Hosea 13

A continuation of God’s threatenings for their sins; to which are added gracious promises of deliverance from death, to be fulfilled under the gospel. TT7"

Hosea 13:1

W HENEphraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel. While he behaved himself submissively and obediently towards God, he was reckoned among the principal tribes of Israel. Here Ephraim is spoken of as distinct from Israel: in other places of this prophecy he is put for the whole kingdom of the ten tribes. (See v. 3.) But when he offended in Baal, he died.] When he gave himselfto idolatry, his strength immediately declined, and had manifest symptoms of ruin and destruction; as when a man falls into a languishing condition, it is the certain forerunner of death. The word Baal is here taken, in a general sense, for all false gods, or idolatrous ways of worship; so as to comprehend the worship of the golden calves, though they were designed for symbolical representations of the true God: in which sense the word Baalim may be understood, ii. 13. xi. 2. To the same sense we may most probably explain that text, 1 Kings xix. 1’J. Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not. bowed unto Baal; meaning that small remnant of the faithful in Israel, who had stuck close to the worship of the true God, when the whole body of the people had complied with that idolatry which Jeroboam set up and authorized as the national religion. (Compare Tobit i. 5.)

Hosea 13:2

But now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images according to their understanding. Or, According to their invention, or fancy.* They please themselves with some new piece of idolatry, as their fancy or imagination suggests. (Compare x. 1.) They say of them [or, to them], Let the men tliat sacrifice kiss the calves.] Compare 1 Kings xix. 18. The word adoration properly signifies kissing the hand, and making obeisance to the object of worship: so Job describes the adoration which the ancient idolaters paid to the heavenly bodies, xxi. 26. Afterward the same outward act of worship was paid to images; ^is appears by a rioted passage at the beginning of Minucius Felix’s Octavius. Sometimes they kissed the image itself; as appears by the description Cicero gives of Herculcs’s image, which Vcrres had took away, act. 4. in Verrem, and by those noted verses of Lucretius, lib. i. turn portas propter ahena Signa manus dextras ostendunt attenuari Saepe salutantum tactu." Some translate zibche adam, the sacrifices of men; i. e. those who offered human sacrifices: but this was an execrable piece of worship paid to Moloch, but never practised, that we find, at Dan or Beth-el. Our interpreters render the words zibche adam, very properly, the men that sacrifice; as the phrase ebijone adam, signifies the poor among men, Isa. xxix. 19. -i •■• <

Hosea 13:3

Tlierefore they shall be as the morning cloud, &c. Comparisons that express their sudden disappearing and icoming to nothing. (Compare vi. 4. Dan. ii. 35.)

Hosea 13:4

Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt know no god beside me. In thy distress thou betookest thyself to other gods, expecting relief from them; but thou shalt find that none will be able to save thee but myself/ whenever thou wilt sincerely turn to me. (Compare xii. 9. Isa. xliii. 11.) This and the following verse are an introduction to the gracious promises that follow, ver. 9. 14. and chap. xiv. and import, that God will never utter lyforgct the promises made to their fathers. (See Rom. xi. 29.)

Hosea 13:5

I kneiv thee in the wilderness, &c. I took especial care of thee, fed and sustained thee for forty years in the wilderness, a place destitute of all conveniences of life: the words are taken out of Deut. ii. 7. To knotv, often signifies, in the Scripture phrase, to have a regard for, or take care of. See Exod. ii. 25. Psal. i. 7. xxxi. 8. cxliii. 3. Prov. xii. 10. Nahum i. 7. where our translation renders it regard. \ v *• -• ■ *’ -

Hosea 13:6

According to their pastures so were they filled, &c. The more care I took to provide plentifully for them, both before and after they came into the land of promise, the more perverse they shewed themselves towards me; their pride made them forget me their great Benefactor. The expression alludes to Deut. yiii. 12. 14. (Sec likewise xxii. 15.)

Hosea 13:7

Therefore I will be to them as a lion, &c. I will utterly consume them from being a nation, and give them up into the hands of such enemies as will shew them no mercy. (Compare ver. 16. and Jer. v. 6.)

Hosea 13:9

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help. Thy own sins have brought down destruction upon thee; and it is from me only thou canst expect any help, which I will in duo time afford thee. (See the note upon ver. 4.)

Hosea 13:10

I will be thy king: where is there any other that may save thee in all thy cities?. God promises to be their immediate protector upon their repentance. But the words may better be translated, JFhere is thy king now, that he may save thee? &c. In this sense the LXX. understand the words, and several other interpreters; the word ehi being taken for ajeb, by a frequent transposition of letters, as it is used again, ver. 14. The words relate cither to the anarchy, which continued for some years, between the murder of Pckah and the succession of Hoshca; (see x. 3.) or else to the time when Hoshca was deposed and imprisoned by the king of Assyria. (See 2 Kings xvii. 4.)