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THE BOOK OF
HOSEA

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THE BOOK OF
HOSEA Edited by
THE REV. T. K. CHEYNE, M.A., D.D.
Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture
at Oxford; Canon of Rochester.

Cambridge :
at the University Press
1913

First Edition, 1884.
Reprinted 1887, 1889, 1892, 1897, 1899, 1905, 1913.

PREFACE
BY THE GENERAL EDITOR.
The General Editor of The Cambridge Bible for
Schools thinks it right to say that he does not hold
himself responsible either for the interpretation of
particular passages which the Editors of the several
Books have adopted, or for any opinion on points of
doctrine that they may have expressed. In the New
Testament more especially questions arise of the
deepest theological import, on Which the ablest and
most conscientious interpreters have differed and
always will differ. His aim has been in all such
cases to leave each Contributor to the unfettered
exercise of his own judgment, only taking care that
nere controversy should as far as possible be avoided.
He has contented himself chiefly with a careful
evision of the notes, with pointing out omissions, with

6 PREFACE.
suggesting occasionally a reconsideration of some
question, or a fuller treatment of difficult passages,
and the like.
Beyond this he has not attempted to interfere,
feeling it better that each Commentary should have
its own individual character, and being convinced
that freshness and variety of treatment are more
than a compensation for any lack of uniformity in
the Series.

CONTENTS.

PAGES
I. Introduction. o — 39
Chapter I. The prophet's name and origin.
His period and its characteristics 9 — 15
Chapter II. Hosea's domestic history. Parable
or fact? 
Chapter III. The second Book of Hosea 
Chapter IV. The five leading ideas of the pro
phecy. Hosea compared with
prophets before and after him ...
Chapter V. His style, etc 
Chronological Table  40
II. Text and Notes  41 — 130
Index I. To the Subjects treated of  131 — 2
II. To the Chief Passages from other Parts
of the Bible, illustrated in the Notes 132

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19-

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-1*

32"

-39

The Text adopted in this Edition is that of Dr Scrivener's
Cambridge Paragraph Bible. A few variations from the ordi
nary Text, chiefly in the spelling of certain words, and in the
use of italics, will be noticed. For the principles adopted by
Dr Scrivener as regards the printing of the Text see his In
troduction to the Paragraph Bible, published by the Cambridge
University Press.

INTRODUCTION. CHAPTER I.
The Prophet's name and origin. — His period and its
characteristics.
/THE Book of Hosea stands first among the writings of the
Minor Prophets', not because it was thought to be the earliest
(for of this there is no proof), but because it is the longest.
Joel (at least according to the ordinary opinion) and Amos are
both prior in time to Hosea, and Amos in particular ought to be
very carefully compared with the subject of our present study.
Hosea indeed is throughout enigmatical and obscure compared
with Amos, partly from the peculiarities of his style, partly from
the want of such illustrative details as those with which we have
been supplied by his predecessor (Am. vii. 10—17). The pro
phet's name is one specially characteristic of Northern Israel;
\\. was borne by the last king of the Ten Tribes (2 Kings xv. 30),
and also originally by Joshua;(Num. xiii. 8, 16; Deut. xxxii. 44).!
True, the prophet appears in Auth. Vers, as Hosea, but there is
no difference between the names of the three persons in the
Hebrew. The form in our Bibles was suggested by the Osee of
the Septuagint and the Vulgate ; St Jerome bears witness that
even in his time there was no distinction between the letters
Sin and Shin. It is St Jerome again who informs us (see his
note on i. 1) that in some Greek and Latin MSS. the name of the
prophet was written Ause, which reminds us of the form which the
name assumes in the Assyrian inscriptions — Ausi'. Nothing is
known of the prophet's father Beeri ; it was a Jewish fancy that

10 INTRODUCTION.
he too was a prophet, and verses 19, 20 of Isa. viii. (see De-
litzsch's note) were even declared to be words of Beeri which
had intruded into the text of Isaiah1. That Hosea was a native
of the northern kingdom needs no proof to any one who has
read his book. Without laying any stress on occasional Arama-
isms, or on the phrase ' our king' in vii. 5, which is probably
enough a popular phrase taken up half-satirically by the pro
phet, it would seem that the flow of sympathy towards the
Israelites, the intimate knowledge of their circumstances, the
topographical2 and historical allusions, point unmistakably to
one born and bred in the northern state. How different is the
superficial though not untruthful survey of things and people
given by a mere visitor from Judah — the prophet Amos! In
addition to this, consider Hosea's apparent familiarity with the
great love-poem of Northern Israel, which is of course not coun
terbalanced by his probable knowledge of the Book of Amos3 —
a Judahite prophet, but commissioned to prophesy to Israel
(vii. 15). A subtler argument in favour of the same view may be
derived from the tone of Hosea's religion, which is on the whole
both warmer and more joyous (see especially chaps, ii. and xiv.)
than that which prevails in the great Judahite prophets. Hosea
seems indeed to have been affected by the genial moods of
nature in the north, and to have partaken of that expansive,]
childlike character, which as a matter of fact led his country-
people astray, but which might have issued in loving obedience)
to the God of love.
We have taken some pains to prove the Israelitish origin of
the prophet, because it is this which gives his book such a high
historical importance. There is very much to interest us in
that northern people of which we have for the most part such
fragmentary and indirect notices. It embraced the larger part
of the old Israelitish community, and, sad as were the final
1 It need hardly be said that there is no inconsistency of style be
tween these two verses and those which precede and follow to justify
the theory of interpolation.
2 See v. 1, vi. 8, 9, xii. n, xiv. 5, 6.
8 On both points, see end of Introduction.

INTRODUCTION. n

results of its struggle for independence, the struggle itself was
from a secular point of view not merely excusable but inevit
able. Nor can we doubt that, if we knew more at first hand
respecting the north-Israelitish kingdom, we should find much
to sympathize with even morally, and many germs of good
Which might have developed into lovely 'plants of Jehovah.'
jflijah is hardly a full representative of Israel's moral capacities.
His character could not help being affected by his origin. He
was a Gileadite1, a fellow-tribesman perhaps of those Gadites of
David 'whose faces were like the faces of lions', and who were
'as swift as the roes upon the mountains' (i Chron. xii. 8), and
of those 'fifty men of the Gileadites' who captured and slew
Pekahiah in his royal fortress (2 Kings xv. 25). Very different
is Hosea, and the difference is reflected in his character, which
again is partly accounted for by his origin. That one of so
typically Israelitish a nature, and so full of love for his northern
home, should have taken such a hopeless view of the prospects
of the state, seems proof enough of the deadly corruption which
prevailed. As Stanley has said2, he was the Jeremiah of Israel;
no wonder therefore that he met Jeremiah's fate of opposition
and contempt3 (ix. 7, 8, comp. Jer. xxix. 26, 27).
Hosea, then, was the prophet of the decline and fall of Is
rael ; so much indeed is clear from a glance at his book. But
did he prophesy during the whole of this sad period ? It is not
by any means inconceivable, according to our chronological
table, but we are bound to test the view by internal evidence.]
First of all, there is the heading (i. 1), which states that Hosea
received divine revelations 'in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jero
boam the son of Joash, king of Israel.' The natural inference
would be that these two historical periods synchronized. But
if anything is certain in Biblical history, it is that Jeroboam II.
of Israel died before his contemporary Uzziah or Azariah of
1 'Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbeh in Gilead', 1 Kings xvii. 1
(Ewald and Thenius, following the Septuagint and Josephus).
2 Lectures on the Jewish Church, ii 369.
3 It was the fate of Amos, too, in Hosea's own country (Am. vn.
10—13).

INTRODUCTION.

Judah. We need not however accuse the author of the heading
of an error in calculation ; the heading is probably a thought
less combination ofjwo^dis^mct^tradjtions^r views which do
not refer to the same amount of prophetic writing. That the
first three chapters, which form a whole in themselves, were
written in the reign of Jeroboam IL, is sufficiently clear from
internal evidence. The ruin of the house of Jehu is still future
in chap. i. (see ver. 4), and the picture of the prosperous condi
tion of Israel given in chap. ii. agrees with no admissible period
but that of Jeroboam II. Hence the first part of the heading
may reasonably be presumed to have been originally prefixed to
the small prophetic roll containing chaps, i.— iii.
As for the second part, it was doubtless intended to refer to
the complete book of Hosea ; the author of it however is not to be
taken quite at his word. The fact that the book of Isaiah (or shall
we say, Isa. i. — xxxix. ?) is preceded by a heading which mentions
the same four kings of Judah, suggests that one and the same
editor wrote the heading of Isaiah and the latter part of that of
Hosea. Now it may be assumed as practically certain that the
former heading (or at any rate the chronological part of it) was
the work of a scribe during the Exile, so that this late editor pro
bably only knew in a vague way that Isaiah and Hosea were more
or less contemporary. Micah he thought (for we can hardly doubt
that he also wrote Mic. i. 1) was a little junior to those two, and
so he left out 'Uzziah' in the heading of Micah's book. In the
case of Micah we have seen already that internal evidence does
not bear out a strict interpretation of the heading, and it will be
easy to prove the same in the case of Hosea. It is true that
'Shalman' is referred to in x. 14, and that Dr Pusey and Mr
Bosanquet have identified this name with Shalmaneser, but we
shall see later on how groundless this view is; true, further,
that King Hoshea formed political relations with Egypt such as
are referred to in vii. 11, xii. I, but a party friendly to Egypt
must from the nature of the case have existed before Hoshea's
reign ; true, lastly, that x. 5, 6, xiii. 16 contain detailed predic
tions of an Assyrian conquest which have been supposed1 to
1 Prebendary Huxtable, Speaker's Commentary, Vol. vi. p. 405.

INTRODUCTION. 13

indicate that the events foretold were on the point of taking
place, but the expressions could just as well have been used
under Pekah or Menahem as under Hoshea, and xiv. 3 shows
that when the latter chapters were written the Jews had not
finally broken with Assyria. The reigns of Ahaz and Hezekiah
seem therefore to be out of the question as periods for any part
of Hosea. There remains, as a possible date for chaps, iv. —
xiv., the reign of Jotham, who was contemporary with Zecha
riah, Shallum, Menahem, and Pekahiah, and perhaps for two
or three years with Pekah. Many have thought that the diffi
cult passage viii. 10 refers to the tribute which Menahem paid
to Tiglath-Pileser1 (2 Kings xv. 19 mentions him by his private
name Pul), but the Hebrew text probably needs correction.
It is at any rate certain that the picture described in chaps.
iv. — xiv. is one of alarming national decline both in the moral and
in the political sphere. In chap. ii. the prophet had severely
reprimanded the Israelites for confounding Jehovah with the
Canaanitish Baalim (see on ii. 16, 17), but he says nothing of that
fearful moral corruption which in the later chapters he sees to be
eating away the life of the nation^/ Why this is the case, is uncer
tain : it would be hazardous to assume that the corruption did
not in some degree exist. If Hosea did not at once depict it in
its true colours, we may conjecturally ascribe this either to the
hopefulness of youth, or to the circumstance that the people of
the district from which he sprang were comparatively pure in
their morals, owing perhaps to their remoteness from the great
centres of a debasing worship. Can we support this latter theory
by external evidence? It seems that we can with at least a
reasonable degree of certitude. We need not dogmatize here
as to the composition of that exquisite love-poem the Song of
Songs, but we may at any rate be allowed to hold that the most
characteristic portions of it are monuments of the reign of Jero
boam II. If so, it is evident that the rustic beauties of N. Israel
not only had external attractions, but also the 'gentlest and
1 Tiglath-Pileser mentions Rasunnu (Rezin) of Damascus and Mini-
khimmi (Menahem) of Samaria among hi? tributaries in the eighth year
of his reign, B.C. 738 (Schrader).

14 INTRODUCTION. 
noblest' womanly virtues1. The generally admitted fact that
the Book of Hosea contains reminiscences of the Song of Songs
suggests that a change had passed over Israel since that poem
(or some portion of it) was written, otherwise the prophet would
clearly stand self-convicted of exaggeration. We may perhaps
ascribe this change in part to the removal of the vigorous states
man upon the throne, who must surely have recognized the poli
tical importance of preserving intact the moral foundations of the
state : — it is of Jeroboam's upstart successors that the prophet
complains that they took pleasure in wickedness, and shared in
the licentiousness of their people (vii. 3, 4). And no wonder
that they did so, when, as in the decline of the Roman state,
rough 'pretorians' seized and gave away the crown2. Could it
be otherwise, when the tone of society was set by the coarsest j
and most lawless natures? Such was not a period in which
many women like the Shulamite or men like the prophet Hosea
could be expected to arise. Add to this, that the priests found
it their interest to encourage vice and sensuality (iv. 6 — 8), and
what further need have we of witnesses to the inner necessity of
the speedy downfall of a self-betrayed state ?
The concluding years of the reign of Jotham saw the forma
tion of an alliance between Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king
of Israel, based on the importance of opposing a firm front to the
aggressions of Assyria. They needed the support of Judah,
but Jotham, perhaps from religious motives, held back. Hosea
makes no allusion to the Syro-Israelitish inroads which led up
to the great invasion described in Isa. vii. The inroads he
might have passed over in silence, but scarcely the invasion.
A reunion of north and south was a part of his most cherished
ideal (i. 11), but such a reunion as was now threatened he could
not but denounce as prematurely involving Judah in the fate of
her apostate sister. From his not mentioning it, it is plain
that he was no longer prophesying, and it is for a similar reason
plain that no part of his book was written as late as the inva-

1 Delitzsch, Canticles and Ecclesiastes, E. T. , p. 5.
8 See Heilprin, Historical Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews, ii. 118.

INTRODUCTION. 15

sion of Gilead1 and Naphtali by Tiglath-Pileser. It is a satis
faction to believe that such a devoted patriot (if the word be
allowable) had closed his eyes before this 'beginning of pangs ' —
this first fulfilment of his reluctant threatenings.

CHAPTER II.
Hosea's domestic history. — Parable or fact f — Chap. ii. alone
an allegory.
At the opening of this essay, a regret was expressed that we
had no such illustrative details respecting Hosea as in the case
of Amos. We have in fact no information as to his outward
circumstances, or as to his intercourse with the different classes in
the state. But we do know a series of domestic events which
Hosea himself viewed as interpretative of God's purposes for
him, and as conveying to him a clearly defined mission. The
prophet has himself lifted the veil from his home life, and the
sad story is briefly this. In the reign of Jeroboam II., when the
nation was already on the down-hill road to moral ruin, Hosea
married a wife named Gomer. He hoped the best of her, there
is no reason to think otherwise; but she proved unworthy of his
trust Whether her profligacy showed itself in simple adultery,
or in her following the licentious rites of the consort of the
Canaanitish Baal (Asherah)2, we know not. But such was
1 In fact, Gilead is repeatedly referred to as a part of N. Israel (see
v. 1, vi. 8, xii. n).
3 As Dean Plumptre well remarks (Lazarus and other Poems, p. 209),
'The two sins of idolatry and sensual licence were closely intertwined....
It would be hardly too much to say that every harlot in Israel was
probably a votary of the goddess' (see on iv. 13, 14). Asherah (trans
formed by Auth. Vers, into ' grove ') was, as most think, the name of a
Canaanitish goddess, though some scholars prefer to regard the word
as a noun meaning 'pole', the sacred tree being represented by a pole
on or near the altar. In any case the goddess had such an artificial
tree or symbol of a tree erected near her altars. Those who take
Asherah to be the name of a goddess refer to the Assyrian dsir, fem.
dsirat 'favourable', whence also probably the name Asher (a divine

16 INTRODUCTION.
Hosea's love for his wife, and such perhaps his hope of reclaim
ing her, that he took no legal step against her, and acknowledged
her three children for his own. At last, however, Gomer fled
away to her paramour, but even then Hosea's love followed her.
He found her, as it would seem, already despised and shamed ;
perhaps her paramour had grown weary of her, and brutally
sold her for a slave. At any rate, Hosea had to buy her back
for the price of a slave; — "weeping blinding tears,
I took her to myself, and paid the price
(Strange contrast to the dowry of her youth
When first I wooed her) ; and she came again
To dwell beneath my roof. Yet not for me
The tender hopes of those departed years,
And not for her the freedom and the love
I then bestowed so freely. Sterner rule
Is needed now. In silence and alone,
In shame and sorrow, wailing, fast, and prayer,
She must blot out the stains that made her life
One long pollution1."
Such is the story told us in the first and third chapters. There
is no attempt to soften the colouring by half-tints ; 'rough fresco-
strokes,' to adopt Ewald's phrase, seemed perhaps more effec
tive. Besides, it would have led some to accuse Hosea of
egotism, a fault from which a prophetic writer must be con
spicuously free, if he had lavished his artistic power on his own
tragic history. The student is, however, much indebted to Dean
Plumptre for his strikingly suggestive poem, a few lines from
which are quoted above. A poet as well as an expositor, he
name, like Gad). They also quote passages in which an image of the
Asherah is spoken of (see i Kings xv. 13; 2 Chr. xv. 16; 2 Kings xxi.
7), and others in which vessels and tents for the Asherah are mentioned
(2 Kings xxiii. 4); also the famous phrase in 1 Kings xviii. 19, 'the
prophets of the Baal and the prophets of the Asherah.' This is quite
consistent with the occasional use of the word for the material symbol
of the goddess. It is right to add that Hosea does not mention Asherah
by name: he only alludes to the worship of her (iv. 13). But Amos
does not mention either Asherah or Baal.
1 Plumptre, Lazarus &c. , pp. 87 — 88.

INTRODUCTION. 17

felt that Hosea's poetic imagination was marked by spontaneity
and originality.) At a later period of Hebrew literature, a fic
titious narrative of this kind might be conceivable, but not in
the still youthful bloom of lyric poetry, and in the case of so fresh
and original a poet as Hosea. We are thus taking a different
line from Dr Pusey when he says, ' There is no ground to justify
our taking as a parable what Holy Scripture relates as a fact.'
There must be some plausible ground for it, or the opinion
rejected by Dr Pusey would not have commended itself to the
majority of modern commentators. It is not at all a necessary
inference from the inspiration of the Scriptures that the events
described by Hosea should be historical; it is rather an in
tuition which comes of itself to the unbiassed reader who has
any poetic insight. The only plausible argument on the other
side is that Hosea seems, when understood literally, to confess
to an act which offends our moral consciousness. But had
Hosea really meant this, he could have said at once that the
bride of his choice had been ' a harlot.' He simply says that
she was 'a woman of whoredom', which, according to He
brew idiom, need only mean 'a woman of an unchaste dispo
sition'; we must suppose that he afterwards found out Gomer
to be a woman of the character described (see on i. 2) The
inherent difficulties of the parabolic interpretation are much
greater than any slight difficulty in the literalistic one adopted
by Ewald and Wellhausen in Germany, and by Dr Pusey,
Dean Plumptre, and Prof. Robertson Smith in England. It
is indeed much to say after Dean Plumptre's poem that there
is any difficulty in the literalistic view, and if there be, it is only
because the Dean, following Dr Pusey and early Jewish autho
rities, unfortunately adopts the view that Hosea deliberately
married a woman who was, in the later Jewish phrase, 'a sinner,'
with the view of reclaiming her.
'To seek and save the lost,
Forgetful of my calling and my fame,
To call thee mine, and bring thee back to God,
Became the master-passion of my heart1.'
1 Dean Plumptre, Lazarus &c, p. 84.

ig INTRODUCTION.
The chief difficulties in the parabolic interpretation are (l) the
refractory name Gomer, which refuses to be unlocked by the
parabolic key, and contrasts so strongly with the names of
the children, and (2) that this interpretation leaves it unex
plained how Hosea came to think of Jehovah's relation to
Israel as a marriage. With regard to (1), M. Reuss exposes the
weakness of his own position by remarking, ' II est fort proba
ble que ces noms doivent avoir une signification symbolique,
comme tous les autres qui vont suivre. Mais nos dictionnaires
herjreux n'offrent aucun moyen de la retrouver1.' And with
regard to (2), as the present writer has endeavoured to enforce
elsewhere, 'Throughout the Old Testament we detect a gracious
proportion between the revelation vouchsafed and the mental
state of the person receiving it2.' But what proportion is there
between this new and strange revelation and the mental state of
a worshipper of a Deity as moral as Baal and Asherah were
immoral? It was no doubt the custom among the heathen
relations of the Israelites, and probably among the semi-heathen
Israelites, to speak of the god of heaven as married to the land3.
But how came Hosea to admit so distinctly heathenish a con
ception within the circle of the prophetic religious ideas ? It is
not enough to reply that ' the word of Jehovah came to him :'
hpw could such a. 'word' come to him, unless there were already
some point of contact for it in his mind ? He must have been
prepared by personal experience to find a moral element in this
conception which fitted it for the use of a prophet of Jehovah.
1 Reuss, Les prophet es, i. 138. There is no strangeness in the pro
phetic names of the children (comp. Isa. vii., viii.), but nothing obliges
us to assume that the mother had one too.
2 The Book of Isaiah Chronologically Arranged, p. 22.
8 It is a remarkable 'survival' of this idea that the cognate word to
Baal in Arabic (ba'l") means, according to Lane, 'any palm-trees, and
other trees, and seed-produce, not watered ; or such as are watered by
the rain : or palm-trees that imbibe with their roots, and so need not to
be watered ', in short vegetation which owes nothing to artificial irriga
tion, and is the direct product of the 'rain from heaven.' See below,
on ii. 21, 22, and especially Prof. Robertson Smith (The Prophets of
Israel, pp. 172, 409), who has thrown much fresh light on this part oi
Hosea.

INTRODUCTION. 19

Why not, then, accept Hosea's statement of his experiences in
its literal sense, interpreting his phraseology, however, with due
attention to Hebrew idiom ?
Thus much by way of introduction to chaps, i. and iii. ; the
meaning which the prophet's sad history, interpreted, as he felt,
by an inward divine voice, conveyed to him, will be seen in its
full beauty, when we come to chaps, iv. — xiv. The word ' allegory'
or 'parable' belongs properly not to these chapters, but to
chap, ii., in which the ideas which Hosea had gained through
his providential discipline are set forth in figurative language.
The position of this chapter (with which i. 10, 11 ought, as we
shall see, to be taken) is remarkable. Whether its contents
represent Hosea's thoughts previously to the events described
in chap, iii., is uncertain ; the chapter may equally well express
his later reflexions, and be simply designed as a commentary
on the names ' Lo-ruhamah' and ' Lo-ammi' in i. 6, 9.

CHAPTER III.
The second Book of Hosea. — A reproduction, not a report. —
Neither in chronological nor in logical order. — Heart-logic.
— Gomer and Hosea both types.
With the Messianic promise (taking this adjective in the
wider sense) at the end of chap, iii., we have evidently reached
the close of one great portion of prophecy. Chaps, iv. — xiv. have
a unity of their own : we might almost call them the second Book
of Hosea. That there is a substratum of prophetic oratory is
proved by the allusions to facts and persons, obscure to us but
clear to the original hearers ; in fact, in ix. 1 the motive of the
discourse is still perfectly visible. Yet we cannot suppose that
Hosea delivered any part of this ' book' in its present form ; it
can only be a reproduction by the prophet himself of the main
points of his discourses, partly imaginative, partly on the basis
of notes. We might have looked for this to prove a connected
record of the state of things in Israel from one definite historical
2 — z

INTRODUCTION.

point to another. Such however is not the case. Although in
one respect chap. iv. seems to justify its priority (namely, that
Judah is spoken of more hopefully, ver. 15, than later on), yet
upon the whole we cannot say that the early chapters belong,
say, to Mehahem's reign, and the later ones to Pekah's. Nor
is there any clear evidence of a designed logical connexion ;
Bishop Lowth even compares the book to 'sparsa quasdam
Sibyllae folia.' Pauses there are from time to time in the pro
phecy (see especially v. I, viii. 1, ix. 1, xii. 1), but it is not ob
vious that they mark stages in the development of an argument.:
There is indeed an argument, but it is one of the heart, not
of the head. It is based on the assumption that Jehovah cannot?
be less loving and less faithful than the creatures He has made.|
Bitter domestic experience has developed in the prophet the
most wonderful capacity for unselfish affection, and he argues';
from this (somewhat as our Lord in Matt. vii. 1 1) to the existence
of a still greater passion of self-sacrificing love in ' the framer of
hearts.' We have seen how Hosea, after selecting, as he had
thought, a bride like the Shulamite of his favourite poem, dis
covered to his unutterable grief that instead of a ' lily of the
valleys' (Cant. ii. 1), he had unawares
'enfolded in [his] arms
A lily torn and trampled in the mire1.'
We have seen, too, how, after Gomer had fled from her home,
in obedience to an unchaste impulse, the master-feeling which
that sweet old poem calls ' strong as Death ' and ' obstinate as
She612' (Cant. viii. 6), prompted him to rescue her from her desti
tution, and bring her home again, not indeed at first to freedom,
but to the cleansing chastisement of seclusion. We have seen the
bitter experience, but not as yet penetrated into the mystery of
its meaning. Both Hosea's impulses were according to the
1 Dean Plumptre (Lazarus and other Poems, p. 85), who however'
prefixes the words 'I, knowing all', which imply a misinterpretation'
of i. 2.
a Death is a synonym for Sheol or the Hebrew Hades (as Isa. xxviii.
15, 18, xxxviii. 18). The Underworld is represented as having a
mysterious power of attracting and swallowing up all men.

INTRODUCTION. 21
unmistakable will of God, who overruled this domestic tragedy
to a wise and gracious end. Hosea was to learn what no pro
phet had learned before, and what no prophet ever could have
learned by a mechanical revelation from without — viz. that the
essence of the divine nature was not justice but love (comp.
I John iv. 8). Gomer in her prime of purity was a symbol
of Israel whom Jehovah 'found as grapes in the wilderness'
(ix. io) ; in her unnatural infidelity, of Israel who ' went after '
the Baalim (ii. 13) ; in her undeserved gradual restitution into
the position of a wife, of Israel, first led aside into the wilder
ness, and then taken back to the full favour of an eternally
loving God. And Hosea_in his mixed and harrowing feelings
towards Gomer is himself a type of Jehovah. His loathing
abhorrence of her sin, his flaming indignation at her infidelity,
and, stronger than either, his tender compassion at the depth of
misery to which she has reduced herself, are but a reflexion of
Jehovah's feelings towards His people. Hosea's work is to give
expression to this newly-found truth.
He does so in what may be called in the main a
lyric monologue of Jehovah Himself. He has no occasion
to say, ' Thus saith the Lord1.' Without referring to any past
revelation and clothing it in self-chosen words, he feels and
knows that the words which well up from his heart ade
quately express the feelings of the divine Heart. Gomer in
fact is not merely an emblem ; she is a representative. As
Gomer has erred, so Israel as a nation has erred. Gomer
was unchaste and, it would seem, a devotee of Asherah; so
were too many others of the women of Israel, while the kindred
worship of Baal or Baal-Jehovah absorbed the religious feelings
of the men. Hosea, who has learned to 'know Jehovah ', is cut
to the quick by such apostasy ; he spares no detail of the
abominations that are committed ; with a kind of grieved sur
prise he puts before the people the inevitable punishment, but
when he has fully realized the awful nature of the doom, he
melts with pity, and recalls the woe (see xiii. 13 — xiv. i)2. His
1 This formula occurs only once in chaps, iv. — xiv. ; see xi. 1 1.
2 In his flow of sympathy towards the object of the judgment Hosea

22 INTRODUCTION.

feelings are those which are natural to a pure-minded worship
per of Jehovah, trained in the high thoughts of prophetic re
ligion ; but they also correspond, as an inner voice assures
Hosea, to what may analogously be called the feelings of Je
hovah, who has prepared His servant in so exceptional a way
to think in unison with Himself. \A fitter person than Hosea
surely could not be found to be Israel's prophet in the gathering
storm. "\Knowing Jehovah's 'secret' (Am. iii. 7), he could be
faithful to Him without being untrue to Israel. Next to Jeho-'
vah, he loves his country and his wife with a clinging, inextin
guishable love. But only next to Jehovah ; for Hosea knows
that all relationship is rooted in Him, and that both the people
of Israel (xi. 1) and each individual Israelite (i. 10) are before
everything else ideally Jehovah's sons. If we cannot therefore
strictly call him a patriot, we can at any rate say that he has
something higher than even patriotism — an enthusiasm for that
'pearl of great price' described by the phrase 'the divine
sonship of Israel.'

CHAPTER IV.
The five leading ideas of the prophecy.— [a) Immorality of the
northern kingdom.— (b) Sinfulness of the idolatrous Jehovah-
worship and of the confusion of Jehovah and Baal. — (e).
Sinfulness of Israel's foreign policy.— {d) Sinfulness of the
separate kingdom of Israel. — (e) \The conception of love as
the bond between Jehovah and Israel, and between the indi
vidual Israelites. — Hosea compared with prophets before
and after him.— No personal Messiah in Hosea.
To summarize the contents of the book before us is a pecu
liarly difficult task, systematic order being more alien to Hosea
than perhaps to any other prophet. Still an incomplete sketch
is only exceeded by the unknown author of the early prophecy on Moab
in Isa. xv., xvi., adopted by Isaiah (see Isa. xvi. 13). The latter too
was possibly a N. Israelite, to judge from his minute acquaintance with
Moabitish topography.

INTRODUCTION. 23

may be attempted, (a) It will be noticed at once what a large
part of his book is taken up with lamentations over the general
immorality of the Israelites, which appears (comparing the
statements of Amos and Hosea with those of the prophets of
Judah) to have been more glaring than that which at any time
prevailed in the south. The Israelites of the north seem, in
fact, to have admitted a larger Canaanite element than those of
the south, who had received a considerable infusion of Arab
blood1. Not that Hosea altogether neglects the moral state of
Judah. At first he gives a more favourable verdict of her than
of the sister-country (i. 6, 7, comp. iv. 15), but later on strong
complaints of her misconduct are incidentally made — complaints,
through which we can hear the pulsations of a loving heart
(v. 10 — 13, vi. 4, xi. 12). Hosea, therefore, like all the ' goodly
fellowship', is a preacher of morality. He represents Jehovah
as saying, 'For I delight in love, and not in sacrifice,
and in the knowledge of God more than in burnt-offerings' (vi. 6) ;
and whatever the precise meaning of 'love' may be (on which
see some pages further on), 'love to man' must be, even if only
indirectly, referred to, just as the ' knowledge of God ' includes
the imitation of God (as Jer. xxii. 16). It was the sacred duty
of the priests, according to Hosea, to teach a morality based
upon pure religion (iv. 6) ; instead of which, they only promoted
a worship which infallibly developed into at least one form of
gross immorality, and welcomed the spread of iniquity, because
the consequent sin-offerings were profitable to themselves (v. 1,
iv. 8). They even took the lead in outraging the law (vi. 9), and
the prophet tells us soon after, that even the king and the
princes took an unnatural delight in the general licence (vii. 3).
So true was that which Isaiah, perhaps at this very time, said of
the northern kingdom,
'And they that' lead this people cause them to err,
and they that are led of them are destroyed' (Isa. ix. 16).
1 Prof. Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel, p. 201.

24 INTRODUCTION.
(b) Hosea does not, however, delude himself with the idea
that preaching will of itself convert his brethren. He knows but
too well that their errors in morality have sprung from their
'backsliding' in religion, in a word, from their idolatry (evidence
of which still exists in the oldest Israelitish seals). And hence
one of the most striking features of Hosea is his incessant pttle-
mic against the worship — not of the Phoenician Baal, which
had been put down by Jehu — but of the small plated images of a
bull, which were the symbols of Jehovah in the local sanctuaries
of the north (i Kings xii. 28, comp. Ex. xxxii. 4, 5). Even Amos
has not a word to say against these images, whereas Hosea
flatly denies that there is any divine power behind them (viii.
5, 6) and describes them as the source of all the varied evils
which are ruining the community. And the longer he lived, the
more convinced of this he became. In chap, ii., as we have seen,
he does not refer to the corrupting effect upon morals of the
popular religion, but chaps, iv. — xiv. are full of it. The corrup
tion was doubtless growing deeper every year. The God of
Israel, through being addressed as Baal (ii. 16), was confounded
with the local divinities of the Canaanites1, and the moral
influence of the old Jehovah-worship was lost. Indeed, the
Baal-cultus itself, in which the Jehovah-cultus was now practi
cally merged, was descending in the scale of religions. The
Israelites were no longer in the stage of naive faith, and so could
not recognize the old nature-worship in its original significance.
They were formalists of the worst kind, because the meaning of
their forms had never been a high and elevating one. And
besides this, the still grosser form of Baal-cultus introduced by
the Tyrian princess2 Jezebel probably had a bafeful effect on the
native religion, since its persecuted adherents would become
1 The Israelites considered themselves Jehovah- worshippers (viii. 1 1
ix. 4, 5). But the prophet quietly calls the local Jehovah-Baals 'other
gods' (iii. 1), and says that in her feast-days Israel 'forgat me' (ii. ia-
comp. 11). v a,
- Comparing 1 Kings xvi. 31 with Menander in Josephus Antia
viii. 13, 2 and Contra Apion. i. 18, we may infer, with Ewald (Hiitory
iv- 39) tnat Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal lung of Tyre, who had
formerly been a priest of Astarte.

INTRODUCTION. 25

fused with those of the latter, and would bring their gross prac
tices and licentious spirit with them. (On the whole subject of
the popular religion of N. Israel, see commentary on ii. 13, 16,
21, 22).
(c) One proof of the formalism of the Jehovah-Baal worship
(though it is a proof, as we shall see, of something else besides)
is the want of faith in the protecting care of its deity shown by
the north- Israelitish people. We must first of all ascertain
Hosea's judgment on this point, and then explain in what sense
we can adopt it. Not only, says the prophet, has ' Ephraim'
deserted Jehovah, but he has also 'hired loves among the
nations' (viii. 9, 10). This is an expression for the attempts of
the rulers to bribe the favour of their powerful neighbours Egypt
and Assyria (see v. 13, vii. 11, viii. 9, 10, xii. 1, xiv. 3, and comp.
2 Kings xvii. 4). In fact, there seem to have been two factions
in the northern as well as probably in the southern kingdom
(Isa. xxx. 1 — 7, xxxi. I — 3, comp. 2 Kings xvi. 7), the one devoted
to Assyria, the other to Egypt. Hosea was equally opposed to
both. Like Dante, he thought it an honour 'to have formed a
party by himself alone1.' Hosea denounces the policy of the
rulers as not merely a sin but a blunder. To trust in chariots
and horses in preference to Jehovah, who was ' their God from
the land of Egypt' (xii. 9, xiii. 4), is the part of 'a sijly dove
without understanding' (vii. n). To coquet with the neighbour
ing empires will too surely lead to enforced expatriation. Egypt
and Assyria (such perhaps is the prophet's meaning, comp. Isa.
vii. 18, 19) shall fight for the land of Israel, and shall each carry
part of the inhabitants into captivity. Instead of the gentle
yoke of Jehovah, so touchingly described in the words —
' I was unto them as they that lift up the yoke over their cheeks,
and I bent towards him and gave him food ' (xi. 4),
the Israelites shall pass under the tyranny of aliens, —
'He shall return unto the land of Egypt,
and Asshur — he shall be his king,
because they have refused to return ' (xi. 5).

1 Paradise, xvii. 6g.

26 INTRODUCTION.

Such is Hosea's judgment on the 'folly' of the Israelites, and
his prophetic intuition of its inevitable consequences. He ex
presses himself with a condensation which may obscure to some
readers the real kernel of his thought What he really means
we have to divine from our knowledge of his religious position.
We must remember that the Jehovah of the N. Israelites was
very different from the Jehovah of Hosea, and that he had now
sunk to the level of the Canaanitish Baal. The necessary con
sequence, at that stage of the Baal-worship, was formalism ; and
when to this was added the surprising successes of the Assyrians,
whose warfare was avowedly in part directed against foreign
deities as well as foreign nations1, we cannot be surprised that
the Israelites began to distrust the protecting care of their god.
Logically, therefore, the 'folly' of the Israelites consisted, not in
making terms with Assyria, but in accepting a corrupt form of
the worship of Jehovah, which could no more inspire courage
than the love of goodness, and therefore doomed its adherents
to a rapid national decline.
(d) Another leading idea in this prophecy is one very closely
connected with those already mentioned, viz. the sinfulness of
the separate kingdom of Israel. Hosea has a remarkably clear
view of the different aspects of the 'schism', and represents
Jehovaluas saying —
' I give thee kings in mine anger,
and take them away in my wrath' (xiii. ii).
In one sense, then, the separate kingdom of Israel was justifiable ;
in another it was not. It must be confessed, however, that the
latter aspect is predominant in Hosea's mind (comp. viii. 4),
whereas the former is exclusively present to the narrator in
1 Kings xi. 29, comp. 2 Chron. xi. 4 (see further note on i. 4).
1 Sargon says in his Annals, ' I counted all the armies of the god
Assur, and I marched against these towns ', and carries captive not
only men but gods ; he brings countries into subjection not merely to
himself but to Assur (Records of the Past, vii. 25 — 26). Esarhaddon's
Annals contain the remarkable statement that, after taking away the
gods of the Arabs, he wrote the mighty deeds of 'Assur my lord'
upon them, and also his own name, and sent them back repaired
(Budge, The History of Esarhaddon, p. 57).

