IV. Here commences a new part in the collection of Hosea’s prophecies. The entire chapter is one terrible series of accusations, supporting the severe character of the imagery already employed. It is difficult to assign it to any particular period. It may have been composed during the years that imm... [ Continue Reading ]
CONTROVERSY. — A judicial suit, in which Jehovah is plaintiff as well as judge (Isaiah 1:23; Isaiah 41:21). By the “children of Israel” we are to understand the northern kingdom of the ten tribes, as distinguished from Judah. MERCY. — Better rendered _love._ The Hebrew word _chésed_ expresses (1) t... [ Continue Reading ]
BLOOD TOUCHETH BLOOD — _i.e._, murder is added to murder with ghastly prevalence. References to false swearing and lying are repeated in terrible terms by Amos 2:6 and Micah 7:2; and the form of the charge suggests the Decalogue and pre-existing legislation (Exodus 20:13).... [ Continue Reading ]
The mourning of the land is the judgment of famine, which follows not only upon the living men, but upon all living things (the LXX. have introduced into the enumeration the creeping things of the earth). Even the fishes of the sea are swept away. There is plague on fish as well as murrain on cattle... [ Continue Reading ]
YET LET NO MAN STRIVE, NOR REPROVE ANOTHER. — Better, _Nevertheless, let no one contend, let no one reprove,_ for the voices of wise counsel, the warnings of the prophet, will be silenced. Ephraim will in his obstinate wrong-doing be left alone. The last clause of the verse is rendered by nearly all... [ Continue Reading ]
The priest’s function is discharged in the day, and the prophet dreams in the night. Both will totter to their fall. THY MOTHER — _i.e._, thy nation.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE, which you, O priest, should have kept alive in their hearts. The knowledge of God is life eternal. (Comp. John 17:3.) The Lord’s “controversy” repudiates the entire priesthood, as they had rejected the true knowledge of God. They had inclined to calf-worship, had been vacillat... [ Continue Reading ]
The increase in numbers and prosperity probably refers to the priesthood, who, as they grew in numbers, became more alienated from the true God. These eat up, or fatten on, the very sins they ought to rebuke. The reference here may be either to the portion of sacrificial offerings which fell to the... [ Continue Reading ]
As the people will be punished, so will the priest. The latter will not be saved by wealth or dignity. _And I will visit upon him his ways_ (observe here the collective singular in the pronoun), _and cause his doings to return upon him._ The form of the punishment is to be noticed. The eating of the... [ Continue Reading ]
HEART. — The whole inner life, consumed by these licentious indulgences.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR STOCKS. — Blocks of wood fashioned into idols (Heb., _his wood,_ the collective singular being maintained). THEIR STAFF. — Cyril regarded this as referring to divinations by means of rods (ῥαβδομαντεία), which were placed upright, and after the repetition of incantations, allowed to fall, the... [ Continue Reading ]
The tops of the hills were continually chosen for idolatrous temples, _i.e._, “high places.” POPLAR — _i.e._, the white poplar, not the _storax_ of the LXX., which is a shrub only a few feet high. ELMS should be “terebinth tree” (’_çlah_).... [ Continue Reading ]
Jehovah threatens to visit no punishment on the women for their licentiousness, because they are more sinned against than sinning. SACRIFICE WITH HARLOTS. — Referring to the sensuality of the religious rites, as represented by the women (_q’dçshôth_) who dedicated themselves to these impurities.... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL... JUDAH. — The prophet warns Judah of Israel’s peril, and perhaps hints at the apostacy of some of her kings, as Ahaziah, Joram, and Ahaz. He returns _to_ the symbolic use of the word “whoredom”; and Judah is exhorted not to participate in the idolatries of Gilgal or the calves of Bethel. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
SLIDETH BACK. — More correctly, _is stubborn as a stubborn cow._ WILL FEED THEM AS A LAMB IN A LARGE PLACE. — An expression of tender commiseration (so Ewald). But most commentators understand it in an unfavourable sense, _i.e.,_ will lead them forth into the desolate wilderness, a prey to wild bea... [ Continue Reading ]
EPHRAIM... IDOLS. — The prophet calls on Judah to leave Ephraim to himself. The Jewish interpreters Rashi and Kimchi understand this as the appeal of Jehovah to the prophet to leave Israel to her fate, that so perhaps her eyes might be opened to discern her doom.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Authorised version is here very defective. Translate, _Their carousal hath become degraded; with whoring they whore. Her shields love shame. A blast hath seized her in its wings, so that they are covered with shame for their offerings. “_Shields” mean the princes of the people, as in Psalms 47:9... [ Continue Reading ]