Hosea 13:1

When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. This chapter and Hosea 14:1 probably belong to the troubled times that followed Pekah's murder by Hoshea (cf. ; ). The subject is the idolatry of Ephraim, notwithstanding God's past benefits, destined to be his ruin. WHEN EPHRAIM SPAKE TREMBLING - rather, 'When Ephraim (the tribe most powerful among the twelve in Israel's early history) spake (authoritatively) there was trembling (cf. ; ); all reverentially feared him' (Jerome). (Compare...

Interpreters agree not in their view of this verse. Some say that trembling was excited in Israel when Ephraim, that is, Jeroboam, who was born of that tribe, exhorted the people to worship the calves. By the word רתת, _retat_, “trembling,” they understand, that the people were so astonished, that they without thought immediately obeyed the will, or rather the humour, of their impious king. And if this sense be approved, the word, trembling, may be in another way explained, even in this, — that the people did not immediately embrace that perverted worship, but dreaded, as is wont to be the case with regard to new things, and which seem to have nothing reasonable in their favour. But these expounders wholly depart, in my judgement, from the intention of the Prophet; for, on the contrary, he sets forth here the twofold state of the kingdom of Israel, that it might hence be manifest that th...

1-8 While Ephraim kept up a holy fear of God, and worshipped Him in that fear, so long he was very considerable. When Ephraim forsook God, and followed idolatry, he sunk. Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves, in token of their adoration of them, affection for them, and obedience to them; but the Lord will not give his glory to another, and therefore all that worship images shall be confounded. No solid, lasting comfort, is to be expected any where but in God. God not only took care of the Israelites in the wilderness, he put them in possession of Canaan, a good land; but worldly prosperity, when it feeds men's pride, makes them forgetful of God. Therefore the Lord would meet them in just vengeance, as the most terrible beast that inhabited their forests. Abused goodness calls for greater severity....

CHAPTER XIII _Thus chapter begins with observing that the fear of God leads_ _to prosperity, but sin to ruin; a truth most visibly_ _exemplified in the sin and punishment of Ephraim_, 1-3. _As an aggravation of their guilt, God reminds them of his_ _former favours_, 4, 5; _which they had shamefully abused_, 6; _and which now expose them to dreadful punishments_, 7, 8. _He, however, tempers these awful threatenings with gracious_ _promises; and, on their repentance, engages to save them, when_ _no other could protect them_, 9-

WHEN EPHRAIM SPAKE TREMBLING - that is, probably “there was ‘trembling.’” : “Ephraim was once very awful, so as, while he spake, the rest of the tribes were ready to tremble.” The prophet contrasts two conditions of Ephraim, of prosperity, and destruction. His prosperity he owed to the undeserved mercy of God, who blessed him for Joseph’s sake; his destruction, to his own sin. There is no period recorded, “when Ephraim spake trembling,” i. e., in humility. Pride was his characteristic, almost as soon as he had a separate existence as a tribe (see the note at Hosea 5:5). Under Joshua, it could not be called out, for Ephraim gained honor, when Joshua, one of themselves, became the captain of the Lord’s people. Under the Judges, their pride appeared. Yet God tried them, by giving them their hearts’ desire. They longed to be exalted, and He satisfied them, if so be they wou

EXPOSITION The first eight verses of this chapter form the premises from which the prophet, in the ninth verse, draws the conclusion that the conduct of Israel had been suicidal; that they had brought on themselves the calamities which they had experienced, and ultimately the ruin in which those calamities eventuated. The various particulars of their sin are enumerated, with the provocation caused or the punishment incurred by each. Thus the idolatry of Baal stripped them of the authority they once possessed, and issued in the dissolution of their state. After they had been to some small extent reclaimed from this national sin, and had somewhat retrieved their position, their perseverance in the calf-worship and the progress of their idolatrous practices provoked Jehovah so grievously as to threaten their sudden and entire destruction. Then their gross ingratitude to God for his great go...

WHEN EPHRAIM SPAKE TREMBLING, HE EXALTED HIMSELF IN ISRAEL,.... Or, with trembling, as Jarchi: so Jeroboam, who was of the tribe of Ephraim, spake before Solomon, a great king, as he observes. R. Moses the priest interprets it of Jeroboam; but it may be understood of the tribe in general, and especially of the heads of it, at anytime before it fell into idolatry; when they spake with submission and humility, they were attended to by the other tribes in all consultations and debates, and great deference was paid unto them; and they were find in great esteem, and highly honoured, agreeably to that common saving of our Lord, "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted", Luke 14:11; or, "when [he] spake [there was] trembling" q; either the neighbouring nations, when he threatened them with war: or among the other tribes of Israel, when he spake in counsel, and with authority, they rose up and...

Hosea was full of complaints against the people of God; for, in his day, they had very sadly wandered from the Lord. They had even forgotten him. In Hosea's prophecy, we have the plaintive voice of a loving God chiding his backsliding children. Hosea 13:1. _When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died._ A modest, humble, trembling heart is often by far the sounder heart, but when we begin to sin, and to sin boastfully, and to wrap ourselves about with the robe of self-complacency, then is death very near to us: «When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.» Hosea 13:2. And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to

CHAPTER 13 EPHRAIM'S RUIN AND JUDGMENT _ 1. Ruin and judgment (Hosea 13:1) _ 2. It is thy destruction, O Israel! (Hosea 13:9) 3. Mercy to follow wrath (Hosea 13:12) 4. The desolation of the nearing judgment (Hosea 13:15) Hosea 13:1. In the beginning Ephraim was humble, and knowing his dependence, he spoke with trembling. Then he became puffed up, exalted himself in Israel, loving the preeminence, it led on to the schism from Judah and the house of David. The next step after this separation from Judah was idolatry, then

HOSEA 13:1 (= Heb. Hosea 13:1 to Hosea 14:1). FACILIS DESCENSUS AVERNO. Israel has persistently lapsed into the Baal-worship and idolatry, and therefore shall be swept away as the chaff (Hosea 13:1). Yahweh has brought him up from Egypt, protected him in the wilderness, and given him plenty, yet he has forgotten Him (Hosea 13:4), therefore He is against them as a bear bereaved of her whelps. Israel's ruin is self-imposed (Hosea 13:7) and his kings are powerless ...