Hosea 11:1

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. WHEN ISRAEL WAS A CHILD, THEN I LOVED HIM, AND CALLED MY SON OUT OF EGYPT. Bengel translates, 'From the time that he (Israel) was in Egypt, I called him my son,' which the parallelism ("When Israel was a child, then I loved him") proves. So ("I, that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt" i:e., from the time that thou wast in Egypt), and , use "from ... Egypt," for "from the time that thou didst sojourn in Egypt." ("Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first-born") also shows that Israel was called by God "My son," from the time of his Egyptian sojourn, (, "Thus saith...

God here expostulates with the people of Israel for their ingratitude. The obligation of the people was twofold; for God had embraced them from the very first beginning, and when there was no merit or worthiness in them. What else, indeed, was the condition of the people when emancipated from their servile works in Egypt? They doubtless seemed then like a man half-dead or a putrid carcass; for they had no vigour remaining in them. The Lord then stretched forth his hand to the people when in so hopeless a state, drew them out, as it were, from the grave, and restored them from death into life. But the people did not acknowledge this so wonderful a favour of God, but soon after petulantly turned their back on him. What baseness was this, and how shameful the wickedness, to make such a return to the author of their life and salvation? The Prophet therefore enhances the sin and baseness of t...

1-7 When Israel were weak and helpless as children, foolish and froward as children, then God loved them; he bore them as the nurse does the sucking child, nourished them, and suffered their manners. All who are grown up, ought often to reflect upon the goodness of God to them in their childhood. He took care of them, took pains with them, not only as a father, or a tutor, but as a mother, or nurse. When they were in the wilderness, God showed them the way in which they should go, and bore them up, taking them by the arms. He taught them the way of his commandments by the ceremonial law given by Moses. He took them by the arms, to guide them, that they might not stray, and to hold them up, that they might not stumble and fall. God's spiritual Israel are all thus supported. It is God's work to draw poor souls to himself; and none can come to him except he draw them. With bands of love; t...

CHAPTER XI _This chapter gives a very pathetic representation of God's_ _tender and affectionate regard for Israel, by metaphors_ _chiefly borrowed from the conduct of mothers toward their_ _tender offspring. From this, occasion is taken to reflect on_ _their ungrateful return to the Divine goodness, and to denounce_ _against them the judgments of the Almighty_, 1-7. _But suddenly and unexpectedly the prospect changes. Beams of_ _mercy break frown the clouds just now fraught with vengeance._ _God, to speak in the language of men, feels the relentings of a_...

WHEN ISRAEL WAS A CHILD, THEN I LOVED HIM - God loved Israel, as He Himself formed it, ere it corrupted itself. He loved it for the sake of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as he saith, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” Malachi 1:2. Then, when it was weak, helpless, oppressed by the Egyptians, afflicted, destitute, God loved him, cared for him, delivered him from oppression, and called him out of Egypt. : “When did He love Israel? When, by His guidance, Israel regained freedom, his enemies were destroyed, he was fed with “food from heaven,” he heard the voice of God, and received the law from Him. He was unformed in Egypt; then he was informed by the rules of the law, so as to be matured there. He was a child in that vast waste. For he was nourished, not by solid food, but by milk, i. e., by the rudiments of piety and righteousness, that he might gr

EXPOSITION In Hosea 11:1 Jehovah enumerates the benefits conferred on Israel all along from the time of their departure out of Egypt. But parallel with this enumeration runs the history of Israel's ingratitude. HOSEA 11:1 WHEN ISRAEL WAS A CHILD, THEN I LOVED HIM, AND CALLED MY SON OUT OF EGYPT. Driver uses this verse to exemplify the principle that when the reference is to what is past or certain, rather than to what is future or indefinite, we find the predicate or the apodosis introduced by וַּ, though not with nearly the same frequency as לperfect and _vav _causes (1) with subject or object pre-fixed; (2) after time-determinations. The life of a nation has its stages of rise, progress, and

WHEN ISRAEL [WAS] A CHILD, THEN I LOVED HIM,.... Or, "for Israel [was] a child" u; a rebellious and disobedient one, therefore his king was cut off in a morning, and he has been, and will be, without a king many days; yet still "I loved him": or, "though Israel [was] a child" w; a weak, helpless, foolish, and imprudent one, "yet I loved him": or, "when a child"; in the infancy of his civil and church state, when in Egypt, and in the wilderness; the Lord loved him, not only as his creature, as he does all the works of his hands, but with a more special love than he loved others; choosing them to be a special people above all others; giving them his law, his statutes, and his judgments, his word and his worship, which he did not give to other nations. So he loves spiritual and mystical Israel, all the elect of God, whether Jews or Gentiles, when children, as soon as born, and though born i...

Hosea 11:1. _When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt._ God's love was very early love. He began with the nation of Israel when it was a mere handful of men in Egypt. There he multiplied them; and, in due time, he called them out from among the heathen. God's love to some of us manifested itself at a very early period of our lives, when we were yet children. It is among our most joyous memories that we have known the Lord from our youth up. Happy man, happy woman, of whom God can say, as he said concerning his ancient people, «When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.» Hosea 11:2. _As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images._ The nation of Israe

CHAPTER 9:10-11:11 RETROSPECT, ISRAEL'S FAILURE AND RUIN _ 1. Israel once beloved, now fugitive wanderers (Hosea 9:10) _ 2. Their guilt and punishment (Hosea 10:1) 3. Exhortation and rebuke (Hosea 10:12) 4. The mercy of a merciful God (Hosea 11:1) Hosea 9:10. Like a wayfaring man who finds grapes and figs in the desert and delights in them, so the Lord found Israel in the desert and they were His pleasure when He led them out of Egypt. But they requited His love by going after Baal-peor, one of the filthiest gods of heat

THE DIVINE FATHER'S LOVE FOR ISRAEL. In Israel's youth Yahweh loved him, and called him from Egypt to be His son, but he proved disloyal, sacrificing to the Baalim (Hosea 11:1 f.). Yet it was Yahweh who guided and protected him as a father, and healed him in sickness (Hosea 11:3). The figure now changes (but see notes). Yahweh has treated Israel as a humane master who gently leads and eases the yoke for the tired team of oxen (Hosea 11:4). The ungrateful son must return to Egypt be exiled; his cities shall be given up to the sword, because of incurable idolatry (Hosea 11:6 f.). Here the prophet movingly expresses Yahweh's love for His people: How shall I giv