12 Compassed Me with feigning hath Ephraim, And with deceit the house of Israel. And Judah again is ruling with God, And with the Holy Ones `is' faithful!
Though a harlot thou `art', O Israel, Let not Judah become guilty, And come not ye in to Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-Aven, Nor swear ye, Jehovah liveth.
and didst make us to our God kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth.'
and did make us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him `is' the glory and the power to the ages of the ages! Amen.
have ye not known that the saints shall judge the world? and if by you the world is judged, are ye unworthy of the smaller judgments?
Canaan! in his hand `are' balances of deceit! To oppress he hath loved.
Ephraim is enjoying wind, And is pursuing an east wind, All the day lying and spoiling he multiplieth, And a covenant with Asshur they make, And oil to Egypt is carried.
And he saith, `Thy name is no more called Jacob, but Israel; for thou hast been a prince with God and with men, and dost prevail.'
Swearing, and lying, and murdering, And stealing, and committing adultery -- have increased, And blood against blood hath touched.
For your hands have been polluted with blood, And your fingers with iniquity, Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue perverseness doth mutter. There is none calling in righteousness, And there is none pleading in faithfulness, Trusting on emptiness, and speaking falsehood, Conceiving perverseness, and bearing iniquity.
Feeding on ashes, the heart is deceived, It hath turned him aside, And he delivereth not his soul, nor saith: `Is there not a lie in my right hand?'
And the Lord saith: Because drawn near hath this people, with its mouth, And with its lips they have honoured Me, And its heart it hath put far off from Me, And their fear of Me is -- A precept of men is taught!
Hezekiah hath reigned -- a son of twenty and five years, and twenty and nine years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother `is' Abijah daughter of Zechariah; and he doth that which is right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that David his father did. He, in the first year of his reign, in the first month, hath opened the doors of the house of Jehovah, and strengtheneth them, and bringeth in the priests and the Levites, and gathereth them to the broad place to the east. And he saith to them, `Hear me, O Levites, now, sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of Jehovah, God of your fathers, and bring out the impurity from the sanctuary, for our fathers have trespassed, and done that which is evil in the eyes of Jehovah our God, and forsake him, and turn round their faces from the tabernacle of Jehovah, and give the neck. `Also -- they have shut the doors of the porch, and quench the lamps, and perfume they have not made, and burnt-offering have not caused to ascend in the sanctuary to the God of Israel, and the wrath of Jehovah is on Judah and Jerusalem, and He giveth them for a trembling, for an astonishment, and for a hissing, as ye are seeing with your eyes. And lo, fallen have our fathers by the sword, and our sons, and our daughters, and our wives `are' in captivity for this. `Now -- with my heart -- to make a covenant before Jehovah, God of Israel, and the fierceness of His anger doth turn back from us. My sons, be not now at rest, for on you hath Jehovah fixed to stand before Him, to serve Him, and to be to Him ministering and making perfume.' And the Levites rise -- Mahath son of Amasai, and Joel son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathite; and of the sons of Merari: Kish son of Abdi, and Azariah son of Jehalelel; and of the Gershonite: Joah son of Zimmah, and Eden son of Joah; and of the sons of Elizaphan: Shimri, and Jeiel; and of the sons of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah; and of the sons of Heman: Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel -- and they gather their brethren, and sanctify themselves, and come in, according to the command of the king in the matters of Jehovah, to cleanse the house of Jehovah, and the priests come in to the inner part of the house of Jehovah to cleanse `it', and bring out all the uncleanness that they have found in the temple of Jehovah to the court of the house of Jehovah, and the Levites receive `it', to take `it' out to the brook Kidron without. And they begin on the first of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month they have come to the porch of Jehovah, and they sanctify the house of Jehovah in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they have finished. And they come in within unto Hezekiah the king, and say, `We have cleansed all the house of Jehovah, and the altar of the burnt-offering, and all its vessels, and the table of the arrangement, and all its vessels, and all the vessels that king Ahaz cast away in his reign -- in his trespass -- we have prepared and sanctified, and lo, they `are' before the altar of Jehovah.' And Hezekiah the king riseth early, and gathereth the heads of the city, and goeth up to the house of Jehovah; and they bring in seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven young he-goats, for a sin-offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah; and he saith to sons of Aaron, the priests, to cause `them' to ascend on the altar of Jehovah. And they slaughter the oxen, and the priests receive the blood, and sprinkle on the altar; and they slaughter the rams, and sprinkle the blood on the altar; and they slaughter the lambs, and sprinkle the blood on the altar; and they bring nigh the he-goats of the sin-offering before the king and the assembly, and they lay their hands upon them; and the priests slaughter them, and make a sin-offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel, for `For all Israel,' said the king, ``is' the burnt-offering and the sin-offering.' And he appointeth the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, by the command of David, and of Gad, seer of the king, and of Nathan the prophet, for by the hand of Jehovah `is' the command, by the hand of His prophets; and the Levites stand with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. And Hezekiah saith to cause the burnt-offering to ascend on the altar; and at the time the burnt-offering began -- began the song of Jehovah, and the trumpets, even by the hands of the instruments of David king of Israel. And all the assembly are doing obeisance, and the singers singing, and the trumpeters blowing; the whole `is' till the completion of the burnt-offering. And at the completion of the offering up bowed have the king and all those found with him, and do obeisance. And Hezekiah the king saith, and the princes, to the Levites to give praise to Jehovah in the words of David, and of Asaph the seer, and they praise -- unto joy, and they bow, and do obeisance. And Hezekiah answereth and saith, `Now ye have filled your hand to Jehovah, come nigh, and bring in sacrifices and thank-offerings to the house of Jehovah;' and the assembly bring in sacrifices and thank-offerings, and every willing-hearted one -- burnt-offerings. And the number of the burnt-offerings that the assembly have brought in, is seventy oxen, a hundred rams, lambs two hundred; for a burnt-offering to Jehovah `are' all these.
