호세아 5:7 주석

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into calamities, and Judah with them, and should not be able with all their sacrifices to find favour with God, who had withdrawn himself from them, Hos 5:5; also of treacherous dealing with the Lord by their spiritual adultery, and begetting strange children, Hos 5:7; next their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.

They have dealt treacherously against the Lord,.... Which was the reason of his departure from them; as a woman deals treacherously with her husband when she is unfaithful to him, and commits adultery; so Israel and Judah dealt treacherously with the Lord, who stood in the relation of a husband to them in covenant, by committing idolatry; for they have begotten strange children; either of strange women, the daughters of idolatrous Heathens they married, so the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi; or rather their natural children, though born of Israelitish or Jewish parents, both such; yet being educated by them in an idolatrous way, and brought up in the commission of the evils their parents were guilty of, are said to be strange children to the Lord, alienated from him and his worship, and as such to be begotten: now shall a month devour them with their portions; the Jews understand this literally of the month Ab, the time of Jerusalem's destruction, so Jarchi and R. Jeshuah in Aben Ezra and Ben Melech; or the month Tammuz, in which the city was broke up, and the month Ab, in which it was destroyed, as Kimchi; or rather, which is also a sense he mentions, it signifies a short time, a very little while before the destruction should come; and compares it with Zac 11:8; though, according to the Targum, it is to be understood of every month; and so denotes the continual desolation that should be made, until they were utterly destroyed; but others seem better to interpret it of their new moon, or first day of the month, which they observed in a religious way, by offering sacrifice, &c. and on which they depended; but this should be so far from being of any service to them, that it should turn against them; and, because of the idolatry committed in them, the Lord would hate them, and destroy them on account of them; even their farms, and fields, and vineyards, which were their portions and inheritances; see Isa 1:13; unless it is rather to be understood of the parts of the beasts slain in sacrifice on those days, to appease the Lord; which would be so far from doing it, that they would provoke him yet more to wrath, and slay them.

"In their flocks and herds they will go to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. They have transgressed against the Lord, for they have produced illegitimate children. Now the month and its parts will devour them." LXX: "When they go with sheep and calves seeking the Lord, but shall not find him, he hath withdrawn himself from them. Because they have forsaken the Lord, and have brought up strange children, their rust shall devour them and their portions." Not only Israel and Ephraim will go with flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but also Judah, of whom it is written above: "Judah will also fall with them," all having this struggle, that they may try to appease with sacrifices those whom they have offended with their transgressions; and they will not find whom they seek, because he also departed from those who were departing. Especially when elsewhere he says, "Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?" And again, "I will not accept a bull from your house, nor goats from your flocks" (Ps. 49:13 and 9). And in Isaiah: "I do not want the sacrifices of rams or the fat of lambs or the blood of goats and bulls" (Isaiah 1:11). For they have transgressed against the Lord; because fornicating with idols, they did not beget children to God, but to demons. Some think that this signifies what is said in Ezra much later (1 Esdras 10) when they took foreign wives, creating children with them, and later were compelled to repudiate them. But it is better to accept foreign children who were generated in idolatrous error or whom they consecrated to idols by leading them through fire. Because, therefore, they did this, shortly afterwards, not after infinite periods of years, and as I used to predict before, far from the future; but now and in the present, the Assyrian and Chaldean will come and devour them with their parts, that is, with the possessions that they received in the division of the land according to the measure of the rope. Because we said "he will devour them," the Seventy translated "rust" for "them"; yet indeed rust, that is, ἐρυσίβη, in Hebrew is called Hasil, as they also said in the Prophet Joel: "The remnants of a worm will eat rust," which is to say, Hasil. But the month is called Hodes; finally Aquila translated "neomenias," that is, "Kalendas"; Symmachus and Theodotion translated "month"; and the sense is, the enemy will come each month and devastate all things. We read the Books of Kings and Chronicles, and we find that under King Pekah, who reigned over ten tribes, Tiglath-pileser, the king of Assyria, came and took a great part of the people of Samaria to the Assyrians, at which time, according to the Greeks, it was the second year of the first Olympiad; and among the Latins (not yet founded Rome) Amulius was ruling in the twentieth year, whom later Romulus drove out of the kingdom. Heretics suspect that God is pleased with the multitude of sacrifices; and ecclesiastics, that by giving alms, they redeem sins, in which they remain: whereas every sacrifice except past sins, not present ones; thus, they do not find the Lord, Who removes Himself from such things, and retreats far away. These have truly ($"Al." however$) acted deceitfully against God, and have begotten children for the devil, not for Christ: therefore their works are cursed at all times, and all things that they do, the rusty color of blood lays waste, because they are closely related to blood and killing. But the rusty color is said in a proper sense to come down in the night dew, and to stain the lactating grains of wheat with the color of vermilion or red lead, and suitably in accordance with conversion, it devastates the clergy of heretics, of whom it is said, "Their clergy shall not " "profit them" (Jeremiah XII, 13, according to the LXX).

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.

Now shall a month devour them - In a month's time the king of Assyria shall be upon them, and oblige them to purchase their lives and liberties by a grievous tax of fifty shekels per head. This Menahem, king of Israel, gave to Pul, king of Assyria, Kg2 15:16-20. Instead of month, some translate the original locust. "The locusts shall devour them."

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.

treacherously--as to the marriage covenant (Jer 3:20). strange children--alluding to "children of whoredoms" (Hos 1:2; Hos 2:4). "Strange" or foreign implies that their idolatry was imported from abroad [HENDERSON]. Or rather, "regarded by God as strangers, not His," as being reared in idolatry. The case is desperate, when not only the existing, but also the rising, generation is reared in apostasy. a month--a very brief space of time shall elapse, and then punishment shall overtake them (Zac 11:8). The allusion seems to be to money loans, which were by the month, not as with us by the year. You cannot put it off; the time of your destruction is immediately and suddenly coming on you; just as the debtor must meet the creditor's demand at the expiration of the month. The prediction is of the invasion of Tiglath-pileser, who carried away Reuben, Gad, Naphtali, and the half tribe of Manasseh. portions--that is, possessions. Their resources and garrisons will not avail to save them. HENDERSON explains from Isa 57:6, "portions" as their idols; the context favors this, "the Lord" the true "portion of His people" (Deu 32:9), being in antithesis to "their portions," the idols.