INTRODUCTION. 27

The ground for Hosea's severe view is that he feels pure religion
to be the safeguard of the national existence? As no compromise
is allowable between Jehovah and Baal, so there should be no
opposition to the divinely sanctioned house of David. A rival
dynasty involves a rival deity, as Hosea expressly says in viii. 4.)
The Israelites might regard themselves as worshippers of Jeho
vah, but the prophet contradicts this without scruple in the fol
lowing verses (viii. 5, 6). He certainly yearned for the healing of
the 'schism' by a Davidic king, and speaks in his earlier
prophecy (iii. 5) as if Providence were leading in this direction.
The event proved that he was too hopeful, but the fact that he
left his early work unaltered, shows what a mistake it is to insist
too much on a literal fulfilment of every detail of prophecy,
particularly in Hosea the most lyrical and the least reflective of
all the prophets, who evidently uses prediction, just as he uses
upbraidings and threatenings, partly to relieve his own over
wrought feelings, partly to move his people to a timely repent
ance. As Prebendary Huxtable remarks, ' The style very often
assumes the form of prediction ; but this form is probably for
the most part adopted, rather as an engine of persuasion, than
as an absolute foretelling of what was about to happen1.' No
doubt some of Hosea's particular predictions have been fulfilled,
but we have no right to assume that the prophet himself
attached more importance to these predictions than to others.
The truth is that he has no fixed view respecting the future of
Judah, much less about the reunion of the two kingdoms. In
i. 6, 7 he contrasts the mercy not extended to Israel with the
mercy extended to Judah, but in vi. 1 1 (comp. v. 5, 14, viii. 14,
x. 11, xii. 2), he points to a 'harvest' of retribution for Judah
similar to that destined for Israel ; and if in i. 11 he antici
pates the healing of the ' schism', yet in chap. xiv. his radiant
description of the future contains not a line of hope for Judah.
(e) And now, to complete this brief sketch, a conception has
to be described which is the highest and deepest, and therefore
the most fundamental, in the book. As Professor Davidson

1 Speaker's Commentary, vol. vi. p. 405.

28 INTRODUCTION.

has shown1, all the other conceptions which have been mentioned
admit of being derived from this. We need not however con
clude that it was the first to be developed in the mind of Hosea,
but only that when Providence caused it to germinate, it
strengthened his hold on every other truth. We have already
spoken of it by anticipation as 'a newly-found truth' (p. 21),
because though it is also prominent in the Book of Deuteronomy,
there is no satisfactory evidence that that remarkable book was
generally known in the age of Hosea. It is the truth ' tha.t-lo.ve
js_ti1eJ1ighfist_attja.bute_0f-.G0d ; so that a man should love God,
and from love to Him keep all-His «onMHandment-s,43ecause-God""
first-4aveiiTmii2^which easily leads to the conclusion that a man
oughOiLiik£_mannerJ;gJpve his fellow man3.' These words of
Ewald, written with reference to Deuteronomy, are equally
applicable to Hosea, though a slight inaccuracy seems to need
correction*. The duty of brotherly love is not, either in Hosea
or in Deuteronomy, an inference from the fact that Israel has
been first loved by God ; it is rather a condition of the individual
Israelite's participation in that love. The stream of Jehovah's
love flows forth to Israel as a community6 ; he who would drink
of this stream must prove his right' by proving his membership
in the community, which can only be done by showing love to
his brother- Israelites. It would be still more accurate to say
that the true Israelite is one who loves both his fellow- Israelites
and. Jehovah of his own accord, just as Jehovah of His own
accord loved Israel (ix. 10, xi. 1, comp. xiv. 4)e. All human
1 The Expositor, 1879, p. 258 &c.
2 'See Deut. vi. 4—9, vii. 6— 11; further, xi. 1, x. 15, xxiii. 6,
with x. 12, 13, xix. 9, and at the close xxx. 6 — 20.'
8 'Deut. x. 18, 19.'
* History of Israel, iv. 223. It seems clear that the commands to
love Jehovah in Deuteronomy are addressed to Israel, not to the indi
vidual Israelite.
5 Prof. Davidson well says, 'Throughout the prophets, who are
statesmen in the kingdom of God, the person or subject with whom
Jehovah enters into relations is always the community of Israel' (The
Expositor, 1879, p. 258).
6 ' Loyalty and kindness between man and man are not duties in
ferred from Israel's relation to Jehovah, they are parts of that relation ¦

INTRODUCTION. 29
__.
relationships within the Israelitish community are rooted in the
primal love of Jehovah to Israel ; Hosea learned this truth in
the school of Providence^ and he implies it in all his moral
teaching. It is this primal love, however, which fills the fore
ground of Hosea's prophecies. fHis highest aim is to set forth
its moral nature, as opposed toHhe altogether non-moral and
quasi-physical union supposed to exist between a heathen deity
and his worshippers. Jehovah is not more loving than righteous.
His union with His people may be, must be indestructible, but
this is because (to quote Israel's great eulogy of love once more)
' love is strong as Death', and therefore must be able to com
mand a response of love in its own object (comp. ii. 15, 'she shall
respond there' &c). The Israelites must one day feel a love
to Jehovah which is not merely as a ' morning-cloud' (vi. 4), and
Hosea exhausts the resources of his art in picturing this delight
ful future (chap. xiv.). The sin of individuals cannot hinder
Jehovah's mercy to the nation ; only if the actual nation persists
in forsaking His law, it will have to pass through a very
hurricane of cleansing judgment (xiii. 15). \
Such being the principal idea of the book, can we be sur
prised that the chief speaker is Jehovah Himself? There was no
conscious striving after effect on Hosea's part, but had he only
professed to report a message from Jehovah, how cold by com
parison would his words have left us ! ' God only knows the love
of God', and if the words of the prophecy are stamped with the
genius of Hosea, they are none the less truthful revelations of
the divine Heart. The delicacy of the prophet's phraseology is
worthy of note. Though he does not shrink from using one of
the ordinary words for 'to love' in describing Jehovah's relation
to Israel (xi. 1), yet the word which gives the tone as it were to
the book is one with a distinctly moral tinge — khised/hs is
explained in the note on iv. 6, this word has a threefold applica
tion, and can be used of the relation of God to man, of man to
God, and of a man to his neighbour. "\It is assumed that the
love to Jehovah and love to one's brethren in Jehovah's house are
identical (compare iv. 1 with vi. 4, 6).' Robertson Smith, The Prophets
of Israel, p. 162.

30 INTRODUCTION. 
giver and the receiver of khdsed are united by a bond of moral
obligation, and in the three passages in which the word occur.;
in Deuteronomy (v. io, vii. 9, 12), the idea of a covenant or con
tract is either expressed or (as in v. 10) implied. This idea is
not indeed completely developed in Hosea's mind (see on vi. 7,
vii. 1), but he knows full well that there is a moral bond be
tween Jehovah and Israel, comparable to the relation of a hus
band to a wife (as especially in chaps, i.— iii.), or of a father to
a son (as xi. I, 3, 8, xiii. 13, comp. i. io)1, though since Jehovah
is 'God and not man' (xi. 9), higher than either, because free
from all earthly taint. The word occurs six times in Hosea in
its various senses2, and, as has been hinted already, it is now
and then slightly difficult to define its meaning. The point to
remember is that by adopting this word (which is not used once
by the sterner prophet Amos) Hosea impresses the idea that
Jehovah's love to Israel, keen as it is, has a moral foundation.
The Psalmists took up both the idea and the expression ; where
the Auth. Vers, renders 'saint', the Hebrew generally has khastd,
loving or pious one. In one psalm it is interesting to observe
that 'my pious ones' is explained in the parallel line by 'those
that have made a covenant with me' (Ps. 1. 5), which confirms
the view of khdsed taken above.
These are the five leading ideas of the prophecy of Hosea.
They are covered over with the flowers of poetic imagery, and
the student might have missed the salient points of the book
without thus much of guidance. It will be seen that we owe a
precious truth to Hosea, and that his book marks a fresh stage
in the slow progress of revelation. Compare him with Amos
who prophesied but a few decades earlier. Amos had a keen .
1 This, like the former, corresponds to a heathen Semitic conception;
see Num. xxi. 29, where the Moabites are described as 'sons' of
Chemosh. Prof. W. Wright has pointed out similar instances of the
use of 'son' for 'worshipper' in Syriac proper names, e.g. Bar-Hadad,
Bar-laha, Bar-Ba'-shSmin, in which the second name of the compound
is the appellation of the deity (Hadad, Alaha, Ba'1-shemin) specially
worshipped by the person so named. Transactions of the Soc. of
Biblical Arcliaology, vi. 438.
2 See ii. 21, iv. i, vi. 4, 6, *.. 12, xii. 7.

INTRODUCTION. 31
sense of justice, and rightly transfers this attribute to Jehovah,
but he had not that wonderful intuition of the milder side of the
divine nature which we find in Hosea. Amos thinks of Jehovah
as the king of Israel and her judge ; Hosea as her Husband
and her Father. Amos again expresses no dread of the reli
gious symbolism prevalent in N. Israel ; like Elijah and Elisha,
he lets the 'golden calves' pass without a word of protest.
Hosea feels that those gross animal symbols distract the atten
tion of the worshippers from those moral attributes in which
Jehovah delights most to be known. We need not then be sur
prised that, having achieved so much, he falls short in various
ways of the attainments of his successors, (a) If he equals
Jeremiah in tenderness, he is inferior to him in moral depth.
He has no conception of the relation of Jehovah to the indivi
dual soul, apart from the nation, and therefore no presentiment
of Jeremiah's profound idea of the new covenant. Again (b),
he does not succeed like Isaiah and (still more) Jeremiah in
expressing his latent consciousness of the unity of God (comp.
on i. 10, ii. 10). As a rule, like Amos, he speaks of Jehovah as
the national God of the Israelites (comp. iii. 4, 5, ix. 3), and
only perhaps once crosses the line which separates monolatry
(or the acknowledgment of one God as the national patron)
and monotheism, viz. when he says that the converted Israelites
shall be called ' sons of the living God' (i. io)1, implying appa
rently that the other so-called gods were 'dead' (in the sense of
Ps. cvi. 28). And (c) although it is clear from iii. 4 that Hosea
(at least at one time) hoped great things from a future Davidic
prince, yet there is wanting that touch of mystery and passion
ate emotion which we find in Isaiah's two great prophecies of
(to use the later phrase) the Messiah. It is true that a scholar
as accurate as he is orthodox (Delitzsch) thinks that 'David' in
the passage referred to means ' a king who is the antitype and

1 One is tempted to quote xiii. 4, but though the conclusion may
seem to point to monotheism, the preceding words are only a strong
expression of monolatry. The belief that Jehovah is higher than all
other divinities ('el 'elyon) does not necessarily imply that no other gods
have a real existence.

32 INTRODUCTION.

descendant of David1.' But since no stress is laid on the cha
racter of the king, and in i. il he is merely spoken of as a
'head', it seems better to explain the term on the analogy of
I Kings xii. 6, and to leave the prophet of Immanuel in his un-
approached originality. Thus Hosea, to whom kingship is not
the most congenial idea, merely maintains, and that without
any emphasis, the position already won by Amos (ix. n, 12)
that the family of David, now shorn of so much of its glory,
shall yet stand at the head of a reunited and victorious nation2.

CHAPTER V.
His style. — His unconnectedness. — His love of figures. — Has
the language of his book been retouched? — Literary influx
ences to which Hosea was subject. — Did he know the Pen
tateuch f — His own testimony to the existence of written
laws. — Parallelisms in Hosea and the Pentateuch. — Hosea's
literary influence on later writers.— Are the New Testa
ment references to Hosea to be accepted as regulative of
critical exegesis ?
The proverb, 'le style c'est Phomme', is peculiarly true of
Hosea. His genius especially fitted him for lyric poetry, and
in more favourable circumstances and with more artistic cul
ture he might have produced the most admirable psalms and
elegies. Duty however compelled him to 'hang up his harp'
and preach to a perverse generation. How he preached, we
can hardly judge from his book, which is anything but a verbal
reproduction of discourses actually delivered; but we may fairly
surmise that his preaching would have seemed ineffective by
1 Messianic Prophecies, translated by Curtiss (1880), pp. 60, 61
2 Neither Amos not Hosea speaks of a Davidic world?emp re- their
outlook into the future is purely national. In Am. xi. iTwe shoidd
render 'and all the nations (**, heathen) which have been (not ™e)
called by my name.' The prophet means that the empire of David
should one day be restored in its fullest extent

INTRODUCTION. 33
the side ofjjiaf of Amos. It was not so much the mere chill of
neglect (for Amos suffered equally from this) as the emotional
distress caused by his message of woe that choked his utter
ance and brought confusion into his style. The prize of the
orator and the lyric poet he left to others, but could not disown
the gift of song with which God had endowed him. As Ewald
remarks, 'in its free outbursts the discourse [sometimes] ap
proaches to the nature of lyric poetry1', though few will follow that
great scholar in his strophic arrangement of the book: the
transitions of thought in Hosea are too abrupt to be brought
into a scheme of such an artificial order. 'Exhaustless is the
sorrow', as Ewald elsewhere says, ' endless the grief wherever
the mind turns, and ever and anon the tossing restless discourse
begins again, like the wild cry of an anguish that can hardly be
mastered2.' Symmetrical divisions, then, such as we can easily
make in the oratorical prophet Amos, are out of the question.
There is but rarely a distinct connexion, except in the tone of
feeling, even between one verse and another. As St Jerome
remarked long ago, 'Osee commaticus est [is broken up into
clauses] et quasi per sententias loquens3'; or, in the words of
Dr Pusey, ' each verse forms a whole for itself, like one heavy
toll in a funeral knell4.' Even the fetters of grammar are
almost too much for Hosea's vehement feeling ; inversions (vii. 8,
ix. 11, 13, xii. 8, and perhaps xiv. 9), anacolutha (ix. 6, xii. 8 &c),
and ellipses (ix. 4, xiii. 9 &c.) are especially frequent in his pro
phecy. Parallelism, which is elsewhere so prominent in poet
ical and rhetorical language, and which is often so great a help
to the interpreter, is feebly represented; Hosea's rhythm is the
artless rhythm of sighs and sobs. It is remarkable, however,
that, unlike Jeremiah, he can take bold poetic flights in the
midst of his grief. His figures are full of suggestiveness. Thus
he compares Jehovah on His terrible side to the lion (v. 14, xiii.
7), the panther (xiii. 7), and the bear (xiii. 8) ; he does not even
1 Ewald, The Prophets, i. 228.
2 Ewald, i. 218.
3 Preface to the Minor Prophets,
t Miner Prophets, p. 6,
HOSEA 3

34 INTRODUCTION. 
disdain the simile of a moth (v. 12) ; while to represent the milder
aspect of his God he has recourse to the latter rain (vi. 3) and the
beneficent provision of the 'night-mist' (xiv. 5). /The figure of
the lion's roar in xi. 10 is used exceptionally, not to set forth]
the terrors of God's judgments, but His far-reaching summons
to His scattered childrenTN With equal or still greater suggest-j
iveness the Israel of the future is compared to the .'lily' which)
grows so profusely-in the north of Palestine, and the stedfast
roots of the cedar (xiv. 6), and to the ever-green fir-tree of
Lebanon1 (xiv. 8). Paronomasias and plays upon words are
also very characteristic of Hosea in his non-lyrical moods (see
viii. 7, ix. 15, x 5, xi. 5, xii. 1 1, and notice the use of the name
Jezreel in i. 4, 11, comp, ii. 22, 23; the change of the name
Beth-el into Beth-aven in iv. 15, x. 5, comp. v. 8; the allusion
to the derivation of Ephraim in ix. 16, xiii. 1 ;, and perhaps xiv. 9).
All these peculiarities, it is to be feared, give the Book of Hosea
a rather repellent aspect, which is not diminished by the number
of peculiar words and constructions, and by the corrupt state of
some parts of the text. It would be interesting to learn whether
we really possess the discourses of Hosea in their original
dialect, or whether they have been retouched for the -benefit of
a new public. The latter is in itself a plausible hypothesis,
though incapable of demonstration ; except a few Aramaic
words and verbal forms (which may not all of them be due to
Hosea) there is nothing in the language even distantly sug
gestive of a northern dialect2
In dealing with a great writer like Hosea, we are bound to
ask, To what literary influences of his time was he subject? A,
question in this case more easily asked than answered, owing to
our ignorance of the literature of the northern kingdom. The
Song of Songs Hosea was almost certainly familiar with (see
xiv. 6 — 9), and we have no right to suppose that this was the

1 Prof. Robertson Smith's interesting remarks on this figure (The
Prophets of Israel, p. 190) depend for their validity on an interpretation
of the passage which the present writer is unable to adopt.
2 In literary Hebrew, remarks Gesenius, there is nothing which has
a sufficient claim to pass for a provincialism.

INTRODUCTION. 35

only northern poem which educated and enriched his fancy.
The Book of Amos was doubtless known in N. Israel, and would
have a special interest for Hosea, though the two prophets are
at the opposite poles of style, and except in Hos. iv. 15, x. 5, 8
(comp. Am. i. 5, v. 5), Hos. viii. 14 (comp. Am. i. 4 &c), Hos.
xi. 10 (comp. Am. i. 2) we cannot say that the younger prophet
has clear allusions to the elder1. There may have been other
prophetic writings known to him, Joel for instance (Joel iii. 16 is
more strikingly parallel to Hos. xi. 10 than Am. i. 2), or if not
Joel (the early date of this book being now frequently called in
question), some no longer extant books, for the reference of the
phrase 'the prophets' in Hos. vi. 5 is perhaps not to be confined
to prophets like Elijah and Elisha; at least we can hardly sup
pose that written prophecy sprang into existence in Joel (?) and
Amos almost in full perfection2. What amount of written his
tory or legislation Hosea had before him is much disputed.
That he was acquainted with many salient facts in the tra
ditional narratives is indeed certain : — see for the life of Jacob,
xii. 3, 4, 12 ; for the destruction of the cities of the 'circle' of the
Jordan, xi. 8; for the Exodus, ii. 15, xi. 1, xii. g3, 13; for the

1 In the first of these passages the allusion is in the name Beth-aven
(House of vanity, i.e. of vain idols, for Beth-el, House of God); simi
larly Amos speaks of the ' valley of Aven.' In the second Hosea
refers to the refrain with which Amos closes each of his seven denun
ciations in Am. i. 4 — ii. 5. In the third he follows Amos in comparing
Jehovah to a lion.
2 See Ewald (The Prophets, i. 60), who lays great stress on the
indications of an earlier prophetic literature in the Book of Joel (see
ii. 32 'as Jehovah has said', and notice how '•the day of Jehovah'
and the restoration of Judah are spoken of in i. 15, ii. 1, iii. 1 as
already familiar to the reader). He also refers to Hos. vii. 12 'ac
cording to the announcement to the community ', and to the ' fragments
from the earliest period' cited by Isaiah in ii. 2 — 4 (comp. Mic. iv.
1 — 4) and xv. — xvi. 12.
8 In this verse most find two allusions to the early history, the one in
the phrase 'Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt' and the other
in the mention of 'dwelling in tents.' The second allusion however
depends on the rendering of the Hebrew 'odh; is it to be rendered
'yet again', or simply 'yej' (i.e. 'in the future'), as Auth. Vers.? In
the latter case there is no necessary allusion to the privations of the
desert-wanderings. See commentary.

36 INTRODUCTION. 
wanderings, ii. 3, xiii. 5 ; for Achan (?), ii. 15 ; for Baal-peor, ix.
10; and for the outrage at Gibeah, ix. 9, x. 9. It was the custom
with the older commentators to leap from this to the conclusion
that Hosea had before him the canonical books in which the
same occurrences are referred to ; but we cannot be sure that.
he did not obtain these facts from oral tradition or from sources
earlier than the canonical books in their present form (see com
mentary on xii. 3, 4). More stress may plausibly be laid on the
parallelisms of phraseology and idea in Hosea and the Penta
teuch. Almost every commentary on Hosea contains lists of
such parallelisms, and for completeness' sake a list is appended
here, though the writer must express the hope that students in
an early stage will remember the youthful David's reply to king
Saul in I Sam. xvii. 39. Such a list will only be of any real
value to those who have already satisfied themselves on other
grounds as to the period of the composition of the books of the
Pentateuch. One test of the soundness of such a critical de
cision will be its relation to the history of the progress of revela
tion. If it be impossible to write this history with Deuteronomy
accepted as a work of the Mosaic or at any rate pre-Hezekiah
age, of what use is any number of parallelisms between Deu
teronomy and the Book of Hosea? All that is certain with
regard to Hosea's relation to the Law is what he tells us himself,
viz. that laws with a sanction which, though ignored by the
N. Israelites, he himself recognized as divine were in course of
being written down1 (viii. 12). Our present text.makes him even
say that the divine precepts might be reckoned by myriads, but
this would not apply even to our present Pentateuch, and we
should probably correct ribbo ' myriad ' into dibhre" ' words (of
1 The Targum and Aben Ezra, followed by the Authorized Version,
render 'I have written' (better, 'I wrote'). The tense is the imperfect,
which is sometimes used in highly poetical passages where past oc
currences are referred to; see Driver, Hebrew Tenses, § 27 (1) (/3). Such
a use of the imperfect would however here be isolated, nor is the passage
in a poetical style. We must therefore reject the rendering of Auth.
Vers., and with it the theory that the prophet refers simply and solely to
a body of Mosaic legislation. In fact, when Moses is referred to by
Hosea, it is as a prophet and a leader of the people, not as a legislator
(xii. 13).

INTRODUCTION. 37

my law)1.' There may of course either have been various small
law-books, or one large one ; we cannot determine this point from
the Book of Hosea. So far as we can infer anything, the laws
in question must have been of a simple character, and have
related to civil justice rather than to rites and ceremonies.
In the centralization of worship, which is so prominent in the
Book of Deuteronomy, Hosea takes no interest; he does not
even mention Jerusalem, and applies the phrase ' the house of
Jehovah ' to a temple or temples of Jehovah in the ' schismatic '
kingdom (ix. 4). Mr Sharpe2 has, it is true, revived an opinion
of St Jerome that the words —
'For Ephraim has multiplied altars in order to sin,
altars are to him for the purpose of sinning' (viii. 1 1),
refer to the Deuteronomic law of one altar (Deut. xii. 1 1 — 14),
but the repetition of 'to sin' proves that the emphasis is not on
the multiplied altars but on the 'sin' committed at the altars
(comp. iv. 13, 14; Am. ii. 8). Indeed, was it likely that a pro
phet who had already mentioned 'sacred pillars' and even
' teraphim ' without a word of remark on their illegality3 (iii. 4)
would denounce the Israelites for their hereditary custom of
multiplying altars ?
With these preliminary cautions, we may proceed to collect
parallelisms of phraseology in Hosea and the Pentateuch.
Compare —
Gen. xxii. 17 ) with Hos ; JO /<as the sand of the sea>)#
 XXXII. 12 J
Ex. iv. 22 „ ,, xi. 1 ('my son').
 xxiii. 13 ,, ,, ii. 17 (names of idols to be abolished).
Deut. xviii. 15 „ „ xii. 13 (Moses a great prophet).
— xxvi. 14 „ „ ix. 4 (mourning bread).
— xxviii. 68 ,, ,, viii. 13 (Israel's return to Egypt).
— xxxi. 16 ,, „ i. 2 (religious symbolism).
 xxxii. 10 „ „ ix. 10 (Israel 'found in the wilderness').

1 So Gr'atz and Kuenen ; see on viii. 12.
2 Notes and Dissertations onHosea (1884), p. 83.
3 The writer, of course, does not mean to imply that Hosea attached
a religious value either to these pillars or to the sacrifices mentioned in
the same passage (iii. 4).

38 INTRODUCTION. 
The above is a short list compared with some that have been
drawn up1: the more dubious parallelisms, like that of iv. 4 and
Deut. xvii. 8 — 13, have been omitted. After all, is any one of
them equal in interest to the striking parallelism of thought
between Hosea and Deuteronomy indicated already (see p. 28)?
It only remains to estimate the literary influence of Hosea,
putting aside such questions as the chronological relation of his
book to that of Deuteronomy. As we have seen already, the
prophetic roll must soon have been carried into Judah, where it
quickly became a favourite, as we must infer from the more or
less distinct allusions to it made by later prophets. There are
not many of these in Isaiah, though both Amos and Hosea have
contributed elements to his teaching ; we can only be sure that
Isaiah is alluding to his predecessor in i. 23, where he adopts a
paronomasia from Hos. ix. 15. More allusions occur in Jere
miah, Ezekiel, and the second part of Zechariah : compare
Hosea ii. 15 with Jer. ii. 2 ; Hosea iii. 5 with Jer. xxx. 9, Ezek.
xxxiv. 25 ; Hos. iv. 3 with Jer. xii. 4 (and Zeph. i. 3) ; Hos. x. 12
with Jer. iv. 3; Hos. i. — iii. with Jer. iii. 8, Isa. 1. 1, Ezek. xvi.
and xxiii.; Hos. ii. 18 with Ezek. xxxiv. 25; Hos. ii. 22 with
Jer. xxxi. 27, Zech. x. 9 ; Hos. ii. 17 with Zech. xiii. 2 ; Hos. xii. 8
with Zech. xi. 5. Some of these allusions relate to Hosea's
striking application of the symbol of marriage. In fact, as the
great Jewish scholar Dr Zunz has shown from medieval Hebrew
poetry, this affecting symbol of their ideal hopes never ceased
to attract and delight the poets of Israel. But this is not all.
The New Testament, too, as we might expect, contains several
expressed or implied references to the Book of Hosea: — com
pare Hos. i. 10 with Rom. ix. 26; Hos. ii. I, 23 with Rom. ix. 25,
1 Pet. ii. 10; Hos. vi. 6 with Matt. ix. 13, xii. 7 (quotation by
our Lord); Hos. x. 8 with Luke xxiii. 30, Rev. vi. 16, ix. 6 ; Hos.
xi. 1 with Matt. ii. 15 ; Hos. xiii. 14 with 1 Cor. xv. 55. With
regard to these references it hardly needs to be remarked that,
so far as they imply interpretations, they would not all stand the
test of a purely Western criticism. Their force was great to
1 For longer lists see Curtiss, The Levitical Priests (1877), pp. 176 —
8 ; Sharpe, Hosea (1884), pp. 72 — 84.

INTRODUCTION. 39

those for whom the writers meant them, but cannot be equally
so to us. It is allowable indeed to trace in the providential
history of the people of Israel more than one analogy to that of
Israel's Messiah, but to say that 'out of Israel did I call my son'
(Hos. xi. 1) is in a strict sense of the word a prediction of the
infant Christ's return from Egypt violates the canons of exe
gesis. Delitzsch against his will expresses the weakness of
this position when he calls this a ' typical prophecy1.' Typical
persons and events one can understand, but if there be typical
prophecies, what are the anti-typical ones ? Surely for us
Westerns the true Christian element in the Book of Hosea con
sists, not in 'typical prophecies', but in that far-reaching intuition
of God's forgiving love which took shape as it were in the ful
ness of time in Jesus Christ.
The text is considered from a wider point of view in Amos and
Hosea and Micah, by W. R. Harper, in " International Series of
Commentaries " (T. and T. Clark) ; also, from a still more ad
vanced standpoint, in the Hosea-section in The Two Religions of
Israel, by the present editor. With Tintoretto we may, each of
us Biblical critics, modestly say, Sempre si fa il mar maggiore,
"ever the sea becometh greater."
1 Messianic Prophecies (1880), pp. 61, 62.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.
#*# The chronology of the kings is perplexed and uncertain. From
the Assyrian inscriptions the following dates have been obtained (see
Schrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, trans
lated by Whitehouse.
Jehu was alive in 842 (tribute to Shalmaneser). — Azariah or Uzziah
742-740. — Menahem 738 (tribute to Tiglath Pileser). — Pekah 734 (con
quered by Tiglath Pileser). — Hoshea 728-722 (fall of Samaria). —
Hezekiah 701 (invasion of Judah).
Various systems have been framed, partly on the basis of the
Assyrian, partly on that of the Biblical data. The table which follows
is a fragment of Duncker's (History of Antiquity, vol. ii.).

Judah.

Israel.

Jehu

843-815
Uzziah
792-740
Jeroboam
II.
790-749
Jotham
740-734
Zechariah, Menahem Pekahiah
Pekah
Shallum
749748-738738-736736-734
Ahaz
734-72S
Hoshea
734-722
Hezekiah
728-697
HOSEA.

'T'HE word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son
¦*• of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam
the son of Joash, king of Israel. The beginning of the
word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to
Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and chil-
Chap. I.
Hosea and his Wife. A Parable for the Israelites.
1. On the heading, see Introduction.
2. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea] If we render
the Hebrew text thus, the words are a heading to the first part of the
book, viz. chaps, i. — iii. ; they are apparently taken thus by the LXX.,
the Vulg. , and perhaps the Targ. and the Peshito. It would however
be better to translate with the Vulg., 'The beginning of Jehovah's
speaking by (or, with) Hosea', because 'by Hosea' goes better with a
verbal than with a common noun ; or, with Kalisch, 'The beginning of
that which Jehovah spoke' (comp. Job xviii. 21 ; Ps. lxxxi. 6) ; or, with
Ewald, 'At the first, when Jehovah spoke with Hosea' (comp. Ps. iv. 8,
xc. 15, and possibly Gen. i. 1). 'With Hosea' is the preferable render
ing. As Ewald remarks, the phrase 'to speak with' implies that he who
speaks is a superior being (comp. Zech. i. 9, 13, 14; Num. xii. 2, 8).
The original narrative no doubt began at 'Jehovah said ' : the words
prefixed make the sentence heavy.
take unto thee] i.e. marry (as Gen. vi. 2 and often), with regard to
Gomer; recognize as thine own with regard to the children. Is this
marriage of Hosea a real or a fictitious one? Symbolical it certainly
is, but whether literally true or not, the student must decide on a view
of the somewhat peculiar exegetical data. See Introduction, and comp.
note below onz/. 3.
a wife of whoredoms] i. e. (a) one with a deeply rooted inclination to
adultery, or (b) as most explain, a woman already steeped in sin. In
favour of (a), it may be pointed out that the prophet does not say,
'Take unto thee a harlot'. His wife is brought before us throughout

42 HOSEA, I. [w- 3, 4-
dren of whoredoms : for the land hath committed great
3 whoredom, departing from the Lord. So he went and took
Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and
4 bare him a son. And the Lord said unto him, Call his
name Jezreel ; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the
as a type of Israel ; she must at first have been innocent in act to
symbolize what Jehovah elsewhere calls ' the kindness of thy (Israel s)
youth, the love of thine espousals' (Jer. ii. 2). Upon this view it
follows that the language employed is dictated by Hosea's subsequent
experience. He could not, of course, know that Gomer had an in
clination to infidelity, until it had been exhibited in act.
children of whoredoms] i.e. either children inheriting their mother's
evil tendencies, or the offspring of ah adulterous union. (Comp. ii. 4. )
for the land hath committed...] This is the meaning of Hosea's acted
parable. As Gomer became the wedded wife of the prophet, so 'the land ',
i.e. the people, of northern Israel had entered into an analogous mystic
relation to Jehovah (see on ii. 21, 22). As Gomer, after her espousals,
committed whoredom, so Israel, after her first love, went astray after
other gods (see chap. ii.). Israel in the narrower sense of the wordseems
to be meant, for afterwards we read ' I will have mercy upon the house
of Judah' (v. 7).
3. Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim] Various attempts have been
made to extract a meaning from these names, which by its appropriate
ness to the circumstances of the Israelites might favour the view that the
events related are fictitious and not real. Gomer may plausibly be
interpreted 'perfection' (i.e. consummate in wickedness), and Diblaim
'cakes of figs' (i.e. the sweetness of sin). Rahmer has pointed out this
view in the Talmud (see Frankel's Monatsschrift, xiv. 216 foil.), so that
St Jerome's similar explanation must have come from his Jewish teacher.
But the fact that the children of Hosea (like those of Isaiah) have names
which are obviously symbolic does not justify us in forcing an allusion
out of the name of the mother. It has been suggested, but the view
is not borne out by usage, that Diblaim is the name of Gomer's birth
place; Diblathaim was a Moabitish town (see Jer. xlviii. 22 and
Moabite Stone 1. 30). The termination is that of the dual.
bare him a son] i.e. bare a son, whom for the mother's sake he recog
nized. 4. Call his name Jezreel] The child of guilt ; therefore not Israel
but Jezreel (or, more exactly, Izreel). The name is referred to for its
historical associations (comp. on ii. 22). It points both backward and
forward— backward to the massacre of Ahab's family by Jehu (2 Kings
ix. x.), and forward to the punishment for that wild and cruel act.
Hosea (in whom natural peculiarities have been purified and not extin
guished by the spirit of prophecy) regards the conduct of Jehu in a
different light from the writer of 2 Kings x. 30. The latter praises Jehu
for having 'done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in
my mind'; he speaks on the assumption that ]ehu had the interests of

vv. S— '/-J HOSEA, I. 43
blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to
cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall 5
come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel
in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again, and s
bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name
Lo-ruhamah : for I will no more have mercy upon the
house of Israel ; but I will utterly take them away. But 7
I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save

Jehovah's worship at heart, and that he destroyed the house of Ahab as
the only effectual means of advancing them. The former blames Jehu
apparently on the high moral ground that Jehovah 'desires mercy (love)
and not sacrifice' (vi. 6). He speaks as the Israelites of his time doubt
less felt. They no more recognized Jehu as a champion of Jehovah
than did the priests of Baal whom he basely entrapped (2 Kings x. 18,
&c). But Hosea doubtless felt in addition that the idolatry to
which the house of Jehu was addicted rendered a permanent religious
reform hopeless. Image-worship could not be suppressed by such half
hearted worshippers of Jehovah, and hence, Jehovah's moral govern
ment of His people must have made it certain to Hosea that even on this
ground alone the dynasty of Jehu could not escape an overthrow.
yet a little while, and I will avenge...] 'Avenge'; lit. 'visit'. Hosea
represents (like a fellow-prophet, Am. vii. 9) the destruction of the
northern kingdom as synchronizing with the overthrow of Jehu's dynasty.
This was a remarkable proof of insight into God's purposes. Both
prophets saw the beginning of the end, though the final catastrophe
(722) took place about nineteen years later than the death of Jeroboam
II. (741).
5. the bow of Israel] The bow, the symbol of power (Gen. xlix.
24; Jer. xlix. 35).
in the valley of Jezreel] It seemed fitting that this 'battlefield of
Palestine' (as the valley of Jezreel had already become, see on Judg. vi.
33) should be the scene of so momentous an event, fitting also that
where Jehu had sinned, Jehu's house should be punished. There would
have been a 'poetical justice' in such an arrangement, had such been
the will of Providence. But there can be no doubt that Hosea had
an accurate knowledge of the Assyrians as the destined instruments
of Israel's overthrow (see on viii. 10).
6. bare a daughter] The nation being personified sometimes as a
man, sometimes as a woman.
Lo-ruhamah] i.e., Uncompassionated.
but I will utterly take them away] Rather, that I should forgive them.
7. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah] Grave as are
the charges brought against Judah by the prophets, it appears to have
been some degrees better oft" religiously than Israel ; probably, as it was
a poorer country, its nature-worship was less extravagantly sensuous
than that of the north. Hosea elsewhere counsels Judah not to offend

44

HOSEA, I. [w- 8, 9-

them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by
bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horse-
8 men. Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she con
ceived, and bare a son. Then said God, Call his name
Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be
to the same extent as Israel (iv. 15),. and later on accuses Judah rather
of inconstancy than of absolute rebellion (xi. 12). _ >
by the Lord their God] Tautologically, as Gen. xix. 24. Or, as
Jehovah their God' (i.e 'in the character of &c, comp. Ex. vi. 3 as
El Shaddai', Ps. Ixviii. 4 'his name is, essentially, in Jah ). Observe
Hosea recognizes Judah's higher religious ideal. _
not... by bow] Judah, then, was in danger of trusting in warlike
equipments, as Isaiah afterwards describes it as doing (Isa. ii. 7). And
yet, if Israel, with all its natural strength, could not resist the Assyrian
attack, it was clear that the weaker kingdom could only do so by
supernatural aid. Comp. Isa. xxxi. 8, xxxvii. 33. ' Battle ' should be
equipment of war. 8, 9. The birth of a Son. .
Lo-ammi] i.e. not my people. Observe the climax in the names.
'Jezreel' announces the judgement ; Lo-ruhamah, the withdrawal of
Jehovah's affection; Lo-ammi, the treatment of Israel as a foreign
people. I will not be your God] Lit., 'I will not be for (or, to) you', i.e.
perhaps, 'on your side' (comp. Ps. lvi. 10, cxviii. 6, cxxiv. 1, 2), or, as
Prof. Robertson Smith1, 'I am no longer Ehyeh', alluding to Ex. iii.
14, 'And God said unto Moses, I will be that which I will be (viz.
what I have promised and you look for) ; and he said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I will be (Ehyeh) hath sent me unto
you'. According to this view, Ehyeh is equivalent to Yihyeh or what
ever is a more correct form of the name miswritten Jehovah — the
revealed name of Israel's God, and Hos. i. 9 is the earliest witness to
the true meaning of Ex. iii. 14. 'I am no longer Ehyeh for you' will
thus be a contrast to 'I will save Judah as the Lord (Yahveh= Yihyeh)
their God' (v. 7). It is however doubtful whether Hosea shews ac
quaintance elsewhere with the document to which Ex. iii. 14 belongs,
and at any rate it is more natural to suppose, as A. V. (after Yefet the
Karaite) has done that lelohlm ' (for) God ' has dropped out of the text.
10, 11. There is a great difference among authorities as to the way
in which these verses and ii. 1 should be connected with the context.
(a) Those who consult a Hebrew Bible will most probably find the first
chapter of Hosea closed at v. 9, and the second opened with v'hayah
'and it shall come to pass'. Thus Hosea's (like Isaiah's) first prophetic
discourse is made to begin with a promise. The objection is that the
transition from v. 3 to v. 4 of the chapter thus produced is unique for
its abruptness even in the Book of Hosea. ('Say ye to your brethren,
1 British and Foreign Evangelical Review, Jan. 1876, pp. 153 — 165.

v. io.J HOSEA, I.

