EXILE IS AT HAND This prophecy appears to have been written in a time of rejoicing over a good harvest and vintage. Israel need not rejoice, says the prophet, with the wild joy of the heathen. Their praises to the local Baals are insults to Jehovah, whom they have denied. Their rejoicing will end i... [ Continue Reading ]
BREAD OF MOURNERS] Instead of being joyous festivals they would be like funeral feasts. FOR THEIR BREAD, etc.] RV 'for their bread shall be for their appetite: it shall not come,' etc. A further step in their misery. They would only have enough bread to satisfy the pangs of hunger, and have none lef... [ Continue Reading ]
EGYPT.. UP] Their efforts to escape are useless. They would be captured and brought to Egypt, with only death and burial to look forward to: see on Hosea 8:13. THE PLEASANT.. SILVER] RV 'their pleasant things of silver.' While they die in captivity, all their treasures are laid waste and overgrown w... [ Continue Reading ]
ISRAEL SHALL KNOW.. IT] The people have refused to believe the prophet's threats; they would realise the truth very soon, when the calamities came upon them. THE PROPHET _is_ A FOOL] The meaning is doubtful. Some interpret thus: 'Into such excesses have they fallen that their prophets have gone mad,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WATCHMAN] 'Watchman' is similarly used metaphorically of a prophet in Isaiah 21:6; Isaiah 21:11. The meaning is very uncertain. _Was_ WITH MY GOD] perhaps, 'is with my God,' i.e. is in the keeping of my God. A SNARE OF A FOWLER.. WAYS] Wherever he goes he is in danger of being trapped. HATRED I... [ Continue Reading ]
GIBEAH] The reference is to the glaring sin of the Gibeonites described in Judges 19 : cp. Hosea 10:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
GRAPES IN THE WILDERNESS] the last place to find grapes. But God had found these poor tribes in the wilderness, and made them His people. TIME] RV 'season.' The first ripe fruit is eaten with peculiar relish, all the more so if it be the first crop of the figs: cp. Isaiah 28:4. Israel was the first... [ Continue Reading ]
AS I SAW TYRUS] i.e. like Tyre. PLEASANT PLACE] perhaps FOLD, as in Jeremiah 23:3, the reference being to security rather than natural beauty. 14. The prophet here appeals to God's justice to carry out the punishment foretold. The prophet has his moods; at one time an earnest hope for the nation's... [ Continue Reading ]
GILGAL] cp. Hosea 4:15. Gilgal was the home of idolatry and its accompanying iniquity. There Israel called forth the wrath of God. MINE HOUSE] These words show that the worship at Gilgal was at least in theory paid to Jehovah.... [ Continue Reading ]