Hosea 7

Chap. VII. Ver.1—16. Farther complaints, both of wickedness and hypocrisy.—Here God complains that though he had used every means for reforming Israel, they still persisted in their sins, without regarding the consequences. That those of the higher orders, who ought to have checked their crimes, united and delighted in them; and that they all burned with their lusts, as an oven when fully heated, and ready to receive the dough. Ver. 5. alludes to some recent excesses at a royal feast; and the following verses accuse them with being given up to idleness and vice, pride and civil contentions, and conspiracies. (See (2 Kings 15:10, 14, 25).) Ephraim, in particular, is charged with mixing with idolatrous nations, and serving God by halves only; and with applying for aid to their enemies, instead of God, “an Almighty protector.”

(See (2 Kings 15:19); and xxvii. 4.) And the chapter concludes with comparing them, on account of their unsteady character, and frequent apostasies, to “a deceitful bow,” unfit for sending its arrows to the object aimed at.

Notes on the verses

Chap. VII. Ver. 2. They consider not in.—* Say not to” their hearts. Ver. 4. Who ceaseth from raising, &c.—Boothroyd, “Which he ceaseth from watching, when he hath kneaded the dough,” &c. Ver. 5. Sick with bottles of wine.—“In their excess of drinking healths no doubt, instead of a pious remembrance of God’s mercies, they ran into monstrous impieties of luxury and drunkenness, and with bottles of wine inflamed a and [sin] so sore er. 8. Among the people.—Newcome, “Nations.”——A cake not turned.—That is, burnt and alee: Rauwolf = that travellers in the deserts of Arabia, frequently — on the ground, covering their cakes with coals, turning them several times, till done.”—“Some interpret this of the party coloured temper of Ephraim, by such a proverb as ours is ‘Neither fish nor flesh’—neither Israelite nor heathen, but a mongrel; (Zephaniah 1:5). Neither bread nor yet dough, but partly both, as the unturned cake on the coals is. But it better expresseth their danger and sudden ruin, whose hungry enemies will eat them up quickly as men do, who for haste will not stay the fulling of their cake.” — Pool. Ver. 9. Gray hairs are here and there upon him.—The manifest symptoms of approaching death; undeniable tokens of old age, and declining strength, never recoverable, are upon their kingdom, like gray hairs intermixed on the head; that is, seditions, foreign invasions, fears, cares, and griefs, decayed the strength of Ephraim, and were the forerunner of his death. Ver. 10. Testifieth to his face—Or against him. Ver. 11. Without heart—That is, without knowledge.

Newcome, “Without understanding”: Ver. 12. As their congregation hath heard.—Horsley, “As they hear it declared in their congregation.” Ver. 14. When.—Newcome, “Though.” Ver. 15. Though I have bound, &c.—Boothroyd, “Whether I chastised, or strengthened their arm, yet,” &c. Ver. 16. A deceitful bow.—“A bow of deceit.” See exposition.