16<\/strong>. They return, but not to the most High<\/em> ] Rather, They turn<\/strong> (i.e. shift or change), but not upwards<\/strong> (as Hos 11:7<\/span>). They are not content with passive complaints; they have reached a turning-point in their history, but their way only leads them further and further from the ‘knowledge of God.’<\/p>\n like a deceitful bow<\/em> ] i.e. like a bow which shoots an arrow in a wrong direction, ‘not upwards’, towards Israel’s ‘strong rock’, but earthwards. Cf. the same figure in Psa 78:57<\/span>.<\/p>\n for the rage of their tongue<\/em> ] ‘Rage’; or insolence<\/strong> (i.e. towards God). The root-meaning (as gathered from Arabic) is to make a grumbling sound, like an irritated camel. Hence the appropriateness of the mention of the tongue. The verb is sometimes rendered ‘to curse.’<\/p>\n their derision in the land of Egypt<\/em> ] Probably an embassy had boasted of Israel’s strength, to entice the Egyptians into an alliance. We may probably assume that the ‘sword’ by which the princes were to fall is that of the Assyrians.<\/p>\n They return, but not to the most High – <\/B>God exhorts by Jeremiah, If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto Me Jer 4:1<\/span>. They changed, whenever they did change, with a feigned, hypocritical conversion, but not to God, nor acknowledging His Majesty. Man, until truly converted, turns to and fro, unstably, hither and thither, changing from one evil to another, from the sins of youth to the sins of age, from the sins of prosperity to the sin of adversity; but he remains himself unchanged. He turns, not to the most High. The prophet says this in three, as it were, broken words, They turn, not most High. The hearer readily filled up the broken sentence, which fell, drop by drop, from the prophets choked heart.<\/P> They are like a deceitful bow – <\/B>Which, howsoever the archer directs it, will not carry the arrow right home to the mark, but to other objects clean contrary to his will. : God had, as it were, bent Israel, as His own bow, against the tyranny of the devil and the deceit of idolatry. For Israel alone in the whole world cast aside the worship of idols, and was attached to the true and natural Lord of all things. But they turned themselves to the contrary. For, being bound to this, they fought against God for the glory of idols. They became then as a warped bow, shooting their arrows contrariwise. In like way doth every sinner act, using against God, in the service of Satan, Gods gifts of nature or of outward means, talents, or wealth, or strength, or beauty, or power of speech. God gave all for His own glory; and man turns all aside to do honor and service to Satan.<\/P> Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue – <\/B>The word, rendered rage, is everywhere else used of the wrath of God; here, of the wrath and foaming of man against God. Jeremiah relates how, the nearer their destruction came upon Judah, the more madly the politicians and false prophets cantradicted what God revealed. Their tongue was a sharp sword. They sharpened their tongue like a sword; and the sword pierced their own bosom. The phrensy of their speech not only drew down Gods anger, but was the instrument of their destruction. They misled the people; taught them to trust in Egypt, not in God; persuaded them to believe themselves, and to disbelieve God; to believe, that the enemy should depart from them and not carry them away captive. They worked up the people to their will, and so they secured their own destruction. The princes of Judah were especially judged and put to death by Nebuchadnezzar Jer 52:10<\/span>. The like probably took place in Israel. In any case, those chief in power are chief objects of destruction. Still more did these words come true before the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. They were maddened by their own curse, the rage of their tongue against their Redeemer, His blood be on us and on our children. Frenzy became their characteristic. It was the amazement of the Romans, and their own destruction.<\/P> This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt – <\/B>This, i. e., all this, their boasting of Egypt, their failure, their destruction, shall become their derision. In Egypt had they trusted; to Egypt had they gone for succor; in Egypt should they be derided. Such is the way of man. The world derides those who trusted in it, sued it, courted it, served it, preferred it to their God. Such are the wages, which it gives. So Isaiah prophesied of Judah, the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach Isa 30:3<\/span>, Isa 30:5<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n Hos 7:16<\/span><\/p>\n They return, but not to the Most High.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Partial repentance<\/strong><\/p>\n Sin, in its worst, forms, was rampant in the land, and the very rulers rejoiced in the wickedness of their people. The cause of all this social and national decay was in their original departure from the fear of the Lord. That was the root of the tree which bore such poisonous fruit. A melancholy description of character is given in this chapter. Warned by Gods servants of the dangers that were before them, the people were for a time startled into a kind of thoughtfulness and reformation. But they soon became worse than before. The nation was, by turns, very religious and repenting, and very wicked and iniquitous. In the text we are shown what in them was defective, and led to the disastrous consequences of their ultimate captivity. It was their partial, unspiritual repentance. They returned, but not to God. They returned, and so imagined all was well with them, but not to God, and so, at length, destruction overtook them. Their repentance was a godless thing. So often, when men are aroused from their carelessness, they go a little way, but not the whole way; they retrace their steps, but they do not return to God.