 10 recounts how God had been delighted to choose Ephraim and Israel as His watchmen and witnesses in Egypt. It was like the sweetness of the first-ripe grapes, or early figs, known as the very best to quench thirst and hunger in the wilderness. Once their fathers were faithful to their calling, Isa 28:4; Jer 24:2; Mic 7:1. But they went to Baalpeor and there their young girls prostituted themselves in moral shame, giving themselves to heathen sexual orgies, before the Moabite idol, followed by God’s anger and judgment, Num 25:1-18; Jer 11:13. Those who embraced this idolatry were shown to be as abominable and despised of God as the heathen themselves, Deu 7:26; Psa 115:8.
Verse 11 recounts a curse upon the children of Israel. The name Ephraim means “fruitfulness”, but because of her debauching, degrading, idolatrous sexual orgies, God sent sterility among the Ephraimites, so that children which were considered a glory to their parents, would cease to be born among those who had engaged in the shameful pursuit of idolatry, Gen 41:52. Like a bird that is here one moment, and flown away the next, conceptions and many births would cease among the tribe of Ephraim, and in Israel.
Verse 12 continues to announce their judgment. Though they bare children, God would “bereave them” take them from man in death, while they were yet young, Job 27:14. Let it be noted that God’s withdrawn mercy comes to be a source of evil judgment, 1Sa 4:21; 1Sa 28:15-16. When the care of God departs from one’s physical life, it is serious, but when His Spirit departs from striving with ones soul, it is an eternal tragedy, beyond description. His spirit does not always bear and plead with erring men, Gen 6:5; Pro 29:1; Heb 4:7. How awful, how tragic, how forlorn it is when God has departed from a person or a family and Ichabod may be written over their door. Only those hardened in their wickedness would have God depart from them, Deu 31:17; Mat 8:34.
Verse 13 further asserts that Ephraim, like Tyrus, a royal city, was located or planted in a pleasant, fruitful, or desirable location, but the children she brought forth would be like grass or fodder for the oven, to be destroyed by the murderer, Ezekiel 26, 27, 28; Her children shall only be brought up to be slain, though she exists in a fruitful place. Her sins have caused it, Hos 13:16.
Verse 14 sounds an imprecatory cry, a cry for just judgment for their insolent attitude toward their law and their God. Hosea deliberates with God regarding a meaningful retribution for Ephraim and Israel’s sins. He calls upon God to give them the compassion of a barren womb, considered by Israel as a curse itself, rather than children born only to die prematurely or to be murdered, Job 3:3; Jer 20:14; Luk 23:29. Even miscarriage would seem a blessing in comparison with the horrors of war which Hosea foresaw for his rebellious, idolatrous people.
Verse 15 describes God’s hatred of them because of their specific wickedness in Gilgal, former school of the young prophets, where they had rejected God’s judges and chosen themselves a king, 1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 9:14-15. He threatened to drive them out of his house, (order of divine worship) and love them no more, because all their princes or rulers were “revolters.” They hated Him and “put out” as a divorced woman is put out of her house, and as Esau lost his heritage, Mal 1:3.
Verse 16 again describes the smiting of Ephraim by blasting mildew, like a smitten tree, with withered roots, unable to bear fruit. Even if Israel bore fruit, God threatened to slay it, even the fruit of the womb of their bodies, in all Ephraim, as withered grass, Psa 102:4. Though the word Ephraim means “fruitful”, the name, when “smitten” of God, becomes unfruitful, unproductive.
Verse 17 concludes “my God,” God of Hosea, not theirs, not Ephraim’s God any longer, will “cast them” away, as unfit for use or any Divine honor to Him, banishing them, as forewarned, among the heathen nations, Deu 28:65; Rom 11:20-21. There they shall be vagabonds among the nations, 2Ki 15:29; 1Ch 5:26.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
It is not known at what time the Prophet delivered this discourse, but it is enough to know that it is directed against the obstinate wickedness of the people, because they could by no means be turned to repentance, though their defection was, at the same time, manifest. He now declares that God was so angry, that no success could be hoped for. And this warning ought to be carefully noticed; for we see that hypocrites as long as God spares or indulges them, take occasion to be secure: they think that they have sure peace with God, when he bears with them even for a short time; and further, except the drawn sword appears, they are never afraid. Since, then, men sleep so securely in their vices, especially when the Lord treats them with forbearance and kindness, the Prophet here declares, that the Israelites had no reason to rejoice for their prosperity, or to flatter themselves under this cover, that the Lord had not immediately taken vengeance on them; for he says, that though all people under heaven were prosperous, yet Israel would be miserable, because he had committed fornication against his God.
We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet. Israel, he says, rejoice not thou with exultations like the people; that is, “Whatever prosperity may happen to thee, though God may seem propitious by not afflicting thee, but kindly bearing with thee, — nay, though he may bountifully nourish thee, and may seem to give thee many proofs of paternal favor, yet there is no reason for thee to felicitate thyself, for vain will be this joy, because an unhappy end awaits thee.” Thou hast committed fornication, he says, against thy God This warning was very necessary. This vice, we know, has ever prevailed among men, that they are blind to their sins as long as the Lord spares them; and experience, at the present day, most fully proves, that the same disease still cleaves to our marrow. As it is so, let this passage of the Prophet awaken us, so that we may not rejoice, though great prosperity may smile on us; but let us rather inquire, whether God has a just cause of anger against us. Though he may not openly put forth his hand, though he may not pursue us, we ought yet to anticipate his wrath; for it is the proper office of faith, not only to find out from present punishment that God is angry, but also to fear, on account of any prevailing vices, the punishment that is far distant. Let us then learn to examine ourselves, and to make a severe scrutiny, even when the Lord conceals his displeasure, and visits us not for our sins. If, then, we have committed fornication against God, all our prosperity ought to be suspected by us; for this contempt, in abusing God’s blessings, will have to be dearly bought by us.
The comparison here made is also of great weight. As other people, says the Prophet. He means, that though God might pardon heathen nations, yet he would punish Israel, for less excusable was his apostasy and rebellion in having committed fornication against his God. That other nations wandered in their errors, was no wonder; but that Israel should have thus cast off the yoke, and then denied his God, that he should have broken and violated the fidelity of sacred marriage, — all this was quite monstrous. It is then no wonder that God here declares, by the mouth of his Prophet, that though he spared other people, he would yet inflict just punishment on Israel.
He then adds, Thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor He pursues the same metaphor, that Israel had committed fornication like an unchaste and perfidious woman. Hence he says, that they were like harlots, who are so enticed by gain, that they are not ashamed of their lewdness. He said yesterday, that the people had hired lovers; but now he says, that they were led astray by the hope of reward. These things are apparently contradictory; but their different aspect is to be noticed. Israel hired for himself lovers, when he purchased, with a large sum of money, a confederacy with the Assyrians; but, at the same time, when he worshipped false gods with the hope of gain, he was like strumpets, who prostitute their body to all kinds of filthiness, when any rewards entice them.
But a question may be here moved, Why does the Prophet say that the reward is meretricious, when a plenty of corn is sought for? for he reproaches the Israelites for no other thing, but that they wished their floors to be filled with wheat. This seems not indeed to be in itself worthy of reproof, for who of us does not desire a fruitful increase of corn and wine? Nay, since the Lord, among other blessings, promises to give abundance of provision, it is certainly lawful to ask by supplications and prayers what he promises. But the Prophet calls it a wicked reward, when what God has promised to give is sought from idols. When therefore we depart from the one true God, and devise for ourselves new gods to nourish us and supply our food and raiment, we are like strumpets, who choose by lewdness to gain support, rather than to receive it from their own husbands. This is then to be like a woman whom her husband treats bountifully, and she casts her eyes on others, and seeks a filthy reward from adulterers. Such are idolaters. For God offers himself freely to us, and testifies that he will perform the part of a father and preserver; but the greater part, despising the blessing of God, flee elsewhere, and invent for themselves false gods, as we see to be done under the Papacy: for who are the patrons ( nutricios — nourishers) they implore, when either drought or any other adverse season threatens sterility and want? They have an innumerable multitude of gods to whom they flee. They are then strumpets who hunt for gain from adulterers; while, at the same time, God freely promises to be a husband to them, and to take care that nothing should be wanting. Since, then, they are not satisfied with the blessing of God alone, it is a meretricious lust, which is insatiable, and in itself filthy and disgraceful.
We now then see what the Prophet repudiates in the people of Israel, and that is, They hoped for a larger abundance of corn from their idols than from the true God, as was the case with the idolaters mentioned by Jeremiah,
‘
when we served,’ they said, ‘the queen of heaven, we abounded in wine and corn,’ (Jer 44:17.)
They compared God with idols, and denied that they were so well and so sumptuously provided for when they worshipped God alone. Since, then, idolaters give honour to fictitious gods, so as to think them to be more liberal to them than the true God, this is the reason that the Prophet now so severely blames Israel, when he says that they loved a meretricious reward on all the floors of wheat. It then follows —
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.] Israel had fallen away from God, would not enjoy the produce of the field, but would be taken captive into Assyria, and be unable to keep the feasts.
Hos. 9:1. Rejoice] Lit. to exultation (Job. 3:22). Their rejoicings are out of place; festivity and mirth are reproved. The blessings of harvest were attributed unto the gods of the heathen, and would be taken away. Reward] Lit. hire. In reward for idolatry thou hast desired temporal prosperity, corn on every threshing-floor.
Hos. 9:2. Feed] Crops were abundant, but they would be no better for their plenty.
Hos. 9:3. Land] which God sware to give their fathers (Deu. 30:20). Egypt] A state of bondage and oppression in Assyria. Unclean] A sore trial, seen in the case of Daniel (ch. Hos. 1:8). Eleazar and the Maccabees (2Ma. 6:7). They had wilfully transgressed the law, and would be forced to live in its habitual breach; had lived as heathen, and must be in the condition of heathen.
Hos. 9:4. Wine] i.e. drink-offerings, connected with burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, betokened joy in sacrifice. Hence public service would cease; they would no longer have the means for reconciliation, for pleasing God; and if they should attempt to sacrifice, so far from being acceptable, their sacrifices would defile them as the bread of mourning; food which contracted pollution by being in the place of death. The dead defiled for seven days the house and all that was in it (Num. 19:14). In offering tithes a man had to declare that he had not touched the bread (Deu. 26:14). Sacrifice could only be offered in Gods land: in captivity it would be a fresh sin to Israel. Their soul] i.e. for themselves, for the support of animal life, and not for worship.
Hos. 9:6. Gather them] in one common gravenone shall escape. Memphis] called Noph (Isa. 19:13; Jer. 2:16; Eze. 30:13); at this time the capital of Egypt; the seat of idolatry, the house of the celebrated Apis, the original of Jeroboams calf; a favourite burial-place of the Egyptians. It embraced a circuit of about nineteen miles, with magnificent buildings; it declined after the building of Alexandria; its very ruins gradually perished, after Cairo rose in its neighbourhood [Pusey]. Pleasant places] Heb. the desire. Silver should be desired, but not found, or nettles should possess their pleasant houses. In either sense thorns indicate utter desolation (Isa. 34:13).
Hos. 9:7. Visitation] Vengeance now at hand. Fool] False prophets who predicted prosperity will be convicted of folly. The event will test them. Mad] A man of the spirit, lit. maddened; pretending to inspiration (Lam. 2:14; Eze. 13:3; Mic. 3:11). Those who mock the true prophets shall themselves become fools. Multitude] Manifold iniquity. Hatred] Great enmity to good men and God. The punishment in proportion to the sin.
Hos. 9:8. The watchman] Looking out, waiting for Divine revelation (Heb. 2:1). The true prophet always consults God. Ephraim or Israel was designed to be the watchman of God, to witness among the nations for him; but was led by false prophets, whose words were a snare of the fowler. In] Lit. upon all his ways, i.e. wherever the people went they were beset with false prophets, who hated intensely the house of God.
Hos. 9:9. Deeply] Lit. gone deep, they are corrupted; deeply immersed themselves in wickedness. Days] when Benjamin espoused the children of Belial (Jdg. 19:22; Gen. 19:4).
HOMILETICS
THE SINNERS LIFE A JOYLESS LIFE.Hos. 9:1-4
Israel is forbidden to rejoice like other nations. They had forsaken God, and sinned wilfully against light and warning. Their prosperity was attributed to wrong sources. The judgment of God was threatened against them. Other people might enjoy the results of their labours, but they would be deprived of the fruits of the earth and the services of religion. Thus God breaks into the mirth and festivity of the sinner. There is no cause of joy in his present condition or future prospects.
I. His present condition affords no joy. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy. All men seek to be happy. The wicked even have a kind of joy, a superficial, short-lived pleasure. But true joy is the good mans portion. I have enjoyed almost a fearful amount of happiness, exclaimed Dr Arnold in reviewing the past.
1. The sinner forsakes God, the fountain of joy. Thou hast gone a whoring from thy God. All true joy springs from him, and is enjoyed only in him, in living for him. What joy so pure as the joy of the Lord? Carnal joy is a mere flash, which leaves the mind in deeper darkness and greater misery. Joy in God is like the light of the sun, healthy and lasting. It may be overclouded with mists and storms, but breaks out in greater splendour and sweetness. In Gods presence only is fulness of joy (Psa. 16:11); pleasures which satisfy; enough to fill every soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Joy is forbidden, withheld from the wicked. The sense of sin robs them of peace (Isa. 48:22); their present possessions are no security nor advantage to them. Living in distance from God and at enmity with him, gloomy feelings damp their joy and act as an alloy to their comforts. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare; but the righteous doth sing and rejoice.
2. The sinner fails in his efforts to secure joy. The floor and the winefat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. Israel doted on prosperity which could not sustain them. The fruits of the earth would fail, and all their efforts would end in bitter disappointment. The sinner turns away from God, and becomes restless and dissatisfied. He loves to hire himself to sin and degradation. He tries first one thing and then another, but all plans and policies utterly fail them. Men have recourse to every mean shift, submit to the lowest drudgery, and suffer the greatest hardship in pursuit of sin. Like the prodigal, they become wanderers, spendthrifts, and slaves. But the solemn pause comes. They are arrested, alarmed, and astonished. Their pleasures forsake them, and hopes vanish like vain shadows. God curses the blessings and frustrates the efforts of the sinner. Doomed to disappointment as usual, many continually exclaim. The wicked man travelleth with pain all his days.
II. His future prospects afford no joy. Israel was to be deprived of inheritance, carried into bondage, robbed of sacrifices and public service. All their religious efforts would be rejected and turned into defilement and mourning. It was a sad prospect to be driven from the house of God and a land of plenty! What brighter future has the sinner before him as long as he remains from God?
1. The sinners future will be one of bondage. Ephraim shall return to Egypt. They knew how hardly Egypt had dealt with their fathers, and how treacherously with them. They had been warned not to go, but were determined to go. Against their own will God would send them into banishment and distress. The sinner will be held in bondage by lusts which he indulges; driven by former habits into greater misery; and find what he thought a place of refuge to be a place of exile. Captivity and exile were additions to the scarcity of home. Future miseries will succeed present distress to the unbeliever. He cannot expect freedom and joy in the service of sin and Satan. The prospect will be no better than the retrospect, and the future worse than the present. I know that it shall be well unto them that fear God, which fear before him. But it shall not be well with the wicked (Ecc. 8:12-13).
2. The sinners future will be one of bitterness and sorrow. It was hard when Israel had to eat unclean things, things forbidden by their law, when they were forced to eat or starve, when their bread was polluted and their sacrifices as the bread of mourners. Sin brings bitterness now and hereafter. (a) Bitterness in the spirit of the sinner. (b) Bitterness in his forlorn condition. From affluence and privileges he comes to poverty and want. His experience and his prospects are bitter, bitterness and sorrow past, present, and future. Let us live on the past, exclaimed Napoleon, but the retrospect was a course of selfish aggrandizement. In thoughts of the future he sickened and pined for death. I am no longer the Great Napoleon. How fallen I am! Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.
3. The sinners future will be one of exclusion from Gods inheritance. They shall not dwell in the Lords land. God had chosen Canaan to be the residence of his glory and the possession of his people. But as sin drove man from Paradise, so idolatry drove the Jews out of Canaan. They were disinherited, deprived of Gods favour and protection. This is a warning to all who live in the bosom of the Church and under the sound of the gospel. Many professors forfeit present enjoyment and sin away precious privileges. Sinners cannot enter the kingdom of God on earth, and will be excluded from heaven at last. We cannot dwell with God unless we are subject to his authority and obedient to his will. If thine heart turn away so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos. 9:1. Israel ever wished to joy as other nations. When they cried for a king, they forsook God and sought to exult in their own ways. But the greater the privileges, the greater the guilt in despising them. Other nations were idolaters, but Israels sin was whoring from thy God.
There is always a snare in the ways of sin, always a song in the service of God [Bridge].
Hos. 9:2. Not feed them. Punishment attendeth sin at the heels. They had abused their plenty and ascribed it to their idols; therefore shall they be cut short either in their store, as Hag. 1:6; Hag. 1:10; Hag. 2:16, or in their strength, as Hos. 4:10; Hos. 8:7. One way or other their hopes shall be frustrated, the creature shall lie to them and not answer their expectation [Trapp].
Shall fail. Lit. shall lie to her. Israel had lied to God (Hos. 7:13). So the fruits of the earth would disappoint and requite her. Men reap as they sow. The punishment as the crime. When the blessings of God have been abused by sin he in mercy takes them away. He cuts them off, in order to show that he alone, who now withheld them, had before given them. When they thought themselves most secure, when the corn was stored on the floor, and the grapes were in the press, then God would deprive them of them.
Hos. 9:3. Not dwell in the land.
1. The Assyrian captivity was a mark of Gods displeasure, the loss of liberty and surrender to a foreign enemy. Men are only free through God, and only remain free as long as they serve him. By apostasy nations lose their independent existence and individuals their freedom and enjoyment.
2. This captivity a great contrast to Israels former condition as Gods people. They ignored the law, and God abandons them. They are not my people.
3. This captivity was the loss of their possession. No possessions are secure to those who forsake God.
4. With the loss of the land there is peculiar distress, the loss of sacrifice, and the sanctification of life connected with it. Thus men are exiled in lands of impurity, fall into bondage, and deprived of the means of serving God. That which they are now able to do, or wish to do, is not acceptable to God, and will occasion bitter sorrow. The seeds of our punishment are sown when we sin. They shall eat unclean things. Learn
1. Sin brings want. Like the prodigal, they were necessitated to eat unclean things, the husks of swine, because they had nothing else.
2. Sin brings disgrace. Perhaps the Assyrians despised them, forced them to eat meats forbidden by the law, in scorn to their religion and the profession of it. Those who willingly slight the word will never be honoured to bear witness to it, or if tested for its principles, will renounce their profession of it. A French Protestant Bishop in the sixteenth century, regarded as a pillar of the Reformation, recanted and brought disgrace upon himself and others. His apostasy staggered many Christians, and was a misfortune to his country. When we forsake God we are left to the mercy of the ungodly.
3. Sin leads to conformity to the world. Israel voluntarily might conform to heathen customs, as they were not humbled by any affliction. Driven from the land, deprived of their own ritual, they adopted the religion of Assyria, and God left them, gave them up to their own course. They would then appear outwardly what they were inwardly. Men who have only outward profession will soon cast off that when tempted or thrown into the world. Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, &c.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Hos. 9:1-4. Joy. The joy of the ungodly is superficial, but for a moment, and not to be compared with the rejoicing of the godly. It is like water taken from the surface, instead of the deep well, and will end quickly and abruptly. He that makes this mirth and he that likes itboth are fools, and their pleasantness will soon have an end [Pemble].
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
LOVE REBUKING Hos. 9:1Hos. 13:16
REPROVINGISRAEL FORSOOK GOD
TEXT: Hos. 9:1-9
1
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, departing from thy God; thou hast loved hire upon every grain-floor.
2
The threshing-floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.
3
They shall not dwell in Jehovahs land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4
They shall not pour out wine-offerings to Jehovah, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.
5
What will ye do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Jehovah?
6
For, lo, they are gone away from destruction; yet Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents.
7
The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great.
8
Ephraim was a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a fowlers snare is in all his ways, and enmity in the house of his God.
9
They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
QUERIES
a.
How will Ephriam be in Egypt and Assyria at the same time?
b.
What is the bread of mourners?
c.
What are the days of visitation?
PARAPHRASE
Do not think this is a time for rejoicing, Israel, just because you have had a few seasons of prosperity. You have been as unfaithful to your God as an adulterous woman is to her husband by attributing your prosperity to idols and worshipping them. The small harvests of grain, oil and wine you now enjoy are very temporary. They shall soon come to a complete end. You will be taken from Gods land, Ephraim, into a land of bondage like Egypt was to your ancestors. Your land of bondage will be Assyria and you will be so subservient and poor you will have to eat food that is unlawfuluncleanbecause there will be no Temple there and no opportunity to sanctify yourselves and your harvests to the Lord as Moses required. Yea, you will not be able to present acceptable offerings to Jehovah because He can be worshipped only at the Temple. Even your daily food, because you are not able in Assyria to sanctify your harvests by the offering of the first fruits, will be like bread of mourners or unclean to you. And what will you do about observing your great feast days when you cannot go to the house of Jehovah? Behold, Israel is done for! She has fallen into destruction. Very soon now her people will be buried in a foreign land where they have been taken captive. Her own land will be so desolate weeds will grow up in its deserted houses. Israel is about to receive payment for her sin. Israel is about to learn that she was, in listening to false prophets, following fools and demon-spirit possessed men. Your multiplied iniquities and rebellious hearts led you to reject Gods prophets and turn to false prophetsnow God is going to give you the consequences of your evil desires. Israel fancies himself capable of knowing Gods revelation without trusting Gods appointed prophets. The false prophets Israel did trust in became a trap to her in all her ways, Israel has declared war on God and His prophets in her renegade temples. Israel has become as grossly corrupt as the men of Gibeah who, in the days of the Judges, were sex perverts. God practically exterminated the tribe of Benjamin as a result of this and He will soon visit upon Israels wantonness a like perfect wrath.
SUMMARY
Israel is warned not to feel so secure in a few seasons of material prosperity. Because Israel had been unfaithful to her God she would be carried away into bondage in Assyria where she would be unable to make acceptable approach to God,
COMMENT
Hos. 9:1-3 REJOICE NOT, O ISRAEL . . . THE NEW WINE SHALL FAIL . . . THEY SHALL EAT UNCLEAN FOOD IN ASSYRIA . . . It seems that Israel was enjoying certain periods of harvest blatantly supposing them to be signs that all was well and secure in spite of their iniquitous excesses. Israel also attributed its agricultural prosperity to the idols it had appropriated from its heathen neighbors. Israel had played the harlot in its unfaithfulness to Jehovah, regarding the harvest-blessing upon its threshing-floors as gifts . . . from the Baals, for which it served them with still greater zeal. While the harlotry spoken of in Hos. 9:1 refers primarily to spiritual adultery (cf. ch. Hos. 2:5; Hos. 2:8; Hos. 4:12), it is still a fact that the harvest festivals were also occasions for boisterous festivities in honor of the fertility deities; and they committed at the threshing floors and wine presses the shameful immoralities against which Hosea and Amos so vehemently protest (cf. ch. Hos. 4:13-14).
Their good fortune with their crops was only temporary, however, for it would all soon be gone and God was about to withdraw His beneficence.
In addition to imminent crop failure, their exile was so near as to be spoken of by Hosea in the perfect tense (as if it had already happened). Israel has made itself an unwelcome guest in the land of Jehovah. Of course, Israel did not consider it Jehovahs land and herself a guest. Very few nations do! Yet it is still true that God owns the heavens and the earth and all the cattle on a thousand hills (cf. Psa. 24:1-2; Psa. 50:10-15; Isa. 66:1-2), and men and nations are merely stewards of His grace. They shall give an account! Israel would be plucked from this land given to her ancestors who came from Egyptian slavery, and cast into a bondage like those of old except that the new exile would be in Assyria. Egypt is not to be taken literally here. Hos. 9:3 is a perfect example of Hebrew poetic parallelism. Egypt becomes a figurative picture of what the Assyrian exile will be like. All food which was not sanctified to the Lord by the presentation of the first fruits, was unclean, unlawful food to Israel (Exo. 22:29; Exo. 23:19; Exo. 34:22; Exo. 34:26; Lev. 23:10-12; Lev. 23:15-17). In heathen lands it would be impossible for Israel to come to the Temple of Jehovah (which could lawfully be located only in Jerusalem) and sanctify her harvests. In addition to this they might be forced (cf. Dan. 1:5; Dan. 1:8 ff) to partake of food that would be strictly prohibited by the Mosaic law. The context here seems to indicate the former as the primary consideration.
Hos. 9:4 . . . THEIR SACRIFICES SHALL BE UNTO THEM AS THE BREAD OF MOURNERS . . . The bread of mourners was bread that had been in a house where a dead body had lain. Because the dead defiled a house for seven days and all that was in the housebread thus defiled was called bread of mourners. Any sacrifice they might attempt to make in Assyria to Jehovah would be unclean or defiled (like mourners bread) because there was no place to offer sacrifices acceptable to God but Jerusalem and the Temple. They would have to eat bread for the support of lifefor their appetitebut since they could not sanctify the first fruits of the harvest, it too would be unclean. Hosea is trying to emphasize here the awesome, terrifying nature of Israels spiritual destruction when God withdraws His gracious presence. Israel will be cut off from God. God will not hear hershe will be dead.
Hos. 9:5 WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE . . . DAY OF THE FEAST OF JEHOVAH? Israel will not be able to worship God, give thanks to Him and call upon Him for forgiveness and blessing in the great annual feast-days while in captivity. They would be deprived of all their ancestors had counted valuable, beautiful, holy and needful. All the religious, national, social, economic, cultural heritage of Judaism centered around its great feasts. Their extreme importance may be seen in the fact that the Jews have attempted to perpetuate these feasts in the centuries following the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans. No Jew worships on any holy day today as God has directed for the simple reason there is no temple in Jerusalem to which they may go. To observe the Passover, or Day of Atonement, in New York City is contrary to the Torah (O.T. Law). And Israel, in captivity to Assyria, would be bereft of all opportunity to approach God in a way acceptable to Him.
Hos. 9:6 . . . EGYPT SHALL GATHER THEM UP, MEMPHIS SHALL BURY THEM . . . THORNS SHALL BE IN THEIR TENTS . . . Egypt will not be the actual place of the captivity of Israel (cf. Hos. 9:3) nor will they literally die and be buried in Memphis. These are symbols of bondage, slavery and death, These are places where their ancestors had been in bondage centuries ago. The prophet is simply making his prediction of their future captivity in Assyria as vivid and real as he can by referring to a past experience of the nation. Many thousands of the people of Israel were buried in Assyria, never to see their homeland again. A few Israelites, of a generation or two later than Hoseas, returned from captivity, (cf. comments on Hos. 8:8-9).
Their land would be desolate. Their spacious dwellings (cf. Hos. 8:13-14), the objects of their affections, their precious treasures would all be looted by an enemy or left behind to be overgrown with weeds and thornsdeserted. Things for which they had devoted so much of their time and energy would be wrested from them (cf. Mat. 6:19-21; Luk. 12:15-21).
Hos. 9:7 THE DAYS OF VISITATION ARE COME . . . ISRAEL SHALL KNOW IT . . . THE PROPHET IS A FOOL . . . FOR THE ABUNDANCE OF THINE INIQUITY . . . Visit means to come with a special purpose, either of blessing or punishment. God visits men to bless (Gen. 50:24; Psa. 106:4; Zep. 2:7; Luk. 1:68; Luk. 1:78; Luk. 7:16; Act. 15:14). God also visits men to judge and punish them (cf. Lev. 18:25; Psa. 59:5; Isa. 10:3; Isa. 23:17; Jer. 10:15; Jer. 51:18; Mic. 7:4). Woe to that person or nation who does not recognize Gods visit of blessing (cf. Luk. 19:44; 1Pe. 2:12), for they shall soon receive His visit of punishment! Whenever a prophet, preacher or teacher of Gods Word comes to a person or community or nation with a message from Gods Word, he is Gods ambassador, and God has visited that person or nation. Woe to those who are indifferent and pay no heed to Gods visitorswoe to those who reject and persecute Gods visitors!
Just which prophet is called a fool and who is doing the calling is a matter debated by the commentators. We prefer the interpretation that the prophet is the false prophet who prophesies lies. When God visits His judgment of justice and truth upon Israel then she will recognize and know that the prophets she had been following who were promising her peace when there was no peace, are fools (cf. Eze. 13:10 ff; Jer. 6:14; Jer. 8:11; Mic. 3:5). The man that hath the spirit and is mad is the same demon possessed false prophet as is described in Mic. 2:11 who utters wind and lies. False prophets usually were under the influence of demoniacal power and were inspired by a lying spirit (cf. 1Ki. 22:22), It is also undoubtedly true that the wicked people of Israel were, at this time, calling Gods true prophets, fool (cf. Amo. 7:10-17). The prophets were despised, slandered, called mad, hunted, tortured, slain (cf. 2Ki. 9:11; Jer. 29:26; Heb. 11:32 ff). But what men call foolish and what God calls foolish are usually exactly opposite (cf. 1Co. 1:18Hos. 2:16)!
Israels punishment and judgment is about to come because of her abundant iniquity and great enmity. Israels terrible sin was that she had mislaid God (cf. Hos. 8:14). Israels abundant iniquity was in being indifferent to the many visits of blessing Jehovah had made to her. Her great enmity against God was manifest in her enmity against Gods ambassadors, the prophets. One is reminded of the great enmity of the Jews of a later generation as they expressed it in killing the Son of God (cf. Mat. 21:33-46; Mar. 12:1-12; Luk. 19:9-19). Israel demonstrated its hate for God by its hate for the prophets of God! What of those men and nations today who have hated and killed Christian preachers and missionarieshow great is their hate for God!
Hos. 9:8 EPHRAIM WAS A WATCHMAN WITH MY GOD: AS FOR THE PROPHET, A FOWLERS SNARE IS IN ALL HIS WAYS, AND ENMITY IN THE HOUSE OF HIS GOD. Keil translates the first phrase of Hos. 9:8, A spy is Ephraim with my God. The meaning Hosea intended, according to Keil and Lange, is that Israel searches out divine revelations on her own along with the God of Hosea. In other words, Israel does not depend on Hosea to be declaring to her the revelation of God, but she trusts in her own so-called prophets (who were not commissioned by God). Ephraim (Israel) believed the revelations of her false prophets to be equal with, if not superior to, the revelations of Hosea. But, her prophets were leading her into the snare (trap) of the devil (pride). Israels prophets were leading her into the devils camp which was at war (enmity) with God. By insisting to the people that their message was right and that Israel should set up a temple of her own and worship a golden calf, they were leading the people to join with Satan and the hosts of wicked demons in war on God!
