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Hosea Chapter
Six
New King James Version (NKJV)
INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA 6
This
chapter gives an account of some who were truly penitent, and stirred up one
another to return to the Lord, encouraged by his power, grace, and goodness, Hosea 6:1; and of
others, who had only a form of religion, were very unstable in it; regarded
more the ceremonial law, and the external sacrifices of it, than the moral law;
either that part of it which respects the love of the neighbour, or that which
concerns the knowledge of God; and dealt treacherously with the Lord,
transgressing the covenant, Hosea 6:4;
particularly the city of Gilead is represented as full of the workers of
iniquity, and is charged with bloodshed, Hosea 6:8; yea,
even the priests were guilty of murder and lewdness, Hosea 6:9; and
Israel, or the ten tribes in general, are accused of whoredom, both corporeal
and spiritual, with which they were defiled, Hosea 6:10; nor was
Judah clear of these crimes, and therefore a reckoning day is set for them, Hosea 6:11.
Hosea 6:1 Come, and let
us return to the Lord;
For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
YLT 1`Come, and we turn back
unto Jehovah, For He hath torn, and He doth heal us, He doth smite, and He
bindeth us up.
Come, and let us return unto the Lord,.... The
Septuagint and Arabic versions connect these words with the last clause of the
preceding chapter, adding the word, "saying"; and so the Targum and
Syriac version, "they shall say"; and very rightly as to the sense;
for they are the words of those persons under the afflicting hand of God; and,
being brought thereby to a sense of their sins, acknowledge them, and seek to
the Lord for pardon, and encourage one another so to do; as Israel and Judah
will in the latter day, when the veil shall be taken off their minds, the
hardness of their heart removed, and they shall be converted, and turn to the
Lord, and seek him together, weeping as they go; having both faith in Christ,
and repentance towards God, by which they will return unto him; see 2 Corinthians 3:16;
so all sinners sensible of their departure from God by sin, and of the evil and
danger of it, repent of it, and loath it, confess and acknowledge it, depart
from it, and forsake it; and return to the Lord, having some view and
apprehension of him as a God, gracious and merciful in Christ; imploring the
forgiveness of their sins, with some degree of faith and confidence in him; and
not having only love to their own souls, and the welfare of them, but also to
the souls of others, exhort and encourage them to join with them in the same
acts of faith, repentance, and obedience. The Targum is,
"let
us return to the worship of the Lord;'
from
which they have sadly departed. The arguments or reasons follow,
for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he
will bind us up; the same hand that has torn will heal and that has smitten will
bind up, and none else can; and therefore there is a necessity of returning to
him for healing and a cure, Deuteronomy 32:39;
and his tearing is in order to heal, and his smiting in order to bind up; and,
as sure as he has done the one, he will do the other, and therefore there is
great encouragement to apply to him; all which the Jews will be sensible of in
the last day; and then the Lord, who is now tearing them in his wrath, and
smiting them in his sore displeasure, both in their civil and church state,
dispersing them among the nations, and has been so doing for many hundred
years, will "bind up the breach of his people, and heal the stroke of
their wound", Isaiah 30:26; and
so the Lord deals with all his people, who are truly and really converted by
him; he rends their heart, tears the caul of it; pricks and cuts them to the heart;
smites them with the hammer of his word; wounds their consciences with a sense
of sin; lets in the law into them, which works wrath, whereby they become
broken and contrite; and all this in order to their turning to him that smites
them, and be healed, and in love to their souls, though for the present
grievous to bear: and then the great Physician heals them by his stripes and
wounds; by the application of his blood; by means of his word, the Gospel of
peace and pardon; by a look to him, and a touch of him by faith; by discoveries
of his love, and particularly his pardoning grace and mercy, which as oil and
wine he pours into the wounds made by sin, and binds them up; and which he
heals universally, both with respect to persons and diseases, for which he is
applied unto, and infallibly, thoroughly, and perfectly, and all freely.
Hosea 6:2 2 After
two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, That we may
live in His sight.
YLT 2He doth revive us after two
days, In the third day He doth raise us up, And we live before Him.
