6<\/strong>. with their flocks and with their herds<\/em> ] i.e., with their sacrificial offerings. This passage affords decisive proof (if indeed the converging evidence from other quarters can be held incomplete) that the Israelites of the north simply and in good faith professed to be worshippers of Jehovah. It will be too late, says the prophet, to use the ordinary means of appeasing Jehovah’s wrath, which have only a value as the outward signs of penitence and faith (see on Hos 6:6<\/span>). Micah uses similar expressions respecting prayers which are offered too late (Mic 3:4<\/span>).<\/p>\n They shall go with their flocks – <\/B>They had let slip the day of grace, wherein God had called them to repentance, and promised to be found of them and to accept them. When then the decree was gone forth and judgment determined against them, all their outward shew of worship and late repentance shall not prevail to gain admittance for them to Him. He will not be found of them, hear them, nor accept them. They stopped their ears obstinately against Him calling on them, and proffering mercy in the day of mercy: He will now stop His ear against them, crying for it in the Day of Judgment. Repenting thus late, (as is the case with most who repent, or think that they repent, at the close of life) they did not repent out of the love of God, but out of slavish fear, on account of the calamity which was coming upon them. But the main truth, contained in this and other passages of Holy Scripture which speak of a time when it is too late to turn to God, is this: that it shall be too late to knock when the door shall be shut, and too late to cry for mercy when it is the time of justice.<\/P> God waits long for sinners; He threatens long before He strikes; He strikes and pierces in lesser degrees, and with increasing severity, before the final blow comes. In this life, He places man in a new state of trial, even after His first judgments have fallen on the sinner. But the general rule of His dealings is this; that, when the time of each judgment is actually come, then, as to that judgment, it is too late to pray. It is not too late for other mercy, or for final forgiveness, so long as mans state of probation lasts; but it is too late as to this one. And thus, each judgment in time is a picture of the eternal judgment, when the day of mercy is past forever, to those who have finally, in this life, hardened themselves against it. But temporal mercies correspond with temporal judgments; eternal mercy with eternal judgment. In time, it may be too late to turn away temporal judgments; it is not too late, while God continues grace, to flee from eternal; and the desire not to lose God, is a proof to the soul that it is not forsaken by God, by whom alone the longing for Himself is kept alive or re-awakened in His creature.<\/P> They shall not find Him – <\/B>This befell the Jews in the time of Josiah. Josiah himself turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses 2Ki 23:25-27<\/span>. He put away idolatry thoroughly; and the people so tier followed his example. He held such a Passover, as had not been held since the time of the judges. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of this great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked Him withal. And the Lord said, I will remove Judah out of My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.<\/P> The prophet describes the people, as complying with Gods commands; they shall go, i. e., to the place which God had chosen and commanded, with their flocks and their herds, i. e., with the most costly sacrifices, the flocks supplying the sheep and goats prescribed by the law; the herds supplying the bullocks, calves and heifers offered. They seem to have come, so far, sincerely. Yet perhaps it is not without further meaning, that the prophet speaks of those outward sacrifices only, not of the heart; and the reformation under Josiah may therefore have failed, because the people were too ingrained with sin under Manasseh, and returned outwardly only under Josiah, as they fell back again after his death. And so God speaketh here, as He does by David, I will take no bullock out of thine house, nor he-goat out of thy fold. Thinkest thou, that I will eat bulls flesh, or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:9<\/span>, Psa 50:13<\/span>, and by Isaiah, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts Isa 1:11<\/span>.<\/P> He hath withdrawn Himself from them – <\/B>Perhaps he would say, that God, as it were freed Himself from them, as He saith in Isaiah, I am weary to bear them Isa 1:14<\/span>, the union of sacrifices and of sin.<\/P> <\/p>\n Hos 5:6<\/span><\/p>\n He hath withdrawn Himself from them.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Divine withdrawal<\/strong><\/p>\n Withdrawn is a word that may well chill our heart. It would be enough to express intolerable displeasure, if it stood just as it stands in this verse; but a larger meaning belongs to the word. Withdrawn is in some senses a negative relation, but it was a distinctly positive and we may add repelling action which the Lord meant to convey by the use of the term. All words were originally pictures, and the real dictionary when it appears will be pictorial. The Lord in this instance frees Himself from them. That is the literal and broader meaning of the prophecy. He releases Himself, He detaches Himself, He shakes off an encumbrance, a nuisance, a claim that is without righteousness. This may be taken in two senses.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The people are going with flocks and herds as if bent on sacrificial purpose; they will give the Lord any quantity of blood–hot, reeking blood; but the Lord says, I will have no more of your sacrifices; they are an abomination to Me; I hate all the programme of ritual and ceremony and attitude, if it fail to express a hunger and a reverence of the heart and mind. So the Lord is seen here in the act of taking up all these flocks and herds, and all these unwilling priests, and freeing Himself from them, throwing them away, as men pass out of their custody things that are offensive, worthless, and corrupting. Or–<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It may mean that the Lord shakes Himself free from the clutch of hands that have no heart in them: He will walk alone. He will not give up His shepherdliness, though He have no flock to follow Him. Every woman is mother, every man is father, and a man is not the less father that all his children are thrice dead, and are as plants plucked up by the roots, and cast out to the burning. The shepherdliness is not determined by the number of sheep following or going before; shepherdliness is a quality, a disposition, an inspiration, an eternal solicitude. If need be God will continue His shepherdliness though every sheep go astray, and every lamb should die. Mark the disastrous possibility! Men may be left without God; the Almighty and All-merciful may have retired, gone away; away into the shade, the darkness of night; He may have enshrouded Himself in a pavilion of thick darkness, where our poor prayers are lost on the outside. To this dreadful issue things may come. (Joseph Parker, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Unacceptable sacrifices<\/strong><\/p>\n The heap of their sacrifices should not recall the sentence against them, nor bring any mitigation of their trouble, nor procure access to God and His favour, who had justly deserted them.