Hosea 3

Vcr. 15. And I xvill give her her vineyards from thence. Or, From that time: for so the word misham may be rendered. (See the notes upon Isa. xlviii. 1C. lxv. 20.) Then I will restoro her vineyards and fruitful fields, which I had taken from licr, (vcr. 12.) And the valley o/Achorfor a door of hope.] As at the Israelites’ first -entrance into Canaan, their taking possession of the fruitful valley of Achor (see Isa. lxv. 10.) gave them encouragement to hope they should become owners of that whole land, flowing with milk and honey: the same auspicious tokens of the Divine favour should accompany them at their return into their own country. And she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, Sec] She shall express her joy in God, as her forefathers did at their first coming out of Egypt, after their deliverance at the Red Sea, when I espoused them for my peculiar people, and entered into a covenant with them at Mount Sinai: where they solemnly promised an entire obedience to me, Exod. xix. 5. 8. (Compare xi. 1. Jer. ii. 2. Ezek. xvi. 8. 22. GO.) Under the figure of the prophet’s receiving his adulterous wife home again, and her continuing there in a state of widowhood, yet with hopes of reconciliation, is signified that Israel (the ten tribes especially) shall be for several Microsoft ® CHAP. III.] UPON HOSEA. ages without any external form of civil government, or’ public worship: yet with a promise of being restored to their ancient dignity and privileges in the later ages -of • the world.

Hosea 3:1

fjrOyet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet [or, although. an adulteress.] This is probably the same woman mentioned i. 3. who, upon her ill life, was parted from her husband, who yet had a kindness for her still, and was willing to receive her upon conditions of her better behaviour. The Hebrew word reang, friend, is used for a husband, Jer. iii. 20. Cant. v. 16. According to the love of the Lord towards the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.’] Hosea’s dealing thus with a wife who had injured him, exactly resembles the favour which God hath shewed towards the Israelites, who, notwithstanding all their obligations to him, retain an incurable propension to idolatry, often called by the name of spiritual whoredom. The words which our translation renders flagons of wine, may be translated cakes made of (dried) grapes..Such were the cakes, probably, which the Jews offered to the queen of heaven, Jer. vii. 18. xliv. 19. So, Cant. ii. 5. the word ashish might rather signify cakes, or comfits, than flagons: as our translation renders it. The expression signifies, in general, those entertainments which they were partakers of in the idol temples, (Amos ii. 8. 1 Cor. x.

Hosea 3:2

So I bought her for me for fifteen pieces of silver, &c. The expression alludes to the custom anciently practised of men’s buying their wives: and it implies, that the prophet made a new espousal or contract with her; as God intended to betroth Israel a second time, ii. 19. and the meanness of the price offered, shews of how little value the Israelites were in God’s sight, since their apostacy from the worship of God to idolatry. (Compare Zech. xi. 13.) A homer was about ten bushels. (See the note upon Ezek. xlv. 11.)

Hosea 3:3

Thou shalt abide for me many days: thou shalt not play the harlot. Thou shalt continue in a solitary condition (see Deut. xxi.13.) for a considerable time, that I may make some proof of thy amendment. Thou shalt not be for another man; so will I also be for thee.] The word another is not in the Hebrew, so the sentence may be thus translated more agreeably to the original, Thou shalt not have a husband, neither will I have thee [to my wife]; £ e. thou shalt continuesome time in a state of widowhood. The Hebrew phrase Lo tehi laish properly signilies, Thou shalt not have a husband; and so it is rendered by our interpreters, Ezek. xliv. 25. and to the same sense without the negative particle, Ruthi. 12. The LXX. render it to the same sense, OuSl fxrj ylvy avdpt, and so it is used by St. Paul, Rom. vii. 3. •