45

your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall
be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor
numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the
My people', and directly after, 'Plead with your mother, plead'.) (b)
Still more objectionable is the arrangement of A. V., derived from one
form of the Hebrew text, and followed by the Septuagint, Luther, and
Calvin. Its only justification lies in the accidental circumstance that
two successive verses in the Hebrew text begin with an imperative.
Verse i chap. ii. in A. V. is utterly unintelligible by itself, and the
transition from the first to the second imperative becomes even more
strikingly abrupt than in the Hebrew Bible, (c) Feeling these objec
tions, Ewald and Pusey propose to begin the second chapter of the
book with the verse which stands fourth in order in our Hebrew Bibles.
But most readers cannot help seeing that the transition from threatening
to promise, from Lo-ammi, to Ammi, is singularly abrupt, and not to
be admitted except from dire necessity, (d) The transposition of lines
or sentences is well known to be a fruitful source of error in ancient
texts. Hence it has been suggested that w. i — 3 of chap. ii. in the
common Hebrew Bible (i.e. the last two verses of chap. i. and the first
of chap. ii. in A. V.) originally stood at the end of chap. ii. The plau
sibility of this suggestion of Heilprin's and Steiner's would be seen to.
most advantage, if these verses could be explained at the end of chap.
ii. This would be only following the precedent of St Paul, who adopts
a very similar arragement in Rom. ix. 25, 26. (Verse 9 therefore should
be taken as the close of chap, i., and ii. 1 as the close of chap, ii.)
10 — 11. 1. Predicted alteration of Names.
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be] However sad
the present prospects of Israel may be, a glorious future is in store for
him. So our translators mean us to interpret the passage, confounding
the province of the translator with that of the expositor. The Hebrew
merely says, And It shall come to pass that the number of the chil
dren of Israel shall be, &c. In all probability, this verse should have
come after ii. -23, to the opening statement of which it gives a further
development. 'I will sow her for myself in the land,' were the words
of Jehovah in reversing the prophetic import of the name Jezreel. Now
the Divine speaker assures us that the 'sowing' shall be followed by a
rich harvest of inhabitants. An increase in population is elsewhere
also a leading feature in the promised prosperity of Israel; e.g. (not to
quote the disputed passage, Is. ix. 3), Mic. ii. 12, where the restored
remnant is said to be 'tumultuous for the multitude of men'. Observe
that the blessing is at first limited in its scope (as it is
again in chap. xiv.). 'Children of Israel' means evidently, not all
Israel, but the northern kingdom,, for in the next verse (comp. i. 6, 7)
'the children of Israel' are clearly distinguished from 'the children of
Judah'. The limitation was natural, because the prophet belonged to
the northern and larger section of the nation ; the horizon is widened
immediately after, so as to include Judah.
as the sanclofthe sea] Comp, Gen. xxii. 17, xxxii. 1 3.

46 HOSEA, I. [v. n.
place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my
people, there it shall be .said unto them, Ye are
it the sons of the living God. Then shall the children
of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together,
and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come
up out of the land : for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
in the place where it was said unto them] This may mean either
Palestine, or, more plausibly, the land of captivity. But surely the
fact, and not the place, of restoration is the thought which fills the
mind of the prophet. The sense is much improved by adopting the
alternative version, Instead of Its being- said, &c. It is true that an
indisputable parallel for the sense 'instead of is wanting, neither Isa.
xxxiii. 21 nor 2 Kings xxi. 19 being decisive. But grammatical theory
raises no objection to the proposed rendering, and where this is the case
the Hebrew concordance must not override the exercise of exegetical tact
Ye are not my people] Or, Ye are Lo-ammi.
the sons of the living God] 'The living God', as 1 Sam. xvii. 26,
Deut. v. 26, in contrast to the idol-gods ('elilim, or 'nothings', as
Isaiah delights to call them) : one of the earliest appearances of
prophetic monotheism (see on ii. 10). Notice the bold expression
'sons'. At the foundation of popular Semitic religion (the religion
of the group of nations to which the Assyrians and the Syrians, the
Israelites and the Arabs equally belonged) lay the materialistic idea
that the worshipping nation was the offspring of the patron-divinity.
Hosea allows and adopts the expression, but signifies by it a moral
•kinship rather than a physical one. Compare the remarkable passages
in Num. xxi. 29, Mal. ii. ir, and see note on xi. 1.
11. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be
gathered together] Thus the schism of north and south shall be healed
(comp. Isa. xi. 13, Ezek. xxxvii. 22) — a schism to which by implication
Hosea denies the Divine sanction, on the ground (we may suppose)
that Jehovah being one, His people must also be one. See on iii. 4,
and comp. iii. 3, viii. 4, xiii. 10, 11. In the last passage, however,!
Jehovah is represented as in a certain sense sanctioning the usurping
dynasties of Israel ('in His anger'), and in the idealizing description!
which follows (chap, xiv.) Judah seems to find no place
appoint themselves one head] The 'one head' is doubtless the Davidic
king (iii. 5).
come up out of the land] The recruited people, too numerous for 'the
land to bear them ', shall seek to enlarge their territory (comp. Am. ix. 12,
Isa. xi. 14, Mic. ii. 12, 13). The 'land ' spoken of can only be Palestine?
since there is nothing in the context to suggest that either the land 01
captivity (as Kimchi, following the Targum) or the earth in general is
intended. 'Come up' should rather be go up, i.e. march to battle
as Nah. ii. 2, Joel i. 6, and often.
for great shall be the day of Jezreel] The result of the warlike enter
prise of Judah and Israel is not expressly mentioned, but the addition

w. i, 2.J HOSEA, II. 47
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi ; 2
And to your sisters, Ruhamah.
Plead with your mother, plead : a
For she is not my wife, neither am I her husband :
of these words permits no doubt of its success. Hosea means by the
phrase, not the day on which Jehu's guilty dynasty shall be cut short ;
for the name Jezreel has now been freed from all gloomy associations,
and become a title of the regenerate people of Israel. Besides, in
phrases like 'the day of Jezreel', the name is always either that of a
person, or of a place, or a city personified.
Chap. II.
1. The parallel lines here seem misleading.
Say ye../] Now that the storm-cloud has rolled away, those names
of baleful import Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah have ceased to be ad
missible, and are altered into the direct opposites. The verse is best
understood as the conclusion of chap, ii., just as 'Call his name Lo-
ammi', &c. ought to form the conclusion of chap. i. The persons
addressed are perhaps the disciples of the prophet, who are directed
to communicate the joyful news summed up in the names Ammi ('my
people') and Ruhamah (' she hath found compassion ') to the whole
nation. 2—23, 1. 10, 11, il. 1. Hosea's first discourse, slightly obscured by
the dislocation of some of its verses (see above on i. io, ii). The
prophet sets forth in more intelligible language what he has already
suggested rather enigmatically. The finest part of the chapter is from
v. 14 to v. 23, where Hosea shows how Israel will emerge purified from
her captivity, and enjoy the love and favour of her Divine Bridegroom.
2  7. The prophecy begins with a solemn admonition on the faith
less conduct of Israel towards her Divine Bridegroom. The dramatis
persona are the same as in chap. i. ; only, whereas in chap. l. the
husband, wife, and children, are both historical persons and significant
symbols, in chap. ii. they are obviouslvrjure allegories. Israel becomes
the adulterous wife, and Jehovah the aggnevecThusband. -1 he in
dividual Israelites are the children. The appeal of Jehovah to the
latter implies that they have not altogether given way to their inherited
propensities ; they can still be expected, at least in some cases, to co
operate for the extinction of a corrupt worship. Comp. i K"igs «x. is
' seven thousand in Israel... which have not bowed unto the Baal .
2. Plead with your mother, plead] The repetition of the appeal
shews its urgency. 'Do not murmur against me', Jehovah seems to
say, 'plead your cause against your own mother : Israel is the author of
her own calamities.' ... , ,,, „
for she is not my wife...] A parenthetical explanation of the ex
pression 'your mother*. Adultery has destroyed the relation of the
wife to the husband, but not of the mother to the children. Comp.
Isa. 1. i.

48 HOSEA, II. [w- 3. 4-
Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her
sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts ;
i Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she
was born, ;]•
And make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dijlj
land,
And slay her with thirst.
And I will not have mercy upon her children ;
her whoredoms out of her sight] Rather, from her face, the index
of obstinacy (comp. Jer. iii. 3), as the breasts of shamelessness.
3. Lest I strip her naked./.] So far the punishment of the adulteress
agrees with that customary among the Germans (Tac. Germ. §§ 18, 19).
But the punishment of the Hebrew adulteress is not intended to stop t
here ; death was the penalty she had to fear — death by strangling,
according to the Rabbinical explanation of Lev. xx. 10, Deut. xxii. 22,
death by stoning, according to Ezekiel in a passage which alludes to
the present (Ezek. xvi. 39, 40, comp. John viii. 5). . But the prophet;
speaks here of neither form of punishment, but of death by thirst ins
the desert. The meaning of the allegory is, that the people of N. Israel:
shall be put to open shame, and deprived of the rich temporal blessings'
vouchsafed to them. At the beginning of Israel's history, we see her,;
as it were, a homeless wanderer in the wilderness, with nothing eith«j|
in her nature or in her surroundings to promise a longer existence .thai
was enjoyed by many another of the Semitic pastoral tribes (ccrnpt-'
Ezek. xvi. 5), and the close of her history, says the prophet, shall '
present an exactly similar picture. Observe in passing how neaxly the
ideas of 'land' and 'people' cover each other iu the mind of Hosea.
In fact, in the mythic stage of religion (from which Hosea's country
men had not as yet for the most part emerged), it was the land which;
was imagined as in direct relation to the deity, the people heing only;
so related in virtue of their dwelling in the land. They were in fact;
the children of the land (comp. Ezek. xiv. 15 'bereave it,' viz. the land)j
nationality, land, and religion were three inseparable ideas. Hence,
though Hosea begins with the figure of disclothing, he glides insensitjf
into forms of expression appropriate to a land. 'Lest I make ht
as the wilderness, and set her as a dry land, and slay her with thirstj
The latter expression could of course be used of a wanderer in tilt
desert, but was also allowable of a desolate region (see Ezek. xix. 1 3,'
and comp. Koran xxx. 18).
4. And upon her children...] No bar shall be opposed, Jehovaiji
declares, to the natural consequence of a corrupt and corrupting rei
ligion. Israel, as an independent nation, must at least for a timij
cease to be. It appears then that the appeal in ver. 4 was uttereffl
as a forlorn hope. All but a few of the Israelites were too far gone t<f
desire to cooperate in a reformation. They were the 'children of

w. S— 7-]  HOSEA, II. 49
For they be the children of whoredoms.
For their mother hath played the harlot : 5
She that conceived them hath done shamefully :
For she said, I will go after my lovers,
That give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, 6
And make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not 7
overtake them;
And she shall seek them, but shall not find them:
Then shall she say, I will go and return to my first
husband ;

whoredom', not merely as the children of idolaters, but as idolaters
themselves. 6. / will go after my lovers. . .] Israel, then, had given up the true
Jehovah for 'lovers' (i.e. not, as the Targum explains it, and as the
phrase often means, especially in Ezekiel, the neighbouring peoples
whose favour was courted by the Israelites, but, as w. io, IS suggest,
the Baalim).
mine oil and my drink] Rather, drinks (as margin), i.e. wine and
various fermented liquors made from fruits such as the date, the mul
berry, the fig, and the dried raisin (see Tristram, Natural Hist, of
Bible, p. 412). Observe the influence of the primitive idea that the
land (rather than the people) was in mystic relation to Jehovah ; see on
w. 21, 22.
6. I will hedge up thy way with thorns] Notice how, in the excite
ment of anger, the person changes from the second to the third. The
figure is that of a traveller, who has not indeed lost his way, but finds it
shut up by a thorn-hedge planted right across it, and by a wall, which
formerly could be scaled through a breach, but is now solidly built up.
Job iii. 23, xix. 8 and Lam. iii. 7, 9 are strikingly parallel. The reality
signified is of course some dark caUjiait$i.utterly paralyzing the vital
powers. In the second line render a wall for her (lit. , 'her wall ').
7. not overtake... not find them] Because the sense of the mystic
nearness of the Baalim, formerly enjoyed by their worshippers, will
have disappeared together with the prosperity which they were imagined
to have granted; prayers and sacrifices will have lost their supposed
efficacy. I will go and return] Rather, Let me go and return. A resolution
which strikingly resembles that of the Jews in Upper Egypt in the time
of Jeremiah, who persisted in worshipping the Queen of Heaven, on
the ground that when they had worshipped her in former times 'they
had plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil' (Jer. xliv. 17).
Israel's language here reminds us of a later parallel passage (vi. 1 — 3) ;
hosea 4

5°

HOSEA, II. [w. 8, 9.

For then was it better with me than now.
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine,
and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold,
Which they prepared for Baal.
Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the
time thereof,
And my wine in the season thereof,
And will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her
nakedness.
it is not so much the expression of penitence, as of a longing to escape
from the sense of misery.
then was it better with me than now] For, after all, Israel was better
off materially at the opening of her national existence. She had not
indeed as yet appropriated the good things of Canaanitish civilization ;
but her independence was secured, and she had a bright horizon of
hope. 8 — 13. The offended Husband describes the compulsion which he
will employ towards his faithless wife.
8. For she did not know that I...] Rather, and site (the recipient
of such favours) hath not taken notice that it was I who gave her the
corn, and the new wine, and the fresh oil. Corn, new wine, and
fresh oil, are the three great material blessings of the land of Canaan
(see Deut. vii. 13, xi. 14, xii. 17, &c).
silver and gold] The fruits of commerce, then, are also the gifts of
Jehovah (contrast the language of Isaiah in a different mood, Isa. ii. 7).
The riches of N. Israel are testified to by the Black Obelisk of Shal
maneser II., where 'silver and gold, bowls of gold, cups of gold, bottles
Df gold, vessels of gold' are mentioned in the tribute paid by Yahua
habal Khumri (Jehu, son of Omri) to the Assyrian king.
which they prepared for Baal] Rather, which they have used in the
service of the Baal, (i.e. the pretended Baal or 'lord' whom they
worship). This may allude partly to the overlaying of images with
silver and gold, as was the practice in Judah in the time of Isaiah
(Isa. xxx. 22), but no doubt refers chiefly to the molten images in
the form of a calf (i. e. a small bull), which the first Jeroboam placed on
the bamoth or high places at Bethel and at Dan, and doubtless else
where. It is possible, however, to render 'and who multiplied silver
for her, and gold, which (viz. which gold) they have used,' &c. In
this case the reference will be exclusively to the golden bulls. This
view is favoured by the Hebrew accentuation.
9. And now in order radically to cure the Israelites of this error
(viz. that their good things have come from the Baals) the people are
for a. time to be deprived of these blessings.
return and take away] Rather, take back again.
my corn... my wine... my wool... my flax] For though Israel mayg

vv. io— 12.] HOSEA, II.

Si

And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her-,o
lovers,
And none shall deliver her out of mine hand,
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, „
Her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all
her solemn feasts.
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, t2
speak, as in v. 7, of 'my bread and my water,' these things were really
the property of Jehovah, who could withdraw them at any moment,
even in the 'time' or season of the corn and the new wine, when
the husbandman was counting implicitly on the harvest and the
vintage. recover] Or, rescue, viz. from the misuse to which these gifts would
be put by the idolaters.
given to cover her nakedness] Thus reminding Israel that in her
natural condition she was utterly helpless and destitute. Comp. Ezek.
xvi. 8, which evidently alludes to this passage.
10. in the sight of her lovers] Note here that the prophet seems
to admit the real existence of the Baalim. Seems, but only seems ; for
in iv. 12 he describes the popular oracles as 'stocks,' and in xiv. 3 he
describes it as folly to say 'to the work of our hands, Ye are our
gods.' Hosea's language here is probably poetically free, just as in
Ps. xcvi. 4 a psalmist declares that Jehovah is ' to be feared above all
gods' (' 'elohim), though he adds in v. 5 that 'all the gods of the nations
are but 'eliRm 'nothings' or 'not-gods.' The later prophets are more
emphatically monotheistic (see Introduction, part v., and comp. on
i. 10).
11. her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths] (The Hebrew
has the singular, ' her feast-day' &c.) These expressions are remarkable,
for Hosea is a prophet of northern Israel. It would appear, then,
that the separation of north and south did not involve a discontinuance
of the festivals in the north (see ix. 5). Amos had already predicted
the ruin of the 'feasts' in N. Israel (Amos viii. 10). In addition to
the 'feasts' which are doubtless those mentioned in the earliest body
of legislation (Ex. xxiii. 14, &c, xxxiv. 18, &c), Hosea specifies the
new moon and the sabbath (comp. 2 Kings iv. 23) as passing away
together with the national independence. This was not strictly speaking
the case with regard to the sabbath, which became one great bond of
union among the Jews in exile. But the old, popular sabbath of
unrestrained joy (comp. Hosea's 'all her mirth') did pass away; the
sabbath of Is. lviii. 13 was very different from that which was popularly
observed in ancient Israel.
and all her solemn feasts] Or, festal assemblies. The term is
more comprehensive than 'feast'; the Levitical legislation recognizes
seven 'festal assemblies', but only three 'feasts' (comp. Lev. xxxiii.).
12. her vines and her fig- trees] The Hebrew has 'her vine and her
fig-tree'. It would seem as if here, as in Joel i. 7, Israel personified
4—2

52 HOSEA, II. |v- 13-
Whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my
lovers have given me :
And I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
i And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she
burnt incense to them,
were represented with a vine and a fig-tree, like any individual Israelite
(i Kings iv. 25). But A. V. gives the right sense.
my rewards] The 'hire' or 'reward' of a prostitute is meant (comp.
ix. 1, and see on v. 5).
a forest] A frequent feature in descriptions of desolation (comp.
Isa. v. 6, vii. 23, xxxii. 13; Mic. iii. 12). 'A forest' however is
misleading; the word (ya'ar) often means low, tangled brushwood
(e.g. Cant. ii. 3 ; Isa. xxi. 13 ; 1 Sam. xiv. 25, 26). The idea in the
prophet's mind is inaccessibility, not stateliness (like that of forest-
trees). the beasts of the field] ' Field ' = open country. The enemies of
Israel are compared to wild beasts in Isa. lvi. 9 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 25.
13. / will visit upon her the days of Baalim] To 'visit' is to
examine or take notice of, whether in a favourable sense or the reverse.
' Baalim ' should rather be the Baalim (the various local Baals).
Hosea has referred to the holydays of Jehovah (v. 1 1) ; now he com
plains of the holydays of the Baalim, which, there is reason to think,
are, in name at least, the same holydays as those of the more spiritual
worshippers of Jehovah (new moons, sabbaths, and festal assemblies),
but differing from these in the total absence of a spiritual element.
They are in fact nothing better than sensual merry-makings and displays
of finery such as the heathen loved at the turning-points of the agri
cultural year. But what does Hosea mean by 'the Baalim'? Certainly
not, as some have supposed, statues of a god distinct from Jehovah
called Baal — a view which is opposed by v. 19, 'I will take away the
names (not, the name) of the Baalim out of thy mouth'. The com
parison of another Semitic religious vocabulary will here, as so often,
facilitate our exegesis. With the Phoenicians the word Baal, 'lord',
was an appellative term for a god, and was used as well for any local
as for the national deity. It occurs in the phrase 'Melkart, Baal of
Tyre' in the bilingual inscription on two candelabra known as Meli-
tensis prima; and if we only had Canaanitish and Israelitish inscriptions
we should doubtless find that the Canaanitish and popular Israelitish
usage was identical with that of the Phoenicians. What Hosea does
mean by ' the Baalim ' is the varieties of the one national deity specially
worshipped in different Israelitish localities, such as Baal-Hamon, Baal-,
Hazor, Baal-Shalisha, Baal-Tamar, &c. In spite of the name Baal
(see on v. 16) it was Jehovah who was worshipped at the 'high places ',
just as in Mohammedan Syria it is Allah who, in name at least, receives
the adoration of the fell&Mn. But the worship was, from' Hosea's
point of view, a purely nominal one, just as the worship of Allah by

v. 1 4.] HOSEA, II. 53
And she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels,
And she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the
Lord.
Therefore behold, I will allure her, m
the felldhtn is mixed up with many most un-Mohammedan elements.
The Israelites of the north looked upon the Baalim as the givers of
their bread and their water, their oil and their 'drinks'; in short,
as in no essential respect different from the heathen Baalim of the
Canaanites. This was, no doubt, a backsliding from the spiritual
truths which seem to be involved in the revelation of Sinai. But it
was a backsliding which can be accounted for ; it is not to be traced,
as the older writers on the Old Testament naively traced it, to a
peculiar wickedness in the primitive Israelites. A fusion of the religion
brought by the Israelites from Sinai with the religion found by them in
Canaan, was, humanly speaking, inevitable ; partly because from pre
historic times the Hebrews, equally with the Canaanites had used the
term Baal, 'lord', as an appellative for a deity, and partly because, like
the Cuthsean colonists of the cities of Samaria, they thought it essential
to learn 'the manner (rather, religion) of the god of the land' (2 Kings
xvii. 26), since the national prosperity seemed to depend on the favour
of the territorial deities.
burned incense] The word will also cover the burning of sacrifices
upon the altar, as Lev. i. 9, 17, &c. Comp. Ps. lxvi. 15 'incense
[or, the sweet smoke] of rams.'
her earrings and her jewels] Rather, her nose-ring (as only one
ring is mentioned, and there is no evidence that Hebrew ladies had a
store of these articles), as Gen. xxiv. 47, and her necklace (as Prov.
xxv. 12). Popular religious ideas required such ornaments for holy
days. See Ex. iii. 21, 22 (comp. v. 18), and Korin, Sura xx. 61
' on the day of ornament ' (i.e. at the festival).
14 — 23. And now the notes of threatening are dying away; bright
and glorious days are announced for both sections of the nation.
There shall be a second Exodus ; no more idolatry ; no more war ; no
cloud upon Israel's reiation"T5"*her God. (Notice in passing the limi
tations of this stage of religious knowledge; the Messianic hope is as
yet confined entirely to the people of Israel.)
14. Therefore] i.e. because, without Jehovah's help, Israel will
never come to herself, and reform (comp. Isa. xxx. 18). Her punishment
has an educational object ; the threat has a tinge of promise.
I will allure her...] The pronoun is expressed in the Hebrew. /
have not forgotten her, though she has forgotten me. 'Allure her'
seems out of place in introducing the punishment ; generally the exile
is described as an expulsion (comp. Jer. viii. 3). Either we must read
with Buhl, 'I will loose hei bonds' (mfattekhah, cf. Jer. xl. 4), or we
must suppose a violation of natural order such as occurs now and then
in Hebrew, so that the 'alluring' may refer to the cordial address of
Jehovah spoken of afterwards. Kimchi explains, ' I will put into her
heart to return, while she is yet in exile '- How beautifully the promise

54 HOSEA, II. [w. 15, 1 6.
And bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfortably unto her.
And I will give her her vineyards from thence,
And the valley of Achor for a door of hope :
And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth,
And as in the day when she came up out of the land of
Egypt.
i And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou
shalt call me Ishi ;
And shalt call me no more Baali.
anticipates the great prophecy of Israel's restoration, which opens,
remarkably enough, with the very phrase used by Hosea, 'Speak ye
to the heart of Jerusalem' (Is. xl. 2). [According to another expla
nation of the passage which goes back to St Jerome, the wilderness is
not only a place of affliction, but one of hope. The latter sense seems
to be opposed by a passage in Ezekiel (xx. 33 — 38) which is evidently
a reminiscence of our passage, and which refers to the wilderness
exclusively as a place of punishment. Keil, on the other hand, thinks
that Israel is to be led into the wilderness, not for punishment, but for
deliverance from bondage. This certainly explains the 'I will allure
her,' but is not consistent with the next verse, in which allusion is
made to the punishment undergone in the wilderness. Comp. on
xiii. 10.]
into the wilderness] By 'wilderness' Hosea means not merely the
desert which lay between Canaan and the land of captivity, but the
captiviy or exile itself. Sojourn in a heathen land appeared to pious
Israelites like a wandering in the desert (comp. Isa. xii. 17).
speak comfortably unto her] Lit., 'speak unto her heart'.
15. / will give her her vineyards from thence] So soon as she has
left the wilderness ('from thence'), Jehovah will restore to her the vine
yards which he had taken away (v. 12).
the valley of Achor for a door of hope] Whereas the first Israelites
had to call their first encampment after crossing the Jordan the valley
of Achor or 'Troubling' (Josh. vii. 26), their descendants shall find the
same spot a starting point for a career of success. Another prophet
praises the same valley for its fertility (Is. lxv. 10).
she shall sing there] Or, 'thereupon'. Alluding to the songs of
Moses and Miriam in Ex. xv. 1 (see v. 21, where, as St Jerome with
Jewish writers points out, the same verb is used of Miriam's 'answer
ing' the song of Moses). But antiphonal singing is not suitable here,
and much less in w. 23 — 25 (where A. V. arbitrarily alters the render
ing of the verb). Render, she shall respond there. Theod. diroicpi-
B-tio-erai, Aq. iwaKoiaei (scil. 7-$ Kvplif). But Hebrew grammar is more
consulted by adopting Buhl's emendation, 'she shall go up ('alhhah)
thither' (i.e. homewards), as in 'the days of her youth' (comp. Jer. ii. 2),
when she came out of Egypt.
16. thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali] The

w. 17, io.j HOSEA, II. 55
For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her ,
mouth,
And they shall no more be remembered by their name.
And in that day will I make a covenant for them with ,
the beasts of the field,
And with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping
things of the ground :
And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle
out of the earth,
terms Ishi, 'my husband', and Baali, 'my lord', are properly speaking
synonymous, so that, but for the association of Baal with a false religion,
Jehovah as the Bridegroom of Israel might quite innocently be ad
dressed as Baali. The occurrence of Baal in the proper names of
families of patriots like Saul, David, Jonathan, Joash (the father of
Jerubbaal), and indeed merely such a name as Bealiah, 'Jehovah is
Baal' (1 Chron. xii. 5), shew that Jehovah was actually so addressed in
the earlier period of Israelitish history. The danger however to the reli
gious purity of Israel was, as we have seen (on v. 13), very great, and
Hosea naturally refused to recognize in Jehovah-Baal the spiritual deity
to whom his own allegiance was sworn. Our prophet was therefore the
continuator of the work of Elijah. The Phcenicized Baal-cultus of
Ahab was doubtless more corrupt than that which Hosea had to deal
with, but the spiritual perceptions of Hosea were sharpened by a fuller
training than that which the older prophet had enjoyed. It is remark
able, as an instance of the freedom with which a later prophet could
allowably treat an earlier one (a freedom which reminds us of the treat
ment of the Law of Moses by our Lord), that Jeremiah actually uses
the verb bd'al, 'to be a lord or husband', of Jehovah (Jer. xxxi. 22). .
17. I will take away the names of the Baalim] Tenacious as the popular
memory is, the unholy names shall be expunged from it. 'Remem
bered' should be mentioned; comp. Josh, xxiii. 7; Ps. xvi. 4, and
especially the reminiscence of our passage in Zech. xiii. 2 (where ' the
idols' has taken the place of 'the Baalim'). 'Out of her mouth', a
change of person for the sake of variety.
18. T will make a covenant...] The language reminds us of Zech.
xi. 10, where Jehovah 'breaks his covenant which he has made with all
the peoples', restraining them from injuring the Israelites, and still more
of Ezek. xxxiv. 25 (evidently based on this passage). The 'covenant'
(Heb. b'ritk) is in fact an ordinance imposed by Jehovah; it is not
correct to say that it is a 'treaty' between Israel and the wild beasts.
Probably 'ordinance' is the original meaning, which was afterwards
widened into 'covenant'. Comp. vi. 7 ; Deut. xxxiii. 9; 2 Kings xi. 4 ;
Jer. xi. 6; Job xxxi. 1 ; Ps. cv. 10.
and I will break... out of the earth] Comp. Ps. xlvi. 9. But the
context requires the rendering, out of the land. All the 'equipment of
war' (see on i. 7) of Israel's enemies shall be destroyed (comp. Ps.
lxxvi. 3).

56 HOSEA, II. [yy. 19—21
And will make them to lie down safely.
And I will betroth thee Unto me for ever ;
Yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in
judgment,
And in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness :
And thou shalt know the Lord.
And it shall come to pass in that day,
I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens,
19. I will betroth thee unto me] A second marriage-ceremony among
the Israelites had to be preceded by a second betrothal. Jehovah
promises here that this betrothal shall be 'for ever', i.e., that no differ
ences shall destroy the mutual harmony between Jehovah and His people,
(comp. Jer. xxxi. 35 — 37 ; Is. liv. 8 — 10). Righteousness and justice, &c.
shall be as it were the bond which unites the pair. The triple mention
of the betrothal indicates the solemnity of the act.
20. and thou shalt know the Lord] The 'knowledge' of Jehovah
is repeatedly insisted upon by Hosea (see iv. 1, v. 4, vi. 3, 6) ; not
however a merely intellectual one, but that which rests upon spiritual
experience, and results in moral practice. Such experience was lacking
in Hosea's countrymen ; 'the spirit of whoredom is in the midst of them,
and they have not known Jehovah ' (v. 4). It was natural to describe
as an element of the realized ideal that Jehovah's people should at last
'know' him. How much weaker is the alternative reading, 'know that
I am the Lord ', though supported by the precious Babylonian codex,
as well as by the Vulgate !
21, 22. / will hear...] Rather, I will respond (and similarly
throughout). It is a beautiful picture of the harmony between the
physical and the spiritual spheres, Jezreel (i.e. Israel, see next verse)
asks its plants to germinate; they call upon the earth for its juices; the
earth beseeches heaven for rain; heaven supplicates for the divine
word which opens its stores; and Jehovah responds in faithful love.
The idea is that of Am. ix. 13; Joel iii. 18, but it is expressed in an
unusual manner. Striking parallels have been quoted from Euripides
and iEschylus (fragments beginning respectively
'Ep$ p.iv 5/j.fSpov yat', Srav frpbv iriSov
and 'BjOji ft&v ayvos oipavos rpwaai x^l>va) ;
but we need not have recourse for illustrations to classical literature.
The prophets and psalmists have no scruple in adopting and spiritual
izing popular (i.e. heathenish) Semitic modes of thought. One of the
most prevalent of these modes of thought is referred to by Hosea both
in this chapter and in i. ¦,. The heathen Semitic deities were the pro
ductive powers of nature, and were grouped in couples of male and
female principles, known in the middle zone of Semitic countries as
Baal and Baalath (=Baaltis), Baal and Asherah (see note in Introd.,
part 11.), and Ashtar (or Ashtor) and Ashtoreth (or Astarte). It was

'3

vv. 22, *j.j HOSEA, II. 57
And they shall hear the earth ;
And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the 22
oil;
And they shall hear Jezreel.
And I will sow her unto me in the earth ;
And I will have mercy upon her that had not
obtained mercy;
believed that the fruitful earth was the issue of this union; or, by
a variation of the same myth, that the earth itself was the female,
principle. Hence the idea that the land (see i. i. and comp. the
expressions in w. 5, 9), and, by a later inference, the people of Israel,
were the offspring or the spouse of their God was a truism to the
hearers of the prophet ; but that divine sonship was not physical but
moral (see below, on xi. 1), and that the nation's Bridegroom could even
divorce his spouse — these were strange and offensive ideas. The latter
indeed was so inconceivable that Hosea was directed to explain it by
allegorizing a distressing episode in his own history. We must not omit
to notice in conclusion that the adaptation of mythic and therefore
strictly speaking heathenish forms of speech is not confined to the
records of revealed religion. The Arabic vocabulary of Mohammedan
times contains a group of parallel expressions which may pertinently be
referred to here. Thus, for instance bait and 'aththari or 'athari
are used of land which is watered from heaven (i.e., by rain and
not by springs), and these, being derivatives of the Arabic forms of
the divine names Baal and Ashtar, imply the very same myth which
has been mentioned above. So too both in Talmudic Hebrew and in
Arabic ' field, or land of Baal ' means land which has no need of irriga
tion, and ba'l in Arabic, according to Lane, any seed-produce only
watered by the rain. (See Prof. Robertson Smith, The Prophets of
Israel, pp. 172, 409, Cheyne, The Prophecies of Isaiah, Vol. 11. p. 295
= 282 ed. 2). These significant phrases throw a fresh light, not only
(as Prof. Smith has shown) on Hosea, but also on the language of Isa.
xiv. 8, 'Shower, ye heavens from above. ..let the earth open, and let
them (viz. heaven and earth) bear the fruit of salvation'.
Jezreel] In i. 4 Jezreel was only mentioned for its historical associa
tions, without any reference to the meaning of its name. Here however
it evidently has a symbolic value, viz. ' God sows (it) '.
23. And I will sow her unto me in the earth] Rather, in the
land. Jehovah declares that Jezreel shall verify her name (her name,
for Jezreel means restored Israel) by being sown anew in the promised
land. (Similarly Jeremiah, see xxxi. 27, 28). Thus one of the symbolic
names of chap. i. is not indeed changed, but transformed by interpreta
tion. The other names are absolutely reversed. 'Unto me', because
while they were outside 'Jehovah's land', the relations of Jehovah to
Israel seemed interrupted.
I will have mercy upon  ] Rather, I will compassionate Uncom-
passionated [Lo-ruhamah], and to Not-my-people [Lo-ammi] I will

58 HOSEA, III. [w. i, 2.
And I will say to them which were not my
people, Thou art my people;
And they shall say, Thou art my God.
3 Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman
beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the
love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to
2 other gods, and love flagons of wine. So I bought her to
say, Thou art My-people [Ammi]; and he (viz. Not-my- people) shall
say, My God ! St Paul's quotation in Rom. ix. 25 (in a form which
differs both from the Hebrew and from the Septuagint) has been already
referred to in illustration of a critical hypothesis (see on i. 10, 11). A
post-exile prophecy also contains an unmistakable allusion to this pas
sage (Zech. xiii. 9, end). Applications like these shew how great was
the posthumous influence of the prophets.
Ch. III. The second part of the parable of Hosea's family-
life.
1. Go yet, love] Rather, Once more go love, indicating that the
narrative dropped at i. 9 is now resumed. (Notice also in this connexion
the change of the third person into the first in chap, iii.) It is the same
woman who is meant ; otherwise a different form of expression would have
been used (like that in i. 2), besides which the allegory would have been
spoiled had there been two women concerned. Gomer is throughout the
symbol of faithless but not forsaken Israel. The narrative is told in a
condensed allusive style, which makes some demand on the imagination of
the reader. If Gomer is to be taken back, it is clear that she must have
left her husband, and the price at which (v. 2) she has to be brought
back shews that she had fallen into depths of misery.
beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress] Rather, beloved of a para
mour, and an adulteress. As" if Jehovah had said, Love her just as
she is; the definition is added for the reader's sake, to show how great
an act was demanded of Hosea, like ' Take now thy son, thine only son
Isaac, whom thou lovest' (Gen. xxii. 2). For the rendering 'paramour',
comp. Jer. iii. 20; Lam. i. 2.
who look...] Rather, whereas they (on their side) turn.
flagons of wine] Rather, calces of grapes. Cakes of dried grapes
were common articles of food, mentioned with cakes of figs, bread, and
wine, and parched corn (1 Sam. xxv. 18). The cakes here mentioned,
however, must have been of a superior kind ; they bear a different
name, and appear from Isa. xvi. 7 (corrected translation) to have been
considered as luxuries. They formed part of David's royal bounty on
the removal of the ark to Jerusalem (2 Sam. vi. 19), or more correctly
of the sacrificial feast implied by the context. This latter point is
interesting as it suggests that Baal-worship was closely related to the
festivities of the vintage (Prof. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in
the Jewish Church, p. 434). Hosea too seems to refer to these cake$
in connexion with the sacrificial feasts, not without a touch of sarcasnffl

vV.„3, 4-] HOSEA, III. 59
me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and
a half homer of barley : and I said unto her, Thou shalt 3
abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be for another man : so will I also be
for thee. For the children of Israel shall abide many days 4
/ bought her to me] Why Hosea had to buy his wife back from her
paramour, does not appear ; had he lost his rights over her by her flight
and adultery ? Perhaps it was simply to avoid an altercation with the
adulterer, or we may imagine such a scene as is depicted by Dean
Plumptre in his poem ' Gomer' (Lazarus, p. 87). The view of Pococke
and Pusey that Hosea means to explain how he undertook to allow his
wife just sufficient for a decent maintenance till she should be reinstated
in her full position, accounts no doubt for grain being given as well as
money, but does violence to the letter of the text, as there is no suffi
cient proof of the rendering ' I provided her with food'.
for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half-
homer of barley] In 2 Kings vii. 18 two seahs of barley are rated at
a shekel. This however was immediately after the siege of Samaria
had been raised ; the normal rate would probably have been lower,
say three seahs at a shekel, so that a homer (= 30 seahs) would have
cost ten shekels and a homer and a half fifteen. The total price paid
by Hosea would therefore be thirty shekels (about ,£3. 15J.) the
average value of a slave (see Ex. xxi. 32). Why it was paid partly in
money, partly in kind, cannot be determined. Hosea only tells us
enough to make the allegory intelligible. Gomer in her misery is a
type of Israel in her unhappy alienation from her God.
a half-homer] Strictly, a lethech. The Sept. has *a bottle of
wine' (Wj8e\ olvov). Probably the translator was unacquainted with
the 'lethech', which was apparently not a primitive measure. Its
precise relation to the homer is uncertain ; A.V. however is borne out
by the Jewish tradition. There is nothing analogous to it in the
Egyptian dry measure, which in other details agrees exactly with the
Hebrew (Revillout, Revue Igyptologiquc II. 190).
3. Thou shalt abide for me many days] Rather, shalt sit still (as
Isa. xxx. 7, Jer. viii. 14 in A. V.). Gomer is to lead a quiet secluded
life ; her licentious course is cut short, and her conjugal intercourse
may not yet be resumed. This is to last for 'many days,' i.e. as long
as is necessary to assure Hosea of Gomer's moral amendment.
so (will) I also (be) for thee] i. e. Hosea plights his troth that he will
form no connexion with any other woman but Gomer. ' Ego vicissim
tibi fidem meam obligo', Calvin. Others, with Aben Ezra and Kimchi,
understand, instead of 'will be', 'will not go in', taking the clause as a
contrast to that which precedes ('but I will not go in unto thee').
Ewald renders, 'and yet I am kind unto thee'. It is possible that some
short word (such as 'so' or 'not') has dropped out of the text.
4. For...] The explanation of this latter part of the prophet's
acted allegory. As he has restrained his erring wife from even the

