Hosea 11:6

And the sword shall abide on the cities,.... Or "shall fall" (y), and continue; meaning the sword of the Assyrians, whereby Ephraim should be brought into subjection to them, and the king of Assyria

And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels. And the sword shall abide on his cities - (cf.

The sword; either intestine or foreign wars, or both. Shall abide; shall be long, not be as a sudden incursion which doth much mischief to surprised and unfortified places, but it shall be a lasting war; three years Samaria was besieged, so the sword did abide. On his cities; all the cities of Ephraim, the enemy should have courage and leisure to attend the siege of every one of them. Shall consume; shall prevail to take, sack, burn, and ruin the branches. His branches; lesser towns and villages. Devour them; swallow them up with speed and ease, without remedy. Because of their own counsels; which they first took, , and ever since irreclaimably have followed, in opposition to all the good counsels the prophets gave them from time to time, to all which they have turned a deaf ear; they have sued for Egypt and Asshur’ s favour, and slighted mine.

Hosea 11:6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour [them], because of their own counsels.Ver. 6. And the sword shall abide on his cities] Heb. shall keep residence or rush upon his cities. It can do no less; it cannot return into the scabbard, rest or be still, till the Lord, who put it into commission, call back again his commission, Jeremiah 47:6-7. It is a dreadful thing when the sword abideth on a people; as in Germany, that stage of war; Ireland, still a land of divine ire, &c. England hath some halcyons at present, praise be given to God; and let every good man pray with David, "Scatter thou the people that delight in war," Psalms 68:30. The Pirates’ war was despatched by Pompey with incredible swiftness, to his eternal commendation ( incredibili celeritate et temporis brevitate a Pompeio confectum). And we have cause to bless God (saith a countryman of ours) that God hath raised up instruments for us, who have hazarded the shortening of their own lives for the shortening of the war; who have done their work of late, as if they had took it by the great, &c. And the same author observeth, that it is a sad thing for the sword to be in the field; but for the sword to be in the cities it is much more sad: and he instanceth in Jerusalem out of Josephus, where the number of the slain was 1,100,000 (Jos. de Bell. Jud. l. 7 c. 7.). We may further instance in that unhappy city of Magdeburg, in Germany, where so much cruelty was exercised first by Charles V (much regretted by him at last in his retired life, taking account of his actions), and since that in our memory by M. Tilly, who, like a bloody villain, put to the sword there 20,000 persons at least of all ranks, ages, and sexes: that great city also he burned down, utterly turning it into cinders, excepting 139 houses. The like immunity was exercised by the pope’ s champions upon the poor Protestants at Angrogue, in France; where they killed and burned without mercy; but could never set fire upon the two temples there, nor upon the minister’ s house, which remained whole, the houses round about being all consumed with fire. And shall consume his branches and devour them] His branches, or his villages, which are as branches of the greater cities. The trees of America (but especially of Brazil) are so large, that it is reported of them that several families have lived in several arms or branches of one tree, to such a number as are in some petty village or parish here. The greater cities are as the body or root of a tree, the village as the branches. The Scripture often calleth them mother and daughter, as Heshbon and all her daughters, that is, villages, Numbers 21:25, as the Chaldee here explaineth it. See Ezekiel 16:44-45; Ezekiel 16:48; Ezekiel 16:53.

(6) The rendering of the English version is here incorrect. Render, Then shall the sword be brandished amid his cities, and utterly destroy his princes. The word for “princes” is, literally, bars, the heroes, leaders, or defenders of the state being aptly called barriers, or bulwarks. Analogous metaphors frequently occur in the Old Testament; such is the interpretation of the Targum.

Verse 6. The sword shall abide on his cities] Israel was agitated with external and intestine wars from the time of Jeroboam the Second. Although Zechariah his son reigned twelve years, yet it was in continual troubles; and he was at last slain by the rebel Shallum, who, having reigned one month, was slain by Menahem. Pekahiah succeeded his father Menahem, and reigned two years, and was killed by Pekah, son of Remaliah. He joined Rezin, king of Syria, and made an irruption into the land of Judah; but Ahaz having obtained succour from Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, Pekah was defeated, and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Naphtali, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, were carried away captives by the Assyrian king; and in a short time after, Hosea, son of Elah, slew Pekah, and usurped the kingdom, which he could not possess without the assistance of Shalmaneser, who for his services imposed a tribute on the Israelitish king. Wishing to rid himself of this yoke, he applied to the king of Egypt; but this being known to Shalmaneser, he came against Samaria, and after a three years' siege took and destroyed it. Thus the sword rested on their cities; it continued in the land till all was ruined. See Calmet.

6. And the sword, &c.] Rather, And the sword shall whirl about in his cities, and shall make an end of his defences (lit. his bars; comp. Jeremiah 51:30). The sword is personified as the symbol of war, as Ezekiel 14:17.

And the sword shall abide on his cities - Literally, “shall light, shall whirl” down upon.

5-7. All this loving-kindness Israel met with shameful ingratitude; therefore judgment, in the form of an exile, will surely come (Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3).