Hos. 9:9 THEY HAVE DEEPLY CORRUPTED THEMSELVES, AS IN THE DAYS OF GIBEAH . . . Israel has fallen to the depths of sin. Nothing is sacred to her anymoreGods Word, human lifenothing. They are as corrupt as those despicable, beastly men of Gibeah who, when they could not take the Levite man and molest him sexually, took the Levites concubine, all of them, raped and ravaged her and left her for dead on the doorstep (cf. Judges chap. 1920). As a result of the sins of the men of Gibeah, the tribe of Benjamin was almost completely exterminated. The Lord has laid the sins of Israel to their charge. What they have sown, they will reap. The Lord will pay them in full for their evil works.
QUIZ
1.
Why did Hosea tell Israel to cease her rejoicing?
2.
Why was the land of Israel called Jehovahs land?
3.
Did Israel go into captivity to Egypt? Why?
4.
Why were the offerings and sacrifices of Israel not pleasing to Jehovah when they were in captivity?
5.
How would Israels daily food in Assyria become unclean?
6.
What is Hosea trying to emphasize by showing their condition in captivity?
7.
How does God visit men? Name two ways,
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) For joy.Better, to exultation. The harlots hire on every corn-floor expresses in bold imagery the prophets scorn for the idolatrous corruption of the people. The bounteous yield of the harvest is called the harlots hire, which lures Jehovahs faithless bride to worship the false deity from whose hands these gifts were supposed to come. The peoples momentary prosperity is attributed to their idols. (See Hos. 2:12; Jer. 44:17-19.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE PRESENT REJOICING OF ISRAEL CONTRASTED WITH THE DESPAIR OF THE EXILE, 1-9.
Hos 9:1, marks a new beginning. The prophet beholds the rejoicing of the people at harvest time, perhaps at a joyous religious festival. Rejoicing at such a time is perfectly natural, but, judging from chapter 2, much of the celebration, though nominally in recognition of Jehovah’s goodness, was in reality in honor of the Baalim. This the prophet cannot endure. He warns the people not to be too exuberant (Hos 9:1), for the occasions of rejoicing will soon cease. On account of their apostasy Jehovah will withdraw his blessings (Hos 9:2); yea, they will be carried into exile (Hos 9:3), where, upon an unclean land, joyful religious feasts can be celebrated no longer (Hos 9:4-5); their own land will become a wilderness (Hos 9:6). After announcing the impending doom the prophet points out once more the moral and spiritual apostasy responsible for the judgment (Hos 9:7-9).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1. Rejoice not The occasion of the exhortation is probably the noisy celebration of a harvest festival. Harvest time has always been a season of rejoicing (Isa 9:3); for, on the one hand, a rich harvest insures prosperity, on the other, it is a sign of the divine favor, for which people desired to express their appreciation and gratitude. Why does the prophet oppose the celebration? (1) Because it is like the celebrations of other people That is, of the surrounding nations; literally, the peoples, which, Wellhausen suggests, is here used for the first time in prophetic language in the sense of heathen. Among “the nations” these celebrations were noisy and wild, accompanied by all manner of excesses; but this revelry was out of harmony with the prophet’s lofty and spiritual conception of the religion of Jehovah. (2) 1b makes it plain that, though nominally the festival may have been held in the name of Jehovah (Hos 9:4), the chief credit for the blessings of harvest was given to the Baalim (compare Hos 2:5-8); to this also the Jehovah prophet must take exception.
For joy Literally, unto rejoicing too loudly. LXX. reads “exult not,” which would restore the parallelism.
Hos 9:1 b is to be connected with Hos 9:2, setting forth the cause of the judgment. The connection may be expressed, “Because thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, (because) thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor, (therefore) the (threshing) floor shall not feed them.”
Gone a whoring [“played the harlot”] from thy God In a spiritual sense (see on Hos 2:2-5).
Loved a reward [“hire”] Literally, harlot’s hire (Hos 2:12).
Upon every cornfloor There are stored the blessings of harvest, which are received as gifts from the Baalim. To recognize them as such would oblige the Israelites to worship these Canaanitish deities, but to worship these would imply faithlessness to Jehovah; and anything received from the Baalim which might induce the Israelites to play spiritual harlot to Jehovah could be called harlot’s hire. This they were fond of, else they would not have been so enthusiastic in their worship.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Rejoice not, O Israel,
Do not shout for joy, my people,
For you have played the harlot, from your God,
You have loved hire (hired women) on every grain-floor.’
Hosea warns Israel not to be so full of joy at their harvest feast at the Feast of Tabernacles because they needed to recognise that by their adulterous behaviour they have made God angry. Such ideas of joy were seen as being typical of the Jewish feasts, which were in the main joyous occasions (Lev 23:40; Deu 12:7; Deu 12:12; Deu 16:11; Deu 16:14). But they were not propitious when their behaviour was lacking.
‘Do not shout for joy, my people’ is obtained by repointing the consonants in the original Hebrew text. (The vowels signs, and division of the words, resulted from the work of the Masoretes some centuries after the time of Christ, and are not part of the original text. Following the MT we would translate, ‘Rejoice not O Israel, to exaltation like the peoples’ with the idea being that they should not exult like the nations as they would be treated on a special basis because they were God’s faithless people). The reason for their rejoicing was because they considered that their abundant harvest demonstrated the satisfactory nature of their religion. After all, they no doubt said, it had worked, hadn’t it? But Hosea was pointing out that their joy would be short lived, because in the near future there would be no such harvests.
The charge against them was that they had ‘played the harlot from their God’, either by worshipping Baal and Asherah, or by worshipping YHWH on a false basis by using cult prostitutes and trying to ‘move Him to action’ by their adulterous behaviour. Either way they were being faithless to YHWH’s covenant, and therefore behaving like an unfaithful wife to Him. They had been warned about such behaviour in Exo 34:15-16; and it was the kind of behaviour prophesied of them, along with the consequences, in Deu 31:16.
‘You have loved hire (hired women) on every grain-floor.’ God’s charge against them was that they ‘loved’ their cohabitation with hired cult prostitutes which they were involved in during their ritual activities wherever they occurred, which was regularly. Grain floors were wide open spaces suitable for gatherings (and for sexual activity), and it is very probable that they were widely used for religious activity, a certain sacredness being see in them as the place where the grain (the gift of God or of the gods) was finally made edible and provided in abundance (see 1Ki 22:10; 2Sa 24:18).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Israel Must Not Rejoice At Their Harvest Feast Because Everything Will Shortly Be Taken From Them When They Are Exiled To Egypt/Assyria Because Of What They Have Become And Because Of How They Have Treated YHWH ( Hos 9:1-10 ).
The words that follow may well have been spoken by Hosea at the northern version of the Feast of Tabernacles (1Ki 12:32) which celebrated the end of the season of harvests and sought to encourage the coming of the rains ready for the new harvest. He warns the people not to be so full of rejoicing and exultation because shortly they will be removed from YHWH’s land, and will thus have no harvests to enjoy. They will be ‘return to Egypt’ and eat unclean food in Assyria. And this will occur because they are at enmity with YHWH, and because they have ‘played the harlot’ in their ways, similar to the way in which Israel had sinned at Baal-peor, making a mockery of true YHWH worship.
Analysis.
a
b The threshing-floor and the oil-press will not feed them, and the new wine will fail her (Hos 9:2).
c They will not dwell in YHWH’s land, but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria (Hos 9:3).
d They will not pour out wine-offerings to YHWH, nor will they be pleasing to him, their sacrifices will be to them as the bread of mourners, all who eat of it will be polluted, for their bread will be for their appetite, it will not come into the house of YHWH (Hos 9:4).
e What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of YHWH?’ For, lo, they have gone away from destruction, Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them (Hos 9:5-6 a).
f Their pleasant things of silver, nettles will possess them, thorns will be in their tents (Hos 9:6 b).
e The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come, Israel will know it, the prophet is a fool, the man who has the spirit is mad, for the abundance of your iniquity, and because the enmity is great (Hos 9:7).
d Is Ephraim a watchman? Is the people of my God a prophet? A fowler’s snare is in all his ways, enmity in the house of his God (Hos 9:8).
c They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah, he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins (Hos 9:9).
b I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season (Hos 9:10 a).
a They came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like what they loved (Hos 9:10 b).
Note that in ‘a’ Israel are not to rejoice at the harvest feast, because they come as those who have played the harlot, and have lusted after hired women during their rituals, and in the parallel they are compared with Israel at Baal-peor where Israel had previously in a similar way prostituted themselves during a feast and lusted after foreign women. In ‘b’ the threshingfloor and winepress will fail them and not provide for their needs, and the new wine will fail, and in the parallel He describes how He had found Israel to be like grapes in the wilderness and first ripe figs in the first season (struggling to grow). In ‘c’ they will be expelled from YHWH’s land and return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria, and in the parallel it will be because he will remember their iniquities and sins as in the days of Gibeah (when Benjamin was punished with the utmost severity for its sin). In ‘d’ they will not come to the house of YHWH, and in the parallel it is because of their enmity in the house of their God. In ‘e’ the question is what they will do in ‘the day of solemn assembly’ and in ‘the day of the feast of YHWH’ because they will have been destroyed and have returned to Egypt for burial, and in the parallel ‘the days of visitation’ have come and ‘the days of recompense’, something which Israel will know to the full. Centrally in ‘f’ all that they once possessed will be lost to them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
ISRAEL’S GROWING SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY AND DEGRADED BEHAVIOUR ARE DESCRIBED ALONG WITH THEIR RELIANCE ON IDOLS, FOREIGNERS, UNWORTHY KINGS AND THEMSELVES, AND THIS IN CONTRAST WITH YHWH’S STEADFAST LOVE FOR HIS FAILING SON ( Hos 6:4 to Hos 11:12 ).
Hosea continues to describe the condition in which Israel find themselves, and rebukes their reliance on other things than YHWH. Conditions in Israel would appear to be politically much worse, and these words were therefore probably mainly spoken during the years of turmoil following the death of Menahem and his son Pekahiah, that is, during the reigns of Pekah and Hoshea. During this period there was an off-on relationship with Assyria which eventually caused the downfall of Pekah and the initial submission of Hoshea to Assyria, followed by his later turning to Egypt (and not to YHWH) in the hope of breaking free from Assyria’s yoke.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hos 9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.
Hos 9:10
Mic 7:1, “Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit .”.
The ISBE says, “ In Palestine and other warm climates the fig yields two crops annually–an earlier one, ripe about June, growing from the “old wood,” i.e. from the midsummer sprouts of the previous year, and a second, more important one, ripe about August, which grows upon the “new wood,” i.e. upon the spring shoots.” [16]
[16] E. W. G. Masterman, “Fig, Fig-tree,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).
Note:
Jer 24:2, “One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe : and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.”
Hos 9:10 Word Study on “they went to” The Hebrew word ( ) (H935) is one of the most common Hebrew verbs used in the Old Testament, being used over 2,000 times in the Old Testament. John Calvin says of the use of this word, “ For the Hebrews say, ‘they went in,’ to express in a delicate way the intercourse between husbands and wives. The Prophet does not, without reason, compare the sacrifices which the people offered to Baal-peor to adultery, as being like the intercourse which an adulterer has with an harlot.” [17] Therefore, note this use of the word in Gen 6:4.
[17] John Calvin, Hosea, in Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, vol. 1, trans. John Owen (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1847), 334.
Gen 6:4, “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Warning Against False Security
v. 1. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people, v. 2. The floor, v. 3. They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, v. 4. They shall not offer wine-offerings to the Lord, v. 5. What will ye do in the solemn day and in the day of the feast of the Lord? v. 6. For, lo, they are gone because of destruction, v. 7. The days of visitation are come, v. 8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God, literally, v. 9. They have deeply corrupted themselves,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Hos 9:1-9
Contain a warning against security arising from temporary prosperity.
Hos 9:1
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people. The occasion on which the prophet penned this section was so no idolatrous merry-making in connection with harvest, and not any change of political situation.
(1) The literal rendering of the first clause is, rejoice not unto exultation, or exceedingly, as the same expression is translated in Job 3:22; it is thus climactic.
(2) The old versions take el-gil as imperative, and read ; , equivalent to “nor make merry;” and the Vulgate has noli exultare; but al is constructed with the future, not with the imperative. Again, some read be instead of ke, and so render, “among the peoples,” the words being addressed, not to Israel in exile, but still resident in their own land.
For thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every corn-floor.
(1) According to this, which is the common rendering. the clause with ki assigns a reason for their foregoing such joy. But
(2) Ewald and others translate by “that or for that thou hast committed whoredom,” understanding this clause to express the object of their joy. We prefer the former, for their faithlessness and foul idolatry were sufficient reasons to prevent Israel indulging in the joy of harvest. The blessings of the harvest were regarded by them as rewards for the worship of their idol-gods, in other words, as gifts from Baalim and Ashtaroth or other idols, and thus as ethnan, a harlot’s hire; not as tokens and pledges of the favor of Jehovah.
Hos 9:2
The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. Thus Israel was not to enjoy the blessings of the harvest; the corn and oil and new wine, or corn and wine, would not prove as abundant as they expected or plenty would be succeeded by scarcity; or, rather, the people would be prevented enjoying the abundant produce of their land in consequence of being carried away captive to Assyria, as seems implied in the following verse. The floor and presswhether wine-press, or rather oil-press, as the mention of new wine followsare put for their contents by a common figure of speech. The expression, “fail in her,” is literally, “lie to her,” and has many parallels; as, “The labor of the olive shall fail [margin, ‘lie’],” and Horace’s “fundus mendax,” equivalent to “a farm that belies his hopes.”
Hos 9:3
They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. The Lord’s land was Canaan, which Jehovah chose to dwell there by visible symbol of the Shechinah-glory, and which he gave to Israel as his people. Israel expected to have it for a permanent place of abode, but that hope was frustrated by their sin. The remaining clauses of the verse may be understood either
(1) that Ephraim would return to Egypt to obtain auxiliaries, but to no purpose,for they would be carried away captive and be compelled to eat unclean things in the land of Assyria; or
(2) the prophet threatens that some of them would go as exiles into Egypt, and others of them into Assyria This latter explanation is much to be preferred; while with regard to Egypt the threats, ring thus understood would re-echo an crier prophecy in Deu 28:68, “The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.” In Assyria also they would be obliged to cat things ceremonially unclean, as it would be impossible to conform to the requirements of the Law, according to which the eating of certain animals was prohibited. There is yet
(3) another interpretation, which takes Assyria to be the place of exile, while Egypt figuratively represents the condition of that exile, namely, a state of hard bondage and sore oppression, such as Israel endured in Egypt in the days of yore.
Hos 9:4, Hos 9:5
They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them the broad of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted. Having predicted their inability to observe the ritual distinctions between clean and unclean, which the Law prescribed, whether from the tyranny of their oppressors or from scarcity, or from the absence of sanctification by the presentation of the firstfruits, the prophet proceeds to predict their cessation altogether. Such is the prophet’s picture of their miserable position in Assyria. It is aptly remarked by Grotius that “they failed to pour out libations to the Lord when they could; now the time shall come when they may wish to make such libations, but cannot.” According to the Massoretic punctuation and the common rendering,
(1) which is that of the Authorized Version, the people themselves are the subject of the second verb. They were neither able to offer drink offerings, a part for the whole of the meat offerings and unbloody oblations; nor, if they did, could they hope for acceptance for them away from the sanctuary and its central altar.
(2) Hitzig supplies niskeyhens, their drink offerings, from the foregoing clause, as subject to the verb of the following one, and the verb is explained by some in the sense of “mire.” If
(3) we neglect the segholta, and make zibh–chehem the subject, the meaning is clearer, and the contrast between the unbloody and bloody offerings more obvious; thus: “They will not pour out libations of wine to Jehovah, nor will their sacrifices [equivalent to ‘bloody oblations’] please him,” that is to say, not such as were actually offered, but such as they might feel dis. posed to offer. The same noun may be repeated in next clause; thus, their sacrifices, or rather slaughtered meats, are unto him as bread of mourners, or, what is better, their food (supplied from ke lechem) shall be unto them like bread of mourners. Mourners’ bread is that eaten at a funeral feast, or meal by persons mourning for the dead, and which was legally unclean, since a corpse defiled the house in which it was and all who entered it for seven days, as we read in Num 19:14, “This is the law, when a man dieth in a tent: all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.” Of course, all who partook of the food would be polluted; so with that of Israel in exile, being unsanctified by the offering of firstfruits. For their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord. “Their bread for their soul,” that is, for appeasing their appetite, whatsoever their soul lusted after, or bread for the preservation of their life, would not come into the house of the Lord to be sanctified by representative offerings. What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? On such occasions they would feel the misery of their position most keenly. Away in a far foreign land, without temple and without ritual, they would bewail the loss of their annual celebrations, their national festivals and religious solemnitiesthose holiday-times of general joy and spiritual gladness. The distinction between moed and chag is variously given.
(1) By Grotius and Rosenmller mood is referred to one of the three annual feastsPassover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles; and chug to any of the other feasts, including the new moon.
(2) Others restrict chag to the Feast of Tabernacles, or harvest festival, the most joyous of them all. Keil makes the words synonymous, except that in chag festival joy is made prominent.
Hos 9:6
For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them. Their future exile was seen in prophetic vision; and in consequence and because of its certainty he speaks of it as having already taken place. The destruction is the desolation and wasting of their native land, because of which, or away from which and leaving it behind, they are gone. The land of their banishment was the land of their bondage. There, far from the land of their birth, they were doomed to die and to be gathered together for a common burial. Memphis was the ancient capital of Lower Egypt; its situation was on the western bank of the Nile, and south of Old Cairo. There its ruins are still seen, with extensive burial-grounds, while amid those ruins is the village of Mitrahenni. Kimchi identifies Moph with Noph. The pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles. The literal rendering of the first clause is,
(1) their cherished delight of silver. By this some understand
(a) silver idols;
(b) others, valuables in silver;
(c) the Jewish commentators, the houses of the precious treasures of their silverso Rashi; “Their precious buildings where their silver treasures were”so Kimchi;
(d) Jerome understands their mansions and all the ornaments of their mansions purchased by silver; Keil also has, “houses ornamented and filled with the precious metals.” This explanation is pretty generally accepted, and appears to us to deserve the preference. Their former homes, so pleasant and so richly decorated, were so utterly desolate and deserted that thorns and thistles overspread them. But
(2) the sentence is differently translated and explained by Rosenmller and some others; thus: “Moph (Memphis) will bury them out of desire for their silver.” This violent divulsion destroys the parallelism of the second hemistich, besides ignoring the athnach. The LXX; again
(3) puzzled by the word maehmad, mistook it for a proper name: “Therefore, behold, they go forth from the trouble of Egypt, and Hemphis shall receive them, and Machmas () shall bury them.” Giving a decided preference to (1) (d), we have a thrilling picture of distress. First comes the destruction of their native city; having looked their last look on the ruins where once stood their home, they have set fortha miserable band of pilgrimsto the land of the stranger, and that stranger their conqueror and oppressor; they have reached the place of exile, there to find, not a home, but a grave, and not a single grave for each, according to the Jews’ mode of sepulture to the present day, but a common place of burial into which they are huddled together, Egypt gathering them and Memphis burying them; while in the land that gave them birth, their once happy homesteads, richly decorated and expensively adorned, are left utterly desolatea heritage for thorns and thistles.
Hos 9:7-9
These verses describe the season and source of punishment. The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come. Commentators have appropriately compared the Vergilian “Venit summa dies, et irreluctabile tempus,” equivalent to” The final day and inevitable hour is come.” Israel shall know (it): the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad. Here the prophet and the man of the spirit (margin) are
(1) the false prophets which pretended to inspiration, and flattered the people with false hopes and vain promises of safety and prosperity; and thus helped to confirm them in their sinful courses. The object of Israel’s knowledge, though not introduced by ki, is the folly of such false prophets, and the madness of such pretenders to prophetic inspiration. That ish ruach may be used of a false prophet as well as of a true one is proved from ish holekh ruach, a man walking in the spirit, applied by Mic 2:11 to one of these pretenders: “If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.” Israel is doomed to know by bitter experience the folly and madness of those prophets who deceived and duped the people by lies soon detected, and their own folly and madness in giving ear to the delusive prospects they held forth. This explanation agrees with Kimchi’s comment: “Then shall they confess, and say to the prophets of lies, who had led them astray, and had said to them, Peace (in time of greatest peril)then shall they say unto them, A fool the prophet, a madman the man of spirit.” The predicate precedes the subject for emphasis, and the article prefixed to the subject exhausts the class of those false prophets.
(2) Aben Ezra, Ewald, and many others understand the prophet and spiritual man to mean true prophets, which the people called fools and madmen, and treated is such, contemning and persecuting them. Thus Aben Ezra: “The days of recompense are come to you from God, who will recompense you who said to the prophet of God, He is a fool, and to the man in whom the spirit of God was, He is mad.” The word meshuggah is properly the participle Paul used as a substantive, and kindred in meaning to of the Greek, from , to be frenzied.
In confirmation of
(1) setup. Eze 13:10 and Jer 28:15; and in favor of
(2) 2Ki 9:11.
(3) The Septuagint has , equivalent to “And shall be afflicted,” taking, according to Jerome, yod for vav, and daleth for resh; while Jerome himself translates scitote, as if reading . For the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. The source of all was sin. The visitation threatened, which was retributivea recompensewas for the greatness of their iniquity. The last clause is thus dependent on and closely connected with the first, ruling the construction first as a preposition, then as a conjunction: “And because the enmity is great.” Ewald says, “If the first member states a reason (e.g. by using the preposition , on account of, because of, and the following infinitive), the meaning requires that, whenever a finite verb follows, the conjunction ‘because’ shall be employed in forming the continuation.” The hatred was
(a) that of Israel against their fellow-men, and their God or his prophetic messengers; though others
(b) understand it of the hatred of God against transgressors who had provoked his just indignation. The first exposition (a) suits the context, and is supported by the following verse. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God. This rendering is manifestly inaccurate, as the first noun is in the absolute, not in the construct state; the right rendering, therefore, is either, “A watchman is Ephraim with my God;” or, “The watchman, O Ephraim, is with my God.”
(1) If we adopt Aben Ezra’s explanation of the prophet and spiritual man as true prophets whom the people jeeringly and scornfully called fools, fanatics, and madmen, the meaning of this clause of the next verse presents little difficulty. The prophet makes common cause with these divided prophets: his God was their God, and, however men treated them, they were under Divine protection. The sense of the im, with, in this case is well given by Pusey as follows: “The true prophet was at all times with God. He was with God, as holden by God, watching or looking out and on into the future by the help of God. He was with God, as walking with God in a constant sense of his presence, and in continual communion with him. He was with God, as associated by God with himself in teaching, warning, correcting, exhorting his people, as the apostle says, We then are workers together with him. In the next clause the false prophet is described by way of contrast as a snare.
(2) The word is properly a participle, and Ephraim is thus exhibited by the prophet as on the outlook,
(a) not for counsel and help beside or apart from God, as Gesenius understands it; but
(b) as on the outlook for revelations and prophecies along with my God; i.e. Ephraim, not satisfied with the genuine prophets, had prophets of his own, which spake to the people according to their wish. This exposition is in the main supported by Rashi and Kimchi: the former says, “They appoint for themselves prophets of their own;” and Kimchi more fully thus, “Ephraim has appointed for himself a watchman (or seer) at the side of his God; and he is the false prophet who speaks his prophecy in the name of his God.” (But) the prophet is a snare of a fowler in (over) all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. Whether we adopt (1) or (2) as the explanation of the first clause, we may understand the prophet of this clause as
(1) the false prophet whoby way of contrast if we accept (1), or by way of continuation if we prefer (2)is like the snare of a bird-catcher over all the people’s path, to entangle, entrap, and draw them into destruction
(a) He is, moreover, inspired with hostilitya man of rancorous spirit against God and his true prophets. “This prophet of lies,” says Aben Ezra, “is a snare of the bird-catcher.” Similarly Kimchi says in his exposition, “This prophet is for Ephraim on all his ways as the snare of the bird-catcher that catcheth the fowls; so they catch Ephraim in the words of their prophets.”
(2) Some understand “prophet” in the middle clause of the verse as the true prophet, and the snare as the hostility and traps which the people prepared for the messengers of God; so Rashi: “For the true prophets they lay snares to catch them.” According to this exposition we must render, “As for the prophet, the snare of the bird-catcher is over all his ways.”
(b) In the last clause, “house of his God,” may mean the temple of the true God, or the idol-temple; thus Aben Ezra: “Enmity is in the house of his god;” while Kimchi thinks either sense admissible: “We may understand of the house of the calves, which were his god, and the false prophet acted there as prophet, and caused enmity between himself and God; or we may explain it of the house of the true God, that is, the house of the sanctuary.” Thus the hostility may refer to the prophet himself, of which he is the subject as (a) or the object according to Kimchi just cited, or the detestable idol-worship, or perhaps the Divine displeasure against the false prophet and the people led astray by him. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. The historical event here alluded to was the abominable and infamous treatment of the Levite’s concubine by the men of Gibeah. This was the foulest blot on Israel’s history during all the rule of the judges. For the loathsome particulars, Jdg 19:1-30. may be consulted. The construction is peculiar. The two verbs are coordinated appositionally; “The leading verb, which in meaning is the leading one, is subordinated more palpably by being placed alongside of the preceding verb without a joining and“ (Ewald). The former verb is often constructed with an infinitive, and sometimes with a noun. Some trace the reference, as already stated, (1) to the enormity of the men of Gibeah in relation to the Levite’s concubine; others to the election of Saul, who was of Gibeah, to be king. Rashi mentions both: “Some say it was Gibeah of Benjamin in the matter of the concubine; but others say it was Gibeah of Saul, when they demanded for themselves a king and rebelled against the words of the prophet.” Therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins. The sin of Gibeah was fearfully avenged; its punishment re-suited in almost the total extinction of a tribe in Israelthat of Benjamin. And as Israel had paralleled that of the men of Gibeah, he gives them to understand first implicitly that like punishment would overtake them, then he explicitly denounces visitation for their iniquity and retribution for their sin. The clause thus closes, as it commenced, with the sad note of coming calamity.
Hos 9:10
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first time. Grapes and first figs are among the choicest and most refreshing fruits; but to find such delicious fruits in a dry, barren wilderness is specially grateful and delightful. There are three possible constructions of bammidhbor:
(1) with “found,”
(2) with “grapes,” and
(3) with both.
According to the first, which, on the whole, seems preferable, the meaning is, “I found Israel of old as a man finds grapes in a desert;” and the sense is God’s good will towards and delight in Israel. Grapes found by a weary, exhausted traveler in a wilderness are a real boon, refreshing and strengthening him for continuing his journey and reaching his destination. Rashi gives the sense clearly and concisely thus: “As gropes which are precious and delicious in a desert, even so have I loved Israel.” Aben Ezra, in his exposition, refers to Deu 32:10, “He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye;” and then adds, “As grapes in a wilderness where no one dwells; every one that finds them rejoices in them, and so in the first-ripe figs.” The comment of Kimchi is fuller and more satisfactory: “As a man, when he finds grapes in the wilderness which is dry and fruitless, rejoices over them; and as he rejoices when he finds a first-fruit in the fig tree in its beginning; even so have I found Israel in the wilderness, and fed them and nourished them: they lacked nothing, equally as if they had been in an inhabited land; but they have not recognized my goodness.” As the fig harvest is rather late in Palestineabout the middle of Augustearly figs have special worth, and are regarded as a delicacy. The comparison then is, according to Rashi, with the “early fig on the fig tree, which is ripe; like the fig on the fig tree in its beginning, i.e. in the beginning of the ripening of the figs;” then he subjoins, “Even so did your fathers appear in my eyes, that I loved them.” But they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame. Israel did not continue long in a condition so pleasing to God, but fell away from him, forgot his benefits, and turned aside to the abominable idols of the surrounding Gentiles. As Aben Ezra somewhat pathetically expresses it, “Yet my joy was only small and of short duration, for they did homage to Baal-peor, and separated themselves from me.” Long, therefore, before the sin of Gibeah they transgressed in Baal-poor; in the early period of their history they apostatized and proved unfaithful to Jehovah. To this hideous god, corresponding to Priapus of the Greeks, the maidens of Moab sacrificed their virginity. The Israelites were designed to be Nazarites, that is, separated to Jehovah and consecrated to his service, but they separated themselves unto that shame, either the idol or his worship. And their abominations were according as they loved. If men are slaves to appetite, they make a god of their belly; if to lust, Baal-peor is their god; and men become like what they worship, and abominable as the idols they serve, as the psalmist says, “They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.” They “became abominations like their lover” (ohabh, paramour; namely, Baal-peor), that is, as abominable and loathsome in the sight of God as the idols which they adulterously worshipped.
Hos 9:11-14
Having referred to the most flagrant instances of Israel’s transgressions in the pastGibeah in the time of the judges, Baal-peor at a still earlier period even in the days of Moses, and having merely indicated the parallel between their present sin and previous enormities, the prophet proceeds to denounce the punishments deserved and ready to descend upon them. As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception. The greatest glory, perhaps, of Ephraim was their fruitfulness”double fruitfulness” being the very meaning of the name and the multiplication of their numbers; now that glory of populousness was to vanish speedily and entirely, like birds winging their way swiftly and out of sight. After the figure comes the fact, and it is expressed in anti-climactic formno child-bearing, no pregnancy, no conception. The course of barrenness takes the place of the blessing of fruitfulness. Though they bring up their children, yet will I believe them, that there shall not be a man left. Even if their sons should grow up to manhood and attain maturity, yet they would be cut off by the sword and swept away by death, so that their progeny would perish. This accords with the threatened punishment of unfaithfulness recorded in Deu 32:25, “The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of grey hairs.” The negative sense of rain, equivalent to “so that not,” is common before verbs, also before nouns the min being put for the fuller . Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them! This accounts for the coming calamity; it is the departure of Jehovah from Israel, and the withdrawal of his favor. The word
(1) stands for , sin and samech being interchanged; or
(2) it may be for , sin put for shin by a clerical error.
