Hosea 13:3

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. THEREFORE THEY SHALL BE AS THE MORNING CLOUD, AND AS THE EARLY DEW. - ( "Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away"). As their "goodness" soon vanished like the morning cloud and dew, so they shall perish like them. Just retribution in kind. AS THE CHAFF THAT IS DRIVEN WITH THE WHIRLWIND OUT OF THE FLOOR - the threshingfloor, generally an open area on a height, exposed to the winds. AND AS THE SMOKE OUT OF THE CHIMNEY - generally in the East an orifice in the wall, at once admitting the light and giving egress to the smoke....

The Prophet employs here four similitudes to show the condition of Israel. How much soever they flourished for a time, and might be deemed happy, their state would yet be fading and evanescent. _They shall be, _he says, _as the morning cloud: _though they be loftily proud, the Lord will yet shake off from them whatever power they may have. Secondly, they shall be _as the dew that rises up in the morning _— having nothing substantial in them. Thirdly they shall be _as the chaff which from the floor is driven by a whirlwind _And, lastly they shall be, he says, _as the smoke_; for _as the smoke _produces thick darkness, and, after having gone out of the chimney, disperses and disappears, so these proud people, how much soever they may have praised themselves, would not continue in a permanent condition. We hence conclude, that the Israelites were not so much like the dead, but that yet they...

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....

Verse Hosea 13:3. _THEREFORE THEY SHALL BE AS THE MORNING CLOUD - AS THE_ _EARLY DEW - AS THE CHAFF - AS THE SMOKE_] _Four_ things, most easy to be driven about and dissipated, are employed here to show how they should be _scattered_ among the nations, and dissipated by captivity....

THEREFORE THEY SHALL BE AS THE MORNING CLOUD - There is often a fair show of prosperity, out of God; but it is short-lived. “The third generation,” says the pagan proverb, “never enjoys the ill-gotten gain.” The highest prosperity of an ungodly state is often the next to its fall. Israel never so flourished, as under Jeroboam II. Bright and glistening with light is “the early dew;” in an hour it is gone, as if it had never been. Glowing and gilded by the sun is “the morning cloud;” while you admire its beauty, its hues have vanished. “The chaff” lay in one heap “on the floor” with the wheat. Its owner casts the mingled chaff and wheat against the strong wind; in a moment, it is “driven by the wind out of the floor.” While every gram falls to the ground, the chaff, light, dry, worthless, unsubstantial, is hurried along, unresisting, the sport of the viewless wind, and itself is soon seen...

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...

THEREFORE THEY SHALL BE AS THE MORNING CLOUD,.... Which, however promising it is, soon disappears when the sun is risen; signifying that the idolatrous Israelites, king, priests, and people, should be no more; their kingdom would cease, all their riches and wealth would depart from them, and they and their children be carried captive into a strange land: AND AS THE EARLY DEW IT PASSETH AWAY; as soon as the heat of the sun is felt, when the earth is left dry; so these people, though they seemed to be in great prosperity, and to be very fruitful in children, and in substance, and promised themselves much more; yet in a little time their land would become desolate, and they stripped of all that was dear and valuable to them these metaphors are used in Hosea 6:4; AS THE CHAFF [THAT] IS DRIVEN WITH A WHIRLWIND OUT OF THE FLOOR; signifying that these idolatrous peop

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 ...