Hosea 11:5

He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return. HE SHALL NOT RETURN INTO ... EGYPT - namely, to seek help against Assyria (cf. ), as Israel lately had done (), seeking the help of King So, after having revolted from the Assyrian, to whom they had been tributary from the times of Menahem (). He shall be no longer able to go to Egypt, for he shall be a captive in Assyria. In a figurative sense, "he shall return to Egypt" () - i:e., to Egypt-like bondage; also many Jewish fugitives were literally to return to Egypt when the Holy Land was to be in Assyrian and Chaldean hands. "He shall not...

Here the Prophet denounces a new punishment, that the people in vain hoped that Egypt would be a place of refuge or an asylum to them; for the Lord would draw them away to another quarter. For the Israelites had cherished this hope, that if by any chance the Assyrians should be too powerful for them, there would yet be a suitable refuge for them in Egypt among their friends, with whom they had made a treaty. Since, then, they promised themselves a hospitable exile in Egypt, the Prophet here exposes their vain confidence: “This their expectation,” he says, “that they shall find a way open to Egypt, shall disappoint the people: it is shut up,” he says, _They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be their king. _By saying, that the Assyrian shall rule over them, he means that the people would become exiles under the Assyrians, which indeed happened. He then anticipat...

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...

Verse Hosea 11:5. _HE SHALL NOT RETURN INTO - EGYPT_] I have brought them thence already, with the design that the _nation_ should never return thither again; but as they have sinned, and forfeited my favour and protection, they shall go _to Assyria_; and this _because_ _they refused to return_ to me. This view of the verse removes every difficulty....

HE SHALL NOT RETURN TO EGYPT - Some had probably returned already to Egypt; the rest were looking to Egypt for help, and rebelling against the Assyrian, (whose servant their king Hoshea had become), and making alliance with So king of Egypt. The prophet tells them, as a whole, that they shall not return to Egypt to which they looked, but should have the Assyrian for their king, whom they would not. “They refused to return” to God, who lovingly called them; therefore, what they desired, they should not have; and what they feared, that they should have. They would not have God for their king; therefore “the Assyrian” should “be their king,” and a worse captivity than that of Egypt should befall them. For, from “that” they were delivered; from this, now hanging over them, never should they be restored....

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

HE SHALL NOT RETURN INTO THE LAND OF EGYPT,.... Ephraim or Israel, the ten tribes: and the Septuagint and Arabic versions express them by name, though they give a wrong sense of the words, rendering them, "and Ephraim dwelt in Egypt"; he did so indeed with the other tribes formerly; but here it is said he shall not go thither again to be a captive there, but shall go into bondage more severe than that in Egypt, even into captivity in Assyria: rather the sense is, they should not go thither for shelter, at least not as a body, though some few of them might, as in Hosea 9:3; the far greater part of them should he carried captive by the Assyrians: or they should not return to Egypt to seek for help and assistence, as they had done; either they ought not to do it, nor would there be any need of it, did they but return to the Lord, as Kimchi observes; or rather they should now be so straitly...

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