The minor prophets : with notes, critical, explanatory, and practical, designed for both pastors and people

Front matter

THE

MINOR PROPHETS;

WITQ

Chapter II

Ik this chapter, the Lord exposes and rebukes the sins of his people, and threatens retribution, vs. 1-13 ; then turns to promises of effective discipline and of restoring mercy, vs. 1-1-23.

It is noticealile that throughout this chapter, the adulterous mother, Israel, is spoken of in the third person, and the Lord declares what he will do to her in judgment and for her in mercy. Remarkably, and as if to give a more impressive sense of her horrible guilt, her children are introduced — are apprised of the unnatural crime of their mother, and are exhorted to plead with her to put away her sins. What a family scene must bo the reality presented in this symbol— the children appealing to their mother to desist frcfin her adulterous life, and to put an end at once .to all its indi- 1*

IQ nOSEA.— CHAP. II.

cations ! It is manifestly tbe purpose of God, in this message by Ilosea, to paint a life-scene of the crimes of bis covenant people ni their relations to himself.

1. Say imto your bretlireii, Amrni ; and to your

sisters, lluliamali.

Sav 'to your brethren, Amrni ; to yonr sisters, raihamah. Drop the negative particle from the names, Lo-Ammi, Lo-Paiharaah ; sonnd tbe sweet words, " my people ;" " the pitied and beloved"— as if to suggest that the heart of the Lord still yeirns to make tliem again h?s own, and to give tbe freest flow to his great and deep

compassions. Tbe persons exhorted to do tbis may be supposed

to be the few yet found faithful among the m.any faithless. Tbe Lord calls on them for one more effort to reclaim the nation.

2. Plead with your raotlier, plead ; for she is not my wife, neither am 1 her husband : let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts ;

3. Lest 1 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 dry land, and slay her with thirst.

" Plead with your mother," ye children of shame ; go and tcU her YOU cannot bear tbe disgrace and pain of her unnatural crime ; tell iit-r tbat ber God disowns her as a wife, and puts her away for

lier lewd idolatry. Such is tbis strain of fiery rebuke. The last

clause refers to' tbe incitements to lewdness common with bad women. " Out of her sight," shoiiM read, " from her face," corresponding to "from her breasts " in tbe parallel member of tbe sentence. The original has the same form of expression in each ease. Tbe face and tbe bosom are alike used for incitement to lewd pa>;sion ; — paint, ornament, and lascivious expression in the one ; exposure of person in tlio other. In tbe spiritual application, (Jod frowns ui)on and would put away every form of inducement to idolatry in Israel; every thing tbat in any age naturally tempta hi:;! people to sin.

4. And 1 will not havo mercy upon her children ; for they be the children of whoredoms.

Closely following out tlio symbol, the Lord appeals to the heart of the motber, as if lie wouM say: Tliough you have lost all setisil)ility to your own welfare, yet tbijik of your children. I will not Ii.ive mercy on them; your unnatural crime comes down on them with perpetual curses. Can a mother's heart resist such an appeal? .5. For their mother hath played the harlot : she that conceived them hath done shamefully : for she said. I nOSEA.— CHAP. II. 11

will go after mj lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

The adulterous motlier is liere seen, going after licr infixmous paramours — as one who Ikes on the wages of her shameless crime. This is turning over and over the leading symbol, to put in still new light the shameful sins of the chosen people against their God, and to show why he ought to and must visit them with terrible retribution. The fifth and sixth verses stand related as cause and

result: '•'■Because their mother hath committed lewdness," " therefore will I hedge up her way," &c.

6. Therefore, behold, I will hedge np thy way with thorns, and make a wail, that she shall not find her paths.

7. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not 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 ; for then loas it better with me than now.

God will trouble her in every way ; she shall follow hard (so the original) after her lovers for help, but in vain, till affliction and want bring her back to reason and to her foi'saken God.

8. For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, loJdch they prepared for Baal,

9. 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.

Ys. 8 and 9 are correlated thus : " Because she did not know," &c.,

" therefore will I take away," &c. " Did not know that /gave her "

all, where the original makes the pronoun / emphatic. God mid-

tiplied to Israel silver and gold, which they wrought into images of Baal. This is one point of aggravation in all sin. Men take the gifts of God and pervert tliem into means of sinning the more against him; work them into idols to worship instead of Jehovah

Baal was one of the most ancient of the gods worshipped in

the East. lie is supposed by many to represent the sun ; by others, the planet Jupiter, as the almoner of good fortune. He was worshipped by the people of Phoenicia and Tyre, and from them, at a very early age, and in the reign of Ahab especially, his worship pasocd over to the Jews.

10. j^Jid now will I discover her lewdness in the

12 EOSEA.— CHAP. II.

siglit of licr lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

" Discover," in the sense of expose her nakedness before her lovers — terribly significant of the fearful judgments God knows how to send on his apostate people !