The meaning is a little different: “when I look away from them.” Rashi mentions the fact that this word belongs to those words written with sin but read with samech. His comment on the verse is correct: “For what benefit have they when they bring up their children? Because, if they do bring them up, then I bereave them so that they do not become men;” similarly Kimchi: “If there be some among them who escape these mishaps and reach the birth, and they (the parents) bring them up yet shall they die in youth, and never reach the season when they shall be called men.”
(3) The misreading of instead of by the LXX. led to the strange misrendering, “Wherefore also there is a woe to them (though) my flesh is of them ( ,) of which Cyril connects the first member with the preceding words, and, detaching the remainder, interpreted, “Let my flesh be far for exemption from the punishment threatened. Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. The first member of this verse has called forth great diversity of translation and interpretation. It were tedious, and not conducive to the right understanding of the verse, to enumerate the various expositions given of it.
A very few of the most important may be briefly noticed.
(1) The LXX; reading , , rendered, “Ephraim, even as I saw, gave her children for a prey ( )”
(2) Ewald, conjecturing , renders,” Ephraim is, as I judge, according to the form, a planting in a meadow.” Rejecting both these, we come
(3) to that of Gesenius: “Ephraim, like Tyre (as if it were Tyre), is planted in a beautiful meadow;” De Wette’s is,” Ephraim, when (or if) I look as far as Tyre, is planted on a pleasant meadow;” Keil has, “Ephraim, as I selected it for a Tyre planted in the valley; so shall Ephraim lead out its sons to the murderer.” All these renderings are faulty in one respect or other; some of them miss the sense altogether, and others of them obscure it.
(4) The rendering that appears to us simplest, most in harmony with the Hebrew, and most suitable to the context, is that of Wunshe, but with a modification that of a secure dwelling-place instead of meadow: “Ephraim, as I look towards Tyre, is planted on a meadow [rather, ‘sure resting-place’], and Ephraim must lead out its sons to the murderer.” The meaning, then, is that Ephraim is a lovely land in whatever direction one looks towards it, like the famous Tyre; it was beautiful and blooming, populous as well as pleasant; or rather, strong in its natural fortifications, like the famous capital of Phoenicia; yet the wrath of Heaven hung over itit would become waste and emptied of its male population, Ephraim being obliged to send forth the bravest of her sons to repel the hostile invader, and to perish in the tumult of the battle. By combining a part of Rashi’s exposition with part of Kimchi’s, we reach the correct sense. Rashi has, “Ephraim as I look towards Tyre, which in its prosperity is crowned above all cities, so I look upon Ephraim planted on a meadow;” so far the explanation is correct, not so what follow: “And Ephraimhow does he reward me? He is busied in bringing forth his sons to the murderer in order to sacrifice them to idols;” in place of this latter part we substitute the following of Kimchi: “The enemies shall come upon them, and they shall march out from their cities to meet them in battle, and the enemies shall slay them.” The infinitive with le, , implies the necessity imposed on Ephraim to do so. Ephraim is to had out, or must lead out, his sons to the murderer. Rosenmller, in his commentary, has the following remark on this idiom at the fifteenth verse of the forty-ninth psalm: “Tempus infinitivum positum esse fututri sire aoristi, vice, pro eo quod plenum esset = paratus est,” etc. He adds that the Syriac prefixes arid, equivalent to paratus est to the infinitive with lomad, and so makes a paraphrase of the future; while the Hebrews omit arid. Driver says of this usage of the so-called “periphrastic future,” “Hero the infinitive with , expressing as usual a direction, tendency, or aim, forms the sole predicate: the subject, as a rule, stands first, so as to engage the mind, the purpose which is postulated for it follows; and thus the idea arises of an inevitable sequence or obligation , though net one of a formal or pronounced character, which is expressed in Hebrew by other means (i.e. by the addition of , or of , as , equivalent to ‘incumbent upon me’); Hos 9:13, ‘And Ephraim is for bringing forth his sons to the slayer;’ or, as this is the entire scope and object in regard to which Ephraim is here consideredis to or must bring forth.” Give them, O Lord: what writ thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. The prophet seems at a loss to know what he should ask for his countrymen. Though it was not total excision, but rather diminution of numbers, that was threatened in accordance with the statement, “If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude;” yet at every stage their offspring was to be cut off, or, if spared to arrive at manhood, it was only to fall by the hand of the murderer. No wonder, then, the prophet is perplexed in regard to the petition that would be most expedient for them. He hardly knew what was best to ask on their behalf.
(1) The thought at length flashed upon him that utter childishness was preferable to bringing up children to be slain with the sword or trained in idolatry; hence tie prayed for what he regarded as the less calamity”a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.” Or
(2) the prophet is agitated between compassion for his countrymen and indignation at their sin. Justly indignant at the heinousness of their iniquity, he is about to appeal to Heaven for vengeance on the transgressors, but in pity for the erring people he cheeks the half-uttered imprecation, or softens it into the milder request for their extinction by childlessness.
Hos 9:15-17
After the interruption by the excited question of the prophet in Hos 9:14, the terrible storm of denunciation sweeps on to the end of the chapter. All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them; or, there I conceived hatred against them, the verb being used in an inchoative sense. Gilgal had been the scene of many mercies; there the rite of circumcision, the seal of the Abrahamic covenant, after its omission dining the sojourn in the wilderness, was renewed; there the Passover, also intermitted from its second observance at Sinai, was kept; there the twelve memorial stones had been set up; there the Captain of the host of the Lord had appeared to Joshua, reassuring him of Divine protection; there the tabernacle had stood before its removal to Shiloh; yet that very placea place of such blessing and solemn covenanting-had become the scene of idolatry and iniquity. The wickedness of Israel had been concentrated there as in a focus; there Israel’s rejection of the theocracy in its spiritual form had taken place; there that first-plague’s pot of ruin had been contracted; there the calf-worship had been developed; there the form of civil government had been shaped according to their own erring fancy, and their mode of religious worship had been corrupted. Thus Gilgal had become the center of all their sin; but the scene of mercy became the source of wrath, for there God’s fatherly love was turned by Israel’s wickedness into hatred. For the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more. They were driven out like Hagar out of the house of the patriarch, that Ishmael might not inherit with Isaac; like an unfaithful wife divorced and driven out of the house of the husband whom she has dishonored; or like an undutiful and disobedient son whom his father has disinherited. Further, God disowns the rebellious son, and acknowledges the paternal relationship no longer. The princes of Israel had become rebellions and stubborn: by an impressive Hebrew paronomasia, their sarim, rulers, had become sorerim, revolters. Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Ephraim is a pleasant plant, but a worm has smitten the root and it has withered; Ephraim is a goodly tree, hut the lightning of heaven has scorched and dried it up; there may be leafage for a time, but no fruitage ever. Yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb. The desiresmargin, dear delights, or, darlingsperish, and so the figure is now dropped, and the fact is seen in all its severe and stern reality, while the dread denunciation of verses 11 and 12 is repeated and emphasized. My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations. The prophet submits his will to the Divine will, and acquiesces in the disposals of his providence, and in his own proper person predicts Israel’s coming doom. He fills up the outline of the dark picture by stating the cause of their rejection. He specifies at the same time the character of rejection, namely, dispersion among the nations, like birds driven from their nest, for so the term nodedim denotes.
HOMILETICS
Hos 9:1-6
Sin is the cause of sorrow and the source of sadness
The merrymaking of wicked people is often both hollow and heartless; it is always without true ground or real cause; while the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under a pot. The people of Israel were jubilant at the time referred to. The reason of their jubilation does not distinctly appear. It may have arisen from some losses having been retrieved, or some advantages gained, or some successes achieved, or some useful alliances secured, or the ordinary joy of harvest. Whatever it was, there was no good cause for it nor continuance of it. “Joy is forbidden fruit to wicked people.” Among the losses which sin entails are, as we learn from the verses before us, the following:
I. THE LOSS OF JOY.
1. Religion makes men joyful as well as cheerful. “Rejoice in the Lord always,” is the exhortation of an apostle, and an exhortation which he repeats. The joy of the Lord is our strength. How different with the wicked! They deprive themselves of all real joy. They may be outwardly prosperous and rejoice in that prosperity; but the wrath of God abideth on them, and a worm is at the root of their joy.
2. The professing people of God sometimes envy the seeming prosperity of the wicked; seeing the outward success of sinners, they are tempted to imitate their works and ways. They forget that in doing so their sin is more heinous than that of other people; it is aggravated by their engagement to be the Lord’s, by the vows of God which are upon them, and by the various means and motives which they enjoy for pursuing the right course. Their sin is thus greater than that of other people; they are therefore forbidden to rejoice with the ordinary joy of other people. It. was thus with Israel, when, forgetful or unmindful of their covenant relation, they went a-whoring from their God, and committed spiritual adultery by following idols.
3. Some men make a profession of religion for sake of worldly gain; they calculate the benefits, pecuniary, professional, political, or social, which they expect from religion; they estimate religion by the outward advantages which they think to derive from it; or, what is much the same, they profess that religion or attach themselves to that denomination from which they hope for the greatest gain. Thus Israel attributed to her spiritual harlotry any temporary prosperity she enjoyed; it was her idols she thanked for any season of plenty that she was favored with; she loved a reward on every corn-floor. Thus her religion was mercenary, her idolatry shameful, her prosperous state of short continuance, and her joy ill founded as evanescent.
II. THE LOSS OF THE MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE NOT INFREQUENTLY FOLLOWS FROM A COURSE OF SIN. A career of sin has often reduced a man to a morsel of bread, or left him without bread altogether. When men are bent on the obtainment of worldly blessings, and make them their chief end, they are often denied the blessings which they covet: frequently they are disappointed of them; more frequently are they disappointed in them; even when they secure them they fail to find the satisfaction which they seek. “The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them,” says the prophet; “much less feast them,” quaintly but truly observes an old commentator, adding, “It shall either be blasted by the hand of God or plundered by the hand of man; the new wine with which they used to make merry shall fail in her We forfeit the good things of the world if we love them as the best things.”
III. THE LOSS OF HOUSE AND HOME HAS OFTEN RESULTED FROM SINFUL INDULGENCE. A time of famine necessarily becomes a time of extensive emigration. But, apart from seasons of scarcity, who. men are forced, in order to procure the means of a decent livelihood, to seek a home and a country in some distant land, it is no rare occurrence for men to find themselves expatriated through their own vices. When they beggar themselves by vicious indulgence, their last resort is a foreign land. In the case of Israel the hardship was peculiarly distressful. The land of promise was, in a special sense, “the Lord’s land;” it was a good land, a gladsome land. How glowing as well as eloquent the eulogy bestowed upon it by the sacred writer when Israel was about to enter it! “The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a Land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack anything in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.” Besides these blessings of a temporal kind, possessed by that land into which the Lord had led Israel, it was the Lord’s land because of the spiritual privileges enjoyed there. It was distinguished by his special favor and gracious presence; it was the home of his priests and prophets; it was the seat of his holy oracle, and in all respects a delightsome land. But Israel had forfeited their title to it. It had been leased to them by the Lord, but by their idolatries and many sins they had broken every clause in that lease; and now they must turn their back on tiffs land which the Lord had given them. They had loved idols, and now to the land of idols they must go. Into bondage in Egypt or into captivity in Assyria they are driven; the Lord’s land “shall not only cease to feed them, but cease to lodge them, and to be a habitation for them; it shall spew them out, as it had done the Canaanites before them.” Their performance of outward ceremonies had not sprung from a principle of love to the Divine Law; now they are no longer in a position, even if they are disposed, to obey that Law. They had abused the abundance of good things which God had given them; now for very want they must eat unclean things as repugnant to their feelings as opposed to their ritual. They had shown an infatuated fondness for idols in their own land, the Lord’s land; now they must eat the unclean things offered to idols in a foreign land. Great had been their sinfulness, great in degree and similar in kind is their punishment.
IV. Loss OF SPIRITUAL PRIVILEGES IS ANOTHER AND A WORSE CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR SINS. One of the greatest privations is the loss of the public ordinances of religion. Though the enjoyment of them when possessed may be little valued, the withdrawal of them is severely felt. There is no famine more distressing than that of hearing the Word of the Lord. Unfaithfulness to the light men have has often caused the candlestick to be removed out of its place. So with Israel at the period to which the prophet refers. They were deprived of libation as well as oblation, and of every offering whatever. Without the material, they were also without the means of offering any acceptable sacrifice. In a heathen land they were necessarily without sanctuary and altar and priest. How sad their condition! And sadder still when they felt it to be the legitimate consequence of their sin, national, social, and individual!
V. LOSS OF RELIGIOUS SOLEMNITIES IS AN AGGRAVATION OF THEIR LOSS OF RELIGIOUS ORDINANCES. The solemn day, or day of the feast of the Lord, as often as it came round, was a high day as well as a holy day; a day of joy and gladness, of thanksgiving and praise. Besides the weekly sabbath solemnity and the monthly solemnity of the new moons, there were the three great annual festivals of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Of the benefit and blessing of these solemnities, with all their instruction, edification, comfort, and encouragement, they are now deprived. No wonder the prophet asks in a tone of pity, not unmingled with pathos, “What will ye do then?” To this inquiry a practical commentator makes the following not inappropriate reply: “You will then spend those days in sorrow and lamentation, which, if it had not been your fault, you might have been spending in joy and praise. You will then be made to know the worth of mercies by the want of them, and to prize spiritual bread by being made to feel a famine of it.” To this he adds the pithy remark, “When we enjoy the means of grace, we ought to consider what we shall do if ever we should know the want of them; if either they should be taken from us, or we disabled to attend upon them.”
VI. LOSS OF ALL THINGS ONCE HELD DEAR CONCLUDES THIS SAD SUMMARY OF THE EVIL EFFECTS OF SIN. Never was there a darker outlook, never was there a gloomier prospect! What havoc sin works! What distress it occasions! In a single verse are crowded together the destruction of their country by one heathen power, that of Assyria; their dispersion in the country of another, namely, Egypt; their death in that foreign land, and their deprivation of decent sepulture; the desolation of the dwellings they had left behinda desolation so great that nettles had sprung up in their treasuries and thorns in their tabernacles; nor was respite, or relief, or restoration to be expected. They had deluded themselves with false hopes and had resorted to carnal devices, distrustful of God, as men often do, and with like result. Instead of returning to that God against whom they had rebelled, and who might have opened to them a door of hope, they departed more and more from him, placing their dependence on the sinful, unavailing shifts of their own devising.
Hos 9:7-9
There is no joy, any more than peace, to the sinner.
However men put away from them the evil day, they can neither stave it off altogether nor delay its coming.
I. THE CERTAINTY OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS OVERTAKING SINNERS. In the previous verse the prophetic past is used, to intimate that, though the event predicted had not yet taken place, yet was it as sure of accomplishment as if it had already occurred. Here the words “are come” are repeated to apprise sinners of its certainty; thus we read in the same tense, and with like repetition, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” So also in Eze 7:6, “An end is come, the end is come behold, it is come;” while in the verse preceding, and in the one succeeding, the same expression is repeated to impress men with the fact of the threatened judgments being both sure and near, and thus prevent self-deception.
II. THE CHARACTER OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENTS.
1. They are days of Divine visitation. Men’s sins shall be searched out and brought to light; they shall be scrutinized by the omniscient and heart-searching God.
2. They are days of recompense, when not only shall an exact account be taken, but a just recompense of reward dealt out to each according as his work shall be. The recompense shall correspond to the visitation; the stricter the former, the juster and more exact the latter.
3. They are days near at hand, so near as well as certain that they are spoken of as already come.
III. THE CONDUCT OF THE PROPHET. If, as some suppose, the prophet here mentioned is
(1) the false prophet, he deluded the people with false hopes, and God gave the people over to strong delusion that they might believe a lie They awake not out of their day-dream until roused by the visitation and recompense of the Almighty. God, by afflictive dispensations, has to stir men up when milder means have failed. But
(2) the prophet mentioned may be a true prophet, and it may only be in the estimation of the people that he is fool and madman. In this case, those that thus treated him with contempt and ridicule shall be awakened by the visitations of the Almighty to a sense of their sin and shame. Then
(3) shall they know, as stated in the first clause, not only the nearness and certainty of the Divine visitation and recompense, but shall also know that a prophet had been among them, that he had discernment of the times, and had faithfully conveyed to them the message of God. They
(4) shall know too, to their cost and by bitter experience, many things about God, about his ambassadors, and about their own heartless misconduct. They shall know, says an old divine, these things:
“1. What a great God they had to deal with.
2. How vile a thing sin is.
3. The vanity of all their shirtings.
4. The dreadfulness of Divine wrath.
5. The faithfulness of God’s prophets.
6. The wisdom of those who dared not do as they did.
7. The folly and vanity of all the false prophets that did before seduce them.”
IV. THE CAUSE OF ALL THEIR ERRORS WAS THE MULTITUDE OF THEIR SINS. Faults in their life, as is not unusual with wicked men, bred errors in the brain. Their iniquity had been great and aggravated, and, in addition to their multiplied iniquity, they were just objects of hatred and subjects of the sameat once “hateful and hating.” Besides their vile heart and wicked life, they hated God, his ambassadors, his ways, and. all godliness. Could they fail to be children of wrath while their carnal mind was thus enmity to God? It was reasonable that God should abandon such persons to prophets of lies, to deceive and undo their souls; or, on the other hand, it was in keeping with the malignity of their hearts and the malice of their nature to calumniate the prophets of the Lord and vilify them as fools and madmen; while the fact of accounting them so, aggravated their sins, hastened the fast-coming visitation, and intensified the recompense of reward.
Hos 9:10, Hos 9:11
God’s goodness met with ingratitude by a sinful people.
Instead of repenting of their sins, they persevered in their rebellion against God. As if God overlooked or connived at their enormities, they added their deep corruption in the matter of Gibeah, in the days of the judges, to the iniquity of Baal-peor at a still earlier period; while the sins of Gibeah and Baal-peor were equaled by those of the prophet’s own day.
I. THE DELIGHT WHICH GOD TOOK IN THEIR FATHERS. Their sainted sires had been the favorites of Heaven; the fathers and founders of their race had sought God’s “face and favor free;” and, walking in his ways, enjoyed his benediction.
1. God’s pleasure in the piety of his people is truly astonishing, though that piety is entirely traceable to his own gracious dealings with them. When a weary wanderer in a wilderness comes upon grapes rich and ripe, or figs the first and finest of the season, how he is refreshed by fruits so rare and luscious! Such is the strong and suggestive figure by which God expresses his delight in his servants of old; nor does he take less delight in them in the present than in the ancient days. Men like Abraham the faithful, or Isaac the meditative, or Jacob the prayerful, or Joseph the pure, or Moses the meek, enjoy the sunshine of God’s favor still.
2. Where much is given much is required. If God thus delights in his people, surely his people should delight in God. If God views with such complacency the fruit of his own Spirit’s operations in the hearts of his people, and the effects of his own grace seen reflected in their lives, surely it is our bounden duty as well as high privilege to reciprocate in some measure the Divine goodness, delighting in the Divine ordinances, living in the Divine service, and promoting the Divine glory.
3. God is particularly delighted with the firstfruits, and not only so, but with the first of the firstfruits. Here is special encouragement to the young to devote themselves early to God, and early to delight themselves in him. They are invited to give their young hearts to God when the dew of their youth is heavy upon themwhen their perception is keen, their conscience tender, their affections warm, and their memory retentive.
II. THEIR DEGENERACY. Their fathers had been to God as grapes in a desert land, and as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time; but the degenerate descendants of such godly ancestry had become like fruit bitter and sour. They resembled fruitless fig trees, or the wild vine with its small harsh berries; and that, notwithstanding all Jehovah’s care and culture, they had long ceased to walk in the ways or follow the steps of their godly forefathers. The holiness of those forefathers, refreshing as grapes of best quality and figs of the first growth to the heart of God, was no longer to be found; their fruit was sour, their ways corrupt. The God of their fathers had ceased to be their God. “Oh! it is a comfortable thing,” says an old divine, “when a child is able to say, as Exo 15:2, ‘My God,’ and “My father’s God.” “God was my father’s God, and delighted in my father; and, blessed be his Name, he is my God, and I hope he has some delight in me.”
III. THEIR DEPRAVITY. They for their part (the use of the pronoun adds emphasis) went to Baal-peor.
1. Here they are either contrasted with their godly forefathers, or the contrast is rather between God’s care and goodness on the one hand, and their ingratitude and baseness on the other. The complaint of God resemble, that of a fond and indulgent husband who has lavished his love on a worthless wife, and who, to his unspeakable mortification, discovers that he has been cherishing an adulteress. Instead of reciprocating his affection, She plays the wanton; instead of a suitable return for his many acts of kindness, tenderness, and care, she dishonors him by turning aside to some base adulterer. So with Israel when they turned from the living God to dumb idols; so with any people who, instead of seating their affections on God, transfer them to any earthly, sensual, or sinful object.
2. We see in the conduct of Israel a notable example of the perverted use of the Divine mercies. God had segregated Israel from the nations around them, and separated them to himself to be a peculiar people. The Nazarite who by his vow was separated and specially consecrated to Jehovah, was symbolical of the whole nation in its separation and consecration to God. But, regardless of God’s mercy and reckless of their own privileges, they separated themselves to the service of a shameful idol. When they went to Baal-peor, whether the idol itself or rather the place of the idol (the same as Beth-peer), they engaged with full consecration, rather desecration, of all their powers in the infamous worship of Baal, here called Bosheth, their shame.
3. Their abominations were according as they loved; that is,
(1) they became as abominable as that which they loved; or
(2) their abominable idols were multiplied according to their heart’s desire; or
(3) their abominations were according as they loved. They were guided in the choice el them, not, of course, by the Word of God nor by the Law of God, but by their own inclination. In matters connected with religion and religious worship men should beware of being influenced by their personal likings, or private inclinations, or aesthetic tastes, but make sure of a warrant from the Word of God. Another evil is to be avoided in this matter, that of allowing our judgment to be overmastered by our affections, and thus of being unduly influenced in our religious views by those whom we love, whether husband, or wife, or kindred, or friends, or family. If the other sense be preferred, according to which people become as abominable as the objects which they love, it is an illustration of the well-known principle that men come to resemble those whom they love. A child imitates and so gets assimilated to the parent whom he loves; looking up to and admiring that parent, he comes in time to resemble him in habits of thought and modes of acting.
4. Here, in passing, we observe one of the many references and allusions of the prophet to the earlier books of Scripture. Through the evil counsel of Balsam a stumbling-block was placed in the way of the people of Israel, when they were enticed to impurity and so to idolatry by the daughters of Moab, and when, in consequence of their sin in the matter of Baal-peor, so many thousands perished in the plague.
IV. THEIR DESTRUCTION. Ephraim’s glory consisted of many elementsprosperity, pomp, and power, but most especially their population and numerous progeny as contributing to that population. In this particularly did Ephraim glory; but the day of their glory comes to a speedy and disastrous end.
1. The departure of their glory is compared to the flight of a bird, and thus that departure is represented as sudden, like the flight of a bird when it is startled from its nest in the greenwood, or when some one throws open the door of the cage in the dwelling where it has been imprisoned; as swift, like the flight of the eagle toward heaven; as irretrievable, like the bird of powerful pinion, which distances pursuit and escapes beyond the possibility of being ever caught or found again.
2. Disaster awaits them at every stageconception, gestation, and parturition. The curse of God pursues them from first to last, hindering the conception, or causing abortion, or preventing the birth.
APPLICATION. Learn hence:
1. The folly of glorying in any earthly prosperity or worldly advantage. “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.”
2. The prosperity of the wicked lasts not long. Ephraim, comprehending the ten tribes, had enjoyed great prosperity, and had surpassed Judah in numbers. This was particularly the case in the reign of Jeroboam II; to which this Scripture may probably refer. They had enjoyed prosperity so long, they thought it would last always; yet it passed away as in a moment.
3. Let us seek the glory that is real and abiding. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he under-standeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”
4. What reason we have to bless God for his preserving care. “He preserved us in the very conception, preserved us in our mother’s womb, and then in the birth; and then in the cradle, in our childhood, in our youth, in our middle age, and in our old age; for we lie at his mercy at every point of time.”
“Thy providence my life sustained,
And all my wants redressed,
When in the silent womb I lay,
And hung upon the breast.”
Hos 9:12-17
The wicked shall not go unpunished.
If they escape one calamity, they are sure to be overtaken and overwhelmed by another.
I. CALAMITY OF TWOFOLD KIND THREATENED. There is:
1. Bereavement, and that of a most painful nature. To be childless altogether, or to lose children in infancy, is sorrowful enough; but to be bereft of children when they have grown up to manhood or womanhood is an unspeakably greater sorrow. After labor, and trouble, and care, and thought have been expended in their upbringing; after all difficulties have been surmounted; and when sons have become like plants grown up in their youth, and daughters like corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace; when the conduct of both is characterized by dutifulness, love, and obedience; and when parents naturally expect much help and comfort from them, and have their affections twined round themat such a time, to be deprived of them either by a sudden stroke, or by slow disease, is a condition more than ordinarily sorrowful. It is only the grace of God in large measure that can sustain and support parents so afflicted; while the exercise of grace on their part has no doubt compensatory blessings. The bereavement of Israel was to be complete-without a man left. If left, they might be left without the intellect of a man, or the physical strength of a man; they might be imbeciles or invalids, and thus in a worse condition than if not left at all.
2. But a still worse woe impends, namely, that of Divine desertion. This is God’s withdrawal from a people or a person. When he thus withdraws, he withdraws his goodness and mercy, common graces, gifts, and comforts. When this withdrawal takes place we are utterly helpless; as the king of Israel said to the poor woman who cried for help, “If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?” or as the apparition of Samuel to Saul, “Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee?” We may pass through fiery trials, or be plunged in the deep waters of affliction; but if we enjoy the Divine presence we need not be afraid. As long as the Lord of hosts is with us, and the God of Jacob is our Refuge, we need not fear the raging of the great sea-billows, or the upheaval of the mountains, or even the shock of the earthquake. The sorest of all troubles is to be forsaken by God. Oh, how sad the lot of a man who, forsaken by God, is left in the power of his enemies! “I am sore distressed,” said the unhappy monarch; “for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me.”
II. A COMPARISON INSTITUTED. Ephraim is compared to Tyre in prosperity, in position, in population, and in military prowess; and yet God was preparing to take his departure from them.
1. His presence maintains health, strength, and various other comforts; or if, in his wise providence, he sees fit to withdraw any of these, he sanctifies that withdrawal. But when God himself withdraws, then his mercies prepare for flight too; nor is any blessing left behind. Not only so; even when men are at the height of prosperity, as they think, God may be on the point of departing from them, as from Israel in the days of Jeroboam II; if we are right in referring this comparison of the prophet to that period.
2. How we should prize God’s presence and pray for its continuance, saying, “Leave us not,” and avoid whatever would force or hasten his departure! But how may we be sure that he has not already forsaken us? The answer may be learned from the words of the psalmist: “I will keep thy statutes: oh, forsake me not utterly.” As long as we are resolved to keep his statutes, we may have little fellowship with, but cannot be forsaken by, God.
3. How dreadful the doom of those from whom God has actually and already departed! It is like the withdrawal of the sun from the firmament. “Take a delightful summer’s day, and how beautiful it is! Now compare that with a winter’s dark, dismal night. What makes the difference between these two? The presence of the sun in the one, and its absence from the other. This is but the presence or the departing of one of God’s creatures. Oh l if that makes such a difference in the world, what must the presence or departing of the infinite God do to the soul?” In the case of Ephraim, their children are brought forth to the murderersnot only murdered, but that murder perpetrated before the eyes of their parents. This seems the severest stroke of all. Even a heathen poet has most pathetically portrayed the extreme sadness of this condition in the death of Polites, a son of Priam, who addresses his murderer Pyrrhus in the well-known words: “May the gods, if there be any kind power in heaven to watch such deeds, yield you your due reward, who have defiled the father’s eyes by the sight of his son’s murder.”
III. COMMISERATION EXPRESSED. The prophet prays for his people, but seems straitened in his petitions, or rather he is at a loss to know what was most expedient for them and conducive to the Divine glory. He does not pray for peace, nor for deliverance, nor for prosperity. He dared not venture. He knew too well the sins of his countrymen, their abuse of the Divine mercies, their contempt of warning, their hardness of heart, their searedness of conscience, and their gross misuse of all means used for their recovery. No wonder he pauses and hesitates. He cannot pray for a numerous progeny to be vouchsafed to his people, or for children at all Better they should never come into the world at all than to be made the prey of the spoiler; better not to be born than to become victims of the murderer; better perish before birth or from the birth than live a life of sin and misery, and die a death of violence and hopelessness! At length, in view of the sinfulness of the people, the misery of times not far distant, and the fast-approaching calamities, he prays either that children might not be born at all, or that they might not be sustained so as long to survive their birth.
IV. CRIMINALITY EXPOSED. We are here reminded of the plan of Israel’s criminal conduct, of the punishment of it, and of the princes who were ringleaders in it.
1. The place of their chief and greatest crimes was Gilgal. What a contrast[ The place that testified to God’s greatest mercies also witnessed Israel’s greatest wickedness. In Gilgal the memorial stones were set up after the passage of the Jordan; in Gilgal the first Passover was celebrated after the Exodus; in Gilgal the rite of circumcision was renewed and the reproach of Egypt rolled away; in Gilgal Israel first ate the fruits of the promised land. Yet all their wickedness, their chief wickedness, was wrought there. There they threw off the government of God by judges, and would have Saul to be their king; there, in their superstition, they worshipped God instead of at Jerusalem, and thus trampled underfoot the Divine appointment. The more God signalizes a person or place by his mercies, the more severe his judgments on the wickedness of such. Every time God’s eye rested on Gilgal, a feeling of hatred was roused against the works and workers of iniquity there.
2. The punishment of their wickedness was expulsion. “Some sins,” as has been said, “provoke God to anger, and some to grief, but some to hatred.” ‘There I hated them.’ It is dreadful when our sins provoke hatred. This is the great difference between the sins of the saints and others. The sins of the saints may anger God, may grieve God, but the sins of others provoke God to hatred.” That hatred manifests itself in their expulsion. They are driven out of God’s house, and so nationally unchurchedas a disobedient and unruly child is driven out of his father’s house, or as a rebellious and unruly servant is turned out of the house of his master; while son and servant receive no more tokens of favor or good will.
