Hosea 4:15

Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend,.... That is, though the Israelites, the people of the ten tribes, committed adultery, both corporeal and spiritual, in their idolatrous

Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.

This summeth up the sins, the idolatries of the ten tribes; and is a transition to what next follows; either by way of exhortation, or admonition, or prayer and wish, for the two tribes which stuck to the house of David, as to the temple. Let not Judah offend; commit like sins as Israel hath done, imitate none of their idolatry: possibly the prophet saw Judah inclined to backslide, or this might be preached in the beginning of Ahaz’ s reign. Come not ye, you of Judah, who have the temple and house of God with you, who have hitherto been preserved from Israelitish idolatry, unto Gilgal; a place near Jordan, where the twelve stones were pitched, , the camp was pitched, circumcision revived, the passover kept, ,10; there Joshua divided the land, , there the tabernacle was at first pitched after they came over Jordan, and there they sacrificed. There was in Ahab’ s time a college of prophets; and now, whether out of reverence to the place on these accounts, or for what other reasons, it matters not, but certain it is, this Gilgal was chosen out by Jeroboam, or by succeeding idolaters, for a place of public worship of their idols, and grew famous for it. Go not up to partake of their idolatry, or to learn it. It is a concise speech, which forbids all the sins committed at Gilgal. Neither go ye up to Beth-aven; which is Beth-el, where Jacob lodged, had a vision of angels, and a more comfortable vision of God, who appeared to Jacob, who for this gave name to the place, and called it Beth-el, house of God; but when Jeroboam made it the place of his calf worship, it became, and is called, Beth-avert, house of vanity or iniquity. Go not thither to worship. It is as the former, a prohibition of being of that religion which was in use at Beth-avert, and had been the established religion for two hundred years, or thereabouts, viz. ever since Jeroboam’ s time. Nor swear, The Lord liveth this is in itself lawful oath, and may be used; but in the circumstances wherewith it is here attended it is forbidden, because many who went thither yet pretended there to sacrifice only to the true God, that they owned him the only living God, reverenced him, swore by him; though they went up to Beth-avert or Gilgal, yet they worshipped God there. This is a synecdoche, a part being put for the whole worship of God, which the prophet warns them not to blend and mix with idolatries, which yet was done before Josiah’ s time, , which see, with the annotations on it.

Hosea 4:15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, [yet] let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.Ver. 15. Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend] Lest if God lose his glory among them too, he lose it altogether. Judah was grown almost as bad as Israel (in the days of that stigmatic Ahaz especially, 2 Chronicles 28:22); Aholibamah, as Aholibah, Ezekiel 23:36. But let it not be so, saith the prophet, since not to be warned by the harms of another is a just both presage and desert of ruin. Alterius igitur perditio tua sit cautio. Therefore by their destruction, let you be warned. Seest thou another shipwreck? look well to thine own tackling. God will take that from Israel which he will not from Judah; because these had many means and privileges that the other had not; as the temple, priests, ordinances, &c. Now good turns aggravate unkindness; and men’ s offences are increased by their obligations. Judah was and would be therefore the worse, because they ought to have been better. And God can better bear with aliens than with his own people, when they offend. The Philistines may cart the ark, but if David do it woe be to Uzzah. You only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore (whosoever escape) I will punish you for all iniquities, Amos 3:2. The unkindness of your sins is more than all the rest: it grieves God’ s Spirit, and goes near his heart. Come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven] Alias Bethel, the house of God, so called by Jacob, who there had visions of God, and said, "How fearful is this place! It is even the house of God and gate of heaven." But now it was become the hate of heaven, and gate to destruction, as being abused to idolatry. Corruptio optimi fit pessima. Corruption of the best become the worst. Bethel is become Bethaven, the house of iniquity and misery, of sin and of sorrow: for "their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god," Psalms 16:4. The word gnatsabim, there rendered sorrows, signifieth also idols, Psalms 115:4; Psalms 106:36, because they that worship them are sure of sorrows. Come not therefore to Gilgal, &c.] Gilgal was the key of Canaan, situated between Jordan and Jericho, famous for various services there performed to God, as were easy to instance; but now basely abused to idol worship. Hence this charge (and the like in Amos 5:5) not to come near it; and the rather because it was a border town, and so more dangerous. "Keep thee far from an evil matter," saith Moses, Exodus 23:7; "Come not nigh the doors of the harlot’ s house," saith Solomon, Proverbs 5:8. From such stand off, or keep aloof, saith Paul, 1 Timothy 6:5. Shun them as the seaman doth sands and shoals, as the same apostle’ s word, στελλεσθαι, imports, 1 Thessalonians 3:6.

(15) 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. There are three different places named Gilgal mentioned in Joshua (Joshua 4:19; Joshua 12:3; Joshua 15:7), and a fourth seems to be mentioned in Deut. 9:30; 2 Kings 2:1. The Gilgal here referred to is the first of these, which Joshua for a considerable time had made his head-quarters. In the days of Samuel it acquired some importance as a place for sacrificial worship and the dispensation of justice. Bethel had a grand history. But Hosea and Amos call it by the altered name Beth-aven (house of vanity, or idols), instead of Bethel (house of God). The LXX. in Alex. MS. read On instead of Aven in the Hebrew, On being the name for Heliopolis, the seat of sun-cultus, whence Jeroboam may have derived his calf-worship. (See Smith’s Dict. of the Bible, Art. “On.”) But the Vat. MS. has ἀδικίας, in accordance with the Masoretic tradition (similarly Aquila and Symmachus).

Verse 15. Let not Judah offend] Israel was totally dissolute; Judah was not so. Here she is exhorted to maintain her integrity. If the former will go to what was once Beth-el, the house of God, now Beth-aven, the house of iniquity, because Jeroboam has set up his calves there, let not Judah imitate them. Gilgal was the place where the covenant of circumcision was renewed when the people passed over Jordan; but was rendered infamous by the worship of idols, after Jeroboam had set up his idolatry.

15–19. Judah is cautioned not to fall into the same ruin as Israel, of which a deterrent picture is given.

Let not Judah offend - The sentence of Israel had been pronounced; she had been declared incorrigible. The prophet turns from her now to Judah.