60 HOSEA, III.  [v-4.
without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice,
and without an image, and without an ephod, and without
legitimate gratification of her natural instincts, so Jehovah will chastise^
idolatrous Israel by depriving her of her civil and religious institutions.
By 'the children of Israel' Hosea means the Ten Tribes, as elsewheje
in these chapters,
shall abide] Rather, shall sit still (as v. 3).
many days] The prophet has received no revelation as to the dura
tion of the captivity of the Ten Tribes.
without u. king and without a prince] The abolition of 'king and
princes' corresponds to the denial of intercourse with her lovers to
Gomer. The term 'prince ' is used partly of the magnates of the state
in general, partly of the 'elders' or heads of families, who played such
an important part in the Israelitish community (comp. Ex. iii. 16;
2 Sam. xix. n; 1 Kings viii. 1, xx. 7; Jer. xxvi. 17). A king and
princes are mentioned together again in vii. 3, xiii. 10 (and probably
in viii. 10).
without a sacrifice and without an image] The withholding of this and
the next pair of objects corresponds to the cessation of conjugal intercourse
between Hosea and Gomer. Consequently as Hosea represents Jehovah,
the 'image' (or rather consecrated pillar, Heb. maccebah) spoken of must
stand in some relation to Jehovah, must in fact be of one of those pillars
sacred to Jehovah, which, as many think, lasted on in Judah (much;?
more therefore in Israel) at any rate till the time of Hezekiah : see
note on x. 1. The 'pillars' were the distinguishing marks of holy
places, and are therefore very naturally combined by Hosea with
sacrifices or altars (Sept., followed by Pesh. and Vulg. reads 'altar'
here instead of 'sacrifice'). Comp. Dean Plumptre:
No pomp of kings, no priests in gorgeous robes,
No victims bleeding on the altar-fires,
No golden ephod set with sparkling gems,
No pillar speaking of the gate of heaven,
No Teraphim with strange mysterious gleam
Shall give their signs oracular. (Lazarus, p. 90.)
It follows from this passage of Hosea that the worship of Jehovah in
northern Israel presented features altogether alien to the orthodox
worship of Jehovah according to the Law, and that Hosea raises no
protest against it. He refers to its suspension as a privation corre
sponding to and equally felt with that of king and princes. We must
remember however that the kings of N. Israel were regarded by Hose*
as usurpers. \
without an ephod] The high priest's ephod is described in Ex. xxviiii
6 — 14. It was a sleeveless coat of splendid and costly material and
with two ouches of onyx on the shoulders, bound by a rich girdle.
Over it was worn the so-called choshen, a jewelled breastplate with thej
Urim and Thummim. But what connexion had this coat with thel
sacred 'pillar' and the teraphim? It is as difficult to answer as tin
question with regard to Gideon's ephod in Judg. viii. 24  27. Thi

v. 5-] HOSEA, III. 61
teraphim : afterward shall the children of Israel return, and 5
seek the Lord their God, and David their king ; and shall
fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter days.
root-meaning of ephod is simply to overlay, and the feminine form of
the word^phod (aphuddah) is used in Isa. xxx. 22 of the gold plating
of images. The easiest supposition is that both in Judg. l.c. and here
'ephod' means, not an article of sacerdotal dress but an image of
Jehovah overlaid with gold or silver (so in Judg. xvii. , xviii. ; 1 Sam. xxi.
10, xxiii. 6, 9, xxx. 7, 8, but not 1 Sam. ii. 18, xxii. 18). It is no
doubt strange to find this idolatry of Jehovah still prevalent among the
larger section of the Israelites. But the fact is in harmony with all
that Hosea tells us of the religious state of his country elsewhere.
and without teraphim] Ephod and teraphim were evidently used
for similar purposes (see Judg. xvii., xviii.). The latter word only
occurs in the plural form ; the teraphim seem to have been household
gods (see Gen. xxxi. 19, 34; 1 Sam. xix. 13, 16), a relic of primitive
Semitic ancestor-worship (if we may connect with Assyrian tarpu, a
word from the same root as Heb. Rephaim 'the shades' — see margin of
R. V. of Isa. xiv. 9). Certainly no other plausible derivation has been
found (see Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 63, 451). Strange that such
survivals should occur. Compare, on the general question of fetishism
in the Old Testament, Max Miiller, Hibbert Lectures, p. 60). If
so, we may connect them with the 'creeping things and beasts and
idols (gillulim) of the house of Israel ' which Ezekiel saw ' pour-
trayed upon the wall ' in the ' chambers of imagery ' (Ezek. viii.
10 — 12). Josiah indeed had attempted to put away 'the teraphim
and the gillulim' (2 Kings xxiii. 24), but in vain; the Jews took
them with them into exile. Ezekiel represents the king of Babylon
as seeking an oracle from his teraphim (Ezek. xxi. 21); at any rate,
this was the principal use of the teraphim to the Israelites— to divine
by (Zech. x. 2). The meaning of ' ephod and teraphim ' was already
forgotten in the time of the Septuagint translator of Hosea, who
renders ovSk Uparetas ovdi Srj\av (he identifies the teraphim with
the Thummim, comp. Sept. Deut. xxxiii. 8 ; elsewhere 5?J\a or StJXuo-is
= the Urim).
6. return] i.e. from their evil courses of disobedience to their God
and to the legitimate royal house.
David their king] There is a great body of authority for regarding
this as an expression for the Messiah. So the Targum took it, so
Aben Ezra, and other Jewish writers cited by Pococke. The inter
pretation rests on the undoubted fact that in Jer. xxx. 9 ; Ezek. xxxiv.
23, 24, xxxvii. 24, 25 'David' means the ideal king of the future who
should prove as it were a second David. In all these passages however
there is something in the context to determine the reference to a person,
and all these passages belong to a later period in the development
of the Messianic revelation. The analogy of Am. ix. 11 suggests
that what is in Hosea's mind is, not the person of the king, but the
dynasty. In short, ' David' =the representative of David. Precisely so

62 HOSEA, IV.  [v- *•
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel :
For the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of
the land,
Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of
God in the land.
Rehoboam is still 'David' in i Kings xii. 16, and the high priest
'Aaron' in Ps. cxxxiii. 2. Hosea does not sanction the usurping
dynasties (see on i. 11).
and shall fear the Lord and his goodness] Rather, and shall come
eagerly to Jehovah and to his goodness (or, 'to His good things').
'Come eagerly to' is literally, 'tremble to', but the idea is not that
they will tremble at their own unworthiness, but rather ' trement prse
gaudio' (as the same verb means in Isa. Ix. 8). Comp. the similar
expression in xi. 10, where however the idea of speech is included**
The parallel passage in Jer. xxxi. 10 proves that the revived love of the
Israelites for Jehovah will have 'cast out fear'.
in the latter days] Rather, In the days to come (lit., 'in the sequel
of the days') ; see on Mic. iv. 1. Hosea does not mean to say that this
will be the last alum in the course of history ; but only that after Israel's
captivity, nothing will arise to break the harmony between Jehovah and
his people.
Ch. IV. Israel's gross moral corruption, abetted and
INCREASED BY HIS RELIGIOUS GUIDES.
1 — 3. The people are summoned to hear whereof Jehovah accuses
them, viz. the universal prevalence of the most crying sins. The pro
phet assures them that this is the true cause of the physical calamity
which is becoming more and more general in its range.
1. ye children of Israel] The northern kingdom only is addressed^
(see v. 15, where the prophet turns aside to Judah).
the Lord hath a controversy] Jehovah is both plaintiff and judge;
comp. xii. 2; Isa. i.
no truth, nor mercy] Or, ' no truthfulness and no kindness.' The
Hebrew khesedh includes in its wide range of meaning1 (1) the love of
God to man, as Ps. v. 7, (2) the love of man to God, as vi. 4, and (3)
brotherly love, or the love of a man to his neighbour, as often. Here
the context favours the last of these applications. St Jerome well
describes the connexion between the two qualities, — 'nee Veritas absque
misericordia sustineri potest, et misericordia absque veritate facit
negligentes, unde alterum miscendum est alteri '. In short, truth without
love leads to hardness, love without truth to weakness.
nor knowledge of God] This might well have been mentioned first.
Moral practice is low, because the heart has no experience of God's
personal dealings with it (see on ii. 20).
1 On the Hebrew words for love, comp. Carl Abel, Ueber den Begriff der Liebl
in einigen alien und ueuen SJ/racken, Berlin, 1872, pp. 63.

vv. 2—4.] HOSEA, IV. 63
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and »
committing adultery, they break out,
And blood toucheth blood.
Therefore shall the land mourn, 3
And every one that dwelleth therein shall languish,
With the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven ;
Yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another : <
For thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
2. By swearing..^ Rather, (There is nothing but) swearing and
lying, &c. The ' swearing' meant is of course false swearing (x. 4).
break out] Viz. into acts of violence ; or, ' break into (houses) ', as
Job xxiv. 16.
blood toucheth blood ] The Hebrew has ' bloods ', i.e. bloodshed.
The sense is, one deed of blood follows close upon another.
3. shall the land mourn] Or, 'doth. ..continually mourn', for the pro
phet speaks amidst the anarchical and revolutionary scenes which
followed upon the death of Jeroboam II. A severe drought is repre
sented as the punishment of Israel's misdoings. Nature, throughout
the prophetic literature, sympathizes with man's sins and sorrows.
Comp. Isa. xxiv. 3 — 6, Am. viii. 8 ; Jer. xii. 4; Joel i. 18 (where render
at end ' suffer punishment ').
with the beasts...] Better, both, &c. (lit. 'in', i.e. whether consisting
of.. .or of...).
4 — 6. It is not you, the laity, bad as you are, who are most to
blame ; do not waste your time in mutual recrimination. The real
blame lies with the priests. Jehovah has a solemn word for thee, O
priest ; thy whole clan are virtually in rebellion against me. For thy
penalty, thou shalt suffer one blow after another, (a ' fall ' means a
calamity), as it were by day and by night ; and thine accomplice, the
prophet, shall partake in thy punishment. Yea, thy whole stock, priests
as well as people, Jehovah will destroy. And why ? Because thou, O
priest, whose duty it was to teach the life-giving knowledge of God,
hast absolutely rejected it thyself. Henceforth thou art no priest of
mine. 4. Yet let no man strive.. .as they that strive with the priest] The
view of the meaning of this verse suggested by A.V. may be expressed
in the words of Henderson. ' All reproof on the part of their friends or
neighbours generally would prove fruitless, seeing they had reached a
degree of hardihood, which was only equalled by the contumacy of those
who refused to obey the priest, when he gave judgment in the name of
the Lord, Deut. xvii. 12.' This assumes that the counsel not to strive
comes from Jehovah. We might however follow Ewald, who under
stands the opening words of v. 4 to mean that the people 'will not
permit any one, even a prophet, to contend with them, although they
themselves do not scruple in the least to quarrel with eveiy one, even

64 HOSEA, IV. [w. 5. 6-
i Therefore shalt thou fall in the day,
And the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night,
And I will destroy thy mother.
i My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,
Because thou hast rejected knowledge,
with the priest who would admonish them, in spite of the traditional
reverence for his office, Deut. xvii. 8 — 18; Eccl. i v. 17, 18.' Thecom-
parison at the end of the verse, when explained thus, is no doubt
obscurely expressed, but not more so than that in v. 10, ' the princes of
Judah are become like those that remove the bound.' Still there are
objections, viz. (1) that in v. 6 the second person undoubtedly refers to
the priesthood, and why should it be taken differently in v. 5 ? and (2)
that in v. 6 the priests are so vehemently denounced, that we can hardly
suppose that contending with them would be referred to as a sin in v. 5 .
Various conjectures have been proposed for emending the passage. The
most plausible is that of Prof. Robertson Smith (The Prophets of Israel,
p. 406), who for kim'ribhe 'as they that strive with', reads marii bhi
' have rebelled against me.' At any rate, we must agree with him and
with Mr Heilprin, that the concluding word is a vocative — ' O priest.'
The view of the meaning of w. 4 — 6 given in the note before this is
based upon this conjecture. 'Priest' here = priestly caste, as 'aprophet'
in Deut. xviii. 18 = an order of prophets.
5. the prophet also] Hosea of course refers to the lower class of
prophets, to whom prophecy was simply a means of livelihood (comp.
Mic. iii. 1 1 and Amaziah's words in Am. vii. 12), and who, like the
priests, often came visibly drunk to their most solemn functions (Isa.
xxviii. 7). The spiritually-minded prophets of this period do not inveigh
against their rivals as false prophets (this term came from the Sept.
version of Jeremiah), but as those who prostitute a sacred calling to
selfish purposes. Very similar charges are brought against thepriests, who
are not on that account called false priests, though from the highest
point of view they were such.
thy mother] i.e. the stock from which thou springest, i.e. either the
entire Israelitish race (comp. ii. 2), or some partly independent portion;
of that race, not indeed here a city (as 2 Sam. xx. 19 ; comp. Ps.
cxlix. 2), but the caste or clan of thepriests (so Prof. Robertson Smith).
The expression ' I will also forget thy children ' (see below) favours the
latter view.
^6. My people are destroyed] The prophet cannot escape, because
the people is on the brink of ruin through the prophet's fault. It is
the perfect of prophetic certitude, ' my people is already as good as de
stroyed.' jor lack of knowledge] More precisely, by reason of (their) lack of
knowledge. The 'knowledge of God ' is meant (see on v. 1).
thou hast rejected knowledge] Thou is emphatically expressed in the
Hebrew. 'Knowledge', viz. of God's revealed will, was theoretically a
deposit in the priestly order (Deut. xxxiii. 10; Ezek. xliv. 23; Mal. ii. 7).

v-7-] HOSEA, IV. 65
I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me :
Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy children.
As they were increased, so they sinned against me :
Therefore will I change their glory into shame.
There is no reason to think that the ' priest-people ' of Israel is addressed ;
there was no priest-people till after the return from exile.
forgotten... for get] To 'forget' what has been committed to one's
charge is the same as to ignore it. The penalty of the priests is not
really distinct from that of the people (see v. 9); the priestly office
could in no full sense be maintained in captivity.
the law of thy God] 'Thy God', because the priest was specially
1 brought near ' to Jehovah. ' The law ', Heb. torah, will cover oral as
well as written instructions (comp. Deut. xvii. n), but a later passage
(viii. 12) shows that a written legislation existed in Hosea's time. The
contents of this may be presumed from Hosea's language to have been,
at any rate to a large extent, concerned with applications of religious
morality. thy children] i.e. the members of the priestly caste; 'thy brethren'
would be more consistent with the figure (comp. ' thy mother ', v. 5).
7 — 10. Here the priests are referred to in the third person ; they
have been degraded from a great position; how sore must be the
punishment !
7. As they were increased. . . ] Rather, The more they increased, the
more, &c. No doubt the priestly caste shared in the general prosperity
under Jeroboam II. , but the official conscience, torpid to begin with,
was only the more deadened. A flagrant example of the sinning of the
priests is given in the next verse.
will I change their glory into shame] An ancient various reading
(one of the so-called Tikkune Soferim, on which see the Introductions
to the Old Testament) is, ' they have exchanged my glory for shame ',
i.e. the glory of Jehovah for the shameful worship of Baal. 'To ex
change (gods) ' or ' to take another in exchange ' is a recognized phrase
for a lapse into idolatry, and we know that the Jewish scribes sometimes
ventured to modify expressions in the Scriptures which they thought
too bold or liable to misunderstanding (see Geiger's Urschrift). If we
do not go so far as to accept the whole of this various reading, it would
seem that we must at least accept the correction of the ist pers. sing, into
the 3rd plur. in the verb, rendering they have exchanged their glory
for infamy ; comp. Jer. ii. n ' my people have exchanged their
glory for that which doth not profit ' (i.e. idols), Ps. cvi. 20 ' they ex
changed their glory (v. 1. his glory) for the form of an ox.' Still the
received reading, already adopted in the versions, gives a good sense,
and considered by itself is not less justifiable than the proposed cor
rection. According to it, 'their glory' means, not Jehovah, but the
splendour of their position as priests. These verses are important as
showing how influential that position was ; we could no*, have inferred
this from the scanty references in the historical books
hosea 5

66 HOSEA, IV. [w. 8— il
i They eat up the sin of my people,
And they set their heart on their iniquity.
i And there shall be, like people, like priest :
And I will punish them for their ways,
And reward them their doings.
> For they shall eat, and not have enough :
They shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase :
Because they have left off to take heed to the Lord.
i Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
8. They eat up the sin of my people] The subject of the verb is
evidently the priests (see v. 9), and the phrase can therefore only mean,
they eat the sin-offering of my people (i.e. the portion assigned to the
priests, comp. Lev. x. 17). Here we come into collision with a theory
of the radical school of criticism that the Levitical legislation (including
the appointment of ' sin-offerings ' and 'guilt-offerings ') originated after
the Babylonian captivity. There are however two earlier references to
the sin-offering, viz. here and in Ps. xl. 6, and one to the' guilt-offering
in Prov. xiv. 9, not to insist on the disputable allusions in Isa. i. 1 1 ;
Mic. vi. 7 ; 2 Kings xii. 16 (17). And if the dates of one or another of
these passages be challenged, yet the supposed novelties are not referred
to at all frequently in undoubtedly post-Captivity writings. Sin-offerings
are mentioned twice (Neh. x. 34 ; 2 Mace. xii. 43) ; guilt- offerings only
once (if we accept a very probable emendation of Ezra x. 1 9, pointing
ashamlm). Next, granting a reference to the sin-offering, does the
prophet mean to condemn the priests for eating of it ? Certainly not ;
whatever were the traditional rules respecting the sin-offering, the priests
would naturally have a just claim to their portion of the victim. The
next clause explains the charge brought against them — it is that (like
the sons of Eli, 1 Sam. ii. 13 — 17) they greedily devoured what the
people brought to atone for their sins ; so that in eating the ' sin-offering ',
they also fed upon the ' sin ' (the same word, khattath, covers both) of
Jehovah's people. Instead of trying to stem the tide of iniquity, the*
long for its onward march, with a view to unholy gains.
set their heart] Literally, 'lift up their soul' (or, 'each one his soul'),
i.e. 'direct their desires', as Ps. xxiv. 4, xxv. 1.
9. like people, like priest] i.e. the priest shall fare no better than the
people. His official 'nearness' to Jehovah shall be no safeguard to
him. I will punish them. . .] Rather, punish him, viz. the priest representing!
the order.
10. they shall eat...] Greed is punished retributively by insufficiency
of food (Mic. vi. 14 ; Lev. xxvi. 20) ; whoredom by childlessness.
11 — 14. Thus the priests have led the way, and the people follow.
They have lost the spiritual faculty; a wild impulse to the most sensual
idolatry has carried them away.
11. Whoredom, &c] 'The heart', not 'their heart' (as the Targum

vv. 12, 13.] HOSEA, IV. 67
My people ask counsel at their stocks, ,
And their staff declareth unto them :
For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err,
And they have gone a whoring from under their God.
They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, ,
And burn incense upon the hills,
and Peshito). It is a moral adage, showing that Hosea was not more
inclined than Isaiah to abandon simple moral teaching to the class of
' wise men ', who ' sat in the gate ' and conveyed practical lessons in the
form of proverbs. It is literal whoredom that is meant, as, even apart
from w. 13, 14, the juxtaposition with 'wine and new wine ' shows.
The impure rites of nature-worship had destroyed the reverence for the
marriage-bond. Heart here means 'the spiritual understanding', 'a
heart to know Me '(Jer. xxiv. 7); ' sons of Belial ' cannot 'know Je
hovah' (2 Sam. ii. 12). For the drunkenness of Samaria comp. Is.
xxviii. 1.
12. My people ask counsel at their stocks] Lit., ' My people — he
asketh counsel at his wood.' Jehovah alone can give oracular 'counsel' ;
not the teraphim, nor yet the bull-images of Jehovah. The latter did,
indeed, seem to the Israelites to bring Jehovah near to their conscious
ness, but it was not the true Jehovah, who could not be represented by
images (viii. 6) and hated the rites of the Israelitish worship (ix. 15) ;
Hosea therefore calls them 'wood'; comp. Hab. ii. 19; Jer. ii. 27, x. 8.
There is a touch of melancholy in 'my people'; comp. Isa. iii. 12.
their staff declareth unto them] ' Declareth ', with reference to secret
things, as Isa. xliii. 9, xliv. 7. The 'staff' is probably the diviner's
wand; so in Ezek. xxi. 21 the king of Babylon combines consultation
of the teraphim with divination by arrows, which is merely another form of
rhabdomanteia (Sept substitutes 'wands', pafSSov, for 'arrows'). Wands
were one of the recognized instruments of soothsaying, in both East and
West ; see Pococke, Specimen Historiae Arabum, p. 327 ; Azraki, The
Chronicles of the city of Mecca, Arabic and German by Wiistenfeld, I. 73 ;
Herodotus IV. 67 ; Tacitus, Germ. 10. Pococke however thinks ' staff '
is synonymous with 'stocks', and that a staff is meant which had an idol
carved at the top.
the spirit of whoredoms] i.e. an impulse prompting them to whoredom
(in the literal sense, to avoid tautology) ; comp. 'spirit of perverseness '
(Isa. xix. 14), 'spirit of uncleanness ' (Zech. xiii. 2), 'spirit of jealousy'
(Num. v. 14).
13. upon the tops of the mountains] 'Every high hill and every green
tree ' are repeatedly mentioned together as the scenes of the popular
nature-worship (e.g. 1 Kings xiv. 23; 2 Kings xvii. 10; Jer. ii. 20,
iii. 6) ; and, to avoid misunderstanding, it would have been better to
supply an ' and ' before ' under oaks ', &c. The sacred hill-tops were
specially selected for being treeless — 'bare places' they are called in
Jer. iii. 2. 'Elms' should rather be terebinths (Tristram, Natural
Hist, of Bible, p. 350).

68 HOSEA, IV. [w. 14, 15.
Under oaks and poplars and elms,
Because the shadow thereof is good :
Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom,
And your spouses shall commit adultery.
( I will not punish your daughters when they commit
whoredom,
Nor your spouses when they commit adultery :
For themselves are separated with whores,
And they sacrifice with harlots :
Therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.
; Though thou, Israel, play the harlot,
Yet let not Judah offend ;
And come not ye unto Gilgal,
13. therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom] (Rather, do com
mit.) Harlotry and idolatry being so inextricably connected, it was only
natural that the women should be given up to licentiousness ; the more
religious they were, the stronger would the evil habit be. For 'spouses',
read daughters-in-law. The allusion is to the lascivious worship of
Asherah and Ashtoreth (the goddesses were distinct) ; see next verse.
Asheirah or ' the propitious ' was at first probably a title of the feminine
variety of the Assyrian deity Ishtar. See Introduction.
14. The precedence in guilt belongs to the elders who set so wicked
an example.
themselves are separated with] Rather, they themselves go aside
with. A change of person, instead of ' ye yourselves.'
harlots] Rather, consecrated harlots, i.e. women who dedicate
themselves, or are dedicated by others, to the service of Asherah or of
Ashtoreth, and give up their chastity in honour of the goddess. Mesha,
king of Moab, says that, when he took Nebo from the Israelites, he
slew the men, but spared the women in order to devote them to
Ashtar-Chemosh (Moabite inscription, lines 16, 17).
sacrifice] Probably the reference is partly to the feast which followed
the sacrifice (Ex. xxxii. 6).
shall fall] Rather, shall be dashed to the ground.
15 — 19. Judah is cautioned not to fall into the same ruin as Israel,.
of which a deterrent picture is given.
IB. offend] Rather, become guilty, viz. by participation in Israel's
idolatry. come not ye unto Gilgal] Gilgal was one of the chief seats of the
idolatrous worship of the north, see ix. 15, xii. 11; Am. iv. 4 v. 5.(
But which of the Gilgals (see Smith's Bibl. Diet.) is meant? Tlie
Jewish commentators are agreed that it was the famous Gilgal ' in the
east border of Jericho' where Joshua pitched his camp for the first
time after crossing the Jordan (Josh. iv. 19), and later on 'the true
centre of the whole people' (Ewald, History of Israel, Hi. 2a). Pro
bably they are right. No doubt, we should have expected this Gilgal

w. 16, 17.] HOSEA, IV. 69
Neither go ye up to Beth-aven,
Nor swear, The Lord liveth.
For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer : 16
Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
Ephraim is joined to idols : 17
Let him alone.
to have belonged to Judah, but the natural boundary of the two
kingdoms was not the historical one; 'those places which their past
history had rendered most sacred or memorable — Bethel, Gilgal, Jericho
— were incorporated in the northern kingdom ' (Ewald, Hist. iv. 3).
neither go ye up to Beth-aven] A Beth-aven near Bethel is mentioned
Josh. vii. 2; 1 Sam. xiii. 5, but this Beth-aven, 'house of vanity', or
'of wickedness', is a keenly sarcastic substitute for the desecrated name
Bethel, 'house of God' (see x. 5, 8, and comp. Am. iv. 4, v. 5;
1 Kings xii. 29 — 33). 'Go ye up', because Bethel was situated on the
slopes of a hill, comp. 1 Sam. x. 3, 'going up to the Elohim (i.e. the
sacred place) to Bethel.'
nor swear, The Lord liveth] Hosea may mean to say that the
oath 'As Jehovah liveth' has been so profaned by the Israelites of the
north that he wishes to see it abolished. It is more likely however
(considering Deut. x. 20; Jer. iv. 2) that he deprecates oaths by the
Jehovahs of Gilgal and Bethel — oaths which in the mind of the swearer
are connected with idolatrous symbols of Jehovah, precisely as Amos
denounces those who say, ' As thy God, O Dan, liveth ', and 'As thy
God, O Beer-sheba, liveth' (Am. viii. 14, corrected partly from the
Sept.). 16. slideth back as a backsliding heifer] Rather, is stubborn like
a stubborn heifer. A favourite figure of the prophets, xi. 4; Jer.
xxxi. 18; comp. Deut. xxxii. 15.
now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place] Israel in
the weakness of captivity is compared to a lamb in a large pasture-
ground, which is an object of attack to all the wild beasts prowling
about — so most commentators explain. But 'a large place' is every
where else an image for prosperity (see Ps. xviii. 19, xxxi. 8, cxviii. 5),
and Isaiah in describing a happy future says, 'in that day shall thy cattle
feed in large pastures (Isa. xxx. 23).' It is much safer, therefore, follow
ing Ewald and Hitzig, to take the passage as an incredulous exclamation
or question, this being bo, should the Lord feed them as a lamb in a
large meadow 1 In fact, a prophet would hardly have said that Je
hovah shepherded His people during the Dispersion (see Ezek. xxxiv.
11 — 14), and in the very next verse Jehovah exclaims, 'Let him alone.'
On the other hand, the clause, thus translated, fits most naturally into
the context,— 'Israel is a stubborn heifer, how then should it expect to
be treated as kindly as a lamb?'
17. joined to idols] The cognate noun is used in Mal. ii. 14 of a
wife in her relation to her husband, and in Isa. xliv. 11 of an idol-
worshipper in his mystic relation to his god (comp. 1 Cor. x. 20).

yo HOSEA, IV. [w. 18, io-
Their drink is sour; they have committed whoredom
continually :
Her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.
i The wind hath bound her up in her wings,
And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
18. Their drink is sour...] This translation is cannot be sustained
philologically. If the text is correct, the only version at once intelligible
and philologically sound is, ' Their drunkenness has passed by.' For
the rendering of the verb comp. i Sam. xv. 32 Hebr., and for 'drunk
enness', lit. drink, comp. 1 Sam. i. 14, xxv. 37 (where 'wine' must
be synonymous with 'the fumes of wine'). Connecting this clause with
the following, we may render (as Henderson, following the Jewish
commentator Abarbanel), When their carousal is over they indulge
in lewdness, i.e. when tired of one sin they plunge without scruple into
another. The Sept. rendering -QpiTuse Kavavatovs is very difficult to
justify. The Peshito omits the words. St Jerome explains the whole
clause, Factum est, inquit Deus, convivium eorum a me alienum.
her rulers with shame do love, Give ye] Rather, her shields are
enamoured of infamy (Henderson). This involves a slight change in
the points, necessary in order to make sense of the word rendered
'infamy.' Probably, however, as Abp. Seeker was the first to infer
from Sept. and Pesh., there is an erroneous repetition of three letters
(comp. a similar case in Ps. lxxxviii. 17), so that we may render simply,
'her shields love infamy' ('shields' for 'rulers', as Ps. xlvii. 10). The
Septuagint, indeed, suggests a various reading which possibly deserves
the preference ; it renders, i)yairti<rav dn/dav £k <ppvi.yfi.aTos avTrjs. Here,
as in Am. viii. 7, the Greek translator seems to have misunderstood
the expression, 'the excellency of Jacob' (i.e. Jehovah). The Hebrew
which he had before them may be thus put into English, they love
infamy rather than her Excellency (or, her Pride, i. e. Jehovah, Israel's
God). $piayp.a is in fact the rendering of Heb. gdon ih Zech. xi. 3
and three other passages.
19. The wind hath bound her up in her wings] A figure for the
suddenness and violence with which the enemy should carry Israel away
into exile (comp. Isa. Ivii. 13). The perfect is that of prophetic certitude.

Chap. V.
Interlacing descriptions of guilt and punishment.
1—7. A personal arraignment of the priesthood (accused less
directly in chap, iv.) and of the court, who, instead of warning the
people, have led them into the snare of sin. So entangled are thsy-in
it that they cannot repent, and Judah too has fallen. They may seek
to propitiate Jehovah by sacrifices, but in vain : the judgment is close
at hand.

w- i— 3-] HOSEA, V. 71
Hear ye this, O priests ;
And hearken, ye house of Israel ;
And give ye ear, O house of the king ;
For judgment is toward you,
Because ye have been a snare on Mizpah,
And a net spread upon Tabor.
And the revolters are profound to make slaughter,
Though I have been a rebuker of them all.
I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me :
1. O priests] Hosea addresses the priests of the high places in
N. Israel.
O house of the king] i.e. the king and his courtiers, whether of the
royal family or not.
judgment is toward you] Rather, the judgment is for you.
a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor] Tabor is the well-
known mountain of the name in Galilee (see Judg. iv. 6), and may be
taken as the representative of the region on the west of the Jordan
(as Ps. lxxxix. 12); Mizpah (a common name = place of watch) is most
probably Mizpah in Gilead (Judg. *. 17,' xi. 11, 29), also called
Ramoth-Gilead (Josh. xx. 8, xxi. 36; 2 Kings ix. 1, 4, 14), and conse
crated by Jacob (Gen. xxxi. 45—54). Probably these places (comp.
next note) are mentioned because the idolatrous worship was most
dangerously seductive there. The worshippers were like the deluded
birds who sought shelter in the woods and ravines (comp. 2 Sam. xxvi.
20 ; Ps. xi. 1).
2. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter] The expres
sions used have a most un- Hebraic cast, and what can the 'slaughter'
refer to? There is nothing at all in the context to suggest that the
slaying of sacrifices is meant (as many after St Jerome have supposed),
and it is very harsh to understand it as a fresh image for the priests'
abuse of their position. It is better to render (changing a Teth into
a Tav), The apostates are gone deep in corrupting (comp. ix. 9).
The ancient versions already found the passage obscure. The Septua
gint (and similarly the Peshito) renders & (sc. Ti Uktvov) 0! aypeiovres
rty 0-hpav Kariirri^av . Possibly they had had a somewhat different text.
Certainty is unattainable, and another plausible and easy emendation
deserves at least a mention, from its suitableness to the context, And
the pit of Shittim they have made deep. Having been a station of
the camp under Moses and Joshua (Num. xxv. 1; Josh. iii. 1, v. 1),
it is probable, though unproved, that Shittim contained one of the
popular shrines or holy places.
though I have been a rebuker of them all] Lit., 'and I am chastise
ment for them all'; comp. Ps. cix. 4 A.V., 'I give myself unto prayer'
(lit., 'I am prayer'). This however is very harsh, and it is simpler to
transpose two letters and render, and there is no correction for any of
them.