3. Their princes, one and all, set the bad example of rebellion and revolt. As “like priest, like people,” so like prince, like people. Persons in high places have it in their power to do much good or work much evil by their influence and example; for such they are responsible, and shall one day be called to account. Of every talent given us, whether health, or wealth, or influence, or opportunities of doing or getting good, we must all one day give an exact account.
V. CONSUMPTION COMPLETED. A tree may lose its leaves, but a following spring will restore them; it may lose some of its branches in the process of pruning, but this will not prevent it growing again. Yea, “there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.” So long as the root retains life, there is hope of the tree; but once the root is dried up and dead, ruin is inevitable. Thus Ephraim was smitten; thus many are smitten in just judgment from the Almighty. When the root is thus dried up, there can be no hope of fruit. If men will bear fruit to the world, or sin, or self, and not unto God, it is only just they should be left fruitless. If men will not bring up their children for God, training them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, is it strange they should be left childless?
VI. CASTAWAYS AMONG THE NATIONS. This is the condition in which Israel remains till the present day. They cast away the truth of God, and now they are cast away. They rejected the Son; for he came to his own realms, and his subjects received him not; now they are outcast. Note the cause: “Because they did not hearken unto him.” This was regarded by Luther as a notable statement, and worthy to be written on all our walls. Bow often we find men hearkening to the counsels of the wicked, or to the suggestions of worldly policy, or to the temptations of the evil one, or to their own lusts and passions, but not to God! Let men beware of refusing to give audience to God. Let them beware of acting as if they did not hear with the ear, nor understand with the heart. Every Jew one meets is a warning of the danger of not hearkening to God. While every Jew is a living monument to the truth of Scripture, he is at the same time a proof of the calamity incurred by not hearkening to God. It is here predicted that they should be wanderers among the nations. The fulfillment of the prediction may be expressed in the sadly truthful words of the Hebrew melody
“Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast,
How shall ye flee away and be at rest!
The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave,
Mankind their country; Israel but the grave!”
HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN
Hos 9:1-9
The Assyrian captivity.
Israel had courted the favor of Assyria; but the result would be her absorption and destruction as a nation. In this and the succeeding chapter, notwithstanding acknowledged difficulties of interpretation, the distresses of the Exile are depicted with telling effect.
I. THE PROPHET‘S INTERDICT AGAINST ISRAEL. (Hos 9:1) Hosea, as it were, appears suddenly among the people when they are preparing to hold some joyous festival, and sternly forbids it in Jehovah’s Name. He is constrained by the burden of the Lord to act the unwelcome raft of “the skeleton of the feast.” He tells Israel that, in view of the dread realities of her position as a nation, this was no time for gladness. To ignore the facts would not obliterate them. To rejoice exultingly just now, merely because she had obtained a plentiful harvest, or secured some temporary relief from her political troubles, was to act with the folly of the ostrich, which thrusts her head into the sand, anal thinks that all is well because she does not see her pursuers. If it is “better” for an men “to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting,” it would be especially advantageous at present for the Israelitish people to do so. For the condition of the nation was extremely insecure. The prosperity in which they were rejoicing was hollow, and it would be evanescent.
II. THE GROUND OF THE INTERDICT. This is unfolded in the body of the passage. It is twofold.
1. Israel’s extreme sinfulness. (Verses 1, 7, 9) “Other people,” i.e. heathen nations, might more readily be excused for holding festivals of rapturous joy; for, not having the knowledge of God, they could not perceive how far they had transgressed his Law. But Israel had sinned against abundant light, and in spite of continual warning. How sad that the chosen nation should look upon her harvests as the gift of heathen godsas Baal’s reward for her devoted service of him! Not only so, but Israel’s wickedness was great all round. The people heartily hated both the Lord and his servants the true prophets. The whole country was now as notorious for its monstrous corruption, as Gibeah of Benjamin had been, since the time when the tragic atrocity of the Levite and his concubine had been perpetrated there (Jdg 19:16, et seq). The error of the men of Benjamin in shielding the villains who wrought that foul deed had involved the town of Gibeah in destruction, and the tribe itself almost in extirpation. And so also was it to be now with the ten tribes.
2. Israel‘s impending misery. The commonwealth was on the verge of destruction, and soon the people’s place in the land would know them no more. Surely it were madness to rejoice now, when they are on the very eve of being carried away into captivity. The prophet proclaims most plainly the fiat of expulsion (verse 3). The nation that is now “Lo-ammi,” “Not my people,” cannot be allowed any longer to remain in “the Lord’s land.” “Ephraim shall return to” the new “Egypt” of Assyria, and shall there undergo a second Egypt-like oppression. The Exile shall involve the withdrawal of all the blessings and privileges in which the people gloried; as, e.g.:
(1) Loss of harvests. (Verse 2) Palestine was a land of inexhaustible plenty, and there Israel “did eat bread without scarceness;” but, in her effacement from the land, she shall of course lose her harvests. She shall have no happy harvest-homes in Assyria.
(2) Loss of national distinctions. (Verses 3, 4) To “eat unclean things in Assyria” would prove a severe trial and a sore punishment. For the Jews, although they imitated the heathen in some thingsas, e.g; in desiring a king like the nations, and in falling into Gentile idolatriesplumed themselves all the while upon the fact that the Gentiles and they did not stand religiously upon the same level; and they clung to the Mosaic distinctions of meats because it was a badge of their peculiar privileges as the chosen nation.
(3) Loss of spiritual privileges. (Verses 4, 5) In their exile the Hebrews would miss the opportunities of sacrifice to Jehovah which they had neglected while they “dwelt in the Lord’s land.” Jerusalem was the one place of sacrifice; and for the captives there would be no gracious presence of God in heathendom. No temple there, no ritual, no great annual feasts, no exuberant festal joy! The feast of tabernacles, as the grand harvest-home festival, used to be kept by the tribes with lively demonstrations of national gladness; but, alas! the “Greater Hailel” would never be sung amid the miseries of Assyria.
(4) Loss of inheritance in Canaan. (Verse 6) That land had been given to the Hebrews, and was continued in their possession, upon condition of obedience to the Divine Law. The occupancy of” the Lord’s land” was a symbol of the enjoyment of the Lord’s favor. Now, however, seeing that the people have forfeited the blessing of Jehovah, they must be expelled for ever from that goodly heritage. The ten tribes shall not return to Palestine. The people shall find their graves in the Egypt-like exile of Assyria. Thistles and nettles shall spring up in luxuriance among the ruins of their once beautiful houses. The traveler finds these nettles still, growing rankly to a height of six feeta sign of the curse that yet rests upon the land.
(5) Loss of the hopes held out by the false prophets. (Verses 7, 8) At present there were false teachers among the people who kept saying, “Peace, peace,” merely to flatter them, and to make matters pleasant for the time. But every prediction of prosperity would be falsified. The people would soon discover that these so-called prophets had been either “fools” or “snares,” that is, either simpletons or sharpers. The expectations of well-being which these persons encouraged them to cherish would be miserably disappointed. It would presently be found that Hosea had been the real patriot, and the truest friend of his nation, although he did not prophesy good concerning it, but the worst of evils. The northern kingdom is to be wasted with misery; no wonder, then, that the prophet calls out, “Rejoice not, O Israel.”
III. SOME LESSONS OF THE INTERDICT FOR OURSELVES.
1. The ungodly man has no rational ground for gladness or rejoicing (verse 1).
2. Our harvest-joy should be a joy “before God” (verses 1, 2).
3. In emigrating to a strange laud there is often danger to one’s spiritual nature, arising from the loss of religious privileges (verses 3, 4).
4. It is supreme folly to banish all thought of” the solemn days “of life by giving one’s self up to habits of frivolity and worldly pleasure (verse 5).
5. We must “beware of false prophets,” and “try the spirits, whether they are of God” (verses 7, 8).
6. “The Lord’s land” is only for the Lord’s people: for such alone the Lord Jesus prepares a place in the heavenly Canaan (verses 1-9).C.J.
Hos 9:7, Hos 9:8
The true and the false prophet.
Accepting the Authorized Version here as substantially correct, we interpret these verses as referring to both classes. Hos 9:7 makes mention, in a parenthesis, of the false prophet. The first clause of Hos 9:8 refers to the true prophet; and the remainder of the verse contrasts the character of the false prophet with his. The theme thus suggested is an instructive and profitable one.
I. THE TRUE AND THE FALSE PROPHET ARE OFTEN CONTEMPORARIES. One of Satan’s favorite methods for the support of his kingdom seems in all ages to have been to caricature the works of the Almighty, and to induce men to accept the counterfeit and reject the real. Whenever, accordingly, the Lord raised up a true prophet, Satan at the same time sent forth false prophets. Thus Moses, at the beginning of his career, had to contend with” the magicians of Egypt;” and, towards the close of it, against the influence of Balaam, who, although constrained to utter true predictions, was all the while the Anti-Moses. In like manner, Elijah confronted at Carmel four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal; and Micaiah at Samaria other four hundred (1Ki 22:6-28). Elisha also lived contemporaneously with false prophets (2Ki 3:11-13; 2Ki 10:19). Hosea, as he himself testifies both here and elsewhere (Hos 4:5), was impeded and thwarted in his life-work by many impostors. And at last, when God incarnated himself in Jesus Christ as the supreme Prophet of the Church, the devil took care to send into the world “false Christs and false prophets.” After nearly nineteen centuries of the gospel, Mohammedanism yet lives as the religion of “the false prophet,” and in our day there are still pretenders to the dignity of” the Mahdi,” or Moslem Messiah. In “the last time” there have already been “many antichrists;” and, before the Christian dispensation of truth shall close, the Antichrist par excellence must yet be revealed (1Jn 2:18).
II. THE WORK OF THE TRUE PROPHET. (Verse 8) It is that of a spiritual “watchman,” stationed on the watch-tower of faith and prayer. He stands there, concentrating his gaze upon the unseen, that he may obtain Divine revelations of mercy or judgment, and report such to the people (Eze 3:17; Eze 33:7; Hab 2:1). God sent many such watchmen to the chosen nation. He sent some even to the ten tribesthe two writing prophets Hosed and Amos; such great prophets of action as Elijah and Elisha; besides also Ahijah, Micaiah, Jonah, etc. These “watchmen of Ephraim’ were “with God,” in the sense of being:
1. Serif by God. His Spirit called them to their office, put his words into their mouth, and even caused them sometimes to feel as if their own consciousness were absorbed into that of God.
2. Helped by God. He infused into their hearts the courage and strength which they needed boldly to speak his Word to a “gainsaying people,” who hated them for their faithfulness.
3. Responsible to God. For the prophets would have to give account to him of the manner in which they had announced the revelations vouchsafed to them for the nation’s guidance. Moses had been “with God,” for “the Lord knew him face to face” (Deu 34:10). Elijah had been “with God,” for he spoke of him as Jehovah, “before whom I stand” (1Ki 17:1). Elisha was called “a holy man of God” (2Ki 4:9). Hosea’s name means salvation; and the name reflected the substance of his ultimate message, that of the redeeming love of Jehovah. And similarly still, under the gospel dispensation, the minister of Jesus Christ is to stand among men as a witness for “the things which are not seen,” a watchman whose eye searches the invisible, and who points with his finger towards eternity and God. Every preacher should deliver his message as David Hume, the infidel, remarked that John Brown of Haddington did: “That old man preaches as if Christ were at his elbow.”
III. THE CHARACTER OF THE FALSE PROPHET. The northern kingdom abounded in such persons in the time of Hosea. They professed to be prophets, i.e. for-speakers; but they did not really speak for God. They called themselves “spiritual men”men of the spirit; but the spirit which possessed them was an evil and a lying spirit. Their pretended prophecies were soothing and flattering, all the while that the land reeked with idolatry and unmentionable vices. The false prophets “prophesied out of their own hearts,” and “saw nothing” of the vision of the Lord (Eze 13:2, Eze 13:3). At the very hour when the sword was about to come upon the land, and the throne was tottering to its fall, they derided the earnest warnings of the true prophets, and hoodwinked the people into the persuasion that all would yet be well. Thus the fake prophet, so far from being in any good sense a “watchman.” was to the people; “snare of a fowler in all their ways;” and, with many a specious and plausible pretext, he allured the poor silly people to their ruin. When, at length, that ruin rushed upon them, it was demonstrated that the prophet who had misled them with the expectation of prosperity was a “fool” and “mad.” Amid the horrors of their captivity in Assyria they would have leisure to reflect upon the folly of the impostors whom they had allowed to delude them. In these latter times, also, there are false prophets enough who are as “a snare of a fowler,” and whom ever and again events prove to be “fools” and “mad.” What mischief, e.g; was wrought in Europe by the infidel writings of Voltaire and Rousseau! What a snare, to a certain class of minds, has Comte been! How many unwary souls have been beguiled by Strauss and Renan! How sadly is the welfare of the Lord’s flock put in jeopardy by the revival of sacerdotalism in Churches professedly Protestant! Who can estimate the harm that is done to the cause of God by the baleful influence of ungodly and unfaithful ministers? Such, wherever found, are “a snare” to the people. Their example tends to drive souls away from God, and to drag them down to perdition.
IV. HOW THE TRUE PROPHET IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED FROM THE FALSE.
1. The false prophet, when the times are evil, “speaks smooth things.” He justifies the people’s misdeeds, and fails to rebuke prevailing sins. He is a blind watchman; a dumb dog that cannot barkloving to slumber; and a greedy dog, which can never have enough. So he flatters the people, promises them peace, and tries to make matters pleasant all round. The true prophet, on the other hand, without thinking of his safety or of his means of subsistence, always “prophesies right things;” and in an evil time “cries aloud, spares not, lifts up his voice like a trumpet, and shows the people their transgressions.
2. The false prophet comes “before, Christ“ (Joh 10:8); i.e. he aims at intercepting men’s view of him as the one Mediator, and does his work in opposition to the will and cause of Christ. The true prophet, on the other hand, never forgets that it is Christ who has sent him, and that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
3. The false prophet attracts ungodly men to his teaching, and attaches them as his followers; “but the sheep will not hear him.” His impostures are detected by those who enjoy the teaching of the Holy Spirit (1Jn 4:1-6). The true prophet, on the other hand, gathers around him those who are spiritually minded, and suffers persecution from the ungodly (e.g. Amo 7:10, Amo 7:11).
4. The false prophet shall be finally branded as an impostor when “the days of recompense” shall have come (verse 7). Thus the field of Ramoth-gilead decided whether Micaiah or the four hundred prophets of Ahab had prophesied truly. And on the day of judgment the Lord Jesus shall say to many who have professed to prophesy in his Name, “I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:22, Mat 7:23). The true prophet, on the other hand, “shah rest, and stand in his lot at the end of the days” (Dan 12:13).
“Ere long thy feet shall stand
Within the city of the Blessed One;
Thy perils past, thy heritage secure,
Thy tears all wiped away thy joy for ever sure.”
C.J.
Hos 9:10-17
Bereavement, barrenness, and banishment.
Here the prophet (Hos 9:10) finds a background for his picture of the final distress and captivity of Ephraim, by contrasting therewith the fair promise of prosperity and usefulness which the Hebrew nation had shown during its infancy. The body of the stropheuttered by Hosea with intense emotionis full of lamentations and mourning and woe (verses 11-16). And the closing words (verse 17) summarize in one brief and pregnant sentence the burden of the entire paragraph.
I. A BRIGHT BEGINNING. (Verses 10, 13) Jehovah “found Israel:” the people depended upon him for their preservation as a community. The emancipated slaves of Egypt would have been poor and helpless indeed but for his supporting care. But he set his love upon them, and planted and trained the Hebrew commonwealth as the Oriental husbandman does his vines and fig trees. At Mount Sinai Jehovah made a gracious covenant with Israel, set up his tabernacle with a view to dwell among the people, and arranged the tribes in order as his sacramental host. When they struck their tents at Sinai, and journeyed towards Paran (Num 10:11, Num 10:12), the Lord looked upon them with complacency out of the cloudy pillar; and he marched on before the host, to lead Ephraim into a land beautiful for situation as that of the famous type, and where they might become as rich and prosperous as the Tyrians. The people had solemnly chosen Jehovah for their God, and “no strange god” was among them. So the Lord delighted in them, as the weary traveler in the desert rejoices in the clusters of the vine, or in the firstfruits of the fig tree.
II. AN EARLY FALL (Verse 10) Although God “had planted Israel a noble vine, wholly a right seed,” very soon, alas! they “were turned irate the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto him.” They had left Egypt, but Egypt had not left them. During the forty years which they spent in the wilderness, they frequently rebelled against the Lord. But the prophet mentions here only one of their provocations, the idolatry of Baal-peor or Chemosh (Num 25:1-18), an idol whose rites of worship involved the practice of the grossest sensuality. The Hebrews, in fact, had in those early days indulged in precisely the same abominations with which Hosea was now so familiar in this last time of the northern kingdom. The unchaste worship of Baal and Astarte, even before the tribes entered Canaan, had brought a sad blight upon the fair early promise which for a little while the chosen people had given. “They separated themselves”like an evil class of Nazaritesto the service of the filthiest of the gods of heathendom. “And their abominations were according as they loved;” i.e. they became more and more assimilated in their own character to the objects of their worship.
III. AN INFAMOUS CAREER. (Verses 15, 17) That early idolatry of Baal-peor repeated itself again and again, especially within the northern kingdom, after its revolt from the dynasty of David. There was:
1. The desecration of sacred places. “All their wickedness was in Gilgal;” it seemed concentrated as in a focus in that very locality which had been the first to be called “holy’ within the Holy Land (Jos 5:15), and which had been the scene of special mercies when the tribes began to take possession. It was a sore aggravation of Israel’s sin that the people should pervert Beth-el into Beth-even, and destroy the hallowed associations of such a place as Gilgal.
2. The ungodliness of the kings. “All their princes are revolters,” i.e. apostates, men who with unanimous infatuation had departed from God and righteousness. All, without exception, were wicked men; therefore in the annals of the Books of Kings the same melancholy refrain constantly recurs: “He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.”
3. The wickedness of the people. “They did not hearken unto God” (verse 17). Israel “went after her lovers” the Baalim, prostituted herself to them, and forgot Jehovah her rightful Husband. He had long pleaded with her to return to him, but in vain. He had told her of his shame and anger because of her unworthiness, he had reproached her for perverting his gifts to the basest uses, he had threatened her with severe chastisements and even with final rejection; but she was “joined to idols,” and “did not hearken unto him.”
IV. A TERRIBLE PUNISHMENT. With the denunciation of this penalty the whole passage is saturated. “Ephraim is smitten” (verse 16). There is to be:
1. Bereavement. (Verses 12, 13, 16) The once mighty and powerful nation is to have its ranks sadly thinned by sudden and violent deaths. “Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.” The ten tribes are to have their numbers so greatly lessened as to be brought to the verge of extermination. “There shall not be a man left.” This would prove a heavy humiliation to a people who expected that the blessing which Moses pronounced upon them would always be contained: “They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh” (Deu 33:17).
2. Barrenness. (Verses 11,14, 16) The name Ephraim means double fruitfulness, and the northern kingdom gloried in its numerous progeny; but, now that the curse of God is upon the nation, “their glory shall fly away like a bird,” and they shall have few births, as well as many deaths. The very “root” of the once powerful and fruitful Ephraim has been smitten with an incurable hurt; and the fruit of Israel’s womb shall perish at the birth. For the nation has been guilty of both spiritual and literal harlotry; and of such sins barrenness is the appropriate penalty.
3. Banishment. (Verses 12, 15, 17) This is the acme of Ephraim’s doom. “Woe also to them when I depart from them!” They are banished:
(1) From the favor of God: “I will love them no more;” “There I hated them.”
(2) From the “house” of God, i.e. from his familyfrom the blessings of his covenant.
(3) From “the Lord’s land“ (verse 3); for they are to become lost and hopeless “wanderers among the nations.” This doom has been very fully suffered by Israel in the past, and the nation is lying under it still. The condition of the Jews during the past eighteen centuries has been a striking verification of Old Testament prophecy, as well as a convincing argument for the truth of Christianity.
LESSONS.
1. The attractiveness of early piety, and the advantages which flow from it (verse 10).
2. The duty of gratitude for being “planted in a pleasant place,” temporally and spiritually (verse 13).
3. The danger of backsliding, which besets every Christian, and our need of humility, watchfulness, and prayer (verse 10).
4. The leavening influence of sin upon the whole heart and life of the sinner (verse 10).
5. The awfulness of the condition of every God-forsaken soul (verses 15, 17).C.J.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Hos 9:3
The Lord’s land.
Canaan was a land very dear to the Hebrew heart. Few things could cause the children of Israel deeper grief than the prospect of exile and banishment. When absent from their native and sacred soil, their thoughts were with the fair hills and fertile valleys of Palestine, its fenced cities, and above all its metropolis, the center of religious worship and sacrifice. Accordingly the heart of Christendom has ever regarded “the holy land” as the symbol of spiritual privilege and enjoyment and fellowship. Christians dwell in “the Lord’s land.”
I. IT IS THE LAND OF PROMISE, as assured to them by a gracious and “covenant-keeping” God, even as Canaan was promised to the descendants of the patriarchs.
II. IT IS A LAND OF SPIRITUAL PLENTY. Canaan was represented as a “land flowing with milk and honey,” and in this is a figure of the sufficient provision which God has made in the gospel for the spiritual needs of his obedient, loyal people.
III. IT IS A LAND OF DIVINE FAVOR. Palestine was denominated a good land, upon which the eyes of the Lord rested “from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.” Upon the citizens of the heavenly Canaan God ever lifts the light of his countenance.
IV. IT IS A LAND OF REST, Even as Israel rested in the promised inheritance after the wanderings of the wilderness, so Christians find that where God dwells, and where he appoints their habitation, there is rest spiritual and eternal.T.
Hos 9:5
What will ye do?
The prophet takes such measures as seem likely to be effective, in order to rouse Israel to a sense of the guilt and folly of forsaking Jehovah. He pictures them as exiles in an Eastern land, far from their beloved country, far from the sacred metropolis, and the temple with its priesthood and its sacrifices. He supposes the days of holy festivity to have come round, with which the chosen people associated national memories of Divine deliverance, or happy acknowledgments of Divine bounty. On the recurrence of such seasons of holy mirth and obedient observance and welcome fellowship, the caprices might well be supposed bitterly to rue their rebellion and apostasy, which had revolved them in calamities so dire and privations so seductions of the enemy. The time of trial will come, and then what will ye do?
I. WHAT WILL YE DO WHEN EARTHLY PLAN AND PLEASURES FAIL? In the hot pursuit of worldly ends in life, in the absorbing enjoyment of the delights this world can yield, men forget their Maker and his claims, their Savior and his love. But when the time comesas come it soon maywhen favorite projects dissolve as dreams, and when no more pleasure is to be found where it has long been sought and often experienced, what will ye do?
II. WHAT WILL YE DO WHEN ABANDONED BY EARTHLY FRIENDS? The countenance of companions in health and high spirits is cheering, their hilarity is contagious, their presence is fitted to banish gloomy apprehensions. But such friendships are often superficial; times of adversity put them to a test too severe. Those who are willing to partake of hospitality and to heighten conviviality are seldom the friends “born for adversity;” they often vanish when sympathy is most needed, when solitude is most dreaded.
III. WHAT WILL YE DO WHEN RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES ARE FOUND TO BE EMPTY FORMS? It is sometimes supposed that any time will do for religion, that religious aid and consolation are always at the service, at the beck and call, of every one of us. But it is not so. If we neglect and abuse our privileges, they will forsake us. The man who has long disused his Bible, and given up prayer, and forsaken public worship, may, in the time. of anxiety and trouble, have recourse to what has been long neglected. But he may find that these ordinances and privileges are to him nothing but a form. They have not changed, but he has grown unspiritual, hardened, and morally incapable of using privileges within his reach. What then will he do?
IV. WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE PROSPECT OF DEATH AND JUDGMENT? In youth and in good spirits, men sometimes hear of these dread realitiesfor such they are to the impenitent and unpardonedwithout at all realizing them, or believing that they have anything to do with themselves. But in sickness and in old age, eternity often draws near to the imagination and to the heart. Memory brings up evil deeds and words and thoughts. The foreboding soul feels, and feels justly, that the account must soon be given, that the judgment-seat must soon be faced. And yet there is no preparation, no defense, no plea. What a position! and what a prospect! Faithfulness and kindness induce the preacher of the Word to remind the careless hearer of the coming days, and the revelation they will bring; to urge upon him now, whilst it is of some use to consider the solemn questionWhat will ye then do?T.
Hos 9:7
The sin of desiring God’s prophets.
Every preacher of righteousness has to endure now and again the misunderstanding or the misrepresentation of some of those whom he addresses in the Name of the Lord. It is not to be desired that all men should speak well of him. The servant is not above his Master, and no calumny was too base, no blasphemy too enormous, for the enemies of Jesus to assail him with.
I. THE PREACHES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS OFTEN MEETS WITH SLIGHT AND WITH CONTEMPT FROM MEN.
1. The charges brought: “The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad.” Hosea and other prophets, from Noah down to the last of the order, had to contend with such foolish and wicked calumnies. As a shield for their own folly, sinners profess to find folly in those who rebuke them.
2. The motives which prompt to such charges. Sometimes it is done by the mistake of the unspiritual, who, to their shame, know no better, because of their insensibility to Divine realities, because of the low level upon which they live. Sometimes by the malice and calumnious willfulness of opponents of truth and goodness, who hate nothing so much as to be rebuked for their evil deeds.
3. The conduct which calls forth such charges. Usually the real ground of hostility to prophets and to faithful preachers has been the interference which has aimed rebukes at prevalent sins. Thus the real fools and madmen are not the ministers of God’s word, but those who despise it and blaspheme.
II. THE PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL NEVERTHELESS BE VINDICATED BY GOD. Whilst unbelieving and impenitent sinners make a mock at sin, and jeer at those who condemn sin, God, the righteous Judge, observes the treatment with which his servants meet.
1. God approves and advances his faithful messengers, None can serve him faithfully and be neglected or passed over. The good and faithful servant, who has been deemed a madman by those themselves infatuated and mentally intoxicated, shall be commended and exalted in due time.
2. God will himself punish the mockers in the days of visitation and. recompense. “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”T.
Hos 9:8
The watchman.
Among the many similitudes employed to set forth the character and office of the prophet, the spiritual teacher and counselor of men, none is more striking than this. It is a figure employed also by Ezekiel and Habakkuk, and may be presumed accordingly to have commended itself to the judgment of the people generally, or at least of those who reverenced the Lord’s messengers. Every preacher and teacher may be regarded as a watchman stationed on the wails, bound to give the people warning of approaching danger, and so to secure their safety.
I. BY WHOM APPOINTED. The watchman is placed at his post by authority. “I have set thee a watchman,” is the utterance of the Lord himself. The minister of Christ prefaces his counsels and admonitions, as did the olden prophets theirs, with the assertion “Thus saith the Lord.”
II. OVER WHOM STATIONED. The Hebrew prophet testified to the Hebrew people. There is no limit to the commission of the Christian preacher, who is bound to witness to Jew and Gentile, to young and old, etc.
III. WITH WHAT FUNCTION CHARGED. St. Paul describes this when he writes of spiritual pastors and overseers, “They watch for your souls, as those who shall give account.” Warning of the temptations which assail, counsels regarding the way of escape and the promises of deliverance,these form a large part of the duties of the spiritual watchman’s sacred office.
IV. WITH WHAT RESPONSIBILITY ATTACHED. The watchman who fulfils his trust is permitted to cast the responsibility upon those to whom he ministers. It is for them to take warning. If they do so, they will escape; if not, their blood will be upon their own head.
V. OF WHAT TREATMENT DESERVING. For his work’s sake, for his message’s sake, for his Master’s sake, he merits a respectful hearing and a grateful regard. No superstitious reverence attaches to his person, but his office is a sacred office, and the herald is honored when he faithfully carries his message to sinful men.
VI. THE PERSONAL PROBATION INVOLVED. Let it not be forgotten by him who is stationed upon the walls as a watchman entrusted with stuffs, that he also, as well as those to whom he ministers, is upon his trial. By faithfulness he may deliver his soul, whilst he secures the safety of the people and the approval of the Lord. By unfaithfulness he may not only be the means of ruining others; he may incur the displeasure of God, and may bring down upon himself the sentence due to disobedience or remissness.
APPLICATION.
1. The watchman is admonished to watch.
2. Those who hear his warning are entreated to give heed to what they hear, and thus escape the danger:, of this probationary life, and avail themselves of the opportunities of salvation.T.
Hos 9:17
Wanderers among the nations.
Whether or not there was present to the mind of the prophet the actual fate which has overtaken his countrymen, it seems plain that the Spirit within him uttered in these words a doom of which long centuries have beheld the awful fulfillment. We see here
I. NATIONAL CONTINUITY. The Hebrews were, and are, treated as one people. God visited, and still visits, the sins of the fathers upon the children. The Israelites who apostatized were one generation; the Israelites who suffered the ills and privations of captivity were another generation. Generation after generation of Israel’s sons have been “scattered,” “wanderers among the nations”a fate incurred by the obstinate unbelief of their forefathers, who rejected and crucified the Son of God. This is no doubt a very mysterious arrangement of Providence; but we must acknowledge it as an indisputable fact.
II. DIVINE RIGHTEOUSNESS. God is a Ruler, a moral Governor, who never abdicates his regal and judicial functions. The prophets were inspired to insist upon this great fact with emphasis and with repetition. A covenant God, a God delighting in mercy, yet threatens his chosen people thus: “I will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto me: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.” People, hearing from preachers of the gospel much about the pity and the love of God, sometimes scarcely believe in the equity and the moral sway and reign of him who is supremely just. Nevertheless, he will vindicate his government, he will assert his authority, and under his rule the wicked “shall not go unpunished.”
III. DIVINE TRUTHFULNESS AND FORESIGHT. The language of the text has been so exactly verified that it might have been written after the event. Inspiration) only could have written it before. Human sagacity might have predicted the captivity; only Divine foreknowledge could have predicted the dispersion. Thus in the process of time God’s Word becomes its own warrant.
IV. PURPOSE AND PREPARATION FOR NATIONAL RESTORATION‘ AND RETURN. Why are the Jews kept separate from the peoples in whose lands they dwell? Surely “he who scattereth will gather them”! It is the expectation of some that the Jews shall be restored to the land of promise; it is the belief of all that the ingathering of the Jews into the Christian fold shall one day be brought about, and that their union with Gentiles, in subjection to the one Divine Lord and Savior, shall be as “life from the dead.”T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
Hos 9:5
The solemn days of life.
