Hosea 12:8

And Ephraim said, yet I am become rich,.... Notwithstanding they took such unjust methods, as to use deceitful balances, they prospered in the world, got abundance of riches; and therefore concluded

And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall

Ephraim said; this covetous, oppressive merchant reckoned with himself, or discoursed with himself, upon the whole of his trading. Yet I am become rich; whatever is said by some, or thought by others, yet I get what I aim at: either it is good and lawful, and prospered to me by the blessing of God on it because it is just and righteous, or it is not so bad as morose prophets and preachers make it, or at worst (which I will venture, saith Ephraim) it lessens my innocency, but improves my stock, and this is more to such merchants than all the poor innocence in the world. I have found me out substance; the same thing, with a vain boast of what is not in his wealth and substance. If in his gain he assumed his own only to himself, it were praiseworthy; that is, if he took to himself with shame the sinful manner of acquiring it; but he takes the praise to himself, and forgets God; boasts of his wit, though he cannot of his honesty. In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin; finally, he hugs himself in the apprehension of close and crafty carriage of all his affairs, that no great fault, no crime, can be found in it to deserve a reproach or punishment, that he hath more reason to believe all is well since it doth prosper, than to suspect any great miscarriage which should deserve punishment. So this people do at once flatter themselves into security, fearless of punishment, and into hardened obstinacy in sin incapable of amendment.

Hosea 12:8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: [in] all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that [were] sin.Ver. 8. And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich] Sed mihi plaudo domi. I have it howsoever though I hear ill for it; though the prophet inveigh against my covetousness, yet I am rich while he and his companions are poor and indigent. Yea, I have found me out substance] An idol so the Vulgate renders it; and, indeed, every covetous man is an idolater, Ephesians 5:5, and performs both outward and inward service to his mammon of unrighteousness, to his golden calf. Substance he here creaks of, and rest to his soul (as the Seventy render it, ευρηκααναψυχηνεμαυτω), in opposition haply to the airy notions (as he accounted them) of the prophet’ s invectives against his covetous practices, and the terrors of his own conscience, which he endeavoured to corrupt and bribe. See, to like purpose, Isaiah 57:10, "Thou hast found the life of thy hand," that is, a livelihood by thy labour; "therefore thou wast not grieved": thy heart is hardened, and thou art insensible of thy sin guiltiness; thou settest the gain against the guilt, and then all is hail with thee. Felix scelus virtus vocatur; Prosperous wickedness is accounted virtue. Leah, because fruitful and successful, rejoiced in that whereof she had greater reason to repent. So did those idolaters, Jeremiah 44:11. Dionysius, after the spoil of an idol temple, finding the winds favourable in his navigation; Lo, said he, how the gods approve of sacrilege. It is no better that Ephraim here deals with the Almighty: Surely, saith he, if God disliked my courses so much as the prophet would make believe, I should not gather wealth as I do; but the world comes tumbling in upon me, therefore my ways are good before God. This is an ordinary paralogism, whereby wicked worldlings deceive their own souls; hardening and heartening themselves in their sinful practices, because they outwardly prosper. But a painted face is no sign of a good complexion. Seneca could say, that it is the greatest unhappiness to prosper in evil. In all my labours] So he calleth his fraudulent and violent practices, as making the best of an ill matter. They shall find no iniquity in me] Though they search as narrowly as Laban did into Jacob’ s stuff; what can they find, or prove by me? Am I not able either to hide mine ill dealings, or to defend them? Can they take the advantage of the law against me? Why, then, should I be thus condemned and cried out of as I am? thus "The rich man is wise in his own conceit," Proverbs 28:11, and covetousness is never without its cloak, 1 Thessalonians 2:5, which yet is too short to cover it from God, who is not mocked with masks, or fed with feigned words, whereof the covetous caitiff is full, 2 Peter 2:3.

(8) Translate, And Ephraim saith, Surely I have become wealthy; I have gotten me substance (i.e., by legitimate means, not robbery): all my earnings bring me not guilt as would be sin (i.e., requiring expiation). Such a coarse pursuit of wealth, and such glorying in the innocence of the entire process by which it has been obtained, has its parallel in the moral position of the Laodicean Church, rebuked by our Lord (Revelation 3).

Verse 8. I am become rich] They boasted in their riches, notwithstanding the unjust manner in which they were acquired. In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me] This is frequently the language of merchants, tradesmen, c. None are so full of professions of equity and justice, while all the time they are endeavouring to overreach, both in buying and selling. "Sir, I cannot afford it at that price." "It is not mine for that money." "I assure you that it cost me more than you offer." "I am sorry I cannot take your money but if I did, I should lose by the article," c., &c., &c. I have heard such language over and over, when I knew every word was false. Truth is a sacred thing in the sight of God but who regards it as he should? There are, however, many noble exceptions among merchants and tradesmen. Bp. Newcome gives another turn to the subject, by translating: - "All his labours shall not be found profitable unto him, For the iniquity wherewith he hath sinned."

8–15. Not Israel, but Canaan should he be called; for his ideal is Canaan’s. The end justifies the means, and his end is—to become rich! But how bitterly will he be disappointed. He must in short begin his history over again, and repeat his wilderness-wanderings. Or to speak more plainly, idolatry must be rooted out. Jehovah must take up the challenge thrown down by Ephraim. Just before the severe final rebuke, Hosea resumes his appeal to the instructive history of Jacob; but Hosea 12:12-13 may be misplaced.

And Ephraim said, Yet am I become rich - Literally, “I am simply rich.” As if he said, “the only result of all this, with which the prophets charge me, is that ‘I am become rich:’ and since God thus

8. Israel had been successful in realizing its ambition; now arrogantly it congratulates itself on the acquisition of wealth and riches.