Hosea 7:6 Komentář

In this chapter we have, I. A general charge drawn up against Israel for those high crimes and misdemeanors by which they had obstructed the course of God's favours to them (Hos 7:1, Hos 7:2). II. A particular accusation, 1. Of the court - the king, princes, and judges (Hos 7:3-7). 2. Of the country. Ephraim is here charged with conforming to the nations (Hos 7:8), senselessness and stupidity under the judgments of God (Hos 7:9-11), ingratitude to God for his mercies (Hos 7:13), incorrigibleness under his judgments (Hos 7:14), contempt of God (Hos 7:15), and hypocrisy in their pretences to return to him (Hos 7:16). They are also threatened with a severe chastisement, which shall humble them (Hos 7:12), and, if that prevail not, then with an utter destruction (Hos 7:13), particularly their princes (Hos 7:16).

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 7 This chapter either begins a new sermon, discourse, or prophecy, or it is a continuation of the former; at least it seems to be of the same argument with the latter part of it, only it is directed to Israel alone; and consists of complaints against them because of their manifold sins, and of denunciations of punishment for them. They are charged with ingratitude to God, sinning in a daring manner against mercy, and with falsehood, thefts, and robberies, Hos 7:1; with want of consideration of the omniscience of God, and his notice of their sins, which surrounded them, Hos 7:2; with flattery to their king and princes, Hos 7:3; with adultery, which lust raged in them like a heated oven, Hos 7:4; with drunkenness, aggravated by drawing their king into it, Hos 7:5; with raging lusts, which devoured their judges, made their kings to fall, and brought on such a general corruption, that there were none that called upon the Lord, Hos 7:6; with mixing themselves with the nations of the earth, and so learning their ways, and bringing their superstition and idolatry into the worship of God, so that they were nothing in religion, like a half baked cake, Hos 7:8; with stupidity and insensibility of their declining state, Hos 7:9; with pride, impenitence, and stubbornness, Hos 7:10; with folly, in seeking to Egypt and Assyria for help, and not to the Lord; for which they would be taken as birds in a net, and sorely chastised, Hos 7:11; with ingratitude, hypocrisy, and deceitfulness; for all which they are threatened with destruction, Hos 7:13.

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait,.... The prince, people, and scorners before mentioned, being heated with wine, and their lust enraged, they were ready for any wickedness; for the commission of adultery, lying in wait for their neighbours' wives to debauch them; or for rebellion and treason against their king, and even the murder of him, made drunk by them, whom they now despised, and waited for an opportunity to dispatch him: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire; as a baker having put wood into his oven, and kindled it, leaves it, and sleeps all night, and in the morning it is all burning, and in a flame, and his oven is thoroughly heated, and fit for his purpose; so the evil concupiscence in these men's hearts, made hot like an oven, rests all night, devising mischief on their beds, either against the chastity of their neighbours' wives, or against the lives of others, they bear an ill will to, particularly against their judges and their kings, as Hos 7:7; seems to intimate; and in the morning this lust of uncleanness or revenge is all in a flame, and ready to execute the wicked designs contrived; see Mic 2:1. Some by "their baker" understand Satan; others, their king asleep and secure; others Shallum, the head of the conspiracy against Zachariah.

But where shall I find an approach to the divine Scripture that teaches me what "an oven" is? I must call upon Jesus my Lord, that he may make me the seeker find and may open to the one knocking, that I may find in Scriptures "the oven" where I can rightly bake my sacrifice that God may accept it. Indeed, I think I have found it in Hosea the prophet, where he says, "All adulterers are as an oven ignited for burning." And again he says, "Their hearts glowed as an oven." The human heart therefore is "an oven." But this heart, if vices ignite it or the devil inflames it, will not bake, but it will burn up. But if that one who said, "I came to send fire into the earth" should ignite it, the loaves of the divine Scriptures and of the words of God which I receive in my heart, I do not burn up for destruction, but I bake for sacrifice.

"who placed his heart in the oven as he dined with them. He slept throughout the entire night cooking them, and in the morning he burned like a flame of fire." LXX: "because their hearts were burning like an oven, when they were rushing down all night. Ephraim is filled with sleep: in the morning it happened: he is inflamed like the flame of fire." Those deceivers, when their king was plotting against them, and was trying to draw them away from their God, gave their heart as a furnace to him, so that he might kindle them and cause them to burn with the flames of idolatry. Therefore, because all of them were turned in mind to error, the people agreed. And what follows: "He slept all night, baking them; in the morning he himself was kindled as a flame of fire," means this: after he had sent fire into their heart as a furnace and had seen them go mad and there being no one to resist his will, he slept all night, that is, he was secure; walking in darkness while they were being cooked and made into the bread of impiety. Therefore, in the morning he rose up, and showed openly the flame of his wickedness, so that they might not pass over into the ceremonies of idols by treachery, but shamelessly. And when he says: "Ephraim is filled in sleep throughout the entire night," he shows that heretics who are sleeping cannot see the light of the sun of righteousness. For those who sleep, sleep at night: because their senses are oppressed. And of them we read in the Psalms: "They slept their sleep, and found nothing" (Ps. LXXV, 6). Their hearts are heated by various disturbances: anger, love, avarice.