“What will ye do in the solemn day?” “What will ye do in the day of assembly?when ye shall he despoiled of everything by the Assyrians; for the Israelites who remained in the land after its subjection to the Assyrians did worship the true God, and offer unto him the sacrifices appointed by the Law, though in an imperfect manner; and it was a great mortification to them to be deprived of their religious festivals in the land of strangers” (Elzas). The “solemn day” here evidently refers to one of the great Jewish feasts, either the Feast of the Passover, the Pentecost, or of the Tabernacles; and the literal meaning seems to beWhat will yon children of Abraham do when you are deprived by tyrannic strangers of the privilege of attending those solemn assemblies? Though the word “assembly” would be a better rendering than “solemn,” yet inasmuch as these festive assemblies were very solemn, and the privation of them of all things the most solemn, we shall accept the word for purposes of practical application. There are solemn days awaiting all of us, and the appeal in the text is evermore befitting and urgent.
I. THE DAY OF PERSONAL AFFLICTION is a “solemn day.” The day comes either by disease, accident, or infirmities of age, when, withdrawn from scenes of business, pleasure, or profession, we shall be confined to some lonely room, and languish on the couch of suffering and exhaustion. Such a day must come to all, and such a day will be “solemn”a day with but little light in the firmament of earthly life, a day of darkness, and perhaps of tempests. “What will ye do in the solemn day?” What can you do? You will not be able to extricate yourself kern the sad condition. No man can raise himself out of that physical suffering and weakness that are destined to come on his frame. What will ye do so as to be sustained in soul? Skeptical reasonings will be of no service, the recollections of past life will be of no service. “What will ye do in that solemn day?”
II. THE DAY OF SOCIAL BEREAVEMENT is a “solemn day.” Much of the charm of life is in our social loves, the love of partners, parents, children, friends. The time must come when ruthless death will tear them from the heart. This will be a solemn day. What a dark day with the soul is that when we return from the grave where we have left for ever some dear object of the heart, and when we enter the home where the loved one was the center and charm of the circle! Truly, a sunless, saddening day is this. And yet such a day must come to all. “What will ye do in this solemn day?” What will yon do for consolation? What word of comfort has science to offer, has the world to present? What will you do?
III. THE DAY OF DEATH is a “solemn day.” This awaits every man. “What man is he that liveth and shall not see death?” “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war.” What a “solemn day” is this! All earthly connections dissolving, the world receding, eternity parting its awful folds. What will ye do in this day, when heart and flesh shall fail? What will sustain your spirit then? Will you count your wealth? Will you gather about your dying bed your worldly companions? Will you seek to bury the remembrance of your past life? Something must be donethis you will feel; but what?
IV. THE DAY OF JUDGMENT is a “solemn day.” “We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.” What a day will that be! A “great and notable” day. “Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is at hand.” What will ye do? Will ye call “to the mountains and rocks to fall on you, and hide you from the eyes of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb”?
CONCLUSION. “What will ye do in the solemn day?” “Do!” Why, do what you should do every day of your lifeexercise a practical and unbounded faith in the love of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“‘Tis not the Stoic’s lessons, got by rote,
The pomp of words and pedant dissertations,
That can sustain thee in that hour of terror:
Books have taught cowards to talk nobly of it,
But when the trial comes they stand aghast.
Hast thou considered what may happen after it?
How thy account may stand, and what the answer?”
(Nicholas Rowe)
D.T.
Hos 9:7
Charge against religious ministers.
“The prophet is a fool, and the spiritual man is mad.” What the prophet means here seems to be thisthat when the predicted retribution had come Israel would learn that the prosperity which some of the prophets had predicted (Eze 13:10) proved them infatuated fools. Although some render the expression, “the spiritual man is mad,” a mad man the man of spirit, the man of the spirit is frantic, the idea seems to be the same as that conveyed in our version, viz. that the man pretending to have spiritual inspiration and prophesying was mad. We may take the words as a charge against religious ministers, and make two observations.
I. IT IS A CHARGE THAT IS SOMETIMES TOO TRUE. There have been religious ministers in all ages, and there are still in connection even with Christianity, who are foolish and “mad.”
1. There are men of weak minds. There are men in the ministry utterly incapable, not only of taking a harmonious view of truth, but even of forming a clear and complete conception of any great principle. We say not a word in disparagement of men of small cerebral power and feeble understanding. Heaven made them what they are; but they were never intended for the ministry. In the ministry they do enormous mischief. Their silly sentimentalities, their crude notions, their inane conceptions, bring the pulpit into contempt. They are “fools.”
2. There are men of irrational theologies. There are men who, though not always naturally weak-minded, nevertheless propound theological dogmas which are utterly incongruous with human reason, and therefore unbiblical and un-Divine. The doctrines that multitudes of men are predestined to eternal misery, that Christ’s death procured the love of God, that all that men require to make them good and happy for ever is to believe in something that took place eighteen hundred years ago,such dogmas as these are often propounded in pulpits, and they are utterly foolish; they strike against the common sense of humanity, and have no foundation in the teaching of him who is the “Wisdom of God.” The prophet that talks such things is a “fool,” and the spiritual man is “mad.”
3. There are men of silly rituals. The crossings, the kneelings, the bowings, the robings, the upholstering, the grimacings, which constitute much of the ministry of a large number of what are called Protestant ministers, justify the people in calling them fools and madmen. The outside world is constantly pointing to the pulpit, and saying, “The prophet is a fool, and the spiritual man is mad.” Alas! that there should be any cause for ill.
II. IT IS A CHARGE THAT IS OFTEN A SCOFFING CALUMNY. The unregenerate world have from the beginning identified preaching with folly and fanaticism. The general impression today in England is that preachers are intellectually a feeble folk, effeminate, lackadaisical, unfit for the business of the world. Now, an ideal preacher of Christianity, instead of being a “fool” or “mad,” is the wisest and most philosophic man of his age, and that for three reasons.
1. He aims at the highest end. What is that? To make himself and his fellow-men what they ought to be in relation to themselves, in relation to society, in relation to the universe, and in relation to God. Men are wrong in all these respects, and their wrongness is the cause of all the crimes and miseries of the world.
2. He works in the right direction. Where does he begin this work of moral reformation? At the heart. “Out of the heart are the issues of life.” All human institutions, conduct, actions, flow from the likings and dislikings of the human heart, He deals therefore as a philosopher with the fontal sympathies and antipathies of the soul. To clear the stream he goes to the fountain, to strengthen the tree he goes to the roots, to improve the productions of the world he works upon the soil.
3. He employs the best means. What are the best means to touch the heart effectively, to give its sympathies a new and right direction? Legislation, art, poetry, rhetoric? No; LOVE. What love? Human, angelic? No; too weak. Divine love. Divine love, not merely in nature, nor in propositions, but in example, the example of God himself. This is moral omnipotence, this is the Cross, this is the power of God unto salvation. Let no man say that the ideal minister is a fool; the man who says it is a fool
“I saw one man, armed simply with God’s Word,
Enter the souls of many fellow-men,
And pierce them sharply as a two-edged sword,
While conscience echoed back his words again,
Till, even as showers of fertilizing rain
Sink through the bosom of the valley clod,
So their hearts opened to the wholesome pain,
And hundreds knelt upon the flowery sod
One good man’s earnest prayer the link ‘twixt them and God.”
(Caroline Norton)
D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Hos 9:1-6
The Lord’s land for the Lord’s people.
This chapter may fall in the interval between the Assyrian invasions of B.C. 743-738, and the invasions ending in the overthrow of Pekah, B.C. 734-730 (cf. 2Ki 15:29, 2Ki 15:30; 2Ch 28:16-21, and Assyrian monuments). The interval seems to have been one of revived prosperity (2Ch 28:6-15).
I. ABUSED GOODNESS. (Hos 9:1, Hos 9:2)
1. A glimpse of prosperity. Israel had been rejoiced with a bounteous harvest. Land and people had previously suffered sore from the Assyrian. For a moment judgment pauses. It would be interesting if we could connect this gleam of prosperity with the momentary gleam of better feeling in the nation, as recorded in 2Ch 28:1-27. God tries all methods with the sinner. He varies judgment with mercy. He pauses, as it were, to give space for repentance. He tries, having humbled by application, again to melt by goodness (Rom 2:4).
2. Goodness abused. Israel knew not the meaning of this grace. The momentary softening led to no good results. The people, reassured by the heaped-up corn-floor and the full wine-press, fell into the old error of attributing their prosperity to the idols (Hos 2:5), and renewed their assiduity in their service. Our joy in the use of God’s good gifts becomes sinful when,
(1) excluding God, we boastfully attribute them to our own labor, or to “nature’ (Deu 8:17);
(2) our joy in them is purely natural, without recognition of, or gratitude towards, the great Giver;
(3) we abuse them by gluttony or drunkenness. In any case, with doom hanging over his head, the sinner’s joy is a species of madness.
3. The disappointed expectation. “The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them,” etc. One swallow does not make a summer, and the sinner errs if he supposes that one returning glimpse of prosperity means the reversal or collapse of God’s threatenings. God punishes the abuse of his gifts:
(1) By their removal. “When they thought themselves most secure, when the corn was stored on the floor, and the grapes were in the presses, then God would deprive them of them” (Pusey).
(2) By denying his blessing with them. “I will curse your blessings” (Mal 2:2).
(3) By their failure to satisfy. The good which the sinner seeks in a godless enjoyment of natural things, he is doomed not to find. They “lie” unto him. They constantly cheat his hopes.
II. DECREED EXPULSION. (2Ch 28:3) The glimpse of prosperity did not mean much. The sinner, notwithstanding passing appearances to the contrary, abides under wrath (Joh 3:36). The decree of judgment stands unrepealed. “They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land,” etc.
1. The Lord‘s land only for the holy. Canaan was chosen by God as the seat of his majesty, the place of his abode. His presence sanctified it. Israel possessed it as his people. They held it on condition of obedience. Their first work in it was to purge it of the impurities which had formerly desecrated it (Deu 7:1-6). Now that Israel themselves had become unholy, they must, in turn, be expelled from the land. God could not allow them to remain in it. The “holy land” is for a holy people. So it is said of heaven that into it “shall in no wise enter anything that defileth” (Rev 21:27).
2. The Lord resuming his own from the wicked. The land was the Lord’s, and, when Israel proved incorrigible, the Lord took his own from them, They had not owned him in the possession of what he gave, and he now resumed his gift. The sinner, who depends on God for “life, and breath, and all things,” would fain keep the gifts, while declining all recognition of the Giver. This God refuses to permit. The day is coming when he will strip the sinner of all he has. The Lord has given, and the Lord will take away.
3. Egypt-bondage. “Ephraim shall return to Egypt.” The people were to sink back into the state of oppression, misery, and mixture with the heathen in which they were when God took pity on them in Egypt. The Exodus gave them a national existence, a calling, and a land. They were now to become a “no people” to God, and be sent back, as it were, to Egypt again. Rejection by God means the loss of distinctive being, of life-aim, of sphere, of liberty, and subjection to the hard tyranny of sin, Satan, and the world.
III. UNCLEANNESS IN ASSYRIA. (2Ch 28:3-5) “They shall eat unclean things in Assyria,” etc. Israel’s condition in exile would be marked by:
1. Privation of privilege. They would be cut off from the sanctuary (“house of the Lord”), and prevented from observing their feasts, and bringing their usual offerings (cf. Hos 3:4). Their worship, as it stood, was not acceptable to God. They, however, attached importance to their sanctuaries, altars, wine offerings, sacrifices, etc. And it would be part of their punishment that they would be deprived of them.
2. Legal uncleanness. The prophet speaks here also from the standpoint of the people. Their outward life, even in Canaan, had no right sanctification in it. Now, however, their food, sacrifices, etc; would become even formally unclean. Uncleanness would arise
(1) from inability in a heathen country properly to observe the laws of food;
(2) from the fact that the heathen country was itself polluted, and communicated its uncleanness to food and offerings (cf. Amo 7:17);
(3) from the food not being properly sanctified by the presentation of the firstfruits (2Ch 28:4). Israel, in short, would lose even their outward distinctness as a sacred people, and would sink to the level of the profaneness of the nations around, lit seems better, in 2Ch 28:4, to read, “their sacrifices shall not be pleasing to him; (their bread shall be) as bread of mourners unto them.” Separation from God renders existence as a whole unclean. The principle is, first, the consecration of the person, then the consecration of the life. If we are not consecrated to God, nothing we think, say, or do can be spiritually acceptable Prayers, good works, eating and drinking, all remain unclean. We eat unclean things in Assyriain the spiritual Egypt. The taint of death pollutes body, soul, and spirit.
3. An end of joy. (2Ch 28:5; cf. Hos 2:11)
IV. DESOLATE HABITATIONS. (2Ch 28:6)
1. Exile as burial. “Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis [a noted place of burial] shall bury them.” The allusion is still to Assyria figured as a second Egypt. The tribes would be lost in it as in a grave. Hence recovery is described as resurrection (Hos 6:2). Sin is death. Those shah-cloned to sin are as the dead in graves.
2. Deserted dwellings. “Their pleasant places for their silver [or, ‘valuables of silver’], nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their habitation.” The present state of the Holy Land is the best commentary on this prediction. Sin leaves behind it rank desolation. Look at man’s own soul! What desolation there! Nettles, thorns, a temple in ruins.J.O.
Hos 9:7, Hos 9:8
Prophet and prophet.
We are disposed to prefer the view which takes Hos 9:7 to refer to the true prophet, Hosea himself; and verse 8 to the prophets Ephraim had set up for himself alongside of the true.”Ephraim is a watcher with along with, but independently of my God”prophets who were as “the snare of a fowler” to the people.
I. THE TRUE PROPHET. (Verse 7)
1. What he saw. “The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come.” The true prophet saw, and did not hesitate to declare in the ears of all, the fall extent of the ruin which was soon to overwhelm the nation. He did not, like the false prophets, say, “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace (Jer 8:11). He told the awful truth. The event verified his words. God’s messengers are faithful.
2. What he felt. “The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad.” The words may express at once:
(1) The judgment passed on the prophet by his contemporaries. They thought him “beside himself” (cf. Act 26:24; 2Co 5:13). They set down his excited utterances as ravings.
(2) The sympathetic anguish which actually made the prophet feel as one beside himself. “Hosea was a stranger among his own people, oppressed by continual contact with their sin, lacerated at heart by the bitterness of their enmity, till his reason seemed ready to give way under the trial.”
3. His moral mission. “For the multitude of thine iniquities, and the great hatred.” His eye pierced to the moral cause of the judgments that were impending. He read their origin in the people’s sin, and in their hatred of what was good. A. true prophet is known by the intensity of his grasp upon moral truth.
II. THE FALSE PROPHET. (Verse 8) The prophets in whom Ephraim trusted were:
1. Self-constituted. “The watchman of Ephraim was with my God,” or, “Ephraim is a watchman,” etc. Ephraim was not content with the prophets God gave him. He must have prophets alter his own heart. He must be a “watchman” on his own account. The false prophet thus ran without being sent (Jer 23:21). He was not, like the true prophet, a “man of the spirit.” If any spirit was in him, it was a lying spirit.
2. Ensnarers of the people. “The prophet is the snare of a fowler in all his ways.” They snared the people to their ruin
(1) by their teaching, promising peace and prosperity when there was none;
(2) by their example, encouraging the people in their idolatries and follies;
(3) by making light of the moral element in conduct. They “strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life” (Eze 13:22). They flattered the people’s wishes; felt none of that agonizing sympathy with them which made Hosea seem as one mad; kept away from all denunciation of their sins. They were hirelings, whose own the sheep were not, and who cared not for the sheep (Joh 10:12, Joh 10:13). They were a snare “in all their ways”out and out in everything they did.
3. Themselves as bad as the rest. “Hatred in the house of his God.” Professing to speak in God’s Name, the prophet was full of malignant hatred of God, and of those who spoke in God’s Name (cf. Amo 7:10-13).J.O.
Hos 9:9, Hos 9:10
Gibeah and Baal-peor.
From this point the mind of the prophet reverts largely to the past. He sees mirrored in it both God’s love and the people’s sins. Allusion is made Lore to God’s early love for Israel, and to the sins of Gibeah and Baal-peor.
I. THE EVIL OF SIN IS SEEN BY COMPARISON WITH FORMER SINS, THE HEINOUSNESS OF WHICH ALL ADMIT. Two such outstanding sins of the past were those of Gibeah, and, at a still earlier period, of Baal-peor. The former (cf. Jdg 19:1-30; Jdg 20:1-48) was a sin revealing depths of corruption in Israel such as had not previously been heard of (Jdg 19:30). It shocked the national conscience. It led to fierce vengeance being taken on the transgressors, and on the Benjamites who sided with them. The latter was a sin of wider scope, and scarcely less heinous in its character (Num 25:1-18). It combined idolatry with whoredom in a peculiarly daring and offensive manner. It led to the destruction of twenty-four thousand in the camp of Israel by a plague, and to the after extermination of the Midianites. These were the “deep corruptions” which were now reproducing themselves in Israel. The people might refuse to give the right name to the iniquity as practiced by themselves, but they could scarcely fail to reprobate it when presented in these earlier instances. It was a peculiarity of these sins that they had been judged by Israel itself. It was the tribes that pronounced sentence on the evildoers at Gibeah; and Phinehas had executed judgment on Zimri, as afterwards the men of war did on the Midianites. This, accordingly, was a case to which Paul’s principle applied, that ability to judge of an offence in another renders one inexcusable if he does the same thing (Rom 2:1). We are often, however, willing to condemn in others sins which we inconsistently tolerate in ourselves.
II. THE EVIL OF SIN ONLY BECOMES FULLY APPARENT AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF DIVINE LOVE. This is brought out in Hos 9:10 in the case of Baal-peor. The enormity of that sin was only fully seen when set against the manifestations of Divine love which had preceded. “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time.” There is indicated here:
1. God’s choice of Israel. He “found” them “in the wilderness; ‘ he “saw” them there, and chose them.
2. God‘s delight in Israel. The nation was pleasant to him as grapes in the desert, or as the first-ripe fig. His choice and his affection were both manifested in many wonderful ways. It was this love shown to Israel which made such acts as the making of the golden calf, and, again, the shameful apostasy of Baal-peor, so inexcusably wicked. To see sin in its full enormity we must count up the mercies of God against which we are offendingmust reflect, above all, on God’s love to us as displayed in Christ.
III. THE PRINCIPLE OF CONTINUITY IN SIN. Israel’s apostasy, Hoses seeks to show, was no new thing. It began at a very early period (cf. Hos 10:9). The strain of it bad continued in the blood of the people ever since. It was proved to be a constitutional disorder which no mild treatment would eradicate. We gain insight into the virulence of depravity by studying its hereditary manifestation.J.O.
Hos 9:11-17
Ephraim’s woe.
“Woe also to them when I depart kern them” (Hos 9:12). It is this thought of woe as the result of God departing from Ephraim”hating them,” “loving them no more” (Hos 9:15)which is the key-note of the passage. The prophet compares the ideal which God set up for Ephraimfruitfulness, Tyre-like pleasantness of situation, settled habitation in Canaanwith the miserable end now awaiting the people. His mind dwells with a sort of fixity of horror on the bringing forth of the children to slaughter with the sword (Hos 9:12, Hos 9:13, Hos 9:16). Woe would descend on Ephraim to the reversal of the Divine ideal.
I. IN RESPECT OF FRUITFULNESS. (Hos 9:11, Hos 9:12) Fruitfulness and strength of numbers was an especial part of the promise to Ephraim (Gen 49:22, Gen 49:26; Deu 33:17), even as a numerous posterity was the promise to Israel generally. This “glory” would now be taken from the people that boasted of it. Licentiousness had already, in part, undermined the nation’s strength (Hos 4:10). The sword would now finish what their own misconduct had begun. As in a previous figure (Hos 8:7), and in Hos 9:16, the curse is represented as working to the frustration of the people’s wishes at every stage in the advance of their hopes. First, there is no conception; then, in the cases where there is conception, there is “a miscarrying womb” (Hos 9:14); then, at the stage of birth, there is failure to bring forth; even if the child is born, it is doomed to be killed by the sword. Nothing goes right; everything goes wrong; there is but woe, failure, frustration, disappointment, when God departs from us. The numbers of a nation are in God’s hand. He can bless or he can blast. His judgment works both through natural laws and events of providence.
II. IN RESPECT OF PLEASANTNESS. (Hos 9:13, Hos 9:14, Hos 9:16) God designed for Ephraim a situation pleasant as that of Tyre; he had in reserve for him all “precious things” “blessings of the heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under” (Gen 49:25, Gen 49:26; Deu 33:13-15). Thus gloriously planted, Ephraim was to be the cynosure of the tribes, a paragon of sweetness and beauty. How ghastly the contrast”But Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer” (Hos 9:13)!
1. A worm at the root. “Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit,” etc. (Hos 9:16). This is the fate of all glory without God. Its root is not drawn from the sources of perennial life in the eternal One. It has in it the principle of decay. It is a glory of the world, fading, perishing. Sic transeat. The Christian’s inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away (1Pe 1:4).
2. Ruthless butchery. (Hos 9:13, Hos 9:16) The pleasantness of Ephraim would be smutched with the blood of his own childrenthe “beloved“ ones, the “darlings“ of the womb. The very thought of the carnage that is to come almost makes the prophet’s brain reel. He has threatened Ephraim with barrenness, but now that he has to frame a prayer for his people, he can think of no kinder one than that they may have “a miscarrying womb and dry breasts” (cf. Luk 23:29). One woe swallows up another, and makes it all but seem a blessing in comparison. Terrible, truly, when God departs!
III. IN RESPECT OF SETTLEMENT. (Hos 9:15, Hos 9:17) Ephraim would be driven from God’s house, i.e. rejected from being his people, or spiritual house, and would be sent abroad as “wanderers among the nations.” This, again, was in contradistinction to the original design of a permanent settlement as the Lord’s people in the Lord’s land.
1. The often-reiterated cause of the banishment is here again specified. The people were driven out
(1) for their wickedness, which had assumed peculiarly aggravated and concentrated forms (“in Gilgal”); and
(2) for their obduracy: “They did not hearken unto him,” i.e. God. Even their wickedness would not have ruined them, had they repented of it when God reproved and pleaded with them. Now the day for repentance was past. “I will love them no more.”
2. The doom is further individualized. “Wanderers among the nations.” Such are the Jews at this day. Prophecy never spoke a truer word.J.O.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Hos 9:1. Rejoice not, &c. Rejoice not, O Israel, with joyous expectation, as the nations do [or among the nations]; for, &c. It should seem that this prophesy was delivered at a time when the situation of public affairs was promising; perhaps after some signal success, which had given occasion to public rejoicings. It is as if the prophet had said, “Those national successes, which might be just cause of rejoicing to other people, are none to thee; for thou liest under the heavy sentence of God’s wrath, for thy disloyalty to him; and all thy bright prospects will vanish, and terminate in thy destruction. The Gentiles were not guilty in an equal degree with the Israelites; for, although they sinned, it was not against the light of revelation, in contempt of the warnings of inspired prophets, or in breach of any express covenant.”
Thou hast loved a reward, &c. Houbigant renders this, And thou hast sought the rewards of adultery from every corn-floor: that is, “Thou hast received for thy idolatry, those tithes of the corn, which, if thou hadst served Jehovah, were to have been paid for the support of the temple.” It is therefore added in the next verse, The floor shall not feed them; as much as to say, “Because thou hast loved and hast claimed to thyself the produce of the corn-floor, therefore I will utterly deprive thee of that produce.” Instead of, shall fail in her, Hos 9:2. Houbigant and others read, shall fail them.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
B. The carrying away into Assyria. Decrease of the People
Hos 9:1-17
1 Rejoice not,1 Israel,
Unto exultation, like the heathen,
For thou hast committed whoredom, departing from thy God,
Thou hast loved the reward of whoredom,
On all corn-floors.
2 The threshing-floor and the (oil-) press will not nourish them,2
And the new wine will deceive them.
3 They will not remain in the land of Jehovah,
But Ephraim will return to Egypt,
And in Assyria he will eat (things) unclean.
4 They will not pour out wine for Jehovah,
For their offerings will not please Him;
Like bread of mourning (their food will be) to them,
All who eat it will defile themselves:
For their bread is only for themselves,
It does not come into the house of Jehovah.
5 What will ye do on the day of the assembly,
And on the day of the feast of Jehovah?
6 For, behold, they have gone away because of the desolation:
Egypt will gather them,
Memphis will bury them.
Their precious3 things of silver,
Thistles will inherit them;
Thorns (will be) in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come,
The days of retribution,
Israel will discover:
The prophet is foolish,
The man of the spirit is crazed
Because of the greatness of thy guilt,
And because the enmity is so great.4
8 Ephraim is a searcher (after revelations) with my God:
(As to) the Prophet, the snare of the fowler
Is upon all his paths:
There is enmity in the house of his God.
9 They have wrought deep corruption5 as in the days of Gibeah,
He will remember their guilt,
He will visit (upon them) their sins.
10 I found Israel as grapes in the6 desert,
Like the early fruit on the fig tree in its first (bearing) I found your fathers,
Yet they went after Baal-Peor,
And consecrated themselves to shame,
And became an abomination, like their paramour.
11 Ephraimhis glory will fly away as a bird;
No bearing, no pregnancy, no conception.
12 Even if they rear up their sons,
I will bereave them of men,
For, indeed, woe is to them,
When I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, like as I saw Tyre,
(Is) planted by the sea,
Yet must Ephraim lead out his sons to the murderer.
14 Give to them, O Lord:what wilt Thou give?
Give a barren womb and dry breasts.
15 All their evil is in Gilgal
For there have I hated them;
For the evil of their deeds
Will I drive them out of my house,
Will not love them any more;
All their princes are apostates.
16 Ephraim is smitten,
Their root is withered,
They will not bear fruit;
And even if they should bear,
I will slay the darlings of their womb.
17 My God will abhor them,
Because they did not hear Him,
And they will be fugitives among the nations.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Hos 9:1-2. intensifies the notion of rejoicing=unto exultation (comp. Job 3:22). According to what follows it is rejoicing over a bountiful harvest. It was this that Israel expected and for which they would rejoice. But such joy was to be taken from them. Keil: Israel, after the heathen fashion, attributed the blessing of harvest to the gods, and rejoices in it as in a gift of the gods, after the manner of the heathen. That this is the meaning is evident from what follows, in which I discover not so much the ground why Israel should not rejoice, as an explanation of the , especially in the second member: thou hast loved. The lovers reward is the reward which the paramour gives to his mistress, or here the idol to its servant, the people. The addition: upon all corn-floors, shows what is regarded as that reward: it is that which is laid upon these floors, the fruits of harvest, which Israel considers to be the gift of the idols, as their reward for serving them (comp. Hos 2:7-14). Press: probably =oil-press, as new wine is specified afterwards; comp. also Hos 2:10-23; corn, wine, and oil are therefore mentioned together.
Hos 9:3 shows how this will be brought about; it is not owing to the failure of the harvest, but to a captivity: thus they will lose their harvest which had grown. Return to Egypt, etc.: Keil is here undoubtedly correct when he says: The expulsion is described as a return to Egypt, as in Hos 8:13; but Assyria is mentioned immediately afterwards as the real land of banishment. That this threat is not to be understood as implying that they will be carried away to Egypt as well as to Assyria, but that Egypt is referred to here and in Hos 9:6, just as in Hos 8:13 simply as a type of the land of captivity, so that Assyria is represented as a new Egypt, may be clearly seen from the very words of our verse, in which the eating of unclean bread in Assyria is mentioned as the immediate consequence of a return to Egypt, whereas neither here nor in Hos 9:6 is there any allusion to a carrying away to Assyria at all; but, on the contrary, in Hos 9:6, Egypt only is introduced as the place where they are to find their grave. This becomes still more evident from the fact that Hosea speaks throughout of Assyria as the rod of Gods wrath for his apostate people (comp. Hos 5:13; Hos 10:6; Hos 10:14). Finally, it is clearly stated in Hos 11:5 that Israel will not return to Egypt, but that Assyria will be their king. By the allusions to Egypt, therefore, the carrying away into Assyria is simply represented as a state of bondage and oppression similar to Israels residence in Egypt, or merely the threatening of Deu 28:68, transferred to Ephraim. They will eat (what is) defiled: partly because the legal prohibitions with relation to particular kinds of food could be observed only with difficulty in a foreign country, and especially because with the cessation of the sacrificial rites in general, the offering of the first-fruits must cease also, and all food not sanctified by the offering of the first fruits was unclean to Israel. This is completed in Hos 9:4.
Hos 9:4. : will not be well pleasing to Him; therefore their sacrifices must be taken as the subject in spite of the accents. The meaning is: the sacrifices would not please Him, and therefore none are brought. Israel could not sacrifice to God in exile when He had withdrawn from them his gracious presence. Like bread of mourning to them (will be their food). Bread that was partaken of where a dead body lay was considered unclean, because the dead defiled for seven days the house, and all that came in contact with them; therefore: all who eat it will defile themselves. Their bread will be =for the support of life, and therefore it must be eaten by them, but it does not come into the house of God to be consecrated.
Hos 9:5. Festal days are no longer possible. To attempt to distinguish between and (the former = the three annual pilgrim feasts, the latter = the other feasts, or, specially, the great harvest-feast, that of Tabernacles), is arbitrary. The expressions are probably synonymous. The notion is only emphasized by the second expression. regards the feasts outwardly, as gatherings; rather denoting the rejoicing, or festal character of those occasions.
Hos 9:6. They have gone away: the prophet sees them in the Spirit as already in banishment. , literally: out of desolation. On Egypt see at Hos 9:3. [Keil: Egypt is mentioned as the place of banishment, in the same sense as in Hos 9:3. There they will all find their graves. or , as in Isa 19:13; Jer 2:16; Jer 44:1; Eze 30:13-16, probably contracted from , answers rather to the Coptic Membe, Memphe, than to the old Egyptian, Men-nefr, i.e., mansio bona, the profane name of the city of Memphis, the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, the ruins of which are to be seen on the west bank of the Nile, to the south of Old Cairo. Memphis was a celebrated burying-place of the Egyptians. The Anglo-American Commentators generally assume a literal allusion to Egypt.M.] = the costliness of their silver [see Gram. note], probably = their houses filled and decked with silver, comp. the parallel . The growth of thorns and thistles is an image of utter desolation (comp. Isa 34:13).
