Commentaries Dictionaries Concordances

Commentary Critical and Explanatory

Hosea 12:2

The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah - (; , "The Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel"). Judah, under Ahaz, had fallen into idolatry (, etc., 2 Kings 16:10).

And will punish Jacob - i:e., the ten tribes. If Judah, the favoured portion of the nation, shall not be spared, much less degenerate Israel. The measure of the guilt of Judah was not yet so filled up as that of Israel. Therefore, the expression is not so strong against the former as against the latter. God has some subject of controversy against Judah (; ), but He has set His mind upon [the force of lª-] visiting Jacob's (Israel's) sin upon him.

Continues after advertising

See also Hosea 12:2 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Hosea 12:2. _THE LORD HATH ALSO A CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAH_] The rest of the prophecy belongs both to Judah and Israel. He reproaches both with their ingratitude, and threatens them with God's an...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    THE LORD HATH ALSO A CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAH, AND WILL PUNISH JACOB - The guilt of Judah was not open apostasy, nor had he filled up the measure of his sins. Of him, then, God saith only, that He “had...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER S 11:12-12:14 THE INDICTMENT _ 1. Ephraim's indictment (Hosea 11:12; Hosea 12:1) _ 2. Remembrance of the past (Hosea 12:3) 3. What Israel had become ...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    HOSEA 11:12 TO HOSEA 12:14 (= Hebrews 12:1). EPHRAIM'S INFIDELITY TRACED FROM THE BEGINNING. This is one of the most difficult passages in Hosea. In the text Judah also is mentioned; but this may be d...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. PUNISH. visit upon. JACOB. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for Israel, especially the natural seed. ACCORDING. Some codices, with two ear...

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _Jacob_ Here used for the northern kingdom, to prepare the way for the etymological allusion in Hosea 12:3....

  • Charles Box Commentaries

    _GOD'S CONTROVERSY WITH ISRAEL AND JUDAH -- HOSEA 12:1-4:_ Israel was wasting her time on that which had no spiritual substance. It was like feeding on the wind. It was an "east" wind or a wind off of...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    LOVE REBUKING REQUITINGEPHRAIM HAS PROVOKED TEXT: Hosea 12:1-6 1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he continually multiplieth lies and desolation; and they make a covenant...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    A REPROOF OF COMMERCIAL DISHONESTY The Hebrew text divides the chapter more correctly at this v. The prophet returns to the subject of the unfaithfulness both of Israel and of Judah. They have sought...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    JACOB] as before used to introduce the personal history of the Patriarch, from which Hosea seeks to draw an analogous lesson for the people. Jacob had begun life by cunningly supplanting his brother,...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE MAN WHO NEVER STOPPED LOVING HOSEA _MARK KIRKPATRICK_ CHAPTER 12 V1 There is much that the people of Israel do from morning to night. But it has no worth. They tell lies and they destroy thi...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    JACOB refers to the northern kingdom....

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    _[Hosea 12:3]_ וְ רִ֥יב לַֽ יהוָ֖ה עִם...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    THE FINAL ARGUMENT Hosea 12:1 - Hosea 14:1 THE impassioned call with which the last chapter closed was by no means an assurance of salvation: "How am I to give thee, up, Ephraim? how am I to let thee...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    TURN TO GOD, NOT TO SELFISH GAIN Hosea 11:12; Hosea 12:1-14 Though Judah still ruled with God, Hosea 11:12, yet there was grave fault in him, and, like Ephraim, which had been engaging the prophet's...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    In the second movement Jehovah set the present sin in the light of His present love. The sin of Ephraim and the sin of Judah, if the marginal reading be adopted, are both declared. The sin of Ephraim...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    The LORD hath also a controversy with (c) Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. (c) Which in those points was similar to Ephraim, but not...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Judgment. Hebrew, "trial." What follows refers to all the people, whose impiety is contrasted with Jacob's virtue._...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Here the whole tribes or Israel and Juda are reproved. The Lord shows to what a degenerate state the both families were brought, and how different from the conduct of their first common father Jacob....

