Hosea 1

Hosea 1:1

The waters - Cedars grow great by the water - courses. The deep - The sea sent out her waters, which gave being to the rivers, that watered him. His plants - The provinces of this mighty kingdom, that were like plants about a great tree. All the trees - To all his subjects.

Hosea 1:2

All the fowls - All kind of men, nobles, merchants, husbandmen. Made their nests - Settled their habitations. In his boughs - In his kingdom, in the cities and towns of it. All great nations - No nation that was great at that time, but, sought the friendship of this kingdom.

Hosea 1:5

The cedars - The greatest kings. Garden of God - In the most fruitful gardens. Hide - Could not ever top, and shade him. The fir - trees - Lesser kings, and kingdoms, were not equal to his boughs. Nor any tree - All summed up, none like him in all the kingdoms of the world.

Hosea 1:8

Him - The proud king of Assyria, Sardanapalus. The mighty one - Arbaces, who first struck at the root of this Cedar, might well be styled the mighty one of the heathen, since he could bring together four hundred thousand of Medes, Persians, Babylonians, and Arabians.

Hosea 1:9

Strangers - Foreigners.

Hosea 1:11

To the end - All this is designed to be a warning to mortals. All the trees - The emperors, kings, or flourishing states. By the waters - Planted most commodiously, and furnished most abundantly with power and wealth. The children of men - As common men, of no quality or distinction.