Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition) (continued)
Thf Spiritual Whoredom of Israel, HOSEA I, II. The Idolatry of the People.
fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that his spiritual seed should be as the sand of the sea (ch. 1. 10; 3. 5), clearly refer to the New Testament dispensation.
The first and third chapters are in prose, the rest of the book is rhythmical.
CHAPTER I.
famous as a warrior (2 Kings 14.25). Yet it was not their warlike power Jehovah would save Judah (1 Samuel 17.47; Psalm 20.7). The deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib (2 Kings 19.35), and the restoration from Babylon, are herein predicted. 8. weaned—said to complete the symbolical picture, not having any special signification as to Israel. [Henderson.] Israel was bereft of all the privileges which were as needful to them as milk is to infant's (cf. Psalm 131.2; 1 Peter 2.2). [Vatablus.] Israel was not suddenly, but gradually cast otT; God bore with them with long-suffering, until they were incurable. [Calvin.] But as it is not God, but Gomer who weans Loruhamali, the weaning may Imply the lust of Gomer, who was hardl3' weaned when she is again pregnant. [Manger.] 9. L.o-amml—once "my people," but henceforth not so (Ezekiel 16. 8). The intervals between the marriage and the successive births of the three children, imply that three successive generations are intended. Jezreel, the first child, represents the dynasty of Jeroboam I. and his successors, ending with Jehu's shedding tlie blood of Jeroboam's line in Jezreel; it was there that Jezebel was slain, in vengeance for Naboth's blood shed in the same Jezreel (1 Kings 16. 1; 2 Kings 9. 21, 30). The scenes of Jezreel were to be enacted over again on Jehu's degenerate race. At Jezreel Assyria routed Israel. [Jerome.] The child's name associates past sins, intermediate punishments, and final overthrow. Lo-ruhamah (JVot pitied), the second child, is a daughter, representing the effeminate period which followed the overthrow of the first dynasty, wlien Israel was at once abject and impious. Lo-ammi
Ver. 1-11. Inscription. Spiritual whoredom of Israel set t'ortli by symbolical acts ; Gomer taken to wife at God's cojiimand: Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, and Lo-ammi, the children. Yet a piomise of Judah and Israel's restoration. 1. fee Iiitroduciion. Jeroboam—the second ; who died in the filleenth year of Uzziah's forty-one years' reign. From his time forth all Israel's kings worsiiipped false gods: Zaehariah (2 Kings 15. 9), Menahem (2 Kings 15. 18), Pekahiah (2 Kings 15. 24), Pekah (2 Kings 15. 28), Hoshea (2 Kings
17.2). As Israel was most flourisliing externally under Jeroboam II., wlio recovered the possessions seized on by Syria, Hosea's propliecy of its downfall at that time. was the more striking the less it could have been foreseen by mere human sagacity. Jonah the prophet had promised success to Jeroboam II. from God, not for the king's merit, but from God's mercy to Israel; so the coast of Israel was restored by Jeroboam II. from the entering of Hamath to tlie sea of the plain (2 Kings 14. 23-27). 2. beginning—not of tlie prophet's predictions generally, but of tliose spoken by Hosea. take . . . wife of whoredoms —not externally acted, but internally and in vision, as a pictorial illustration of Israel's unfaithfulness. [HengSTENBERG.] Of. Ezeklel 16. 8, 15, &c. Besides the loathsomeness of such a marriage, if an external act, it would require years lor the birth of three children, which would weaken the symbol (cf. Ezekiel 4. 4). Henderson objects that lliere is no hint of the transaction being fictitious: Gomer fell into lewdness after her union with Hosea, not before; for thus only she was a fit symbol of Israel, who lap.sed into spiritual whoredom after the marriage contract witli God on Sinai, and made even before at the call of the patriarchs of Israel. Gomer is called "a wife of wlioredoms," anticipatively. children ofwhoredoms The kingdom collectively is viewed as a mother ; the individual subjects of it are spoten of as her children. "Take" being applied to both Implies that they refer to the same thing viewed under diflerent aspects. Tlie "children" were not the prophet's own, but born of adul-
my people), the third child, a son, represents the vigorous dynasty (2 Kings 14.25) of Jeroboam II.; but, as prosperity did not bring with it revived piety, they were still not God's people. 10. Literally fulfilled in part at the return from Babylon, In which many Israelites joined with Judah. Spiritually, the believing seed of Jacob or Israel, Gentiles as well as Jews, numerous " as the sand" (Genesis 32.12); the Gentiles, once not God's people, becoming His "sons" (John 1.12; Romans 9. 2.5, 26; 1 Peter
2. 10; 1 John 3. 1). To be fulfilled In Its literal fulness hereafter in Israel's restoration (Romans 11.26). the living God—opposed to their dead idols. 11. .Tndah . . . Isi-ael tery, and presented to him as his. [Kitto, Biblical Cyclopaedia.] Rather, "children of whoredoms" means that the children, like their mother, fell Into spiritual fornication. (Jf. " bare him a son" (see ch. 2. 4, 5). Being children of a spiritual whore, they naturally fell Into her whorish ways. 3. Gomer . . . daughter of Diblalm—symbolical names; lit., ''Completion, daughter of grape-cakes;" the dual expressing the double layers in which these dainties were baked. So, one comjyletely given up to sensuality. Maurer explains "Gomer" as lit., "a burning coal."