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The greatest contemners of God may at last stand sensibly in need of Him.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Impenitent sinners may make offer of many things, when they do not give themselves to God.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>It is a very sad stroke, when the Lord is not only away, but has really deserted a people, withdrawn Himself from them. (George Hutcheson.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But they shall not find Him. Too late<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>This is a work in which all men should engage.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>This is a work which all men must attend to sooner or later.<\/p>\n Repenting too late<\/strong><\/p>\n The main truth in this and other passages of Holy Scripture which speak of a time when it is too late to turn to God, is this; that it shall be too late to knock when the door shall be shut, and too late to cry for mercy when it is the time of justice. God waits long for sinners; He threatens long before He strikes; He strikes and pierces in lesser degrees, and with increasing severity, before the final blow comes. In this life He places man in a new state of trial, even after His first judgments have fallen on the sinner. But the general rule of His dealings is this; that when the time of each judgment is actually come, then, as to that judgment, it is too late to pray. Not too late for other <\/em>mercy, but too late as to this one. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Too late<\/strong><\/p>\n About thirty years ago, a gentleman from New York, who was travelling in the South, met a young girl of great beauty and wealth, and married her. They returned to New York, and plunged into a mad whirl of gaiety. The young wife had been a gentle, thoughtful girl, anxious to help all in suffering or want, and to serve her God faithfully. But as Mrs. L. she had troops of flatterers; her beauty and dresses were described in the society journals; her bon-mots <\/em>flew from mouth to mouth; her equipage was one of the most attractive in the park. In a few months she was intoxicated with admiration. She and her husband flitted from New York to Newport, from London to Paris, with no object but enjoyment. There were other men and women of their class who had some worthier pursuit–literature, or art, or the elevation of the poorer classes–but L. and his wife lived solely for amusement. Mrs. L. was looked upon as the foremost leader of society. About ten years ago she was returning alone from California, when an accident occurred to the railroad train in which she was a passenger, and she received a fatal internal injury. She was carried into a wayside station, and there, attended only by a physician from the neighbouring village, she died. The doctor said that it was one of the most painful experiences of his life. I had to tell her that she had but one hour to live. She was not suffering any pain. Her only consciousness of hurt was that she was unable to move; so that it was no wonder she could not at first believe me. I have but an hour, you tell me? Not more And this is all that is left me of the world. It is not much, doctor, with a half smile. The men left the room, and I locked the door, that she might not be disturbed. She threw her arm over her face and lay quiet a long time; then she turned on me in a frenzy. To think of all that I might have done with my money and my time! God wanted me to help the poor and the sick! Its too late now! Ive only an hour, She struggled up wildly. Why, doctor, I did nothing–nothing but lead the fashion! The fashion! Now Ive only an hour! An hour!–But she had not even that, for the exertion proved fatal, and in a moment she lay dead at my feet.. No sermon that I ever heard was like that womans despairing cry, Its too late now!<\/p>\n Verse 6<\/span>. They shall go with their flocks<\/B><\/I>] They shall offer many<\/I> sacrifices<\/I>, professing to seek<\/I> and be reconciled to the Lord; but they shall not find him<\/I>. As they still retain the spirit of their idolatry, he has withdrawn himself from them.<\/P> <\/p>\n They; the people of Judah, say some, but I rather think it is spoken of the Ephraimites, and either implies by what they did support their confidence of escaping ruin, or else foretells that extremity of sufferings should force them at last to offer sacrifices to God; and the Jewish doctors tell us, that under Hosheas reign Israel had liberty of bringing their offerings and sacrifices to Jerusalem: whether this were so or not, it is certain they did not seek him in right manner, it was with their flocks and herds, but not with their hearts, not with sound repentance. <\/P> But they shall not find him; whilst he might have been found they would not seek him, now as a punishment, and to leave them remediless, God will not be found of them; he will not either accept a sacrifice, or pardon their sin, or return to save them. <\/P> He hath withdrawn himself from them; in displeasure hath withdrawn his favourable presence from them, and with resolution to leave them to the violences of the Assyrian powers. <\/P> <\/p>\n 6. with . . . flocks<\/B>topropitiate Jehovah (Isa1:11-15<\/span>). <\/P> seek . . . not find<\/B>becauseit is slavish fear that leads them to seek Him; and because it thenshall be too late (Pro 1:28<\/span>;Joh 7:34<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord<\/strong>,…. Not only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, to whom Kimchi, Aben Ezra, and Abarbinel, restrain the words; but the ten tribes of Israel also, who, when in distress, and seeing ruin coming upon them, should seek the Lord; seek help from him against their enemies, and the pardon of their sins; seek his face and favour, and to appease his wrath, by bringing a multitude of sacrifices out of their flocks and herds; such a number of them, as if they brought all their flocks and herds with them; but not with true repentance for their sins, nor with faith in the great sacrifice, which legal sacrifices, rightly performed, prefigured. Kimchi refers this to the times of Josiah; but, as it respects Israel as well as Judah, it seems to design some time a little before the ruin of them both:<\/p>\n but they shall not find [him]<\/strong>; shall not find grace and mercy with him; he will not be favourable to them, will not afford them any help, but give them up to utter ruin and destruction; as he did Israel at the Assyrian captivity, and Judah at the Babylonish captivity:<\/p>\n he hath withdrawn himself from them<\/strong>; the glory of the Lord departed from them; his Shechinah, or divine Majesty, as the Targum, removed from them, because of their idolatry, and other sins; they sought him not where and while he was to be found; and therefore, when they sought him, found him not, because he had withdrawn his presence from among them, being provoked by their iniquities.