Hos 9:7-8. The Prophet is foolish. This is in sense dependent upon . False prophets are meant, who flattered the people, promising them only good. These will be shown to be fools. Even the false prophet is a man of the spirit, but it is an evil spirit that possesses him ( 1Ki 22:22). On account of the greatness of thy guilt, this will happen, namely, that mentioned at the beginning of the verse. , ambush, enmity, namely, against God and his prophets, as is explained in Hos 9:8. Keil: a searcher is Ephraim with my God. is used of the looking out of the prophet while waiting for a divine revelation. The meaning is: Israel searches out divine revelations along with my God, i.e., the God of the prophet. He trusts in his own prophets, not in those inspired by Jehovah. Others find in the notion of lying in wait. God would then be the object of the lying in wait of an enemy. He would be so in the person of the prophets, for whom, according to the following hemistich, snares were set (Ewald, Umbreit, Meier). But the prep. would not suit. The notion: lying in wait for God, is also strange. In the second hemistich could be the false prophet. The snare of the fowler is upon all his paths would = he brings the people to ruin by all his actions. A snare is in the house of his God, would then be=in the house of the god of the false prophet. But it is better to understand the verse of the enmity which the true prophet must everywhere meet=As to the prophet, the snare, etc. In the house of his God=in the temple.
Hos 9:9. , literally, they have made deep, they have wrought corruption = they have wrought deep corruption as in the days of Gibeah, when the shameful deed was done (recorded in Judges 19 ff.) to the Levites concubine, which resulted in the almost complete extermination of the Tribe of Benjamin. Such conduct must be visited with punishment. Comp. Hos 8:13.
Hos 9:10. Israel sinned grievously not only in Gibeah but earlier also, when God yet took such delight in him. His disposition now is shown to be that which he ever had. So much the more deserved is the punishment. Like grapes, etc.=As men prize grapes, etc., so did I prize thee. In the desert applies both to the grapes and to the finding, since grapes can be found in the desert, only when one is in the desert. An allusion to Deu 32:10. In its beginning, that is, when it begins to bear. Baal-Peor is here local, according to Keil, since is wanting; therefore: to the place of Baal-Peor; elsewhere: to the house of Baal-Peor. , the same word, used designedly, as that employed to express consecration to Jehovah. They became Nazarites to Baal-Peor, to shame. The worship of Baal-Peor is alluded to. [See Num 25:1-5.] The worship of Baal was then Israels crowning offense, and the old Baal-Peor worship is now renewed.
Hos 9:11-12. They shall increase no longer. The unchaste worship of Baal may be referred to, whose natural punishment is the decrease of the population.
Hos 9:13. Difficult. Keil: Ephraim is the object of , and precedes on account of the emphasis laid upon it=I have selected Ephraim for a Tyre=I would make it as glorious as Tyre. [Comp. Gen 22:8 for a similar use of .M.] To describe its glory more particularly, we have the addition: planted in a meadow, a place favorable to growth. Wnsche: Ephraim is the subject to be connected with planted=Ephraim is planted in a meadow. The intervening clause he translates: like as I look upon Tyre; and the meaning is: Ephraim blooms like the lordly Tyre, wherever men may look. But this is clearly unnatural. The meaning would rather be: Ephraim is as when I look upon Tyre, i.e., when I look on Ephraim, it is as when I look on Tyre. Others (Ewald) by changing the reading to in shape, as to form, outward appearance. Others take in the sense of the Arabic: a palm = Ephraim, as I beheld (it), is a palm. [The opinion approved above is apparently that entertained by the translators in E. V. It is that approved by most expositors, and is the most obvious sense suggested by the words.M.]
Hos 9:14. According to many expositors, this is an intercession of the prophet: May the Lord not let the mothers bring forth, rather than that the sons should be destined to death. But an intercession would scarcely suit in such a severe announcement of judgment. Therefore others consider it a prayer that other punishment may be inflicted. An important element in the punishment is the unfruitfulness of marriages. The thought of ver 11 would then be essentially resumed.
Hos 9:15. It cannot now be shown how all their evil was in Gilgal. Comp. for the rest, Hos 4:15. [Henderson: Gilgal, being one of the chief places of idolatrous worship, the wickedness of the nation might be said to be concentrated in it. This is the usual explanation.M.] From my house = out of my congregation (Hos 8:1).
Hos 9:16. The prophet beholds the future as already present (comp. Hos 9:11); only that here the image of a tree which can no longer put forth its shoots, is first employed. In the last member, however: and even if they should bear, no figure is employed.
Hos 9:17 completes the whole, by giving the ground of the punishment, and stating that punishment clearly to be banishment among the nations, when the people should be fugitives.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The judgment stands here altogether in the foreground, and the punishment which the people are to expect is that they will be carried away into Assyria. That event is here indicated as a return to Egypt, not literally, but rather symbolically (Hos 9:3). The captivity is regarded not so much as an outward fact, but according to its internal aspect, as the direct negation of that which God had done to Israel in leading them out of Egypt. Several features in the Exodus made it of special significance to Israel. One was the great and undeniable mercy of God. Viewing it more closely, it was a merciful liberation of Israel from bondage, from complete subjection to a foreign power. It was thus the condition and the beginning of Israels existence as an independent nation. But not only so: God thus brought this people, under special obligations to Him. As He had owned them to be his so expressly and emphatically in Egypt, and separated them from Egypt, they became by his leading them forth justly and legitimately his inheritance. And although this specific relation of Israel towards God did not assume its normal form until the giving of the Law, yet the leading of Israel out of Egypt lay at the foundation of their exaltation to become his people. Finally, it was the condition of, and the first step towards, their introduction into that country which God had promised to give to Israel as his people, and had therefore a fundamental significance in their history. Now the Assyrian Captivity is the direct contrast to this, and is therefore represented as a return to Egypt. It is as signal a display of Gods displeasure and wrath as the former was of his mercy. It is the loss of freedom, a reduction to a state of bondage, and a surrender to the power of a foreign enemy. Israel is only free through his God, and remains so only so long as he serves Him; by apostasy from Him, he therefore forfeited that freedom, and therefore at last must lose it, and forego an independent existence. This surrender to the power of the heathen stands further in the strongest contrast to Israels relation to God as his people. They are thus really dismissed from this position by God, and abandoned by Him as his people (comp. Hos 9:15; Hos 9:17). They are in fact made a Not-My-People. Israel ignored the Law given at Sinai, and Jehovah ignores the deliverance from Egypt; and, lastly, the Assyrian Captivity is the loss of that country in which Israels position as Gods people had its material basis, as the deliverance from Egypt looked towards the possession of that country. Comp. Hos 9:3. And as the Promised Land was essentially one of divine blessing, the loss of this blessing is naturally referred to with special emphasis. If Israel has, like the heathen, ascribed such a blessing to false gods, it cannot enjoy the land presented to it as Gods people, but as it became like the heathen, it shall return again into their countries. With the loss of the Land of Jehovah, however, is united, as a peculiarly distressing consequence, the loss of the sacrificial service, and of the sanctification in life thereby conditioned. Israel is sent away into the land of impurity. In this the Captivity is like a return to Egypt. Already in this we hear the sigh of the banished after the Holy Land. Those against whom the objurgatory discourse is primarily directed will, it is true, feel least the impossibility of serving God. And yet even they cannot deny their Israelitish character, and least of all in a strange land. That which they now do not wish to do, or to be able to do, will hereafter be the occasion of their bitter sorrowand thus it ever is.
2. All nations rejoice over and enjoy a rich harvest (comp. Isa 9:2), because they see in the bountiful harvest a sign and pledge of the divine favor, demanding gratitude to the Giver. If now the heathen ascribe these gifts to their gods and thank them after their manner, they do this in the ignorance of their hearts, without being specially guilty in so doing, because they live without the light of divine revelation. If, on the contrary, Israel rejoiced in the blessings of harvest like the heathen, and ascribed them to Baal (Hos 2:7), God could not leave unpunished this denial of his gracious benefits (Keil). It amounts to the same thing when one generation ascribes such blessings partly to their own labor and partly to nature, and accordingly its joy is purely natural, altogether devoid of gratitude to the great Giver, and manifests itself necessarily in all kinds of self-indulgence.
3. When the judgment comes, the falseness of the false prophets becomes manifest. By these are, without doubt, to be understood those who, aping the position of Prophets of Jehovah, came forward as the pretended announcers of the divine will, and as the advisers of the people, especially of the rulers, but in their flattery of the people would pronounce good and justify everything, and therefore predicted prosperity and deliverance (Eze 13:10), and never uttered a word of earnest rebuke. They were trusted only too well. On the contrary, the true Prophets had to meet everywhere snares and enmity. Men know too late who are their true friends, and who their false.
4. The true prophet must, it is true, enter into Gods designs, not merely of mercy, but also of righteous judgment; must announce them, so far as they have been revealed; and he may even desire their fulfillment, in order that a limit may be set to sin, and Gods glory be spread. Yet it must he observed that when the prophets invoke judgment, they do not implore the destruction and death of the individual sinner, but only the political death, the destruction of a godless kingdom, because it had filled up the measure of its sins and thus became amenable to judgment, concerning which there could be no doubt in the prophets mind.
5. With respect to Israels conduct towards God, we are to observe the retrospect of former times (Hos 9:9-10, comp. Hos 10:7; Hos 11:1-2). The sins of the present are thus shorn of their individuality and shown to form part of a whole complexity of sin. These are only a mode of manifestation, a new phase, of the same spirit, which was before, and had been always, displayed. As with the displays of Gods love to Israel, so with the sins of Israel against God. Instead of an atomizing and mechanical view of this subject, we have a dynamic one, which alone is justifiable in the ethical sphere. From this conception of the evil, according to which its several manifestations of a constant fundamental tendency in the minds of a single nation, no great step is needed to reach the assumption of a constant disposition to evil in mankind generally, of hereditary sin, in which the individual with his special offenses only confirms and realizes the sinful disposition of the race.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Wurt. Summ.: Hos 9:1-2. Sincere Christians should, in the blessings of God, so rejoice in the Lord, as to acknowledge that all good is from Him alone, to whom they must therefore give thanks, and so use them as not abusing them, but employ them to Gods glory. Then will God the Lord not cease to do them good.
Hos 9:3. Starke: That is the Lords land where God is truly worshipped and honored.
Hos 9:4-5. Pfaff. Bibelwerk: When the measure of iniquity is full, God at last takes away the lamp of his Word from its place. Beware, then, you who have the truth, lest darkness fall upon you.
[Pusey: It is in human nature to neglect to serve God when He wills it, and then to neglect to serve Him when He forbids it. The more solemn the day and the more total mans exclusion, the more manifest Gods withdrawal.M.]
[Hos 9:6. Matt. Henry: Those that think pre sumptuously to outrun Gods judgments are likely enough to meet their deaths when they had hoped to save their lives.M.]
Hos 9:7. We usually discover too late who are our true friends and who our false.
Pfaff. Bibelwerk: False prophets are a token of Gods wrath burning over a church or nation.
[Pusey: The man of the world and the Christian judge of the same things by clear contrary rules, use them for quite contrary ends. The slave of pleasure counts him mad who foregoes it; the wealthy trader counts him mad who gives away profusely. In these days profusion for the love of Christ has been counted a ground for depriving a man of his property. One or the other is mad, and worldlings must count the Christian mad, or they must own themselves to be so most fearfully (Wis 5:3-6). The sinner first neglects God; then, as the will of God is brought before him, he willfully disobeys Him; then, when he finds Gods will irreconcilably at variance with his own, or when God chastens him, he hates Him, and hates Him greatly.M.]
Hos 9:8. Let it not offend you, if, for the sake of the truth, you must suffer persecution. Even so persecuted they the prophets who were before you.
Hos 9:12. When God is graciously disposed to wards us, He is our Light, our Way, our Life, our Love, our Comfort, our Joy, our Shepherd, our Physician, our Bridegroom, our Father, and our. Redeemer. If He departs from us, all this is gone, like as when the sun sets and darkness covers all.
Spur: When the divine wrath has begun to burn, it rises, so to speak, by degrees. And God commonly proceeds by beginning at what is most external to us, whose loss we would not deeply feel, but ever advances further towards that which is dearer and of more moment, until at last He strikes at our very selves. If God is not gracious towards us, He is angry; He can sustain no intermediate relation.
Hos 9:15. God refuses at last to grant to unfaithful children even the privileges of his house. He at the same time disinherits them. When God ceases to love us we are lost. Hence nothing is more necessary than the prayer: Withdraw not thy love from us. Nothing is more precious than the power to say: I am persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Hos 9:16. Whole families, even whole nations die out through Gods judgments!
Footnotes:
[1]Hos 9:1.The ancient Translators appear to have read . [This is false grammatically, as is always followed by the future.M.]
[2]Hos 9:2.. The people are here regarded as a woman. [Tanchum gives the rule that in continued discourse when a nation or people is spoken of either the fem. suffix agreeing with : congregation, or the masc. agreeing with : people, may be used, as also that the singular may be used of them viewed as a body, and the plural when they are regarded as consisting of distinct individuals. So Ewald as to the gender, making the suffix relate to die treulose Gemeine.-M.]
[3]Hos 9:6. is in the construct state with .
[4]Hos 9:7.. The sentence continues as though a conjunction [because] preceded. The conjunction is implied in .
[5][Hos 9:9.For the asyndeton here, see note on Hos 5:2. It is best to take intransitively, and not understand an object, e.g. , which some supply.M.]
[6]Hos 9:13. forms the apodosis which introduces a contrast to the protasis. =must lead forth. See Ewald, 237, e. [The literal rendering is: But Ephraim (is) to lead forth, etc.M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here the threatened visitations of the Lord upon Israel, on account of transgressions. And if we read those awful denunciations of God, and keep in remembrance their accomplishment in the Babylonish Captivity, the whole is explained to us.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I beg the Reader to remark with me, how much the Prophet dwells in all his Sermons, upon that feature of character which is so lovely and gracious; I mean the Lord Jesus being the Husband of his people. Though Israel had gone a whoring from her God; and worthless, and base as this was, yet, Reader, do not overlook the Lord’s grace in Israel’s unworthiness. Israel could not have been charged with this crime of unfaithfulness, had not the Lord been her Husband. And while we find the Lord lamenting this perfidy of his spouse, as he doth continually in those scriptures, can there be a higher proof than that the Lord, through the whole of his complaints, is manifesting grace that Israel may return? Isa 54:5 ; Jer 3:1 . Oh! how truly blessed is such a view of Jesus!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Degradation of Sin
Hos 9
“Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor” ( Hos 9:1 ).
The footsteps of evil are tracked by the divine eye. Places, how concealed soever from the light and from public recognition, are all searched by his glance, lying nakedly and openly before him, so that he observes the things that were done in secrecy supposed to be inviolable. The picture is striking and painful in its minuteness. Evil has no lodging-place which it can call its own by right of secrecy or solitude. Even perdition itself is searched by the eye of the Almighty. The Psalmist could find no place of concealment, though he fled away on the wings of the morning; the uttermost parts of the earth were a familiar place, and the depths of the wilderness were as a populous city. It is useful to throw back our memory upon days that are gone, and to track ourselves in the ways of rebellion. We can go back to the flowers which we blighted, to the music which we silenced, to the hopeful looks on child faces that we caused to darken; we can recall voices charged with pathos, and appeals meant for our salvation which we rejected and denied with scoffing and contempt. We are not to look upon a place here and there as a place that has been defiled, but are to connect all the places, to set them as it were in one long dark and humiliating line; every time we look upon that line we shall feel our need of the Cross, because there will come into our hearts a burning shame, which no moral act upon our part can quench or diminish.
What was the consequence of all this divine inquest and criticism? We find that consequence in the words, “Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people.” The word signifies: Do not bound and leap for joy; do not yield to the spirit of exultation, as if you had a right to the noblest rapture. Even the joy, so called, of the vicious man tends in the direction of deeper sorrow. It is as if Hosea had seen the people of Israel at a time of forbidden festivity; they were drunk with wine, they were mad with prosperity, they were exciting one another to more and more exhilaration; the prophet comes before them in that hour of social madness, and forbids the people to rejoice, and gives as a reason for terminating their foolish rapture that they had gone in heart away from God. Israel wished to have the joy of other nations, rather than the joy that was peculiarly and distinctively her own. Israel wished to have kings, festivities, ceremonial enjoyment and honour, like the other nations of the earth; God meant Israel to have an inner joy, a spiritual peace, a rapture of the soul unknown to those who have but superficial conceptions of life and destiny. Israel rejected this divine thought, and wished to rejoice like other nations to rejoice with pagan joy, and to drown memory with the false excitement of heathen orgies. God thus follows the sinner even into forbidden pleasures, and causes the wine of madness to choke the drunkard in the very agony of his mirth. God is against the sinner; if we may so say, he is doubly against the backsliding sinner who, having known the light and heard the law, has turned his back upon the scene, and trampled the covenant under foot.
“The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her” ( Hos 9:2 ).
God having turned away from adulterous Israel takes with him all the blessings which he had bestowed. This is not resentment; it is in very deed an aspect of mercy with which we ought to be more familiar. The ministry of deprivation is conducted by God upon a beneficent principle, and for a beneficent end. Only weakness threatens; strength warns, foretells, prophesies the whole flow of consequence and effect. We have repeatedly said that when God told man he would die in the day that he ate of the forbidden tree God did not threaten man, but mercifully and lovingly warned him of the consequences of moral actions. Men may gather their harvests into the very floor of the garner, and store their grapes in the very winepress, so much so that everything shall seem to be safe, and the soul shall appear to have much goods laid up for many years; but even when the wheat is on the floor, and the grapes are in the press, and the hand is put forth to draw in plentifulness, even then the sword of the Lord shall strike the bad man, and in the midst of bounty he shall stand a pauper, and feel the pain of hunger. The bounties of nature are lost upon the vicious. They have no satisfaction in bread, they have no joy in wine, they have no gladness in song; all nature is but a radiant blank, an infinite and mocking cipher.
“They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria” ( Hos 9:3 ).
Notice the last part of this verse as containing what may be called the sting of divine judgment. Here we have the degradation of sin. To be ceremonially clean or pure was the joy and pride of Israel. The Jews would not eat things that were common or unclean, and by this mark they were distinguished from other people. Whilst Israel lived even in nominal piety, how superficial soever it might be, God gave him protection against degradation; but when Israel turned away adulterously from God, and sought satisfaction at forbidden fountains and altars, then the Lord brought upon Israel the misery of this degradation and shame. Israel was forced to eat things that were unclean, things that were killed with the blood in them, things that revolted the sense of the nation, and went dead against all the prejudices of education. Thus a badge was taken from the shoulder of Israel; a distinction was removed from the chosen people; they could have borne reproaches on the ground of moral disobedience with comparative indifference, but to have social boundaries and distinctions broken down was a judgment which Israel keenly felt. But the Lord will seize the sinner at some point, for he cannot be baffled in judgment or thwarted in the application of his righteousness. The Lord’s judgments are ordered according to our apostasy; God will strike most where we feel most; he will follow our pride and our vanity, and smite them so as to bring upon them the keenest shame. God will not content himself with some general judgment; he will specifically scrutinise, and either reward or punish according to the result of his inquest. Probably no degradation could have been thrown upon Israel more terrible than to eat unclean things in Assyria; but God did not spare even this if haply he might bring back the people from their apostasy, and reinstate them in the defiled and abandoned sanctuary.
“They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord” ( Hos 9:4 ).
The meaning of all these ceremonies and actions was that there was a communication between the heart of man and the throne of God. These are what we now call the means of grace. The drink offering accompanied the peace offering. As the offerer laid his hand upon the burnt offering it was wholly consumed by fire which fell from heaven. By these processes the worshipper acknowledged that he belonged to God, and not to himself. In consequence of repeated sin the means of grace were terminated, and there was no longer open access to the throne of mercy. Sacrifices once pleasing unto the Lord ceased to be pleasing unto him because of the character of those who offered them. Let us understand that our worship is not acceptable simply because our words are right or our mechanism complete, but only because our spirit is akin to the spirit of God. If we would please God we must be like God. If we would worship a Spirit we must worship in the spirit. Mechanical religion can never satisfy a spiritual claim. There are appointed means of drawing nigh to God, and we are to accept these and use them without question and without doubt, for by their instrumentality alone, so mysteriously are we constituted, can we receive the benediction of the Lord. The Cross is the way to heaven. The Cross is the only plea which a sinner can use with effect in his approaches to the God whom he has disobeyed. It would seem to our reason in its lowest moods as if we could have come in some other way, or could even have devised methods of approach that should be distinguished by intellectual ability; but the Lord will not allow us so to waste our life. He has shown the appointed way, along that way alone will he receive us; but we have the blessed assurance that no man ever travelled that road without reaching the home of God’s love and the sanctuary of God’s peace. Israel remained under the ceremonial law after all its spiritual significance and utility had been exhausted. So we may go to the appointed place of worship, and find no altar there. In a profound sense we shall only find the altar which we ourselves first bring. In other words, every man must in a sense be his own altar, and before the altar of his penitence and obedience he must plead all the argument which is set up in the incarnation of Christ and the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The prophet proceeds to show that the sacrifices of a disobedient people should be as “the bread of mourners”; even where they attempted to sacrifice to God the sacrifice would not be accepted, because the spirit was wrong. It is curious to observe how human nature reveals itself in the desire to serve God when God has forbidden such service. Some men never pray until the time of prayer has come to an end. There are lives that never think of immortality until the day dies and the eventide sets in with all its gloomy shadows. There is a time for prayer; there is an opportunity for reconciliation; there is a day of grace. Why not seize this as the acceptable time, and improve the light while it lingers on our way?
Prayer
Thou dost call upon us, Father in heaven, through Jesus Christ thy Son our Saviour, to return unto thee and be healed. Thou dost not send for us that we may be punished, but that we may be saved; thy purpose towards us is a purpose of love, of healing, of redemption, and completeness; thou wouldst make us perfect in thine own likeness, thou wouldst grant unto us the honour of thine own beauty. Thy voice is amongst the ages as a voice of music; there is none like it; its tones fall upon the hearing of the heart, and give hope in despair, light in darkness, comfort amid all the agony of life. May we listen unto the Lord, yea, wait patiently for the utterance of his voice and the indication of his call; then in a spirit of tender and filial obedience may we arise and do the Lord’s will. For all the comfort of life we bless thee; may we turn its comfort into its discipline, and because the Lord is good may we be true, and because thy mercy endureth for ever may there be no cessation of our love and industry. We bless thee for all hopes that look beyond the cloud; we rejoice in all inspirations that have in them nothing of earthliness or selfish consideration, but that lead us after the Son of God in the hour when he carried his Cross. When we are faint by the way thou wilt find recovery and sustenance and comfort for us; when the heart is ill at ease its doors will not be closed in the face of God. We bless thee for those troubles that have brought us to the altar; for those anxieties and pains which have conducted us to Gethsemane and to Calvary; for all the discipline that has humbled us, and that has been turned to purposes of sanctification, we bless the Lord as for a great gift choice and invaluable. Only take not thy Holy Spirit from us; may that Spirit say unto us in the midnight of our fear, All is well: the motion is homeward, and the storm doth but thunder in the air, it does not rend the vessel which is commanded by the Son of God. Thus may we have great comfort, great joy; hidden, latent, avowed public triumph, all grade and quality of gladness, so that there may be no doubt that we are the temples of the living God. This prayer we say at Christ’s dear Cross, where no man ever died, where all broken hearts have found pardon and heaven. Amen.
Spiritual Madness
Hos 9:7
Literally, The man of the spirit is mad; the man of the lying spirit, the man who has determined to deceive the nations: that prophet is declared to be a fool, and that spiritual man is said to be mad. The man of the lying spirit tells lies; he has nothing else to tell; he has given himself up to the prince of darkness and to the powers of evil; he is not their subject, loyal and devoted, he is their victim, servile, crushed, without self-respect, held in ignominious and eternal bondage. We find in further reading the Scriptures that there is another spiritual man that is also declared to be mad; concerning the prophet chosen by Elisha himself the question was asked, “Wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? “Concerning Christ it was said, “He hath a devil and is mad; why hear ye him?” St. Paul was declared to be mad; the apostles had to vindicate themselves against daily charges of insanity or madness. Why so? Simply because they were spiritual men; if they had not been spiritual men no critic or foe would have thought of charging them with madness; but simply and solely because they were spiritual men they were declared in their most conspicuous instance to be beside themselves. Paul said, “If we be beside ourselves, it is to God.” There is a madness without which there can be no greatness. Talent is never mad, genius is seldom sane; respectability is always decorous, enthusiasm sometimes makes a new map of the world every day, lining it and pencilling it according to an eccentricity not to be brought within rules and mechanical proprieties. Socrates declared that the orator was mad, or he could be no orator; that is to say, so long as the man knew what he was talking about in the conventional sense he had not yielded himself to the spirit of the occasion; he was not caught up as by a whirlwind, and borne away to unmeasured heights; he knew not the meaning of that abandonment which is but another word for the highest and most glorious freedom.
Enthusiasm, therefore, is another name for the kind of madness which is described in the Scriptures, and which is commented upon with approval in many pagan writings. There are not many mad men now, if spirituality is the test or standard of madness. It is not the professing Christian that is mad. He may be too sagacious; he may be too shrewd; he may be but a calculator. Such a man cannot pray, such a man will always wonder that anybody else can pray; only the mad heart prays. We must accept this reproach. Any sagacity that is not often caught in this madness is only sharpsighted, longheaded, shrewd; it may touch the borders of pious gambling, but it never enters into the passion of absolute self-forgetfulness; it never commits that suicide which makes the world of propriety shudder and stand aghast. There are pious people who can count their virtues as they count a row of beads; they know their good deeds one by one; they keep them in caskets, they brush them up a little now and then; they cannot be deceived as to their number. Such people are not pious. They do more harm in the world than all the infidels in creation can do. Infidels never did any harm. Shrewd professors never did any good. Men of mechanical piety never helped the cause of the Son of God. We should have more progress if we had more madness; we should make a great impression if we had more enthusiasm. The enthusiasm must be content with a poor lot for the time being. Nobody likes to house enthusiasm; it is like housing a conflagration. People are very careful how they entertain mad evangelists; they would rather they found a night’s lodging in the ditch. As Wesley once said to one of his preachers when they had nothing but haws to eat, “It is a fine place for an appetite.” There would be many now who would house John Wesley, because he has been dead long enough to become almost respectable; but when he was alive he was too much for those people who had to give an account of themselves to their miserable and contemptible neighbours. There are those who would have certain things done in their own houses, but they are afraid that the neighbours might not like it. There have been people in a northern country long ago who would not object to hear a little Psalm upon a piano on a Sunday; but what would the people next door think of it? The people next door would be delighted to have the same thing themselves, only they are wondering what the people next door to them would think. Thus the world staggers where it should stand erect; hesitates and founders where it should go right on.
The spiritual man is necessarily mad in the estimation of the worldly man. The worldly man lives in a very plain way. The multiplication table is all the arithmetic he wants; bread and lodging constitute his programme to a very large extent, especially if that programme be intersprinkled here and there with a little amusement of a foaming and transient and inexpensive kind. The spiritual man has no line of the programme; he actually prefers the invisible to the seen, the impalpable to the tangible; he is a fool. He says, The real things are not seen; what we see is not worth looking at, except it be taken in some symbolical and typical way. A great star-filled sky is nothing to him if there be not a heaven beyond it; he would not loiter in any star he has ever seen; he would say in the biggest of them, I can tarry but a night. Where would you be? Onward! Where? I cannot tell in words, but I feel that there is a country out of sight which alone can satisfy me. Thus man predicates his own immortality, and even if he cannot put his doctrine into words which he can defend with other words, yet when you have overturned his terms you have left his feeling intact, unharmed. Immortality cannot be argued down. You will disprove immortality when you have extinguished humanity.
The spiritual man is mad because he says that mind is greater than what we know by the name of matter. The old Hebrew thinkers were greatly impressed by bulk and radiance; they used to cover their eyes when the sun was at noontide, lest they should be blinded. The apostles cared nothing for sun and stars; one of them in some sense the roughest, rudest of them said, looking upon the whole panorama of the visible heavens, They shall pass away with a great noise; they are of less account than a blasted fig. But make Peter a greater poet than David, for David was amazed at the stars; when he put his shepherd’s crook in the belt of Orion he felt he was standing beside a radiant altar. Peter waved them all back and said, Their end is noise; there is a heat that can melt the hardest of them, and cause them to flow away like a river that is afraid. Thus the spiritual man approaches the miracles from the right point of view; they are not miracles to him, they were not miracles to Jesus Christ, they were commonplaces to the Son of God. This we cannot understand, because we have a local mind, we have our own temperature, and climate, and barometer, and measuring instruments, and it never enters into the mind of man that there is some other place in the world. The beautiful cared-for plants of Kew are the weeds of the Sandwich Islands.
The weeds of one country are carefully taken note of and cultivated, and men are charged so much per head to look at them.
It is even so in the great spiritual realm. To some men the miracles are absolutely staggering; to other men they are but as the weeds of the Omnipotence of God. If we could see them from the right altitude they would be as nothing to us compared with the moral qualities and the spiritual purposes, the holy, all-redeeming impulses, that throb in the Eternal Heart and constitute the Fatherhood of the universe. Cold reason can do nothing. You have to melt the metal before you can mould it; it is the melting process that has been forgotten by many a tyro in religious enquiry or theological investigation. Suppose the smith should take his metal and his hammer, and should proceed with his work, and should be disappointed in it; what has he forgotten? The fire, the bellows, the roaring fire, the white flame; apply that, then take out the metal, and you may twist it as you will, shape it according to your own desire. You will find it to be so in theological thinking and spiritual investigation. If you think you are going to determine the relative values of things in what you call cold blood, you will never do it. You must have atmosphere, enthusiasm, appropriate elevation of mind; you must have, in the highest sense of the term, madness. In that ecstasy you may begin to see the outline of the kingdom to which all other rulerships, wherein they are true, point, as at once to their origin and their culmination. Men are impressed by what is near. That is a sophism which hinders much Christian progress. You cannot persuade some men that a thought is more valuable than a sovereign. The sovereign is in the hand, and the thought is in the heart. Who would care to pay anything for an idea? And is there a man that thinks he has not discharged his conscience when he has passed an opinion upon that which is offered for his soul’s sustenance? A thought is the true wealth: high sentiments are the enduring property; confidence in God is the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. The time will come when you cannot change your sovereign; it will not be recognised as legitimate currency; offered to angels, it would be returned with that dumb look which indicates a wise and contemptuous ignorance.
