Осија 11:11 Коментар

In this chapter we have, I. The great goodness of God towards his people Israel, and the great things he had done for them (Hos 11:1, Hos 11:3, Hos 11:4). II. Their ungrateful conduct towards him, notwithstanding his favours towards them (Hos 11:2-4, Hos 11:7, Hos 11:12). III. Threatenings of wrath against them for their ingratitude and treachery (Hos 11:5, Hos 11:6). IV. Mercy remembered in the midst of wrath (Hos 11:8, Hos 11:9). V. Promises of what God would yet do for them (Hos 11:10, Hos 11:11). VI. An honourable character given of Judah (Hos 11:12).

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 11 This chapter gives an account of the free and ancient love of God to Israel, and of the benefits and blessings of goodness he bestowed upon them; and of their ingratitude in not owning them, nor hearkening to his prophets, but sacrificing and burning incense to idols, Hos 11:1; wherefore they are threatened with disappointment of relief from Egypt, with captivity into Assyria, and with the ravages of the sword in all places, being a people bent to backsliding, and incorrigible, Hos 11:5; and yet, notwithstanding all this, the bowels of the Lord yearn after them, and promises of mercy are made to them; that they shall not utterly be destroyed, but a remnant shall be spared; which in the latter day shall be called and follow after the Lord, the King Messiah, and be returned from their captivity, and be resettled in their own land, and replaced in their own houses, Hos 11:8; the chapter is concluded with an honourable character of Judah, Hos 11:12.

They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt,.... They shall come from thence with fear and trembling; which may allude to the trembling of birds at the roaring of a lion, or to the trembling motion of their wings in flying; and denotes the swiftness of the motion of the Israelites and Jews to Christ, and to his church and people, and to their own land, under divine influence and direction: or "shall come with honour" (k); with all readiness and cheerfulness, in the obedience of faith: and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; which is expressive of the same things, the dove being both a timorous and swift creature. Birds in common are very timorous, and tremble at any noise, and fearful of everything that disturbs them, and therefore make all the haste and speed they can to get out of the way, and to do which they are naturally provided; and more especially the dove is always represented as very fearful and trembling, especially when pursued by the hawk, as the poet (l) observes. Though, it may be, these figures may only signify, as the weak and impotent state of the Jews, considered in themselves at this time, so the quick speed and haste they shall make to their own land. And perhaps there may be something alluded to in the text, that may refer to the dove as peculiar to Assyria, as it should seem to be. Now it is said of Semiramis, an ancient queen of Assyria, that being exposed when an infant, was nourished by doves, and at her death was turned into one; and from hence it is not only said she had her name, which signifies a dove, in the Syriac tongue, but doves by the Syrians were worshipped as deities (m). And Derceto, a Syrian goddess, supposed to be her mother, having a temple at Askelon, perhaps the above story may be the reason why the inhabitants of that place reckoned doves so sacred that they did not kill them; for Philo (n), who lived there some time, having observed great numbers of them in the highways, and in every house, asked the reason of it; and he was answered, that the citizens were of old forbid the use of them: and it may be further observed, that, in honour of Semiramis, the kings of Assyria bore a dove in their coat of arms (o); but whether there is any thing peculiar or no in this reference is not certain: and, besides what has been observed of the fearfulness of this creature, and its swiftness and haste it makes in flying, it may also denote the characters of meekness, humility, and harmlessness, which the Jews, now converted, will have by the grace of God, as well as their mournful disposition. Egypt and Assyria are particularly mentioned, as they generally are where the return of Israel and Judah into their own land is prophesied of, Isa 11:11; and may signify the Turks, in whose possession these countries are, and among whom many Jews live: and the one lying to the south, and the other to the north of Judea, and the west being observed before, this shows that these people should be gathered from all parts of the world, where they are dispersed; the east is not mentioned, because their land they will be returned unto lies there; and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord; it is not said in towns and cities, and fortified places, but in houses, signifying that they should dwell in their own land, in a civil sense, securely, and in their habitations, under their vines and fig trees, being in no fear and danger of enemies, and live in the utmost safety, under the government and protection of the King Messiah; or, in a spiritual sense, they will be placed in the congregations of the saints in the churches of Christ, which will be as dove houses to them, and whither they shall fly as doves to their windows, Isa 60:8; and it is observed of doves, that they fly the swiftest when they make to their own houses: and at last, as all the people of God will, they will be placed in the mansions of glory, in Christ's Father's house, those everlasting habitations. These words, "saith the Lord", are added, for the certain and sure accomplishment of all this. The Targum of the whole is, "as a bird which comes openly, so shall they come who are carried captive into the land of Egypt; and as a dove that returns to its dove house, so shall they return who are carried into the land of Assyria; and I will return them in peace to their houses, and my word shall be their protection, saith the Lord.'' (k) "cum honore advenient", Schmidt. (l) "Sic ego, currebam, sic me ferus ille premebat, Ut fagere accipitrem penna trepidante columba, Ut solet accipiter trepidas urgere columbas". Ovid. Metamorph. l. 5. Fab. 10. (m) Diodor. Sicul. Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 92, 93, 107. (n) Apud Euseb. Evangel. Praepar. l. 8. p. 398. (o) Vid. Gregor. Posthuma, p. 235.