he hath turned aside the high places, and broken in pieces the standing-pillars, and cut down the shrine, and beaten down the brazen serpent that Moses made, for unto these days were the sons of Israel making perfume to it, and he calleth it `a piece of brass.' In Jehovah, God of Israel, he hath trusted, and after him there hath not been like him among all the kings of Judah, nor `among any' who were before him; and he cleaveth to Jehovah, he hath not turned aside from after Him, and keepeth His commands that Jehovah commanded Moses. And Jehovah hath been with him, in every place where he goeth out he acteth wisely, and he rebelleth against the king of Asshur, and hath not served him;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Hosea 11
Commentary on Hosea 11 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 11
Ho 11:1-12. God's Former Benefits, and Israel's Ingratitude Resulting in Punishment, Yet Jehovah Promises Restoration at Last.
Ho 11:5 shows this prophecy was uttered after the league made with Egypt (2Ki 17:4).
1. Israel … called my son out of Egypt—Bengel translates, "From the time that he (Israel) was in Egypt, I called him My son," which the parallelism proves. So Ho 12:9 and Ho 13:4 use "from … Egypt," for "from the time that thou didst sojourn in Egypt." Ex 4:22 also shows that Israel was called by God, "My son," from the time of his Egyptian sojourn (Isa 43:1). God is always said to have led or brought forth, not to have "called," Israel from Egypt. Mt 2:15, therefore, in quoting this prophecy (typically and primarily referring to Israel, antitypically and fully to Messiah), applies it to Jesus' sojourn in Egypt, not His return from it. Even from His infancy, partly spent in Egypt, God called Him His son. God included Messiah, and Israel for Messiah's sake, in one common love, and therefore in one common prophecy. Messiah's people and Himself are one, as the Head and the body. Isa 49:3 calls Him "Israel." The same general reason, danger of extinction, caused the infant Jesus, and Israel in its national infancy (compare Ge 42:1-43:34; 45:18; 46:3, 4; Eze 16:4-6; Jer 31:20) to sojourn in Egypt. So He, and His spiritual Israel, are already called "God's sons" while yet in the Egypt of the world.
2. As they called them—"they," namely, monitors sent by Me. "Called," in Ho 11:1, suggests the idea of the many subsequent calls by the prophets.
went from them—turned away in contempt (Jer 2:27).
Baalim—images of Baal, set up in various places.
3. taught … to go—literally, "to use his feet." Compare a similar image, De 1:31; 8:2, 5, 15; 32:10, 11; Ne 9:21; Isa 63:9; Am 2:10. God bore them as a parent does an infant, unable to supply itself, so that it has no anxiety about food, raiment, and its going forth. Ac 13:18, which probably refers to this passage of Hosea; He took them by the arms, to guide them that they might not stray, and to hold them up that they might not stumble.
knew not that I healed them—that is, that My design was to restore them spiritually and temporally (Ex 15:26).
4. cords of a man—parallel to "bands of love"; not such cords as oxen are led by, but humane methods, such as men employ when inducing others, as for instance, a father drawing his child, by leading-strings, teaching him to go (Ho 11:1).
I was … as they that take off the yoke on their jaws … I laid meat—as the humane husbandman occasionally loosens the straps under the jaws by which the yoke is bound on the neck of oxen and lays food before them to eat. An appropriate image of God's deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian yoke, and of His feeding them in the wilderness.
