Hosea 1 - Introduction
_HOSEA, TO SHEW GOD'S JUDGMENT FOR SPIRITUAL WHOREDOM, TAKETH GOMER, AND HATH BY HER JEZREEL, LO-RUHAMAH, AND LO-AMMI. THE RESTORATION OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL._ _Before Christ 786._... [ Continue Reading ]
_HOSEA, TO SHEW GOD'S JUDGMENT FOR SPIRITUAL WHOREDOM, TAKETH GOMER, AND HATH BY HER JEZREEL, LO-RUHAMAH, AND LO-AMMI. THE RESTORATION OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL._ _Before Christ 786._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WORD OF THE LORD THAT CAME UNTO HOSEA, THE SON OF BEERI— _Hosea_ signifies a _saviour,_ and _Beeri—of a well._ Calmet observes, that if Hosea prophesied in the reign of all these princes, he must have lived a very long time; for there are one hundred and twelve years from the beginning of Uzziah... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE UNTO THEE A WIFE OF WHOREDOMS— That is, a woman, who, before her marriage, had lived an impure life, but who afterward should retire from all bad conversation, and whose children should be legitimate, notwithstanding that, by reason of the blemish which their mother had contracted by her former... [ Continue Reading ]
SO HE WENT— He said not, _This is a hard saying, who can hear it?_ He does not reason, but comply: he does not dispute, but obey.... [ Continue Reading ]
CALL HIS NAME JEZREEL— For the honourable name of _Israel_ is too good for this people. Call them therefore _Jezreel,_ a people devoted to dispersion, and such as I will scatter unto the four winds of heaven, as the seedsman scattereth his seed. _FOR YET A LITTLE WHILE_— And yet this _little while_... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT I WILL BREAK THE BOW OF ISRAEL, &C.— St. Jerome says, the Israelites were overthrown by the Assyrians in a pitched battle in the plain of Jezrael or Jezreel. But of any such battle we have no mention in history, sacred or profane. But Tiglath-pileser took several of the principal cities in that... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I WILL NO MORE HAVE MERCY, &C.— _For I will no more cherish with tenderness the house of Israel, insomuch as to be perpetually forgiving them._ Bishop Horsley.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I WILL HAVE MERCY UPON THE HOUSE OF JUDAH— This difference in the divine dispensation was owing to the enormous crimes of the Israelites, and to the singular piety of Hezekiah. Judah was saved in a miraculous manner from the sword of the Assyrians. It was _not by bow, nor by sword,_ &c. but by t... [ Continue Reading ]
YET THE NUMBER, &C.— Though God casts off the ten tribes, yet he will in due time supply their loss by bringing in great numbers of true Israelites into the church, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles; and making them who before were strangers to the covenant of promise fellow-heirs with... [ Continue Reading ]
AND APPOINT THEMSELVES ONE HEAD— The Lord Jesus Christ shall become the chief and the king of his church, composed of Judah and Israel, of Jews and Gentiles. This is the primary intention of the prophesy; which, however, (as we observed above,) secondarily may refer to the restoration of the Jews fr... [ Continue Reading ]