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The grounds on which sorrow is felt by such a penitent for sin. There is nothing of God in the sorrow. The regret has the character of remorse and not that of repentance. It is grief for the consequences and punishment of sin, and not for the guilt of it in the sight of God. Of such worldly sorrow there are not a few painful instances in the Word of God. Saul, Pharaoh, Ahab, etc.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The character of the reformation which such a penitent makes. He returns to what he was before he fell into heinous sin; or, at least, to the worldly standard of respectable morality, but not to God. It is all external, not internal. It makes the man for the time a Pharisee, but not a Christian. This is very common in our times. A man has been addicted to some vice; he is prone to consider that repentance for him just means abstinence from that sin; and so he rests in that as if it were all that is required. He mistakes the laying aside of his besetting sin for the laying aside of every weight. Another form of this partial reformation is to be found in the external formalism of those who imagine that to repent means simply to attend church, take the communion, etc. When a man rests in that, as if it were reformation, he is not returning unto God.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The nature of the motive from which this reformation is set about. It is not for Gods sake, but their own sake, and that very much as restricted to this life that they seek to return. It is of the nature of a bargain, in which the sinner covenants to give so much, if God will give so much, and not at all of the nature of a return for many favours received at the hands of God. It is repentance for the sake of his own interest, not for Gods glory, and the work of Christ has had no share in it; it is done without Gods Spirit.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It leads to self-deception. The man thinks that all is right with him because he has come so far, while, in point of fact, everything is wrong. He becomes thus in a manner proof against all expostulation, and dexterously turns away from him every appeal that can be made. There is no form of self-deception more common and more dangerous.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>It leads to self-conceit. The man has done it all himself, and is very well satisfied with the doing. He carries his head higher than his fellows. He is even led to cavil at and decry many of the most important principles of the Gospel. It exalts man into his own saviour, and that is tantamount to saying it leaves a man unsaved.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>It leads to repeated fallings away. This is a corollary from the last. A proud look goeth before a fall. Christians who have true repentance do sometimes fall. But it is when they too have become heady and high-minded. The falls are not legitimate consequences of their repentance. But in the case of partial penitents nothing else could be expected.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>It leads to the hardened heart. Nothing so tends to indurate the soul as the frequent repetition of such imperfect turnings.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>It leads to swift and sudden destruction.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>A proper sense of sin. It is a departure from God.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>A proper idea of God. That reacts upon the sense of sin, making it more intense and powerful. God now is viewed as the God of love. At the foot of the Cross the revelation comes of what sin is, and of what God is.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>A genuine reformation. It is a return of the whole man to God. The word implies a new heart as well as a new life, or rather, a new heart in order to a new life. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Defective repentance<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>There is a moral distance from God, which is the state of all men by nature. They do not seek Him as the supreme good, nor serve Him as the Sovereign Lord.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>A sinners return, if feigned, still supposes a sense of this distance to be impressed upon the mind, sufficient to warn him at least of his danger.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Ephraims return supposes some partial change both in the disposition and in the outward behaviour. Some sins are avoided and some duties performed in order to satisfy conscience and appease present convictions. The power of conscience and self-love may carry men a great way in religion, but leave them short of eternal life. Be not content with engaging in this or the other duty, or with making a profession of religion; but let there be a thorough and effectual change, a total renunciation of sin, and a surrender of the whole soul to God.