72

HOSEA, V. [w. 4, 5-

For now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and
Israel is defiled.
They will not frame their doings to turn unto their
God:
For the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them,
And they have not known the Lord.
And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face :
Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity ;
Judah also shall fall with them.
3. I know Israel] The pronoun is expressed for emphasis, 1 who
punish Israel am well acquainted with its open and secret sins.
4. They will not frame...] Rather, as in the margin, Their doings
will not suffer them to turn unto their God. The same idea that
from the meshes of an inveterate vicious habit there is hardly an escape
is expressed in vii. 2, comp. John viii. 34 ; Rom. vi. 16.
the spirit of whoredoms] See on iv. 12.
is in the midst of them] Rather, is within them, i.e. in their inmost
being. have not known] Rather, know not (see on ii. 20).
5. And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face] Rather, But...
shall testify to his face. 'The pride of Israel' is capable of two in
terpretations. It may mean Israel's vainglorious self-confidence, which
is so hateful to Jehovah, and as it were testifies against Israel on the
day of Jehovah's assize (isa. ii. 12). But it is more natural to take
the phrase as a title of Jehovah (see on iv. 18 'her rulers', &c),
borrowed probably from Am. viii. 7. How does Jehovah 'testify
against' anyone? The answer is furnished by Ruth i. 21, 'Jehovah
hath testified against me, and Shaddai hath afflicted me.' An ob
jection of small weight has been raised, viz. that Jehovah, in the pro
phetic figure, is the complainant and the judge, but not the witness.
The answer is that the Hebrew 'anah is not exactly 'to witness' but
'to meet with words or a declaration'; hence it can be used of a
judicial sentence. Hosea means that Jehovah has spoken one of those
words which kill (comp. vi. 5) — has delivered a judgment by which
Israel shall 'fall.' The rendering 'Israel's pride shall be humbled'
adopted in the ' Speaker's Commentary' from the Sept., the Targum,
and the Peshito, scarcely suits the following words ' to (lit. in) his
face.' Still less suitable is it in vii. 10, where the phrase is re
peated. Israel and Ephraim] i.e., Israel and especially Ephraim; like 'Judah
and Jerusalem ' (Isa. ii. 1).
shall fall] Rather, shall stumble. A figure for calamity (as Isa.
viii. 15, xxxi. 3, and often). In iv. 15 the prophet uses less distinct
language with regard to Judah's punishment; she is warned not to
offend rather than threatened with punishment. Perhaps this chapter
represents the utterances of a later period than the preceding chapter.

vv- 6—8.] HOSEA, V. 73
They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to 6
seek the Lord ;
But they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself
from them.
They have dealt treacherously against the Lord : 7
For they have begotten strange children :
Now shall a month devour them with their portions.
Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, 8
And the trumpet in Ramah :
6. with their flocks and with their herds] i. e., with their sacrificial
offerings. This passage affords decisive proof (if indeed the converging
evidence from other quarters can be held incomplete) that the Israelites
of the north simply and in good faith professed to be worshippers of
Jehovah. It will be too late, says the prophet, to use the ordinary means
of appeasing Jehovah's wrath, which have only a value as the outward
signs of penitence and faith (see on vi. 6). Micah uses similar expressions
respecting prayers which are offered too late (Mic. iii. 4).
7. Why Jehovah has withdrawn himself, dealt treacherously] i.e.
faithlessly. The word is used of an adulteress, Jer. iii. 20.
they have begotten strange children] The subject of the verb are
the Israelites individually, of whom the same statement is made which
we have already met with respecting the nation in ii. 4, 5.
now shall a month devour them] The time for punishment has
arrived. Instead of watching gladly for the new moon to fix the
various hallowed festivals (comp. ii. 11), they should have a 'fearful
looking for of judgment ' increasing as each new moon arose. If not
this, then perhaps the next would bring with it a slaughtering, plun
dering horde of invaders. 'Month' should rather be new moon (as
nothing is added to qualify the sense).
with their portions] i.e. the lands assigned to the several tribes and
families (comp. 'the portion of Jezreel,' 2 Kings ix. 10).
8 — 15. ^ The prophet ' in the spirit ' sees the threatened trouble
bursting upon both the separated kingdoms. In vain will Ephraim
seek help from Assyria ; there is no deliverance from Jehovah's hand
until Ephraim repents.
8. Blow ye the cornet. ..the trumpet] A usual direction on the ap
proach of an invading army; see viii. 1; Jer. iv. 5, vi. r. Previously
to the captivity the cornet and the trumpet were probably different
names for the same instrument, as the Law (Num. x. 1 — 10, xxxi. 6)
prescribes the use of the silver trumpet (khacocerah) in cases when, ac
cording to the prophetic and historical books, the cornet or shofar was
used. In writings of post-Captivity origin (Ps. xcviii. 6; 1 Chr. xv. 28;
2 Chr. xv. 14) they appear to represent different instruments, or rather
slightly different varieties of the same instrument. The Mishna tells
us that the shofdr was sometimes straight, sometimes curved, and this
difference would of course involve a difference of note. We may help

74 HOSEA, V. [w. 9, 10.
Cry aloud at Beth-aven,
After thee, O Benjamin.
i Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke :
Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which
shall surely be.
> The princes of Judah were like them that remove the
bound :
ourselves to form an idea of the Hebrew trumpets by representations of
the Egyptian (see Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, II. 260, &c).
Gibeah. ..Ramah] Both towns were situated on eminences, and there
fore well adapted for signals of alarm ; both apparently belonged to
Judah. Gibeah (lit. 'a hill') is ' Gibeah of Benjamin ' (1 Sam. xiii. 2,
xiv. 16), or 'Gibeah of Saul' (1 Sam. xi. 4); the Ramah (lit. 'height')
is the same where Samuel dwelt (1 Sam. xv. 34). Both probably
belonged at this time to Judah (see 1 Kings xv. 21 ; Isa. x. 29). Taking
in Bethel, the cities are those from which the signal of alarm could be
heard in both kingdoms.
after thee, 0 Benjamin] Rather, behind thee, 0 Benjamin ; this is
the cry of warning which the men of Beth-aven or Bethel (a border-
town between Benjamin and Ephraim) are to send on to the Benja-
mites. Understand either ' the sword rages ', or more simply ' be on
thy guard.' Sept. however renders (from a different text?), i&am
Beviapiv, 'Benjamin is distraught,'
It is worth noticing that Hosea (the prophet of the tribes which
proudly claimed the name of Israel) does not mention Jerusalem. To
have mentioned the capital of Judah would perhaps have led him to
widen his range of thought too much. But under the name 'Benjamin'
he has been thought to hint obscurely at Jerusalem, for ' the boundary
between Judah and Benjamin ran at the foot of the hill on which the
city stands, so that the city itself was actually in Benjamin' (Fergusson,
in Smith's Bible-Dictionary, I. 983).
9. rebuke] Rather, punishment, as the same word is rendered
Ps. cxlix. 7 A.V. 'punishments upon the people(s).' The root meaning
of the word is 'judicial decision.'
among the tribes of Israel] i.e. Israel in its widest sense is the object
of Hosea's denunciations. The phrase ' the tribes of Israel ', standing
by itself, never means the Ten Tribes only.
have I made known...] Or, do 1 make known that which Is sure (lit.
trustworthy). 10. were like them that remove the bound] Rather, are become like
them that remove the landmark. The landmarks were under the
protection of religion (Prov. xxii. 28, xxiii. 10; Deut. xix. 14) and to
remove them laid the offender under a curse, according to Deut. xxvii.
17. Hosea cites the offence as the greatest conceivable example of
revolutionary caprice. Judah, it would seem, was not more fortunate
now in its upper classes than Israel (comp. vi. ro, 1 1 Sept., and Isaiah's
'these also', viz. the chief men of Jerusalem, Isa. xxviii. 7).

vv. II— 1 3. J HOSEA, V. 75
Therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like
water.
Ephraim tr oppressed and broken in judgment,
Because he willingly walked after the commandment
Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth,
And to the house of Judah as rottenness.
When Ephraim saw his sickness,
And Judah saw his wound,
Then went Ephraim to the Assyrian,
And sent to king Jareb :
like water] Jehovah's wrath is like fire in its destructiveness, and
like a swollen stream in its abundant volume.
11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment] The same two
participles are again combined in Deut. xxviii. 33, and, as here, in con
nexion with invasion, ' thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway '
(so Auth. Vers.). The judgment meant is God's. The idea was so
familiar that a more distinct form of expression was unnecessary. The
Hebrews and the other Semitic peoples regarded war as a kind of plead
ing before a judge; comp. for the latter, the Syriac khayeb 'damnavit,
vicit ', and for the former Isa. liv. 17, where 'weapon' is parallel to
'tongue that riseth against thee '). Compare Schiller's Die Weltgeschichte
ist das Weltgericht. Somewhat less probable is the rendering 'crushed
as to (his) right', i.e. his right of national independence.
he willingly walked after the commandment] 'The commandment'
(or, 'ordinance') is generally explained of the arbitrary calf- worship
(rather bull- worship) set up by Jeroboam I. , but as the word only occurs
once again in the stammering speech of the drunkards (Isa. xxviii. 10),
it seems more than probable that we should adopt the reading of
Septuagint and Peshito, and render the whole clause, he would go
after vanity (i.e. after idols, as Jer. xviii. 15 ; Ps. xxxi. 6). With this
reading, too, we can account for the fact that the noun has no article.
Archbishop Seeker well points out that the two initial letters of the
next word in the Hebrew are such as help to account for the scribe's
supposed error.
12. Therefore will I be...] Rather, And as for me, I am, &c. The
same two figures are of frequent occurrence ; they are combined again in
Job xiii. 28. A gradual inward corruption was destroying the two
Israelitish states quite as effectually as a foreign conquest. Anarchy and
civil war combined with a retrograde religion and a lax morality to
bring northern Israel in particular to the verge of ruin. Elsewhere
Hosea describes its condition as a living death (xiii. 1).
13. Both states are conscious of the destroying cancer, but neither of
them adopts the only possible means of arresting its progress.
his sickness. ..his wound] The ordinary figure for corruption of the
body politic; comp. Isa. i. 5, 6; Jer. xxx. 12, 13.
and sent to king Jareb] Some have thought that as Ephraim and Judah

76 HOSEA, V. [w. 14, 15.
Yet could he not heal you
Nor cure you of your wound.
For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion,
And as a young lion to the house of Judah :
I, even I, will tear and go away ;
I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
I will go and return to my place,
Till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face :
are both mentioned in the first line, the subject of the second verb in
this second line must be Judah. As the text stands, however, this is
impossible, and if 'Judah' once stood in the text as the subject of
'sent', it is not easy to conjecture how it dropped out. None of the
ancient versions contains the word. But who is 'king Jareb', or
rather the righting king (a nickname for the king of Assyria), to whom
Ephraim sent? Sennacherib has been thought of, as if there were
a playful interpretation of a shortened form of this name, but the short
for Sennacherib (on the analogy of Baladan for Merodach-Baladan,
Sharezer for Nergal-Sharezer) would be akhirib, not irib. Schrader
thinks that the king meant is Asurdan, who in 755 and 754 made expe
ditions against Khatarik (the Hadrach of Zech. ix. 1) and Arpadda
(Arpad) ; Nowack prefers Tiglath-Pileser II. , to whom the epithet
'fighter' would accurately apply. In the uncertainty of the Israelitish
chronology of this period, a decision is difficult. The boldest conjecture
is that of Prof. Sayce, viz. that ' Jareb ' was the name borne by Sargon
before he usurped the throne, just as 'Pul ' is now known to have been
once borne by Tiglath-Pileser.
yet could he not...] Rather, though he will not be able to heal you,
nor shall ye be relieved (or, with other points, shall he relieve you) of
your wound. Delitzsch fully explains the passage in his note on Prov.
xvii. 22. The word rendered 'wound' means both bandage and ulcer,
and the verb is used in Syriac for 'to be delivered, or, removed.' How
completely the politicians of Israel miscalculated, appears from x. 6.
li If a stronger figure is necessary to warn Israel of the destructive-
ness of his present course, Jehovah will compare himself to a lion
(comp. Isa. xxxi. 4).
as a lion, and as a young lion] Hebrew has at least five words for
'lion'; of the two selected here, the first describes this terror of ancient
Palestine as a roarer (so xiii. 7), the second as covered with a mane.
/, even I] For the axe may be human, but the hand which wields
it is divine (Isa. x. 15).
/ will take away...] i.e. I will carry off the prey. The passage
reminds us of the comparison of the Assyrians to a lion in Isa. v. 29.
15. return to my place] See Mic. i. 3, from which it is clear that
Jehovah's 'place' is the heavenly temple (Isa. vi. 1). Now that Jehovah
has for a time deserted his guilty people, he will return to his seat on
high, and watch (Isa. xviii. 4) thu doings of men. He has full con
fidence that Israel on his side will return and repent.

r»2-] HOSEA, VI.

77

In their affliction they will seek me early.
Come and let us return unto the Lord : I
For he hath torn, and he will heal us ;
He hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
After two days will he revive us : .
In the third day he will raise us up,
acknowledge their offence] Rather, feel their guilt (as the word means
in Lev. iv. 4, 5 ; Zech. xi. 5).
Chap. VI.
How little has Israel effected, and how little will he
ever effect, by his fits of repentance, which contrast
so violently with his flagrant transgressions of God's
law!
1 — 3. The prophet enters into the feelings of the only too quickly
repentant Israelites, and imagines them encouraging each other to
return to Jehovah. These three verses are closely connected with the
end of the preceding chapter; comp. 'let us return', 'he hath torn'
(v. 1), and 'his going forth' (v. 3), with 'I will go and return' (v. 15),
and 'I, even I, will tear' (v. 14). Ver. 2 is parenthetical. Comp. the
similar profession of the Israelites in viii. 2.
1. he will heal us] At any rate the Israelites have found out the true
physician (comp. vii. 1, xi. 3). Assyria 'could not heal them' (v. 13).
2. This verse contains the germ of the striking allegory of the dry
bones (Ezek. xxxvii. 1 — 10), and reminds us also of the prediction of an
Israelitish resurrection in Isa. xxvi. 19. The idea is that, contrary to all
human expectation Israel shall quickly emerge from the depths of
trouble. What human skill could cure a dangerously wounded man in
three days? Yet a wonder as great has happened to the sick man Israel.
That the passage has primarily a contemporary reference, and contains
a figurative description of a national revival, is admitted by Pococke,
who however endeavours to combine with this view a very forced inter
pretation of pre-critical origin. He thinks the Jews 'might say, after
two days, &c, because by him whom God would so raise up deliverance
should be wrought for them when their case was as desperate as of one
that had been so long dead ' ; or, to put his view of the secondary meaning
more clearly, the resurrection of the coming Christ was to the Israelites
(though they knew it not) the justification of their hope of a national
restoration. The view is ultimately traceable to the paraphrase in the
Targum, 'he will revive us in the days of consolation which are to
come', i.e. at tbe resurrection (see the Peshito of John xi. 25, which
shows that 'consolation ' and ' resurrection ' are synonymous in Aramaic).
Pusey and many old expositors even take the supposed reference to our
Lord's resurrection to be primary. But the context certainly does not
favour any such reference, whether primary or secondary. Calvin, with
his usual fine perception, remarks, 'sensus ille videtur mihi nimium
argutus. '

78 HOSEA, VI. [w- 3> 4-
And we shall live in his sight.
Then shall we know, if we follow, on to know the Lord :
His going forth is prepared as the morning ;
And he shall come unto us as the rain,
As the latter and former rain unto the earth.
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee ?
O Judah, what shall I do unto thee ?
For your goodness is as a morning cloud,
And as the early dew it goeth away.
live in his sight] Lit., 'before him', i.e., under his protection (comp.
Gen. xvii. 18; Isa. liii. 2; Jer. xxx. 20.
3. Then shall we knew, &c] But as this construction is resumptive
of v. 1, we had better translate, Yea, let us know, let us be zealous to
know, Jehovah, i.e., to know him as our master, protector, and friend.
Why so? Because the want of this knowledge was the cause of Israel's
misery. It was however a hasty resolution, from which a full and free
confession of sin was fatally absent (contrast penitent Israel's words in
xiv. 2). Hence the complaint of the omniscient Holy One which
follows in ver. 4.
his going forth] viz. from his 'place' in heaven (v. 15.)
is prepared as the morning] Or, 'is certain as the grey of morning'
(which heralds the glories of sunrise). The speakers, then, are 'a people
that walk in darkness' (Isa. ix. 1).
as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth] Rather, as
the heavy rain, as the latter rain which watereth the earth. Comp.
Ps. lxii. 6. The Israelites count upon the return of God's favour with
the same confidence with which, at the autumnal and vernal equinoxes,
a farmer counts upon the former and latter rain. Their confidence is
excessive ; they presume on God's forgiveness without complying with
His conditions.
4. The answer of Jehovah, who cannot be satisfied with such a
superficial repentance and such hasty resolutions of 'knowing' Him.
what shall I do unto thee ?] ' What other means can possibly be em
ployed to move thee to a serious repentance?' Comp. Isa. v. 4.
your goodness] Rather, your piety. The word (khlsedh) is the same as
that rendered in v. 6 'mercy' ; and so St Jerome here ('the mercy
which I had been wont to shew'), and Keil (explaining, as in iv. 1,
'your kindness to those in need '). But the context requires another
sense — 'your love to God', and this is what A.V. means, though it
expresses it weakly. The Peshito also renders 'goodness', and again
in v. 6.
as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away] Rather,
..and as the night mist which early goeth away (so again xiii.
3). The 'cloud' spoken of, then, is a cloud such as Isaiah speaks
of as coming 'in the heat of harvest' (Isa. xviii. 4); more precisely
it is one of those dense masses qf night-vapour, which the westerly

S. 6.] HOSEA, VI. 79

Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets ;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth :
And thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice;
winds of summer bear from the Mediterranean Sea, and which more
than supply the place of dew. After 'making a fair show' in the
bright morning light, they are soon sucked up by the hot sun, and
pass away (Neil, Palestine Explored, p. 138). The cognate word in
Arabic means a soft rain (comp. Deut. xxxii. 2). Comp. on xiv. 6.
6. Similar fitful repentances have already forced Jehovah to inter
pose, like a severe but kind physician who will cut out the diseased
part rather than suffer the evil to spread.
hewed them by the prophets] i.e. warned them of the fatal conse
quences of their conduct. The divine or prophetic word has a de
stroying power ascribed to it (Isa. xi. 4, xlix. 2; Jer. i. 10, v. 14;
1 Kings xix. 17).
thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth] 'Thy judgments,'
i.e. those pronounced upon thee. According to this reading we have to
supply 'as,' and suppose a sudden change of pronoun. The Septuagint,
however, with the Peshito, and even the Targum, reads differently—
my judgment shall go forth as the light (this simply involves a
slightly different grouping of the letters). ' My judgment ', viz. that
upon Israel; 'shaU go forth', for we are no longer in the imagined
future (as in w. 1 — 3) ; ' as the light ', that all may see it and tremble.
6. A further explanation of these severe judgments, the moral effect
of which the prophet has been considering.
For I desired mercy and not sacrifice] Rather, for I delight in piety
and not in sacrifice. The Hebrew is vague ; khisedh ' dutiful love ' may
mean either ' piety ' or ' kindness ', — love to God or love to man. The
parallel clause favours the former, the context at first sight the latter ;
but we may keep ' piety ', for both love to God and the knowledge of
God are regarded as leading to the imitation of God's tpiXavdpaiwla
(comp. Jer. xxii. 16 ' was not this to know me ', and 2 Sam. ix. 3
' that I may show the kindness of God unto him '). As Aben Ezra well
remarks, it is stedfast love which the prophet means, not that which is
like a cloud (v. 4). 'And not sacrifice ' = ' rather than sacrifice ' ; the
prophet thinks comparatively little of sacrifices, but does not denounce
them as positively displeasing to God. Comp. Isa. i. n — 20; Mic. vi.
6 — 8; Jer. vii. 22, 23 (though this is of doubtful interpretation). The
sacrifices alluded to are those which the Israelites will at a future time
offer in the vain hope of propitiating Jehovah (v. 6). "This first half
of the verse is twice quoted by our Lord (Matt. ix. 13, xii. 7). A
striking parallel occurs in a saying ascribed to Buddha, who, however,
unlike our Lord, denounced animal sacrifices as in themselves wrong :
' If a man live a hundred years, and engage the whole of his time and
attention in religious offerings to the gods, sacrificing elephants and
horses, and other life, all this is not equal to one act of pure love in
saving life' (Beal's Texts from the Buddhist Canon).

80 HOSEA, VI.  ^Jvv^7-9-
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
But they like men have transgressed the covenant :
There have they dealt treacherously against me.
Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity,
And is polluted with blood.
And as troops of robbers wait for a man,
7. The contrast between Israel's conduct and Jehovah's requirements.
But they like men...] Literally, But they— they like (other) men
transgress the covenant (or, perhaps, the ordinance, see on viii. i).
The word rendered 'men' ('dddm) means ordinary or less privileged
men, as in Ps. lxxxii. 7 and most probably Job xxxi. 33, ' If I covered
like (common) men my transgressions.' It is assumed (as in Job I.e.)
that ordinary men are addicted to certain vices, and that such privileged
persons as Job or the Israelites ought to act up to a higher standard.
The mention of the transgressions of ' (other) men ' reminds us of Isa
xxiv. 5, where the inhabitants of the world are said to have ' trans
gressed commandments, violated the statute, broken the perpetual
covenant ', partly perhaps with reference to the ' law written in the
heart', and partly to Gen. ix. 1—16. The Targum, the Talmud, and
the Vulgate (followed byDelitzsch on Job xxxi. 33) render, 'like Adam',
but the Book of Genesis says nothing of a ' covenant ' with Adam.
there] Implying a gesture of indignation. The divine speaker points
to the northern kingdom as the scene of the unfaithfulness (comp.
'there' in v. 10).
8, 9. Two spots of specially ill fame are singled out — Gilead and the
road to Shechem.
8. Gilead] Here alone, and probably in Judg. x. 17, mentioned
as the name of a town. We still find the name of Gilead (in its Arabic
form Jil'dd) lingering at various parts of the ancient Gilead, but we
cannot venture on a combination with the prophet's Gilead. Ramoth-
Gilead would seem, from its importance; a not unlikely place to be
meant. polluted with blood] Rather, tracked with bloody foot- prints ; comp.
the striking expression used, of Joab in 1 Kings ii. 5. The Gileadites,
half- civilized mountaineers, seem to have been distinguished for their
ferocity (comp. 2 Kings xv. 25). From the next verse we may perhaps
infer that at Gilead too the priests were foremost in lawlessness.
9. And as troops...] Rather, And as bandits lying in wait, (so
doth) the company of priests; they murder on the road towards
Shechem ; yea, they commit outrages. The reference in the figure
is either to the doings of native banditti (comp. vii. 1) , or to those of
the guerilla-bands of Arameans, Moabites, &c, which were constantly
invading Israel and Judah (2 Kings v. 2, xiii. 20), whenever the central
power was weak. The word for ' company ' (khibher) implies an
organized guild (such as the Pharisees afterwards), so that there was no
public opinion to check the offenders. Shechem had long ago been
notorious for the highway robberies committed by its inhabitants and

"; i,2.] HOSEA, VI. VII. 81

So the company of priests murder in the way by consent :
For they commit lewdness.
I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel : i
There is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.
Also, O Judah, he hath set a harvest for thee, ¦
When I returned the captivity of my people.
When I would have healed Israel, '
Then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the
wickedness of Samaria :
For they commit falsehood ; and the thief cometh in,
And the troop of robbers spoileth without.
And they consider not in their hearts
That I remember all their wickedness :
was therefore destroyed by Abimelech (Judg. ix. 25, 45). It lay on
the road, which was doubtless much frequented, from Samaria and
the north to Bethel, now the chief sanctuary of the so-called Ten Tribes.
Gilead and Shechem together represent the eastern and western divisions
of the kingdom.
10, 11. Jehovah is still the speaker. From his heavenly ' place ' he
points indignantly (as v. 7) to the abominations practised ' there ',
i.e. in the whole land of Israel, for even Judah has not escaped the
infection. The structure of the verses becomes more symmetrical, if
we attach the concluding words of v. 10 to v. 11, and turn v. 11 thus,
altering one vowel-point, Israel is denied; for thee also, Judah, a
harvest Is appointed. The Septuagint partly favours this, rendering
£fudii8r) 'ItrparjK Kal 'Iov5a. The concluding words of ». n should
rather be attached to v. 1 of chap. vii.
Chap. VII.
1 — 7. The moral degradation ok Israel, especially of its
ruling class, which, so far from stemming the tide of
corruption, applauds and encourages its progress.
1. How foolish is the conduct of Israel ! When the great turning-
point in her fortunes arrives, the day of mingled punishment and mercy,
all his wickedness will be remembered and brought to light. To improve
the sense and restore balance to the opening of the verse, it is expedient
to read thus, with Ewald, When I turn the fortunes of my people,
when I heal Israel, then will be manifest Ephraim's guilt and Sama
ria's wickedness, how they practise falsehood, and the thief cometh
in, and bandits roam abroad without. Comp. iv. 1. Samaria is
mentioned, as the abode of the princes next spoken of.
2. they consider not in their hearts] Rather, as margin, they say
not to their heart. 'Heart' here = self; the meaning is therefore they
have no pricks of conscience.
hosea 6

82 HOSEA, VIL  [w. 3—6.
Now their own doings have beset them about ;
They are before my face.
1 They make the king glad with their wickedness,
And the princes with their lies.
They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker,
Who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough,
until it be leavened.
i In the day of our king the princes have made him sick
with bottles of wine ;
He stretched out his hand with scorners.
. For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles
they lie in wait :
now their own doings have beset them about] They are so entangled
in sin (to use a more familiar figure) that they cannot even try to
repent. they are before my face] Comp. Ps. xc. 8.
3 — 6. The highest personages are not too refined for the most sen
sual pleasures. A consuming passion inflames them as if with the heat
of a furnace. Their way of celebrating a royal commemoration is to
indulge in monstrous excess.
4. as an oven...] The fire corresponds to sensual lust, the oven is
the heart. The baker ceaseth from kindling (so we should render),
when the oven has reached a certain heat, and then he leaves the fire
to smoulder, till the fermentation of the dough is complete, and a fresh
heating is necessary. So after passion has once been gratified, it
smoulders for a time, but is afterwards kindled to a greater heat than
before, when some attractive object comes within its range.
6. Here the figurative description is interrupted by one from real
life. In the day of our king] Either the coronation- day (so the Targum),
or (comp. Matt. xiv. 6) the royal birthday is meant. The prophet
quotes the words of the princes. He was himself too loyal to the house
of David to adopt the phrase seriously.
have tnade him sick with bottles of wine] Rather, are become sick
with the fever of wine. The Auth. Version probably means to imply
that the princes meant to assassinate the king when he was drunk ; but
there is no evidence of this (see on v. 7).
he stretched out his hand with scorners] i.e. he (the king) entered into
close relations with proud, lawless men (comp. Prov. xxi. 24). So
Isaiah too calls the politicians of Judah 'men of scorn' (Isa. xxviii. 14).
Hosea may perhaps refer to some lawless project decided upon in the
intoxication of the revel.
6. For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie
in wait] Better, with Ewald, ' Yea, almost like the oven have they
made their heart in their intrigue', if there were only sufficient justifica
tion for the rendering. This view of the verse makes it a climax to ver.

w- 7— 9-J HOSEA, VII. 83
Their baker sleepeth all the night ;
In the morning it bumeth as a flaming fire.
They are all hot as an oven, 7
And have devoured their judges ;
All their kings are fallen :
There is none among them that calleth unto me.
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people ; 8
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth 9
it not :
5. Better still, by self-evident corrections of the text, For their inward
part is like an oven, their heart bumeth in them (the reason for the
strong expression 'scorners').
their baker] Better, to follow the vocalizing of Targum and Peshito,
and render, their anger, viz. against the destined victims of their in
trigue. sleepeth all the night] Rather, still retaining the consonants of the
text, smoketh all the night (for the phrase, comp Deut. xxix. 20).
The night is mentioned as the time when evil devices are matured.
7. The consequence of all this licence. King after king falls a
victim to the violent passions he has fostered in his subjects. Four
regicides are recorded within forty years (2 Kings xv.). And yet no
one calls to Jehovah for help ! Sacrifices indeed were not wanting (vi.
6), but those who offered them had no true 'knowledge of God', and
so they profited them not.
8 — 16. The outward evidences of Israel's decay.
8. he hath mixed himself among the people] Rather, he mixeth
himself among the peoples. How ? By courting the favour now of
Egypt, now of Assyria (v. 1 1).
a cake not turned] Burnt to a coal at the bottom, raw dough at the
top : an apt emblem of a character full of inconsistencies (Bishop Hors-
ley). The explanation is plausible, as long as we look at the figure by
itself. But the context, which refers only to Israel's political decline,
favours another view. 'A brand snatched from the burning' is a figure
of a country, rescued only just in time from destruction. Hosea's 'cake
not turned ' may equally well be an emblem of a country half ruined by
calamities, and not rescued. The calamities of Israel, alas ! are of his
own making; by mingling with 'the peoples' he sought for warmth,
but found a destroying conflagration (cf. Isa. xlvii. 14). The 'cake' is
the round flat cake of bread which was baked on hot stones (1 Kings
xix. 6) or on hot ashes, and required frequent turning, to prevent its
being burned.
9. Strangers have devoured his strength] By heavy tribute and
desolating invasions. The 'strangers' would be Hazael and Benhadad
(2 Kings viii. 12, x. 32, 33, xiii. 3, 7), Pul (2 Kings xv. 19, 20),
6—2

HOSEA, VII. [vv. 10— 12.

Yea, grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he
knoweth not.
3 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face :
And they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek
him for all this.
¦ Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without heart :
They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
i When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them ;
I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven ;
I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.
and Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings xv. 29), though the two last are really
the same person, Pul being the private name of a usurper who took the
old royal name of Tiglath-Pileser (as proved by Mr Pinches).
gray hairs are here and there upon him] Lit., 'are sprinkled upon
him.' That a state has different stages, analogous to the periods of
human life, was a familiar idea; comp. xi. 1; Isa. xlvi. 4; Ps. lxxi. 18
(where the speaker is probably the personified people, comp. v. 20 in
the Hebrew).
10. And the pride of Israel...] Repeated from v. 5, just as xii. 9 a
is repeated in xiii. 4 a. It is not the prophet who speaks condemning a
bad quality in his people, but Jehovah, Israel's true Pride, and the
source of Israel's prosperity, who utters a solemn word of warning
translated into act. How much more suitable this explanation is in
such a context than either of the alternatives mentioned on v. 5.
for all this] i.e. in spite of all this chastisement, comp. Isa. ix. 12, 17,
21. 11. Ephraim also is like...] Rather, But Ephraim is become like
a silly dove without understanding. This verse does not begin a fresh
section, but is closely connected with the preceding. As a dove, fleeing
from a hawk, is snared in the fowler's net, so Ephraim, when afraid of
Assyria, calls in the assistance of Egypt, and when afraid of Egypt
applies to Assyria (see Introduction). In his folly he does not observe
the snare which the false friend, or rather (v. 12) Jehovah, prepares for
12. When they shall go] Rather, As soon as they go
I will spread my net] The image of Jehovah's net is not a frequent
one; see however Job xix. 6; Ezek. xii. 13, xvii. 20, xix. 8, xxxii. 3.
Here the net means captivity.
J^UJ?tgt!T f TL AParen^ °y Placing a bait to draw them
to the earth, at least if the figure is to be continued. Am ix 2 is
therefore not parallel.
as their congregation hath heard] Lit. , ' according to the announce
ment to their congregation.' Comp. Isa. liii. ,, .^ho hath beheved
our announcement' (a cognate word) = ' that which we heard' The
punishment, says Hosea, will agree exactly with his own repeated
predictions (comp. v. 9). icycueu

w. 13— 1 6.] HOSEA, VII. 85
Woe unto them ! for they have fled from me: 13
Destruction unto them ! because they have transgressed
against me:
Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies
against me.
And they have not cried unto me with their heart, .4
When they howled upon their beds :
They assemble themselves for corn and wine,
And they rebel against me.
Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, is
Yet do they imagine mischief against me.
They return, but not to the most High : ,6
13. they have jled from me] like birds scared out of their nest
(Isa. xvi. 2) ; but the Israelites have only themselves to blame for the
fatal consequence. They have left their true home, and shall find no
second (see on ix. 17).
transgressed] Or, 'rebelled'; strictly, ' broken away.'
though I have redeemed...] Rather, I indeed would redeem them,
but they, &c. The 'lies' of the Israelites related (see next verse) to
Jehovah's power and willingness to save.
14. with their heart, when they howled] Rather, in their heart,
but they howl. The prophet contrasts the quiet communion of the
heart with Jehovah and the wild-beastlike 'howling' of the impenitent
Israelites, who murmur at the withdrawal of material blessings. Comp.
Isa. xxiv. 11.
they assemble themselves] i.e. to lament together in their affliction.
But the rendering is doubtful. Ewald, better, 'they excite them
selves ' (or, are inwardly moved). But it is much more natural to
suppose that Daleth has become altered into Resh, and that we should
read differently. Render therefore, with the Septuagint and some Hebrew
MSS., they cut themselves. It is an allusion to a well-known sign
of mourning, forbidden indeed by the Law (Deut. xiv. 1 ; Lev. xix. 28,
xxi. 5), but habitually practised in Palestine (Jer. xvi. 6, xii. 5, xlvii.
5, xlviii. 37), and still noticeable in the time of St Jerome (comm. on
Jer. xvi. 6).
15. Though I have bound and strengthened their arms] Rather, I
indeed have trained and strengthened their arms. The Israelites had
had a proof of this not long since when 'Jehovah saw the affliction of
Israel that it was very bitter', and 'saved them by the hand of Jero
boam the son of Joash' (2 Kings xiv. 27).
16. They return, but not lo the most High] Rather, They turn
(i.e. shift or change), but not upwards (as xi. 7). They are not
content with passive complaints; they have reached a turning-point in
their history, but their way only leads them further and further from
the 'knowledge of God.'

86 HOSEA, VIII. [v. i.
They are like a deceitful bow :
Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their
tongue :
. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Set the trumpet to thy mouth.
He shall come as an eagle against the house of the
Lord,
like a deceitful bow] i.e. like a bow which shoots an arrow in a wrong
direction, 'not upwards ', towards Israel's ' strong rock ', but earthwards.
Cf. the same figure in Ps. lxxviii. 57.
for the rage of their tongue] ' Rage ' ; or insolence (i.e. towards God).
The root-meaning (as gathered from Arabic) is to make a grumbling
sound, like an irritated camel. Hence the appropriateness of the men
tion of the tongue. The verb is sometimes rendered ' to curse.'
their derision in the land of Egypt] Probably an embassy had
boasted of Israel's strength, to entice the Egyptians into an alliance.
We may probably assume that the ' sword ' by which the princes were
to fall is that of the Assyrians. Chap. VIII.
1—7. In great emotion (which reflects itself in the short
clauses) the prophet announces the imminent invasion
of N. Israel, and its true causes — idolatry and schism.
1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth] Lit., To thy palate the cornet !
An abrupt appeal by a heavenly voice to the prophet, who is bidden to
give warning of the approach of the foe (comp. v. 8 note). 'Palate',
or 'mouth', as the organ of speech, as Prov. v. 3, viii. 7, &c.
as an eagle] The Hebr. word (nesher) seems to have been specially
applied to the great griffon vulture, the carrion-eating habits of which
are referred to in Job xxxix. 30 ; Prov. xxx. 17 ; Matt. xxiv. 28, and its
swift flight in Deut. xxviii. 49 ; 2 Sam. i. 23; Jer. xlix. 22. Refer
ences to this bird of prey (Assyr. nasru) are frequent in the cuneiform
inscriptions, and figures of it occur in battle-scenes on the monument.
The more appropriate is it as an emblem of the Assyrian invaders.
Similarly Nebuchadnezzar (whom St Jerome wrongly supposes to be
meant here) is called an eagle (or vulture) in Jer. xlix. 22; Ezek.
xvii. 3.
the house of the Lord] In chap. ii. we had the people of Israel
represented as a bride who is sustained and adorned by her husband ;
here we have the figure completed by the description of the land of
Canaan as the divine Bridegroom's house (as ix. 15, comp. v. 3).
So Assyrian bit Khumri means the land of N. Israel, though here
Khumri (Omri) is not a divine name. In the New Testament the
house of God, or of Christ, is the Church, see Heb. iii. 6 • 1 Tim.
iii. 15-

2—4-] HOSEA, VIII. 87

Because they have transgressed my covenant,
And trespassed against my law.
Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. :
Israel hath cast off the thing that is good : :
The enemy shall pursue him.
They have set up kings, but not by me :
They have made princes, and I knew it not :
Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols,
my covenant] Most explain this of the 'covenant' or contract
between Jehovah and Israel. But the phrase is more probably equiva
lent to 'mine ordinance', for the parallel clause has 'my law.' The
Heb. word (b'rith) sometimes appears to mean simply 'appointment',
'ordinance' (so 2 Kings xi. 4; Jer. xi. 6, xxxiv. 13, 18; Job xxxi. 1;
Ps. cv. 10), which may even be the primary meaning (comp. Assyr.
baru 'to decide'). Comp. the phrase 'the book of the covenant*
(Ex. xxiv. 7).
my law] See note on v. 12.
2. Israel shall cry...] Rather, Unto me they will (then) cry, My
God, we — Israel — know thee. When the punishment comes, they will
cry aloud to Jehovah, and lay stress upon their belonging to Him.
'Israel' is mentioned, as the title of honour (the kunya, comp. the
commentators on Isa. xliv. 5), given by Jehovah, which was the outward
sign of His mystic connexion with His worshippers. The speech of
the Israelites is the counterpart of that of Jehovah in Isa. xliii. 1 , ' I
have called thee by name; thou art mine.' (The Septuagint and the
Peshito, however, omit 'Israel.') 'My God' seems used distributively,
each Israehte professes to feel his individual relation to the national
God. 3. The appeal is dismissed; Israel's piety is but superficial (comp.
vi. 1—4); his 'knowledge of God' is not that which Jehovah expects.
hath cast off] Not merely put aside out of caprice, but (as the word
implies) cast off with loathing (see v. 5).
4. Israel's great offence — making a schism in the 'theocratic'
community. Setting up idols was virtually rebellion against Jehovah ;
whatever Ahijah said (1 Kings xi. 31, &c), or a lower class of prophets
after him (comp. Am. vii. 12, 13), the great prophets, such as
Hosea, could not sanction any of the N. Israelitish dynasties (see on
i. 11). See next note.
not by me] Rather, not from me. There is a verbal contradiction
between these words and those ascribed to Shemaiah in 2 Kings
xii. 24. A prophet could only declare the will of God with regard to
the particular case laid before him. The disunion of north and south
was so great, that for the sake of peace it was better to separate.
But when the moral and spiritual decay of N. Israel had reached such
a point as in the time of Hosea, no prophet with any spiritual insight
could fail to perceive that the usurping kings lacked the divine
blessing.

HOSEA, VIII. [w. 5—7.