After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise
us up,.... The Jews, in their present state, are as dead men, both in a
civil and spiritual sense, and their conversion and restoration will be as life
from the dead; they are like persons buried, and, when they are restored, they
will be raised out of their graves, both of sin and misery; see Romans 11:15; the
time of which is here fixed, after two days, and on the third; which Jarchi
interprets of the two temples that have been destroyed, and of the third temple
to be built, which the Jews expect, but in vain, and when they hope for good
times: Kimchi explains it of their three captivities, in Egypt, Babylon, and
the present one, and so Ben Melech, from which they hope to be raised, and live
comfortably; which sense is much better than the former: and with it may be
compared Vitringa'sF19Comment. in Isa. viii. 20. notion of the text,
that the first day was between Israel's coming out of Egypt and the Babylonish
captivity; the second day between that and the times of Antiochus, which was
the third night; then the third day followed, which is the times of the
Messiah: but the Targum comes nearer the truth, which paraphrases the words
thus,
"he
will quicken us in the days of consolation which are to come, and in the day of
the resurrection of the dead he will raise us up;'
where
by days of consolation are meant the days of the Messiah, with which the Jews
generally connect the resurrection of the dead; and if we understand them of
the last days of the Messiah, it is not much amiss; for the words respect the
quickening and raising up of the Jews in the latter day, the times of Christ's
spiritual coming and reign: and these two and three days may be expressive of a
long and short time, as interpreters differently explain them; of a long time,
as the third day is a long time for a man to lie dead, when there can be little
or no hope of his reviving, Luke 24:21; or of a
short time, for which two or three days is a common phrase; and both true in
this case: it is a long time Israel and Judah have been in captivity, and there
may seem little hope of their restoration; but it will be a short time with the
Lord, with whom a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand
years: and this I take to be the sense of the words, that after the second
Millennium, or the Lord's two days, and at the beginning of the third, will be
the time of their conversion and restoration, reckoning from the last
destruction of them by the Romans; for not till then were Israel and Judah wholly
in a state of death: many of Israel were mixed among those of Judah before the
Babylonish captivity, and many returned with them from it; but, when destroyed
by the Romans, there was an end of their civil and church state; which will
both be revived on a better foundation at this period of time: but if this
conjecture is not agreeable (for I only propose it as such), the sense may be
taken thus, that in a short time after the repentance of Israel, and their
conversion to the Lord, they will be brought into a very comfortable and happy
state and condition, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual;
and we shall live in his sight; comfortably, in a civil
sense, in their own land, and in the possession of all their privileges and
liberties; and in a spiritual sense, by faith on Jesus Christ, whom they shall
now embrace, and in the enjoyment of the Gospel and Gospel ordinances; and the
prophet represents the penitents and faithful among them as believing and
hoping for these things. This may be applied to the case of sensible sinners,
who, as they are in their natural state dead in sin, and dead in law, so they
see themselves to be such when awakened; and yet entertain a secret hope that
sooner or later they shall be revived and refreshed, and raised up to a more
comfortable state, and live in the presence of God, and the enjoyment of his
favour. The ancient fathers generally understood these words of Christ, who was
buried on the sixth day, lay in the grave the whole seventh day, and after
these two days, on the third, rose again from the dead; and to this passage the
apostle is thought to have respect, 1 Corinthians 15:3;
and also of the resurrection of his people in and with him, and by virtue of
his: and true it is that Christ rose from the dead on the third day, and all
his redeemed ones were quickened and raised up together with him as their head
and representative, Ephesians 2:5; and
his in virtue of his being quickened that they are regenerated and quickened,
and made alive, in a spiritual sense; he is the author of their spiritual life,
and their life itself; see 1 Peter 1:3; and
not only in virtue of his resurrection is their spiritual resurrection from the
death of sin to a life of grace, but even their corporeal resurrection at the
last day; and as, in consequence of their spiritual resurrection, they live in
the sight of God a life of grace and holiness by faith in Christ, and in a
comfortable view and enjoyment of the divine favour; so they shall live eternally
in the presence of God, where are fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore:
but the first sense is best, and most agreeable to the context and scope of it.
Hosea 6:3 3 Let
us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going
forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the
latter and former rain to the earth.
YLT 3And we know -- we pursue to
know Jehovah, As the dawn prepared is His going forth, And He cometh in as a
shower to us, As gathered rain -- sprinkling earth.'