5. He shall not return into … Egypt—namely, to seek help against Assyria (compare Ho 7:11), as Israel lately had done (2Ki 17:4), after having revolted from Assyria, to whom they had been tributary from the times of Menahem (2Ki 15:19). In a figurative sense, "he shall return to Egypt" (Ho 9:3), that is, to Egypt-like bondage; also many Jewish fugitives were literally to return to Egypt, when the Holy Land was to be in Assyrian and Chaldean hands.
Assyrian shall be his king—instead of having kings of their own, and Egypt as their auxiliary.
because they refused to return—just retribution. They would not return (spiritually) to God, therefore they shall not return (corporally) to Egypt, the object of their desire.
6. abide—or, "fall upon" [Calvin].
branches—that is, his villages, which are the branches or dependencies of the cities [Calvin]. Grotius translates, "his bars" (so La 2:9), that is, the warriors who were the bulwarks of the state. Compare Ho 4:18, "rulers" (Margin), "shields" (Ps 47:9).
because of their own counsels—in worshipping idols, and relying on Egypt (compare Ho 10:6).
7. bent to backsliding—Not only do they backslide, and that too from Me, their "chief good," but they are bent upon it. Though they (the prophets) called them (the Israelites) to the Most High (from their idols), "none would exalt (that is, extol or honor) Him." To exalt God, they must cease to be "bent on backsliding," and must lift themselves upwards.
8. as Admah … Zeboim—among the cities, including Sodom and Gomorrah, irretrievably overthrown (De 29:23).
heart is turned within me—with the deepest compassion, so as not to execute My threat (La 1:20; compare Ge 43:30; 1Ki 3:26). So the phrase is used of a new turn given to the feeling (Ps 105:25).
repentings—God speaks according to human modes of thought (Nu 23:19). God's seeming change is in accordance with His secret everlasting purpose of love to His people, to magnify His grace after their desperate rebellion.
9. I will not return to destroy Ephraim—that is, I will no more, as in past times, destroy Ephraim. The destruction primarily meant is probably that by Tiglath-pileser, who, as the Jewish king Ahaz' ally against Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria, deprived Israel of Gilead, Galilee, and Naphtali (2Ki 15:29). The ulterior reference is to the long dispersion hereafter, to be ended by God's covenant mercy restoring His people, not for their merits, but of His grace.
God, … not man—not dealing as man would, with implacable wrath under awful provocation (Isa 55:7-9; Mal 3:6). I do not, like man, change when once I have made a covenant of everlasting love, as with Israel (Nu 23:19). We measure God by the human standard, and hence are slow to credit fully His promises; these, however, belong to the faithful remnant, not to the obstinately impenitent.
in the midst of thee—as peculiarly thy God (Ex 19:5, 6).
not enter into the city—as an enemy: as I entered Admah, Zeboim, and Sodom, utterly destroying them, whereas I will not utterly destroy thee. Somewhat similarly Jerome: "I am not one such as human dwellers in a city, who take cruel vengeance; I save those whom I correct." Thus "not man," and "in the midst of thee," are parallel to "into the city." Though I am in the midst of thee, it is not as man entering a rebellious city to destroy utterly. Maurer needlessly translates, "I will not come in wrath."
10. he shall roar like a lion—by awful judgments on their foes (Isa 31:4; Jer 25:26-30; Joe 3:16), calling His dispersed "children" from the various lands of their dispersion.
shall tremble—shall flock in eager agitation of haste.
from the west—(Zec 8:7). Literally, "the sea." Probably the Mediterranean, including its "isles of the sea," and maritime coast. Thus as Ho 11:11 specifies regions of Africa and Asia, so here Europe. Isa 11:11-16, is parallel, referring to the very same regions. On "children," see Ho 1:10.
11. tremble—flutter in haste.
dove—no longer "a silly dove" (Ho 7:11), but as "doves flying to their windows" (Isa 60:8).
in their houses—(Eze 28:26). Literally, "upon," for the Orientals live almost as much upon their flat-roofed houses as in them.
12. Maurer joins this verse with the twelfth chapter. But as this verse praises Judah, whereas Ho 12:2 censures him, it must belong rather to the eleventh chapter and a new prophecy begins at the twelfth chapter. To avoid this, Maurer translates this verse as a censure, "Judah wanders with God," that is, though having the true God, he wanders after false gods.
ruleth with God—to serve God is to reign. Ephraim wished to rule without God (compare 1Co 4:8); nay, even, in order to rule, cast off God's worship [Rivetus]. In Judah was the legitimate succession of kings and priests.
with the saints—the holy priests and Levites [Rivetus]. With the fathers and prophets who handed down the pure worship of God. Israel's apostasy is the more culpable, as he had before him the good example of Judah, which he set at naught. The parallelism ("with God") favors Margin, "With THE Most Holy One."