Why will not men be wise in the enduring things, wealthy in the abiding treasure? Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. When a man talks so he is mad. George Fox was mad. The Quakers now are too wise. There is not a mad Quaker on all the globe; consequently the Quakers are dying out. When George Fox, like John Wesley, was alive he could not hold his tongue; when he saw wrong he cried out; what wonder that he was accounted mad? If now you see some relic of that brave, self-sacrificing enthusiast why, it is in the form of the loveliest the very loveliest silk bonnet that would excite admiration everywhere by its quaintness. The world will never mistake that for madness; the world will allow that bonnet to come in and go out as it likes. It is the mad soul the devil cannot do with, and he will not have it if he can burn it out. Young men, we want mad men in the true sense; that is to say, in the sense of enthusiasm, intelligence, in the sense of wisdom on fire, in the sense of conviction that will neither be bribed nor deterred.
The religious or spiritual man is mad because he trusts to a spirit. He says, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” The spiritual man trusts a spirit; he never saw him; he knoweth not the shape of a spirit; he cannot tell his coming or his going, he cannot calculate the orbit of his influence, the measure or the quality of his action; he may be resembled to the wind which bloweth where it listeth, but to other image or type he cannot liken him. The spiritual man prays, apparently, to nothing; the worldly man looks at the closed eyes of the spiritual man, and wonders what he can see through his eyelids. The carnal man listens to the pleading, the supplication, the confession, and the thanksgiving of the spiritual man, and wonders to whom he is speaking. The carnal man cannot understand the things that are spiritual, for they are spiritually discerned; that is to say, they come within the cognition of a spiritual faculty, a spiritual sense, a distinct specific creation of the Spirit of God within the temple of the human soul. The natural man knoweth not the things that be of God. Yet the spiritual man cannot help praying, cannot help trusting in Providence; because he sees in history an elaboration and proof of his best theology. The spiritual man has facts to rest upon; to him history is the Bible rewritten, not the history of one day or of one people, but the history of many days all taken together, and the history of all peoples; these must be brought under purview if we are to see the shaping of the divine Spirit, the uprising of a mystic temple, more beautiful than light, more delicate than the coloured cloud which veils the sun.
The spiritual man, therefore, is not to be laughed out of his spiritual ecstasy. He has great staying power; he rests in the Lord. He knoweth not when his Lord will come with the necessary revelation; he says, It may be at any moment at cockcrow, at the dawning of the day, in the noontide, in the festival of eventide, but come he will, and make all things clear. Such a man is not to be tolerated in worldly society. Such a man is hated in every city.
The exchange does not want your spirituality; to the man of money, the mere money-changer, you are a fanatic, a fool, and a nuisance. The worldly heart cannot endure the Christian spirit. That spirit spoils the feast, brings a cloud over the foolish merriment, and hinders the jocund play of those feelings which rise and fall like the bubbles of a moment. If Christian people are popular it is in the degree of their being unfaithful to their Christianity. No son of man can be popular, in the sense of being welcomed into all companies alike, and being felt to fit into every occasion as if he had been made for it. The righteousness that can be silent in the presence of evil is unrighteous righteousness. The soul that can pass by the indifference, the neglect, the cruelty, which mark the history of every day, may say its prayers, but it never prays. If the Church were faithful to her spirituality the Church would be persecuted to-day as at previous periods of history. Do not believe that the devil is converted; never delude yourselves into the belief of the sophism that evil has changed its nature. If you are a good man you are welcomed in few places. On the other hand, we must be careful lest men should reason that because they are unpopular, therefore they are religious. The reasoning might be sound, or it might be unsound. Here we must have no delusion. If a man has mistaken the nature of the kingdom of heaven; if he has turned the law into a piece of moral pedantry; if he betakes himself to the superficial ministry of addressing prescriptive moralities and preceptive moralities to the people as if he had no need of his own exhortations, then he ought to be unpopular, and he ought to be put down. We are not speaking of that kind of religion, but of the pure, spiritual, trustful, faith-inspired, and faith-directed religion, that will never be popular, and will never have an easy life in this world.
The spiritual man has determined not to eat any bread that is not honestly earned. He brings his piety down to the table. He will not wear clothes that he has stolen; he will not enrich himself with the spoils of other people. The spiritual man says, I will die honestly if I cannot live honestly; if there is no room for me in the world, I will go out of it by the door of starvation, rather than spoil and steal, and oppress and call myself a lucky fellow because I have plundered some other man without the man knowing it. So we are called to no formality; we are called to spirituality; not to a monastic renunciation of the world, which is a piece of egregious impertinence; we are called to the right use of the world, to handle it well, to keep it at arm’s length when we would have it thus, to use it without abusing it. In that spirit the more the good man has the more we should rejoice; it is like putting money into the hands of honesty and liberality and the spirit of beneficence; in that sense we pray for the worldly prosperity of good men, if it be for their good that they should be appointed to high trusteeships. We must bear the reproach of spirituality; we must be content with the certificate as to the reality of our spiritual madness.
What can be done to develop the real character and quality of true religion? There must come a revolution presently; things cannot be continued much longer at their present level and in their present tone. The pulpit has to be revolutionised; the Church has to be shocked out of its old ways, and has to reconsider all its positions, and has to study the age in which it lives. If the Church will not study the age in which it lives, the age will leave the Church. The Church in its organised capacity has always been the dullest learner, the most stupid scholar in the school of history. It is always the clerical mind that comes in last, and says, What a fool I have been not to read the signs of the times, and not to anticipate the action of stronger and wider minds. The clerical mind is not in a hopeless condition; it always comes in late at night, it always comes in by the back door; but it always does come back. Naturally it is a narrow mind, a little mind, a prejudiced mind, a cage full of birds of prejudice; but on the whole it generally recognises in the long run its own folly, and asks to be admitted into some department of the court of civilisation. This ought not to be so. The spiritual man should be the keenest-sighted man; the spiritual man should be the most scientific of all men. He may not be able to write in scientific nomenclature; he may know nothing about the phenomena of science, but he can have a spirit of sympathy with all knowledge, and he can be the first to say, Let the light come from all quarters; if anything stands in the way of the light, down with it; it is light we want, it is light we live on. If the Church would say that the Church would take its right place, and spirituality would be seen to be the madness of wisdom, and not the madness of obstinacy.
The spiritual man sees the invisible, and recognises the fact that everywhere there is a Power that is working and cannot be hindered, an infinite action going on; shaping, combing, colouring, re-combing, and inter-relating things, and the issue is a temple, beautiful in proportion, grand in massiveness, apocalyptic in colour, hospitable in welcoming all human hearts. Do not live in a little narrow world. Suppose a man should be shut up inside an organ without having seen the instrument itself beyond that point, and he is a man who will keep a little note-book, and write down in that note-book what he calls “phenomena”; that is, he will put down exactly what he sees. The organ is being played, and he thinks it is playing itself. He writes down, “Marvellous action. As to this action I am an agnostic; how this comes I don’t know; I will put that down in my note-book Grand action in the organ, but nothing seen that I can understand, and it is very wonderful.” That is down, and that is a “phenomenon.” There go fifteen hammers all moved at once. “Marvellous thing!” Put that down Fifteen hammers moved, and saw nobody move them. That is another “phenomenon.” What, fifteen different voices loud, groaning, bass, light, tremulous, a touch, more a thought than a thing. Put that down “Saw marvellous phenomenon fifteen voices and couldn’t see who’s doing it.” On this matter of whom I am an agnostic. What do I say? I say, Come out of that, you fool! come out, and look at this man on the stool. Why don’t you come out? You may be in the organ writing phenomena all the days of eternity. If you would come out into the right light, and put yourself at the right point of view, you would see that many a mystery is no mystery from the right standpoint, and you would see that all the music is not that work of chance, but a measured, ordered, well-handled reality, responding to a human touch, repronouncing human music, trying by many a strenuous effort, and not wholly without success, to reproduce that highest, sublimest, divinest music, the music of the human voice.
Thus I would say to all young people, Enlarge the sphere of your observation. Do not shut yourselves up in endless darkness, and suppose therefore there is no light; wherever there is light follow it. All light is from the sun. The little candle put in the window in the cottage on the mountain side to guide the shepherd home is that a creation of man? So far; but man never put that light on the wick; that is a drop from the fountain of the sun. So every good effort and every good thing, every holy desire, every noble impulse, we trace not to human ingenuity, but to God the Holy Ghost
Prayer
Thou Giver of all good, we have nothing that we have not received: our bread is thine, our home is of thine own building, our life thou dost watch with the eyes of love; thou dost prevent our hunger, and ere yet we have felt the pain of thirst thou hast provided the river which is full of water. We are the witnesses of thy goodness; we proclaim the loving kindness of the Lord, for we have seen it with our own eyes. There is a cloud by day; there is a pillar of fire by night; there is a voice behind us telling us the right way; there are arms round about us whose strength is infinite. We will rejoice and be glad, and magnify the Lord in many psalms, and will charge our souls not to be disquieted within us, but to hope confidently in God, for they shall yet praise him for the help of his hand and the light of his smile. Thou knowest how easily men are discouraged and driven back into darkness and fear: take not thy Holy Spirit from us; Spirit of promise and light and liberty and peace. Holy Spirit, dwell with us. We ask the gift of the Holy Ghost because he is to take of the things of Christ, and show them unto us, and we are never wearied of gazing upon the beauties of the Saviour. His wounds are his honours, his suffering is the beginning of his victory, and because he died for us he lives for us; yea, he ever liveth to make intercession for us. We would be more deeply taught in all the mystery of Christ’s life and purpose; therefore we pray for the gift of God the Holy Ghost, that he may abide with us, rule in us, cause the light of heaven’s morning to shine upon our life, and whisper to the heart in its moments of weakness and dejection. Lord, evermore give us the bread of life; Father in heaven, lead us to the river of God which is full of water; draw us with the cords of a man; cast the yoke gently over our necks, that we may receive it as thy gift and no burden of oppression. Guide us with thine eye; heal us with thy love; let thy tears fall upon us like refreshing dew; may we always know that the Lord is round about us to do us good, if so be our hearts are clinging to the Cross of Christ, and hope in that alone for present pardon and eternal sonship and progress. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
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 9:1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as [other] people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
Ver. 1. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people ] Not as good people, for they have reason to rejoice, and are called to it in both Testaments; joy is the just man’s portion, but thou art naught all over, thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, who will shortly meet thee as a bear robbed of her whelps, or as the jealous husband doth his adulteress. Again, not as other bad people, for they may revel (rejoice indeed they cannot) and be merry, after a sort; rejoice they may in the face, as the apostle phraseth it, and from the teeth outward; some kind of frothy and flashy mirth they may have (and let them make them merry with it, it is all they are like to have), but so mayest not thou; because thou hast had warning sufficient, and hast known thy Master’s will, but not done it; yea, thou hast done that abominable thing that other nations never yet did, Jer 2:11-12 , thou hast changed thy God for those that are no gods; thou hast forsaken the fountain, and run to the cistern, &c.; which is such a prodigious wickedness, as the very heavens are astonished at, and are horribly afraid, yea, desolate; mourning, and, as it were, melting at this horrid act. Shall the heavens mourn, and wilt thou rejoice? yea, fetch a frisk, or dance a galliard for joy, as the word signifies ( , in Graec. , to dance a galliard): what if other nations do so, when they have got the better of their enemies, or gathered in their harvest, Isa 9:4 , or otherwise have all things go well with them? yet revolted Israel had no such cause, unless they were upon better terms with God. Say that this were the time when Joash beat Benhadad thrice over, and recovered the cities of Israel, 2Ki 13:15-19 ; or say it was at the time when he took Amaziah, and brought all the spoil of Jerusalem to Samaria, 2Ki 14:13 ; or else when Pekah slew in Judah a hundred and twenty thousand in one day, and carried captive two hundred thousand, with much spoil: these were times of great mirth and jollity, it is confessed, 2Ch 28:6-8 . “But are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God” (as the prophet Oded there bespeaks them), and should not those sins be bewailed? Besides, are they not your brethren whom you have slaughtered and captivated? and can you have any joy of such a conquest, of civil wars that are – nullos habitura triumphos, about to have no victory, that are such a misery as all words (however wide) want compass to express? Hear what the prophet Amos (who was Hosea’s contemporary) saith to this, “Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought” (so he calleth their victories, present prosperity, pomp, and pride), “which say, have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? Behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,” that shall tame you, and take you a link lower (as they say), so that “your laughter shall be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness,” Jas 4:9 . There is ever a snare (or a cord) in the sin of the wicked, viz. to strangle their joy with; “but the righteous sing and rejoice,” Pro 29:6 .
For thou hast gone a whoring from thy God
Thou hast loved a reward (or a harlot’s hire, mercedem meretriciam ) upon every threshingfloor] i.e. Thou hast prostituted thyself to a loose idolatry; like to a common whore that goeth a whoring up and down the threshingfloors. Hence Boaz’ fear lest it should be rumoured that Ruth had lain at his feet, and that a woman came into the floor, Rth 3:14 . Or else he meaneth (saith Diodati) some particular kind of idolatry used in the time of harvest and threshing: as if they would have acknowledged their increase to come by their idols’ goodness. Such was that of the Metapontines, of whom Strabo tells the story, that when they had had a good harvest, and were grown rich thereby, they dedicated to Apollo at Delphi Y , a harvest of gold. See Trapp on ” Hos 2:1 ” &c
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Hos 9:1-6
1Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations!
For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.
You have loved harlots’ earnings on every threshing floor.
2Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them,
And the new wine will fail them.
3They will not remain in the LORD’S land,
But Ephraim will return to Egypt,
And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
4They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD,
Their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their bread will be like mourners’ bread;
All who eat of it will be defiled, For their bread will be for themselves alone;
It will not enter the house of the LORD.
5What will you do on the day of the appointed festival
And on the day of the feast of the LORD?
6For behold, they will go because of destruction;
Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will take over their treasures of silver;
Thorns will be in their tents.
Hos 9:1 Do not rejoice This verse may reflect a harvest festival (cf. Hos 9:5). These times were the occasion of Ba’al praise and worship (initiation magic). YHWH will turn their promiscuous festivals into funeral dirges!
This VERB (DBD 970, KB 1333, Qal JUSSIVE in meaning, but not form, cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 1, p. 856) means rejoice or delight (cf. Hos 7:3). Israel was acting like just another of the nations (BDB 766).
This is the first of several cultic words:
1. rejoice, Hos 9:1
2. exultation, Hos 9:1
3. libations, Hos 9:4
4. sacrifices, Hos 9:4
5. day of the appointed festival, Hos 9:5
But, the bottom line was Hos 9:1 b, you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. Wailing was appropriate (cf. Isa 22:12-14), not rejoicing!
We need to take a lesson on worship from the Jews. Their worship times were events of great joy in the goodness of God and His creation. In this context, however, God informed them that exaltation is inappropriate because of His impending judgment on their idolatry. In the OT (Deuteronomy especially) prosperity is a sign of God’s blessing, but in this historical setting it was a deceptive, short-term situation. Israel was trapped in ritual and idolatry and YHWH will discipline her (like He will Judah for the same actions, e.g., Jeremiah 2; Ezekiel 23).
like the nations! This was the problem (cf. 1Sa 8:5)! They had turned the worship of YHWH into a form of the Canaanite Ba’al worship.
you have played the harlot They were practicing the fertility worship of the Canaanite pantheon. They were committing physical adultery and spiritual adultery (e.g., Hos 1:2; Hos 4:10; Hos 4:13-15; Hos 4:18[twice]; Hos 5:3; Hos 9:1) in YHWH’s name!
loved harlots’ earning Israel’s love (BDB 12, KB 17, Qal PERFECT) is directed toward a harlot’s hire (BDB 1071, cf. Hos 2:5; Hos 2:12). The same VERB is used of foreign alliances in Hos 8:10. It is very difficult to know if this is literal or figurative.
on every threshing floor This (BDB 175) was the site of separating the grain from the husk. It was usually on the top of hills so that as the grain was thrown into the air the wind would blow away the lighter husk and the heavier grain would fall into a pile. These harvest places were the sites of extravagant celebrations (cf. Genesis 38). Because fertility worship was a form of initiation magic, this was the very site the sexual activity occurred (e.g., Hos 4:11-14). But notice YHWH’s reaction in Hos 9:2; Hos 9:11; Hos 9:14; Hos 9:16!
Hos 9:2 YHWH, not Ba’al, was the source of fertility (cf. Hos 2:16).
Hos 9:3 They will not remain in the LORD’S land The Promised Land (e.g., Lev 25:23; Jer 2:7; Jer 16:18; Eze 36:5; Eze 38:16; Joe 1:6), and for that matter, all land, belongs to YHWH (e.g., Exo 9:29; Exo 19:5). YHWH prophesied the cleansing of His land of Amorites in Gen 15:16. If His people do the same abominations He will remove them also (cf. Lev 18:24-28). They did, He did!
But Ephraim will return to Egypt When one compares Hos 7:8; Hos 7:11; Hos 7:16; Hos 8:13 and this passage with Hos 11:5, there seems to be a contradiction. Egypt probably is symbolic of slavery (i.e., exile in Assyria). However, some scholars see it as a reference to political alliance. Hoshea, the last king of Israel, appealed to Egypt for help against Assyria.
Assyria This is a specific reference to the exile that occurred to the Northern Ten Tribes in 722 B.C. with the fall of Samaria (cf. Hos 8:9-10).
they will eat unclean food Exile will bring a stop to many of their cultic rituals. The development of the synagogue will preserve their traditions, but many of the Levitical ordinances will be impossible to do without an active temple (cf. Hos 9:4-5). Eze 4:13 implies that bread, eaten in a foreign land is unclean!
Hos 9:4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD It must be remembered that fermented wine was a part of the sacrificial system and, therefore, not considered to be corrupt (cf. Exo 29:40; Num 15:1-10; Psa 104:14-15). The reason that the sacrifices of Hos 9:3-4 are unclean is because they are in a foreign land. See Special Topic: Biblical Attitudes Toward Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse .
mourners’ bread This (BDB 536 CONSTRUCT 19) is a metaphor of corruption. It was defiled because it was associated with the dead. It was made out of barley, usually eaten by the poor. It was also unclean because it was made and eaten in Assyria.
Hos 9:5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival This was a question to jar them into reality. Their worship was about to be totally disrupted and their population deported!
Hos 9:6 Egypt will gather them up
Memphis will bury them Memphis (BDB 592) is the capital of Lower Egypt and we learn from archaeological discovery that it was the site of an extremely large burial area (VERB BDB 868, KB 1064, Piel IMPERFECT). The meaning is (1) the survivors of the exiles will die in large numbers in exile and slavery (i.e., as in Egypt) or (2) those survivors who flee to Egypt will die there!
Weeds will take over their treasures of silver There are two basic theories concerning their treasures of silver: (1) it refers to idols and, therefore, the misuse of holy places; (2) it refers to their extravagant houses and, therefore, the destruction of their opulent society (cf. Hos 8:14); or (3) because of Hos 9:2 and Isa 7:23, it may be a metaphor for their vineyards.
Thorns will be in their tents This is metaphorical of their empty houses or it is another reference to their worship shrines (cf. Hos 10:8).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
people = peoples.
gone a whoring: i.e. gone into idolatry. See note on Hos 1:2.
a reward = a love-fee. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 23:18, “hire”). App-92.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 9
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for you have gone a whoring from your God, you have loved a reward upon every cornfloor. The floor in the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. They shall not dwell in the LORD’S land: but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria ( Hsa Hos 9:1-3 ).
And so he prophesies and predicts the captivity, being carried away to Assyria, others fleeing to Egypt.
They shall not offer the wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners: all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread and for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD. What will you do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD? For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them [they’ll be buried in Memphis]: the pleasant places for their silver [that is, their places were once so beautiful where their treasures were kept], will be covered with nettles: and thorns will fill their houses [their tents]. The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all of his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore I will remember their iniquity, and will visit their sins ( Hsa Hos 9:4-9 ).
So God is pronouncing His judgment and His indictments against these people. He said,
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time ( Hsa Hos 9:10 ):
Now here the nation of Israel is liken unto a fig tree. This also is true in Joel, chapter 1, verse Hos 9:7 , and in Jer 23:1-40 I believe it is, or twenty-six… twenty-four, in between them. “Your fathers were as the first ripe fig trees at her first time.” I do believe that Jesus, in Mat 24:1-51 , here is a reference to Israel as a fig tree as in Joel and as in Jeremiah. Now you say, “But if Israel is the fig tree and it began to bud forth in 1948 and the generation that saw it bud forth wasn’t to pass until all of things be fulfilled, how come they were getting up close to the end of that generation, 1988, forty years, and we the church are still here if we’re gonna be gone seven years before?” A lot of suppositions in that.
Number one, the supposition is that the rebirth of the nation in May of ’48 constitutes the beginning of that generation. Second, supposition of the generation is exactly forty years. And the third supposition, of course, is that the church will be taken away seven years before the second coming of Jesus Christ. But don’t write it off yet. We still have a ways to go until May fourteenth and that the Lord didn’t come in the year 1981 doesn’t yet totally wipe out that whole premise. If He hasn’t come by May fourteenth, then those who hold to that can go back to their calculations and begin to work again.
I personally cannot see how this earth can continue much longer. There are some remarkable things that are happening in the world today. The Schmidt from Germany has called for a summit conference between Brezhnev and President Reagan. And the purpose of his calling for this summit is that Brezhnev will know that those people in the West aren’t kidding, they’re really serious in their endeavor to stop the Soviet Union from its further aggression. I’m afraid that we’ve gotten serious a little bit too late. General Jones, General Keegan, General Walt, and you can go right on down and name a lot of generals who feel that 1982 is definitely the crisis year with Russia; that this is the last year that Russia will have a decided military advantage over us, that beginning with 1983 it will be declining as we are in crash programs to begin to catch up. As we start the deployment of the MX missile systems, as we start, or as we’re speeding up the development of our cruise missiles, as we are starting the development of the B-1 and so forth. In 1985, 1986, hopefully we will be again in a position of some kind of strength against Russia. But what Helmet Schmidt is saying to Brezhnev is, “Hey, those guys are crazy. They are serious and you better take them seriously.”
There’s little we can do right now. There was really nothing we could do to stop Russia’s move into Afghanistan. There was really nothing that we could do with that hostage fiasco in Iran; we’re too close to Russia. We had that aborted attempt to rescue, but it was too little too late. The United States is operating at the present time from a base of weakness. But that’s no position to be in, in this world in which we live. Weakness is not respected. Russia definitely has the cards and she can play them anytime she wants, and there’s really nothing we could do about it. And I don’t see how things can go on much longer.
As I said this morning, if I didn’t really believe in the Lord and in trusting in Him, I would be looking for some place to just crawl into a cave and wait until it was all over. I’d be looking for some little atoll or island out in the Pacific and I’d just get me a pile of coconuts and a fish net and hope to tough it out until it all went up in a puff of smoke. But my trust is not in man nor in the parliament, nor in the powers of man, nor in the leagues of men, but my trust is in the Lord and in God’s Word. And I do not see the whole thing going up in God’s Word as long as the church is here. So I’m just committing my ways to the Lord as far as that goes. But we are getting close to the end of that generation that saw the fig tree bud forth, and I do think there is a correlation between verse Hos 9:10 where God said, “I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree,” and the parable of the fig tree in Mat 24:1-51 in that the identity of the fig tree is indeed Israel.
God saw them as the grapes of the wilderness. When they first came into the wilderness, found grapes that were there. Oh thirsty people, how great juicy grapes taste to a guy who is dying of thirst. And though God found them very refreshing, exciting,
yet they went after Baal-peor ( Hsa Hos 9:10 ),
One of the most licentious of all the pagan gods as far as the worship is concerned.
they separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved. As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception. Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also unto them when I depart from them! ( Hsa Hos 9:10-12 )
Woe unto any man when God has departed from his life.
Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. Give them, O LORD: what you will give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters. Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, they shall bring forth, yet I will slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations ( Hsa Hos 9:13-17 ).
And that prophecy has been fulfilled and is being fulfilled at the present time, for they still remain wanderers among the nations.
A testimony of God’s Word confirmed by history and confirmed by the world around us. Surely we would be wise to give heed to the Word of God.
Shall we pray?
God, help us that we might hearken unto You. Help us, Lord, that we would not follow after the sin of Ephraim and of Judah, and turning away after idols, of misplacing priority. Help us, O Lord, that we would not allow the cares of this world or the deceitfulness of riches or the desire of other things to choke out our fruitfulness. But, O Lord, may we truly bring forth fruit for Thy praise. In Jesus’ name. Amen. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Hos 9:1-9
LOVE REBUKING Hos 9:1 to Hos 13:16
REPROVING-ISRAEL FORSOOK GOD
TEXT: Hos 9:1-9
Israel is warned not to feel so secure in a few seasons of material prosperity. Because Israel had been unfaithful to her God she would be carried away into bondage in Assyria where she would be unable to make acceptable approach to God,
Hos 9:1 RejoiceH8055 not,H408 O Israel,H3478 forH413 joy,H1524 as other people:H5971 forH3588 thou hast gone a whoringH2181 fromH4480 H5921 thy God,H430 thou hast lovedH157 a rewardH868 uponH5921 everyH3605 cornfloor.H1715 H1637
Hos 9:2 The floorH1637 and the winepressH3342 shall notH3808 feedH7462 them, and the new wineH8492 shall failH3584 in her.
Hos 9:3 They shall notH3808 dwellH3427 in the LORD’SH3068 land;H776 but EphraimH669 shall returnH7725 to Egypt,H4714 and they shall eatH398 uncleanH2931 things in Assyria.H804
Hos 9:1-3 REJOICE NOT, O ISRAEL . . . THE NEW WINE SHALL FAIL . . . THEY SHALL EAT UNCLEAN FOOD IN ASSYRIA . . . It seems that Israel was enjoying certain periods of harvest blatantly supposing them to be signs that all was well and secure in spite of their iniquitous excesses. Israel also attributed its agricultural prosperity to the idols it had appropriated from its heathen neighbors. Israel had played the harlot in its unfaithfulness to Jehovah, regarding the harvest-blessing upon its threshing-floors as gifts . . . from the Baals, for which it served them with still greater zeal. While the harlotry spoken of in Hos 9:1 refers primarily to spiritual adultery (cf. ch. Hos 2:5; Hos 2:8; Hos 4:12), it is still a fact that the harvest festivals were also occasions for boisterous festivities in honor of the fertility deities; and they committed at the threshing floors and wine presses the shameful immoralities against which Hosea and Amos so vehemently protest (cf. ch. Hos 4:13-14).
Zerr: Hos 9:1. Rejoice not is a prediction in the form of an announcement that Israel was headed for a fall, and it would be on account of the unfaithfulness of the nation. Gone a whoring refers to the lusting after the gods of the heathen, and also the reliance that Israel placed in the heatben themselves. Reward upon every cornfloor. The cornfloor means the grain that was threshed out at such a place. The Israelites thought they would have their temporal prosperity assured by the support of the heathen nations. Hos 9:2. This verse is a simple prediction of the industrial provisions of the country, that they would be cut off by the invasion of a strange force. Hos 9:3. This verse gives the reason for prediction of the preceding one; that Israel was to be deprived of dwelling in the Lord’s land, which means Palestine. Ephraim means the 10-trlbe kingdom, and so named because its capital city was located in the possession of that tribe. Return to Egypt; not literally, but into a bondage ae bad as the Egyptian enslavement was. Eat unclean things in Assyria is literal, referring to the exile of the ten tribes into the land of Assyria.
Their good fortune with their crops was only temporary, however, for it would all soon be gone and God was about to withdraw His beneficence.
In addition to imminent crop failure, their exile was so near as to be spoken of by Hosea in the perfect tense (as if it had already happened). Israel has made itself an unwelcome guest in the land of Jehovah. Of course, Israel did not consider it Jehovahs land and herself a guest. Very few nations do! Yet it is still true that God owns the heavens and the earth and all the cattle on a thousand hills (cf. Psa 24:1-2; Psa 50:10-15; Isa 66:1-2), and men and nations are merely stewards of His grace. They shall give an account! Israel would be plucked from this land given to her ancestors who came from Egyptian slavery, and cast into a bondage like those of old except that the new exile would be in Assyria. Egypt is not to be taken literally here. Hos 9:3 is a perfect example of Hebrew poetic parallelism. Egypt becomes a figurative picture of what the Assyrian exile will be like. All food which was not sanctified to the Lord by the presentation of the first fruits, was unclean, unlawful food to Israel (Exo 22:29; Exo 23:19; Exo 34:22; Exo 34:26; Lev 23:10-12; Lev 23:15-17). In heathen lands it would be impossible for Israel to come to the Temple of Jehovah (which could lawfully be located only in Jerusalem) and sanctify her harvests. In addition to this they might be forced (cf. Dan 1:5; Dan 1:8 ff) to partake of food that would be strictly prohibited by the Mosaic law. The context here seems to indicate the former as the primary consideration.
Hos 9:4 They shall notH3808 offerH5258 wineH3196 offerings to the LORD,H3068 neitherH3808 shall they be pleasingH6149 unto him: their sacrificesH2077 shall be unto them as the breadH3899 of mourners;H205 allH3605 that eatH398 thereof shall be polluted:H2930 forH3588 their breadH3899 for their soulH5315 shall notH3808 come intoH935 the houseH1004 of the LORD.H3068
Hos 9:4 . . . THEIR SACRIFICES SHALL BE UNTO THEM AS THE BREAD OF MOURNERS . . . The bread of mourners was bread that had been in a house where a dead body had lain. Because the dead defiled a house for seven days and all that was in the house-bread thus defiled was called bread of mourners. Any sacrifice they might attempt to make in Assyria to Jehovah would be unclean or defiled (like mourners bread) because there was no place to offer sacrifices acceptable to God but Jerusalem and the Temple. They would have to eat bread for the support of life-for their appetite-but since they could not sanctify the first fruits of the harvest, it too would be unclean. Hosea is trying to emphasize here the awesome, terrifying nature of Israels spiritual destruction when God withdraws His gracious presence. Israel will be cut off from God. God will not hear her-she will be dead.
Zerr: Hos 9:4. The general meaning of this verse is the dissatisfaction which God felt for the entire conduct of His people. They professed to he consecrated to the true God, and to take delight in the ordinances of the law, but all their performances were tinctured with the poison of idolatry. Because of all this abominable way of life, Gods people were destined to be taken away into the land of Assyria. When they got there the practices described in this verse which they professed to be doing because of their devotion to God (but not with sincerity), will not be attempted at all in the strange land. Bread for their soul. When the people of Israel were performing these sacrifices in a lawful manner, and in connection with a life devoted to the true God, it benefited their soul; was for their spiritual as well as legal upbuilding. In the foreign land there would be no bringing of such articles into the house of the Lord.