<\/p>\n Israel, moreover, will not be able to avert the threatening judgment by sacrifices. Jehovah will withdraw from the faithless generation, and visit it with His judgments. This is the train of thought in the next strophe (Hos 5:6-10<\/span>). Hos 5:6<\/span>. “They will go with their sheep and their oxen to seek Jehovah, and will not find Him: He has withdrawn Himself from them. <\/em> Hos 5:7<\/span>. They acted treacherously against Jehovah, for they have born strange children: now will the new moon devour them with their fields.” <\/em> The offering of sacrifices will be no help to them, because God has withdrawn Himself from them, and does not hear their prayers; for God has no pleasure in sacrifices which are offered in an impenitent state of mind (cf. Hos 6:6<\/span>; Isa 1:11<\/span>.; Jer 7:21<\/span>.; Psa 50:7<\/span>, Psa 50:8<\/span>.). The reason for this is given in Hos 5:7<\/span>. Bagad <\/em>, to act faithlessly, which is frequently applied to the infidelity of a wife towards her husband (e.g., Jer 3:20<\/span>; Mal 2:14<\/span>; cf. Exo 21:8<\/span>), points to the conjugal relation in which Israel stood to Jehovah. Hence the figure which follows. “Strange children” are such as do not belong to the home (Deu 25:5<\/span>), i.e., such as have not sprung from the conjugal union. In actual fact, the expression is equivalent to in Hos 1:2<\/span>; Hos 2:4<\/span>, though zar <\/em> does not expressly mean “adulterous.” Israel ought to have begotten children of God in the maintenance of the covenant with the Lord; but in its apostasy from God it had begotten an adulterous generation, children whom the Lord could not acknowledge as His own. “The new moon will devour them,” viz., those who act so faithlessly. the meaning is not, “they will be destroyed on the next new moon;” but the new moon, as the festal season, on which sacrifices were offered (1Sa 20:6<\/span>, 1Sa 20:29<\/span>; Isa 1:13-14<\/span>), stands here for the sacrifices themselves that were offered upon it. The meaning is this: your sacrificial feast, your hypocritical worship, so far from bringing you salvation, will rather prove your sin. are not sacrificial portions, but the hereditary portions of Israel, the portions of land that fell to the different families and households, and from the produce of which they offered sacrifices to the Lord.<\/p>\n (Note: It is very evident from this verse, that the feasts and the worship prescribed in the Mosaic law were observed in the kingdom of the ten tribes, at the places of worship in Bethel and Dan.)<\/p>\n The Prophet here laughs to scorn the hypocrisy of the people, because they thought they had ready at hand a way of dealing with God, which was, to pacify him with their sacrifices. He therefore shows that neither the Israelites nor the Jews would gain any thing by accumulating burnt-offerings, for they could not in this way return into favor with God. He thereby intimates that God requires true repentance, and that he will not be reconciled to men, except from the heart they seek him and consecrate themselves to his service; and not because they offer brute beasts. The faithful, no doubt, expiated their sins at that time by sacrifices, but only typically: for they knew for what end and purpose God had made the law concerning sacrifices, and that was, that the sinner, being reminded by the sight of the victim, might confess himself to be worthy of eternal death, and thus flee to God’s mercy and look to Christ and his sacrifice; for in him, and nowhere else, is to be found true and effectual expiation. For this end then had God instituted sacrifices: so the faithful, while offering sacrifices, did not suppose any satisfaction to be done by the external work, nor even imagined it to be the price of redemption; but they exercised themselves in these rites in faith and repentance. <\/p>\n The Prophet now, by implication, sets oxen, and rams, and lambs, in opposition to spiritual sacrifices; for a contrast is to be understood in the words, They shall come with their sheep, etc. What bring they to God’s presence? They bring, he says, only their rams, they bring oxen; but God commands what is far different: he commands men to consecrate themselves to him, and that in a spiritual manner, and as to external rites, to refer them to Christ, and to the true expiation, which was yet hid in hope. Since then the Israelites brought only their oxen and lambs to God, they in vain expected him to be propitious to them; for he is not pacified by such trifles; inasmuch as every one who separates the outward sacrifice from its design, brings nothing but what is profane. Indeed, the true and lawful consecration is by the word; and by the word we are guided to faith in Christ, we are guided to repentance: when these are neglected and disregarded, and men securely trust in their sacrifices, they do nothing but mock God. We hence see that the Prophet exposes not here without reason this folly of the Israelites, that they sought God with their flocks and their herds <\/p>\n And he says, They shall come, or shall go, to seek God By this sentence he intimates that hypocrites sedulously labour to reconcile God to themselves; and we even see with what zeal they weary themselves; and of this there is a remarkable instance at this day in the Papists; for they spare no diligence, when they seek to pacify God. But the Prophet says that this labour is vain and foolish. “Let them go,” he says, that is, “Let them weary themselves; but they shall do so without profit, for they shall not find God.” But when he says, that they would come to seek Jehovah, he is not to be understood as saying, that they would really do so; for hypocrites turn aside from God by circuitous courses and windings, rather than seek access to him. But yet they propose it as their final intention, as they speak, to seek God: they do not indeed come afterwards to him; nay, they dread his face, and shun it as much as they can; and yet when one asks them what they intend by sacrificing and by performing other rites, the answer is ready on their lips, “We worship God,” that is, “We desire to worship him.” Since then hypocrites are wont to boast of this, the Prophet speaks by way of concession, and says, They shall come to seek God, but shall not find him <\/p>\n The Papists of this day pursue a similar course, when they go round their altars, when they gad away to perform vowed pilgrimages, when they whisper their prayers, when they hear and buy masses; for to what purpose are all these things, but by interposing these veils to escape God’s judgment? They know themselves to be exposed to his judgment; their conscience forces them to pacify God: but what do they in the meantime? “I will find out a way in which God will not pursue me: let this then be the price of redemption, let this be a compensation.” In a word, we see that the Papists mock God with their ceremonies, that they have nothing else in view but to seek hiding-places: and hence the Lord by his Prophet complains, that his temple was like a den of robbers, (Jer 7:11<\/span> \ud83d\ude42 for men securely sin, when they publicly offer such expiations. Nay, the Papists, when they mutter their prayers, say that the final intention is pleasing to God, though they may wander in their thoughts: for if, when they begin to pray, it should come to their minds, that God is prayed to, though they may not attend to their prayers, though they may pollute themselves with many depraved lusts yet, if with the mouth they utter prayers, they maintain that the final intention pleases God. — Why? Because their design is to seek God. This is, indeed, extremely sottish and puerile: but, as I have already said, the Prophet does not press this point, but concedes to the Israelites what they pretended, “Ye seek God; but yet ye run not in the right way; and these circuitous courses will not lead you to God.” How so? “For ye recede farther from him.” So Isaiah says, ‘She will greatly weary herself in her ways:’ but in the meantime she followed not the right way, but, on the contrary, turned aside after various errors, and thus receded from the Lord, and came not to him. <\/p>\n By saying, that God had removed or separated himself from them, he intimates that he is not propitious but to the faithful, who think not so grossly of him, as to seek to feed him with the flesh of oxen or other sacrifices, or to pacify him with disagreeable odour; but who seek him spiritually and from the heart, who bring true repentance. It now follows — <\/p>\n (6) The vain effort to repent when it is too late. The spirit with which sacrifices of flocks and herds were offered is of more consequence than the multitude of such oblations (Mic. 3:4<\/span>; Isa. 1:11<\/span>; Psa. 40:6<\/span>). Ghastly and revolting results follow the substitution of ritual of any kind for the weightier matter of the law.