Hosea 12:2

The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. THE LORD HATH ALSO A CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAH - (; , "The Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel"). Judah, under Ahaz, had fallen into idolatry (, etc., 2 Kings 16:10). AND WILL PUNISH JACOB - i:e., the ten tribes. If Judah, the favoured portion of the nation, shall not be spared, much less degenerate Israel. The measure of the guilt of Judah was not yet so filled up as that of Israel. Therefore, the expression is not so strong against the former...

It may seem strange that the Prophet should now say, that God _had a controversy with Judah; _for he had before said, that Judah stood faithful with the saints. It seems indeed inconsistent, that God should litigate with the Jews, and yet declare them to be upright and separate them from the perfidious and ungodly. What then does this mean? The Prophet, as we have said, spake comparatively of the tribe of Judah, when he said that they remained faithful with the saints: for he did not intend wholly to exculpate the Jews, who were also full of grievous evils; but he intended to praise the worship which as yet prevailed at Jerusalem, that the impiety of the ten tribes might appear less excusable, who of their own accord had departed from the rule which God had given. When any one at this day reproves the Papists, they say, that another mode of worship is unknown to them, and that they have...

1-6 Ephraim feeds himself with vain hopes of help from man, when he is at enmity with God. The Jews vainly thought to secure the Egyptians by a present of the produce of their country. Judah is contended with also. God sees the sin of his own people, and will reckon with them for it. They are put in mind of what Jacob did, and what God did for him. When his faith upon the Divine promise prevailed above his fears, then by his strength he had power with God. He is Jehovah, the same that was, and is, and is to come. What was a revelation of God to one, is his memorial to many, to all generations. Then let those who have gone from God, be turned to him. Turn thou to the Lord, by repentance and faith, as thy God. Let those that are converted to him, walk with him in all holy conversation and godliness. Let us wrestle with Him for promised blessings, determined not to give over till we prevail...

Verse Hosea 12:2. _THE LORD HATH ALSO A CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAH_] The rest of the prophecy belongs both to Judah and Israel. He reproaches both with their ingratitude, and threatens them with God's anger. In order to make their infidelity the more hateful, and their malice the more sensible, he opposes to them the righteousness, obedience, and piety of their father Jacob. He recalls to their minds the benefits they had received since they returned from Egypt. He speaks afterwards of their kings; and how, in their ingratitude, they refused to have him for their monarch. Having mentioned this fact, he subjoins reflections, exhortations, invectives, and threatenings, and continues this subject in _this_ and the _two_ following _chapters_.-_Calmet_....

THE LORD HATH ALSO A CONTROVERSY WITH JUDAH, AND WILL PUNISH JACOB - The guilt of Judah was not open apostasy, nor had he filled up the measure of his sins. Of him, then, God saith only, that He “had a controversy with” him, as our Lord says to the “Angel of the Church of Pergamos, I have a few things against thee. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and fight against thee with the sword of My mouth” Revelation 2:12, Revelation 2:16. Of Ephraim, whose sin was complete, He says, that the Lord “is to punish.” God had set His mind, as we say, on punishing him; He had (so to speak) set Himself to do it. Jacob, like Israel, is here the name for the chief part of Israel, i. e., the ten tribes. Our Lord uses the same gradation in speaking of different degrees of e

EXPOSITION In Hosea 12:1 God continues his complaint against Ephraim, charging them specially with the pursuit of vain and futile courses to their great detriment. Instead of repairing to the true and everlasting source of safety and salvation, they had recourse to foreign alliances to support and strengthen their decaying state and sinking interests. And yet the only staying power was Jehovah. The controversy now embraces Judah also; and thus Jacob—both Israel and Judah—is threatened with such punishment as their doings deserved. The mention of their great ancestor Jacob naturally suggests a contrast; while his conduct is proposed to them for an example. They are accordingly invited to follow in his footsteps, imitate the piety and wisdom of his course, and so entertain good hope of similar success from the unchanging and unchangeable God of their pious ancestor....

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 likewise, particularly in the time of Ahaz, in which Hosea prophesied; and therefore the Lord had somewhat against them; nor would he spare them, but reprove them by the prophets, and rebuke them in his providences; bring them to his bar, and lay before them their evils, and threaten them with punishment in case of impenitence, as follows: AND WILL PUNISH JACOB ACCORDING TO HIS WAYS; all the posterity of Jacob, whether Ephraim or Judah; those of the ten tribes, or of the two, who all descended from Jacob: or, "will visit according to his ways" s; if right, and agreeably to the mind and word of Go...

CHAPTER S 11:12-12:14 THE INDICTMENT _ 1. Ephraim's indictment (Hosea 11:12; Hosea 12:1) _ 2. Remembrance of the past (Hosea 12:3) 3. What Israel had become (Hosea 12:7) Chapter 11:12-12:2. Lying and deceit had been Ephraim's course towards Jehovah; instead of trusting Him and following Him faithfully they had attached themselves to idols, while Judah still outwardly cleaved to Jehovah, though it was in a rambling way. The word translated “ruleth” means rambling. The better rendering of the sentence is “and Judah is also rambling towards God (or unbridled against Him) and towards the faithful Holy One.” But while ou

HOSEA 11:12 TO HOSEA 12:14 (= Hebrews 12:1). EPHRAIM'S INFIDELITY TRACED FROM THE BEGINNING. This is one of the most difficult passages in Hosea. In the text Judah also is mentioned; but this may be due to a later hand. Hosea 12:4 f., Hosea 12:12 f. are probably additions. The chapter-division is wrong in EV and right in the Heb. Israel's sins of treason and deceit as it were surround Yahweh (nor has Judah been faithful). Ephraim loves (see note) wind, symbol of worthlessness and violence, heaps up falsehood and fraud, and faithlessly enters into covenant

THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. PUNISH. visit upon. JACOB. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for Israel, especially the natural seed. ACCORDING. Some codices, with two early printed editions (one Rabbinic, margin), Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read "and according". RECOMPENSE. requite, or repay....