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>There are some who rest in their convictions, as others do in their sins.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Some become satisfied with a mere negative religion.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Some are confident of their salvation merely because of their imaginary joys and comforts.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Some rest satisfied with Gospel privileges in having a name and a place among the saints, and thus deceive their own souls. (B. Beddome, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Counterfeit repentance<\/strong><\/p>\n Conscience daily condemns; but the Spirit is ever at <\/strong>hand suggesting godly and penitent thoughts and drawing our hearts to God. Men in general are extremely anxious to pacify and still the upbraiding voice of conscience, but real and heartfelt repentance is the last method which they will make use of for this purpose. Sinners take every way but the right one for quieting their guilty fears. If we could look through the world, and dive into mens secret thoughts and motives, we should find self-deception prevailing under an immense variety of forms. There is but one kind of repentance which is acceptable to God. There are a thousand ways of stifling the conscience and deceiving ourselves with something like repentance.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>One of the most common errors on this subject is, when a man imagines that he has repented and forsaken his sin, although the truth is, that he is no longer tempted strongly to the indulgence of that particular sin. He is conscious of an alteration in his life, and, this makes him think that he has amended his life. Illustrate by a young man s giving up his vices, and by the aged man who is become old and infirm. Their hearts may be quite unchanged. You have not repented because you are no longer guilty of certain sins which you once habitually committed.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Some persons are alarmed by the voice of conscience to such a degree that they can no longer continue in the unrestrained course of sin and folly which hitherto they have pursued. The Spirit of God strives with them very earnestly in order to bring them to His fold. After many severe struggles with their convictions, they set about the work of repentance and reformation. But these persons, after the first alarm has subsided, grow weary of well-doing. The outward amendment goes as far as a certain point, but no further. Different men will carry it to different lengths. But in all these cases something is kept back. The heart is wrong. There was some selfish end in view. The love of sin still reigns in the heart. Men cast off some outward sinful practices without returning to God.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>There are some whose repentance consists, not in forsaking sin, but in performing some outward religious duties. They are religious on Sundays only. To lay unpleasant thoughts to sleep they become strict and regular in their attendance at the house of God. Some persons, in order to quiet their consciences by a decent show of religion, will go very far in outward acts of devotion. But the evils in their lives are not put aside.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Our Lord has described another description of persons, who lull their consciences to sleep by a false repentance, in the parable of the sower. Some seed fell among thorns. They begin well, but their ardour and earnestness soon fall off, they lose their first love. The principal part of their religion consists in right notions and accurate views, but their hearts are still unchanged. It is easier for such persons to learn their own state by serious and honest self-examination, than it is for others to discover it for them. The work, then, must be done by yourselves. (J. Jowett, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Verse 16. They return<\/B><\/I>, but <\/B>not to the Most High<\/B><\/I>] They go to their idols.<\/P> <\/P> They are like a deceitful bow<\/B><\/I>] Which, when it is reflexed<\/I>, in order to be strung, suddenly springs back<\/I> into its quiescent<\/I> curve<\/I>; for the eastern bows<\/I> stand in their quiescent state in a curve, something like [curved figure “C”]; and in order to be strung must be bended back<\/I> in the opposite direction<\/I>. This bending of the bow requires both strength<\/I> and skill<\/I>; and if not properly done, it will fly back, and regain its former position; and in this recoil endanger the archer-may even break an arm. I have been in this danger myself in bending the Asiatic bow. For want of this knowledge not one commentator has hit the meaning of the passage.<\/P> <\/P> Shall fall by the sword<\/B><\/I>] Their tongue<\/I> has been enraged against ME; the sword<\/I> shall be enraged against them. They have mocked<\/I> me, (Ho 7:5<\/span>,) and their fall is now a subject of derision in the land of Egypt<\/I>. What they have sown, that do they now reap.