<\/p>\n 6<\/strong>. <\/strong> It is impossible to appease the divine wrath and to avert the threatened judgment by the means with which Israel is accustomed to seek the favor of Jehovah. Go<\/p>\n seek Jehovah <\/strong> Hos 6:1-3<\/span>, indicates that they sought Jehovah only to find relief from calamity; repentance was lacking completely (see on Amo 5:4<\/span>). <\/p>\n Flocks herds <\/strong> Multitudes of sacrificial animals. These are of value only when offered in the right spirit and backed by a life acceptable to Jehovah (Introduction, p. 32; compare Amo 5:21<\/span> ff.; Isa 1:11<\/span> ff.). <\/p>\n He hath withdrawn himself <\/strong> He has cut the ties which bound him to the people; he can no longer be reached by them (Hos 5:15<\/span>; compare Isa 8:17<\/span>). Why? Hos 5:7<\/span> supplies the answer. <\/p>\n Dealt treacherously <\/strong> Better, They have been faithless. <\/em> The verb is used of the infidelity of a wife to her husband (Jer 3:20<\/span>). The next figure expresses a similar thought. They have begotten <\/strong> [“borne”] strange children <\/strong> Children not the offspring of a legitimate union. “Israel ought to have begotten children of God in the maintenance of the covenant with the Lord; but in its apostasy from God it had begotten an adulterous generation” a generation which from its infancy was led astray by the example of the parents. The second clause marks an advance. Not only have they themselves become faithless; in addition they have brought into the world a generation which is estranged from Jehovah. <\/p>\n Now shall a month devour them with their portions <\/strong> R.V., “now shall the new moon devour them with their fields.” Marti alters the text so as to read, “Now shall a destroyer devour them; and wasted shall become their fields.” Less radical emendations have been proposed, but, since all are based upon conjecture, if we accept any we may as well accept the one giving the best sense. But what does the present Hebrew text mean? Are emendations absolutely necessary? If we follow A.V. in reading month <\/em> the meaning might be either that within a month’s time the destroyer will be upon them (Clarke), or that a brief month will be sufficient to completely destroy them and their possessions. A still different meaning is suggested by G.A. Smith; he translates, “Now may a month devour them with their portions,” which he interprets, “Any month may bring the swift invader.” These interpretations would make the transition from 7 to 8 quite natural. The destroyer will soon be here; therefore (8) give the signal, prepare for battle. The Revisers, however, preferred the translation “new moon,” one of the most ancient festivals among the Hebrews, on which it was customary to offer sacrifice (Hos 2:11<\/span>; 1Sa 20:6<\/span>; 1Sa 20:29<\/span>; Isa 1:13<\/span>). Even with this translation Cheyne finds in the passage a thought similar to that expressed by G.A. Smith: “Instead of watching gladly for the new moon they should have a ‘fearful looking for of judgment,’ increasing as each new moon arose. If not this, then perhaps the next would bring a slaughtering, plundering horde of invaders.” A vivid imagination is needed to see this meaning in the words. A more natural interpretation would be to regard new moon <\/em> as synonymous with festival or, better, as representing the entire superficial sacrificial system and worship. “Your hypocritical worship, so far from bringing you salvation, will rather prove your ruin” (Keil). If the portions <\/em> or fields <\/em> of the individuals are destroyed it will amount to the devastation of the whole land. The differences among commentators show the obscurity of the passage. The interpretation of G.A. Smith, on the one hand, and that of Keil, on the other, reproduce most faithfully the present Hebrew text; of these that of G.A. Smith connects more naturally with Hos 5:8<\/span>.<\/p>\n ‘With their flocks and with their herds,<\/p>\n They will go to seek YHWH,<\/p>\n But they will not find him,<\/p>\n He has withdrawn himself from them.’<\/p>\n ‘Against YHWH have they dealt treacherously,<\/p>\n Because they have borne strange children.<\/p>\n Now will the new moon devour them,<\/p>\n With their fields (portions).’<\/p>\n When judgment comes on them they will turn to YHWH with an abundance of sacrifices, of both small and large animals. But it will be too late. They will not find Him, because He will already have withdrawn Himself. This will be because they have been unfaithful to YHWH and produced children who are not acceptable to Him. This may either be because their children too were seen as born under the shadow of spiritual whoredom, or because it is referring to the illegitimate children of prostitutes produced in their religious orgies. And the consequence of their ‘illegitimacy’ is that they no longer have any ‘right by inheritance’ to the land allotted under the covenant.<\/p>\n ‘Now will the new moon devour them’ may indicate that just as the new moon was a time when animals were devoured in sacrifice, so now Israel\/Ephraim also will be devoured. Or it may mean that instead of their new moons being a time of celebration in the future as they look forward to that future, they will rather become a time when they and their fields (their portions allotted by YHWH) will be devoured.<\/p>\n Hos 5:6<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>They shall go with their flocks, <\/em><\/strong>&c.<\/strong> They shall run up and down, from altar to altar, with all their stock, as if they could buy off their sins and redeem their sorrows by hecatombs and holocausts. They think that they have merited better at the hands of Jehovah by their thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil, (Mic 6:7<\/span>.) than to fall, as in the former verse; or to be relinquished by him, as here. Lo, this is the conduct of graceless hypocrites: by their mere outward performances they think to oblige God, and by their good deeds to atone for their bad. <\/p>\n The Prophet Hosea useth many similitudes, in order to convey yet more forcibly his divine truths; but the whole of what is here said, is much to one and the same purpose; namely, the defection of Israel, and the Lord’s displeasure. This is a time of Jacob’s trouble. None but the Lord can bring him out of it.<\/p>\n Divine Withdrawal<\/p>\n Hos 5:6-15<\/span><\/strong> .