11. I will also canse all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

Thcie were seasons of special joy to the Hebrew people, an^ stand here to represent aZ^ joy.

12. And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, 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.

The lieathen regarded their idol gods as the givers of their vines and fig-trees. Israel says the same thing. Those idol gods are hei lovers, to whom, in her spiritutd adultery, she gives her heart and her confidence.

13. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her ear-rings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord.

This strain of rchnke and threatening culminates with, the general declaration — " I will visit upon her for tlie gnilt of her days of J3aal worship." " Baalim," in the ])lural, refers to the numerous images of Baal, or as others hold plausibly, to the diverse modes of his jnauifestation. " Decking herself with ear-rings and jewels, and going after her lovers," carries out the symbol — a harlot, jilyiiig all tiio shameless arts of a common prostitute.

14. Tlierefore, behold, I will alliwe her, and bring

lier into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto

licr.

This verse is, for the chapter, the transition point between rebuke and threatened retril)ution for the sins of idol worship on the one hand, and promises of effective discipline and of restoring

mercy on tlie other. '^ L'c/tol</" calls special attention to the

great things (lod now proposes to do. " Thfrrforc.,'''' reminds us

to a.sk ■!/■//// .' "What is tlie reason for the promises of good that follow? Some have found a ditliculty here, inasmuch as the grievous sins of I.-rnel seem to be no natural reason for giving the blessings licreafter promised. Hut tiie reason.^ viewed fundamentally, lie deeper than the sins of Israel, even in God's covenant lovo nOSEA.— CHAP. II. 13

and faithfulness. He cannot bear that his own Israel should sink hopelessly under her sins into ruin. Therefore his pity moves him

to discipline and to mercy. " Will allure her " — in a good sense ;

persuade her, draw her by the sweet attractions of love.

This " bringing her into the wilderness," Dr. Henderson, following his pi-inciples of literal interpretation, finds fulfilled in God's taking the whole Hebrew people into captivity to Babylon and Assyria. Apparently he fails to notice that they were driven not drawn thither, and also that neither Babylon nor Assyi-ia are

known in Scripture as " the wilderness." Dismissing, therefore,

this literal view of the language, I prefer to assume an historical allusion to the exodus from Egypt. God means — " I will do to Israel again what I did when I took them by the hand and led them out of the house of bondage, and out of the land of idol gods, into the wilderness, and there spake to them face to face" — spake most effectively " to their Tieart^ as the last clause reads in the original. AVe may fitly recall the fact that this wilderness-life was to the Hebr'-iw people a great and most efi'ective theatre of moral discipline. No generation in all their history was so true to God or so much beloved of him as that which had its training in the wilderness, and went in under Joshua to the land of Canaan. God here

promises to do a like thing to his covenant peoi:)le again. With

allusion probably to this passage, yet amplifying it, Ezekiel (20 : 35, 36) says: " And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord." This confirms the idea of an historical allusion to the scenes of the exodus.

15. And I will give lier lier vineyards from thence, and tlie valley of Achor for a door of hope : and she shall slug there, as in the days of her yonth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

" From thence " — from such a scene of moral discipline, God will give her her vineyards — Avith historical reference to the grapes of Eshcol, which ancient Israel found on entering Canaan, Blessings come after, and out of, efficient moral discipline. " The

valley of Achor " is still another historical allusion. The word Acliov means by its etymology, troulde: in history it was the place of trouble to Achan. See Josh. 7 : 24^26. So the troubles of

Israel shall be her " door of hope." -''And she shall sing-there "

— with declared reference to the joy of the Hebrews when, led by Moses and Miriam, they sang songs of deliverance on the hither

side of the Ked Sea. So joy comes from sanctified sorrow.

Moral discipline that really turns the heart from sin to God, is everujore a well-spring of blessings.

IG. And it shall be at that day, saith the Lokd, that

14: HOSEA.— CHAP. II.

thou sLalt call me Islii ; and slialt call me no more Baali.

17. For I will take away tlie names of Baalim out of licr moiitli, and tliey shall no more be remembered by their name.

The true and full sense of these verses is seen in the fact tbat "/sA!?'," my man, and " Baali^'' my lord, were both sometimes used to mean my husband. But the word Baal had become so dangerously associated with idol worship that Jehovah forbade the use of it, even to express an innocent relation. So there is sound Avisdom in forestalling all those temptations whicli steal upon us under the laws of mental association. God would take away from us evci-y thing that may work, through the power of those laws of thought, to beguile us into sin.

18, And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and v:ith the creeping things of the ground : and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safelv.