That they may be cut off.
1 Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off ;
Mine anger is kindled against them :
How long will it be ere they attain to innocency ?
i For from Israel was it also :
The workman made it ; therefore it is not God :
But the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the
whirlwind :
It hath no stalk : the bud shall yield no meal :
If so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
that they may be cut off] The verb is in the singular, and the implied
subject is the silver and gold which had been made into idols.
5. Thy calf, 0 Samaria, hath cast thee off] This rendering is very
harsh in this context ; Ewald prefers ' He hath cast off thy calf, a con
trast to ' Israel hath cast off that which is good ' in v. 3. But ' casting off'
implies a previous connexion (e. g. Ps. xliii. 2) ; it is better to revert to
the intransitive sense which belongs to the cognate verb in Arabic, and
render, Thy calf, 0 Samaria, is loathsome. ' Thy calf is a contemptu
ous expression for the small golden bull which was symbolic of Jehovah ;
such a bull, it appears, existed at Samaria, and doubtless at other places
besides Dan and Bethel (e. g. at Gilgal).
ere they can attain innocency] Lit. 'will they be incapable of inno
cency. ' Idolatry presented itself to Hosea, not only as a form of wor
ship, but as an immoral way of living.
6. For from Israel was it also] Rather, was this also ; i. e. this
idol too (as well as the usurping kings) was Israel's work, unsanctioned
by me. But the construction is very dubious, and the integrity of the
text may well be questioned.
the workman made it; therefore it is not God] Lit., "and it is not
God.' It has a merely fictitious existence (so xiii. 2). The sarcastic
words of Hosea contain the germ of the vehement polemic of the later
prophets against idolatry in general.
but... in pieces] Rather, yea, Samaria's calf shall be (broken to)
shivers (Targum, 'chips of boards').
7. The consequences of Israel's evil conduct and policy are here
represented under the figure of sowing and reaping. But the form of
the figure is varied. First, Israel sows wind and reaps whirlwind i.e.
his present conduct is unprofitable to himself, and the requital 'of it
shall be actual destruction. Next, though Israel sows a corn-plant it
never grows up to its full size (it, i.e. Israel, hath no standing corn) •
or if it does, it either yields the farmer no meal, or its meal is seized
upon by the enemy, i.e. the worldly results of Israel's policy are never
good, and any wealth that it attains passes into the hands of the enemy.
the bud shall yield no meal] In the Hebrew there is a characteristic
play upon sounds, — the cemakh yields no qemakh.

vv. 8— io.] HOSEA, VIIL 89
Israel is swallowed up : 8
Now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein
is no pleasure.
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by him- 9
self:
Ephraim hath hired lovers.
Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will 10
I gather them,
And they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king
of princes.
8 — 14. The judgment is already begun; Israel has drawn it upon
himself, by dallying with Assyria, by religious abuses, and by a vain
confidence in fortified cities.
8. is swallowed up] i. e. is as good as swallowed up. Foreigners
have already begun to absorb the precious morsel (cf. vii. 8, 9) ; com
plete destruction is only a question of time.
now shall they be...] Rather, now are they become among the
nations, &c. Comp. Jer. xxii. 28, xlviii. 38. 'The coarse pottery of
this country ', says Dr Thomson, ' is so cheap that even poor people
throw it aside in contempt, or dash it to pieces on the slightest occa
sion' (The Land and the Book, p. 36). 'Nations' (as v. 10).
9. gone up] Used, like avafialvta, of going inland ('up the country').
a wild ass alone by himself] Rather, a wild ass taking his own
way by himself. The point of comparison is obstinacy. The wild ass
is a gregarious animal, but individuals in the herd will sometimes go
and roam moodily and obstinately by themselves. See Tristram, Nat.
Hist, of Bible, pp. 41 — 43, and Davidson's full note on Job xxxv.
5 — 8. Ishmael is compared to the wild ass in Gen. xvi. 12, and now
it appears that Israel is no better than Ishmael. In spite of warnings,
he will have his way, though intercourse with Assyria is his ruin.
Ephraim hath hired lovers] Rather, loves. The allusion is to the
gifts by which Israel sought to gain the Assyrian or Egyptian alliance
(xii. 2). The Sept. evidently had a different, though probably not a
more correct text.
10. This verse is obscure, and open to a variety of interpretations;
the following however seems by far the most probable.
Yea, though they have hired among the nations] Rather, Yea, though
they hire, &c, i.e. though they attain a certain amount of success in
their negotiations, and win the protection of some stronger nation, yet
the time has come for me to check their misplaced activity.
now will I gather them] Surely not, ' now will I gather, the Assy
rian army to fight against them ', which does not suit the context (mark
'yea, though'), but, 'now will I restrain their roving propensities.'
Where or how, we are not yet told; it is captivity which is dimly
hinted at. This interpretation is strongly confirmed by the next clause.
and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes]
' The king of princes ' is a phrase not found elsewhere, but might con-

90 HOSEA, VIII. [vv. n, 12.
Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin,
Altars shall be unto him to sin.
I have written to him the great things of my law,

ceivably=' the king of kings ', which is a title claimed by Tiglath-
Pileser I. (Records of the Past, v. 8, comp. Ezek. xxvi. 7). The 'bur
den ' might be the heavy tribute paid by Menahem (2 Kings xv. 20).
But why 'sorrow a little'? No better sense is made by rendering 'and
they shall begin to be diminished [in numbers, or in prosperity] by
reason of the burden of the king of princes ' ; why ' begin ' ? A third
rendering, ' and they shall soon be in anguish through the burden ' &c,
involves a violation of Hebrew usage (' soon ' should be ' a little '). The
only remedy is to follow the Septuagint, which reads two of the Hebrew
words differently, and render that they may cease for a little from
anointing a king and princes (all the versions and some Hebr. MSS.
sanction ' and '). Comp. xiii. 10 ' Give me a king and princes ', from
which it seems as if the personnel of the class of ' princes ' would vary
according as the king were of one dynasty or another. In Judah, at
any rate, as well as in Egypt, we know that the royal princes enjoyed
many of the more important offices under the crown (comp. Isa. vii. 13 ;
Jer. xvii. 20; 1 Kings xxii. 26; 2 Kings xxv. 25).
11. Because] Rather, For. It is a justification of the foregoing
threat. hath made many altars to sin] In times of national trouble, sacrifices
were multiplied, to propitiate the national God (comp. Isa. i. 11). But
as no corresponding effort was made to purify the conduct and the
character, such sacrifices did but increase the load of the national guilt.
Instead of 'many sacrifices ', Hosea says ' many altars ', because there
was even less attempt in the times of Hosea and Isaiah to centralize
worship in the northern kingdom than in the southern. The strict rule
of Deuteronomy (one temple and one altar) seems at present far removed
from the general consciousness. See Introduction, part V,
altars shall be unto him to sin] Rather, (yea,) altars are to him
for sinning (thereby). There is no unfairness on Jehovah's part;
Israel cannot pretend ignorance of His will.
12. / have written to him] Auth. Vers, here follows the Targum
and the Peshito (the Septuagint and the Vulgate give the future),
but it is more idiomatic (see p. 36, note) to render in the present
— I am wont to write. The prophet is fully conscious that the
divinely given laws under which Israel lives (or ought to live) were
not formulated once for all in the Mosaic age, but grew up in
different ages. Thus understood, the passage is an important authority
for the existence of a legal literature before the Pentateuch be
came canonical. But another rendering is widely accepted, 'Though I
wrote unto him' (my law by myriads, i.e. in myriad precepts).
the great things of my law] The expression in the Hebrew, however
we understand it, is remarkable and somewhat harsh. All difficulty would
be removed if we might suppose the omission of a letter and a transpo-

v. I3-] HOSEA, VIII. 91
But they were counted as a strange thing.
They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, 13
and eat it;
But the Lord accepteth them not ;
Now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins :
They shall return to Egypt
sition ; the phrase would then run, 'the words of my law.' The He
brew Bible however gives 1, in the margin, 'the multitudes of my law*
(Vulg. multiplices leges meas), which is adopted by Auth. Ver., and 2, in
the text, ' the myriads (or, the myriad precepts) of my law.' The
word rendered 'multitudes' is questionable, since it occurs elsewhere
only in the singular, and there is here no apparent occasion for a plural.
'The myriads of my law' is a bold expression, but this reading is gene
rally preferred. ' My law ' may be understood to imply that, though
Jehovah's will was made known 'by divers portions' (Heb. i. 1 R. V.),
yet these ' portions ' when fitly joined together made a whole. This
was certainly the feeling of those Jewish Bible-students who affixed the
vowel-points ; but, as Hosea is thinking of the multiplicity of the laws,
rather than of their unity, some have thought that we should rather read
(altering one point), 'my laws.' We can estimate the multiplicity
spoken of from the Pentateuch, whether this work was known to Hosea
in anything at all like its present form or not. We must remember,
however, that the laws to which the prophet alludes are concerned, not
with rites and ceremonies, but with civil justice and the applications
of a plain but religiously sanctioned morality (comp. the so-called Book
of the Covenant, Ex. xxi.-xxiii).
they were (rather, are) counted as a strange thing] As something
which did (does) not concern them.
13. They sacrifice, &c] Rather, My sacrificial gifts they sacrifice ;
(yea,) flesh, and they eat it ; i.e., their sacrifices are a mere form,
Jehovah abhors them ; the only positive result is that the sacrificer has
the luxury of a dinner of flesh-meat. (Comp. a similar accusation
against the priests, iv. 8.) That sensual appetites were partly concerned
in the offering of sacrifices even in times of national trouble may perhaps
be inferred from Isa. xxii. 13, the eating of animal food being only
allowed, especially we may suppose in Jerusalem, in connexion with a
sacrificial act; comp. Lev. xvii. 3—6; Deut. xii. 15, 16 (a mitigation
of a primitive rule). [The word rendered ' gifts is uncertain.]
now] The climax of Israel's iniquity has been reached ; Jehovah will
now prove in act that He has not forgotten their transgressions.
they shall return to Egypt] Some think this is a kind of poetical
expression for being carried into captivity-a most unnatural supposi
tion. In Isa. vii. 18 we find * threat of a doub e invasion from Egypt
and from Assyria, and why can we not imagine that a people who were
ever vacillating between Egyptian and Assyr.an alliances should be
threatened with an Egyptian as well as an Assyrian captivity? Comp.
he prophecies of restoration from Egypt in Isa. xi. .1; M.c. vi.. 12.

92 HOSEA, VIII. IX. [vv. 14; 1.
i For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth
temples ;
And Judah hath multiplied fenced cities :
But I will send a fire upon his cities,
And it shall devour the palaces thereof.
• Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people :
For thou hast gone a whoringfrom thy God,
The word 'return' is pointed with the terrible associations of the 'house
of bondage '; comp. Deut. xxviii. 68. Hosea repeats the threat in ix.
3» 6> xi- 5-
14. A fresh reason for the ' swallowing up ' of which the prophet
has spoken (v. 8) — Israel's worldhness and self-dependence.
buildeth temples] It seems doubtful however whether Hosea would
have laid such stress on the wickedness of many temples and many altars
(see v. 11). More probably ' temples ' should be palaces (the primitive
meaning of the Assyrian cognate is ' great house '), in which case for
' palaces ' at the close of the verse we had better substitute castles. It
is not so much the ' palaces ' and the ' castles ' themselves as the world
hness and the tyranny of those who lived in them that Hosea denounces.
but I will send a fire...] Referring to both Israel and Judah. Re
markably enough, we find these words repeated seven times in Amos as
a refrain to as many denunciations (Am. i. 4 — ii. 5). It seems hardly
likely that so original a prophet should have quoted these words;
perhaps they were a well-known prophetic commonplace.
Chap. IX.
Here the discourse takes a new start. The prophet is a witness of
the wild rejoicings of harvest, and warns his people not to be so exuberant,
for they must go forth into captivity. Three times in this and the two
next chapters he recurs to the early history of the Israelites, and shows
how they have constantly met the divine mercy with rebellion and
idolatry, so that Jehovah has no choice but to thrust them away.
1—9. A vivid picture of the bitterness of the calamity in prospect.
It does but equal the Gibeah-like wickedness of Israel.
1. for joy] Rather, too loudly (lit. ' unto exultation ').
as other people] Rather, as the peoples. The exuberant joy of the
wild nature-worships of Palestine was abhorrent to the calm and deep
moral religion of the prophets. To the heathen nations certain material
blessings were the final object of the forms of worship ; to the prophets
and their disciples, the outward gifts of the Deity stood in a close rela
tion to states of the character, as being the rewards of moral obedience
(comp. Deut. xxviii. 1 — 14).
for thou hast gone...] The blessings of the ingathering were falsely
ascribed by Israel to the Baalim (see on ii. 13). As long as they were
enjoyed, Israel felt as much pledged by them to her false gods as the
harlot is bound by her ' hire ' to her paramour. At every recurring
season of harvest Israel gratefully connected these blessings with her

w- 2— 4- J HOSEA, IX. 93
Thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, »
And the new wine shall fail in her.
They shall not dwell in the Lord's land ; 3
But Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
And they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, 4
supposed protectors, and offered first-fruits to them, or, as Hosea puts
it, she loved a harlot's hire (comp. on ii. 12) upon all corn-floors,
alluding to the various local festivals (comp. on xii. 9). Observe, Hosea
finds fault with the Israelites, not for neglect of a centralizing ordinance,
such as Deut. xvi. 15, but for honouring the Baalim in preference to
the true spiritual God. Contrast the reference to the autumn festival in
a post-exile prophecy (Zech. xiv. 16 — 19).
2. the winepress] Rather, the vat (within the press) into which the
grape-juice or the oil flowed ; comp. Joel ii. 24.
shall fail in her] Rather, shall fail her (lit. ' shall lie unto her ', as
Hab. iii. 17). There is a good various reading (supported by the versions
and by the Babylonian codex) ' in them ', but the same interchange of
pronouns occurs in iv. 19. idolatrous Israel is personified as a harlot.
Wine-drinking was, in fact, so closely connected with the customs of
idolatry (comp. Judg. ix. 27; Am. ii. 8), that the Nazirites bound
themselves by a vow of ' total abstinence ' (Num. vi. 3).
3. in the Lord's land] ' For I the Lord dwell among the children
of Israel', Num. xxxv. 34. The expression originated in the popular
belief that as, for example, Chemosh was the God of the Amorites, so
Jehovah was the God of the Israelites (Judg. xi. 24), a belief which
could lead even Jonah to imagine that he could 'flee unto Tarshish from
the presence of Jehovah ' (Jon. i. 3).
shall return to Egypt, &c] A repetition of the threat so well calcu
lated to deter the Israelites from disobedience (see on viii. 13).
shall eat unclean things in Assyria] Comp. Ezek. iv. 13, ' Even thus
shall the children of Israel eat their bread defiled among the nations
whither I will drive them.' The prospect held out is not that the
captive Israelites would be reduced to the necessity of eating prohibited
food, but that, since all heathen lands were 'unclean' (Am. vii. 17),
all the products of the soil would also be unclean. The ' uncleanness '
in both cases was caused by the absence of sanctuaries dedicated to
Jehovah. See the foil, notes.
4. They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord] Libations of wine
were accompaniments of the bumt-offerings and the peace-offerings, and
so are naturally mentioned in connexion with the ' sacrifices. ' It is
implied that wine in general would become 'unclean', if a certain
measure of it were not devoted to this sacred and sanctifying purpose.
The clause is therefore equivalent to this— 'The wine that they drink
shall not be pleasing to the Lord ' ; comp. the following words.

94 HOSEA, IX.  [v-4-
Neither shall they be pleasing unto him :
Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of
mourners ;
neither *s&all they be pleasing (lit. sweet) unto him] Strangely enough,
the accentuation of the text separates between the verb and its subject ;
the Sept., Targ., and Peshito preserve the obviously right view of the
construction, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto him. The
peculiar accentuation was possibly caused by a wish to preclude a mis
interpretation of Hosea's language, viz. that the Israelites would go on
sacrificing to Jehovah even when in captivity. But the truth is that the
Hebrew zibakh (like Upelov, see Mahaffy's Old Greek Life, p. 32) has a
twofold meaning : 1, a sacrifice, and 2, a feast of animal food. Flesh-
meat was not the habitual food of the Israelites, any more than it is of
the Arabs at the present day ; to partake of it was a special divinely
given privilege (comp. Gen. ix. 3), and those who from time to time
availed themselves of this privilege had to make an acknowledgment of it
by presenting, at the very least, the blood before Jehovah (comp. 1 Sam.
xiv. 32 — 35). The Book of Leviticus (xvii. 3, 4) prescribes that the
blood of all slain beasts should be offered to Jehovah at the door of the
tabernacle, and though a milder rule is given in Deuteronomy (xii. 15,
16), yet, from what we know of the religious habits of the people,
we may safely assume that not only did they worship Jehovah at the
' high places ', but they also in one way or another presented any animal
food of which they partook at the local shrines, as well as at the central
sanctuary. Hence we may very probably lay down that in old Hebrew
as in old Greek life the conceptions of sacrifice (and presenting the
blood was a minor kind of sacrificial act) and of feasting upon animal
food were inseparable; indeed, we find in the semi-secular Book of
Proverbs two synonymous proverbs, in one of which a feast is described
as 'a stalled ox', and in the other as 'sacrifices' (comp. Prov. xv. 17
and xvii. 1). Consequently, we might, in the clause before us, with
equal justice render 'neither shall their sacrifices', and 'neither shall
their feasts (i.e. meat-meals) be pleasing unto him.' It must be ad
mitted, however, that the sense is improved if, with Kuenen, we alter a
Beth into a Caph, and render, neither shall they lay out their sacrifices
before him (upon the altar) ; comp. iii. 4. Such a mistake in the
reading of the text would escape notice the more easily, because the
phrase produced by it is so idiomatic (comp. Jer. vi. 20 b). If we accept
this emendation, all that has been said on the connexion of sacrificing
and feasting will still retain its explanatory value. We may illustrate
this connexion further by Ezek. xxxix. 17, where Ezekiel is bidden to
invite ' every feathered fowl ' to the ' sacrifice ' (so A.V.) that Jehovah
doth 'sacrifice for them'; 'sacrifice' (zibakh) is here evidently equivalent
to ' feast ' (in the sense described above).
their sacrifices... mourners] Rather, (their bread) shall be unto them
as the bread of mourning ; the first two words seem to have fallen out
of the text. ' Bread of mourning' means such as was eaten during the
seven days of mourning, when everything in the vicinity of the dead

w- 5. 6.] HOSEA, IX. 95
All that eat thereof shall be polluted :
For their bread for their soul shall not come into the
house of the Lord.
What will ye do in the solemn day, s
And in the day of the feast of the Lord ?
For lo, they are gone because of destruction : 6
Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them :
The rAea.sa.nt places for their silver, nettles shall possess them :
body was regarded as unclean (Num. xix. 14) ; it is therefore the emblem
of utter impurity. Or there may possibly be a more special reference
to the funeral feasts, which lingered on among the Israelites, as St
Jerome has noticed (see his note on Jer. xvi. 7 and see Deut. xxvi. 14),
but which are to be distinguished from the offerings made at intervals
(in Sirach's time) at the grave (Ecclus. vii. 33, xxx. 18). See Ewald,
Antiquities, E. T., p. 153, Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, p. 132, Tylor,
Primitive Culture, ii. 27.
for their bread for their soul...] Rather, for their bread shall be
(only) for their hunger (i.e. to satisfy their appetite) ; it shall not come
Into the house of the Lord. They will not have the joy which belongs
to those who have duly presented the tithes of their corn, or the firstlings
of their flock, or offered their burnt sacrifices — the joy of the sense of
the divine favour. They cannot have this, because their food lacks the
consecration of ' the house of the Lord ' (not the temple at Jerusalem,
but any of the ' high places' dedicated to Jehovah).
6. What will ye do, &c] The festivals, which were kept up in
N. Israel, even after the schism, were seasons of popular merry-making
(see ii. 11). But now as each 'feast of Jehovah' comes round in the
calendar, ye will neither have the mechanical performance of ritual
forms, nor the accompanying holiday-mirth, to fill up the vacant hours.
6. Hosea ' in the Spirit ' sees the Israelites already being carried into
captivity. because of destruction] Rather, from the devastation. They have
left their desolated country.
shall gather them up] viz. in burial ; comp. Ezek. xxix. 5 ; Jer. viii. 2,
xxv. 33.
Memphis] The most ancient of the capitals of Egypt, on the west
bank of the Nile, south of old Cairo, elsewhere called in the Hebrew
Noph (Isa. xix. 13; Jer. ii. 16), but here Moph. The Egyptian name,
given to it by Menes, accounts for both forms — Men-nufre ' the good ' or
'perfect mansion' ; the Assyrians called it Mimpi. All that is left of
Memphis is its necropolis ' stretching north and south nearly twenty
miles', where Hosea threateningly declares that the Israelites shall find
a grave, remote, dishonoured, and 'unclean.' Contrast Ex. xiv. 11,
where the Israelites reproach Moses with having deprived them of their
right to sepulture in the vast cemeteries of Egypt.
the pleasant places for their silver] Rather, their precious things of
silver, i.e. costly silver ornaments.

96 HOSEA, IX. [w. 7, 8.
Thorns shall be in their tabernacles.
i The days of visitation are come,
The days of recompence are come ;
Israel shall know it:
The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad,
For the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
i The watchman of Ephraim was with my God :
their tabernacles] i.e., either the idol-tents of the high places (comp.
Ezek. xvi. 16), or simply their dwellings (comp. 2 Sam. xx. 1).
7. are come] Rather, come. The sense is that the days of punish
ment shall surely come (the tense is the prophetic perfect).
shall know it] i.e. by experience ; as Isa. ix. 9. Another view of these
words (in connexion with the following clause) is, ' Israel shall perceive
(but too late) how it has been deceived by its prophets.' But a false
prophet would never be called a 'man of the spirit', but rather ' one that
followethhis own spirit' (Ezek. xiii. 3); and neither 'a fool' nor 'mad'
suggests the idea of falsehood or hypocrisy.
the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad] These words evidently
convey a reproach, for though 'mad' might be taken in a good sense
(= frenzied with sorrow, as Deut. xxviii. 34), 'a fool ' could hardly be.
But if so, introductory words must have dropped out of the text, such as
' who say in their pride.' ' The spiritual man' is, literally, ' the man of
the Spirit ', i.e. ' the inspired man ', Sept. avBpuiros 6 iwev/j.a.To4>6pos.
' Mad', or ' a madman', ' a fanatic', is a term applied disparagingly to a
prophet's disciple in 2 Kings ix. ir, and to Jeremiah by an opponent in
Jer. xxix. 26. The expression was doubtless received from those early
times, in which the acts performed by prophets were often strange and
startling. for the multitude...] Rather, for the greatness of thine iniquity,
and because the enmity hath been great. These words are to be con
nected with the preceding. Israel spoke thus because its iniquity was
great, and great also the enmity which certain classes (probably) felt to
wards the higher prophets. The priests and the lower class of prophets
would be at one in their hostility to Hosea. More is said of this feud in
the next verse.
8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my God] Rather, is with
my God. There is a various reading ' his God' (so also Rashi), but ' my
God ' can be well defended ; for the watchman spoken of is Hosea him
self. We have 'my God' again in v. 17. The figure implied is de
veloped more fully in Jer. vi. 17, ' Also I set watchmen over you, (say
ing,) Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.' ' With my God ' = ' in com
munion with ' or ' helped by.' The connexion will, however, be
improved if we suppose that, owing to the fact that 'Ephraim' ends
with a Mem, the same letter has dropped out at the beginning of the
next word. In this case, render (connecting this and the next clause),
Ephraim's watchman, appointed by my God [comp. in the Hebrew!
Isa. viii. 11], even the prophet— a fowler's snare is, &c. An entirely

v-v- 9, io-] HOSEA, IX. 97
But the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways,
And hatred in the house of his God.
They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of 9
Gibeah :
Therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit
their sins.
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness ; io
I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her
first time :
wrong view of the construction is suggested by the vowel-points
(which of course form no part of the text proper), viz. ' Ephraim looketh
out (for help) beside my God ' ; but ' beside ' cannot mean ' apart from ' ;
or ' Ephraim is a lier in wait (in his fight) against my God.'
but the prophet is, &c] See last note. The prophet meant is a true
not a false prophet (as Keil takes it), for though the false prophets
might be likened to a fowler's snare, their conduct could not be spoken
of as 'envious' or 'persecuting' towards Ephraim. It is rather the
Ephraimites who are always laying snares (comp. Isa. xxix. 21) for
their troublesome ' watchman. '
hatred] Rather, enmity (or, hostility ; or, persecution).
in the house of his God] This must to some extent be equivalent to
the parallel words ' in all his ways. ' In v. 15 ' mine house ' means the
land of Canaan, and so probably here. Jehovah is not their God, for
they (Israel) ' know ' Him not ; and they cannot abide those who, like
Hosea (v. 8) and the psalmist (Ps. Ixxiii. 23), are ' continually with Him.'
9. as in the days of Gibeah] The atrocity described in Judg. xix.
22 — 30, and referred to by Hosea again in x. 9. All the Benjamites were
destroyed except 600 men (Judg. xx. 46 — 48) — a warning for Ephraim !
10 — 17. But not only in the days of Gibeah ; from the very first,
the nation trespassed against Jehovah. Awful shall be the judgment for
the continued infidelity — so awful, that Hosea can hardly bear to con
template it. He seems uncertain whether extermination or dispersion
will be the penalty, but concludes with an announcement of the latter.
10. like grapes in the wilderness] With such delight as a traveller
would unexpectedly find grapes in the desert, did Jehovah regard the
children of Israel at the beginning of their national existence. Comp.
Jer. ii. 2, ' I remember for thy good the kindness of thy youth, the love
of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness.'
Jehovah condescends to overlook the frailties and inconsistencies of
ancient Israel, and even idealizes its character. Comp. ii. 15, xiii. 1.
as the firstripe in the fig tree] So the better portion of the people
of Judah are compared to ' very good figs, even as the figs that are first
ripe ' (Jer. xxiv. 2). The white fig of Palestine ripens much before the
black, sometimes as early as April ; the ordinary fig-harvest is not till
the middle of August, but early ripe fruit might be found in June.
Hence the fitness of Hosea's image (comp. Isa. xxviii. 4 ; Mic. vii. 1).
at her first time] i. e. , when it begins to be ripe.
HOSEA 7

98 HOSEA, IX. [w. n, 12.
But they went to .Baal-peor, and separated themselves
unto that shame ;
And their abominations were according as they loved.
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird,
From the birth, and from the womb, and from the con
ception.
1 Though they bring up their children,

they went to Baal-peor, Sec] So early did they fall away ; comp. xi. 1,2.
Baal-peor is here (as the form of the construction shows) put for Beth-
peor (Deut. iii. 29, &c), the place where Baal-peor was worshipped.
The open falling-away to this heathen deity was one of the most startling
episodes of the period of the wanderings (see Num. xxv.). It is com
monly held, but is really a pure conjecture, that the worship of Baal-
peor was licentious. If this be correct, it will give a special significance
to the last clause in the verse, which may however merely mean that
the idols, being abominable to the true God, make their worshippers
abominable, just as Shame may refer, not to the shameful rites of this
Baal, but to God's abhorrence of idolatry. In 1 Kings xi. 5 and else
where 'an abomination' is a synonym for an idol, apart from the
character of the worship.
separated [i.e. consecrated] themselves unto that shame] Rather, unto
Shame (Heb. bosheth). See above, and compare the substitution of
bosheth or besheth for baal in proper names, e.g. Jerubbesheth (for
Jerubbaal), Ishbosheth (for Eshbaal), Mephibosheth for Meribbaal
(comp. Prof. Kirkpatrick on 2 Sam. ii. 8).
and their abominations, &c] Rather, and became abominations
like that which they loved (comp. on xii. 11).
11. The prophet leaves us to supply the idea that Ephraim's present
transgressions are as heinous as those of old, and passes on to the
punishment. their glory. ..like a bird] Rather, like birds. All their earthly
prosperity shall take to itself wings, because, as we have already heard,
' they have exchanged their (true) glory for infamy ' (iv. 7). Kimchi
narrows the meaning too much, when he says, 'He calls children
"glory", for they are the glory of fathers (Prov. xvii. 6).' But of
course populousness formed a part of the Israelite's conception of
national prosperity.
from the birth, &c] Rather, that there shall be no birth, nor
being with child, nor conception. Such is the retribution for their
sins against chastity (see on iv. 10).
12. But what shall be the Tate of the children already born ? A
lurid light is next thrown upon this.
Though] Rather, Yea, though.
bereave them] Or, 'make them childless' ; comp. 1 Sam. xv. 33.
when I depart from them] Better, (reading with a Shin instead of a
Sin), when I look away from them. The sense of the passage is,

vv. 13—15.] HOSEA, IX. 99
Yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man
left:
Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them !
Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place : 13
But Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the
murderer.
Give them, O Lord : what wilt thou give? m
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them : is
even to turn away my face would sink them in an abyss of ruin. The
ordinary reading does not allow us easily to account for the ' also ', or
rather, 'even', which precedes.
13. Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, &c] The passage is most obscure,
and it is difficult to believe that Hosea meant what A.V. supposes.
'As I look at Tyre ', would be better ; but then it becomes difficult to
extract a sense. Tyre is, in fact, very much out of place in a descrip
tion of the fortunes of Ephraim ; and it is a relief to find that it has been
introduced by critics contrary to Hebrew usage, for Tyre is elsewhere
spelt without a Vav. How, too, can Ephraim be said to be planted,
without any explanatory figurative words ? The Sept. seems to have
had a different text, 'As for Ephraim, according as I see, they have
set their sons for a prey'; and this seems preferable to the received
text. The prophet sees in imagination the Ephraimites taken like
wild beasts, and put to death by their cruel captors.
but Ephraim shall, &c] Taking the passage as a contrast between
Ephraim's past glory and the dreadful fate impending over it. But
if Hosea is throughout describing the judgment, render rather, and
Ephraim shall (or better, must), &c.
14. The prophet recognizes the necessity of a judgment, but pleads
for a mitigation. Love for his people burns within him, and prompts
him to do all that is consistent with his moral perceptions and the
revelation made to him. Comp. the conduct of Moses in a similar case,
Ex. xxxii. n — 14- ., , .. 1 1 j 1. .
what wilt thou give them ?] The prophet considers what he had best
ask for. He is a patriot, but he is also a prophet ; he loves his nation
with a feminine tenderness, but in zeal for his God he is not inferior
to Amos or Isaiah. Hence his momentary perplexity. And yet this
is perhaps too liberal an interpretation. Rather is it, to use Ewald s
laneuaee, 'a paroxysm of despair.' Better were it tha the Israelites
should be condemned to barrenness than lose their choicest young
population thus ! It is an involuntary cry from the heart.
15, 16. Continuation of the speech of Jehovah, which had been
^^^AlUhdSwickedness is in Gilgal, &c] The dangerous attrac
tiveness of Gilgal has been mentioned already (iv. 15) : the corruption
of the northenfkingdom had its focus there. At Gilgal, then, Jehovah
has learned to 'hate' His unnatural children (comp. xi. 1) so much

HOSEA, IX. X. [w. 16, 17; 1.

For the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out
of mine house,
I will love them no more :
All their princes are revolters.
16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear
no fruit :
Yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the be
loved fruit of their womb.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not
hearken unto him :
And they shall be wanderers among the nations.
10 Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto him
self:
that He must drive them out of His House (i.e. the Holy Land, as
viii. 1).
all their princes are revolters] Those who should be the leaders in
cheerful subordination to the revealed will of God, are the foremost in
transgression. The same paronomasia as in Isa. i. 23 — as if he had
said, they are not sarim but sorerim.
16. Ephraim is smitten...] Ephraim's population is compared to the
branches of a tree, and the national vitality to the root. The tree is
'smitten ' by the withering heat, or by lightning, or, like Jonah's 'ricinus',
by 'worms' (Jon. iv. 7), so that root and branches dry up; the idea of
v. 1 1 b in figurative form. Comp. Am. ii. 9 ; Mal. iv. 1.
yea (even) though they bring forth] The prophet steps out of the
language of metaphor, and repeats in effect ix. 12 a. This defines the
meaning of 'bear no fruit'.
17. The prophet has quelled his brief paroxysm, and calmly proceeds.
But the threat is not now extermination.
My God] No longer, alas! Israel's God. Comp. Isaiah's 'this
people ' for ' my people ' (Isa. vi. 9).
wanderers] Or, fugitives (it is the participle of the verb used in vii.
13, see note).

Chap. X.
Israel's guilt and its punishment, each shown by examples.
But even in this dark chapter there is a short gleam of
hope (ver. 12).
1. Israelis an empty vine...] Rather, Israel was a luxuriant vine,
which freely put forth fruit. A development of the suggestions in
ix. 10, 16; compare with it the fuller description in Ps. lxxx. 8  11.
The 'fruit' spoken of is not moral, but material. The bounties of

vv- 2> 3-] HOSEA, X. 101
According to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased
the altars ;
According to the goodness of his land they have made
goodly images.
Their heart is divided ; now shall they be found faulty : 2
He shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
For now they shall say, We have no king, 3
Providence were lavished upon northern Israel (comp. chap ii.), and gave
ground for the expectation of Israel's grateful obedience. The allusion
will be to the prosperous reign of the second Jeroboam.
according to the multitude, Sec] Rather, as his fruit increased, he
increased his altars ; the better it was with his land, the better he
made his (sacred) pillars. The material wealth of the country only
served to strengthen and extend the idolatrous system of worship (comp.
ii. 8, viii. 4, and note on viii. n). 'Altars' and (sacred) 'pillars' are
naturally mentioned together, the 'pillar' (maccebah) or consecrated
stone being the recognized token of a ' high place. ' Not only did Jacob
set up such pillars at Bethel and elsewhere (Gen. xxviii. 18, xxxi. 45,
xxxv. 14, 20), but Moses himself is recorded to have built an altar with
no less than twelve sacred pillars (Ex. xxiv. 4). They were forbidden
no doubt, absolutely and entirely, in Deut. xvi. 21, but, besides the
pillars of Baal (2 Kings iii. 2, x. 26, xvii. 9), there is reason to think
that those great stones spoken of in the narrative books (Josh. xxiv. 26;
1 Sam. vi. 14, vii. 1252 Sam. xx. 8; 1 Kings i. 9) were really sacred
pillars, though the narrator, to avoid startling his readers, denies them
the name. Isaiah himself, too, speaks of a ' pillar ', or sacred stone, as
a sign, together with an altar, of the worship of Jehovah in Egypt
(Isa. xix. 19). If then pillars, sacred to Jehovah, were tolerated in
Judah in Isaiah's time, much more must we suppose that they were
tolerated in Israel. But why does Hosea refer to them as signs of
infidelity? Because the worship of Jehovah at the high places was
purely formal, and produced no moral effect upon the character (see
on viii. n). In short, he is more consistent, more outspoken than
Isaiah himself, who never says that the high places are occasions of sin.
True, Hosea speaks of the north ; Isaiah of the south.
2. Their heart is divided] viz., between Jehovah and idols. But
this, which involves an alteration of the points, gives too weak a sense
for such a context. It is better to keep the ordinary pointing, and
render, Their heart is slippery (or deceitful ; lit. ' is smooth ' ; comp.
Ezek. xii. 24 smooth, i.e. flattering, divination).
be found faulty] Rather, be dealt with as guilty (as xiii. 16).
he shall break down, &c] The phrase is a bold one; it is literally
'he shall break the necks of the altars', i.e. perhaps strike off their
horns (Am. iii. 14), and so destroy them. 'He' is emphatically ex
pressed in the Hebrew, to indicate the unseen observer of their thoughts
and actions.
3. For now they shall say...] Rather, Yea then, &c. They shall

102

HOSEA, X. [vv. 4, 5.

Because we feared not the Lord ;
What then should a king do to us ?
They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a
covenant :
Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows
of the field.
The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the
calves of Beth-aven :
come to perceive that the kings set up on their own authority (viii. 4)
cannot help nor deliver them.
We have no king, &c] i.e., none worthy of the name, for a king
should be judge, counseller, general; hence, they continue, and the king
[whom we have], what can he do for us?
4. They have spoken words] i.e. mere 'words of the lips' (Isa. xxxvi.
5, comp. Isa. lviii. 13), and, as the context shows, deliberate falsehoods
(comp. Isa. xxix. 21).
swearing falsely in making a covenant] Better, they swear falsely,
they make covenants. The 'covenants' spoken of are those entered
into with Assyria and Egypt (v. 6, xii. 2), not those of everyday life,
since it is the making of covenants, and not the breaking of them, which
the prophet denounces.
thus judgment springeth up as hemlock, &c] Rather, so judgment
shall spring up as the poppy. Their sins are as it were the seed from
which a plant is produced as bitter and as abundant as the poppy of the
fields. The plant in question (Heb. rosh) is often referred to, and cannot
be identified with precision (see on Jer. viii. 14) ; most think it is some
umbelliferous plant, rosh being the common word for 'head.' Else
where its bitterness is the point of comparison (Deut. xxix. 18 ; Jer. ix.
15 ; Lam. iii. 19); here its abundant growth as well. Hence some have
been led to render, continuing the description of the immorality of
Israel, 'and justice springs up like the poppy', i.e., understanding the
passage ironically, acts of hurtful injustice are as luxuriantly abundant
as that noxious weed, comp. Am. vi. 12. But the universality of the
divine judgment can be as well expressed by this figure as the univer
sality of sin, and v. 5 requires some previous reference to the punish
ment to explain it. The judgment began with the man who was fore
most in those illegitimate covenants — with the prophet's royal namesake
(Hoshea) ; see 2 Kings xvii. 4.
6. shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven] The statement is
keenly ironical. So far from being able to help their worshippers, the
' calves of Beth-aven ' shall occasion the greatest anxiety to their wor
shippers. Probably however we should make a slight emendation, and
render, shall bemoan the calves (ydnudii for yagu.ru) ; comp. the paral
lel clause. ' Beth-aven ' is a contemptuous name for Bethel (see on iv.
15); the' 'calves', or more literally 'she-calves', may indicate what we
should not otherwise have known, that Jeroboam's 'calf (or small
bull) was only the chief of several of these idolatrous symbols. It

vv- 6> 7-]  HOSEA, X. 103
For the people thereof shall mourn over it,
And the priests thereof that rejoiced on it,
For the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.
It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king e
Jareb :
Ephraim shall receive shame,
And Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
As for Samaria, her king is cut off 7
As the foam upon the water.
should be added however that the Sept. and the Pesh. have the masc.
sing, form, so that the text is not beyond dispute, especially as Hosea
immediately afterwards employs pronominal suffixes of the 3rd pers. sing.
masc. The feminine form in the received reading is perhaps to be
explained as expressing contempt ('Axaitdes oix tr 'Axaiot, II. II. 235,
has been compared) ; it is used nowhere else of the steer-gods.
for the people thereof, &c] Rather, yea, his people shall mourn for
It, and his priests shall tremble for it, for their glory, because it is
gone into exile from them. Again keenly ironical. 'His people' means
the steer-god's people ; Jehovah's people they are no more : ' Call his
name Not-my-people ' (i. 9). The ' priests ' of the idol, too, are not
dignified by the title kohdnim : the word used (k'mdrim, as in 2 Kings
xxiii. 5 ; Zeph. i. 4) comes, directly or indirectly, from the Assyrian
kamdru ' to throw down ' ; it describes the priests as those who pro
strate themselves in worship (Fred. Delitzsch, Assyrian and Hebrew, pp.
41, 42). Comp. below, on xi. 8. 'Their glory', i.e. the steer-god;
comp. Ps. cvi. 20. Literally, however, it is ' his glory ', which might
of course mean the splendid appurtenances of the worship of the steer.
' Shall tremble ' ; ydgilu borrows the sense otyakhilu ; it seems preferred
for the sake of the assonance with gdldh (' it is gone into exile '). Or
there may be a scribe's error in the case.
6. // shall be also] Rather, This also (viz. the steer) shall be.
for a present to king Jareb] Just as the kings of Judah repeatedly
gave up the gold and silver in the temple to foreign foes. 'King Jareb'
should rather be the fighting king (i.e. the king of Assyria, see on v.
13)- shall be ashamed of his own counsel] i.e., shall find out what a
mistake it was to set up a helpless idol as the protector of the
nation. Better, shall be ashamed through &c
7. her king] i.e. not merely the king who happened to be on the
throne, but the monarchy itself (as v. 15). Others, less probably, her
idol-god (comp. Am. v. 26).
as the foam, &c] A striking figure, and singled out for its beauty
by so good a judge as Mr Ruskin, but Hosea's is still more appropriate.
Render, as a chip on the face of the water (following the Septuagint
instead of the Targum), and note the contrast between the helpless
fragment of wood and the irresistible power of the current.