  • Introductory Lectures - Commentary by William Kelly

    The rest of the prophecy consists of the indignant appeals of the Holy Spirit to conscience because of the increasing evils of Israel not so much the judgment of God on a grand scale, and His grace at...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    It may seem strange that the Prophet should now say, that God _had a controversy with Judah; _for he had before said, that Judah stood faithful with the saints. It seems indeed inconsistent, that God...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    The Spirit presents another aspect of the relationship of Israel with God. He would punish Ephraim, and the sins of Judah should be remembered. But He reminds them, that there was a time when Jacob co...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    THE LORD HATH ALSO A CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAH,.... The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as well as the ten tribes; for though they had ruled with God, and had been faithful with the saints in the first...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. Ver. 2. _The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah_] Lest t...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Ephraim feedeth on wind_ Flatters himself with vain, delusive hopes, of receiving effectual support from the alliances which he forms. It is a proverbial expression to signify labour in vain, or purs...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, a contest to be decided in a court of law, by a formal suit, AND WILL PUNISH JACOB, the ten northern tribes, ACCORDING TO HIS WAYS; ACCORDING TO HIS DOINGS...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    THE LORD'S ACCUSATION...

  • Marginal Notes in the King James Version (1611)

    PUNISH: _ Heb._ visit upon...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-6 Ephraim feeds himself with vain hopes of help from man, when he is at enmity with God. The Jews vainly thought to secure the Egyptians by a present of the produce of their country. Judah is conte...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    THE LORD HATH ALSO A CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAH; though Judah, compared with Ephraim, be faithful, yet when considered in his ways and doings he is found faulty in many things, and God hath just matter of...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Hosea 12:2 LORD H3068 charge H7379 Judah H3063 punish H6485 (H8800) Jacob H3290 ways H1870 deeds H4611 recompense...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    AN APPEAL IS MADE TO JACOB'S EXAMPLE WHICH SIMPLY SERVES TO REVEAL ISRAEL'S PARLOUS STATE AND GUARANTEES THE COMING JUDGMENT OF DESTRUCTION AND THE EXILE BUT IT IS WITH THE PROMISE OF FINAL RESTORATIO...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    ‘YHWH has also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob in accordance with his ways, according to his doings will he recompense him.' But as ever Hosea also remembers the visits by men of Judah...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    YHWH MAKES A FURTHER APPEAL TO EPHRAIM AND JUDAH ON THE BASIS OF WHAT THEIR ANCESTOR JACOB DID (HOSEA 12:1). Having first stressed Ephraim's total folly and unacceptable deceitfulness, and the fact th...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Jehovah's response, continued. Further reproof of Israel's sins. CHARACTERS: God. CONCLUSION: Those who make creatures and things their confidence, put a cheat upon their own souls, and pr...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Hosea 12:4. _He found him in Bethel._ Christ, the angel, the mystical angel, or the Angel the Word, as St. Clemens of Alexandria calls him: so indeed do all the orthodox fathers. The church knows of n...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    HOSEA—NOTE ON HOSEA 12:2 Hosea recounts incidents from Israel’s past in order to display the Lord’s enduring kindness and Israel’s stubborn ingratitude. ⇐...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.] Hosea 12:1. Feed] To eat or graze. WIND] What is empty and vain; to hunt after nothing, labour in vain. EAST] A fierce and destructive wind, oppressive and violent (Job 27:21); figur...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION In Hosea 12:1 God continues his complaint against Ephraim, charging them specially with the pursuit of vain and futile courses to their great detriment. Instead of repairing to the true and...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Ephraim feeds on the wind, and follows after the east wind: he daily increases lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians (Hsa Hosea 12:1), They tried to escape the destructi...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    2 Kings 17:19; 2 Kings 17:20; Ezekiel 23:11; Ezekiel 23:31;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Jacob — Ephraim and Judah are of Jacob, both have corrupted themselves, and therefore I will proceed against both....

Continues after advertising