This covenant wliich God makes with the lower animals, debars tliein from harming Jiis peoj)le. I find here an allusion to vs. 12, wlierc God gives the beasts of the field license to devour the vines and fig-treos of his sinning people. This covenant recalls that license, and even lays tliem under bond to spare to God's penitent peoi)le the fruits of the earth. Sense : God's providence becomes their shield and refuge.

10. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever ; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in jiulgmcnt, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.

20. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfidness : and tliou shalt know the Lord.

This lictrothal apsnmes that her long-persistent adulteries had ended in divorce. Now tlie marriage covenant is renewed — renewed '^'j'orcrcr ; " renewed "in righteousness, in judgment, in loving-kindness, and in great mercy; " where the reiteration is intended to lieigliten the sense of (iod's great love in this transaction. IleniarkiiSIy, it ctdininates in/ail/i/nhiesn ; as if to say, Tliis covenant

must stanil, and bo l^roken no more. "Thou shalt know tlic

Lord," is one of the most expressive ])hrases possible to human language, implying to know (iod in all the great elements of his diaractor, and in all the experiences of his spiritual power; to know Willi a knowledge othor and better far than theory; to know with the heart brouglit fully under the power of Jehovidi's presence and love.

nOSEA.— CHAP. II. 15

21. And it shall come to pass in that clay, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth ;

22. And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, an,d the oil ; and they shall hear Jezreel.

This extraordinary passage means, comprehensively, tliat God will hear the prayer of liis people for the earthly good they may need and shall ask of him. The manner of saying this gives us wh-at we may call a circle of prayer. "Hearing," means hearing and answering iliQ refiUests made. "Jezreel" stands here for the people Avhom God plants in the land. Hence, the form of the thought is : This people call for corn and Avine and oil, and in a sense cry unto tliese things, and are heard and answered : the corn and wine cry to the earth ; the earth to the heavens ; and the heavens to God. God hears the heavens ; the heavens hear the earth ; the earth hears the corn, and the corn hears the people Avhom God plants in the land. The agencies of providence that lie between God and his praying people, which must be all put in operation in order to give them corn and wine, are beautifully put into the links of this chain of prayer.

23. And I will sow her unto me in the earth ; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy ; and I will say to them which were not my people. Thou art my people ; and they shall say. Thou art my God.

" I will sow her unto me," still keeps up the sense of the word '"Jezreel." " Unto to<?," shows that this planting of God's people shall be for himself and not for another ; no mt)re for Baal. " In the earth," might have been as well expressed by "in the land," the allusion being to the fact that of old God had given to his people a land, specially their own by covenant promise. ^I will now

and onward have mercy on her who was rejected from my mercy, bearing the name Z(^-Pvuhamah : I will say to Lo-Ammi, Thou art Ammi— beautifully expunging the negative; and he [my people]

shall say, My God ! This -is the concise, yet strongly expressive

form of the original.

Thus closes this richly instructive passage. Its whole stram is one glorious testimony that our God, in the midst of wrath, remembers mercy.

16 nOSEA.— CHAP. III.

Chapter III

Tnis shoi-t chapter embraces one theme only — tlie prophet's rehition to a wife— adduced as the occasion of a remarkable prophecy of the future of the Jewish people.

1. Then said the Lokd unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of /i^r friend, vet an adulteress, according to the love of the Loed toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

A question. arises here, rather curious than vital to the ceneral sense of the chapter — whether this woman was or was not Goraer,

the wife brought to our knowledge in the first chapter. On the

supposition that she was the same, it seems somewhnt remarkable that the statements are so indefinite, with no clear allusions to the Gomer before introduced; yet, despite of this difliculty, the evidence preponderates in tavor of their identity. The 'Lord here says, " Go, loce," not talce a Avoman ; the latter being the usual formula for entering the first time into the marriage relation. lie says simply "a woman," not "thy wife;" indicating a state of separation and serai-divorce, such as would naturally result fi-oni tiio losvduess of Gomer. She is further described as "beloved of a frierul,'" as the original has it (not "-her " friend), a sort of freelove relationship, and yet an adulteress ; and, of course, not living witlithis friend in lawful wedlock. A further point in the descrip'^ tion is, that this case corresponds to the love of the Lord toward tlie children of Israel, who look (in the Ileb. turn) to otiier gods. Inasmuch as tliis is part of the description of this Avoman, it should bo allowed tlic more weight in identifying her. Its whole force goes to show tliat she was Comer, since it was the same Israel with wliom the Lord had been in covenant, to whom he now returns in liis «rrrat loviug-kindness. And tliis is the very point inade in tliis chapter. This main feature, therefore, forbids ns to

think here of any other woman than Comer, Our translation

renders the last word of this verse, "flagons of wine." Modern scliolars agree in rendering the Hebrew word grapr-cnJccs ; i.e. grai)es <lried and pressed into the form of cakes. They were customarily ollered in the worshi]) of idols, and tlien eaten by the worshii)pcrs. Another instance of the general policy of makiii" |dol-worsbip every way attractive to the senses and animal appetites.