Although you might marry and in the face of the authority of all the Scriptures never commit adultery, why do you not with God's grace accept what is lawful? Instead you dare to offend God and commit what is unlawful. I would like to know whether those who have no wives, and neither fear nor blush to commit adultery before they are joined in wedlock, would want their spouses to be violated by adulterers before they come to marriage. Since there is no one who would patiently accept this, why does not each one observe toward his spouse the fidelity he wants observed by her? Why does one desire to take a virgin as his wife, when he himself is corrupted? Why does he wish to be united to a wife who is alive, when he is dead in soul because of adultery, according to what is written: "The soul that sins shall die"? Moreover, the apostle exclaims in terrible words, "God will judge the immoral and adulterers," and "Adulterers will not possess the kingdom of God." Furthermore, "They are all adulterers, their hearts like an oven."

Here God complains that though he had employed every means for reforming Israel, they still persisted in their iniquity, without fearing the consequences, Hos 7:1, Hos 7:2; that those who ought to check their crimes were pleased with them, Hos 7:3; and that they all burned with adultery, as an oven when fully heated, and ready to receive the kneaded dough, Hos 7:4. The fifth verse alludes to some recent enormities; the sixth charges them with dividing their time between inactivity and iniquity; the seventh alludes to their civil broils and conspiracies; (see Kg2 15:10, Kg2 15:14, Kg2 15:25); the eighth to their joining themselves with idolatrous nations; and the ninth describes the sad consequence. The tenth verse reproves their pride and open contempt of God's worship; the eleventh reproves their foolish conduct in applying for aid to their enemies; (see Kg2 15:19; Kg2 17:4); the twelfth and thirteenth threaten them with punishments; the fourteenth charges them with hypocrisy in their acts of humiliation; the fifteenth with ingratitude; and the image of the deceitful bow, in the sixteenth verse, is highly expressive of their frequent apostasies; and their hard speeches against God shall be visited upon them by their becoming a reproach in the land of their enemies.

REPROOF OF ISRAEL. (Hos. 7:1-16) Probably delivered in the interreign and civil war at Pekah's death; for Hos 7:7, "all their kings . . . fallen," refers to the murder of Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah. In Hos 7:8 the reference seems to be to Menahem's payment of tribute to Pul, in order to secure himself in the usurped throne, also to Pekah's league with Rezin of Syria, and to Hoshea's connection with Assyria during the interregnum at Pekah's death [MAURER]. I would have healed Israel--Israel's restoration of the two hundred thousand Jewish captives at God's command (Ch2 28:8-15) gave hope of Israel's reformation [HENDERSON]. Political, as well as moral, healing is meant. When I would have healed Israel in its calamitous state, then their iniquity was discovered to be so great as to preclude hope of recovery. Then he enumerates their wickedness: "The thief cometh in (indoors stealthily), and the troop of robbers spoileth without" (out-of-doors with open violence).

they have made ready--rather, "they make their heart approach," namely their king, in going to drink with him. like an oven--following out the image in Hos 7:4. As it conceals the lighted fire all night while the baker sleeps but in the morning burns as a flaming fire, so they brood mischief in their hearts while conscience is lulled asleep, and their wicked designs wait only for a fair occasion to break forth [HORSLEY]. Their heart is the oven, their baker the ringleader of the plot. In Hos 7:7 their plots appear, namely, the intestine disturbances and murders of one king after another, after Jeroboam II.

In the first strophe (Hos 7:1-7) the exposure of the moral depravity of Israel is continued. Hos 7:1. "When I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim, reveals itself, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they practise deceit; and the thief cometh, the troop of robbers plundereth without. Hos 7:2. And they say not in their heart, I should remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds have surrounded them, they have occurred before my face. Hos 7:3. They delight the king with their wickedness, and princes with their lies." As the dangerous nature of a wound is often first brought out by the attempt to heal it, so was the corruption of Israel only brought truly to light by the effort to stem it. The first hemistich of Hos 7:1 is not to be referred to the future, nor is the healing to be understood as signifying punishment, as Hitzig supposes; but the allusion is to the attempts made by God to put a stop to the corruption, partly by the preaching of repentance and the reproofs of the prophets, and partly by chastisements designed to promote reformation. The words contain no threatening of punishment, but a picture of the moral corruption that had become incurable. Here again Ephraim is not the particular tribe, but is synonymous with Israel, the people or kingdom of the ten tribes; and Samaria is especially mentioned in connection with it, as the capital and principal seat of the corruption of morals, just as Judah and Jerusalem are frequently classed together by the prophets. The lamentation concerning the incurability of the kingdom is followed by an explanatory notice of the sins and crimes that are openly committed. Sheqer, lying, i.e., deception both in word and deed towards God and man, theft and highway robbery and not fear of the vengeance of God. "Accedit ad haec facinora securitas eorum ineffabilis" (Marck). They do not consider that God will remember their evil deeds, and punish them; they are surrounded by them on all sides, and perform them without shame or fear before the face of God Himself. These sins delight both king and prince. To such a depth have even the rulers of the nation, who ought to practise justice and righteousness, fallen, that they not only fail to punish the sins, but take pleasure in their being committed.