Hosea 4:16

For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place. FOR ISRAEL SLIDETH BACK AS A BACKSLIDING HEIFER - translate, 'Israel is refractory, as a refractory heifer,' namely, one that throws the yoke off her neck. Israel had represented God under the form of "calves" (); but it is she herself who is one, untamed, petulant, and disinclined to God's yoke, and when under it turning backward rather than forward. NOW THE LORD WILL FEED THEM AS A LAMB IN A LARGE PLACE - not in a good sense, as . "In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures." Here there is irony; lambs like a large pasture; but it is not so safe for them as a small one duly fenced from wild beasts. God will "feed" them, but it shall be with...

The Prophet compares Israel here to an untamable heifer. Some render it, “A straying heifer”, and we may render it, “A wanton heifer.” But to others a defection seems to have been more especially intended, because they had receded or departed from God: but this comparison is not so apposite. They render it, “As a backsliding,” or “receding heifer:” but I prefer to view the word as meaning, one that is petulant or lascivious: and the punishment which is subjoined, _The Lord will now feed them as a tender lamb in a spacious place, _best agrees with this view, as we shall immediately see. It must, in the first place, be understood, that Israel is compared to a heifer, and indeed to one that is wanton, which cannot remain quiet in the stall nor be accustomed to the yoke: it is hence subjoined, _The Lord will now feed them as a lamb in a spacious place _The meaning of this clause may be twofo...

12-19 The people consulted images, and not the Divine word. This would lead to disorder and sin. Thus men prepare scourges for themselves, and vice is spread through a people. Let not Judah come near the idolatrous worship of Israel. For Israel was devoted to idols, and must now be let alone. When sinners cast off the easy yoke of Christ, they go on in sin till the Lord saith, Let them alone. Then they receive no more warnings, feel no more convictions: Satan takes full possession of them, and they ripen for destruction. It is a sad and sore judgment for any man to be let alone in sin. Those who are not disturbed in their sin, will be destroyed for their sin. May we be kept from this awful state; for the wrath of God, like a strong tempest, will soon hurry impenitent sinners into ruin....

Verse Hosea 4:16. _ISRAEL SLIDETH BACK_] They are untractable, like an unbroken heifer or steer, that _pulls back_, rather than _draw in the_ _yoke_. _WILL FEED THEM AS A LAMB IN A LARGE PLACE._] A species of irony. Ye shall go to Assyria, and be scattered among the nations; ye may _sport yourselves_ in the extensive empire, wither ye shall be carried captives....

FOR ISRAEL SLIDETH BACK, AS A BACKSLIDING HEIFER - The calves which Israel worshiped were pictures of itself. They represented natural, untamed, strength, which, when put to service, started back and shrank from the yoke. “Untractable, petulant, unruly, wanton, it withdrew from the yoke, when it could; if it could not, it drew aside or backward, instead of forward.” So is it rare, exceeding rare, for man to walk straight on in God’s ways; he jerks, writhes, twists, darts aside here and there, hating nothing so much as one straight, even, narrow tenor of his ways. NOW THE LORD WILL FEED THEM AS A LAMB IN A LARGE PLACE - The punishment of Israel was close at hand, “now.” It would not have the straitness of God’s commandments; it should have the wideness of a desert. God would withdraw His protecting providence from them: He would rule them, although unfelt in His mercy. At “large,” they wi...

EXPOSITION HOSEA 4:1 A new and distinct division of the book commences with this fourth chapter and continues till the close. What had previously been presented in figure and symbol is now plainly and literally stated. The children of Israel are summoned in the first verse of this chapter to hear the charge preferred against them and the sentence pronounced. Having convened, as it were, a public assembly and cited the persons concerned, the prophet proceeds to show cause why they are bound to give an attentive hearing. In God's controversy with the people of the land the prophet acts as his ambassador, accusing the people of great and grievous sins, and vindicating the justice of God's judgments in their punishment. The _ki_ with which the last clause of the verse commences may be either causal or recitative, and may thus specify either the ground or sub

FOR ISRAEL SLIDETH BACK AS A BACKSLIDING HEIFER,.... A heifer or young cow Israel is compared unto; the rather, because of the object of their idolatrous worship, the calves at Dan and Bethel: the Septuagint calls them "heifers": which they are hereby put in mind of, and upbraided with; as also to express their brutish stupidity in worshipping such idols, in which they obstinately persisted: and so were like a "refractory" and "untamed" heifer, as some w render it, which will not be kept within bounds, either within doors or without, but breaks through, and passes over, all fences and enclosures; as they did, who transgressed the laws of God, and would not be restrained by them: or like a heifer unaccustomed to the yoke, which will not submit to it, but wriggles its neck from under it: so the Israelites would not be subject to the yoke of the law of God, were sons of Belial, children wit...

GALATIANS; Epistle, Introduction, (_ See Scofield) - (Galatians 1:1). _ GARMENT; symbol of righteousness, (_ See Scofield) - (Revelation 19:8). _ GEHENNA; see Hell GENERATION; meaning of, in Matthew 24, (_ See Scofield) - (Matthew 24:34). _ GENTILE; believers and the law, (_ See Scofield) - (Acts 15:19). _ GENTILE; nations to be judged, ( See Scofield) - (Isaiah 30:

II. THE MESSAGE OF EXPOSTULATION, JUDGMENT, AND MERCY CHAPTER 4 The Lord's Controversy with His People _ 1. The condition of the people (Hosea 4:1) _ 2. The loss of their priestly relation (Hosea 4:6) 3. Israel's idolatry (Hosea 4:12) Hosea 4:1. This chapter begins with a terse description of the condition of the professing people of God. First, we have the negative side--no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God. And there was no truth, because they had rejected the Word of the Lord, hence the result no mercy and no knowledge of God. It is so still whenever and wherever the Word of God is set aside. Then follows the pos

THE UTTER CORRUPTION OF THE NATION TRACED TO IRRELIGION. (The text of Hosea 4:15 is hopelessly corrupt. Marti regards Hosea 4:3 as an insertion and Hosea 4:5_ a_ as foreign to their present context.) The complete lack of knowledge of God in the land (_cf. Hosea 4:6_, Hosea 5:4; Hosea 6:3) has, as its inevitable consequence, widespread moral corruption yet let none reprove, for the people is as the priestling and the prophet as the priest ...