The Prophet here inveighs against the vain hopes of the people, for they were inflated with such arrogance, that they despised all instruction and all admonitions. It was therefore necessary, in the first place, to correct this vice, and hence he says, _Ephraim feeds on wind _For when one gulps the... [ Continue Reading ]
It may seem strange that the Prophet should now say, that God _had a controversy with Judah; _for he had before said, that Judah stood faithful with the saints. It seems indeed inconsistent, that God should litigate with the Jews, and yet declare them to be upright and separate them from the perfidi... [ Continue Reading ]
In all this discourse the Prophet condemns the ingratitude of the people; and then he shows how shamefully they had departed from the example of their father, in whose name they yet took pride. This is the substance. Their ingratitude is showed in this, that they did not acknowledge that they had be... [ Continue Reading ]
And since this was especially worthy of being remembered, he repeats, that _he had power with the angel, and prevailed_. But we have already said how Jacob prevailed not indeed of himself, but because God had so distributed his power, that the greater part was in Jacob himself. I am therefore wont,... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet is now here urgent on the people. Having referred to the example of the patriarch, he shows how unlike him were his posterity, with whom God could avail nothing by sound teaching, though he was constantly solicitous for their salvation, and stirred up his Prophets to bring back the lost... [ Continue Reading ]
But while the Prophet exhorted the Israelites to repentance, he adds, that such was their perverseness, that it was done without any fruit._Canaan! _he says; I read this by itself; for what some consider to be understood is frigid, as, “He was assimilated to, or was like Canaan, in whose hand,” _etc... [ Continue Reading ]
Here God complains by his Prophet, that the Israelites flattered themselves in their vices, because their affairs succeeded prosperously and according to their wishes: and it is a vice too common, that men felicitate themselves as long as fortune, as they commonly say, smiles on them, thinking that... [ Continue Reading ]
In the first clause God reproaches the Israelites for having forgotten the benefit of his redemption, the memory of which ought ever to have prevailed and flourished among them. _I yet, _he says, _am thy God from the land of Egypt; _that is, “It is strange that you are so forgetful that your redempt... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet amplifies the sin of the people in having always obstinately opposed God, so that they were without any pretext of ignorance: for men, we know, evade God’s dreadful judgement as long as they can plead either ignorance or thoughtlessness. The Prophet denies that the people had fallen thro... [ Continue Reading ]
It is an ironical question, when the Prophet says, _Is there iniquity in Gilead ? _and he laughs to scorn their madness who delighted themselves in vices so gross, when their worship was wholly spurious and degenerated. When they knew that they were perfidious towards God, and followed a worship ali... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet now employs another kind of reproof, — that the Israelites did not consider from what source they had proceeded, and were forgetful of their origin. And the Prophet designedly touches on this point; for we know how boldly and proudly the people boasted of their own eminence. For as a hea... [ Continue Reading ]
_And God_, he says, _brought you up by a Prophet from Egypt, and by a Prophet you have been preserved _This was, as it were, their second nativity. Some think that the comparison is between their first origin and their deliverance; as though Hosea had said, “Though you were born of a very poor and i... [ Continue Reading ]
The Prophet says first, that _Ephraim had provoked God by his high places _Some, however, take the word תמרורים, _tamerurim, _for bitternesses. Then it is, “Israel or Ephraim have provoked God to bitterness.” But since this word in other places as in the thirty-first of Jeremiah, is taken for high p... [ Continue Reading ]