<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n “They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them” (<\/em> Hos 5:6 ).<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n “Withdrawn” is a word that may well chill our heart. It would be enough to express intolerable displeasure if it stood just as it stands in this verse; but a larger meaning belongs to the word, “Withdrawn” is in some senses a negative relation, but it was a distinctly positive and may we add repelling action which the Lord meant to convey by the use of this term. All words were originally pictures, and the real dictionary when it appears will be pictorial. The Lord in this instance frees himself from them. That is the literal and broader meaning of the prophecy. He releases himself, he detaches himself, he shakes off an encumbrance, a nuisance, a claim that is without righteousness. This may be taken again in two senses. The people are going with flocks and herds as if bent on sacrificial purpose; they will give the Lord any quantity of blood hot, reeking blood; but the Lord says, I will have no more of your sacrifices; they are an abomination to me; I hate all the programme of ritual and ceremony and attitude, if it fail to express a hunger and a reverence of the heart and mind. So the Lord is seen here in the act of taking up all these flocks and herds, and all these unwilling priests, and freeing himself from them, throwing them away, as men pass out from their custody things that are offensive, worthless, and corrupting. Or it may mean that the Lord shakes himself clear of the clutch of hands that hath no heart in them; he will walk alone. He will not give up his shepherdliness, though he have no flock to follow him. Every woman is mother, every man is father, and a man is not the less father that all his children are twice dead, and are as plants plucked up by the roots, and cast out to the burning. The shepherdliness is not determined by the number of sheep following or going before; shepherdliness is a quality, a disposition, an inspiration, an eternal solicitude. If need be God will continue his shepherdliness though every sheep go astray, and every lamb should die. Mark the disastrous possibility! Men may be left without God; the Almighty and All-merciful may have retired, gone away, away into the shade, the darkness of night; he may have enshrouded himself in a pavilion of thick darkness, where our poor prayers are lost on the outside. To this dreadful issue may things come. Variously hath the Lord punished the Church, and punished the lands where his altars ought to have been higher than the forest trees. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread [the meanest of all famines], nor a thirst for water [a mere lip fire], but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord,” a thirst that cannot be quenched by all the springs and fountains of the world. And in this chapter the same process of punishment is continued, and is most remarkable for the variety of its application.<\/p>\n There is a touch of satire in the suggestion that follows. After all this want of fealty and love on the part of the people, the Lord says, “Now shall a month devour them with their portions.” The Lord will show, as it were, a visible diminution of the time of the wicked man; that time shall be a month long; the moon shall proclaim this gospel of dissolution. See how the moon waxes, wanes; it is the little month coming up with a kind of buoyancy as if it would last a year, and then suddenly falling back and quietly dying among the clouds. The Lord says, Watch the moon; O thou proud, bloated, blustering Church, watch the moon, that is thy picture: a time of waxing to be followed by a time of waning; a month shall eat thee, a handful of days shall devour thee in forgetfulness. The satire of God is keen, subtle, penetrating; if ever it appeared to be other, it is because the Lord must adopt language which the people whom he seeks to chastise can understand. Wonderful is the visible ministry of God if we had eyes to see it. “Day unto day” speaks of brevity. Whoever imagined that the sunny dawn would die? The dawn is an assured triumph: see how it comes! It comes with the quietness of strength. Weakness may be impetuous, violent, demonstrative, but omnipotence is, by the very necessity of its qualities, calm. The earth stands still because it flies so fast. So strength, because of its completeness, is easy, composed, tranquil. The dawn makes no noise as it rolls back the darkness. The dawn can never die: see how it fills the heavens, how it almost speaks in trumpet tones of triumph that cannot be baffled, enthusiasm that seems to mean benediction, everlasting and immeasurable. This proceeds up to midday; then afterwards there is a westering process, and the dawn, caught at the other end of heaven, dies. “And night unto night showeth knowledge”; and even the year, days and nights put together, has its youth, blustering, audacious, defiant; quite a little series of explosions of wind, and deluges of rain, and storms of snow; and then it is summer, and then it is quiet autumn, and autumn, like all the others, lies down and dies. Why not open our eyes to behold the wondrous lessons that God is writing visibly for us? There are a thousand lessons without voice or sound or sign, which only the soul can read and understand in absolute silence and secrecy. There are also lessons broad as heaven, and bright as the sun, which men might read, and out of which they might make an introductory Bible.<\/p>\n Now the Lord will proceed to tell the offending people what to do: “Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah.” The cornet was always used to give the signal of alarm. It was an instrument of horn; when the strong blower blew his blast through that horn, it meant that the enemy was at the gate; men were called upon to arise, put on their armour, stand erect, watch. “And the trumpet in Ramah.” The trumpet was used as a signal for calling to worship; in the midst of the alarm there shall still be a place left for the adoration of God, for the exercise of those religious impulses and aspirations which make us men. Gibeah and Ramah were the weak points; through them the enemy would appear. The enemy already held Israel in savage grip, and through Gibeah and Ramah the enemy would seek the neck of Judah. What is to be done? Sound the cornet, blow the trumpet; be alarmed, and yet not irreligiously; be awakened, roused, but not so as to forget that God reigns and rules, and that the mightiest weapon is not formed of steel. Who can run his impious fingers over the sword of God’s lightning? Alarm should never disable the religious faculty; panic should never be greater than the power of prayer; yea, rather when there is panic that can be vindicated by reason, there should be religiousness that can be justified by all that makes us what we are in the sight of God rational, intelligent, responsible, immortal. We must go to the prophets if we would find what God can do in the way of punishment; there would seem to be no tongue equal to the explanation of chastisement and penalty equal to the Hebrew tongue. It was a tongue that could round a prayer into noblest majesty better than any other, and when it came to deal with penalty, chastisement, the vindication of the divine righteousness, it became an instrument of tremendous power.