Hosea 1
PATAnd all his brethren, and all that generation. All that camo with Jacob into Egypt. GENERAL PREFACE TO THE MINOR PROPHETS. JL HE twelve minor Prophets were always comprised in one book, called the book of the Prophets, by St. Stephen, Acts vii. 42. and the book of the tivelve Prophets, by St. Cyprian, Epist. 59.. The son of Sirach speaks of them under one and the same character, Ecclus. xlix. 12. Let the bones of the twelve Prophets flourish out of their place. And both Jewish and Christian writers, particularly Josephus(lib. i. contr. App.) and St. Jerome, (Prolog. Galeat.) when they mention the canonical books of the Old Testament to be in number twenty-two (a number equal to the letters of the Jewish alphabet),. comprehended the twelve minor Prophets under one book. These twelve Prophets are not placed exactly in the order of time when they lived, either in the Hebrew or Greek copies; for Jonah, who was the eldest of them, is placed the sixth in order both in the Hebrew and Greek Bibles: there being in other respects some little difference between them: the series of them standing thus in the Greek, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonas: but no variation as to the rest. Hosea, who is placed the first in order, is as ancient as any of them, except Jonah: having prophesied before the captivity of the ten tribes, to whom he chiefly directs his prophecy, and threatens them with a sudden destruction for their great and crying sins, which he, in all probability, lived to see brought upon them. Under the figure of a wife living in whoredom, and bearing illegitimate children, is represented the great idolatry of the ten tribes, which provoked God to cast them off utterly: yet with the promise of repairing that loss, by bringing in the gentiles into the church: and afterward of uniting Israel and Judah under one head, the Messias. The prophet does likewise foretell the extinction of Jehu’s family. Vcr. 1. JL HE word of the Lord that came to Hosea in the days of Uzziah — and of Jeroboam the son ofjpash, king of vol. IV. Digitized by Microso Israel] Jeroboam the son of Joash, who was the second king of Israel of that name, and was contemporary with Uzziah, is here mentioned, because this prophecy does chiefly concern the kingdom of Israel. And there was no need of mentioning the names of any of the succeeding kings of Israel, because Hosea mentioning his prophesying from the times of Uzziah to Hezekiah, it follows from thence, that he prophesied all the reigns of. those kings of Israel who succeeded Jeroboam, the reign of Hezekiah bearing date from the third year of Hoshea, the last of those kings. From whence we may conclude, that Hosea, wh6 often foretold the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, lived to see an end put to that kingdom by Shalmaneser king of Assyria,, as. we read 2 Kings xviii. 10.
Hosea 1:2
The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. The first prophecy or message which came from God to!Hosea, was as follows. Go, take thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms, &c] This may be properly understood of a wife, who after marriage should prove false to her marriage vow: this would make the case more exactly parallel with that of the Israelites, whp had departed from the true God, and polluted themselves with idolatry, called often in Scripture by the names of whoredom and fornication. (See particularly the sixteenth and twenty-third chapters of Ezekiel.) Taking the words in this sense, there wilFbe no inconvenience in supposing this relation to be literally true, and not barely a figure or parallel, as some commentators understand it, and particularly the Chaldee paraphrast, who thus expresses the sense: Go, utter a prophecy against the rebellious city* This question is handled at large in Dr. Pocock’s commentary upon this place.
Hosea 1:3
So he went and took Gonier — who conceived, and bare a son.* This probably might be a legitimate son^ according to the sense given of the foregoing verse. (See the’following words.)
Hosea 1:4
And the Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel. The word signifies either the arm of God, or the seed of God: and is taken in both those senses in the following verses. It does not seem proper to make an illegitimate child the earnest of such acts of God’s justice or mercy, as are implied in any of those senses. For yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood ofJezreel upon the house of Jehu*] The blood of Joram the son of Ahab, whom, with all the rest of Ahab’s family, Jehu slew in Jezreel. (See 2 Kings x. 11.) God made Jehu the instrument of destroying the house of Ahab, (ibid. ver. 10. 30.) but yet he was prompted to it by his own ambition and cruelty, without any regard to God’s glory, whose worship he forsook, and maintained that idolatry which Jeroboam had first set up. Wicked men arc called a sword in the hand of God, n v5) [chap. II. Psal. xvii. 11. to execute his judgments upon those who arc as bad or worse than themselves: but when they have fulfilled God’s purposes, he often punishes them for tho outrages they have committed, which their own evil dispositions prompted them to do, but it was God’s providence allotted upon whom the execution should fall. And will cause to cease the kingdom of the house.of Israel’] This may be a prophecy of the destruction of tho whole kingdom of Israel, which was in a declining condition from the death of Jeroboam; but it rather denotes tho ceasing of tho kingdom in his family, according to God’s promise to (Jehu, That his children should sit zipon the throne of Israel to the fourth generation, 2 Kings xv. 12.
