HOSEA

1 That is, relies on vanity, namely, their idolatry and pagan leagues wherewith they are like to fare, as they that think to live on the wind. Compare Jer. 22:22; Hosea 8:7; Micah 2:11. Likewise Isa. 44:20, with the annotation.

2 That is, that which shall be grievous and hurtful to him, as the east wind was in those lands. See Exod. 10 on verse 13; Job 27 on verse 21; Hosea 13:15.

3 False religion, hypocrisy, lies and deceit against God and his neighbor.

4 That is, that which shall cause his own destruction. Or, he daily practices destruction and desolation of his neighbor. Or, he has done such things during all his reign.

5 That is, the Assyrians, the king of Assyria. See Hosea 5:13; 7:11; 14:4.

6 That is, that precious balm, which was made in those countries, was carried to the king of Egypt for a present, to procure his favor. Compare 2 Kings 17:4; Isa. 57:9, and see of such oil Psalm 133 on verse 2, etc.

7 Or, plea, process, lawsuit, namely, by reason of their sins. Compare Hosea 4 on verse 1.

8 Hebr. and for to make visitation, that is, He is ready prepared for it. Compare the phrase with Hosea 9 on verse 13. Or, and for to visit, that is, and that, in order that He may visit, etc., as elsewhere. Other, but over Jacob (that is, the ten tribes) shall he, etc., understanding that God was pleading yet with Judah, and would continue warning them yet a while, but as for the ten tribes, them He would spare nor wink at no longer, it being somewhat obscure, whether Jacob here do signify Judah, or the ten tribes, or both together, whereof the opinions vary. Compare Hosea 10:11, etc. In any case the degenerate posterity of Jacob is sorely threatened here.

9 By punishments. See Gen. 21 on verse 1.

10 The patriarch Jacob, their forefather, of whom some extraordinary passages and singular mercies of God shown to him and to them all by him, are related here, thereby to shame and confound his degenerate offspring for their ingratitude.

a Gen. 25:26.

11 Esau.

12 Unto a sign that God, through mere grace, had bestowed the right of primogeniture upon Jacob, forasmuch as by the right of nature he was incapable of having it.

13 Or, from the mother’s womb. See Judges 13 on verse 5; Job 3 on verse 10; Hosea 9:11.

14 Which God enabled him withal to hold out.

15 In his wrestling combat with the Son of God. See the history Gen. 32:24, etc., and the annotation there.

b Gen. 35:9, 10.

16 The Son of God, called God in the previous verse, and in the next the LORD God of hosts. See Gen. 48 on verse 16.

17 He prevailed, or had the better in the combat with this Angel, namely, the Son of God, Who suffered Himself to be overcome by Jacob, not of any weakness or insufficiency, but to hold forth thereby a most sweet and comfortable mystery of the combat and victory of all the children of God.

18 Namely, Jacob wept and prayed earnestly for a blessing, when he perceived with Whom he had to do, namely, with God Himself. Of this weeping we find nothing recorded in Moses’ history, but here the Holy Ghost inserted it by way of explanation.

19 The Son of God found Jacob there and appeared unto him. See Gen. 35:9, etc., and so in the sequel he spake, namely, the same Son of God.

c Gen. 28:12, 19; 35:7, 14, 15; 35:7.

20 We being then yet in the loins of Jacob and our forefathers; so that it concerns us also what God spoke there, and did then in the behalf of our forefathers. See Psalm 66 on verse 6.

21 As the Son of God is mentioned in the preceding verse under the name of angel, and further by the word him, this is added herewith unto the explanation of His Divine majesty; and that since now the Hebrew letter vau is also often used for namely, even, to wit is known, it agrees very well with what was mentioned before, as the judicious, godly reader will be able to judge.

22 See 1 Kings 18 on verse 15, and compare Gen. 22 on verse 11; Gen. 48 on verse 16; Psalm 24:10; Isa. 6:1, 2, 3, 5; 9:5; 25:6, etc.

23 Hebr. remembrance, that is, JEHOVAH is the Name, whereby (as signifying the eternal, self-subsisting, unalterable, etc., Being of God) He is known among His people, and both Himself and all His attributes held in remembrance. See Gen. 2 on verse 4, and compare Exod. 3:14, 15, with the annotations. Some refer this to Jacob thus: The LORD was his (namely, Jacob’s) memorial.

24 That is, Ephraim.

25 Here in the Hebrew text there is the letter beth put for the letter lamed, or for the particles el or gnad, that is, to; as in these phrases 1 Kings 2:33: Their blood shall return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed. Where the letter beth, twice construed with the verb return, is of the same signification with the foregoing particle gnal, that is, upon or unto; as otherwise also the particle in or into, both in our own and other languages, is taken for to or unto when it is construed with words signifying to go, to travel, to turn, to return, as: to go into the sea, into the fields, into the wilderness, into a city, country, etc., that is, unto, or towards, etc. Insomuch that some do hold it needless, by reason of the letter beth to translate here: turn thee with or through thy God, that is, with or through the grace or help of thy God, whereof the understanding reader may judge himself, and compare the annotation on Joel 2:12.

26 Who from the beginning has shown so great mercies to your forefather and by him unto yourselves, as above.

27 Forsaking all your idols, and vain carnal confidence, so shall ye give God His honor, and not be forsaken by Him.

28 See this signification of the Hebrew word canaan or kenaan Job 41 on verse 6. Hebr. The merchant, in his hand is, etc. Other, He is a Canaanite, or (in anger and detestation): That Canaanite! As if the prophet would say: That mongrel, he carries himself no more like one of Jacob’s children, but is both in condition and resemblance more like a heathen and one of Ham’s brood.