<\/P> <\/p>\n They return; <\/B>they sometimes have given some signs of returning, as when Jehu destroyed Baal, or Hoshea gave liberty to Israel to go up to Jerusalem (if it be true which some affirm of him); and if I were sure Hoshea did this, I should think the prophet aimed at it; in this they return, <\/P> but not to the Most High; <\/B>Jehu fell off to the calves, and Hosheas reign was wicked too much, though the reigns of other kings were more wicked; what show soever of repentance among them, yet they never thoroughly repented, never fully embraced the law of God. <\/P> They are like a deceitful bow; <\/B>all was done (as the similitude elegantly sets it forth) in mere hypocrisy; though they seemed bent for and aiming at the mark, yet, like a weak bow, they carried not the arrow home, and, like a false bow, they never carried it straight toward the mark. Their princes; the royal family, principal nobles and magistrates, their brave commanders and leaders. <\/P> Shall fall by the sword; <\/B>be slain by either sword of base, false, and bloody traitors at home, or by sword of foreigners, as the Assyrian. <\/P> The rage of their tongue, <\/B>against God, his prophets and providence, which to decry with scorners was their usual diversion, Hos 7:5<\/span>. This, this sad end, <\/P> shall be their derision, <\/B>shall be upbraided to them, in the land of Egypt; among their allies and seeming friends. <\/P> <\/p>\n 16. return, but not to the MostHigh<\/B>or, “to one who is not the Most High,<\/I>“one very different from Him, a stock or a stone. So the Septuagint.<\/I><\/P> deceitful bow<\/B> (Ps78:57<\/span>). A bow which, from its faulty construction, shoots wide ofthe mark. So Israel pretends to seek God, but turns aside to idols. <\/P> for the rage of theirtongue<\/B>their boast of safety from Egyptian aid, and their”lies” (Ho 7:13<\/span>),whereby they pretended to serve God, while worshipping idols; alsotheir perverse defense for their idolatries and blasphemies againstGod and His prophets (Psa 73:9<\/span>;Psa 120:2<\/span>; Psa 120:3<\/span>).<\/P> their derision in . . .Egypt<\/B>Their “fall” shall be the subject of “derision”to Egypt, to whom they had applied for help (Hos 9:3<\/span>;Hos 9:6<\/span>; 2Ki 17:4<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n They return, [but] not to the most High<\/strong>,…. To Egypt, and not to Jerusalem, and the temple there, and the worship of it; to their idols, and not to him whose name alone is Jehovah, and is the most High all the earth, the God of gods, and Lord of lords, and King of kings; though they made some feint as if they would return, and did begin, and take some steps towards repentance and reformation; but then they presently fell back again, as in Jehu’s time, and did not go on to make a thorough reformation; nor returned to God alone, and to his pure worship they pretended to, and ought to have done: or, “not on high, upwards, above” w; their affections and desires are not after things above; they do not look upwards to God in heaven for help and assistance, but to men and things on earth, on which all their affection and dependence are placed:<\/p>\n they are like a deceitful bow<\/strong>; which misses the mark it is directed to; which being designed to send its arrow one way, causes it to go the reverse; or its arrow returns upon the archer, or drops at his feet; so these people deviated from the law of God, acted contrary to their profession and promises, and relapsed into their former idolatries and impieties, and sunk into earth and earthly things; see Ps 78:57<\/span>;<\/p>\n their princes shall fall by the sword<\/strong>: either of their conspirators, as Zachariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, and Pekah; or by the sword of the Assyrians, as Hoshea, and the princes with him, by Shalmaneser;<\/p>\n for the rage of their tongue<\/strong>; their blasphemy against God, his being and providences; his worship, and the place of it; his priests and people that served him, and particularly the prophets he sent unto them to reprove them;<\/p>\n this [shall be] their derision in the land of Egypt<\/strong>; whither they sent, and called for help; but now, when their princes are slain, and they carried captive into a foreign land, even those friends and allies of theirs shall laugh and mock at them. The Targum is,<\/p>\n “these [were] their works while they were in the land of Egypt;”<\/p>\n or rather the words may be rendered, “this is their derision, [as of old] in the land of Egypt” x; that is, the calves they now worshipped, and to which they ascribed all their good things, were made in imitation of the gods of Egypt, their Apis and Serapis, which were in the form of an ox, and which their fathers derided there; and these were justly to be derided now, and they to be derided for their worship of them, and ascribing all their good things to them; and which would be done when their destruction came upon them.<\/p>\n w “non supra”, Montanus; “non sursum”, De Dieu, Gussetius; “non erecte”, Cocceius. x “haec, [seu] quae est subsannatio, [sicut olim] in terra Aegypti”, Schmidt.