Hosea 1:5
And it shall come to pass at that day. Quickly after the extinction of Jehu’s family: at that day, in the prophets, commonly signifies a season marked outi>y Providence for somo extraordinary act of God’s justice or mercy. (See the note upon Isa. iv. 2.) / will break the bow [t. e. the armies, or strength] of JezreeL] This is commonly understood of that invasion of Israel which Tiglath-pileser made, and is mentioned 2 Kings xv. 29. wherein he subdued a great part of the kingdom, and carried the inhabitants away captive; the Assyrian army having routed the Israelites in the valley of Jezreel, which is mentioned Josh. xvii. 1G. xix. 18. Judg. vj. 33. as being in the border of Issachar. But the expression may mean no more than the place where God’s arm, or strength, will appear in subduing the Israelites, which is one signification of the word Jezreel. So Joel calls the place where God will gather all nations the valley ofJehoshaphat, the word signifying the valley of God’s judgment, iii. 2. 12.
Hosea 1:6
I will no more [or, no longer: see Noldius, p. 682. have mercy upon the house ofIsrael ) but will utterly take them away.] I will carry them into captivity, never to return any more to their own land: (2 Kings xvii. 6. 23.) and will utterly put an end to that people, considered as a distinct kingdom from Judah. (Compare ix. 15. of this prophecy.)
Hosea 1:7
And the children of Israel were fruitful, &c. Here aTe several words for the same thing; to shew their extraordinary increase, beyond what was usual in that or any other country. And because there are six words in all, to express this great increase, some of the Hebrews conclude they brought forth six children at a birth. Which others of them gather from the second word here used, jischretzu: which is a word whereby the increase of fishes is expressed in Gen. i. 20. So Theodoric Hackspan observes out of Baal-hatturim and Jalkut, and thinks the tradition is not to be rejected, because they bring frivolous conceits to support it. For Aristotle saith (lib. vii. Histor. Animal, cap. 4.) the Egyptian women were so fruitful, that some of them at four births brought twenty children. No wonder then, if some of the Israelites brought six at a time, by the extraordinary blessing of God upon them. For Caspar Schottus names the wife of a citizen in Florence, who had two-and-fifty children, and never brought less than three at a birth; lib. iii. Phys. Curiosae, cap. 29. where he hath collected a vast number of examples of such strange fruitfulness. But nobody hath explained this verse more soberly and unexceptionably than Abarbinel; who considers every one of the words here used very judiciously; and shews they are not multiplied in vain. For, as the first word, Were fruitful] Signifies, he thinks, that none among them were barren, but brought forth every yeaT, as trees arc wont to do; so the next word, And increased abundantly] Signifies, that they commonly brought forth more than one at a time, as creeping things do; to which this word alludes. And because when more than one are born at a birth, they are frequently very weak, and not long-lived; therefore he adds, And nwltiplied.] Which signifies, that they grew up to be men and women; and lived to have children of their own. And those not feeble, but lusty and strong; as the next words, he thinks, import, waxed exceeding mighty: of which more presently. Now this vast increase began at their first coming into Egypt, (Gen. xlvii. 27, 28.) and so continued till the death of all that generation, mentioned in the foregoing verse. When it began to be taken notice of by the Egyptians; who thought it might prove dangerous to them: for the Israelites having multiplied exceedingly, during the space of seventeen years, that Jacob lived in Egypt; there is no doubt they increased proportionably in the space of fiftyfour years more, which Joseph lived after the death of his father. And so in sixty-four years more, from the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses, must needs be grown so numerous, as to fill the country. So that in eighty years more, they were increased to six hundred thousand men. besides children, (Exod. xii. 37.) And the next year their number being taken, they wctc found to be six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men, from twenty years old and upward; as we read, Numb. i. 45, 4(>. And therefore, reckoning women, children, and youths under the age of twenty, we cannot but think they were three times as many: or perhaps two millions. Which is not incredible, by a moderate computation, if we consider how many might spring from seventy persons in the space of two hundred and fifteen years Oyhieh the foTenamed sums make), as Bonfrcrius, and several others from him in our own language, have been at the pains to demonstrate. And waxed exceeding mighty.] This is commonly thought to signify, that they were not only numerous, but robust and strong. And it may as well denote, that their vast numbers made them very formidable to the Egyptians: who began, it appears by the sequel, to be jealous of their power, if they should have a will to attempt any thing against them. • And the land was filled with them.] i.e. The land of Goshen; and perhaps some other parts of the lower Egypt. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, &c] I will deliver the kingdom of Judah out of the hands of Sennacherib, not by any human means, but by the stroke of an angel destroying his whole army. (See 2 Kings xix. 35. compare Zech. iv. 6.) Interpreters observe the expression may allude to the salvation, to be accomplished by the Messias, who is God as well as man; the Lord being spoken of as a distinct person from the principal Author of the salvation here promised. (Compare Isa. xxxv. 4. xl. 9.) To this sense the Chaldee paraphrases it, I will save them by the Word of the Lord their God: a title he elsewhere gives to the “Messias. (See the Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield’s Defence of Christianity, chap. 2: p. 70.)