Hosea 3:4

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, &c. This threatening was fulfilled upon the ten tribes immediately upon their captivity by Shalmaneser, (compare ix. 4.) and upon the two remaining tribes at the destruction of their temple and commonwealth, during the Babylonish captivity. The later Jews thus express the sense of those exiles in the Song of the Three Children, as it is found among the apocryphal writings, ver. 14. Neither is there at this time prince, or prophet, or leader, or burni-offering, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense, or place to sacrifice before thee, and find mercy. This threatening was still more remarkably fulfilled upon the whole nation of the Jews, from the destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian unto this day. From that time they have had no republie’or civil government of their own; but live every where, like so many exiles’, only upon sufferance: they have had neither priests nor sacrifice, their temple being destroyed where only they were to offer sacrifice: and yet the want of a place where to perform the most solemn part of their public worship, does not tempt them to idolatry, or make them fond of image-worship, or any such idolatrous practice, which was the epidemical sin of their forefathers. This seems the general import of this remarkable prophecy: but the several expressions must be more particularly explained. Without a king.] A king in the Hebrew language signifies any sort of governor or magistrate: it is applied to Moses, Deut xxxiii. 5. and to the judges, Judg. xvii. 6. and to the four successive monarchies, Dan. vii. 17. So. in the New Testament, Rev. xvii. 10. the seven kings are commonly explained of seven sorts of governments: so here a king means any civil magistrate with supreme au r thority. And without a prince.] The word may be equivalent to the former: if we suppose it to denote a distinct authority, it may be fitly explained of the high-priest, and the heads of the priestly courses: called the princes of the sanctuary, Isa. xliii. 8. and governors of the house of the Lord,, Jer. xx. 1. Taking the word in this sense, it fitly follows, And without a sacrifice, which could only be offered by the priests. Without an image, and without an ephod, and ivithout teraphim.] Some interpreters suppose these words to denote the several ways of lawful worship, or means of in-: quiring after the will of God; and by the word matzebah, they understand an altar: this sense agrees very well with the word sacrifice, going before: the same word is joined with an altar erected to God’s worship, Isa. xix. 19. and signifies in that place such a religious memorial as Jacob set up, Gen. xxviii". 18. Teraphim they suppose to signify the same with the urim, or the oracle placed in the breastplate of the high-priest, and therefore fitly joined with’the ephod, which often signifies the whole priestly habit, and is particularly mentioned when there is occasion of eonsult T ing God by the high-priest, 1 Sam. xxiii. 9. xxx. 7. This interpretation is followed by the LXX. and it make’s an easy, and natural sense of the text; viz. that God will deprive the Jews of the principal offices, for the enjoyment of which they chiefly valued themselves, viz. that of the priesthood, and that of prophecy. The Jews had no succession of prophets for a considerable time before Christ’s coming: (Eeclus. xxxvi. 15. 1 Mace. iv. 4G. ix. 27. xiv. 41.) and both kingdom and priesthood were taken away within forty years after Christ’s death. Dr. Spencer carries this interpretation so far, as to be very positive that teraphim, means the same with the urim, and that both words denote an image enclosed within the folds of the high-priest’s breast-plate, which uttered oracles by a yoice. (Lib. iii. de Legib.Haebr. Dissert, ult.) This opinion is strenuously opposed by Dr. Pocock in his notes upon this place, to which I refer the reader. Other learned men agree with Dr. Pocock, in observing that the word teraphim is, in other places

Thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali. Whereas God had formerly renounced any marriage-relation with Israel by reason of their idolatry: (see ver. 2.) he now declares himself reconciled to them again; (see vcr. 20.) and permits them to call him by the name ot Ish?, i.e. husband, but not of Baali, i.e. Lord. The word Baali often signifies a husband, and is particularly spoken of God as he was by his covenant-relation a husband to his people. (See Isa. liv. 5. Jer.iii. 14.) But because the word Baal had been so much profaned by being given to idols, he forbade it to be applied any more to himself. (See the following verse.) Vcr. 17. For I xvill take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, &c] The Jews were forbidden to mention the names of heathen idols. (See Exod. xxiii. 13. Josh, xxiii. 7. Psal. xvi. 4. compare Zech. xiii. 2. and see the noto upon xiv. 2.) Baalim is sometimes equivalent to Baal: (see 1 Kings xviii. 18. compared with ver. 21. and 2 Chron. xxiv. 4. compared with 2 Kings xxiii. 4.) so Baalim and Ashtaroth,Judg.x.G,7. is the same with Baal and Ashtaroth, iL 13. for the plural number in the Hebrew language sometimes expresses an excellency, as in the word Elohim. In like manner Baal was called Baalim by his worshippers, to denote that he was a principal object of their worship: but the word likewise signifies the several Baals which the idolaters worshipped under so many distinguishing characters; such as Baal-Peor, Baal-berith, Baal-zebub, and the like: and, in general, it signifies the many strange gods of the heathens. (Seel Sam. vii. 3, 4. 2 Chron xxiv. 7. Jer. ii. 23.) •

And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field; be. I will protect them from thatviolcnce and annoyance which beasts and birds of prey or venomous creatures might threaten them with. (Compare Job v. 23. Ezek. xxxiv. 25.) I will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle, out of the earth.] A universal peace and freedom, both from foreign and domestic enemies, is mentioned by the prophets as: a concomitant of that flourishing state of the church, wliich shall commence from the restoration of the Jews, and the coming in of the gentiles. * (See Isa. ii. 4.xi. C. 9. Zech. ix. 10.) And I will make them lie down safely.] As flocks do when they are secure from beasts of rnrey. (See Ezek. xxxiv. 25. Zech. iii. 13. Jer. xxiii. 6. xxx. 10.) Vcr. 19, 20. And I xvill betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I xvill betroth thee xinto me in righteousness, &c] I will enter into a new covenant with my church, consisting of the converted Jews, and increased by the coming in of the fulness of the gentiles: (see ver. 23.) which covenant is described as if it were a marriage-contract: (see the note upon ver. 2.) wherein I will eminently display my attributes of righteousness and equity, of loving-kindness, mercy, and faithfulness. And thou shalt know the Lord.] One especial part of the new covenant shall consist in imparting to the faithful a more perfect knowledge of God’s will, and their own duty. (See Jer. xxxi. 34.)

And it shall come to pass in that day, I xvill hear [or answer. , saith the Lord.] I will graciously answer all the petitions my people make to me. (Compare Isa. lxv. 24. Zech. xiii. 9.) Or the words may be referred to what follows. Ibid, and

I will hear the heavens, and the heavens shall hear the earth, &c. All creatures shall answer the desires and wants of my people: the heavens shall answer the wants of the earth in sending down seasonable showers, and the earth shall answer the wants of mankind in bringing forth corn and wine, and other necessaries of life, and the very fruits of the earth shall answer the wishes of my people, now returned into their, own land, by giving them due nourishment. The same sense is more plainly expressed in Zeclmriah, viii. 12. The seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. Spiritual blessings are often described under the emblems of fruitfulness and plenty. (See the noteupon Isa. iv. 2. and compare vi. 3. of this prophecy.) And they shall hear Jezreel.] This new state of the church, increased by a numerous accession both of Jews and gentiles, is fitly called by the name of Jezreel: the word importing both the seed and the arm of God. (Sec the note upon i. 11.) Vcr. 23. And I xvill sow her unto me in the earth.] Here is a plain allusion to the word Jezreel mentioned just before, which signifies (he seed of God: the prophet foretells a plentiful increase of true believers, like to that of corn sowed in the earth. (Compare Zech. x. 9.) And I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy, &c] Compare i. 6. I will have mercy both on the Jews and gentiles, who shall become true converts to the Christian faith. This was in part fulfilled at the first preaching of the gospel: (see Rom. ix. 24— 2C.)but shall receive its completion at the restoration of the Jews, and the coming in of the fulness of the gentiles. (Comparo i. 10, 11.)