"After the Lord they shall walk: He shall roar like a lion: for He shall roar, and the children of the sea shall fear, and shall fly away like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of the Assyrians: and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord." LXX: "After the Lord I will walk; he will roar like a lion, because he will roar, and the sons of water will be afraid and fly like birds from Egypt, and like a dove from the land of the Assyrians, and I will place them in their houses, says the Lord." With the Lord promising success, the people will turn to Him: and they shall walk after the Lord, for the Lord shall roar like a lion. Of which also the prophet Amos recalls: 'The Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem He shall give His voice' (Amos 1:2). And He will roar when He says: 'I will make you like Sodom.' And when He roars, then the sons of the sea, or of the waters, will tremble, as the LXX translated. For the word Maim, which is written with three letters Mem, Yod, Mem: if it is read Maim, it means 'waters'; if Mejam, it is understood as 'from the sea.' The Hebrews refer these things to the coming of Christ, whom they hope will come. "We have now become convinced that from Egypt and Assyria, that is, from the East and the West, and from the North and the South, those who recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have come, and come daily (Matthew 8). However, we can call the sons of the sea or the waters those who have been caught in the Lord's dragnet and taken from the sea of this world (Matthew 13:47). And when they have been taken from death to life, they will be placed in their own houses, which the Gospel calls granaries, in which selected and separated wheat is stored." (Matthew 13) It is said that it is the nature of lions that when they roar and roar, all animals tremble, and they cannot move with fixed steps: such is the terror and so great the fear. And so, when the Lord roars like a lion, and thunders, and gives his voice, all the birds and all flying things will tremble: and they will go to their nests, that is, to their homes where the Lord will dwell with them. Let us also say this differently: When a true lion roars, the false lion, who is our adversary according to the Apostle Peter, will immediately be silent, and he will not be able to open his perverse mouth to any doctrine: and those who were previously captured by him, loosened by the roar of the lion and terrible threats, will follow their Lord God. Then the sons of the sea or waters will fear, who were born in bitterness and salty waters of heretics; and having taken wings, they will fly like birds from Egypt and like doves from Assyrian land, and will say: "Who will give me wings like doves, and I will fly and rest"(Ps. LIV, 7)? So those who had labored among the heretics may rest in the Church and dwell in their homes from which they were seduced by error. Egypt, that is, we know as "trouble" and "distress"; likewise, concerning Assyrians, we recognize as "leaders" or, as we think better, "accusers." Therefore, heretics will be freed from them when they start living in their own homes and say to their wicked parents, "Your house will be left empty to you" (Matt. 23).

This chapter gives a very pathetic representation of God's tender and affectionate regard for Israel, by metaphors chiefly borrowed from the conduct of mothers toward their tender offspring. From this, occasion is taken to reflect on their ungrateful return to the Divine goodness, and to denounce against them the judgments of the Almighty, Hos 11:1-7. But suddenly and unexpectedly the prospect changes. Beams of mercy break frown the clouds just now fraught with vengeance. God, to speak in the language of men, feels the relentings of a tender parent; his bowels yearn; his mercy triumphs; his rebellious child shall yet be pardoned. As the lion of the tribe of Judah, he will employ his power to save his people, he will call his children from the land of their captivity; and, as doves, they will fly to him, a faithful and a holy people, Hos 11:8-12.

They shall tremble as a bird - Those of them that are in Egypt shall also be called thence, and shall speed hither as a bird. Those in Assyria shall also be called to return, and they shall flee as doves to their windows. All shall, in the fullness of time, return to their own land. And, I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord - They shall have their temple once more, and all their holy ordinances.