2. So I bought her to me for fifteen ^>«Ws of s^ilvcj-,

aiidybr an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley.

It was common among the Jews, indeed it is in all the East, to

HOSEA.— CHAP. III. 17

this day, to buy o. wife. Whetlier the price named here was the standard one is of no special importance; if it were, our means of fixing the vahie of a "piece of silver" are very imperfect. Tho

amount of barley was about fourteen bushels. This buying does

not necessarily forbid the supposition that she had been his wife before. It does imply that she had forfeited that relation, and could properly return only as one justly divo ced. To show this seems to be the chief or sole intent in this second verse.

3. And I said unto her, Tlioii slialt abide for me many days ; thou shalt not play tlie harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man : so will I also ie for thee.

The prophet implores her to desist from her former crimes. Probably the true sense of the verse is better given by omitting the word " anMher,'''' which has nothing to correspond to it in the Hebrew. " Thou shalt not ho, for man " — any man ; — the special point being to represent a state of Israel described in the next verse as without any worship of either the true God or idols.

4. For the childi-en of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacriiice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and loitliout teraphira :

5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Loed then* God, and David their king ; and shall fear the Loed and his goodness in the latter days.

Here is an exceedingly interesting prophecy, to the effect that the chOdren of Israel sluill remain a long time without king or prince, without sacrifice, images, or any insignia of worship, whether true or ftilse, requii-ed or forbidden. Images and terapliim (household gods) must be put in the latter class. The ephod was

tne outer robe of the high priest. Cured of idolatry, yet not

converted to the worship of the true God, they were to remain long in this peculiar, extraordinary state. ■Considering how strong their national passion has been to have a king and some establishe<l ceremonials of worship, either divine or idolatrous, tliis prophecy is surely such as no human sagacity could or would have made. Yet, ever since their own Messiah came in the flesh, or, more definitely, since the fall of their city under the Roman arms (a. d. TO), this

has been precisely their condition. "Afterwards" — somewhere

in the times yet future — " they sliall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king." Hosea is not alone in giving to David's greater Son the name David. Jeremiah (30 : 9) says — "Tliey shall serve the Lord tlieir God and I)avid their king, whom 1 will raise up to them." Ezekiel likewise (34:23, 24, and 37:24, 25). David, considered as khig, was a special type of the Messiah, so that the transfer of his name to the latter is natural. To " feai*

X8 nosEA.— CHAT. m.

the Lord " is the current phrase of the Old Testament for real piety — naturally so under a dispensation of " law as a schoolmaster." In this passage, the Hebrew verb which means, primarily, to fear, is followed by a preposition, meaning toirard or vnto, showing that this fear does not repel away from God, but ratlier draws toward him. The precise sense seems to be — to draw near to God in reverential fear and trust. This view is confirmed by the addition of

the word goodness^ which cannot be a thing for Christians to fear, in the usual sense of this word. On the contrary, it draws them

very near to his feet in the spirit of filial confidence and hope.

In this s])irit the children of Israel sliall seek and approach the Lord " in the latter days." The time here designated can be no other in this case than the Gospel age. The phrase, " latter days," almost

invariably has this sense. ITie phrase, " the children of Israel,"

can have no special reference here to the ten tribes, but rather comprises all the Hebrew people, without distinction between Israel and Judah.— The ultimate conversion of the Jews is, therefore, distinctly foretold in this passage. It must come to pass in the latter days. It has not been yet, and therefore waits its fulfilment in the future.

It may be asked — "Why interpret chapter iii. throughout, of the lineal Hebrew race, and not chapter i. likewise?

Ans. (1.) Chapter iii. bears this interpretation — has received, and is yet receiving a most striking fulfilment on this principle. Not tlifs, but its oi)posite, is true of chapter i. It cannot be interpreted tliroughout of the lineal children of Israel. The facts of history forbid it.

(2.) Chajiter iii. demands this construction. The entire scope of tlie chapter, so fur as it is prediction, gives us precisely the anomalous condition of tlie Hebrew race, from the fidl of Jerusalem down to their ultimate conversion; nothing more, nothing

else. On the contrary, in cha])ter i. there is no close connection

of thought, holding tlie interj)reter to the people of the ten tril)es, or even to tlie lineal Hebrews. The last two verses may be applied without violence to a new and otlier Israel.

(3.) In general, the construction given to chapter i. : 10, 11 is Justified, on its own projjcr grounds, to be determined in view of what it is, and of its relations to history and to the doctrine of the New Testament. So of the construction given above to chapter iii.

It must be interpreted in view of what it is. Such I hold to be

tJio true theory of interpreting all prophecy.

nosEA.— CHAP. rv. 19