<\/p>\n The Prophet again assails the perverse wickedness of Israel, and also their fraud and perfidiousness. Hence he says that they feigned some sort of repentance, but it was nothing else than false; for they returned not to God. They return, he says, but not to God. Some however think that על, ol, is a preposition, and that something is understood, as if it were an elliptical phrase: “They return, but not for anything;” that is, when they return, were any one to inquire what is in their minds, or what is their purpose, he would find it to be mere form and nothing real. But this exposition, as we see, is strained. Besides, the context requires that we should consider על, ol, to be for God, as it is also in other places; for this is nothing new. Then it is, They return not to God <\/p>\n The Prophet then declares here that the Israelites were wholly perverse, so that God could force out of them no repentance; that when they pretended something it was mere deceit, for they did not come in a direct way to God. For hypocrites, as it has been said before, when God’s hand presses hard on them, seem indeed to be different from what they were previously, but they always shun God. The Lord does not in vain exhort the people by Jeremiah to return to him, <\/p>\n ‘<\/p>\n If thou wilt return, O Israel,’ he says, ‘return unto me,’ (Jer 4:1<\/span>.) <\/p>\n For he knew that by devious windings men always go astray and keep not to the straight course. This is the meaning. <\/p>\n Then the Prophet adds, that they were like a deceitful bow This is an explanation of the last sentence; and hence we conclude that the word על, ol, cannot be otherwise taken than for God. The Prophet shows how the Israelites withdrew themselves from God, while they seemed to repent, for they were, he says, like a deceitful bow. Some expound it, the bow of darting or shooting; and no doubt רמה, reme, means to dart and to shoot; but this sense cannot be taken here, for we see that what the Prophet had in view was to show, that the Israelites put on a guise, and did nothing but deceive, when they made a show of repentance. To confirm this, he says, that they were like an oblique bow. For the archer, when he intends to shoot an arrow, first levels at a certain mark; then the arrow seems to be directed to that place which the archer fixes on by his eyes. Now if the bow is oblique, the arrow will fly elsewhere; or the bow may slip, so as to throw back the arrow to the archer himself. The like comparison is found in Psa 78:0<\/span>, (49) where it is said, that the Jews were turned back ‘like a deceitful bow;’ and in that passage this very word occurs. But there is here no ambiguity; for God accuses the people that they had turned back; that is, that they had turned backward their course, even like a deceitful bow. If one reads “the bow of darting,” or, “of shooting,” there will be no sense; nay, it will be vapid and absurd. It is then better to render the expression here, ‘a deceitful bow.’ <\/p>\n And we must notice the import of the similitude, to which I have already referred, that is, that as archers aim the arrow to the mark, as they direct its flight by winking and leveling, and shoot; so hypocrites seem to strive with great effort, but, at the same time, they are deceitful bows; that is, their mind is driven back, and they fly away from God, and, by tortuous windings, go astray, so that they never come to God, but rather turn their backs on him. <\/p>\n He then adds, Their princes shall fall by the sword for the pride of their tongue The Prophet again denounces vengeance on the Israelites, that they might feel assured that the heavenly decree respecting their destruction could not be changed. For though hypocrites always dread, and cannot hope anything from God, yet they never cease to flatter themselves, and always to contrive some new hope. Inasmuch then as they are so bountiful in vain promising, the Prophet says that there was no reason for the Israelites to hope for any remedy in their distresses. Their princes then shall fall: and in saying ‘princes,’ he takes a part for the whole; for God does not thus threaten princes, or denounces ruin on them, as though he intended to except the common people; but he implies, that destruction would be common to all, which not even the princes themselves would escape. And we know that in battles, when a great slaughter is made, the common soldiers lie dead in great numbers, and but few of the chiefs. But God says here, “I will take away the whole flower of the people. And if none of the princes shall remain, what will become of the ignoble vulgar, who are deemed of no account?” The princes then shall fall by the sword <\/p>\n He then adds, For the pride of their tongue Some expound this phrase actively, as though the Prophet had said, that they had provoked God’s wrath by their blasphemies and profane speeches; but I rather take it for their high vaunting: For the pride of their tongue, he says, they shall fall; that is, because they haughtily boasted of their strength, and held in contempt all the prophecies, because they dared to vomit forth their blasphemies against God, and dared, also, no less obstinately than proudly, to defend their own impious and depraved forms of worship, I will revenge, he says, “this pride.” We hence see that “pride,” here, is to be taken for that disdain which the impious show by their high vaunting, as it is said elsewhere, <\/p>\n ‘<\/p>\n They raise to heaven their tongues,’ (Psa 73:9<\/span>.) <\/p>\n This will be their derision in the land of Egypt As the Israelites, then relying on the cursed treaty which they had made with the Egyptians, continued perverse against God, he says, “I will expose them to derision among their confederates: they boast of the power of Egypt: they think themselves beyond the reach of harm, as they can instantly call the Egyptians, to their aid, were any one to oppose them, or were any enemy to invade them. Since, then, their confidence so rests on Egypt, I will make,” he says, “the Egyptians to regard them with scorn; and they shall not