. . . together—(Isaiah 11.12, 13; Jeremiah 3.18; Ezekiel
34.23 ; 37.16-24.) one head—Zerubbabel typically; Christ antitypically, under whom alone Israel and Judah are joined, the "Head" of the Church (Ephesians 1. 22; 5.23), and of the hereafter united kingdom of Judah and Israel (Jeremiah 31. 5, 6; Ezekiel 34.23). Though "appointed" by the Father (Psalm 2. 6), Christ is in another sense "appointed" as their Head by His people, when they accept and embrace Him as such, out of the land—of the Gen-
Cf. Proverbs 6.27, 29, as to an adulteress; Job 31.9, 12. 4. Jeireel— i. e., God will scatter (cf. Zechariah 10. 9). It was the royal city of Ahab and his successors. In the tribe of Issachar. Here Jehu exercised his greatest cruelties (2 Kings 9. 16, 25, 33; 10. 11, 14, 17). There is in the name an allusion to "Israel" by a play of letters and sounds. 5. bow—the prowess (Jeremiah 49.35; cf. Genetiles among whom they sojourn, the day of .Tezreel "the day of one" is the time of God's special visitation of him, either in wrath or in mercy. Here " Jezreel" is in a different sense from that In v. 4, "God will sow," not "God will scatter;" they shall be the seed of God, planted by God again in their own land (Jeremiah 24.6; 81.28; 32.
sis 49. 24). valley of Jexreel—afterwards called Esdraelon, extending ten miles in breadth, and in length from Jordan to the Mediterranean near Mount Carmel, the great batlle-tield of Palestine (Judges 6.33; 1 Samuel 29.1). 6. Jo-mhamah i. e.. Not an object of mercy or gracious favour, take . . . away—Israel, as a kingdom, was never restored from Assyria, as Judah was from Babylon after seventy years. Maurer translates according to the primary iiieani iig, " No more will I have mercy on the house of Israel, so as to pardon l\ien\." 7, Judah is only incidenlally mentioned to form a contrast to Israel, by the
41 ; Amos 9. 15). CHAPTEE II.
Ver. 1-23. Application of the symbols in chap. i.
Israel's spiritual fornication, and her threatened punishment : yet a promise 6f God's restored favour, when chastisements have produced their designed effect. 1. Say. . . unto . . . brethren, Amml, &c.—i.e.. When the prediction (ch. 1. 11) shall be accomplished, tlien ye will call one another, as brothers and sisters in tlie family of God, Ammi and Buhamah. 3. Plead—Expostulate, mother —i.e.,t\\ena.Uo-a collectively. The address is to "her children," i. e., to the individual citizens of tlie state (cf. Isaiah lioi'd lln-lr God—niore emphatic than "by myself;" by lliat Jehovali (me) whom they worship as their God, whereas ye despise Him. not . . . by bow—on whicli ye Israelites rely (v. 5, " the bow of Israel"); Jeroboam II. was
50.1). for she Is not my wife—she has deprived herself of her high privilege by spiritual adultery, out of her