Hosea 11
PATiniquity, &c. As your thoughts and designs have been ovil, such has been the fruit and reward of your" labours. (Compare viii. 7.) Ye have eaten the fruit of lies.] You have received the just rewards of your idolatry. (See the note on vii. 3.) Because thou didst trust in thy way, and in the multitude of thy mighty men.’] Sec ix. 11. xiii. 15. This way may signify that way of worship which thou hast devised: so the word is taken, Amos viii. 14. (See the note there.) A continuation of threatenings against Israel, but yet with. promises of shewing them mercy.
Hosea 11:1
W HEN Israel was a child, then I loved him. When this people was in a state of childhood, i. e. in the patriarchal times, and during their continuance under the Egyptian bondage, from whence I delivered them. And called my son out of Egypt.] Israel is called God’s son, and his first-born, Exod. iv. 22, 23. and therein was an eminent figure of the Mcssias, in whom all God’s promises are fulfilled. This prophecy is applied by St. Matthew, ii. 15. to onr Lord’s return out of Egypt, after his flight thither in his infancy: and the literal sense of the words does more properly belong to him than to Israel; which is observable in many other prophecies, which can but improperly be applied to those of whom they Ayerc at first spoken, and taking them in their true and genuine sense, are only fulfilled in Christ. (See particularly Psal. xxii. 1G. 18.)
Hosea 11:2
As they called them, so they went from him. Or, Tlie more they called them, or they were called (the active being often used for the impersonal), so much the more they iventfrom him. (See Noldius, p. 43G.) The more earnestly the prophets called upon them to cleave steadfastly to the true God, (sec ver. 7.) the more they were bent to depart from him to the, worship of idols. They sacrifice to Baalim.] See the note upon ii. 13. and xiii. 1.
Hosea 11:3
I taught Epliraim also to go, taking him by the arms.* In this time of his childhood (ver. 1.) I bare him, and carried him as a man doth bear his son, Deut. i. 31. Or, As a mother doth teach her child to go, leading it by the arms; protecting him, and providing for him in the wilderness. (See Deut. viii. 2.) But they knew not that I healed them.] They considered not (see ii. 8. vii. 9.) that the health and safety they enjoyed was owing to me. (Compare Exod. xv. 2G. xxiii. 25.)
Hosea 11:4
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. I made use of those means of drawing them to myself, which were most proper to work upon their reason and ingenuity; viz. the methods of loving-kindness and good-will towards them. I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws.] I removed the yoke or bondage of Egypt from off their heads. (Compare Lev. xxvi. 13.) And I laid meat unto them.] I provided manna to sustain them in the wilderness.
Hosea 11:5
He shall not return into Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, &c. Though many of them have gone into Egypt for refuge against the invasion of Shalmanescr, (see viii. 13. ix. 3.) yet they shall not have any farther opportunity of betaking themselves thither, but the king of Assyria shall carry them away captive; because they refused to return to me, notwithstanding so many calls I had given them in order to their repentance; Ver. G. And the sword shall abide on his cities, and consume his branches, and devour them.] Both cities and villages shall be destroyed by the conqueror’s sword. The word translated branches, signifies also bars; and may denote the valiant men that should defend them against the enemy’s forces; so the Chaldcc understands it, and in this sense the word is used, Isa. xvi. G. Jer. xlviii. 30. Because of their own counsels.] See x. G.
Hosea 11:7
And my people are bent to backsliding from me. Sec iv. 16. The original word meshubah, is the same which Jeremy often uses, speaking of this subject. (See Jer. iii. G. 8, &c. viii. 15. xiv. 7. and compare xiv. 4. of this prophecy:) The words are thus translated by some, My people are in suspense because of their backsliding from me. Either they are in continual anxiety because of my displeasure; or else they are irresolute, and halt between God and their idols. (Compare x. 2.) TJiough they called them to the MostHigh,none at alhoonld exalt him.] This may relate to the several calls God gave them by his prophets. (Sec ver. 2.) Dr. Wells understands it of the invitation Hezekiah made to the people of Israel to join with him in celebrating the Passover, which some of the ten tribes accepted of, but others refused, (2 Chron. XXX. 1.11.) nyllizeu by Microsoft® CHAP. XX.] UPON HOSEA.
