Hosea 1:4

And the Lord said unto him, Hosea the prophet, who as in taking to wife an adulteress, so in giving name to his son by her, was to presignify Israel's future calamities. Call his name, thy son now born, Jezreel: the word is, The seed of the Lord, or, The arm of the Lord, or, The Lord will scatter; so it may insinuate that God by his own arm will scatter among the people, i.e. the Assyrians, those who were his people or seed. But we have a surer guide to lead us through this, i.e. the history of what was by Jehu done in Jezreel; of which more presently. For; this is the reason why the prophet's son is so called. Yet a little while: it was four generations of Jehu God promised the throne to, and now the third that is now running, how near to an end we know not, but are sure it was within twenty-eight years; for Jeroboam began his reign in the fifteenth of Amaziah, and so thirteen years of his forty-one are spent ere Uzziah comes to the throne, 2 Kings 14:23; this according to one account: but 2 Kings 15:1 accounteth Jeroboam's twenty-seventh to be the first of Uzziah, and then there are not above fourteen years to come; so little a while was this here spoken of, for in six months after Jeroboam's death Shallum conspired against Zachariah, and slew him, and reigned a month; so Jehu's seed was cast out of the throne. Will avenge; inquire after and punish these crimes, which were committed in Jezreel. Heb. I will visit, i.e. as a just and impartial judge I will require an account, and execute punishments. The blood: murders committed are in Scripture expressed thus by blood: here are particularly meant the slaughters made by Jehu's hand or by his order, 2 Kings 9:10,11 2 Kings 10:1, in Jezreel, where he did with a treacherous mind, and aiming at his own greatness, destroy Ahab's house, and slew Ahaziah king of Judah also. This was the just judgment of God upon that wicked house by Jehu executed, but he did it not with that mind God required. Of Jezreel; the town which Ahab chose above others to dwell in, where the dogs licked up Ahab's blood, when his chariot was washed and cleansed of the blood of that slain king, and where dogs did eat Jezebel, as the prophet threatened, 1 Kings 21:23. Upon the house of Jehu; which had now possessed the throne (Jehu usurped) through the reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoash, and Jeroboam; but the usurper and his successors adhering to the idolatry of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and adding other sins to it, had now provoked God to declare a sudden extirpation of the family, which God will in his just revenge make as like to Jeroboam's family as Ahab s, and they had made themselves like them in sin; all which came to pass when Shallum, conspiring against Zachariah, slew him, 2 Kings 15:10. And will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel; not immediately, but soon after the death of Zachariah, the kingdom of Israel did cease first to be free, for Menahem made it tributary to strengthen himself; so it is likely it continued for ten years during his life, and two years during his son Pekahiah's reign; after him Pekah the conspirator and murderer usurped the throne for twenty years, and probably was feudatory to Tiglath-pileser; to be sure Hoses was so, and in his ninth year this word was fulfilled in the letter of it, the kingdom of Israel, after one and forty years tottering, fell to utter ruin, and hath so continued to this day. Israel, or the ten tribes divided from the house of David.