INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 12 This chapter contains complaints and charges both against Israel and Judah, and threatens them with punishment in case they repent not, which they are exhorted to: and first Ephraim is charged with idolatry, vain confidence in, and alliances with, foreign nations, Hosea 12:... [ Continue Reading ]
EPHRAIM FEEDETH ON WIND,.... Which will be no more profitable and beneficial to him than wind is to a man that opens his mouth, and fills himself with it: the phrase is expressive of labour in vain, and of a man's getting nothing by all the pains he takes; the same with sowing the wind, and reaping... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD HATH ALSO A CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAH,.... The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as well as the ten tribes; for though they had ruled with God, and had been faithful with the saints in the first times of the apostasy of Israel; yet afterwards they sadly degenerated, and fell into idolatry like... [ Continue Reading ]
HE TOOK HIS BROTHER BY THE HEEL IN THE WOMB,.... That is, Jacob took his brother Esau by the heel, as he came forth from his mother's womb; the history of it is in Genesis 25:25. It is here observed, upon mentioning the name of Jacob in Hosea 12:2, meaning the posterity, of the patriarch; but here h... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, HE HAD POWER OVER THE ANGEL, AND PREVAILED,.... This is repeated in different words, not only for the confirmation of it, it being a very extraordinary thing, and difficult of belief; but to direct to the history here referred to, where the person Jacob prevailed over is called a man, and here... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS,.... The God Jacob had power over, the Angel he prevailed with, to whom he made supplication with weeping, and who spake with him and his in Bethel, is he whose name is Jehovah; who is the true and living God, the Lord of hosts and armies both in heaven and in earth; of al... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE TURN THOU TO THY GOD,.... Judah, with whom the Lord had a controversy, is here addressed and exhorted to return to the Lord, from whom they had backslidden; and this is urged, from the consideration of their being the descendants of so great a man as Jacob; whose example they should follow... [ Continue Reading ]
[HE IS] A MERCHANT,.... Here is a change of person from "thou" to "he", from Judah to Ephraim, who is said to be a "merchant"; and if that was all, there is nothing worthy of dispraise in it; but he was a cheating merchant, a fraudulent dealer, as appears by what follows: or he is Canaan, or a Canaa... [ Continue Reading ]
AND EPHRAIM SAID, YET I AM BECOME RICH,.... Notwithstanding they took such unjust methods, as to use deceitful balances, they prospered in the world, got abundance of riches; and therefore concluded from thence that their manner of dealing was not criminal, at least not so bad as the prophets repres... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I [THAT AM] THE LORD THY GOD FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT,.... Ephraim being so very corrupt in things, both religious and civil, and so very impenitent and impudent, is let alone to suffer the just punishment of his sins; but Judah being called to repentance, and brought unto it, gracious promises ar... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE ALSO SPOKEN TO THE PROPHETS,.... Or, "I will speak" b; for this respects not the Lord's speaking by the prophets of the Old Testament who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; though all they said were for the use of, and profitable unto, Christian churches; but his speaking by the apos... [ Continue Reading ]
[IS THERE] INIQUITY [IN] GILEAD?.... Idolatry there? strange that there should be, seeing it was a city of the priests; a city of refuge; or there is none there, say the priests, who pretended they did not worship idols, but the true Jehovah in them: or, "is [there] not iniquity", or idolatry, "in G... [ Continue Reading ]
AND JACOB FLED INTO THE COUNTRY OF SYRIA,.... Or, "field of Syria" m; the same with Padanaram; for "Padan", in the Arabic language, as Bochart has shown, signifies a field; and "Aram" is Syria, and is the word here used. This is to be understood of Jacob's fleeing thither for fear of his brother Esa... [ Continue Reading ]
AND BY A PROPHET THE LORD BROUGHT ISRAEL OUT OF EGYPT,.... Or, "by the prophet"; the famous and most excellent prophet Moses, who, by way of eminency, is so called; him the Lord sent, and employed, and made use of him as an instrument to bring his people out of their bondage in Egypt; in which he wa... [ Continue Reading ]
EPHRAIM PROVOKED [HIM] TO ANGER MOST BITTERLY,.... The Vulgate Latin version supplies it, me; that is, God, as Kimchi; or his Lord, as it may be supplied from the last clause of the verse; the sense is the same either way: it was God that Ephraim or the ten tribes provoked to stir up his wrath and v... [ Continue Reading ]