Hosea 11:8
How shall I give thee tip, Ephraim? hoiv shall I deliver thee up, Israel?. God’s mercies are here pathetically described as contendingwi thhis justice, to shew thathedoesHof willingly afflict or grieve the children of men, Lam. iii. 33. How shall I make thee as Admah? &c] How shall I give thee up to be a perpetual desolation? (Compare Deut. xxix. 23.) My heart is turned ivithin me, my repentings are kindled together.] Thus God’s compassion towards sinners is elsewhere expressed by the sounding or yearning of his bowels, Isa. lxiii. 15. Jer. xxxi. 20. a metaphor taken from the natural affection which parents have for their children.
Hosea 11:9
I will not execute thefierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim:for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee. I will not deal with them like an enraged enemy, who thinks of nothing but satisfying his revenge: I will not, like such a one, return to destroy, k e. make a second destruction, so to cut off those that escape the first fury of my vengeance: I do not give way to a blind rage, as men often do; but, as God, am unchangeable, and will still fulfil my gracious promises made to Abraham and his people, of being their God. (Compare Mai. Mi/6.) I will not enter into the city.] A second time, in order to make an utter destruction.,
Hosea 11:10
They shall walk after the Lord; he shall roar like a lion. They shall follow God’s call, and comply with his commands; when he shall convert them by an efficacious call of his providence, or powerful preaching of the gospel. God’s voice is elsewhere compared to the roaring of a lion, because of the terror which accompanies it. (See Joel iii. 16. Amos i. 8. Rev. x. 3.) When he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.] The word tremble describes the motion whiclj a bird makes with her wings when it flies; see the following verse. So the sense is, That at this efficacious call of God, his children, the remnant of Israel, who shall be accounted his children, and heirs of the promises made to their fathers, (see i. 10.) shall come in haste from the several places of their dispersions, and particularly from the western parts of the world; (see Zech. viii. 7.) called the sea in the original, and expressed in Isaiah, by the islands of the sea* (See Isa. xi. 11. xxiv. 14. and the notes there.)
Hosea 11:11
They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt \i. c. fly with haste; see the foregoing note. , as a dove out of the land of Assyria.] Great numbers of Jews were exiles in Egypt and Assyria: so when the restoration of the Jews is spoken of, Egypt and Assyria are mentioned as countries from whence a considerable number of them should return. (See the note upon ix. 3. G.) And 1 will place them in their houses.] As doves naturally resort to the houses they are used to, (see Isa. Ix. 18.) so shall these return and settle in their own native country. (See the note upon Ezek. xxviii. 25.)
Hosea 11:12
Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, &c. In several translations this verse begins the twelfth chapter, as of right it ought to do: for the reproof which God gives here to Israel belongeth to the subject of the following chapter; and sets forth the ten tribes abounding in all manner of idolatry and wickedness. (See the note upon vii.3.) But Judah yet ruletji with his God, and is faithful with the saints.] Judah keeps close to that kingly government which God settled in David’s family,- and faithfully observes those ordinances which God gave to his saints by Moses; (see Deut. xxxiii. 3.) by which they were to be distinguished to be a holy nation, and God’s peculiar people. This relates to the times of Hezekiah. * * t t *. *
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, Sec. This points at the taking Samaria, after a three years’ siege, by Shalmancscr king of Assyria; which put a final period to the kingdom of Israel. (See 2 Kings xvii. G.) As Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle.] The prophet compares the destruction of Samaria with another terrible desolation, which the same Shalmaneser, called here Shalman, made at Beth-arbel, a place in Armenia (famous afterward for the defeat of Darius, the last king of Persia, by Alexander), where all the inhabitants were put to the sword, without any distinction either of sex or age. (Compare xiii. 16.)
So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness. The idolatry set up at Beth-el shall be in like manner the cause of your ruin. The Hebrew reads, Because of the evil of your evil: that language expresses the greatness of any thing by repeating the word over again. The same expression is used by St. Paul, (Rom. vii. 13.) That sin might become exceeding $infitl; i. e. hereby it might appear how full of evil our natural corruption is. In a morning shall the king of Israel be cut off.] Suddenly shall Hoshea be deprived of his kingdom, and an end put to the whole state and government of Israel. The expression in the Hebrew denotes the first appearing of the morning, to signify that it shall be done early and without delay.: so we read, Psal. xlvi. 3. God shall help her, and tfiat right early: where the Hebrew reads, At the appearing of the morning: and again, Psal. xc. 14. cxliii. 8. The same thing is elsewhere expressed by rising early, Jer. vii. 13, xxxv. 15. The expression here may allude to the destruction of Pharaoh and his army when the morning appeared, Exod. xiv. 27.