Hosea 1:8
Now there arose up a new king over Egypt. 1 Some by a new king understand a king of another family, or race (as Josephus interprets it), nay, a stranger of another nation: just as new gods are strange gods, in Scripture language. Thus Sir John Marsham; and then it is no wonder, that he knew not Joseph, as it here follows. But this is not certain: and the conceit whereby Aben Ezra justifies it (which is, that the word rose up implies as much), is justly censured by Abarbinel as frivolous; it being the common word, which is used every where, when a new king succeeds his predecessor. It is most likely therefore that Moses means no more, but that the king in whose time Joseph died, being dead likewise (who many take to have been Mephramuthosis), aud another after him, whom they call Thutmosis; the next successor in the throne (Amenophis) either had heard nothing of Joseph, or did not mind what was said of him. Our great primate of Ireland gives a different account of the succession of the Egyptian kings; and takes this king to have been Ramasses Miamum: but still supposes him to have been of the old line, and not a stranger. TF7o knew not Joseph.] There is no doubt that Joseph died, as he lived, in high esteem and great reputation in that counhy: and that his memory continued precious, as long as any of that generation lasted. For Diodorus Siculus saith (lib. i.) that the Egyptians above all other people, ct»^a(>(OTa>c SiaKuaQat 7rpbg iruv to ivtpytrovv, were disposed to be grateful to all those who had any way me rited of them; looking upon the requital of the kindness of benefactors to be one of the greatest supporters of human life. And something to the same purpose is noted by Clemens Alexandrinus(lib. i. Strom, p. 303.) where, having said that barbarous nations highly honoured ahrtov vofioQirag kcA StSa(TKa\ovg, their laivgivers and instructors, whom they called gods; he presently adds, that the Egyptians, WzoXoyiaav ciKntfiwg, were very careful to deify such persons. But if this was their inclination, in times so ancient as those of Moses, we must not think them all to have been so disposed; or that time did not obliterate the memory of benefits. For this prince (whom Artapanus in Eusebius, lib. ix. Prrep. Evang. cap. 27. calls Palamanothes, so uncertain is his name) not having seen Joseph himself, nor having any knowledge perhaps of the benefits his country had received by his means, did not treat his kindred so kindly as they had been used in former times. But this phrase, he knew not, is commonly interpreted he regarded not the services which Joseph had done; of which he is supposed not to have been ignorant. For words of knowledge,^ Scripture, include the affections also. As God is said to know those whom he loves; and not to know thoso
Hosea 1:9
Ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. Since you have disowned the covenant relation I had to you, by apostatizing from my service, I will no more own you for my people, nor continue my protection over you. (Compare Lev. xxvi. 12. Ezek. xi. 20. xiv. 11.)
Hosea 1:10
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, &c. Though God casts off the ten tribes, yet he will, in due time, supply their loss, by bringing in great numbers of true Israelites into the church, not only of the Jews, but also of the gentiles, and making them, who before were strangers to the covenants of promise, fellow-heirs with the Jews. (See Rom. ix. 25. 29. 1 Pet. ii. 10.)
Hosea 1:11
Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, &c. When the fulness of the gentiles is come in, this will be a means of converting tho Jews, and bringing them into the church. (Sec Rom. ix: 25, 2G.) And shall appoint themselves one head, and they sliall come up out of the land.] Upon this will follow the restoration of the Jewish nation, when they shall return into their own country, from the several dispersions where they were scattered, and become one nation or kingdom under the Messias, their head and king. (Compare Ezek. xxxvii. 21, 22. Micah ii. 13.) Israel and Judah are joined together where this general restoration is foretold. (See the note upon Jcr. iii. 18.) For great shall be the day of Jezreel] The word Jezreel signifies both the seed of God and the arm of God, as was before observed: in both senses, great will be the day of Jezreel: God will signally exert his arm, and shew his power, in the restoration of his ancient people, and subduing their enemies: and thereby a numerous offspring of the seed of Abraham shall be added to the church.