WHEN EPHRAIM SPAKE TREMBLING - that is, probably “there was ‘trembling.’” : “Ephraim was once very awful, so as, while he spake, the rest of the tribes were ready to tremble.” The prophet contrasts two conditions of Ephraim, of prosperity, and destruction. His prosperity he owed to the undeserved me... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOW THEY SIN MORE AND MORE - Sin draws on sin. This seems to be a third stage in sin. First, under Jeroboam, was the worship of the calves. Then, under Ahab, the worship of Baal. Thirdly, the multiplying of other idols (see 2 Kings 17:9), penetrating and pervading the private life, even of their... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE THEY SHALL BE AS THE MORNING CLOUD - There is often a fair show of prosperity, out of God; but it is short-lived. “The third generation,” says the pagan proverb, “never enjoys the ill-gotten gain.” The highest prosperity of an ungodly state is often the next to its fall. Israel never so fl... [ Continue Reading ]
YET - , (literally, and) I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt God was still the same God who had sheltered them with His providence, ever since He had delivered them from Egypt. He had the same power and will to help them. Therefore their duty was the same, and their destruction arose, not f... [ Continue Reading ]
I DID KNOW THEE IN THE WILDERNESS - “God so knew them, as to deserve to be known by them. By “knowing” them, He shewed how He ought to be acknowledged by them.” “As we love God, because He first loved us,” so we come to know and own God, having first been owned and known of Him. God showed His knowl... [ Continue Reading ]
ACCORDING TO THEIR PASTURE, SO WERE THEY FILLED - o: “He implies that their way of being ‘filled’ was neither good nor praiseworthy, in that he says, ‘they were filled according to their pastures.’ What or of what kind were these “their pastures?” What they longed for, what they murmured for, and sp... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BE UNTO THEM AS A LION - They had waxen fat, were full; yet it was, to become themselves a prey. Their wealth which they were proud of, which they abused, allured their enemies. To cut off all hopes of God’s mercy, He says that he will be to them, as those creatures of His, which never spare.... [ Continue Reading ]
AS A BEAR BEREAVED OF HER WHELPS - The Syrian bear is fiercer than the brown bears to which we are accustomed. It attacks flocks 1 Samuel 17:34, and even oxen . The fierceness of the she-bear, “bereaved of her whelps,” became a proverb (2 Samuel 17:8; Proverbs 17:12; and here). : “They who have writ... [ Continue Reading ]
O ISRAEL, THOU HAST DESTROYED THYSELF, BUT IN ME IS THY HELP - This is one of the concise sayings of Hosea, which is capable of many shades of meaning. The five words, one by one, are literally, “Israel, thy destruction, for” or “that, in” or “against Me, in” or “against thy help.” Something must be... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BE THY KING - (literally, “I would be” thy King) Where is any other that, etc. A better translation would be: “Where now is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities; and thy judges, of whom thou saidst, give me a king and princes.” As Israel was under Samuel, such it remained. “Then”... [ Continue Reading ]
I GAVE THEE A KING IN MINE ANGER - o: “God, when He is asked for ought amiss, sheweth displeasure, when He giveth, hath mercy, when He giveth not.” “The devil was heard,” (in asking to enter into the swine) “the Apostle was not heard,” (when he prayed that the messenger of Satan might depart from hi... [ Continue Reading ]
THE INIQUITY OF EPHRAIM IS BOUND UP - (As in a bag or purse, and so, “treasured up”), as Job saith, using the same word, “My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and Thou sewest up mine iniquity.” Job 14:17. “His sin” is “hid” i. e., as people lay up hidden treasure, to be brought out in its season.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SORROWS OF A TRAVAILING WOMAN ARE COME UPON HIM - The travail-pangs are violent, sudden, irresistible. A moment before they come, all is seemingly perfect health; they come, increase in vehemence, and, if they accomplish not that for which they are sent, end in death, both to the mother and the... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL RANSOM THEM FROM THE POWER OF THE GRAVE - Literally, “from the hand,” i. e., the “grasp of the grave,” or “of hell.” God, by His prophets, mingles promises of mercy in the midst of His threats of punishment. His mercy overflows the bounds of the occasion upon which He makes it known. He had s... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH - (literally, “when”) he (shall) be fruitful among his brethren Fruitfulness was God’s promise to Ephraim, and was expressed in his name. It was fulfilled, abused, and, in the height of its fulfillment, was taken away. Ephraim is pictured as a fair and fruitful tree. An “East wind,” so desola... [ Continue Reading ]
SAMARIA SHALL BECOME DESOLATE - Or “shall bear her iniquity.” Her iniquity should now find her out, and rest upon her. Of this, “desolation” was, in God’s judgments, the consequence. Samaria, “the nursery of idolatry and rebellion against God,” the chief in pride should be chief in punishment. “For... [ Continue Reading ]