104 HOSEA, X. [vv. 8—10.
The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be
destroyed :
The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars ;
And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us;
And to the hills, Fall on us.
O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah : there
they stood :
The battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did
not overtake them.
Ii is in my desire that I should chastise them ;
And the people shall be gathered against them,
When they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.

8. The high places also of Aven] Perhaps the same as Beth-aven,
i.e. Bethel (iv. 15, x. 5). But 'the high places of idolatry ' (as Aben
Ezra) is an equally admissible rendering of the phrase ; all the local
sanctuaries of the steer-god will then be referred to. The term ' high
place' includes both the mound and the shrine and altar erected
upon it.
they shall say...] Applied proverbially by our Lord (Luke xxiii. 30)
and by St John (Rev. vi. 16, ix. 6).
9 — 15. A fresh demonstration of Israel's guiltiness. The prevalent
depravity is comparable only to that of the men of Gibeah (see on
ix. 9). 'The times are out of joint'; all Israel's doings are against
nature, and the retribution must be equally exceptional.
9. thou hast sinned...] The prophet's language is correct from his
own point of view. True, Israel as a people took summary vengeance
on the Benjamites for the outrage of Gibeah. But the seed of wicked
ness remained, and developed into evil practices worthy only of the
Gibeah of old.
there they stood.. .did not overtake them] The passage is open to
various interpretations, but the easiest is as follows, — there they stood
that the war against the sons of unrighteousness might not over
take them at Gibeah. It is a historic retrospect, with an implied
application to the present. Just as the Benjamites offered a stubborn
resistance to the onset of the rest of Israel at Gibeah, so the Israelites now
persist in their old iniquities, and defy Jehovah to put them down.
10. Jehovah's rejoinder to this tacit challenge. It is in my desire...]
Rather, When I desire, I will chastise them, and peoples (i. e. hostile
armies), &c.
when they shall bind themselves, &c] Rather, when I chastise them
(or, when I bind them, or, when they shall be bound) for their two
iniquities, viz. for their revolt from 'Jehovah their God and David
their king ' (iii. 5). The rendering ' furrows ' adopted in A V from
the Targum has no support in Hebrew usage, and yields no intellisible
sense. ' Iniquities' is the rendering of the Septuagint and the Vulgate

vv- ", 12.] HOSEA, X. 105
And Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught, and loveth to n
tread out the corn ;
But I passed over upon her fair neck :
I will make Ephraim to ride ;
Judah shall plow,
And Jacob shall break his clods.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, 12
Reap in mercy ;
as well as of Hitzig, Keil, &c, though these scholars prefer the
version 'bind to', and explain that punishment is viewed as the
necessary concomitant of transgression.
11. And Ephraim, &c] Rather, Ephraim indeed is a heifer
broken in and loving to thresh, and I have spared the beauty of her
neck ; (but now) will I make Ephraim to draw. Israel's punishment
is enhanced by contrast with her former prosperity, which, as a mark
of the Divine goodness, is compared to the consideration with which
a young heifer is treated by its master. The work of treading
out the corn was pleasant and easy ; the heifer could eat freely
as it walked without a muzzle round and round the threshing-floor
(Deut. xxv. 4). But this heifer, that is, Israel, has abused the kindness
of its Lord (comp. Deut. xxxii. 15), and henceforth shall be put to
the heavy labour of the field — a figure for the depressing conditions of
life under a foreign master. The rendering 'spared' (literally, 'passed
by') is justified by Mic. vii. 18; Prov. xix. 11; it adds a beautiful
distinctness to the figure, for the heavy yokes used in the East not only
gall the necks of the animals, but often produce deep wounds. The
meaning is that Jehovah has hitherto preserved his people from the
yoke of captivity ; compare the different applications of the same figure
in xi. 4. 'Make to draw'; lit. 'make to ride', but rdkab, as the usage
of the cognate word in Arabic shows, can have various secondary
meanings. [Space forbids a record of all the explanations of this
passage ; none is so simple as that of Buhl given above. The objection
that to ' pass by ' is elsewhere used with reference to transgression
is not conclusive ; the idiom is just as applicable in the present case.
There is good authority, however, for the rendering or paraphrase,
' I mounted upon her fair neck', though why the 'beauty' of the neck
should be mentioned, is not clear.]
Judah shall plow] Judah, then, is also a ' stubborn heifer ', and
cannot be exempted from her sister's punishment.
12. If only a moral miracle could take place, Israel's calamities
might yet be averted. Nor is it entirely inconceivable, for miracles,
so Hosea thinks, can be wrought by an earnest resolution. Hence
Hosea's final appeal.
Sow to yourselves, &c] Rather, Sow to yourselves according to
righteousness, and ye shall reap in proportion to love ; that is, Let
your conduct be governed by a regard to righteousness, and it shall
be recompensed in accordance with the divine love (or perhaps, see on

106 HOSEA, X. [w. 13, 14
Break up your fallow ground :
For it is time to seek the Lord,
Till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity ;
Ye have eaten the fruit of lies :
Because thou didst trust in thy way,
In the multitude of thy mighty men.
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people,
iv. 1, in accordance with the love ye have shown to one another,
'righteousness' being only another aspect of 'love' or benevolence).
Break up your fallow ground] Husbandmen in the East are indolent,
and sometimes ' sow among thorns ' (Jer. iv. 3). The Israelites are
warned against committing this fault in their spiritual husbandry. Evil
habits must be broken off, and a new character formed, or it will be
impossible to sow the seed of righteousness.
for it is time, &c] There is still time to seek Jehovah, till he listen
to your prayer, and rain his righteous gift of salvation upon you. For
the figure of righteousness coming down from the sky, comp. Isa. xiv.
8; Ps. lxxxv. 11. 'Righteousness' bears the meaning 'salvation'
which it virtually has so often in the second part of Isaiah, ' righteous
ness ' being the divine principle of action, ' salvation ' the same divine
principle in action.
13. How necessary is this exhortation ! For hitherto the Israelites
have done the exact opposite.
plowed wickedness] i.e., formed wicked plans (as Job iv. 8). The
word for 'to plough ' has in fact another meaning 'to plot.'
reaped iniquity] Better, reaped injustice — i. e. the injustice of
oppressors, which, being retributive, is, from the higher point of view,
substantial justice. The tense is the prophetic perfect.
the fruit of lies] To 'lie' is sometimes=to disappoint (as ix. 2), and
probably this is the meaning here, viz. that the consequence of Israel's
present policy shall be the disappointment of . all his expectations.
' Fruit ' implies that that policy has been one of ' lying ', i.e. treason
both to earthly kings and to Jehovah (comp. xi. 12, xii. 1 ; Isa.
xxviii. 15).
in thy way] i.e. in thy policy. But there is a reading of earlier
date than the Massoretic, viz. in thy chariots (comp. xiv. 3 ; Isa. ii. 7)
which, as it harmonizes better with the rest of the clause, is undoubtedly
preferable. For few scholars will maintain that the iv ap.apTyp.ao-i
of the Vatican MS. of the Septuagint is more original than the Ir
app-aai of the Alexandrine and other MSS. (confirmed by St Jerome
and the Syro-Hexaplar text). The Vatican reading can easily be
explained ; the scribe wished to harmonize the translation with the
reading ' in thy way ' found by him in his Hebrew Bible.
14, 15. In a few words the prophet describes the crash of Israel's
ruin (comp. xiii. 16).
Therefore] The prophet simply connects the judgment by an ' and ' ;

v- ISO HOSEA, X. 107
And all thy fortresses shall be spoiled,
As Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle :
The mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great i;
wickedness ;
In a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.
but the next verse clearly shows that sequence is here identical with
consequence. a tumult] i. e., the tumult, or, more exactly, the 'roar', of an advanc
ing army (as in isa. xvii. 12).
among thy people] Rather, against thy peoples. The tribes of Israel
are called peoples, as in Deut. xxxiii. 3.
as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel, &c] It would seem that the prophet
refers to some event of recent times which took place in the immediate
neighbourhood of Ephraim. Beth-arbel will then be, not the Assyrian
Arbela, but either the place so called on the west of the lake of Tibe
rias, or more probably that near Pella, on the east of the Jordan. Who
Shalman was, is altogether uncertain. Schrader thinks that he was
either Shalmaneser III., who made an expedition to the 'cedar country'
(Lebanon) in 775 B.C, and to Damascus in 773 — 2, on which occasions
he may have penetrated into the Transjordanic country, and destroyed
the last-mentioned Arbela, or else a Moabitish king Salamanu, mentioned
by Tiglath-Pileser as his tributary, who, like other Moabitish kings, very
possibly made incursions into the land of Israel. It is against the former
view that the abbreviation Shalman nowhere else occurs, and that 'king'
or 'king of Assyria' is not added. But the latter view, though plausible
(the Hebrew word is strictly, not Shalman, but Shaleman), is not the
only possible one. The Septuagint renders ' prince Salaman,' which, if
we may take it as a variant, will point rather to a general (= ' prince of
the host*). The name has been found both on a Palmyrene inscrip
tion and in an Arabian song (see Ilamdsa, p. 702). The barbarities
attending the capture of Beth-arbel seem to have made a deep
impression on the Israehtes; Mr Huxtable aptly reminds us of the
horrors of the sack of Magdeburg. Comp. 2 Kings viii. 12; Ps.
cxxxvii. 8, 9. [The Septuagint, the Syro-Hexaplar, the Old Latin, and
the Vulgate, followed by Bishop Horsley and the Jewish scholar
Abraham Geiger, suppose a reference to Zalmunna (SaX/iOva, Salmana)
who was slain by Gideon or Jerubbaal according to Judg. viii. This
hint will enable the reader to understand the singular renderings of these
ancient versions.] . .
15. So shall Beth-el, &c] Such is the awful judgment of which the
idolatry of Bethel is the cause. _
your great wickedness] Lit., 'your wickedness of wickedness , with
which some compare the phrases ' song of songs', ' holy of holies.' But
it is more natural to suppose that the word .' wickedness ' was written
twice over by accident.
in a morning] Rather, in the dawn. The meaning is that when

108 HOSEA, XI. [vv. 1—2.
11 When Israel was a child, then I loved him,
And called my son out of Egypt.
2 As they called them, so they went from them :
They sacrificed unto Baalim, and burnt incense to graven
images.
the morning-grey appears, the king will be found to be cut off. All
has happened as quickly as time seems to have passed when we awake
(comp. Ps. xc. 6, 'they become as a sleep').
Chapter XI.
For the third time the prophet reverts to the early history of Israel,
and points out how Jehovah has proved his parental love, and how ill
is the return which Israel has made for this love. Verses i — 7 contain
this melancholy historic retrospect and a fresh announcement of the
penalty which a righteous father cannot withhold. Then the tone sud
denly changes to one of promise (see below). The last verse of chap. xi.
would be attached more fitly to chap, xii., of which it forms the first
verse in the Hebrew Bible.
1. When Israel was a child] i. e., in the earliest stage of Israel's
national existence, which is here dated, not, as in ii. 3, from the wan
derings in the wilderness, but from the sojourn in Egypt. For the
figure, see on ' gray hairs ', vii. 9.
called my son out of Egypt] ' Called ' him, locally, into the land of
Canaan, and morally, to set an example of true religion. Comp. Ex.
iv. 22, ' Israel is my son, my firstborn ; and I say unto thee, Let my son
go, that he may serve me.' The words are quoted in St Matthew
(ii. 15), who renders from the Hebrew, in connexion with the sojourn of
the child Jesus in Egypt. Like the portraiture of the Servant of Jeho
vah in the second part of Isaiah, the description of Israel as Jehovah's
Son was held to be at least in part applicable to the one perfect
Israelite. The national ideal never realized in the nation was realized
in the Christ. The divine purpose so often baffled in the one was
completed in the other.
2. As they called them, &c] Or, The more they called them, &c.
(comp. iv. 7). Since Israel disobeyed the first call by Moses, prophets
were sent to repeat the call, but their preaching only seemed to increase
Israel's obstinacy (comp. Isa. vi. 9, 10; Jer. vii. 25, 26). What, then,
was the good of prophecy? It kept up a church within the nation, and
it developed ideas which bore fruit in due time.
unto Baalim, &c] Rather, to the Baalim (see on ii. 13)... to the
graven images.
3. / taught Ephraim also to go] Rather, Whereas I taught Ephraim
to go. A figure for the special providence watching over Ephraim.
Not Judah, but Ephraim, is spoken of, for the kingdom of Israel
embraced the fairer part of the territory, and was far stronger than that
of Judah.

w. 3— 5.J HOSEA, XI. 109
I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms ; 3
But they knew not that I healed them.
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love : ^
And I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their
jaws,
And I laid meat unto them.
He shall not return into the land of Egypt, 5
But the Assyrian shall be his king,
Because they refused to return.
taking them by their arms] Rather, if we accept the Massoretic read
ing, ' he took them up in his arms. ' There are however grave philo
logical objections to this rendering, and we should probably, with most
of the versions, correct the reading, and translate, I took them up in my
arms. There is a beautiful climax in this part of the figure ; not only
did Jehovah train Israel to walk, but when he was tired, Jehovah carried
him in his arms, comp. Isa. Ixiii. q ; Deut. i. 31, (xxxii. 11), and comp.
a parallel passage in the Rig- Veda (x. 6g, 10, Max Miiller), 'Thou
barest him as a father bears his son in his lap.'
they knew not] i.e. they recognized not (as i. 3).
that I healed them] The same figure as in v. 13, vi. 1, vii. 1. Comp.
Ex. xv. 26, ' for I am Jehovah thy healer.'
4. / drew them with cords of a man, &c] A new image suggested
by x. 11, and descriptive of the fatherly love of God. Not with the
violence suited to an unruly heifer, but with the 'cords of men' (i.e.
such as men can bear), did Jehovah win his people's obedience. But
the expression is strange.
that take off the yoke on their jaws] Rather, that lift up the yoke over
their cheeks. Jehovah compares himself to a considerate master, who
raises the yoke from the neck and cheeks of the animal, that it may eat
its food more conveniently.
and I laid meat unto them] This version however is impossible. As
the text stands, we can only render, either (altering one vowel-point),
and I bent towards him and gave him food, or, and (dealing) gently
with him I gave him food. Not of course to be interpreted literally ;
the figure beautifully describes the tender indulgence of Jehovah to his
people. 5. He shall not return into the land of Egypt] This however is
pointless ; why should Egypt be mentioned except as the land of bond
age? It is also inconsistent with the statements in viii. 13, ix. 3, 6, xi. 11.
Some think that lo (here rendered ' not ', but also, when spelt differently,
meaning ' to him') belongs properly to the end of the previous verse,
though no tenable way of fitting it into the construction there has yet
heenproposed. Others would render in verse 5, ' Shall he not return'?
but this does not read naturally. At any rate, the sense required is,
' He shall return into the land of Egypt.' See note on viii. 13.
to return] viz. to Jehovah.

HOSEA, XI. [w. 6—8.

And the sword shall abide on his cities,
And shall consume his branches, and devour them,
Because of their own counsels.
And my people are bent to backsliding from me :
Though they called them to the most High,
None at all would exalt him.
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim ?
How shall I deliver thee, Israel ?
How shall I make thee as Admah ?
How shall I set thee as Zeboim ?
Mine heart is turned within me,
My repentings are kindled together.

6. And the sword, &c] Rather, And the sword shall whirl about
in his cities, and shall make an end of his defences (lit. his bars ;
comp. Jer. li. 30). The sword is personified as the symbol of war, as
Ez .k. xiv. 1 7.
7. And my people, &c] This verse gives the ground of the judg
ment; 'and' = 'for', 'in fact.' The reference to 'backsliding' (lit.
turning, or turning about) should be taken in connexion with xiv. 4.
though they called, &c] Rather, and if they are called (lit., if they,
viz. the prophets, call him) upwards, not one striveth to rise. There
is a complete moral apathy. A phraseological point of contact with
vii. 16.
8 — 11. The prophet cannot believe in a final rejection of Israel
(comp. xiii. 14). He speaks as if Jehovah had at first contemplated
this. Evidently there was a conflict in his own mind between the
ideas of justice and love. Justice seemed to demand that all relations
between Jehovah and Israel should be broken off; love remonstrated
with the assurance of its undecayed healing faculty (xiv. 4). Both
justice and love were divine; hence it seemed that there must be a
conflict even in the mind of Jehovah. Let us not however presume to
deduce a 'doctrine' from Hosea's description of his mental mood. His
final intuition alone is his legacy to the Church; not the inward struggle
out of which he triumphantly emerged.
8. deliver thee] Not in the sense of virepaairia of the Sept., but
in that of Symmachus' ixSweo. Better, surrender thee.
Admah... Zeboim] Hosea, like the author of Deut. xxix. 23, derives
his knowledge of the overthrow of the 'cities of the plain' from a
tradition independent of that in Gen. xix. For another instance of
such independent knowledge, see xii. 3 — 5.
my repentings are kindled together] Even this inaccurate rendering
cannot quite conceal the fine intuition of the prophet. By partly
humanizing God's nature, he as it were divinizes man's. Human
sympathy, is but a rill from the mighty stream of God's tender mercy.
A closer rendering would be, I am wholly overcome with sympathy.

VV-9, IO.J HUbLA, XI. Ill
I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, s
I will not return to destroy Ephraim :
For I am God, and not man ;
The Holy One in the midst of thee :
And I will not enter into the city.
They shall walk after the Lord : he shall roar like a lion : i
The Hebrew idiom however is different — 'my sympathies are wholly
overcome.' Almost the same phrase occurs in Gen. xliii. 20, 'his
compassions were overcome towards his brother.' [The word rendered
'are overcome' (nik'meru) has the closest affinity with the Assyrian
kamdru ^to throw down ', referred to in the note on x. 5 in explanation
oik'mdnm '(idolatrous) priests.'] In Jer. xv. 6 a different but equally
anthropomorphic expression is ascribed to Jehovah — 'I am weary of
sympathizing.' 9. / will not return, &c] The strict rendering of the words is,
'I will not again destroy Ephraim'; the sense however, is, I will not
bring back Ephraim to nothing. He who moulded Ephraim into
a nation will not busy himself with it again to its destruction. Comp.
the same Hebrew idiom in ii. 9.
for I am God, and not man] The perfection of the Divine nature
does not, to Hosea, exclude the possession of something analogous to
human feelings, but one thing it does forbid us to assume, viz. that an
emotion of anger should divert Jehovah from the execution of his
eternal purpose.
the Holy One in the midst of thee] It is the glory of Israel to have
the Holy One specially in her midst. Whatever interferes with His
supreme right of property in Israel, He must destroy, but He will not
so chastise His chosen people as to extinguish it altogether. All that
is left will be holy, as Jehovah is holy — devoted to Jehovah, as Jehovah
is devoted to Israel. Of course, though Jehovah's holiness has a special
relation to Israel, this does not exclude a more general relation to the
world outside. His manifestation is concentrated, but not confined,
within His 'peculiar people.'
/ will not enter into the city] But this is pointless, for why should
a visit from Jehovah be deprecated (comp. Ex. xx. 24) ? Hence many,
adopting a different view of one word, render, I will not come in fury.
This is, however, not free from objection, and a very slight emendation
gives the very appropriate sense, I will not come to exterminate
(parallel to 'to destroy').
10, 11. Instead of introducing his description of Israel's restoration
by some phrase like, 'When I heal Israel' (vii. 1), the prophet ab
ruptly transports us in medias res. The return of the Israelites of
the dispersion is singled out as one of the most characteristic features
of the Messianic age (comp. Isa. xi. n, 12, xxvii. 13; Jer. iii. 18;
Zech. x. 10). The lion's roar takes the place of the 'great trumpet'
in Isa. xxvii. 13.
10. They shall walk, &c] Rather, They shall go after Jehovah,

112 HOSEA, XI. [vv. u, 12.
When he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from
the west.
They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt,
And as a dove out of the land of Assyria :
And I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord.
Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house
of Israel with deceit :
But Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the
saints.
as after a lion that roareth; for he himself shall roar, and sons
shall come hurrying from the west (lit. from the sea). 'The west'
means the same as ' the islands (or, coast-lands) of the sea ' in the
latter part of Isaiah, except that Hosea's knowledge of the coasts and
islands of the western sea would be much vaguer than that of his fellow-
prophet, if Isa. xl. — lxvi. is as late a work as many moderns suppose.
' Go after ' is a phrase for the dependent relation of a worshipper to
his God; comp. i. 2; Jer. vii. 9; 1 Sam. vii. 2; Deut. i. 30. For
'shall roar', comp. Joel iii. 16; Am. i. 2, iii. 8; Jer. xxv. 30. Jehovah
is compared to a lion calling the young lions; contrast the figure of the
lion in v. 14, xiii. 7.
11. tremble as a bird. ..as a dove] 'Tremble ' is the literal rendering,
but the context shows that a thrill of eagerness doubling the speed of
motion is what is meant (comp. Ovid's ' penna trepidante '). Render
therefore, come hurriedly, and continue, as sparrows.. .as doves.
Doves were very early known in both Egypt and Assyria. Elsewhere
(vii. 11) Hosea compares the Israelites to doves for their folly.
[For the rendering ' come hurriedly ' comp. the Syriac r'hab which
combines the meanings of haste and trembling.]
place them] Rather, cause them to dwell.
12. The Septuagint, and after it the English Version, mistook the
blame of the second half of this verse for praise, and hence attached the
verse to chap. xi. Properly, however, it belongs to chap, xii., of which
it is the first verse in the Hebrew Bible. Jehovah is the speaker.
Israel's sins of treason and deceit are so numerous that his God is as
it were surrounded by them, and can see nothing else ; nor has Judah
shown any more deference to the repeated warnings of the prophet.
but Judah yet ndeth, &c] Rather, and Judah is yet wayward
towards God, and towards the faithful Holy One. 'Yet', because
Hosea's earlier prophecies record the long continuance of Judah's back
sliding (v. 10, vi. 4, 11, viii. 14). The word rendered 'wayward' has
the root-meaning of roving unrestrained, as when an animal has broken
loose. Hence Jer. ii. 31, 'Wherefore say my people, We rove at
large; we will come no more unto thee.' 'The Holy One' has in
the Hebrew the plural termination, as in Prov. ix. 10 ; it seems formed
on the model of Elohim, '(the) divinity', lit. '(the) divinities.' We
might express the force of the plural by rendering ' the All-Holy One ',
or (as margin) ' the Most Holy.' The Septuagint (partly followed by

vv- i— 3-]  HOSEA, XII. 113
Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east 12
wind :
He daily increaseth lies and desolation ;
And they do make a covenant with the Assyrians,
And oil is carried into Egypt.
The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, *
And will punish Jacob according to his ways ;
According to his doings will he recompense him.
He took his brother by the heel in the womb, a
the Peshito) renders, vvr tyvw atVrovs 6 6eis, Kal i \abs ayios Ke/cXiJireToc
6eo0. Cornill however has brought fresh light by correcting thus 
'and hath yoked itself (Num. xxv. 3, 5) with sodomites' (i Kings xiv. 24).
Chapter XII.
Again poetry is dispelled by prose, and the infidelity of both king
doms forces itself on the prophet's mind. Such prose is all the more
wearisome to an idealist, because the history of the patriarch Jacob
seems to lift up a standard which ought to be dear to his descendants.
O that Israel would yet return to his allegiance ! Such is the purport
of xi. 12 — xii. 6.
1. wind... the east wind] Note the climax; the parching east wind
combines the ideas of destructiveness and emptiness. Comp. Job xv.
¦i, xxvii. 21. For ' feedeth on', read joineth himself unto.
lies and desolation] Rather, lies and violence. But the Septuagint
reads, ' lies and falsehoods ' — more plausibly, as the other combination
is unparalleled. a covenant with the Assyrians, &c] Comp. v. 13, vii. 11. Oil was
one of the most precious natural products (Deut. viii. 8 ; Ezek. xvi. 19,
xxvii. 17), and is mentioned as a present sent to 'the king' in Isa. Ivii. 9.
Comp. on vii. 11.
2. Jacob] Here used for Judah (as Ps. Ixxvii. 16).
3 — 6. Two episodes (for a third, see v. 12) in the history of Jacob
are applied to the spiritual wants of his descendants. Jacob in the very
womb seemed ambitious of the blessing, and when a grown man, he
wrestled with the angel for a still higher blessing than before. But, as
we are led to interpret the prophet's thought, the Israelites, instead of
justifying their name, and 'waiting upon their God', have denied
Jehovah, and sought for weak human help. — The parallel passages in
Genesis are xxv. 26 a, xxxii. 28* (both ascribed to 'the Jehovist'),
though we cannot perhaps assert dogmatically that they were known to
Hosea, for in v. 4 he introduces a detail not mentioned in Genesis.
Hosea may have drawn from oral tradition.
3. He took his brother by the heel) As if Jacob meant, The Sup-
planter. The same verb is used by Esau in an unfavourable sense in
Gen. xxvii. 36 ; but Hosea here evidently means to edify his people by
hosea 8

H4 HOSEA, XII. [vv. 4— 6.
And by his strength he had power with God :
4 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed :
He wept, and made supplication unto him :
He found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with
us;
s Even the Lord God of hosts ; the Lord is his memorial.
6 Therefore turn thou to thy God :
Keep mercy and judgment,
And wait on thy God continually.
the allusion. Observe that Jacob is described as the head and represen
tative of his family (comparing this with v. 2).
had power with God] Rather, contended with God. He alludes to
Gen. xxxii. 25 (Jehovistic), 'Israel' being explained (rightly or wrongly)
as 'God's combatant'- The word used for God is elohim, which is
applicable to any divine or superhuman form (comp. 1 Sam. xxviii. 13).
Hence in the next verse we find ' angel ', or, rendering etymologically,
'administrator' (mafakh), substituted for it, to prevent misunderstand
ing. Comp. Gen. xvi. 10, 13, xlviii. 15, 16; Ex. xiii. 21 and xiv. 19.
4. he had power over] Rather, he contended with.
he wept, &c] (The subject is Jacob, not the angel.) This feature is
not given in Gen. xxxii. ; it is however well adapted to the hortatory
object of Hosea. The Septuagint has, ' they wept ', &c.
he found him in Beth-el] (The subject is Jehovah.) Two visions of
Jacob's are recorded in explanation of the name Bethel (Gen. xxviii.
10 — 22, xxxv. 9 — 15). They proceed from different documents, and
either of them may have been current in the circle to which Hosea be
longed. The latter passage is of problematic origin. The Septuagint
strangely has, 'They found me in the house of On' (i.e. Aven or
Beth-aven instead of Bethel, comp. iv. 15).
there he spake with us] i.e. 'in the loins of Jacob' (Horsley, Sic);
comp. the twofold use of 'Israel' in vv. 12, 13. But this spoils the
consistency of the historical picture. The Peshito, Aquila, Symmachus,
Theodotion, and probably the Septuagint (irpbs airois), read with him,
i.e. with Jacob. (This is better than assimilating the pronoun in the
preceding clause, with a few Hebrew MSS.)
5. Even the Lord God of hosts, &c] The Hebrew runs more
abruptly, 'And Jehovah ' &c, i.e. 'and the name of Him who spoke
with Jacob is Jehovah.' 'Jehovah' to the prophets conveys the ideas
of almightmess, unchangeableness, and faithfulness (comp. Isa. xii 4-
Mal. 111. 6) 'God of Hosts' is a title specially characteristic of the
regal period; the hosts were (1) the stars, (2) the armies of Israel (see
the commentators on Isa. i. 24).
his memorial] i.e. his name; comp. Ex. iii. 15 'This is my memo
rial unto all generaMons.
•• S\ ™er°f!>re;tu™ "^ou to thy God] Lit., 'And thou— return thou
tn thy God ; i.e., such being the character of God, who lets Himself
be won by wrestling prayer, return thou to thy God, and rest in Him

vv. 7— 9-] HOSEA, XII. 115
He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand : 7
He loveth to oppress.
And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found 8
me out substance :
In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that
were sin.
And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt 9
(For this condensed expression there is no exact parallel.) And how is
this 'return' or repentance to have its reality proved? By thine observ
ance of the rules of blended justice and kindness towards man and
trustfulness towards God (comp. Mic. vi. 8).
8 — 15. Not Israel, but Canaan should he be called ; for his ideal is
Canaan's. The end justifies the means, and his end is — to become rich !
But how bitterly will he be disappointed. He must in short begin his
history over again, and repeat his wilderness-wanderings. Or to speak
more plainly, idolatry must be rooted out. Jehovah must take up the
challenge thrown down by Ephraim. Just before the severe final rebuke,
Hosea resumes his appeal to the instructive history of Jacob ; but verses
12, 13 maybe misplaced.
7. He is a merchant, &c] Rather, Canaan ! in his hand are deceit
ful balances ; he loveth to extort. The geographical term ' Canaan '
simply means 'lowland ', and therefore might be, and was, applied to
Phoenicia (Isa. xxiii. 11) as well as to other lowland parts of Palestine;
' Canaanite ' too became a synonym for ' merchant ' (Job xii. 6 ; Prov.
xxxi. 24, comp. Zeph. i. n; Ezek. xvii. 4), as 'Chaldean' was a syno
nym for ' astrologer.' Hosea uses the word collectively and metaphori
cally : — his ' Canaan ' is a degenerate Israel. The sarcasm derives its
point from the low repute of the Phoenician merchants for honesty
(comp. Odyss. xiv. 290, 291).
8. And Ephraim said...] Better, Ephraim indeed said, Surely I
have become rich, I have gotten me wealth : all my profits shall bring
me no inictuity that were a sin. Ephraim congratulates himself on
his riches, and with callous conscience maintains that they have been
won quite honestly; or if he be not absolutely innocent, yet his few
trifling lapses will not be reckoned a sin. He reminds us of the mer
cenary shepherds in Zech. xi. 5, who say ' Blessed be Jehovah that I
become rich.' There is a better connexion however with the next verse
if we adopt one or two slight emendations, and render the latter part
thus, (but) all his profits will not suffice for (i.e. to expiate) the guilt
which he has Incurred, i.e. though he gave them all up as 'a ransom
for his soul' (Ex. xxx. 12), the sacrifice would be inadequate. Comp.
the Septuagint, ir&rres oi irovoi avrov oi% eipeBTJaovrai avrij) Si afiutlas as
ijnaprer. We thus get rid of the unnatural distinction supposed above
between 'iniquity' and 'sin.'
9. And T] Rather, For I. It is explanatory of the vague hint of
an inexorable doom.
thy God from the land of Egypt] Who is therefore ever ready to
8—3

116 HOSEA, XII. [w. io, u.
Will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days
of the solemn feast.
• I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied
visions,
And used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.
< Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity :
help you (Isa. xlvi. 3), but who will also, if necessary, punish you as He
did of old (comp. Num. xiv. 26 — 30).
will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles] Rather, will again make
thee to dwell in tents. The analogy of a parallel passage (ii. 14) at
once suggests the idea that this prediction is a threat and not (as St
Jerome, Kimchi, and Calvin would have it) a promise. Not indeed a
threat without a tinge of promise (see on ii. 14), but the unrelieved
worldhness of the speech in v. 9 calls forth a declaration of God's pur
pose as uncompromising in its earnestness. 'Again' alludes to the
journey through the wilderness. On the rendering yet, see further note
in Introduction, part v.
as in the days of the solemn f east] Better, of the festal season. The
word used is mo'ed (lit. appointed time), which is used rather more
widely than khag 'festival.' Here however the prophet does mean one
of the three ancient festivals, viz. the so-called Feast of Tabernacles (or
rather, Booths). This was the most popular of all the feasts (see on ix.
1) : it was originally a time of rejoicing for the ' ingathering' (whence its
name in Ex. xxiii. 16) of the latest crops of the year, and the 'booths'
or 'tents' (compare 2 Sam. xi. 11) were simply designed (precisely as
at the analogous festivals of other nations) to promote the enjoyment of
the simple-minded rural merrymakers. Another object is indeed ascribed
to the festival in the Book of Leviticus, viz. to remind the Israelites of the
tent-life of their fathers in the wilderness, but this, as Mr Clark and
others have well shown (see Speaker's Commentary on Lev. xxiii. 43),
can only have been an after-thought, as the nomad Israelites are never
said to have dwelt in 'booths' or 'huts', but always in 'tents' (of skin or
cloth). Hosea's reference to the Feast of Booths points a striking con
trast. The predominant tone of the Israelites is now one of exuberant
joyousness (ix. 1), culminating in the merry, out-of-door life of the local
autumn-festivals, but soon they shall dwell in tents again, not for amuse
ment, but by bitter compulsion.
10. It is not for want of warnings that this calamity comes upon the
Israelites. In the most various ways has Jehovah spoken, not lo, but
by the prophets.
Visions... similitudes] A prophetic vision is, properly speaking, an
intuition of some divinely revealed truth clothed in 'outward and visible
signs', but the term is also extended (e.g. Isa. i. 1; Obad. 1 ; Nah. i.
1) to the entire contents of a prophecy. 'Similitudes', i.e. parables
whether implicit (as ix. 10) or explicit (as vii. 4 — 7 ; Isa. v. 1  7).
11. The ruin of two famous centres of idolatry, representing together
the entire northern kingdom.
Is there iniquity, &c] More probably, If Gilead is (given to) idola-

v. 12.] HOSEA, XII. 117
They sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal ;
Yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.
And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, 1
And Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept
sheep.
try, mere vanity shall they (the Olleadites) become, i.e. apostacy
from Him who is the only source of life leads to sure destruction; 'they
that make the idols become like unto them.' The town of Gilead has
already been singled out for reprobation in vi. 8, 9. For the historical
fulfilment of the prophecy, see 2 Kings xv. 29 — 'in the days of Pekah
king of Israel came Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and took. ..Gilead
and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to
Assyria' (compare Tiglath-Pileser's own account of his expedition
against Philistia in B.C. 734; G. Smith, Eponym Canon, p. 123,
Bchrader, The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, on 2 Kings
xv. 29).
they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal] Or, as it might well be stated in the
margin, 'in Heap- town' (see next note). They affront Jehovah by
sacrificing at idolatrous shrines, especially at Gilgal (see on iv. 15). So
the Targum. Others, by a slight emendation, 'they sacrifice to the
bullocks in Gilgal', i.e. to the steer-gods; but there is no parallel for
such a use of the word 'bullocks.' St Jerome's 'bobus immolantes' is
an ungrammatical rendering of our present text (see his note).
yea, their altars are as heaps, &c] Rather, so then their altars
shall be as stone-heaps, i. e. like heaps of stones which a careful hus
bandman has gathered out of his ploughed field (comp. Mic. i. 6). The
idiom employed (lit., 'also their altars' &c.) indicates the correspondence
between cause and effect, a sin and its retribution (comp. Isa. lxvi. 3 b,
4 a) ; the tense is the prophetic perfect. There is a paronomasia in Gilgal
(as if 'Heap- town', comp. Josh. iv. 20), and gallim ('heaps'); the very
name of Gilgal seems to suggest its impending fate. Some think the
name*' Gilead' is also included in the paronomasia, but in spite of the
Apparent support of Gen. xxxi. 47, 48, this is not the more natural view
'gf Hosea's language. At most, there is a play upon the similarity of
sound in Gilead and Gilgal ; not upon any supposed similarity of
meaning. 12, 13. As Ewald remarks, 'this is probably the oldest instance of a
spiritualizing of the ancient history, though the way to it had been long
Prepared by the conception, so familiar to Hosea himself (chaps, i. —
Ii.), of the community of Israel as Jehovah's bride.' The verses how
ever come in very abruptly, and are really, as Rashi long ago observed,
^continuation of the didactic survey of the life of Jacob interrupted at
v. 6 (comp. on ver. 14).
12. fled into the country of Syria] Comp. Gen. xxvu. 43, xxviu. 2.
Hosea's phrase, the field of Aram, is the exact equivalent of 'Padan-
Aram' (rather raddan-Aram) in the latter passage; the Assyrian
kad&nu has for one of its meanings ' field ' (also ' park ').
served for a wife, &c] Comp. Gen. xxix. 18—20, xxx. 31, xxxi.

ii8  HOSEA, XII. XIII. [w. 13, 14; 1.
13 And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt,
And by a prophet was he preserved.
14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly :
Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him,
And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.
13 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in
Israel ;
3^ — 41- The last passage gives a vivid idea of the hardships summed
up in the simple phrase ' he kept (sheep).'
13. by a prophet] i. e. Moses (comp. Deut. xxxiv. 10). Hosea con
trasts the helplessness and the hardships of Jacob- Israel with the won
derful deliverance and preservation of his descendants. Comp. Isa. li.
2, ' I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.' Note the
double use of the term Israel in v. 12 and v. 13.
14. This verse would be less abrupt if it immediately followed v. 11,
of which it might be taken to furnish a fuller justification.
provoked] Rather, hath provoked.
therefore shall he leave his blood] Rather, and his bloodshed will he
cast; i.e. Jehovah will bring sudden retribution upon him for his
bloodguiltiness (comp. i. 4, iv. 2).
his reproach] i.e., the insult to Jehovah in Israel's idolatry (comp.
Isa. lxv. 7). r
Chap. XIII.
1—8. Israel signed his own death-warrant when he lapsed into
Baal-worship. Foolish as it is to 'kiss calves', they persist in the
practice. Therefore the nation can but drift away, like cloud, or chaff,
or smoke. How little Jehovah deserves such treatment ! But Israel's
destruction has already begun: they shall be torn piecemeal.
1. When Ephraim spake trembling, &c] The Hebrew is difcult,
and the soundness of the text is perhaps questionable. At any rate, the
rendering will depend on one's impression of the requirements of the
tw^ff v V ^-w Wntf^' 1° transIati°n appears preferable to
that of King James s Bible, and he has a pleasure in finding himself in
accord with this version, which must of necessity rarely bl the case in
obscure Passages. The single objection to the rendering is that ex
pressed by Mr Huxtable ,n the Speaker's Commentary, v\z. that it
'wouldgivetotlier.be of Ephraim a character out of harmony alike
with Hosea s description of it in v. 5 and with the history.' But the
passage referred to requires to be explained differently, and as to the
history of the tribe we are not here concerned with the facts ^viewed
critically, but as they presented themselves to a preacher in Tearch of
edification. Hosea has once already pointed the DeorieTf T*JS ?l„ a.
golden age of the past, when Isra^as a Z>£tl ^
'grapes m the wilderness' and 'the firstripe in the fig tree' (ixTo s«
notej; he conceives of Jehovah as kindly overlooking the human frail"

v. 2.] HOSEA, XIII.