(Hos 11:5 shows this prophecy was uttered after the league made with Egypt (Kg2 17:4)) Israel . . . called my son out of Egypt--BENGEL translates, "From the time that he (Israel) was in Egypt, I called him My son," which the parallelism proves. So Hos 12:9 and Hos 13:4 use "from . . . Egypt," for "from the time that thou didst sojourn in Egypt." Exo 4:22 also shows that Israel was called by God, "My son," from the time of his Egyptian sojourn (Isa 43:1). God is always said to have led or brought forth, not to have "called," Israel from Egypt. Mat 2:15, therefore, in quoting this prophecy (typically and primarily referring to Israel, antitypically and fully to Messiah), applies it to Jesus' sojourn in Egypt, not His return from it. Even from His infancy, partly spent in Egypt, God called Him His son. God included Messiah, and Israel for Messiah's sake, in one common love, and therefore in one common prophecy. Messiah's people and Himself are one, as the Head and the body. Isa 49:3 calls Him "Israel." The same general reason, danger of extinction, caused the infant Jesus, and Israel in its national infancy (compare Gen. 42:1-43:34; Gen 45:18; Gen 46:3-4; Eze 16:4-6; Jer 31:20) to sojourn in Egypt. So He, and His spiritual Israel, are already called "God's sons" while yet in the Egypt of the world.

tremble--flutter in haste. dove--no longer "a silly dove" (Hos 7:11), but as "doves flying to their windows" (Isa 60:8). in their houses-- (Eze 28:26). Literally, "upon," for the Orientals live almost as much upon their flat-roofed houses as in them.

The prophet goes back a third time (cf. Hos 10:1; Hos 9:10) to the early times of Israel, and shows how the people had repaid the Lord, for all the proofs of His love, with nothing but ingratitude and unfaithfulness; so that it would have merited utter destruction from off the earth, if God should not restrain His wrath for the sake of His unchangeable faithfulness, in order that, after severely chastening, He might gather together once more those that were rescued from among the heathen. Hos 11:1. "When Israel was young, then I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. Hos 11:2. Men called to them; so they went away from their countenance: they offer sacrifice to the Baals, and burn incense to the idols." Hos 11:1 rests upon Exo 4:22-23, where the Lord directs Moses to say to Pharaoh, "Israel is my first-born son; let my son go, that he may serve me." Israel was the son of Jehovah, by virtue of its election to be Jehovah's peculiar people (see at Exo 4:22). In this election lay the ground for the love which God showed to Israel, by bringing it out of Egypt, to give it the land of Canaan, promised to the fathers for its inheritance. The adoption of Israel as the son of Jehovah, which began with its deliverance out of the bondage of Egypt, and was completed in the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai, forms the first stage in the carrying out of the divine work of salvation, which was completed in the incarnation of the Son of God for the redemption of mankind from death and ruin. The development and guidance of Israel as the people of God all pointed to Christ; not, however, in any such sense as that the nation of Israel was to bring forth the son of God from within itself, but in this sense, that the relation which the Lord of heaven and earth established and sustained with that nation, was a preparation for the union of God with humanity, and paved the way for the incarnation of His Son, by the fact that Israel was trained to be a vessel of divine grace. All essential factors in the history of Israel point to this as their end, and thereby become types and material prophecies of the life of Him in whom the reconciliation of man to God was to be realized, and the union of God with the human race to be developed into a personal unity. It is in this sense that the second half of our verse is quoted in Mat 2:15 as a prophecy of Christ, not because the words of the prophet refer directly and immediately to Christ, but because the sojourn in Egypt, and return out of that land, had the same significance in relation to the development of the life of Jesus Christ, as it had to the nation of Israel. Just as Israel grew into a nation in Egypt, where it was out of the reach of Canaanitish ways, so was the child Jesus hidden in Egypt from the hostility of Herod. But Hos 11:2 is attached thus as an antithesis: this love of its God was repaid by Israel with base apostasy. קראוּ, they, viz., the prophets (cf. Hos 11:7; Kg2 17:13; Jer 7:25; Jer 25:4; Zac 1:4), called to them, called the Israelites to the Lord and to obedience to Him; but they (the Israelites) went away from their countenance, would not hearken to the prophets, or come to the Lord (Jer 2:31). The thought is strengthened by כּן, with the כּאשׁר of the protasis omitted (Ewald, 360, a): as the prophets called, so the Israelites drew back from them, and served idols. בּעלים as in Hos 2:15, and פּסלים as in Kg2 17:41 and Deu 7:5, Deu 7:25 (see at Exo 20:4).