29 Or, a deceitful balance. See Lev. 19:13, 35; Deut. 25:13; 1 Thes. 4:6.

30 Instead of mercy and judgment (the Lord wants to say), injustice and deceit are in fashion.

31 As well by subtle and unjust practices in his dealings, as by willful and violent captures and robberies.

32 As if they said: Let the prophets say what they will, it goes still well with us; therefore God cannot be so much displeased with us as they would make us believe. This was one of their shameless hypocrisies wherewith they encompassed (Hosea 11:12) and provoked God and His prophets, also abusing outrageously the great longsuffering of the Lord. Compare Amos 6:13.

33 Or, have gotten me great wealth. Hebr. found me, as Gen. 26:12; Ezra 7:16; Prov. 8:9, etc.

34 Understand the labour and pains which they took to grow rich, or the riches which they got by their labour. Other, all my labour is not enough for me (as the Hebrew word to find, or be found, is sometimes used, see Num. 11 on verse 22), we desire to get and more still; we must go on as we began, he hath unrighteousness (that is, the punishment for unrighteousness shall happen to him), that hath sin, we are not punished, (argue they) therefore, we are clear of sin.

35 As if they said, It is plain by our prosperity that we do not sin so much in using such and such means to grow rich; what need then these busy men (the prophets) be thus clamoring and carping still at our practice?

36 Not to dishearten the faithful and the elect by these sharp sermons of reproof, the Lord (according to His manner) subjoins this comfort here to assure His (own), that, notwithstanding all this, He shall faithfully keep His covenant of grace in the Messiah with His chosen Israel. But others take these two following verses as a relation of God’s mercies in the past and now still shown unto His people, thereby to convince them that He is the sole Author of all their welfare, and that they have not the least ground to boast of their own abilities, how presumptuously so ever they did it, as was shown in the previous text.

37 That is, ever since I brought you forth by the hand of Moses out of Egypt, when I made My covenant with you, and gave you My laws, which God elsewhere calls their youth. See Jer. 2:2, etc.; Hosea 2:14.

38 These promises, pointing to the time of grace in the New Testament, are set forth in terms and phrases taken from the state and condition of the Old Testament. Compare Hosea 2:13, 17; 11:11, with the annotations.

d Isa. 43:11.

39 As I caused you to camp pleasantly in your tents in the wilderness, round about the tent of the congregation, where ye gathered together to understand My will and to serve Me, so also will I cause you yet in the time of the New Testament to camp and take place in My church by the preaching of My Gospel, where ye shall have your assemblies to worship Me. Other, as in the days of the solemn feasts, namely, the feast of tabernacles, when for a certain time you had your abode in tents or huts, to mind you of your wandering through the wilderness, and to rejoice in the mercies I bestowed upon you. Or, it may be understood of all the feasts, in which they were likewise to set up tents outside the city because of the multitude of people meeting then together.

40 Or, by the prophets, that is, I will reveal Myself anew most gloriously by the plentiful preaching of the Gospel, which shall be made unto you by the Prophet of all prophets, the Messiah, and by His apostles and other teachers of the New Testament, with sending forth the gifts of My Spirit. Compare Joel 2:28, 29; Acts 2:16, 17, 18, etc.

41 That is, teach men in a most familiar and plain way. Compare Mat. 13:34, 35, etc.

42 Hebr. hand.

43 That is, nothing but unrighteousness, only unrighteousness, full of malice and wickedness. Other, idolatry, while the Hebrew word is sometimes taken for an idol, idolatry, idolatrous worship. See 1 Sam. 15:23; Isa. 66:3.

44 See Hosea 6:8, with the annotation. Here the prophet returns again to the foregoing sermon of reproof. These words may also be taken thus: Is Gilead unrighteousness? As if they objected to the prophet: Darest thou lay that to their charge? Whereupon the prophet answered in the following words.

e Hosea 6:8.

45 Hebr. only, that is, they are given to nothing but to all manner of idolatry; or, certainly, they are vanity.

46 See Hosea 4 on verse 15.

f Hosea 4:15; 9:15.

47 That is, the land is entirely full of their idolatrous altars.

48 Here again is set before their eyes the low and troublesome condition of their forefather Jacob, to show what would have become of them all, if God had not by a most singular mercy turned all to the best that happened to him, and dealt with them as follows in the next verse. Compare Deut. 26:5, etc. with the annotations there.

g Gen. 28:5, etc.

49 Before his brother Esau. See Gen. 27:42, 43; 28:5, etc. This seems to be the most plain translation and sense of these words. Or, field of Syria, that is land, as Obadiah on verse 19.

50 Jacob served Laban for Leah and Rachel.

h Gen. 29:20, 28.

51 The great prophet Moses.

52 The people of Israel, Israel’s or Jacob’s posterity.

53 God tended and preserved them by Moses, as a shepherd does his flock. This is said in regard of Jacob’s keeping his sheep, spoken of in the previous verse.

54 Hebr. with bitternesses. Other, with high places, or pointed, high idolatrous pillars or pillar-images. See of the Hebrew word tamrurim Jer. 31 on verse 21.

55 Or, spread forth.

56 Hebr. bloods, that is, murders and slayings of the innocent and the punishments thereof. See Gen. 4 on verse 10; Gen. 37 on verse 26; Judges 9 on verse 24. Or, leave his blood upon him, that is, leave them in their pollution and sins without cleansing them from the same. Compare Ezek. 16:6, 9; Joel 3:21.

57 Which he did inflict upon Him, His prophets and all the godly.

58 God, Whom he has not known, nor feared, nor served. See Mal. 1:6.