only be counted ignominious by those who rival or envy them, but also by the friends in whom they glory. I will give them up to every kind of dishonor among their lovers.” He indeed compares, as we have before seen, the Egyptians as well as the Assyrians, to lovers, and compares his people to an unfaithful wife, who, having deserted her husband, prostitutes her own chastity. “Thou,” he says, “sellest thyself to thy lovers, and strives to please them, and faintest and adornest thyself to allure them: I will cover thee all over with everything disgraceful and ignominious, that thy lovers shall abhor thy very sight.” So also in this place, he says that the Israelites shall be for derision in the land of Egypt; that is, not enemies, whom they fear, shall have them in derision; but they shall be a laughing-stock to those who they think will be their defenders, and through whose arms they imagine that they shall be free from every disgrace. The eighth chapter follows. <\/p>\n (49) Psa 78:57<\/span>. — fj. <\/p>\n (16) Like a deceitful bow.<\/strong>Religious observance has the appearance of a bow with the arrow on the string, apparently aimed at some object, but the string being slack, the aim is diverted.<\/p>\n The raving insolence of their tongue may mean the boasts that were made of the friendship of King Shebaka<\/em> of Egypt, who made Israel his tool. In the land of Egypt they would thus become objects of derision. (Comp. Isaiahs warning to his countrymen, Isa. 30:1-8<\/span>.)<\/p>\n IMMINENCE OF THE JUDGMENT IN THE FORM OF AN INVASION, Hos 7:16<\/span> to Hos 8:3<\/span>.<\/p>\n Israel has proved a disappointment; defiantly it persists in rebellion, therefore judgment has become inevitable indeed, it is rapidly approaching. Hos 7:16<\/span> to Hos 8:3<\/span>, deals with the crisis that is imminent. The deep emotion of the prophet is indicated by the rapidity with which he moves from one thought to another. <\/p>\n Their princes shall fall <\/strong> All the eighth century prophets insist that the ruling classes are largely to blame for the prevalent corruption, therefore the first blow will fall upon them. <\/p>\n Rage of their tongue <\/strong> The word translated rage <\/em> has received various translations and interpretations: roughness, deception, boasting, mockery, skepticism, insolence, bitterness, <\/em> etc. The most satisfactory is probably “insolence,” that is, toward Jehovah. “The root meaning is to make a grumbling sound, like an irritated camel.” They have taken an insolent attitude toward Jehovah, hence he must vindicate himself by their overthrow. <\/p>\n This <\/strong> The overthrow of the princes. <\/p>\n Their derision in the land of Egypt <\/strong> Their false friends in the land of Egypt will laugh at them in scorn. Why the reference to Egypt? The eighth century prophets saw in Assyria the divinely commissioned executioner of judgment; the sword, <\/em> therefore, should probably be understood as the sword of Assyria. During the same period the policy of Egypt was to incite, by promises of support, rebellion against Assyria among the nations throughout Syria and Palestine. The scheme was to keep the Assyrian armies busy, and thus prevent their advance against Egypt. Trusting in Egyptian promises, the nations frequently rebelled, but in the hour of need Egypt usually failed her allies; she looked on, laughing, while the nations suffered for their folly. This the prophet declares will happen now. It is quite possible that just at this time the Egyptian party in Israel was becoming prominent, favoring an alliance with Egypt and the throwing off of the obligations assumed by Menahem. New foreign entanglements the prophet condemns; he announces the speedy advance of Assyria, describes the overthrow of the vacillating princes, and pictures the derision with which Egypt will watch the humiliation of Israel. There is not sufficient reason for regarding “this shall be their derision” as a gloss, and for connecting “in the land of Egypt” with the preceding, so as to read, “The insolence of their tongue in the land of Egypt” that is, the insolence manifesting itself in the negotiations carried on with Egypt.<\/p>\n ‘They return, but not to on high,<\/p>\n They are like an unreliable bow,<\/p>\n Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue,<\/p>\n This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.<\/p>\n Thus it was to Egypt that they returned and not to ‘on High’. They looked back to Egypt and not upwards towards YHWH. In other words they had ignored the One Who now with His net hovered over them on High to make them captive (Hos 7:12<\/span>). They were like someone who constantly missed the mark because they had an unreliable bow. (Unlike Him (Hos 7:12<\/span>) they would not be successful in their hunting). And the consequence was that their princes would die by the sword (a regular feature of the curses in Leviticus 26<\/span> and Deuteronomy 28<\/span>) because of their angry words, something which would bring derision on them in the land of Egypt. The angry words may indicate the angry words spoke by them in their thoughts and discussions about rebellion. Or the defiant words hurled at the Assyrians over the walls of Samaria before it fell, or afterwards when they had been made captive. How different it would have been had they instead come to YHWH with honest words demonstrating their faithfulness. The derision may be seen as arising because in the end they would have to submit to Assyria, and would thus be failed and disgraced rebels, or because they had trusted in Aram (Syria) to help them and were seen as fools for having done so, or because they had so often wavered between Egypt and Assyria, and were now suffering for it (thus giving the Egyptian viewpoint), or because it was indicative of Egypt’s real attitude to its ‘allies’, one of total self-interest, a treaty loyalty which quickly turned into derision when it resulted in failure (something which would never have been true of YHWH). It may also have in mind that in the wilderness one of the fears of Moses was that they would ‘return to Egypt’ and be mocked at, along with YHWH (Exo 32:12<\/span>).