<\/p>\n “Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke” ( Hos 5:9 ). “Desolate” may be ranked with energetic adjectives; it was another form of the word that the prophet used; it was a substantive, colder than ice, hollower than the wind: Ephraim shall be a desolation. We have seen already how the prophet used nouns of action in describing the moral condition of the people in the fourth verse. Here we come from the descriptive word into the concrete term a desolation; a word which carries its own limitations and qualifications. You cannot amend the word, you cannot enlarge it, you can add nothing to its cheerless-ness; desolation admits of no companion term; it must be felt to be understood. There have been times when the house was a desolation; there was no light in the windows; though they stood squarely south, and looked right at the sun at midday, yet they caught no light; there was silence in the house; no sound; the fire crackled, and spluttered, and spent itself in vain explosions, but there was no poetry in all the way of the flame, there was no picture of home in all the blank shining of the hollow tongues of fire that licked the grate, but said nothing, yet only hinted that the place was empty; bed and cot and favourite fireside, all vacant, and the very grandeur of the house an aggravation of its vacancy. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.<\/p>\n Why is God so wrathful? Is this an arbitrary vengeance? Doth he delight to show his omnipotence, and to chastise the insects of a day because he is Almighty? Never. There is always a moral reason: “The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound.” God has always been jealous of the landmark. God is honest; would his Church were also honest! God will not live in the house until the false weights and scales be taken out of it; God will not tabernacle with men whilst they are pinching the poor of one little inch of the yard length; he will trouble the house with a great moan of wind, until the balances be right; then he will say, You may now pray. And every sentence will be an answer. From the beginning we have seen that God would have the landmark respected. Here are the princes of Judah, thieves. It must be an awful thing to rob the poor as they were robbed by the great in all ages. It must be an infinitely difficult thing for a prince to be honest; it is an almost impossible thing for a rich man to be really honest. He wants the next field. You have a thousand acres. He says, I know it, but I want a thousand and one, to round the corner, to complete the estate. Your landmark ends here; he replies, I am not quite sure of that. I think it ought to be moved a little to the north. Why will much have more? Why covet the vineyard on the other side of the hedge? Why not let the poor have something? The Lord is the defender of the poor; he will never see the poor man stripped naked without interposing in some way. We cannot understand how, but there is in history, taking it in great breadths, a spirit that reclaims what has been taken unrighteously, that punishes the men who trifle with landmarks and boundaries and old family fences. God rebukes the rich; God never blesses human greediness. It seems to flourish, and the rich man appears to have simply to reach out his hand to put another estate in his pocket. Judge not by appearances, or by narrow instances; take in cycles of time, great spans of history, and see how the slow-moving, but sure-moving, spirit of Providence readjusts and reclaims, and finally establishes according to the law of honesty and righteousness.<\/p>\n How will God proceed in his punishment of Ephraim and of Judah? He will proceed variously: “Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth.” The figure is not too humble to be adopted by the divine action for purposes of illustration. The moth works secretly, silently; you never hear its motions in the fabric which it is slowly consuming. God works thus amongst the children of men. We say from the human side: He is not the man he was; once he would not have made that mistake. How different he is now from what he was ten years ago; now he forgets, he mislays things, he mixes the succession of affairs; he is not marked now by the sharp punctuality, the honest punctuality which characterised him aforetime; he tells the same story twice over. What has taken place? Thus we remark from the outside; the Lord is as a moth within his brain. “And to the house of Judah as rottenness”: a gradual process of decomposition; not coming to maturity all at once. Some men are, as to their intellect, and their spiritual qualities, and their moral attributes, visibly rotting before our eyes. You note the lowering of the moral tone; you observe how the bloom is removed from the fair peach. Where are the commandments now; where the lofty conception of human right and divine rule now? Is there any spectacle more revolting than that of a putrefying character? Hence the pestilence that fills the very air with death.<\/p>\n These are God’s silent actions; but he proceeds to say, “I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah.” How he changes! How all things are possible to God! The moth is now a lion; the process of decay is now exchanged for the roaring and the fierceness of a young lion in the agony of its hunger. Thus various is the providence of God retributive, instructive, comforting, desolating. The Lord rideth forth in twenty thousand chariots, and none can tell in what chariot he will come forth at his next appearance.<\/p>\n This contrastive image of penalty is beautifully given in an intermediate verse: “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound.” There you have precisely the parallel in each case the sickness internal, the wound an outward bruise, a gash in the flesh. Who can tell the sickness of the heart? But who can miss the gaping gash in the bleeding body? One man is punished with sickness; another is wounded, so that the poor wound opens and the red blood leaps out in torrents. Both the punishments are from God. Does the matter end at this point? Could the almighty, all-loving God so punctuate his history of the administration of the affairs of the world as to leave at this point? It is impossible. The prophet will add a line: <\/p>\n “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” (<\/em> Hos 5:15 ).<\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n God cannot say farewell until he is driven to it; and who can drive? not omnipotence of the arm hateful power! but omnipotence of the heart, which, when controlling the omnipotence of the arm, makes both a merciful almightiness. “Till they acknowledge their offence.” If we deny our sin God will search us and try us and punish us; but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, we do not deceive God. “And seek my face.” We have not to wait for the New Testament to find this beautiful word. We think when we come into the revelation of St. John the Divine, and read that his servants shall see his face, that we have come to some consummating promise. Rightly read, the Old Testament has been full of the face of God. He wants his children to see his face; not to hear him behind the clouds, but to see him eye to eye; and Moses conversed with the Lord, literally, mouth to mouth, and, as we have seen, God kissed Moses into heaven. “In their affliction they will seek me early.” The literal rendering would be: In their affliction they will seek me in the morning; they will rise as men who have much work to do that day. In a sweet little favourite poem we hear a child say, “Wake me early, mother, dear.” Why wake you early? The child knew, and told her mother; the night was too long for that child, for she had “to be Queen of the May,” and she must be up with the sun, and before the lark. In their affliction they will hardly be able to sleep during the night. They will watch for the first white in the east; any hint of morning, and up they will spring, saying, The day will be all too short for us; we must begin this work early. We have a long prayer to make, a great confession to submit; is the sun rising is there any hint of his rising, is there one gleam in the far east? O watchman, what of the night? He says, The morning cometh. Then shall all contrite souls spring to their orisons, hasten up for their matins, and before the light is fully abroad the prayer will be quite in heaven.