4 For many days remain do the sons of Israel without a king, and there is no prince, and there is no sacrifice, and there is no standing pillar, and there is no ephod and teraphim.
As to the man Micah, he hath a house of gods, and he maketh an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrateth the hand of one of his sons, and he is to him for a priest;
And Laban hath gone to shear his flock, and Rachel stealeth the teraphim which her father hath;
And he hath strengthened a covenant with many -- one week, and `in' the midst of the week he causeth sacrifice and present to cease, and by the wing of abominations he is making desolate, even till the consummation, and that which is determined is poured on the desolate one.'
and he goeth out before Asa, and saith to him, `Hear, me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; Jehovah `is' with you -- in your being with Him, and if ye seek Him, He is found of you, and if ye forsake Him, He forsaketh you;
and Gideon maketh it into an ephod, and setteth it up in his city, in Ophrah, and all Israel go a-whoring after it there, and it is to Gideon and to his house for a snare.
`And these `are' the garments which they make: a breastplate, and an ephod, and an upper robe, and an embroidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle; yea, they have made holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and for his sons, for his being priest to Me.
`An empty vine `is' Israel, Fruit he maketh like to himself, According to the abundance of his fruit, He hath multiplied for the altars, According to the goodness of his land, They have made goodly standing-pillars. Their heart hath been divided, now they are guilty, He doth break down their altars, He doth destroy their standing-pillars. For now they say: We have no king, Because we have not feared Jehovah, And the king -- what doth he for us?
And I have caused to cease all her joy, Her festival, her new moon, and her sabbath, Even all her appointed times,
I give to thee a king in Mine anger, And I take away in My wrath.
And I have cut off the cities of thy land, And I have thrown down all thy fortresses, And have cut off sorcerers out of thy hand, And observers of clouds thou hast none. And I have cut off thy graven images, And thy standing-pillars out of thy midst, And thou dost not bow thyself any more To the work of thy hands. And I have plucked up thy shrines out of thy midst, And I have destroyed thine enemies.
And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, I cut off the names of the idols from the land, And they are not remembered any more, And also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I cause to pass away from the land.
And having gone forth, Jesus departed from the temple, and his disciples came near to show him the buildings of the temple, and Jesus said to them, `Do ye not see all these? verily I say to you, There may not be left here a stone upon a stone, that shall not be thrown down.'
and they cried out, `Take away, take away, crucify him;' Pilate saith to them, `Your king shall I crucify?' the chief priests answered, `We have no king except Caesar.'
they set up also false witnesses, saying, `This one doth not cease to speak evil sayings against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him saying, That this Jesus the Nazarean shall overthrow this place, and shall change the customs that Moses delivered to us;'
And David is dancing with all strength before Jehovah, and David is girded with a linen ephod,
and doth put on him the coat, and doth gird him with the girdle, and doth clothe him with the upper robe, and doth put on him the ephod, and doth gird him with the girdle of the ephod, and doth bind `it' to him with it,
yea, the five men, those going to traverse the land, go up -- they have come in thither -- they have taken the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image -- and the priest is standing at the opening of the gate, and the six hundred men who are girded with weapons of war -- yea, these have entered the house of Micah, and take the graven image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image; and the priest saith unto them, `What are ye doing?' and they say to him, `Keep silent, lay thy hand on thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us for a father and for a priest: is it better thy being a priest to the house of one man, or thy being priest to a tribe and to a family in Israel?' And the heart of the priest is glad, and he taketh the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and goeth into the midst of the people, and they turn and go, and put the infants, and the cattle, and the baggage, before them. They have been far off from the house of Micah -- and the men who `are' in the houses which `are' near the house of Micah have been called together, and overtake the sons of Dan, and call unto the sons of Dan, and they turn round their faces, and say to Micah, `What -- to thee that thou hast been called together?' And he saith, `My gods which I made ye have taken, and the priest, and ye go; and what to me more? and what `is' this ye say unto me, What -- to thee!'
And Samuel is ministering `in' the presence of Jehovah, a youth girt `with' an ephod of linen;
and Ahiah, son of Ahitub, brother of I-Chabod, son of Phinehas son of Eli priest of Jehovah in Shiloh, bearing an ephod; and the people knew not that Jonathan hath gone.
And the priest saith, `The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou didst smite in the valley of Elah, lo, it is wrapt in a garment behind the ephod, if it thou dost take to thyself, take; for there is none other save it in this `place'.' And David saith, `There is none like it -- give it to me.'
And the king saith to Doeg, `Turn round thou, and come against the priests;' and Doeg the Edomite turneth round, and cometh himself against the priests, and putteth to death in that day eighty and five men bearing a linen ephod,
And it cometh to pass, in the fleeing of Abiathar son of Ahimelech unto David, to Keilah, an ephod came down in his hand.
The sceptre turneth not aside from Judah, And a lawgiver from between his feet, Till his Seed come; And his `is' the obedience of peoples.
And also, those having familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah, and in Jerusalem, hath Josiah put away, in order to establish the words of the law that are written on the book that Hilkiah the priest hath found in the house of Jehovah.
In that day there is an altar to Jehovah In the midst of the land of Egypt, And a standing pillar near its border to Jehovah, And it hath been for a sign and for a testimony, To Jehovah of Hosts in the land of Egypt, For they cry unto Jehovah from the face of oppressors, And He sendeth to them a saviour, Even a great one, and hath delivered them.
And I have given them for a trembling To all kingdoms of the earth, Because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, For that which he did in Jerusalem. For who hath pity on thee, O Jerusalem? And who doth bemoan for thee? And who turneth aside to ask of thy welfare?
