For the third time the prophet reverts to the early history of Israel, and points out how Jehovah has proved his parental love, and how ill is the return which Israel has made for this love. Hosea 11:1-7 contain this melancholy historic retrospect and a fresh announcement of the penalty which a righ... [ Continue Reading ]
_When Israel was a child_ i. e., in the earliest stage of Israel's national existence, which is here dated, not, as in Hosea 2:3, from the wanderings in the wilderness, but from the sojourn in Egypt. For the figure, see on -gray hairs", Hosea 7:9. _called my son out of Egypt_ -Called" him, locally,... [ Continue Reading ]
_As they called them_, &c. Or, THE MORE THEY CALLED THEM, &c. (comp. Hosea 4:7). Since Israel disobeyed the first call by Moses, prophets were sent to repeat the call, but their preaching only seemed to increase Israel's obstinacy (comp. Isaiah 6:9-10; Jeremiah 7:25-26). What, then, was the good of... [ Continue Reading ]
_I taught Ephraim also to go_ Rather, WHEREAS I TAUGHT EPHRAIM TO GO. A figure for the special providence watching over Ephraim. Not Judah, but Ephraim, is spoken of, for the kingdom of Israel embraced the fairer part of the territory, and was far stronger than that of Judah. _taking them by their a... [ Continue Reading ]
_I drew them with cords of a man_, &c. A new image suggested by Hosea 10:11, and descriptive of the fatherly love of God. Not with the violence suited to an unruly heifer, but with the -cords of men" (i. e. such as men can bear), did Jehovah win his people's obedience. But the expression is strange.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall not return into the land of Egypt_ This however is pointless; why should Egypt be mentioned except as the land of bondage? It is also inconsistent with the statements in Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3; Hosea 9:6; Hosea 11:11. Some think that _lo_(here rendered -not", but also, when spelt differentl... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the sword_, &c. Rather, AND THE SWORD SHALL WHIRL ABOUT IN HIS CITIES, AND SHALL MAKE AN END OF HIS DEFENCES (lit. his bars; comp. Jeremiah 51:30). The sword is personified as the symbol of war, as Ezekiel 14:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And my people_, &c. This verse gives the ground of the judgment; -and" = -for", -in fact." The reference to -backsliding" (lit. turning, or turning about) should be taken in connexion with Hosea 14:4. _though they called_, &c. Rather, AND IF THEY ARE CALLED (lit., if they, viz. the prophets, call... [ Continue Reading ]
_deliver thee_ Not in the sense of ὑπερασπιῶ of the Sept., but in that of Symmachus" ἐκδώσω. Better, SURRENDER THEE. _Admah … Zeboim_ Hosea, like the author of Deuteronomy 29:23, derives his knowledge of the overthrow of the -cities of the plain" from a tradition independent of that in Genesis 19.... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet cannot believe in a final rejection of Israel (comp. Hosea 13:14). He speaks as if Jehovah had at first contemplated this. Evidently there was a conflict in his own mind between the ideas of justice and love. Justice seemed to demand that all relations between Jehovah and Israel should b... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will not return_, &c. The strict rendering of the words is, -I will not again destroy Ephraim"; the sense however, is, I WILL NOT BRING BACK EPHRAIM TO NOTHING. He who moulded Ephraim into a nation will not busy himself with it again to its destruction. Comp. the same Hebrew idiom in Hosea 2:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
_They shall walk_, &c. Rather, THEY SHALL GO AFTER JEHOVAH, AS AFTER A LION THAT ROARETH; FOR HE HIMSELF SHALL ROAR, AND SONS SHALL COME HURRYING FROM THE WEST (lit. from the sea). -The west" means the same as -the islands (or, coast-lands) of the sea" in the latter part of Isaiah, except that Hosea... [ Continue Reading ]
Instead of introducing his description of Israel's restoration by some phrase like, -When I heal Israel" (Hosea 7:1), the prophet abruptly transports us _in medias res_. The return of the Israelites of the dispersion is singled out as one of the most characteristic features of the Messianic age (com... [ Continue Reading ]
_tremble as a bird … as a dove_ -Tremble" is the literal rendering, but the context shows that a thrill of eagerness doubling the speed of motion is what is meant (comp. Ovid's -pennâ trepidante"). Render therefore, COME HURRIEDLY, and continue, AS SPARROWS … AS DOVES. Doves were very early known in... [ Continue Reading ]
The Septuagint, and after it the English Version, mistook the blame of the second half of this verse for praise, and hence attached the verse to chap. 11. Properly, however, it belongs to chap. 12, of which it is the first verse in the Hebrew Bible. Jehovah is the speaker. Israel's sins of treason a... [ Continue Reading ]