Hosea 4 - Introduction
Israel's gross moral corruption, abetted and increased by his religious guides... [ Continue Reading ]
Israel's gross moral corruption, abetted and increased by his religious guides... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye children of Israel_ The northern kingdom only is addressed (see Hosea 4:15, where the prophet turns aside to Judah). _the Lord hath a controversy_ Jehovah is both plaintiff and judge; comp. Hosea 12:2; Isaiah 1. _no truth, nor mercy_ Or, -no truthfulness and no kindness." The Hebrew _khesedh_in... [ Continue Reading ]
The people are summoned to hear whereof Jehovah accuses them, viz. the universal prevalence of the most crying sins. The prophet assures them that this is the true cause of the physical calamity which is becoming more and more general in its range.... [ Continue Reading ]
_By swearing_ Rather, (THERE IS NOTHING BUT) SWEARING AND LYING, &c. The -swearing" meant is of course false swearing (Hosea 10:4). _break out_ Viz. into acts of violence; or, -break into (houses)", as Job 24:16. _blood toucheth blood_ The Hebrew has -bloods", i.e. bloodshed. The sense is, one dee... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall the land mourn_ Or, -doth … continually mourn", for the prophet speaks amidst the anarchical and revolutionary scenes which followed upon the death of Jeroboam II. A severe drought is represented as the punishment of Israel's misdoings. Nature, throughout the prophetic literature, sympathizes... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yet let no man strive … as they that strive with the priest_ The view of the meaning of this verse suggested by A.V. may be expressed in the words of Henderson. -All reproof on the part of their friends or neighbours generally would prove fruitless, seeing they had reached a degree of hardihood, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
It is not you, the laity, bad as you are, who are most to blame; do not waste your time in mutual recrimination. The real blame lies with the priests. Jehovah has a solemn word for thee, O priest; thy whole clan are virtually in rebellion against me. For thy penalty, thou shalt suffer one blow after... [ Continue Reading ]
_the prophet also_ Hosea of course refers to the lower class of prophets, to whom prophecy was simply a means of livelihood (comp. Micah 3:11 and Amaziah's words in Amos 7:12), and who, like the priests, often came visibly drunk to their most solemn functions (Isaiah 28:7). The spiritually-minded pr... [ Continue Reading ]
_My people are destroyed_ The prophet cannot escape, because the people is on the brink of ruin through the prophet's fault. It is the perfect of prophetic certitude, -my people is already as good as destroyed." _for lack of knowledge_ More precisely, BY REASON OF (THEIR) LACK OF KNOWLEDGE. The -kn... [ Continue Reading ]
_As they were increased_ Rather, THE MORE THEY INCREASED, THE MORE, &c. No doubt the priestly caste shared in the general prosperity under Jeroboam II., but the official conscience, torpid to begin with, was only the more deadened. A flagrant example of the sinning of the priests is given in the nex... [ Continue Reading ]
Here the priests are referred to in the third person; they have been degraded from a great position; how sore must be the punishment!... [ Continue Reading ]
_They eat up the sin of my people_ The subject of the verb is evidently the priests (see Hosea 4:9), and the phrase can therefore only MEAN, THEY EAT THE SIN-OFFERING OF MY PEOPLE (i.e. the portion assigned to the priests, comp. Leviticus 10:17). Here we come into collision with a theory of the radi... [ Continue Reading ]
_like people, like priest_ i.e. the priest shall fare no better than the people. His official -nearness" to Jehovah shall be no safeguard to him. _I will punish them_ Rather, PUNISH HIM, viz. the priest representing the order.... [ Continue Reading ]
_they shall eat_ Greed is punished retributively by insufficiency of food (Micah 6:14; Leviticus 26:26); whoredom by childlessness.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whoredom_, &c. -The heart", not -their heart" (as the Targum and Peshito). It is a moral adage, showing that Hosea was not more inclined than Isaiah to abandon simple moral teaching to the class of -wise men", who -sat in the gate" and conveyed practical lessons in the form of proverbs. It is liter... [ Continue Reading ]
Thus the priests have led the way, and the people follow. They have lost the spiritual faculty; a wild impulse to the most sensual idolatry has carried them away.... [ Continue Reading ]
_My people ask counsel at their stocks_ Lit., -My people he asketh counsel at his wood." Jehovah alone can give oracular -counsel"; not the teraphim, nor yet the bull-images of Jehovah. The latter did, indeed, seem to the Israelites to bring Jehovah near to their consciousness, but it was not the tr... [ Continue Reading ]
_upon the tops of the mountains_ -Every high hill and every green tree" are repeatedly mentioned together as the scenes of the popular nature-worship (e.g. 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:6); and, to avoid misunderstanding, it would have been better to supply an -and" before... [ Continue Reading ]
The precedence in guilt belongs to the elders who set so wicked an example. _themselves are separated with_ Rather, THEY THEMSELVES GO ASIDE WITH. A change of person, instead of -ye yourselves." _harlots_ Rather, CONSECRATED HARLOTS, i.e. women who dedicate themselves, or are dedicated by others,... [ Continue Reading ]
_offend_ Rather, BECOME GUILTY, viz. by participation in Israel's idolatry. _come not ye unto Gilgal_ Gilgal was one of the chief seats of the idolatrous worship of the north, see Hosea 9:15; Hosea 12:11; Amos 4:4; Amos 5:5. But which of the Gilgals (see Smith's _Bibl. Dict._) is meant? The Jewish c... [ Continue Reading ]
Judah is cautioned not to fall into the same ruin as Israel, of which a deterrent picture is given.... [ Continue Reading ]
_slideth back as a backsliding heifer_ Rather, IS STUBBORN LIKE A STUBBORN HEIFER. A favourite figure of the prophets, Hosea 11:4; Jeremiah 31:18; comp. Deuteronomy 32:15. _now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place_ Israel in the weakness of captivity is compared to a lamb in a large pa... [ Continue Reading ]
_joined to idols_ The cognate noun is used in Malachi 2:14 of a wife in her relation to her husband, and in Isaiah 44:11 of an idol-worshipper in his mystic relation to his god (comp. 1 Corinthians 10:20).... [ Continue Reading ]
_Their drink is sour_ This translation is cannot be sustained philologically. If the text is correct, the only version at once intelligible and philologically sound is, -Their drunkenness has passed by." For the rendering of the verb comp. 1 Samuel 15:32 Hebr., and for -drunkenness", lit. drink, com... [ Continue Reading ]
_The wind hath bound her up in her wings_ A figure for the suddenness and violence with which the enemy should carry Israel away into exile (comp. Isaiah 57:13), The perfect is that of prophetic certitude.... [ Continue Reading ]