Hosea 5:15 Kommentar

The scope of this chapter is the same with that of the foregoing chapter, to discover the sin both of Israel and Judah, and to denounce the judgments of God against them. I. They are called to hearken to the charge (Hos 5:1, Hos 5:8). II. They are accused of many sins, which are here aggravated. 1. Persecution (Hos 5:1, Hos 5:2). 2. Spiritual whoredom (Hos 5:3, Hos 5:4). 3. Pride (Hos 5:5). 4. Apostasy from God (Hos 5:7). 5. The tyranny of the princes, and the tameness of the people in submitting to it (Hos 5:10, Hos 5:11). III. They are threatened with God's displeasure for their sins; he knows all their wickedness (Hos 5:3) and makes known his wrath against them for it (Hos 5:9). 1. They shall fall in their iniquity (Hos 5:5). 2. God will forsake them (Hos 5:6). 3. Their portions shall be devoured (Hos 5:7). 4. God will rebuke them, and pour out his wrath upon them (Hos 5:9, Hos 5:10). 5. They shall be oppressed (Hos 5:11). 6. God will be as a moth to them in secret judgments (Hos 5:12) and as a lion in public judgments (Hos 5:14). IV. They are blamed for the wrong course they took under their afflictions (Hos 5:13). V. It is intimated that they shall at length take a right course (Hos 5:15). The more generally these things are expressed of so much the more general use they are for our learning, and particularly for our admonition.

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 5 The design of this chapter is to expose the sins of Israel and of Judah, and to declare the judgment of God upon them for them. Men of all ranks in Israel are summoned to attend to the charge brought against then, and the sentence on them, Hos 5:1. The charge exhibited is, that they were guilty of in, hating men to the slaughter of idolatrous sacrifices, though they had been sufficiently rebuked and corrected, Hos 5:1; of both corporeal and spiritual adultery, whereby they were defiled, and which was well known to the Lord, Hos 5:3; of obstinate persistence in impenitence, owing to the efficacy of an unclean spirit in them, and their want of the knowledge of God, Hos 5:4; of open pride, which stared them in the face, and for which they fell into calamities, and Judah with them, and should not be able with all their sacrifices to find favour with God, who had withdrawn himself from them, Hos 5:5; also of treacherous dealing with the Lord by their spiritual adultery, and begetting strange children, Hos 5:7; next their punishment is denounced, of which notice was to be given them by the sound of the trumpet, as an alarm of war, or as calling for mourning, Hos 5:8; since Ephraim would become desolate, of which notification had been made among the tribes, Hos 5:9; and wrath would be poured out in great abundance on the princes of Judah, who were very wicked men, Hos 5:10; and Ephraim would be oppressed and broken by the judgment of God, who would be as a moth unto them, and also rottenness to Judah, because they followed the commandments of men, Hos 5:11; and, what was still more provoking, when they were sensible of their calamities and distresses, they sought not help from the Lord, but from men that could do them no good; and therefore he threatens to be as a devouring lion to them, Hos 5:13; and yet the chapter concludes with a promise of the conversion of these people, after the Lord had dealt with them in an angry manner, Hos 5:15.

I will go and return to my place,.... Leave the countries of Israel and of Judah, where he had used to grant his gracious and spiritual presence unto his people, and watched over them, and cared for them, and bestowed many favours on them, and go up to heaven, the place of his more glorious presence, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi, interpret it; and there, as it were, shut himself up, particularly with respect to these people, as if he had no more thought of them, or concern for them: this is to be understood in a sense becoming and agreeable to the omnipresence of God: till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; till the Israelites acknowledge their idolatry, and the Jews their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah, and all other sins; till they ingenuously confess themselves to be guilty, or know and acknowledge they have sinned, as the Targum; and then humbly seek the face and favour of God, the remission of their sins from him, and acceptance with him: in their affliction they will seek me early; in the morning, betimes, early, and earnestly; which affliction may be understood both of the Assyrian and Babylonish captivity; or rather of their present affliction toward the close of it, when they shall be sensible of their sins, and confess them, and look to him whom they have pierced, and mourn, and seek for pardon, righteousness, and salvation, from him; and so all Israel shall be saved, of whose conversion this is a prophecy. Next: Hosea Chapter 6

"I will take and go, and I will take away and there is no one who can deliver: going I will return to my place until you fail and seek my face." LXX: "And I will snatch, and go and take away, and there will be no one who can deliver: I will go and return to my rightful place until they are destroyed and seek my face." It is asked, if God takes, and takes away, and holds, no one can take them from his hands, according to what is written: "No one can snatch them from the hand of my Father" (John X, 29) how was Judas snatched from the hand of God through betrayal? We will briefly answer this, that no one can snatch from the hand of God: however, he who is held, can by his own will fall away from the hand of God. And what follows: "Going, I shall return to my place," we ought to accept the place of God, his magnificence and majesty: so that he does not in any way descend to deal with men, become angry, show mercy, forget, become like a panther, turn into a lion, change into beasts: but may despise human things, and allow those whom he formerly protected to submit to their enemies, so that they may waste away, and fail, and die, and afterwards seek the face of the Lord and say: "Illuminate your face and we will be saved" (Ps. LXXIX, 4). "And: Show us, Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation" (Psalm 85:8). Even to heretics and the negligent Church, God turns into a panther and a lion; and He will reclaim the prey from those who had previously seized it from the Church, so that those who had been lost might be saved when they are captured. He will not dwell in the gathering of the wicked but will return to His place, as He said, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me" (John 14:1). He will reject and despise them until they are consumed by their impiousness and seek Him through penance, abandoned as they once were. Some think heaven is God's dwelling place; thus God, offended by those who dwell on earth, will return and make perish those who, through the enormity of their sins, have converted the most merciful Lord into a wild beast for themselves.