And that which is going up on your mind, It is not at all -- in that ye are saying: We will be as the nations, as the families of the lands, To serve wood and stone.
And unto the prince of the host it exerteth itself, and by it taken away hath been the continual `sacrifice', and thrown down the base of his sanctuary. And the host is given up, with the continual `sacrifice', through transgression, and it throweth down truth to the earth, and it hath worked, and prospered. `And I hear a certain holy one speaking, and a certain holy one saith to the wonderful numberer who is speaking: Till when `is' the vision of the continual `sacrifice', and of the transgression, an astonishment, to make both sanctuary and host a treading down?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Hosea 3
Commentary on Hosea 3 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 3
Ho 3:1-5. Israel's Condition in Their Present Dispersion, Subsequent to Their Return from Babylon, Symbolized.
The prophet is to take back his wife, though unfaithful, as foretold in Ho 1:2. He purchases her from her paramour, stipulating she should wait for a long period before she should be restored to her conjugal rights. So Israel is to live for a long period without her ancient rites of religion, and yet be free from idolatry; then at last she shall acknowledge Messiah, and know Jehovah's goodness restored to her.
1. Go yet—"Go again," referring to Ho 1:2 [Henderson].
a woman—purposely indefinite, for thy wife, to express the separation in which Hosea had lived from Gomer for her unfaithfulness.
beloved of her friend—used for "her husband," on account of the estrangement between them. She was still beloved of her husband, though an adulteress; just as God still loved Israel, though idolatrous (Jer 3:20). Hosea is told, not as in Ho 1:2, "take a wife," but "love" her, that is, renew thy conjugal kindness to her.
who look to other gods—that is, have done so heretofore, but henceforth (from the return from Babylon) shall do so no more (Ho 3:4).
flagons of wine—rather, pressed cakes of dried grapes, such as were offered to idols (Jer 7:18) [Maurer].
2. I bought her—The price paid is too small to be a probable dowry wherewith to buy a wife from her parents; but it is just half the price of a female slave, in money, the rest of the price being made up in grain (Ex 21:32). Hosea pays this for the redemption of his wife, who has become the slave of her paramour. The price being half grain was because the latter was the allowance of food for the slave, and of the coarsest kind, not wheat, but barley. Israel, as committing sin, was the slave of sin (Joh 8:34; Ro 6:16-20; 2Pe 2:19). The low price expresses Israel's worthlessness.
3. abide for me—separate from intercourse with any other man, and remaining for me who have redeemed thee (compare De 21:13).
so will I also be for thee—remain for thee, not taking any other consort. As Israel should long remain without serving other gods, yet separate from Jehovah; so Jehovah on His part, in this long period of estrangement, would form no marriage covenant with any other people (compare Ho 3:4). He would not immediately receive her to marriage privileges, but would test her repentance and discipline her by the long probation; still the marriage covenant would hold good, she was to be kept separated for but a time, not divorced (Isa 50:1); in God's good time she shall be restored.
4. The long period here foretold was to be one in which Israel should have no civil polity, king, or prince, no sacrifice to Jehovah, and yet no idol, or false god, no ephod, or teraphim. Exactly describing their state for the last nineteen centuries, separate from idols, yet without any legal sacrifice to Jehovah, whom they profess to worship, and without being acknowledged by Him as His Church. So Kimchi, a Jew, explains it. The ephod was worn by the high priest above the tunic and robe. It consisted of two finely wrought pieces which hung down, the one in front over the breast, the other on the back, to the middle of the thigh; joined on the shoulders by golden clasps set in onyx stones with the names of the twelve tribes, and fastened round the waist by a girdle (Ex 28:6-12). The common ephod worn by the lower priests, Levites, and any person performing sacred rites, was of linen (2Sa 6:14; 1Ch 15:27). In the breast were the Urim and Thummim by which God gave responses to the Hebrews. The latter was one of the five things which the second temple lacked, and which the first had. It, as representing the divinely constituted priesthood, is opposed to the idolatrous "teraphim," as "sacrifice" (to Jehovah) is to "an (idolatrous) image." "Abide" answers to "thou shalt abide for me" (Ho 3:3). Abide in solitary isolation, as a separated wife. The teraphim were tutelary household gods, in the shape of human busts, cut off at the waist (as the root of the Hebrew word implies) [Maurer], (Ge 31:19, 30-35). They were supposed to give responses to consulters (2Ki 23:24; Eze 21:21, Margin; Zec 10:2). Saul's daughter, Michal, putting one in a bed, as if it were David, proves the shape to have been that of a man.
5. Afterward—after the long period ("many days," Ho 3:4) has elapsed.
return—from their idols to "their God," from whom they had wandered.
David their king—Israel had forsaken the worship of Jehovah at the same time that they forsook their allegiance to David's line. Their repentance towards God is therefore to be accompanied by their return to the latter. So Judah and Israel shall be one, and under "one head," as is also foretold (Ho 1:11). That representative and antitype of David is Messiah. "David" means "the beloved." Compare as to Messiah, Mt 3:17; Eph 1:6. Messiah is called David (Isa 55:3, 4; Jer 30:9; Eze 34:23, 24; 37:24, 25).
fear the Lord and his goodness—that is, tremblingly flee to the Lord, to escape from the wrath to come; and to His goodness," as manifested in Messiah, which attracts them to Him (Jer 31:12). The "fear" is not that which "hath torment" (1Jo 4:18), but reverence inspired by His goodness realized in the soul (Ps 130:4).
the latter days—those of Messiah [Kimchi].