Hosea 14:8

Ephraim(shall say), What have I to do any more with idols So the Targum and the Syriac. The objection is that the ellipsis is unique, and hence Archbishop Seeker proposed to follow the Septuagint (reading lofor li), and render, Ephraim what hath he to do, &c. Prof. Robertson Smith is dissatisfied with this, but his objection simply is that the third member of the verse is unsuitable in the mouth of Jehovah, the evergreen tree being -in Semitic symbolism the image of receptivity, of divinely nourished life, not of quickening power" (The Prophets of Israel, p. 411). But why should the whole verse be given to the same speaker, especially if we reject the idea that the prefixed Ephraim indicates Israel as the speaker? It is surely very difficult to assign the fourth member to Israel, as if it meant that Ephraim or Israel bore fruit to Jehovah. On the whole, it seems best to adopt the Septuagint reading, and to assign all but the third member of the verse to Jehovah. There is a special force in the restoration of the name Ephraim, if we look at the closing words of the verse. [Pusey and before him the Lutheran divine Manger assign the four lines of which the verse consists alternately to Ephraim and Jehovah.]

I have heard him and observed him Rather, I respond and look on him. The pronoun is emphatically expressed -I on my part." -Respond" reminds us of Hosea 2:15; Hosea 2:21-22. The idea is that Jehovah's treatment of Israel corresponds to Israel's treatment of him (comp. Psalms 18:25-26). -To look upon" anyone is to be favourable to him (Psalms 84:9; Psalms 119:132); the opposite is -to hide the face from" (Psalms 22:24; Psalms 27:9).

I am like a green fir tree The precise kind of tree meant by b'rôshis uncertain; but Hosea, as a N. Israelite, is evidently thinking of the splendid forests of Lebanon. Most have supposed a reference to the sherbin-tree, a small kind of cypress resembling the cedar; Tristram prefers the Aleppo pine, a tree quite as characteristic of Lower Lebanon as the cedar. Certainly it is very alien to the spirit of the prophets to compare Jehovah to a tree (comp. Hosea 4:13; Isaiah 1:29). Keil refers to the -tree of life"; but even this is never identified with Jehovah (though Sept. identifies it with Israel, Isaiah 65:22). Is not this short clause a naïve self-gratulation on the part of Israel? Here, as in the previous clause, the personal pronoun is expressed.

From me is thy fruit found Israel cannot be the speaker here (see above). The clause contains a warning for Israel in his prosperity not to forget the Giver. Probably there is a play upon the name Ephraim -fruitfulness" (as in Hosea 13:15).