By “my place” we have to understand God’s place, his splendor and majesty, so that by no means according to the dispensation does he descend to men, become angry, merciful, forgetful, become as a panther, turn into a lion, change into beasts. On the contrary, he disdains human things and allows those whom he once protected to be cast to enemies so that they may languish, disappear and be destroyed, and seek eventually the face of the Lord.… Others consider God’s place the heaven where God returns after being offended by the inhabitants of the earth, and he allows to go to ruin those who, due to the multitude of their sins, turned the mercy of the Lord into the rage of beasts toward them.

It seems that the saying refers very suitably to the mystery of Christ and the redemption through him, pointing to the conversion to God. For the face of God we seek signifies most certainly the Son himself, “who is the image, and the radiance, and the very seal of the Father’s nature.” Thus the true face of God and Father is the Son, inasmuch as he is recognized in him: “And who saw him, saw the Father.” The psalmist thus calls him when he cries out to God of all, saying: “Cause your face to shine upon your servant.” Indeed, just as from the person of those who were already transformed according to the Son through the Spirit: “The light of your face, O Lord, has been marked upon us.” Or as the prophet says: “The light of our face, the anointed Lord.”

“They seek early” seems to indicate here that they, as if awakened from the sleep of thoughtlessness which was in them, and further as if brought from night and darkness to light and day, will call out to one another that it is fitting to return to the Lord. This is a return to the senses of those fallen into deception and those taken up by the worship of idols. For the fruit of vigilance is at present seeking to get out of the gloom which is demonic.

This chapter begins with threatening the Israelites for ensnaring the people to idolatry by their sacrifices and other rites on Mizpah and Tabor, Hos 5:1-5. Their sacrifices, however costly, are declared to be unacceptable, Hos 5:6; and their substance is devoted to the locust, Hos 5:7. Nor is judgment to stop here. The cities of Judah are called upon, in a very animated manner, to prepare for the approach of enemies. Benjamin is to be pursued; Ephraim is to be desolate; and all this is intimated to Israel, that they may by repentance avert the judgment, Hos 5:8, Hos 5:9. The following verses contain farther denunciations, Hos 5:10-13, expressed in terms equally terrible and sublime, Hos 5:14. The Lord afflicts not willingly the children of men; he visits them with temporal calamities that he may heal their spiritual malady, Hos 5:15.

I will go and return to my place - I will abandon them till they acknowledge their offenses. This had the wished-for effect, as we shall see in the following chapter; for they repented and turned to God, and he had mercy upon them. These two verses are considered as instances of the true sublime.

GOD'S JUDGMENTS ON THE PRIESTS, PEOPLE, AND PRINCES OF ISRAEL FOR THEIR SINS. (Hos 5:1-5) Judah, too, being guilty shall be punished; nor shall Assyria, whose aid they both sought, save them; judgments shall at last lead them to repentance. the king--probably Pekah; the contemporary of Ahaz, king of Judah, under whom idolatry was first carried so far in Judah as to call for the judgment of the joint Syrian and Israelite invasion, as also that of Assyria. judgment is towards you--that is, threatens you from God. ye have been a snare on Mizpah . . . net . . . upon Tabor--As hunters spread their net and snares on the hills, Mizpah and Tabor, so ye have snared the people into idolatry and made them your prey by injustice. As Mizpah and Tabor mean a "watch tower," and a "lofty place," a fit scene for hunters, playing on the words, the prophet implies, in the lofty place in which I have set you, whereas ye ought to have been the watchers of the people, guarding them from evil, ye have been as hunters entrapping them into it [JEROME]. These two places are specified, Mizpah in the east and Tabor in the west, to include the high places throughout the whole kingdom, in which Israel's rulers set up idolatrous altars.

return to my place--that is, withdraw My favor. till they acknowledge their offence--The Hebrew is, "till they suffer the penalty of their guilt." Probably "accepting the punishment of their guilt" (compare Zac 11:5) is included in the idea, as English Version translates. Compare Lev 26:40-41; Jer 29:12-13; Eze 6:9; Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31. seek my face--that is, seek My favor (Pro 29:26, Margin). in . . . affliction . . . seek me early--that is, diligently; rising up before dawn to seek Me (Psa 119:147; compare Psa 78:34). Next: Hosea Chapter 6