<\/p>\n Hos 7:16<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>They return, but not to the Most High<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> They have endeavoured again to be without yoke: They are become like a deceitful bow: Their princes shall fall by the sword. For the wantonness of their tongue, they shall be a derision in the land of Egypt. <\/em>Houbigant. Bishop Horsley translates the first clause of this verse, They fall back into nothingness of condition, <\/em>observing, That the situation of the Israelites, as the chosen people of God, was a high degree; a rank of distinction and pre-eminence among the nations of the earth. By their voluntary defection to idolatry, they debased themselves from this exaltation, and returned to the ordinary level of the heathen; so far above which the mercy of God had raised them. Thus voluntarily descending from their nobility of condition, the Israelites returned to Not-High. <\/em>For so the Hebrew lo al, <\/em>literally sound. <\/p>\n REFLECTIONS.<\/strong>1st, We have here, <\/p>\n 1. What God had done for Israel. I would have healed; <\/em>restoring their civil state under Jeroboam the son of Joash to a flourishing condition, 2Ki 14:25-26<\/span> or under Jehu, destroying the worship of Baal, 2Ki 10:25-30<\/span> and thus by his mercies he called upon them to forsake all their idolatries, and turn to him with their whole hearts. <\/p>\n 2. They refused to be healed, when <\/em>God had dealt with them in so much mercy; then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, <\/em>and the wickedness of Samaria, <\/em>the golden calves, were still kept, and their idolatries grew more open and infamous, and with them a train of iniquities entered. <\/p>\n [1.] They commit falsehood <\/em>in their transactions with men, perfidious and deceiving, and in their professions to God hypocritical. <\/p>\n [2.] They were a set of banditti; the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without: <\/em>their perfidy to each other was such, that they were given up in the just judgment of God to be devoured one of another. <\/p>\n [3.] They left God far above out of their sight. They consider nor in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness, <\/em>either careless about it, or infidel, as if God did not see, or would not punish them; though he is the jealous God, who will in no wise spare the guilty, <\/em>and from whom nothing is hid, nothing is secret. Now their own doings have beset them about, <\/em>their sins are open, multiplied, notorious; which every observer may discover, and much more God’s all-seeing eye; they are before my face: <\/em>some understand this of the punishment that their sins should bring upon them; as when Samaria was besieged, then it would be past doubt that God observed, and would punish them for their iniquities. Note; <\/em>(1.) Every sin has for its root infidelity. We promise ourselves impunity in our disregard of God’s threatenings, and then dare to offend. (2.) Sooner or later God will convince the sinner, that he remembers his ways. <\/p>\n [4.] They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. <\/em>The people readily conformed to their ordinances, and worshipped the calves, while the priests flattered themselves with assurances, that God was as well served at Dan or Beth-el, as at Jerusalem: or, to curry favour, they were ever ready to blacken those whom the princes disliked, and with lying praises to cry up their favourites. <\/p>\n [5.] They are all adulterers, <\/em>king, princes, priests, and people, both corporally and spiritually inflamed with lasciviousness, as an oven heated by the baker, <\/em>who waiteth till his dough is leavened, and the oven thoroughly heated, and then puts in his loaves: so do these adulterers entertain their corrupt desires, and contrive how to gratify them; and when their schemes are ripe, they lie in wait, <\/em>to perpetrate their wickedness. Note; <\/em>They who thus burn in their lusts, may expect shortly to burn in hell. <\/p>\n [6.] They were given up to drunkenness and revelling. In the day of our king, <\/em>his birth-day, or the anniversary of his coronation, or some festival instituted by him, then they caroused without restraint; the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine, <\/em>for this is one of the curses attendant upon drunkenness; he stretched out his<\/em> hand with scorners; <\/em>they grew daring over their cups, and with the king at their head made a jest of religion, and blasphemed the Most High; for when men are intoxicated with liquor, they stop at no impiety or wickedness. They have made ready their heart like an oven, <\/em>their drunkenness has set fire to their evil desires; they