<\/p>\n Thus the grand old Bible rolls like a majestic river through our human history. Let us hasten to it, and drink abundantly of its waters; they refresh and purify, and quench the soul’s burning. Can any man find Jesus in Hosea? Jesus is in full presence in all this Book of Hosea. Why? Because he is in the prophet himself. The prophet speaks from the Christ-point. The prophet was himself a crucified man; in our next reading we shall find that the prophet declared the resurrection. Talk of importing meanings into the Bible? It is impossible, if those meanings be moral, just, redeeming, ennobling. This is the glory of the tree of life, that it bears all manner of fruits. Make it a large Bible, a great earth-covering Bible; make it a Bible that fills infinity, eternity; for one word of God must be greater than anything God has ever made. His thought is his deity.<\/p>\n Prayer<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Almighty God, we know thee by our love; thou dost come to us through our hearts; we feel thy presence; we know thy nearness because of the new warmth that is within us, so that when thy Word closes for a moment we say, Our hearts burned within us. We did not know the Speaker personally, but we knew him sympathetically. There is no voice like thine; as for thy Word, it abideth for ever in winter and in summer; the night cannot frighten it away by its loads of darkness, and it stands in the sun like the angel of thy presence. Thy Word is a light, a lamp, a song, a fortress; if now and again it be as a sharp sword amongst our bones, behold this judgment is intended for our purification and our progress; but thy Word is full of gospel, good news, glad tidings, music from the heart of God: may we understand it as such, and receive it, and give it the hospitality of our whole heart Herein is love; herein is health; herein is immortality. All this we know in Christ Jesus thy Son; but for him we should be in darkness, but having Christ we see the light, we are children of the day, and we behold the inviting destiny of heaven; and because it lures us by all its light and joy, we would accept the discipline of the present toil, and act faithfully and lovingly towards our fellow men. May our Christianity be vindicated by our morality; may all that is noble in our thought embody itself in all that is generous in action. Then shall we be the children of Christ, redeemed ones, bearing the blood-mark, carrying the signature eternal; then we shall love the light and the truth and the ways of righteousness, and as for our latter end, it shall be the opening of our truest life. Regard all men from thy great throne; let thy providence be a ministry of helpfulness to all lives, to all workers, sufferers, travellers, strangers. Make the strange land a home; show where the garden grows even in the wilderness, and when thy loved ones are athirst lead them to secret fountains. On the old man and the little child let the sunlight of thy love fall in impartial fulness, and may all men know thy nearness by beholding the goodness which enriches their life. Establish us in the faith; when we want to do wrong send a sudden cloud upon us that shall make us forget our evil purpose; when we want to pray come and be thyself the Altar and the Sovereign; and when we think of our sin lead us to the Cross, whence no faithful soul ever brought his sin back again. The blood of Jesus Christ thy Son cleanseth from all sin. At the Cross we leave it, and there it shall never be found any more; for is not the miracle of thy love the forgetfulness of our sin? Amen.<\/p>\n Hos 5:6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find [him]; he hath withdrawn himself from them.<\/p>\n Ver. 6. They shall go with their flocks, and with their herds<\/strong> ] Cursitabunt,<\/em> they shall cut up and down, from altar to altar, with all their stock, as if they would buy off their sins, redeem their sorrows, with hecatombs, a large number of animals for sacrifce<\/em> and store of holocausts; whole burnt offerings<\/em> and then be ready to say, as that heathen emperor did, when he was to meet his enemy in the field, Non sic Deos coluimus, aut sic viximus ut ille nos vinceret<\/em> (Antonin. Philosoph.). We have not so served the gods, or lived so, that the enemy should have the better of us. They thought they had merited better at God’s hands by their thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil, Mic 6:7<\/span> , than to fall, as in Hos 5:5<\/span> , than to be relinquished by him, as here. Lo, this is the guise of graceless hypocrites: by their outward performances they think to oblige God unto them, and by their good deeds to set off for their bad. Thus Brunheldis (that French Athaliah), after many murders and much mischief wrought by her, 600 AD, built many colleges for priests and monks in Burgundy and Austria, eo scilicet beneficio maleficia sun expiavit,<\/em> saith the French chronicler; thereby thinking to satisfy for all her cruelty. So here in King Stephen’s time, there were more abbeys built than in a hundred years before. So the Papists at this day spend and are spent in their blind devotions; they “lavish money out of the bag,” and run up and down from saint to saint with their cost; they pray publicly in public calamities, for forty hours together, by the pope’s command, that they may pacify God, and divert his displeasure ( Quarantoras Italico nomine istas preces recant.