Hosea 13

Chap. XIII. Ver. 1—16. Threatenings and promises addressed to Israel under the name Ephraim.—This chapter opens with a truth often asserted and exemplified in the Scriptures, ‘‘Before honour is humility, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Thus when Ephraim spake with modesty, diffidence, and trembling, then ‘he exalted himself in Israel;” but when he assumed the high and independent airs of a worshipper of Baal, then he offended God, and fell under his indignation. When he boasted, ‘‘I am become rich, and have found me out substance,”’ then ‘he was found poor, and wretched, and guilty and is threatened with the just reward of his demerits. God tempers, however, these awful threatenings with gracious intimations of mercy on their repentance.

But, alas! instead of repenting, Ephraim is filling up the measure of his iniquity, and foolishly protracting the season of deliverance, by making no struggle to attain to it. Notwithstanding this, God promises at length to exert his almighty power in their favour; and, as it were, to raise them from the dead; although, in the mean time, they must be visited with national calamities, compared to the noxious and parching east wind, and described immediately after in literal terms—they shall fall by the sword of the enemy.

Notes on the verses

Chap. XIII. Ver. 2. They sin more and more—i.e. increase in idolatries.—Kiss the calves.—This was part of their idolatry as we see in (1 Kings 19:18); and Cicero informs us this rite was common among the heathen. See Newcome.—For the men that sacrifice.—Secker, Horsley, and others, read with our margin, ‘‘The sacrificers of men;’’ but query? Ver. 3. As early dew.—(To punish these abominable idolatries, the prosperity and tribe of Ephraim should be, like his goodness, ‘‘as the morning cloud, the early dew, the chaff before the whirlwind, and the smoke out of the chimney,” driven about, dissipated, and speedily vanishing away.)—Bagster. Ver. 4. Thou shalt know.—Newcome, Boothroyd, &c. render it in the past tense, “Thou hast known.” We should rather render it in the imperfect, “Thou didst know;” namely, at that time. See (Deuteronomy 32:12). Ver. 11. I gave thee a king—Namely, Saul. 1 Sam. viii. 5, 19, &c.; xv. 23. Ver. 13. Stay long.—‘‘Any time;” i.e. loiter and hesitate in his decision. (1 Kings 18:21). Ver. 14. I will be thy plagues.—Literally, ‘‘Thy sentence.” The plague was understood to come immediately from God. St. Paul refers to this passage, (1 Corinthians 15:55).—Repentance shall be hid—That is, I will not repent of

CONCLUDING REMARKS ON THE BOOK OF HOSEA. (THE prophecies of Hosea which were soon fulfilled are very numerous: but those as to the state of Israel and Judah for many ages, the conversion of the Gentiles, and the future restoration of Israel, are peculiarly distinct and striking: they coincide with those of the other prophets; and the extraordinary fulfilment of several of them, in past and present times, both proves the Divine inspiration of the writer, and gives assurance that the rest will in due

Ver.

15. An east wind.—The east wind was blighting and drying. See (Ezekiel 19:12).—The wind of the Lord—That is, a wind specially sent by him. See (Psalms 68:33). Ver. 16. They shall fall by the sword.—Compare (2 Chronicles 25:13).