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord,.... The word
"if" is not in the original text, and the passage is not conditional,
but absolute; for as persons, when converted, know Christ, and not before, when
he is revealed to them, and in them, as the only Saviour and Redeemer, so they
continue and increase in the knowledge of him; they earnestly desire to know
more of him, and eagerly pursue those means and methods by which they attain to
a greater degree of it; for so the words are, "and we shall know, we shall
follow on to know the Lord"F20ונדעה נרדפה לדעת את
יהוה "sciemusque, sequemur ad sciendum
Dominum", Montanus; "et cognoscemus, et persequemur ad cognoscendum
Jehovam", Zanchius; "sciemus persequemur", Liveleus. ; that
grace, which has given the first measure of spiritual and experimental
knowledge of him, will influence and engage them to seek after more. The Jews,
when they are quickened, and turn to the Lord, will know him, own and
acknowledge him, as the Messiah, the only Redeemer and Saviour; and will be so
delighted with the knowledge of him, that they will be desirous of, and seek
after, a larger measure of it; and indeed they shall all know him, from the
least to the greatest, when the covenant of grace shall be renewed with them,
manifested and applied to them. The words may be considered as a continuation
of their exhortation to one another from Hosea 6:1; thus,
"and let us acknowledge, let us follow on to know him"F21"Cognoscamus,
sive agnoscamus, et persequautur scientiam Dominis", Schmidt. ; let
us own him as the true Messiah, whom we and our fathers have rejected; and let
us make use of all means to gain more knowledge of him: or let us follow after
him, to serve and obey him, which is the practical knowledge of him; let us
imitate him, and follow him the Lamb of God, embrace his Gospel, and submit to
his ordinances. So Kimchi interprets it, "to know him"; that is, to
serve him; first know him, then serve him;
his going forth is prepared as the morning; that is, the
Lord's going forth, who is known, and followed after to be more known; and is
to be understood, not of his going forth in the council and covenant of grace
from everlasting; nor of his incarnation in time, or of his resurrection from
the dead; but of his spiritual coming in the latter day, with the brightness of
which he will destroy antichrist; or of his going forth in the ministration of
the Gospel, to the conversion of Jews and Gentiles, the light of which
dispensation will be very great; it will be like a morning after a long night
of darkness with the Jewish and Pagan nations; and be as grateful and
delightful, beautiful and cheerful, as the morning light; and move as swiftly
and irresistibly as that, and be alike growing and increasing: and so the words
are a reason of the increasing knowledge of the Lord's people in those times,
because he shall go forth in the ministration of the word like the morning
light, which increases more and more till noon; and of the evidence and
clearness of it, it being like a morning without clouds; with which agrees the
note of Joseph Kimchi,
"we
shall know him, and it will be as clear to us as the light of the morning
without clouds:'
and
also of the firmness and certainty of it; for both the increasing knowledge of
the saints, and the going forth of Christ in a spiritual manner, is
"firm" and "sure" (which may be the sense of the wordF23נכון "firmum certum notat", sic quidam in
Schmidt; "firmatus ac stabilitus", Tarnovius. ) as the morning; for,
as sure as the night cometh, so also the morning;
and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and
former rain unto the earth; in the land of Israel they had usually two
rains in a year; the one in autumn, or quickly after the seed was sown; the
other in the spring, when the corn was ripe, and harvest near, and which was
very reviving and refreshing to the earth, and the fruits of it; and such will
be the coming of Christ unto his people, in the ministration of the Gospel in
the latter day, which will drop as the rain, and distil as the dew, as the
small rain on the tender herb, and as showers upon the grass; and in the
discoveries of his favour and love to them, and in the distribution of the
blessings of his grace among them. Much the like phrases are used of the
spiritual coming of Christ in the latter day, Psalm 72:6. The
Targum is,
"and
we shall learn, and we shall follow on, to know the fear of the Lord, as the
morning light, which darts in its going out; and blessings will come to us as a
prevailing rain, and as the latter rain which waters the earth.'
Hosea 6:4 4 “O
Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness
is like a morning cloud, And like the early dew it goes away.
YLT 4What do I do to thee, O
Ephraim? What do I do to thee, O Judah? Your goodness [is] as a cloud of the
morning, And as dew rising early -- going.