119

But when he offended in Baal, he died.
And now they sin more and more, -.
And have made them molten images of their silver,
And idols according to their own understanding,
All of it the work of the craftsmen :
of his child in consideration of Israel's latent possibilities. ' When
Ephraim spake trembling ', &c, may therefore be expanded thus, ' When
the Ephraimites in trembling accents responded to the divine call (comp.
ii. 15), they rose to the exalted position which its prophetic ancestor fore
shadowed (Gen. xlix. 22 — 26).' The reference is partly to the leader-
shipof the Ephraimite Joshua, partly to the prosperity which attended the
tribe of Ephraim even when it no longer supplied a general, a judge, or
a king to the entire nation. The other chief renderings are, ' When
Ephraim spake, [there was] terror', &c, i.e., men listened to Ephraim
with fear and trembling; and, 'When Ephraim spake of revolt (?),
[and] lifted itself up [as a rebel] in Israel ', continuing in the next clause,
' it became guilty through Baal, and died.' In the latter case, the refer
ence is to the revolt of the Ten Tribes, and the public sanction then
given to a retrograde religion. The advantage of this view is that it
enables us to give precisely the same meaning to Ephraim in both parts
of v. 1; but as the text stands, the writer feels unable to accept it, as
the sense of 'revolt' cannot be justified. It is very possible that the
text is corrupt.
but when he offended in Baal, he died] Rather, if the Authorized
Version's view of the meaning be retained, but he became guilty
through the Baal, and died. That is, in course of time, the Ten
Tribes severed themselves definitely from the progressive teaching of
the higher spiritual prophecy, and by so doing sealed their doom as a
nation. The Baal-worship spoken of is not the form of religion against
which Elijah thundered; that was introduced from Phoenicia, whereas
a simpler but still idolatrous worship was offered by the northern Israel
ites to Jehovah under the name of 'Baal' (see on ii. 13, 16). Finding
a multitude of Canaanitish sacred places dedicated each to its own
'Baal' or patron-deity, they forthwith identified this Baal with their
own Jehovah, and so fell under the same condemnation as their heathen
predecessors. They failed to go forward with Amos and Hosea, and so
they could not but fall behind to a degenerate and lower type of religion.
died) Ephraim was ' dead while he lived ' (1 Tim. v. 6, comp.
Prov. ix. 18, and Dante, Inferno xxxiii. 139 — 157). So Gen. ii. 17,
' in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.' Till Adam
ate of the forbidden fruit, there was the hope that, though not created
immortal, he might yet be exempted from decay and death. So, till
Ephraim deliberately corrupted his religion, there was always the possi
bility that God might recognize him as a permanent factor in the reli
gious history of the world. Comp. on v. 12.
2. And now, &c] The present race is no better; they go on adding
to their guilt.
idols according to their oivn understanding] Sarcastically. Sept.,

HOSEA, XIII. [v. 3-

They say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the
calves.
i Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud,
And as the early dew that passeth away,
As the chaff that is driven with a whirlwind out of the
floor,
Targ., Vulg., however, read 'according to the pattern of idols' (there
could be no art, then, in these repetitions of archaic images).
they say of them, &c] This part of the verse is very difficult ; it will
be best to clear up first the meaning of the closing words. There are
two rival renderings, 'sacrificers of men, they kiss calves' (so substan
tially the Sept., the Vulg., Rashi, Aben Ezra, Calvin, Horsley, Kue
nen), and human sacrificers, they kiss calves (so Kimchi and many
moderns). Either rendering implies a strong touch of sarcasm. In the
first case, it is the strange perversity of slaying men and kissing calves
which the prophet lashes; in the second, the affront to human reason in
doing homage to dumb animals. The objection to the former explana
tion is the fact that human sacrifices were not, so far as we know,
offered to the calf- or rather steer-gods, and indeed were hardly common
in the land of Israel before the time of Ahaz (2 Kings xvi. 3). Besides,
would the prophet have referred to such abominable cruelty in such a
casual way, more, as has been well said, in a vein of satire than of
indignation ? Now let us turn to the opening words of the sentence.
The parallelism in this and the following verse is so thoroughly carried
out, that for symmetry's sake we can hardly help rendering, unto such
[the idols] do they speak. The sarcasm is as manifest here as in the
following words ; what can be more absurd than to address vows and
prayers to the worshippers' own handiwork, to things 'which have
mouths, and speak not.' The objection is, that the meaning ' speak '
is not a common one for 'dmar (properly 'to say'), but Ps. iv. 5 shows
that the verb in question may be used absolutely, even in classical
Hebrew. It is possible however that there is a corruption, and that
we should read, for instance, for 'speak' (or 'say'), 'burn incense.'
kiss] 'Kiss', viz. as a sign of adoration or homage, by a transition
like that in the usage of irpooKwlta. So whenever (a) idols, or (b) sup
posed divine beings, or (c) kings are referred to ; comp. (a) 1 Kings
xix. 18, (b) Job xxxi. 27, (c) Ps. ii. 12 (Gen. xii. 40; 1 Sam. *. 1 can
hardly be quoted here). The 'kiss ' of adoration consisted sometimes,
as in Job I.e., in kissing the hand towards the idol (comp. irpotricvvia
again). But the heathen Arabs literally kissed the black stone at
Mecca ; they were wont to stroke their domestic idols.
the calves] i.e., the small images of an ox, such as are referred to in
1 Kings xii. 28.
3. the early dew, &c] Rather, the night-mist that early passeth
away. See on vi. 4.
as the chaff...the floor] A familiar figure, but here expressed with
more fulness than usual. The point of it is partly in the elevated

w. 4—7-] HOSEA, XIII.

And as the smoke out of the chimney.
Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, <
And thou shalt know no god but me :
For there is no saviour beside me. -
I did know thee in the wilderness, .
In the land of great drought.
According to their pasture, so were they filled ; e
They were filled, and their heart was exalted ;
Therefore have they forgotten me.
Therefore I will be unto them as a lion : 5
As a leopard by the way will I observe them:
situation of 'the floor' (comp. i Sam. xix. 22 Sept. ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 18;
2 Chr. iii. 1), partly in the suddenness of the whirlwinds in Palestine,
which start up ' as if by magic or spirit-influence ' (Thomson, The
Land and the Book, p. 154).
chimney] Rather, lattice.
4. Yet I am the Lord thy God] Hosea persistently refuses to
recognize that the god whom the Israelites worship is really Israel's
God, Jehovah. The use of an idolatrous symbol has so unspiritualized
the object of their worship that the mere retention of the name Jehovah
gives them no claim upon Hosea's sympathy. The prophet therefore
introduces Jehovah as expostulating with the Israelites for the abandon
ment of their hereditary religion.
thou shalt know no god but me] Rather, thou knowest, &c ; the
experience of history bore witness to Jehovah's help, and his alone.
Comp. Deut. xxxii. 12. Hosea however does not deny the existence
of other gods besides Jehovah ; only their equality to Him in power.
It was only by degrees that the truth involved in the revelation of
Jehovah was fully realized. See Introduction.
5. / did know, &c] Better, It was I that knew, &c. ' To know '
= ' to take favourable notice of, as Ps. i. 6 and often.
in the land of great drought] Or, ' of burning thirst ' (the word
occurs nowhere else). Comp. the description in ii. 3.
6. According to their pasture, &c] Rather, When they fed, they
waxed full. The idea of the verse is that Israel's apostasy sprang
from his enjoying God's gifts without thinking of the Giver, comp. ii.
8, iv. 7, x. 1. The expressions were probably prophetic commonplaces;
comp. Deut. viii. n — 15, xxxi. 20, xxxii. 15, 18.
7. I will be] Rather, I have become. The evident decay of Israel
as a nation shows that the punishment has begun (see vii. 8 — 10).
the leopard] Familiar to the Hebrews and Assyrians under the
same name (ndmer, nimru). Its habit of springing from an ambush is
again referred to in Jer. v. 6.
by the way will I observe them] According to another pronunciation
of the consonants, the Septuagint, Peshito, and Vulgate (supported by
some MSS. and many editions of the Hebrew Bible), render 'in the way

122

HOSEA, XIII. [vv. 8,9.

I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps,
And will rent the caul of their heart,
And there will I devour them like a lion :
The wild beast shall tear them.
1 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine
help.
to Assyria *, an allusion being supposed to Israel's dallying with the great
northern empire (v. 13). So also Hitzig and Ewald. But the prophet
has to deal now with the disease itself, not with a mere symptom.
8. as a bear] A striking but uncommon comparison. Comp.
Lam. iii. 10.
the caul of their heart] Rather, the enclosure of their heart, i.e., not
the pericardium, which is what the Authorized Version appears to have
supposed, but the breast.
as a lion] Most render, as a lioness; but this is at any rate un
certain. There is nothing as in Job iv. 11 specially to suggest the
female. The masculine undoubtedly occurs in Ps. Ivii. 5 (Hebr.). The
root-idea is probably voracity ; but unfortunately there is no cognate
in Assyrian. The numerous words for lion in Hebrew are as trouble
some to express in English, as the translators of the Sept. found them
in Greek (Sept. here has cKv/xroi Spvpov).
9 — 15. An alternation of cries expressive of the contending thoughts
and emotions of the tender-hearted but truthful prophet. The punish
ment is inevitable ; yea, it is begun. Yet — if Israel would only repent !
Indeed, his Father must interpose. And yet, on the other hand, re
bellion must be punished.
9. Hosea, ' in the spirit ', sees the future as if it were past. Hence
the use of the. perfect.
O Israel, &c] This rendering agrees with that of the Jewish com
mentator, Rashi (similarly the Targum). It belongs to a numerous
series of attempts (see Poole's Synopsis ad loe.) to explain one of Hosea's
most abrupt sentences. The text, as it stands, means literally, 'He
(or, It) hath destroyed thee, O Israel, because (or, that) on (or, against)
me, on (or, against) thy help ', that is, as most moderns interpret, This
is thy destruction, 0 Israel, that to me, to thy helper, (thou hast
been unfaithful) : the abruptness is attributed to the ' labouring voice,
interrupted by sobs ' (Ewald) of one whose pity is only less strong than
his regard for justice. Turning to the versions, we find the Septuagint
rendering, Ty 8ia<p9opf aov 'I<rparj\ tLs payd-foei ; the Peshito, ' I
have destroyed thee, O Israel ; who shall help thee ' ; the Vulgate,
' Perditio tua, Israel ; tantummodo in me auxilium tuum.' As Louis
Cappel long ago saw, the slight variation of a single letter implied in
the Septuagint and Peshito renderings greatly improves the latter part
of the verse. Accepting this, we may render the whole, 'He hath
destroyed thee, 0 Israel; yea, who is thy help 7' By 'Israel' of
course Ephraim, i.e. N. Israel, is meant. For the idiom 'in thy
help ' = invested with the character of a helper, comp. Delitzsch's note

W. io— 13.] HOSEA, XIII.

123

I will be thy king : where is any other that may save thee 10
in all thy cities ?
And thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and
princes ?
I gave thee a king in mine anger, n
And took him away in my wrath.
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up ; his sin is hid. «
The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him : 13
He is an unwise son ;
on Ps. xxxv. 2. The alternative is to suppose that a word has dropped
out of the text. Ewald's explanation (above) is forced.
I will be thy king, &c.] Rather, Where, now, is thy king, that he
may save thee in all thy cities? The prophet looks a little way
before him to the fulfilment of the predictions in a. 14 (' all thy for
tresses ') and xi. 6 ('his cities ').
thy judges] The 'judges' appear to be synonymous (comp. vii. 7)
with ' king and princes ', who, of course, in Israel as well as in Judah
(Jer. xxi. n, 12) shared the judicial functions. See on iii. 4, viii. 12.
Give me a king) Some compare 1 Sam. viii. 5 (of Saul), but Hosea
is not opposed to royalty in itself. See next note.
11. I gave thee, &c] Rather, I give thee kings [lit. , a king] in
mine anger, and take (them) away in my wrath. The reference is
to the elevation of Jeroboam I. , but also to the various dynasties which
from time to time forced their way to the throne (comp. on vii. 7).
Indulged self-will brought with it its own punishment — hardening of
the heart in apostasy. Thus our passage seems to mediate between
the two different views of Jeroboam's act presented to us in i. 11 (see
note) and 1 Kings xi. 29 — 39 respectively. In one sense Jehovah
'gave'; in another, he 'gave' not.
12. But this instability of government is not Israel's full punishment.
bound up) Tied up as in a bag (comp. Job xiv. 17).
hid] Rather, laid by in store (as Job xxi. 19).
13, 14. These verses, at least down to the last clause of v. 14, seem
a slight digression. The prophet declares that the troubles which are
already closing around Israel, are in reality a last opportunity graciously
vouchsafed of repentance. But he in his unwisdom neglectsto embrace
it, though every moment of delay increases his danger. Notice the two
fold application of the figure of childbirth. Israel is first of all the tra
vailing woman, and then the child whose birth is imperilled by its weak
will. Mr Huxtable well compares the abruptness with which St Paul
shifts the application of an image; see e.g. 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3, and 13—15.
The sorrows. . .shall come] Rather, The pangs. . .come (are in the pro
cess of coming). The divine judgment is compared to the pangs of
trouble, as in Mic. iv. 9; Matt. xxiv. 8; 1 Thess. v. 3.
he is an unwise son] Comp. Deut. xxxii. 6, ' Do ye thus requite
Jehovah, O foolish people and unwise ? is not he thy father ', &c.

124 HOSEA, XIII. [v. 14-
For he should not stay long in the place of the breaking
forth of children.
I will ransom them from the power of the grave ;
I will redeem them from death :
O death, I will be thy plagues;
O grave, I will be thy destruction :
Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
for he should not, &c] Or better, ' for at the (right) time he standeth
not', &c. But as the rendering ' at the (right) time' is doubtful, it is
better still to alter the points (as in Ezek. xxvii. 34) and render, for now
he standeth not In the place where children break forth. The passage
is akin to Isa. xxxvii. 2, where Judah's utter incapacity to emerge out of
its troubles is compared to the inability of a woman to perform the act
of bringing forth. Here, however, to suggest a moral lesson to Israel,
the weak will of the child is represented as the cause of the failure. It
is a new birth which Israel needs ; and if calamity only had its right
effect on the conscience, the language ascribed to Israel in vi. 2 would
be verified, ' on the third day .. .we shall live in his sight.' For the two
fold aspect in which Hosea here views the judgment, comp. vi. x.
14. But a father cannot long endure to contemplate the prospect of
his child's ruin.
from the power of the grave. . from death] Rather, from the hand of
Sheol... from Death. Shedl and Death are used synonymously for the
nether world (as in Isa. xxviii. 15; Ps. vi. 5, xlix. 14). In Isa. v. 14
Sheol has an enormous mouth ; so here a hand.
O death... destruction) So Gesenius, following the Targum and Vul
gate. But, as Dr Pusey remarks, on this view of the construction, we
must render 'I would be thy plagues', &c, whereas the context requires
an absolute declaration. Render therefore, Where are thy plagues, 0
Sheol? where thy pestilence, O Death? (Comp. Ps. xci. 6 Hebr.).
' The plagues are the mille vice leti, the many kinds of sickness, the most
terrible of which is called "the firstborn of Death", Job xviii. 13
(Hitzig). Though all the plagues which fill the dark city of She61 were
let loose upon Israel as a nation, they would be incapable of destroying
Jehovah's 'son.' St Paul quotes these words (1 Cor. xv. 55) in a trans
lation of his own either as proving the doctrine of the Resurrection, or
simply as well expressing his own triumphant feelings. Triumphant the
tone of Hosea's words certainly is, and hence some have thought Jehovah
calls for the pestilences as agents in Israel's threatened destruction,
taking the first part of the verse interrogatively, ' From the hand of
Sheol should I ransom them? from Death should I redeem them?' But
this is not the most natural explanation, nor is it required on the above
view of the context.
repentance shall be hid] Rather, repentance is hid. Perhaps an
assurance of the irrevocable nature of the promise. But as the tone of
promise is so transient, it seems better to take this clause in connexion
with the threat of judgment in v. 12 of which indeed it may possibly

w- 15, 16] HOSEA, XIII. XIV. 125
Though he be fruitful among his brethren, 15
An east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall
come up from the wilderness,
And his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall
be dried up :
He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
Samaria shall become desolate ; 16
For she hath rebelled against her God :
They shall fall by the sword :
Their infants shall be dashed in pieces,
And their women with child shall be ript up.
once have formed the third member. At any rate, we need a resump
tion of threatening here, to prepare the way for the stern announcement
in v. 15.
15. Though he be fruitful, &c] Rather, For though he bear fruit,
&c. Evidently there is an allusion to the meaning of the word Ephraim
(' fruitfulness' ?) ; for another see xiv. 8. The verse carries on the idea
of the last clause of the previous verse. ' In fact, though his name and
his nature indicate fruitfulness, yet a remorselessly severe punishment
shall come upon him.' His ' brethren' are his fellow tribes, which are
compared to trees. There is another reading ('dkhim for 'akhivi)
'among reed-plants', comp. Gen. xii. 2, 18. This is adopted by
Delitzsch, and has considerable Rabbinic authority (e.g. that of Rashi
and Abulwalid), but is found in extremely few extant manuscripts. It
certainly completes the figure, but is philologically difficult.
the wind of the Lord, &c] Rather, a wind of Jehovah, coming up
from the desert. The parching and destructive east or south-east wind
is referred to, which blew from the desert (comp. Jer. iv. 11, xiii. 24;
Job i. 19). It is a figure for the Assyrian conqueror (somewhat as Isa.
xxi. 1), who at the end of the verse comes forward in his undisguised
awfulness. spring] Rather perhaps, reservoir.
he shall spoil] ' He' is emphatically expressed ; ' he' whom the east
wind figures ' shall spoil' (or, plunder).
pleasant vessels) Rather, precious vessels (whether jewels, or objects
of worked gold or silver, or rarities of any kind).
16. become desolate] Rather, be dealt with as guilty (as x. 2).
their infants, &c] Rather, their children (those of an age to play,
comp. Jer. vi. 11, ix. 20). The same barbarities were predicted in x. 14.
Such a fate would be simply retributive justice (see 2 Kings xv. 16).
Chapter XIV.
Already the future of northern Israel has been irradiated for Hosea by
short gleams of hope (xi. 8— n, xiii. 14); now at length hope becomes
victorious over fear. True, Israel has not yet ' returned', and Hosea is

126  HOSEA, XIV.  [vv. 1—3.
14 O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God ;
For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
3 Take with you words, and turn to the Lord :
Say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us
graciously :
So will we render the calves of our lips.
3 Asshur shall not save us : we will not ride upon horses :
Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands,
Ye are our gods :
obliged to repeat his exhortation. But he evidently feels persuaded that
Israel cannot resist the lovely promises of which in this chapter he is the
bearer. Verses 1 — 3 contain an imaginative expression of the feelings
by which the Israelites will one day be animated (contrast vi. 1 — 3).
1. return. ..for thou hast fallen] To 'stumble' or to 'fall' means to
be visited by a calamity (as iv. 3, v. 5). Experience has shown the Israel
ites, to quote Jeremiah (ii. 19), ' what an evil and bitter thing it is to
forsake Jehovah their God.'
1 2. Take with you words] It is one of the most undoubtedly ancient
of the religious laws of the Pentateuch that ' none shall appear before
Jehovah empty ' (Ex. xxiii. 1 5, xxxiv. 20). What gift then will be most
acceptable from the Israelites to their heavenly King ? The answer that
will naturally rise to the lips of a half-converted Israelite will be ' sacrifice
and burnt-offering ' (see note on v. 6) ; but the prophet in his present
mood cherishes the belief that Israel's repentance will after all not be as
superficial as he once feared (contrast v. 6). He therefore urges his
people, after the bitter lessons of experience, to take as their offering,
j not cattle, but penitent words spoken out of the abundance of the heart.
Take away all iniquity] Rather, Altogether forgive iniquity. The
form of the Hebrew is singular, but not unparalleled.
receive us graciously] Rather, accept the good ; ' for it is good to
sing praises unto our God' (Ps. cxlvii. 1).
render the calves of our lips] Or, ' pay (as if with) bullocks (with) our
lips.' Thus the Israelites are converted at last to the principle of
chap. vi. ver. 6. It is a very strange expression, however, and Arch
bishop Newcome may be right in preferring the reading of the Septua
gint (comp. Heb. xiii. 15), pay the fruit of our lips, which is a choice
Hebrew phrase (Isa. Ivii. 19). The ' fruit' is of course praise and
thanksgiving, or vows of obedience (Ps. 1. 13, 14, lxix. 30, 31).
3. Israel here renounces those sins against the theocracy of which
Jehovah's prophet had specially accused him, viz. trust in Assyria (v. 13,
vii. 11, viii. 9) and reliance on horses and chariots (i. 7, x. 13, alluding
no doubt to the Egyptian alliance, comp. Isa. xxx. 16, xxxi. 1), and
idolatry (iv. 17, viii. 4).
to the work of our hands] An early anticipation of the splendid
morsels of irony, in which a later prophet lashes idolatry (see Isa xiii
17, liv. 17).

*¦ 4, 5-] HOSEA, XIV. 127
For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely :
For mine anger is turned away from him.
I will be as the dew unto Israel :
He shall grow as the lily,
And cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

the fatherless] Israel's condition is compared to that of an orphan
(comp. the exquisite opcpavois of John xiv. 18).
6—9. Jehovah, in answer, describes the blessings which He will give.
The imagery reminds us of the Song of Songs ; notice especially the
references to the lily and to Lebanon.
6. their backsliding] i.e. the damage which their ' backsliding ' has
brought upon them.
love them freely] Or, 'spontaneously', i.e. without receiving any
gifts but those mentioned in v. 2.
6. / will be as the dew] Rather, as the night-mist, i.e. the masses
of vapour (Hebr. tal) brought by the damp westerly winds of summer
(see on vi. 4). ' In the strict scientific sense of the word, this is rain,
and not dew at all, since the vapour becomes condensed in.the air before
touching the ground' (Neil, Palestine Explored, p. 135).^ The promise
comes very appropriately after the 'I will heal ' of v. 4. ' The baleful
effects of the sirocco are often felt in Palestine during the rainless heat
of summer, but by the beautiful provision of night- mist all hardy forms
of vegetable life are preserved. But to the ' east-wind ' described in
xiii. 15 there was no such counteracting force. A 'dew'. ('night-mist')
of supernatural energy (like Gideon's) was required to vivify that which
Assyria had destroyed — what another prophet calls (Isa. xxvi. 19) ' a dew,
of lights ', i.e. an influence from the divine Light, could alone undo so
complete a catastrophe. Observe how nearly coincident are the con
ceptions of land and people in Hosea's mind (see on ii. 3).
grow [blossom] as the lily] So Ecclus. xxxix. 14. The image suggests
the ideas of profusion and beauty. There is nothing to bind us down
to any single individual of the lily species. Indeed, the application of
the Hebrew shoshan was probably as wide as that of the Arabic susan
still is, if we may argue from the mention of ' lilies [oleanders ?] by the rivers
of waters ' in Ecclus. 1. 8. Dr Thomson's ' Huleh lily ', which abounds
in the woods north of Tabor ( The Land and the Book, p. 256), is at
least as likely a flower to be meant as any other. Dr Tristram prefers
the not less gorgeous than abundant Anemone coronaria (Nat. Hist, of
Bible, p. 464).
and cast forth] Lit., 'and let it strike.' A change of the verbal
form for the sake of colour and variety.
as Lebanon] The slender roots of the lily supply no fit image for
stability; for this Hosea turns to the 'cedars of God' (Ps. Ixxx. 10,
A. V. ' goodly cedars '), or perhaps he means the mountains of Lebanon
themselves (for the ' roots ' of a mountain, comp. Job xxviii. 9).

128 HOSEA, XIV. [vv. 6—8.
His branches shall spread,
And his beauty shall be as the olive tree,
And his smell as Lebanon.
They that dwell under his shadow shall return ;
They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine :
The sent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with
idols ?

6. His branches shall spread] For 'branches' render saplings.
It is the same word as in Isa. liii. 2 (where A. V. 'tender branch ').
There the prophet's idea is that after Israel's vine has been cut down,
a slender plant will spring up from the root ; here, that the root of the
living tree shall send forth many fresh plants. In fact, Israel is to be
like not merely a tree, but a garden.
as the olive-tree] Beautiful doubtless in itself, but with a beauty
enhanced by the serviceableness of the fruits. Jeremiah compares
Israel to 'a fresh-green olive-tree, fair, and of goodly fruit' (Jer. xi.
16). his smell as Lebanon] As the balsamic odour of the cedars and of
aromatic shrubs. Comp. Cant. iv. n.
7. They that dwell. ..as the corn] Rather, Once more shall they
that dwell under his shadow bring corn to life (i.e. in prosaic
language, cultivate corn). A contrast to the lamentation for the com
in vii. 14. ' His shadow ', i.e. Israel's ; Jehovah is presumably still the
speaker. For the idea, comp. Jer. xxxi. 5, 12.
grow [blossom] as the vine] There is a transition from the pro
sperity of the agriculture to that of the people who live by it, as in Ps.
lxxii. 16.
the sent thereof] Rather, his [i.e. Israel's] renown (lit. his memorial
or name). For the comparison which follows, comp. Cant. i. 3, ' Thy
name is as ointment poured forth.'
as the wine of Lebanon] The vine is still largely cultivated in every
part of Lebanon. But the finest grapes in Syria are those of Helbon, a
village in the Antilibanus district, a little to the north of Damascus,
precisely as in the days of Ezekiel (xxvii. 18) and Nebuchadnezzar
(Lenormant, Etude sur quelques parties des syllabaires cuniiformes, Par.
1876, p. 123).
8. Ephraim (shall say), What have I to do any more with idols] So
the Targum and the Syriac. The objection is that the ellipsis is unique,
and hence Archbishop Seeker proposed to follow the Septuagint (read
ing lo for li), and render, Ephraim — what hath he to do, &c. Prof.
Robertson Smith is dissatisfied with this, but his objection simply is
that the third member of the verse is unsuitable in the mouth of Je
hovah, the evergreen tree being ' in Semitic symbolism the image of
receptivity, of divinely nourished life, not of quickening power' (The
Prophets of Israel, p. 411). But why should the whole verse be given

v. 9] HOSEA, XIV. 129
I have heard him, and observed him :
I am like a green fir tree.
From me is thy fruit found.
Who is wise, and he shall understand these thingst 9
Prudent, and he shall know them ?
For the ways of the Lord are right,
to the same speaker, especially if we reject tbe idea that the prefixed
Ephraim indicates Israel as the speaker? It is surely very difficult to
assign the fourth member to Israel, as if it meant that Ephraim or Israel
bore fruit to Jehovah. On the whole, it seems best to adopt the Sep
tuagint reading, and to assign all but the third member of the verse to
Jehovah. There is a special force in the restoration of the name
Ephraim, if we look at the closing words of the verse. [Pusey and
before him the Lutheran divine Manger assign the four lines of which
the verse consists alternately to Ephraim and Jehovah.]
/ have heard him and observed him] Rather, I respond and look on
him. The pronoun is emphatically expressed — ' I on my part.' ' Re
spond' reminds us of ii. 15, 21, 22. The idea is that Jehovah's treat
ment of Israel corresponds to Israel's treatment of him (comp. Ps. xviii.
25, 26). 'To look upon' anyone is to be favourable to him (Ps. lxxxiv.
9, cxix. 132); the opposite is ' to hide the face from ' (Ps. xxii. 24, xxvii-
9)- I am like a green fir tree] The precise kind of tree meant by b'rdsh
is uncertain ; but Hosea, as a N. Israelite, is evidently thinking of the
splendid forests of Lebanon. Most have supposed a reference to the
sherbin-tree, a small kind of cypress resembling the cedar; Tristram
prefers the Aleppo pine, a tree quite as characteristic of Lower Lebanon
as the cedar. Certainly it is very alien to the spirit of the prophets to
compare Jehovah to a tree (comp. iv. 13; Isa. i. 29). Keil refers to the
'tree of life'; but even this is never identified with Jehovah (though
Sept. identifies it with Israel, Isa. lxv. 22). Is not this short clause a
naive self-gratulation on the part of Israel? Here, as in the previous
clause, the personal pronoun is expressed.
From me is thy fruit found] Israel cannot be the speaker here (see
above). The clause contains a warning for Israel in his prosperity
not to forget the Giver. Probably there is a play upon the name
Ephraim 'fruitfulness' (as in xiii. 15). ,
9 An epilogue or conclusion to the prophecy, unspecializing it, as it 1
were, and extracting, cf. Ps. cvii. 43, the moral which underlies it all./
The tone and language of it remind us of the Book of Proverbs (Prov.
xi. 5, xv. 19). The term 'the righteous' occurs nowhere else in/
Hosea. Who is wise, &c] Rather, Whoso Is wise, let him understand
these things (i.e. the foregoing prophecies). One great mark of
' wisdom ' in the Old Testament sense was a rational acquiescence in
the equity of the providential government.
for the ways of the Lord, &c] The 'ways of Jehovah ' are those
9

136 HOSEA, XIV. [v. 9.
And the just shall walk in them :
But the transgressors shall fall therein.
marked out by Him as Governor of the world for the righteous and for
the wicked respectively. These ' ways ' are ' straight ' or ' right ' (syno
nymous with ' righteous ', as Deut. xxxii. 4 ; Ps. cxix. 37), alike when
they spread themselves out in an unbroken level for the pious, and
when they oppose themselves in rocky stumbling-blocks to the ungodly.
Comp. Prov. xi. 5, xv. 19; Isa. xxvi. 7.

INDEX.

I. TO THE SUBJECTS TREATED OF.

Abel, Carl, referred to, 62 note
Aeschylus, referred to, 56
anthropomorphism in Hosea, no, xn
arrows, divination by, 67
Asherah, questions with regard to, 15 note,
68
Assyriological illustrations, 50, 76, 86, 90,
107, 117
Baal, proper names compounded with,
S5'9>8 A ,
— land of, 57
— worship of, 13, 18, 24, 25, 52, 55,
56, 58, 119
Baal-peor, 98
Vrtth^ meaning of, 55, 87
d'rdsA, meaning of, 129
Beth-aven, for Bethel, 35, 69, 102
Buddha, saying of, 79
Calvin, quoted, 59, 77
Canaan, Canaanite, meaning of, 115
Dante, referred to, 25, 119
David, a synonym for Messiah, 61
Davidson, Prof. , quoted, 28
Delitzsch, Franz, criticized, 31, 39
— Friedrich, 103
Dew, see Night-mist
Elijah, 11
elohim, meaning of, 112, 1x4
ephod, meaning of 61
Ephraim, meaning of, 125, 129
Euripides, referred to, 56
Ewald, quoted, 28, 33, 35, 117
flesh-meat, custom of eating, 91, 9+
funeral feasts, 95
Gibeah, 97, 104
Gilead, 117
Gileadites, character of, n, 60
Gilgal, site of, 68
Gomer, a type of Israel, 21, 59

Hosea, his name and origin, 9 — xx
— heading of his book, 11
— the two parts of his book, 12
— his domestic history, 15, 16
— his style, 32—34
— compared with other prophets, 31
—33
— was he acquainted with our Pen
tateuch ? 35 — 37
— literary influence of, 38
Huxtable, Prebendary, 12, 27, 107, 1x8
Jacob, his history spiritualized, 113 — 117
Jareb, king, 76, 103
Jehovah, worshipped by the Ten Tribes,
3i » 73
Jehu, character of, 42
Jeroboam I., his steer- worship, 75, 88,
X02
Jerome, St., referred to, 9, 33, 37, 42, 54,
70,85
Jerusalem, hinted at, 74
Jezebel, 24
Jezreel, 42, 56, 57
kkibker, meaning of, 80
khesedh, meaning of, 29, 30, 62, 78, 79
k'nzdrim, meaning of, 103, xxx
Koran, referred to, 48, 53
law-books, before the Pentateuch, 90
Lebanon, wine of, 128
lethech, a measure^ 59
love, meaning of, m Hosea, see khesedk
Magdeburg, sack of, 107
Mahafiy, Prof., referred to, 94
Memphis, 95
Moabite stone, referred to, 42, 68
Muller, Max, referred to, 6x
neshert meaning of, 96
night-mist, 78, 79, 127
Ovid, quoted, no

132 INDEX.

pillars, consecrated, 60, xox Song of Songs, jo, 13, 14, 20
Plumptre, Dean, 15 — 17, 20, 50, 60 Stanley, Dean, quoted, n
Pul, private name of Tiglath-Pileser, 84
Pusey, Dr, 12, 17, 33, 77, 124, 129 Tabernacles, feast of, 116
prophets, false, 64 Tacitus, referred to, 48
teraphim, meaning of, 61
Resurrection, predicted? 77 Tristram, Dr, referred to, 49, 67, 89, 129
Renouf, Mr, referred to, 95 trumpets, variety of, 73
Reuss, Prof., quoted, 18 Tylor, Mr, referred to, 95
Robertson Smith, Prof., x8, 23, 28, 34, 44,
58, 61, 64, 128 Veda, the Rig, quoted, 109
Ruskin, Mr, referred to, 103 Wellhausen, Prof., referred to, 17
sacrifices, human, 120 wine-drinking, idolatrous affinities of, 93
Sargon, annals of, 26
Schiller, quoted, 75 Zalmunna, 107
Shechem, its ill fame, 80 sebakk% meaning of, 94
shSs/i-an, meaning of, 127 Zunz, Dr, 38
sin-offerings, date of, 66

II. TO THE CHIEF PASSAGES FROM OTHER PARTS OF
THE BIBLE, ILLUSTRATED IN THE NOTES.
Gen. ii. 17, 119 Isa. liii. 2, 128
— ix. 1— 16, 80 — lviii. 13, 51
Ex. xv. 21, 54 Jer. ii. 2, 42, 97
 26, 109 — — 11, 65
. — xxiii. 15, 126 — — 31, 112
Lev. xvii. 3, 4, 94 — iy- 3» IQ6
Num. xxi. 29, 46 — xxxi. 22, 55
Deut. xii. 15, 16, 94 — xliv. 17, 49
1 Kings xi. 29 — 39, 123 Lam. iii. 7, g, 49
— xii. 16, 62 Ezek. iv.13, 93
— xix. 18, 47 — viii. 10 — 12, 61
2 Kings x. 30, 42 — xvi. 39, 40, 48
— xii. 24, 87 — xxxvii. 1— 10, 77
— xvii. 26, 53 Joel ii. 32, 35
Ezra x. 19, 66 — iii. 18, 56
Job iii. 23, 49 Am. i. 4 — ii. 5, 9a
— xix. 8, 49 — viii. 7, 72
— xxxi. 33, 80 — — 10, 51
Ps. Ixxx. 10, 127 — ^ — 14, 69
— lxxxii. 7, 80 — ix. ix, 6x
— xcvi. 4, 51 -7 — 13, 56
— cvi. 20, 65 Mic. ii. 12, 45
— cxlix. 7, 74 Zech. xiii. 2, 55
Prov. xv. 17, 94 Mal. ii. 11, 46
Isa. vii. 18, 91 Matt iL 15, 109
— xxii. 13, 91 — ix. X3I
— xxvi. 19, 77 — xii. 7 y /y
— xxx. 22, 50 ionn x*v' *** I27
— — 23, 69 Rom. ix. 25, 45, 58
— xxxvii. 2, 124 x Cor. xv. 55, 124
— xliii. 1, 87 a Cor. iii. 3, 3, 123
— xiv. 8, 57 * Tim. v. 6, 119
— liii. x, 84 Heb. xiii. 15, 126

CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED BV JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.