Hosea 7:12

When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

Ver. 12. When they go] Yea, flee (as the dove doth very swiftly, pleasing herself in the clapping of her wings and cutting of the air); they cannot flee so high but I shall easily reach them, Obadiah 1:3,4, for in the thing wherein they deal proudly I am above them, Exodus 18:11. I can overtop them, melt their waxen wings, and bring them down with a vengeance. "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." And again, "The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain," 1 Corinthians 3:19,20. So saith the apostle out of the Psalmist; but with this difference: the Psalmist saith, the "thoughts of men," Psalms 94:11; the apostle, the "thoughs of the wise," meaning the world's wizards, the choicest and most picked men, the greatest politicians, the most nimble and Mercurial wits: quorum praecordia ex meliore luto finxit Titan. These God will take, saith Paul; he will "lay hold upon them, as they are running away" (so the word significth), "as brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed," 2 Peter 2:12; or as "fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in a snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them," Ecclesiastes 9:12, δρασσομενος, Fugientes in cursu deprehendit manuque iniecta captat (Eras. Annot.).

I will spread my net upon them] As a skilful fowler. By net understand captivity, and other miseries, compared to a net, Ezekiel 12:13; Ezekiel 17:20; Eze 19:8 Lamentations 1:13 Psalms 9:16; wherein being once caught, the more they struggle the faster they stick; the more they seek to extricate themselves, the more they are entangled; snares are round about them, and sudden fear surpriseth them, Job 22:10; the steps of their strength shall be straitened, and their own counsels shall bring them down, Job 18:7 .

I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven] Though they may think themselves extra iactum, out of gunshot, I will cause them to descend, as the Hebrew word signifieth; and though lifted up to heaven, as Capernaum, and nested in the clouds; yea, among the stars, as Edom, Obadiah 1:4, yet shall they be brought down to the nethermost hell. God will meet with them in their strays, casting his net over them; or bring them down with his bow, while (with the foolish bird) they are gazing at the bolt: he hath ways enough to hamper such as go out of his way; to be for a trap and for a snare unto them, Isaiah 8:14, to shoot at them with an arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded, Psalms 64:7. "How are they brought into desolation in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terror," Psalms 73:19 .

I will chastise them as their congregation hath heard] Or, I will bind them (as a bird is bound in a net that she cannot stir forth), and, by binding, nurture them; as Gideon taught the men of Succoth, by tawing and tearing them with thorns and briars of the wilderness; παιδευσω αυτους, Sept.; ligabo eos, Kimchi. Judges 8:16. "The hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when God bindeth them," Job 36:13. God expects men should cry peccavi, I have sinned, when they are bound as Paul was, to be beaten with rods; and not be silent in darkness, 1 Samuel 2:9, or, not make moan when he hath them under hand. "Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." Ye must now do so, that would not hear the word sounding in your congregations.

I will chastise them as their congregation hath heard] Crebro et clare, I have plainly and plentifully told them my mind, and foretold them by my prophets what would be the issue of their evil practices. Sed surdo fabulam, They would not hear Moses and the prophets. See 2 Kings 17:13 2 Chronicles 24:18,19. They thought that my words were but wind, and that all my threats were but in terrorem, to frighten them a little, and not in good earnest, Jeremiah 5:13. Therefore they shall find that "the just Lord is in the midst of them, he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame," Zephaniah 3:5, feareth no colours, trembleth not at God's word, though it come never so close to his conscience, though it even dash him in the mouth as it were, and make him spit blood. See Jeremiah 7:13 .