Hos 9:5 WhatH4100 will ye doH6213 in the solemnH4150 day,H3117 and in the dayH3117 of the feastH2282 of the LORD?H3068
Hos 9:5 WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE . . . DAY OF THE FEAST OF JEHOVAH? Israel will not be able to worship God, give thanks to Him and call upon Him for forgiveness and blessing in the great annual feast-days while in captivity. They would be deprived of all their ancestors had counted valuable, beautiful, holy and needful. All the religious, national, social, economic, cultural heritage of Judaism centered around its great feasts. Their extreme importance may be seen in the fact that the Jews have attempted to perpetuate these feasts in the centuries following the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans. No Jew worships on any holy day today as God has directed for the simple reason there is no temple in Jerusalem to which they may go. To observe the Passover, or Day of Atonement, in New York City is contrary to the Torah (O.T. Law). And Israel, in captivity to Assyria, would be bereft of all opportunity to approach God in a way acceptable to Him.
Zerr: Hos 9:5. What will ye do, etc. This is a reminder that when the period of exile comes upon Israel, the nation can have nothing to do with the solemn feast days that they once practiced in the home land.
Hos 9:6 For,H3588 lo,H2009 they are goneH1980 because of destruction:H4480 H7701 EgyptH4714 shall gather them up,H6908 MemphisH4644 shall buryH6912 them: the pleasantH4261 places for their silver,H3701 nettlesH7057 shall possessH3423 them: thornsH2336 shall be in their tabernacles.H168
Hos 9:6 . . . EGYPT SHALL GATHER THEM UP, MEMPHIS SHALL BURY THEM . . . THORNS SHALL BE IN THEIR TENTS . . . Egypt will not be the actual place of the captivity of Israel (cf. Hos 9:3) nor will they literally die and be buried in Memphis. These are symbols of bondage, slavery and death, These are places where their ancestors had been in bondage centuries ago. The prophet is simply making his prediction of their future captivity in Assyria as vivid and real as he can by referring to a past experience of the nation. Many thousands of the people of Israel were buried in Assyria, never to see their homeland again. A few Israelites, of a generation or two later than Hoseas, returned from captivity, (cf. comments on Hos 8:8-9).
Zerr: Hos 9:6. Most of this verse is figurative and refers to the shameful interest that Israel had shown for the heathen countries. That very interest will prove to be the undoing of the nation, as much so as if it had been taken bodily to Egypt.
Their land would be desolate. Their spacious dwellings (cf. Hos 8:13-14), the objects of their affections, their precious treasures would all be looted by an enemy or left behind to be overgrown with weeds and thorns-deserted. Things for which they had devoted so much of their time and energy would be wrested from them (cf. Mat 6:19-21; Luk 12:15-21).
Hos 9:7 The daysH3117 of visitationH6486 are come,H935 the daysH3117 of recompenceH7966 are come;H935 IsraelH3478 shall knowH3045 it: the prophetH5030 is a fool,H191 the spiritualH7307 manH376 is mad,H7696 forH5921 the multitudeH7230 of thine iniquity,H5771 and the greatH7227 hatred.H4895
Hos 9:7 THE DAYS OF VISITATION ARE COME . . . ISRAEL SHALL KNOW IT . . . THE PROPHET IS A FOOL . . . FOR THE ABUNDANCE OF THINE INIQUITY . . . Visit means to come with a special purpose, either of blessing or punishment. God visits men to bless (Gen 50:24; Psa 106:4; Zep 2:7; Luk 1:68; Luk 1:78; Luk 7:16; Act 15:14). God also visits men to judge and punish them (cf. Lev 18:25; Psa 59:5; Isa 10:3; Isa 23:17; Jer 10:15; Jer 51:18; Mic 7:4). Woe to that person or nation who does not recognize Gods visit of blessing (cf. Luk 19:44; 1Pe 2:12), for they shall soon receive His visit of punishment! Whenever a prophet, preacher or teacher of Gods Word comes to a person or community or nation with a message from Gods Word, he is Gods ambassador, and God has visited that person or nation. Woe to those who are indifferent and pay no heed to Gods visitors-woe to those who reject and persecute Gods visitors!
Zerr: Hos 9:7. Day of visitation denotes the day when God’s threatened judgments would be heaped upon them. Prophet . . , spiritual man mad . . . fool. According to Lam 2:14; Eze 13:3; Mic 3:11 and Zep 3:4, this prophet and spiritual man means the false prophet who had made predictions about the safety of the nation. When the exile comes upon the people they will realize that their prophets were fools as Israel had shown for the heathen countries. That very interest will prove to be the undoing of the nation, as much so as if it had been taken bodily to Egypt.
Just which prophet is called a fool and who is doing the calling is a matter debated by the commentators. We prefer the interpretation that the prophet is the false prophet who prophesies lies. When God visits His judgment of justice and truth upon Israel then she will recognize and know that the prophets she had been following who were promising her peace when there was no peace, are fools (cf. Eze 13:10 ff; Jer 6:14; Jer 8:11; Mic 3:5). The man that hath the spirit and is mad is the same demon possessed false prophet as is described in Mic 2:11 who utters wind and lies. False prophets usually were under the influence of demoniacal power and were inspired by a lying spirit (cf. 1Ki 22:22), It is also undoubtedly true that the wicked people of Israel were, at this time, calling Gods true prophets, fool (cf. Amo 7:10-17). The prophets were despised, slandered, called mad, hunted, tortured, slain (cf. 2Ki 9:11; Jer 29:26; Heb 11:32 ff). But what men call foolish and what God calls foolish are usually exactly opposite (cf. 1Co 1:18-Hos 2:16)!
Israels punishment and judgment is about to come because of her abundant iniquity and great enmity. Israels terrible sin was that she had mislaid God (cf. Hos 8:14). Israels abundant iniquity was in being indifferent to the many visits of blessing Jehovah had made to her. Her great enmity against God was manifest in her enmity against Gods ambassadors, the prophets. One is reminded of the great enmity of the Jews of a later generation as they expressed it in killing the Son of God (cf. Mat 21:33-46; Mar 12:1-12; Luk 19:9-19). Israel demonstrated its hate for God by its hate for the prophets of God! What of those men and nations today who have hated and killed Christian preachers and missionaries-how great is their hate for God!
Hos 9:8 The watchmanH6822 of EphraimH669 was withH5973 my God:H430 but the prophetH5030 is a snareH6341 of a fowlerH3352 inH5921 allH3605 his ways,H1870 and hatredH4895 in the houseH1004 of his God.H430
Hos 9:8 EPHRAIM WAS A WATCHMAN WITH MY GOD: AS FOR THE PROPHET, A FOWLERS SNARE IS IN ALL HIS WAYS, AND ENMITY IN THE HOUSE OF HIS GOD. Keil translates the first phrase of Hos 9:8, A spy is Ephraim with my God. The meaning Hosea intended, according to Keil and Lange, is that Israel searches out divine revelations on her own along with the God of Hosea. In other words, Israel does not depend on Hosea to be declaring to her the revelation of God, but she trusts in her own so-called prophets (who were not commissioned by God). Ephraim (Israel) believed the revelations of her false prophets to be equal with, if not superior to, the revelations of Hosea. But, her prophets were leading her into the snare (trap) of the devil (pride). Israels prophets were leading her into the devils camp which was at war (enmity) with God. By insisting to the people that their message was right and that Israel should set up a temple of her own and worship a golden calf, they were leading the people to join with Satan and the hosts of wicked demons in war on God!
Zerr: Hos 9:8. The watchman means the man who was faithful to his God. (See Eze 3:17.) Such a servant gave true warnings of danger whether the people gave him heed or not. The (false) prophet is a snare of a fowler (a hidden trap such as those used by a hunter for fowls), that gets the people into trouble because they are not giving heed to the warnings of the watchman.
Hos 9:9 They have deeplyH6009 corruptedH7843 themselves, as in the daysH3117 of Gibeah:H1390 therefore he will rememberH2142 their iniquity,H5771 he will visitH6485 their sins.H2403
Hos 9:9 THEY HAVE DEEPLY CORRUPTED THEMSELVES, AS IN THE DAYS OF GIBEAH . . . Israel has fallen to the depths of sin. Nothing is sacred to her anymore-Gods Word, human life-nothing. They are as corrupt as those despicable, beastly men of Gibeah who, when they could not take the Levite man and molest him sexually, took the Levites concubine, all of them, raped and ravaged her and left her for dead on the doorstep (cf. Judges chap. 19-20). As a result of the sins of the men of Gibeah, the tribe of Benjamin was almost completely exterminated. The Lord has laid the sins of Israel to their charge. What they have sown, they will reap. The Lord will pay them in full for their evil works.
Zerr: Hos 9:9. The comparison to Gibeah is because of the gross immorality that was committed at that place (Judges 19). The people of Israel were guilty of both physical and spiritual pollutions. ‘Will visit their sins means that God will punish his people for their sins by a visitation of some unpleasant experience.
Questions
1. Why did Hosea tell Israel to cease her rejoicing?
2. Why was the land of Israel called Jehovahs land?
3. Did Israel go into captivity to Egypt? Why?
4. Why were the offerings and sacrifices of Israel not pleasing to Jehovah when they were in captivity?
5. How would Israels daily food in Assyria become unclean?
6. What is Hosea trying to emphasize by showing their condition in captivity?
7. How does God visit men? Name two ways.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The judgment was then described in detail. Its first note was of the death of joy. Israel could not find her joy like other peoples. She had gone whoring from God, loving hire on every threshing floor. Having known Jehovah, nothing to which she turned in turning from Him satisfied. The second note was the actual exile, to which she must pass, back to the slavery of Egypt and Assyria, away from the offerings and feasts of the Lord.
The third was the cessation of prophecy. In the estimation of the debased people the prophet would be a fool, and the spiritual man, mad. Thus the means of testing themselves would be corrupted. The fourth declared the nemesis of fornication. The prophet traced the growth of this pollution from its beginnings at Baal Peor, and clearly set forth the inevitable deterioration in numbers and strength of a people abandoned to impurity. The fifth and last would be the final casting out of the people of God because they had failed to listen to His appeals, and as a result they would become wanderers among the nations.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
The Days of Recompense Are Come
Hos 9:1-9
The subject of this chapter is the bitterness of the captivity which was awaiting Israel as the result of their unfaithfulness. Their exile would put an effectual end to their idolatrous and sensual feasts. Every pleasure would be removed and every taste would be offended. The contrasts here are very significant. If men choose unclean things when they might have clean, a situation will be created in which only unclean things shall be attainable, Hos 9:3. If they withhold Gods offerings when they have plenty, they will presently be reduced to such straits as not to have wherewith to sacrifice or even to sustain life, Hos 9:4-5. If we go down to Egypt for help, in Egypt we shall die, Hos 9:6-7. In other words, every sin carries within itself the seed of its own avenging. If allowed to work itself out, its harvest is unutterable and irretrievable.
What a privilege Ephraim had within his grasp, as a watchman with God, Hos 9:8! It is to this privilege, also, that our Savior calls all of us. He says to us, as He said to His disciples, Tarry ye here and watch with me. But too often we refuse to heed the gracious challenge, and allow ourselves to be seduced by the tempter, or by the sloth and corruption of our own hearts, Hos 9:8-9.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 9
The Days Of Visitation
Even an utter worldling is relatively happy as compared with a saint of God away in heart from Him whose child he is. This is what the opening verse emphasizes. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God. Nations who had never known the Lord might go on with a measure of rejoicing, in their ignorance and superstition; but for Israel, that could not be. Having once become the object of His loving-kindness, to whom He had revealed Himself as the one true and living God, they could never be happy in their sin again.
The very recollections of past joys, of hours and days when the soul delighted in God and found precious food in His Word, but make all the more cheerless the restless, unhappy experiences of the backslider in heart as he becomes filled with his own devices. And what a mercy to us that it is so! How grateful we may well be to our God and Father that we cannot be in the enjoyment of true peace and genuine happiness while out of communion with Him to whom we are indebted for every good we have.
It is true the soul away from Him may find a certain excitement and pleasurable exhilaration in the follies of earth; but they are only the pleasures of sin for a season, and not to be compared to those precious realities which were before the soul of the psalmist when he sang, At Thy right hand are pleasures for evermore!
And so of fallen Israel, we read that the floor and the winepress should not satisfy them, and the new wine should fail. Nor should they dwell in the Lords house, but return to Egypt, and feed on the unclean in Assyria. Having despised the service of the Lord, they should be cut off from His temple, and should not eat of His sacrifices (vers. 1-4).
Then he presses home the question, What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? when, scattered among the heathen, they thought of past seasons of blessing, and remembered that once more a solemn feast-day had come round, but they were cut off from its privileges; what then would they do, and how would they be able to satisfy their souls?
How seldom do the people of God think of these things as they should! Lured on by the world, fired by unholy ambition and stimulated by pride, believers often allow themselves to be drawn away from the simplicity that is in Christ! Soon they who once took sweet counsel together as they wended their way to the gathering-place of those who loved their Saviour and the truth of God, are widely sundered. Souls who once were filled with sweet contemplations as they sat at the table of the Lord, remembering His love to us in His sufferings unto death, are now drifting away in darkness. What must be the feelings of such when, on the Lords Day, they call to mind, amid scenes of worldly religiousness, or of irreligious worldliness, the sacred seasons once spent before the Lord with holy joy! To remember that, at the very hour when they are engaged in something which cannot have the Lords approbation, saints once well known and loved are communing one with another, and with Himself, at the feast His loving heart led Him to institute to remind us of Him when He had passed from human sight-surely in such tender recollections there must be mingled a grief and a remorse not easily overcome!
Such, in their measure, should be the nature of Israels memories as the appointed seasons for the passover, the solemn atonement-day, or the gladsome feast of tabernacles, came round; and they were scattered among strangers, and unable to participate in privileges once held so lightly. Gone from their land, a spoil to Egypt (typical of that world from which the believer has once been delivered), their precious things would be a prey to their enemies (their silver shall be desired, see margin), and they themselves wounded by thorns and nettles-pierced through with many sorrows (ver. 6). What a desolate, yet graphic, picture of that which every backslidden soul must prove!
And in all this they would be but reaping as they had sown. They had said (and in solemn irony they are reminded of it), The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad! So they had tried to quiet their consciences because of the multitude of their iniquities. Now, when all these things would have come to pass, they should know that the days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come (ver. 7).
The watchman of Ephraim, who had sought to turn them from their evil way, was with God. But they had said, The prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, because of their hatred against the house of his God11 (ver. 8). So easy is it to denounce one who faithfully rebukes sin, and strives to hinder declension in the soul. The leaven of Gibeahs wickedness (the record of which we have in the last chapters of the book of Judges) was still at work among them after these centuries. Sin never dies a natural death; it must be thoroughly judged. Like leaven, it is stopped by fire-by judgment, self-judgment or Gods judgment; for sin ever works on until it is judged. When indulged in by an individual, or permitted in a company, it continues working, though often imperceptibly, until it is judged, either in oneself, or by Gods people, or by God Himself. This is the solemn lesson here inculcated. Doubtless those addressed here had forgotten all about the days of Gibeah, or might have pleaded that the trouble at Gibeah happened centuries before they were born, and it was therefore useless to concern themselves about it. But Gods holy eye saw deeper than this. He saw that the self-will and corruption manifested at Gibeah were still rampant among them, and called for humiliation and self-judgment before His face. This they ignored. Therefore He must visit them and remember their sins (vers. 8 and 9).
All this is intensely solemn, and may well exercise us in the present season of the Churchs deep failure and ruin. Are we not a part of that house of God set up in responsibility upon earth? Do we bear on our hearts the sense of Gods dishonor in that house, of which we form a part? May God give grace to both reader and writer to let the truth of it penetrate the heart and arouse the conscience; thus leading to a godly discernment as to what is opposed to the holiness that becometh His house, and self-judgment because of the part one has taken in helping on what is not of Himself. It is easy to judge others. We are called upon to judge ourselves. But true self-judgment will lead one to go back over the path of declension trodden by the people of the Lord with whom I am united in blessing and responsibility. This involves a quickened conscience, and is the very opposite to ecclesiastical pretension and spiritual pride.
In verse 10 God lingers lovingly over the early history of His people, when He found Israel like grapes in the wilderness-precious fruit for Himself in a dry and thirsty land. But, alas, how soon did that early freshness disappear! It was not long till they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame. Balaams wretched counsel was only too literally followed when he taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the separated nation. The daughters of Moab effected what all the enchantments of the false prophets could not do; and their abominations were accordingly as they loved. Let the reader carefully study the whole account in Num. 25, and 31:16, compared with Rev 2:14.
From the very beginning Ephraim had proven himself untrustworthy. Therefore his glory should fly away like a bird, and they should be bereaved till none were left. Yea, said God, woe also to them when I depart from them (vers. 11, 12).
It should ever be borne in mind that the Spirit of adoption-the indwelling Spirit-who seals all true believers in the present dispensation of grace, will never depart from those whom God thus marks as His own-much as they may fail: but there is what evidently answers to it; namely, the Holy Spirit grieved, communion interrupted, and the Lord ceases to own one as a testimony for Himself when waywardness becomes characteristic.
Ephraim, once planted in a pleasant place, could no longer be blessed with children. Fruit-fulness is what the name Ephraim signified. But they should become fruitless and barren; or if children were born they would only be appointed to death (vers. 13, 14). Communion with God and fruit for God go together. Where the first is lacking, the desired result will be absent likewise.
Gilgal, once the place where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away, and the witness to their sanctification to the Holy One of Israel, was now but a testimony to their wickedness. Therefore He whom they had so dishonored would drive them from His house, and disown them, because of their revolt from Himself. When He says I will love them no more, it is not that His heart or purposes had changed, but He would not openly interfere for them. He would give them up to their enemies as One who, so far as they could see, loved them no longer (ver. 15).
Thus, as above noted, Ephraim should belie his name. Smitten in chastisement, they shall bear no fruit; and even if they brought forth, His hand would be against them for destruction. In this way would God vindicate His holiness, casting them out of His sight, that they might become wanderers among the nations (vers. 16, 17). Moses had warned them of this from the beginning; but they had given no heed to what should have been ever before them if they had had eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand. Therefore they must learn by discipline, because they had despised the word of the Lord. Are we, with so much greater light, any wiser than they? Let us search ourselves before Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and answer as in His own holy presence.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Rejoice: Hos 10:5, Isa 17:11, Isa 22:12, Lam 4:21, Eze 21:10, Amo 6:6, Amo 6:7, Amo 6:13, Amo 8:10, Jam 4:16, Jam 5:1
as: Eze 16:47, Eze 16:48, Eze 20:32, Amo 3:2
gone: Hos 4:12, Hos 5:4, Hos 5:7
thou hast loved: Hos 2:12, Jer 44:17
upon: or, in, etc
Reciprocal: Exo 34:15 – whoring Num 14:33 – bear Num 18:27 – the corn 1Ch 5:25 – and went Job 20:18 – and he shall Psa 106:39 – went Pro 19:10 – Delight Isa 14:29 – Rejoice Isa 24:7 – General Hos 2:11 – cause Hos 3:1 – love flagons Hos 10:11 – and loveth Joe 1:12 – joy Amo 4:5 – this liketh you Amo 5:17 – in Act 7:41 – rejoiced
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 9:1. Rejoice not is a prediction in the form of an announcement that Israel was headed for a fall, and it would be on account of the unfaithfulness of the nation. Gone a whoring refers to the lusting after the gods of the heathen, and also the reliance that Israel placed in the heatben themselves. Reward upon every cornfloor. The cornfloor means the grain that was threshed out at such a place. The Israelites thought they would have their temporal prosperity assured by the support of the heathen nations.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 9:1-2. Rejoice not, O Israel It should seem that this prophecy was delivered at a time when the situation of public affairs was promising; perhaps after some signal success, which had given occasion to public rejoicings. As other people Hebrew, , as, or like, the nations, that is, the heathen nations, or the peoples, as Bishop Horsley renders it, paraphrasing the words thus: Those national successes, which might be just cause of rejoicing to other people, are none to thee; for thou liest under the heavy sentence of Gods wrath, for thy disloyalty to him; and all thy bright prospects will vanish, and terminate in thy destruction. The Gentiles were not guilty in an equal degree with the Israelites; for, although they sinned, it was not against the light of revelation, in contempt of the warnings of inspired prophets, or in breach of any express covenant. For thou hast gone a whoring from thy God Hast been alienated from the love and service of God, and hast broken covenant with him by serving other gods, and thereby hast exposed thyself to his just displeasure. Thou hast loved a reward Or hire, (such as was given by adulterers to lewd women,) upon every corn-floor Thou hast loved to see thy floor full, and hast attributed thy plenty to thy idols, and rejoiced before them at the ingathering of thy corn. Bishop Horsley renders the clause, Thou hast set thy heart upon the fee of prostitution, namely, says he, the fruits of the earth; which they ascribed to the heavenly bodies, and other physical agents which they worshipped. The floor The corn which is gathered into the floor; and the wine-press The wine that is pressed out into it; shall not feed them Shall not nourish and strengthen the idolaters. And the new wine shall fail in her Samaria and all Israel expect a full vintage; but they expect it from their idols, and therefore shall be disappointed. Archbishop Newcome renders it, The choice wine shall deceive them, or, shall lie unto them, as the word may be rendered. We find similar expressions in Horace, as fundus mendax, the lying farm, and spem mentita seges, the crop-deceiving hope.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hos 9:1. Rejoice not, oh Israel, with the shouts of harvest, and the songs of the vintage, as all heathen nations have done, and have ascribed their harvests to their idols; for God was about to deny them of bread.
Hos 9:3. Ephraim shall return to Egypt, for refuge from the Chaldeans, while others shall be led away captive as far as the oriental provinces of Assyria. Here they shall eat the bread of mourners, as in Hos 9:4, meaning the coarsest meat of slaves, and meat forbidden by the law as unclean.
Hos 9:6. Memphis shall bury them. Noph is the old name of this capital of Egypt. Isa 19:13. Wars and afflictions pursued the jews to this land of exile.
Hos 9:7. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad. They had mocked the Lords prophets, as mad and insane; the idol-prophets prophesying of wine and peace are now the fools. God having made them, like the diviners of Babylon, mad. How reproachful and embittered must the existence of such prophets be, when, instead of a harvest of joy, the people were driven to eat the bread of mourners.
Hos 9:9. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. When the whole tribe of Benjamin screened the profligate young men who had debauched the Levites concubine, and perished in the war. So in a similar manner those wicked prophets drove their country to destruction.
Hos 9:15. All their wickedness is in Gilgal, now the principal seat of their idolatry, and its abominable rites.
Hos 9:17. They shall be wanderers among the nations, as Moses had long ago foretold. Deu 28:49-64.
REFLECTIONS.
What a chapter of darkness, what sombrous images are here; what a prophet of disasters! Yet the prophecies are mild when compared with the strokes that followed.
How deep is the depravity of the heart, and how strong the force of habit, that nothing could reclaim a nation in the high course of error and of crime. Yet the ministry of holy men shamed and lessened many of their sins; and the faithful, few in number, required pastors.
How deplorable is the state of the jews, so often sentenced to wander on the face of the whole earth; to be debarred from a heritage of land, and a fixed home. By leading a wandering life, the strong ties to morality of conduct are relaxed, because the relations of civil society are fluctuating. The ties of honour, truth, and probity are too transient to acquire the stability which subsists in a more settled state of residence. But such was their sentence from the Saviour, to be led captive to all nations and wander on the face of the whole earth, till the times of the gentiles should be fulfilled.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hos 9:1-9. The Joyless Discipline of Exile.The delirious joy of the popular nature-religion shall soon be exchanged for the sorrows of exile. In her own land Israel had treacherously ascribed to the Baalim the crops given by Yahweh; therefore, in a strange land, she shall lose all opportunity of sacrificing to Him. Their bread shall be as the bread of mourners, unoffered and unconsecrated in Yahwehs Temple; and what will they do for festivals? Egypt shall be their grave, and all their wealth destroyed in the day of visitation (Hos 9:1-7 a). If the prophet (Hosea) is mad this is explained by the universal sin against Yahweh, and the universal enmity against His prophet (Hos 9:7 b, Hos 9:8). The nations guilt is indeed profound, and shall incur inevitable punishment (Hos 9:9).
Hos 9:1. joy: read exult not (LXX).By hire (i.e. harlots hire; cf. Hos 2:14) is meant the material gifts which the Israelites look for as the reward of the Baal-worship.
Hos 9:2. shall not feed: read shall ignore, and for her read them (LXX). They shall not enjoy the harvest (cf. Amo 5:11).
Hos 9:3. Egypt and Assyria symbolise lands of exile (cf. Hos 7:11, Hos 8:9; Hos 8:13). The foreign land is unclean because it is impossible to sacrifice to Yahweh in it (cf. Amo 7:17); there can be no more joyful sacrificial meals in Yahwehs house.
Hos 9:4. neither . . . mourners: read nor prepare for him their sacrifices. Like the bread of mourners shall their bread be. By the house of the LORD is meant any of the numerous sanctuaries, which were nominally dedicated to the worship of Yahweh.[Hos 9:4 b, Hos 9:5.? a gloss.]
Hos 9:6. they . . . destruction: read they shall go to Assyria. Their cherished possessions (pleasant things) in Palestine shall become a waste.
Hos 9:7 b. Here a new verse should begin. It is the prophets reply to the reproach of his hearers that he is mad.
Hos 9:8 f. The text appears to be corrupt. Hos 9:8 a may mean Ephraim acts the spy with my God (G. A. Smith), but this is doubtful. Hos 9:8 b may refer to persecution encountered by the prophet. Then join Hos 9:9 a, to Hos 9:8, reading they have made a deep pit for him (i.e. they have plotted against the prophet). The rest of 9 may be an addition (? made up from Hos 10:9 and Hos 8:13; so Wellhausen). For the crime of Gibeah cf. Judges 19.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
9:1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, {a} as [other] people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved {b} a reward upon every cornfloor.
(a) For even though all other people should escape, yet you will be punished.
(b) You have committed idolatry in hope of reward, and to have your barns filled ( Jer 44:17 ), as a harlot that had rather live by playing the whore, than to be provided for by her own husband.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Israel’s sorrow 9:1-9
Israel would sorrow greatly because of her sins. Description of her sorrow precedes the explanation for it.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
2. Israel’s inevitable judgment 9:1-11:7
This section of prophecies continues to record accusations against Israel, but the emphasis on the inevitability of coming judgment increases. Also in contrast to chapter 8, this section is not a speech by Yahweh but one that Hosea delivered about Him. [Note: See Charles H. Silva, "The Literary Structure of Hosea 9-14," Bibliotheca Sacra 164:656 (October-December 2007):435-53, for a literary analysis of this section of Hosea.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The result: termination of festivals 9:1-6
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord told Israel not to rejoice like other nations at the prospect of an abundant harvest; that would not be her privilege. He promised to remove her grain and wine. These were threatened curses for covenant unfaithfulness (cf. Deu 28:30; Deu 28:38-42; Deu 28:51). Her unfaithfulness to Him had precluded further blessing. She had credited Baal with providing the blessings that she enjoyed rather than Yahweh. The prophet envisioned Israel as a harlot committing adultery on a threshing floor by worshipping idols there. Threshing floors and wine presses were common places where ritual prostitution took place. It was through these rites that the worshippers sought to stimulate the gods to engage in sex and so bestow fruitfulness on them and their land.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
3. THE EFFECTS OF EXILE
Hos 9:1-9
Hosea now turns to describe the effects of exile upon the social and religious habits of the people. It must break up at once the joy and the sacredness of their lives. Every pleasure will be removed, every taste offended. Indeed, even now, with their conscience of having deserted Jehovah, they cannot pretend to enjoy the feasts of the Baalim in the same hearty way as the heathen with whom they mix. But, whether or no, the time is near when nature-feasts and all other religious ceremonies-all that makes life glad and regular and solemn-shall be impossible.
“Rejoice not, O Israel, to” the pitch of “rapture like the heathen, for thou hast played the harlot from thy God; a harlots hire hast thou loved on all threshing-floors. Threshing-floor and wine-vat shall ignore them, and the new wine shall play them false. They shall not abide in the land of Jehovah, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat what is unclean. They shall not pour libations to Jehovah, nor prepare for Him their sacrifices. Like the bread of sorrows shall their bread be; all that eat of it shall be defiled”: yea, “their bread shall be” only “for their appetite; they shall not bring” it “to the temple of Jehovah.” He cannot be worshipped off His own land. They will have to live like animals, divorced from religion, unable to hold communion with their God. “What shall ye do for days of festival, or for a day of pilgrimage to Jehovah? For lo,” they “shall be gone forth from destruction,” the shock and invasion of their land, only “that Egypt may gather them in, Memphis give them sepulcher, nettles inherit their jewels of silver, thorns “come up” in their tents.” The threat of exile still wavers between Assyria and Egypt. And in Egypt Memphis is chosen as the destined grave of Israel; for even then her Pyramids and mausoleums were ancient and renowned, her vaults and sepulchers were countless and spacious.
But what need is there to seek the future for Israels doom, when already this is being fulfilled by the corruption of her spiritual leaders?
“The days of visitation have come, have come the days of requital. Israel” already “experiences them! A fool is the prophet, raving mad the man of the spirit.” The old ecstasy of Sauls day has become delirium and fanaticism. Why? “For the mass of thy guilt and the multiplied treachery! Ephraim acts the spy with My God.” There is probably a play on the name, for with the meaning a “watchman” for God it is elsewhere used as an honorable title of the prophets. “The prophet is a fowlers snare upon all his ways. Treachery-they have made it profound in the “very” house of their God. They have done corruptly, as in the days of Gibeah. Their iniquity is remembered; visitation is made on their sin.”
These, then, were the symptoms of the profound political decay which followed on Israels immorality. The national spirit and unity of the people had disappeared. Society-half of it was raw, half of it was baked to a cinder. The nation, broken into fractions, produced no man to lead, no king with the stamp of God upon him. Anarchy prevailed; monarchs were made and murdered. There was no prestige abroad, nothing but contempt among the Gentiles for a people whom they had exhausted. Judgment was inevitable by exile-nay, it had come already in the corruption of the spiritual leaders of the nation.
Hosea now turns to probe a deeper corruption still.