‘The ram's horn to your mouth! Like an eagle he comes against the house of YHWH, Because they have transgressed my covenant, And trespassed against my law. The opening lines are brief and to the point, being literally: ‘ “The ram's horn to your mouth!” Like an eagle against the house of YHWH' I... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE ENEMY DESCEND LIKE AN EAGLE BECAUSE THEY HAVE BROKEN THE COVENANT AND CAST OFF WHAT IS GOOD, ISRAEL WILL CRY IN VAIN, ‘”O GOD OF ISRAEL WE KNOW YOU” (HOSEA 8:1). The present hopelessness of Israel's current situation comes out strongly here. The enemy are coming against them like an eagle d... [ Continue Reading ]
‘To me they will cry, “O God of Israel, we know you.” Israel has cast off what is good, The enemy will pursue him. In its extremity Israel will then call out, ‘O God of Israel we know you'. They would assume that because God was _their_ God, the God of Israel, He must listen to them in their ne... [ Continue Reading ]
‘They have set up kings, but not by me, They have made princes, and I knew it not, Of their silver and their gold they have made idols for themselves, That they may be cut off.' YHWH's first complaint was that Israel had set up kings and made princes without consulting YHWH, and this appears to h... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL HAVE LAID FALSE FOUNDATIONS IN KINGSHIP AND RELIGION, AND YHWH, DESPAIRING OF THERE BEING ANY LIKELIHOOD OF THEIR BECOMING PURE, WILL IN ANGER BOTH DESTROY ‘THE CALF OF SAMARIA' AND MINIMISE THEIR HARVEST (HOSEA 8:4). Having appointed kings and princes without regard to YHWH, and having used... [ Continue Reading ]
‘He has cast off (is disgusted at) your calf, O Samaria, My anger is kindled against them, How long will it be before they attain to innocency? For from Israel is even this, The workman made it, and it is no God, Yes, the calf of Samaria will be broken in pieces.' YHWH has especially determined... [ Continue Reading ]
For they sow the wind, And they will reap the whirlwind, By their actions, YHWH pointed out, they were ‘sowing the wind', and the consequence could only be that they would reap the whirlwind. It was a principle built into creation that whatever a man sows that he also reaps. The picture is vivid.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Israel is swallowed up. Now are they among the nations, As a vessel in which none delights. . For they are gone up to Assyria, A wild ass alone by himself, Ephraim has hired lovers.' Not only will Israel's crops be swallowed up (Hosea 8:7), but the same will happen to Israel themselves. For... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE ISRAEL HAVE DESERTED YHWH AND LOOKED TO OTHERS, (BOTH NATIONS AND GODS), IN SPITE OF HAVING RECEIVED HIS ABUNDANT INSTRUCTION, HE WILL DESERT THEM AND THEY WILL RETURN TO EGYPT AND SEE THEIR CITIES DESTROYED BY FIRE (HOSEA 8:8). The argument now swings to consider Israel's attitude towards... [ Continue Reading ]
‘Yes, because they hire among the nations, Now will I gather them, And they begin to be diminished, By reason of the burden of the king of princes.' YHWH therefore intends to ‘gather' them for judgment and slowly squeeze them dry by reason of the financial demands of the king of Assyria, ‘the ki... [ Continue Reading ]
Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, Altars have been to him for sinning.' Meanwhile they have also continued to multiply altars at which they could sin (or ‘offer a sin offering'), establishing their altars ‘on every high hill and under every green tree'. Indeed all that their altar... [ Continue Reading ]
I wrote for him the ten thousand things of my law, But they are counted as a strange thing.' It was not that Israel did not know better. God had written for them ‘the ten thousand things of my Law', in other words a large number of instructions. But they had counted them as a strange thing, someth... [ Continue Reading ]
‘As for the sacrifices of my offerings, They sacrifice flesh and eat it, But YHWH does not accept them, Now will he remember their iniquity, And visit their sins, They will return to Egypt. And even when their sacrifices were ‘offered to YHWH' and they sacrificed flesh and ate it before Him in... [ Continue Reading ]
For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and built palaces, And Judah has multiplied fortified cities, But I will send a fire on his cities, And it will devour its castles.' And all this was because Israel had forgotten its Maker (compare Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18) and were therefore, alon... [ Continue Reading ]