<\/em> Polan. in loc.). For the same cause they make the same man (in their greater cities appointed) to preach every day in Lent without intermission; so as six days in the week he preacheth on the gospel of the days; and on the Saturday, in honour and praise of our Lady, as they call her (Spec. Europ.). Lo, thus they go, as they think, to seek God with their will worship and work done, but they find him as little as they did here, with their flocks, and with their herds. And why? First, they go to seek him; they run, but in a wrong way; and so fulfil that sacred proverb, “He that hasteth with his feet sinneth,” Pro 19:2<\/span> ; for the faster he runs the farther he is out. Next, they pretend to seek him, but indeed they seek themselves; they seek him, but it is to be rid of his rod; they do not so much serve him as serve themselves, and their own turns upon him; as those hypocrites in Zachary fasted to themselves; not to get off their sins, but their chains, Zec 7:6<\/span> . Thirdly, they go with their flocks, &c.; not mine, but theirs, saith God; he will not so much as own them, though they were tendered to him in sacrifice; because brought with a wicked mind, Pro 21:27<\/span> , as Balak and Balaam did, Num 23:1-2<\/span> , and as Cain did, Gen 4:5<\/span> , to whom therefore God had no respect, because he brought non personam sed opus personae,<\/em> not himself but his sacrifice, as Luther hath it; who also calleth all those Cainists that offer to God the work done, but present not their bodies for a lively sacrifice, Rom 12:1<\/span> . Hence he rejects their services with infinite disdain, as Isa 1:11-12<\/span> ; Isa 66:2-3<\/span> , though never so numerous and precious, Mic 6:7<\/span> Hos 8:13<\/span> . And to set forth this, as he calleth them here, their flocks, and not his, so, fourthly, he calleth them flocks and herds, not sacrifices; that was too good a name for them. Thus, Jer 7:21<\/span> , in scorn he calleth their sacrifice flesh; such as was ordinary, sold in the meat markets. And thus also, Hos 9:4<\/span> , speaking of the meat offering appointed, Lev 2:5<\/span> , he calleth it, their bread for their souls, or, for their life and livelihood, the bread for their natural sustenance; and saith, it shall not come into his house, he will have none of it. See Mal 1:7<\/span> . See Trapp on “<\/em> Mal 1:7 “<\/em> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But they shall not find him<\/strong> ] Non erit ipsis domi, non favebit eis,<\/em> saith an interpreter here, he will not be at home, not within, to open to them when they knock at his door; it will be as strange to them as ever they were to him, because they bring him not that best sacrifice of a broken heart; and because they come too late when the gate of grace is shut, when the gale of grace is over, when he hath fully resolved upon their ruin, and will not repent. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n When he hath withdrawn himself from them<\/strong> ] Heb, hath snatched away himself, hath thrown himself out of their company, as Peter threw himself, , out from the rude soldiers into a bycorner, to weep bitterly, Mar 14:72<\/span> . Cum se proripuisset,<\/em> so Beza rendereth it. When God is well pleased with his people, they can no sooner cry but he will say, Here I am, Isa 58:9<\/span> . And though they offer but small things unto him, as Samuel did a sucking lamb, 1Sa 7:9<\/span> , they are highly accepted, and graciously answered. “But woe unto them when I depart from them,” saith God, Hos 9:12<\/span> ; yea, woe upon woe when God’s soul is once disjointed from them, Jer 6:8<\/span> . “An evil, an only evil, behold, is come. An end is come, the end is come: it watcheth for thee; behold, it is come,” Eze 7:5-6<\/span> . And why? Because God was withdrawing from them. Hence all evils came rushing in, as by a sluice. In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of that prophecy God maketh divers removals. And still, as he goes out, some judgment comes in. First he removeth from the cherubims in the oracle to the threshold, Eze 9:3<\/span> , and upon that removal, see what followeth, Eze 9:5-7<\/span> , &c. Secondly, he removeth to the cherubims on the right side of the house, Eze 10:1<\/span> , and see what follows, Eze 10:2<\/span> . Thirdly, to the east gate of the house, and the first entrance into the temple, Eze 10:19<\/span> , and then see what succeeds, Eze 11:8-10<\/span> . Fourthly, he removed to Mount Olivet, quite out of the city, Eze 11:23<\/span> , and when God was quite gone, then followed the fatal calamity in the ruin thereof. As there is no light in the world but from the sun, no water but from the sea; so no sound comfort or happiness to be had but with and in God. Better have him angry with us than not have him at all with us. The loss of God is a piece of hell: in the suburbs whereof the saints feel themselves when but a while deserted.<\/p>\n go. seek the LORD. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 10:9). <\/p>\n seek the Lord. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 4:29). App-92. <\/p>\n withdrawn Himself. Heb. halaz; not sur (“depart”) in Hos 9:12. <\/p>\n go: Exo 10:9, Exo 10:24-26, Pro 15:8, Pro 21:27, Jer 7:4, Mic 6:6, Mic 6:7 <\/p>\n they: Pro 1:28, Isa 1:11-15, Isa 66:3, Jer 11:11, Lam 3:44, Eze 8:18, Amo 5:21-23, Mic 3:4, Joh 7:34 <\/p>\n he: Son 5:6, Luk 5:16 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Exo 10:26 – cattle Isa 29:1 – add Jer 11:14 – for Hos 3:5 – seek Hos 5:15 – return Hos 8:13 – but<\/p>\n Hos 5:6. The thought intended by this verse may be realized some better by making it read, “Although they go with their flocks etc,, they shall not find him. The Lord had called for these articles of service by the law, therefore it might seem strange to have Him withdraw so that the people could not find him. This apparent contradiction is explained in a comprehensive note at Isa 1:10 in volume 3 of this COMMENTARY.<\/p>\n Hos 5:6. They shall go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord They shall seek to make their peace with God, and to induce him to be favourable to them by a multitude of sacrifices; but they shall not find their expectations answered. This is spoken of the people of Judah, mentioned in the latter part of the foregoing verse; who, though they attended the temple worship, yet did it without any true sense of religion, for which the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah particularly reprove them. The prophecy seems to look forward to the times of Hezekiah and Josiah, declaring that the attempts of those pious kings to reclaim the people from idolatry, and to restore the true worship of God, would fail of any durable effect, and would not avail to reverse the doom pronounced upon the guilty people. He hath withdrawn himself from them God is said to hide and withdraw himself, when he will not answer mens prayers, nor afford them seasonable relief in time of need. Hebrew, , he hath disengaged, or loosened himself from them, or hath taken himself away.<\/p>\n The guilty might seek the Lord, bringing their animal sacrifices to Him, but they would not find Him because He had withdrawn from them. Whereas holiness makes fellowship with God possible, sin and hypocrisy rule it out. He would withdraw His help and blessing from them.<\/p>\n They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find [him]; he hath withdrawn himself from them. 6. with their flocks and with their herds ] i.e., with their sacrificial offerings. This passage affords decisive proof (if indeed the converging evidence from other quarters can be … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 5:6”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>The most important of all works. Seek the Lord. This implies a distance between man and his Maker. It is not the distance of being, but the distance of character. The great work of man is to seek the Lord morally, to seek His character.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The most important of all works undertaken too late. They shall not find Him. He will withdraw Himself from them. This is the language of accommodation. He puts forth no effort to conceal Himself, He alters not His position, but He seems to withdraw from them. As the white cliffs of Albion seem to withdraw from the emigrant as his vessel bears him away to distant shores, so God seems to withdraw from the man who seeks Him too late. (Homilist.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"