_The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea_ The name of the prophet is the same with the original name of _Joshua_, and signifies _a Saviour. The son of Beeri_ This was the prophet's surname; for in those days they had their surnames either from their parents, as we have, or from the places of their... [ Continue Reading ]
_The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea_ Or, as some render it, _to Hosea;_ phrases however of different import; for to speak _to_ a person, expresses that the discourse was immediately addressed to him. To speak _by_ him, that through him it was addressed to others. And that the speech so a... [ Continue Reading ]
_So he went and took Gomer_, &c. The word _Gomer_ signifies _failing_, or _consuming_, (see Psalms 12:1,) so that the very name of the harlot, whom Hosea took, was symbolical, signifying that the kingdom of Israel would experience a great _failing_, consumption, or decrease of its people; which inde... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Lord said, Call his name Jezreel_ This name, compounded of the nouns זרע _seed_, and אל, _God_, signifies _the seed of God._ The names, it must be observed, imposed upon the woman's children by God's direction, sufficiently declare what particular parts of the Jewish nation were severally r... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break_, &c. This entire abolition of the kingdom of the ten tribes shall take effect at the time when I break the bow, &c. Here the _breaking of the bow in the valley of Jezreel_ is the event that marks the date; and to that date, so marked, the th... [ Continue Reading ]
_And she conceived again_ It has been observed, that the children which the prophet's wife bore represent certain distinct parts, or descriptions, of the Jewish nation, of the whole of which the mother was the emblem. Of her three children here mentioned, the eldest and the youngest were sons, the i... [ Continue Reading ]
_But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah_ Including Benjamin, and such of the Levites as adhered to God's law and worship, and as many of the other tribes as renounced the calves, Baal, and all idolatrous worship, and worshipped God alone as he required. On Judah, including all these, God had... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived_, &c. The last child is a son, and the daughter was weaned before the woman conceived him. “A child, when it is weaned,” says St. Jerome, “leaves the mother; is not nourished with the parent's milk; is sustained with extraneous ailments.” “This aptl... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea_ Though God casts off the ten tribes, yet he will, in due time, supply their loss, by bringing in great numbers of true Israelites into the church, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles, and making them, who before we... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together_ When the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, this will be a means of converting the Jews, and bringing them into the church. And when converts of the house of Judah shall have obtained a resettlement in the holy land,... [ Continue Reading ]