lie in wait <\/em>to seize their prey. As the baker kindles the fire, and, sleeping till morning, finds his oven hot, so burned their lewd hearts. Note; <\/em>Drunkenness is not only highly criminal in itself, but it is the door at which every enormity enters uncontrolled. <\/p>\n [7.] They have devoured their judges, hot as an oven <\/em>in wrath against them, and killing those magistrates who attempted to punish them for their crimes. All their kings are fallen; <\/em>they were regicides, and joined with successive usurpers to murder one monarch after another. <\/p>\n [8.] They were sunk in hardened stupidity. There is none among them that calleth unto me; <\/em>neither the ravages committed at home, nor the inroads of their enemies from abroad, nor any of the distresses in which they were involved, turned their thoughts to God, or brought them to their knees. Note; <\/em>They who live without prayer, must continue hardened, and perish in their sins. <\/p>\n 2nd, The sins and punishments of Israel are interwoven. 2. They were insensible of the decays under which they were hasting to dissolution. Strangers have devoured his strength, <\/em>see 2Ki 13:7<\/span>; 2Ki 15:19<\/span>; 2Ki 20:21<\/span> and he knoweth it not, <\/em>is not sensible of the loss sustained; yea, grey hairs are here and there upon him, <\/em>the speaking symptoms of old age and death approaching; yet he knoweth not, <\/em>is not aware of his danger, nor sensible how near he is to the precipice of ruin. Note; <\/em>Declensions in religion, like these grey hairs, steal insensibly on many; and, though others perceive them distinctly, the backslider himself is not aware of them. <\/p>\n 3. They were proud and unhumbled; all the mortifying providences that they had undergone did not bring down their high thoughts of themselves, nor engage their penitent return to God. Notwithstanding their growing weakness and hastening ruin, they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this; <\/em>and this is the worst symptom of a sinner’s case, when he still restrains prayer before God.<\/em> <\/p>\n 4. They were like a silly dove without heart, <\/em>both foolish and timorous; and, instead of seeking to God in their distress, they call to Egypt <\/em>for assistance, 2Ki 17:4<\/span>. They go to Assyria <\/em>for help, the people who had ever been the implacable enemies of their nation: and waited only an opportunity to devour them. So senseless is the sinner; he courts those as his best friends who are his tempters and destroyers; but God will make them rue their folly; when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them, <\/em>and bring them into difficulties inextricable; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven, <\/em>from the height of pride; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard; <\/em>sending upon them the judgments which they had heard so often read in his word, Leviticus 26<\/span>. Deuteronomy 28<\/span>. Note; <\/em>(1.) They who leave the good ways of God, will soon find themselves entangled in misery. (2.) Pride must come down in humiliation, or be cast down by divine judgments. (3.) We should well observe the warnings of God’s word, for not one jot or tittle of that shall fail. <\/p>\n 5. They were revolters, rebellious, hypocritical, and ungrateful, notwithstanding all that God had done for them. Woe unto them! <\/em>they rush on their own ruin, for they have fled from me; <\/em>rejected his service, deserted his worship, and placed no dependence upon him; following their calves, and seeking to their neighbours in time of trouble, instead of God. Destruction unto them, <\/em>sure and inevitable! because they have transgressed against me, <\/em>violating his laws by the most atrocious crimes, and these aggravated by all the wondrous mercies that they had received at God’s hands; though I have redeemed them <\/em>of old so often, and of late so eminently out of the hands of their enemies, 2Ki 14:25<\/span>. Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>Things which indicate the presence of <\/strong>imperfect repentance.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Dangerous consequences that result from this partial repentance.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Indicate what trite repentance is. There is–<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>They return. Some change is effected in their conduct, and perhaps in their disposition.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>They return, but not to the most high. Instances of defective repentance in persons who are under religious impressions.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/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: 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
1. They were mingled among the heathen, either by intermarriages contrary to God’s law, or by their alliances with them, and solicitations of assistance from them; or, worst of all, by learning their idolatries, and conforming to their customs. Ephraim is a cake not turned, <\/em>burnt on one side, and dough on the other, and therefore unfit for use: the mixture of heathen superstition destroyed all the acceptableness of their worship to God. Note; <\/em>(1.) Bad company is ever corrupting; they who mingle with such, will grow like them. (2.) Many professors are made up of inconsistences, and, like a cake not turned, <\/em>are ever swinging to extremes. <\/p>\n