Hosea 11:6

And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels. AND THE SWORD SHALL ABIDE ON HIS CITIES - (cf. "The sword shall never depart from thy house," 2 Samuel 12:10) or, 'fall upon' (Calvin); [chaalaah, from chuwl (H2342)] 'whirl down upon' (Pusey): as in Jeremiah 23:19. AND SHALL CONSUME HIS BRANCHES - i:e., his villages, which are the branches or dependencies of the cities (Calvin). Grotius translates [ badaayw (H905)], 'his bars' (so...

As it was difficult to persuade proud people that the overthrow was at hand, which Hosea had foretold, seeing, as they did, that they were furnished with many defences, it is therefore now added, that their fortified cities would not prevent the enemy to break through, and to devastate the whole country, and to lead away the people captive. We now understand how this verse is connected with the last. The Prophet had threatened exile; but as the Israelites thought themselves safe in their nests, he adds, that there was no reason for them to trust in their fortresses, for the Lord could by the sword destroy all their cities. He therefore says, _The sword shall fall _on their cities. The verb חול, _chul, _means to abide, and to encamp, and sometimes to fall or rush upon: and this second sense is more suitable to this place. Some, however, render it, The sword shall _abide _on the cities unt...

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 11:6. _THE SWORD SHALL ABIDE ON HIS CITIES_] Israel was agitated with external and intestine wars from the time of _Jeroboam the Second_. Although _Zechariah_ his son reigned _twelve_ years, yet it was in _continual troubles_; and he was at last slain by the rebel _Shallum_, who, having reigned one month, was slain by _Menahem_. _Pekahiah_ succeeded his father Menahem, and reigned two years, and was killed by _Pekah_, son of Remaliah. He joined Rezin, king of Syria, and made an irruption into the land of Judah; but Ahaz having obtained succour from _Tiglath-Pileser_, king of Assyria, Pekah was defeated, and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Naphtali, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, were carried away captives by the Assyrian king; and in a short time after, _Hosea_, son of Elah, slew Pekah, and usurped the kingdom, which he could not pos...

AND THE SWORD SHALL ABIDE ON HIS CITIES - Literally, “shall light, shall whirl” down upon. It shall come with violence upon them as a thing whirled with force, and then it shall alight and abide, to their destruction; as Jeremiah says, “a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously (literally, whirl down) on the head of the wicked” Jeremiah 23:19. As God said to David, after the murder of Uriah, “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house” 2 Samuel 12:10, so as to Israel, whose kings were inaugurated by bloodshed. By God’s appointment, “blood will have blood.” Their own sword first came down and rested upon them; then the sword of the Assyrian. So after they “had killed the Holy One and the Just,” the sword

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

AND THE SWORD SHALL ABIDE ON THE CITIES,.... Or "shall fall" y, and continue; meaning the sword of the Assyrians, whereby Ephraim should be brought into subjection to them, and the king of Assyria become king over them; his sword should be drawn, and rest upon them, not only on their chief city Samaria, besieged three years by him, but upon all their other cities, which would fall into his hands, with the inhabitants of them: AND SHALL CONSUME HIS BRANCHES, AND DEVOUR [THEM]; that is, the towns and villages adjoining to the cities; which were to them as branches are to a tree, sprung from them, and were supported by them; and, being near them, prospered or suffered as they did: some render it, "his bars" z, as the word is sometimes used, and interpret it of the great men and nobles of the land. So the Targum, "and it shall slay his mighty men, and destroy his princes;'' with which Jar...

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