Hosea 7:15

Though I have bound [and] strengthened their arms,.... As a surgeon sets a broken arm and swathes and binds it, and so restores it to its former strength, or at least to a good degree of strength

Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

Though I; but as for me, or, And I. Bound; or chastised, as the word will bear; or instructed; either notion will well suit the place. When I had chastised them for their sins, as in Jehoahaz’ s time, I strengthened them in Jehoash’ s time, and in Jeroboam’ s time, and made them stronger than their enemies. Or, I taught them, gave them wisdom and skill to handle their weapons; so David speaks, , He teacheth my hands to war, and . But the sense best suits with what he took upon him before, if we retain it as our version hath it, bound as a chirurgeon binds up a weakened member, or, having set a broken one, doth with swathes and bands bind it up; so did God for Ephraim, when the Syrians and other enemies had broken their arms. And strengthened their arms; as I took care to bind, so I did, what none else could, give strength to them, both courage of mind, and strength of body, and success added to both; so they subdued them that had formerly wasted and spoiled them. What successes Jehoash had, or Jeroboam had, I gave, and they should have owned it, and been thankful; but they imagine mischief against me; they contrived, laid their heads together, and designed what evil they could against me: they imputed their successes to their idols, to their way of worship, and hardened themselves against all thoughts of repentance, and returning to me; and devised mischief against my prophets, and let loose the reins to all impieties. This is their requital for all my love!

Hosea 7:15 Though I have bound [and] strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.Ver. 15. Though I have bound and strengthened their arms] Quum ego erudivi, so Pagnine, Polanus, and others; when I taught them, or chastened them, as Hosea 7:12, "and strengthened their arms"; there is no and in the original; it is an asyndeton; to show that God had done both for them, together and at once: he had acted the part both of an instructor and of a surgeon (like as, Revelation 3:18, he takes upon him the person both of a rich merchant and a skilful physician); he had done all that could be done to do them good; teaching their hands to war and their fingers to fight, Psalms 144:1, binding up their broken arms, and strengthening their feeble sinews, their hands that hung down, Hebrews 12:12. After I have scourged them I have re-established them; but what thanks for my labour? what Minerval or pay for my pains? The world’ s wages; such as Hercules paid the schoolmaster Linus, whom he knocked on the head, Hoc ictu ceu didactro accepto Linus mortuus est (Buchol.); or as Agricola’ s scholars in Germany killed their master with their penknives; or as physicians and surgeons are many times paid by their penurious patients, of whom the poet wittily, “ Tres medicus facies habet, unam, quando rogatur; Angelicam, mox est cum iuvat, ipse Deus. Ast ubi curato poscit sun munera morbo, Horridus apparet terribilisque Satan. ” Yet do they imagine mischief against me] All goes against God. Here they "imagine mischief" against him, as before they "spake lies against him," Hosea 7:13, and acted rebellion against him, Hosea 7:14. Thus they spake and did evil things as they could, Jeremiah 3:5; and the reason of all was, they imagined mischief, cogitabant quasi coagitabant, they were men of wicked devices, Proverbs 12:2, wholly made up of sinful projects and purposes; they plotted and ploughed mischief, and that against God himself (which is horrible); David thought much that his enemies should machinate mischief against him, though but dust and ashes; and threateneth them sore for so doing, Psalms 62:3, "How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence": he meaneth, ye shall be surely and suddenly ruined. What then will become of those Zamzummims that imagine mischief against the Lord? and such a Lord as hath bound and strengthened their arms, that had been broken by the enemies, and sought their good every way, puniendo, muniendo, malis et bonis afficiendo, &c.

(15) Bound.—Should be instructed. God has imparted skill and power to fight their enemies. (Comp. Psalms 144:1.) So the grace of the Spirit is often slighted by its recipients.

Verse 15. Though I have bound and strengthened their arms] Whether I dealt with them in judgment or mercy, it was all one; in all circumstances they rebelled against me.

15. Though I have bound and strengthened their arms] Rather, I indeed have trained and strengthened their arms. The Israelites had had a proof of this not long since when ‘Jehovah saw the affliction of Israel that it was very bitter’, and ‘saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash’ (2 Kings 14:27).

Though I have bound - Rather, (as in the E. M) “And I have chastened, I have strenghened their arms, and they imagine mischief against Me.” God had tried all ways with them, but it was all one.

15, 16. Neither judgment nor the divine mercy produced repentance or loyalty to Jehovah.