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do
unto thee?.... Or, "for thee"F24לך
"in tuum commodum", Schmidt. ? The Lord having observed the effect
and consequence of his going and returning to his place, of his leaving his
people for a long time under afflictions and in distress; namely, their
thorough conversion to him in the latter day, and the blessings attending it;
returns to the then present times again, and to the state and condition in
which Ephraim and Judah, the ten and two tribes, were; and speaks as one at a
loss, and under difficulties, to know what to do with them and for them; how as
it were to give them up to ruin and destruction; and yet, having tried all ways
with them, and in vain, asks what further was to be done, or could be done, to
bring them to a sense of their sins, to reform them, and cause them to return
to him;
for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early
dew it goeth way; meaning not the goodness of God bestowed upon them, and the
mercy he showed to them; but the goodness that appeared in them, and all the
good things done by them, their repentance, reformation, holiness, and
righteousness; these, which were only in show, did not last long, came to
nothing, and disappeared; like a light cloud in the morning, which vanishes
away when the sun rises; or like the dew that falls in the night, which is
quickly dried up and gone, after the sun has been up a small time. Thus it was
with Ephraim, or the ten tribes, in the time of Jehu; there was a show of zeal
for religion, and a reformation from idolatry; but it did not go on, nor last
long; and with the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the times of Hezekiah
and Josiah, who did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord; but then the
Jews, in the times of their successors, returned to their former evil ways. And
so the best works, holiness and righteousness of men, can no more stand before
the justice of God, and the strict examination of it, than a thin light morning
cloud, or the small drops of dew, before the light, force, and heat of the sun;
nor do formal and carnal professors continue in these things; they may run well
for a while, and then drop their profession and religion, and turn from the
holy commandment. And this being the case, what can they expect from the Lord?
Hosea 6:5 5 Therefore
I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My
mouth; And your judgments are like light that goes forth.
YLT 5Therefore I have hewed by
prophets, I have slain them by sayings of My mouth, And My judgments to the light
goeth forth.
Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain
them by the words of my mouth,.... Sharply reproved them for their sins by
the prophets, who were as lapidaries that cut stone, or us hewers of timber
that cut off the knotty parts; so these by preaching the terrors of the law,
which is a killing letter, and by delivering out the threatenings of the Lord,
and denouncing his judgments upon them for their sins, cut them to the heart,
and killed them; for their foretelling and prophesying of their being slain,
ruined, and destroyed, was a slaying of them; see Jeremiah 1:10. The
Targum is,
"because
I admonished them by the message of my prophets, and they returned not, I will
bring upon them those that slay, because they have transgressed the word of my
will.'
But
the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and so Aben Ezra and Joseph
Kimchi, understand these words, not of hewing, and cutting, and slaying of the
people by the prophets, but of the cutting and slaying the prophets themselves,
and read the words, "therefore have I cut off the prophets, and slain them
&c.", either the false prophets, some of them that caused the people
to err, that they might not repent, as Aben Ezra; as the prophets of Baal in
the times of Elijah, and the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's time, who were
in the way of the people's repentance, reformation, and reception of Christ;
these he cut off, and their doctrine, and condemned by his own, and the
doctrine of his apostles, the words of the Lord's mouth; see Zechariah 11:8; and
this he did for the good of his people, in answer to the question put by
himself in Hosea 6:4; so
Schmidt interprets it: or else the true prophets of God, who were exposed to
death, to be cut off and slain, for the messages they were sent with: or those
messages were such as were killing to them to carry them, and deliver them; and
they were so constantly employed, early and late, in such service, that for the
work of the Lord they were often nigh unto death: but our version, and the
sense agreeable to it, scent best;
and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth; that is,
their judgments, the people's, a sudden change of person: meaning either the
statutes and judgments prescribed them by the Lord, and to be observed by them;
which were clear and plain as the light at noon day, and therefore could not
plead any excuse of ignorance of them, that they did not observe them: or the
judgments of God upon them for their sins; which were open and manifest to all,
and increasing like the light, more and more, and no more to be resisted than
that; and the righteousness of God in them was very conspicuous; his judgments
were manifest, and the justice of them. Some understand this of the judgments
or righteousnesses of the saints, both imputed and inherent, Romans 5:16; which
appear light and clear, the darkness of pharisaism being removed by Christ. The
Targum is,
"my
judgment goes forth as the light.'
Hosea 6:6 6 For
I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt
offerings.
YLT 6For kindness I desired, and
not sacrifice, And a knowledge of God above burnt-offerings.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,.... That is,
the one rather than the other, as the next clause explains it. Sacrifices were
of early use, even before the law of Moses; they were of divine appointment,
and were approved and accepted of by the Lord; they were types of Christ, and
led to him, and were continued unto his death; but in comparison of moral
duties, which respect love to God, and to our neighbour, the Lord did not will
them, desire them, and delight in them; or he had more regard for the former
than the latter; see 1 Samuel 15:22; nor
did he will or accept at all of the sacrifices ordered to the calves at Dan and
Bethel; nor others, when they were not such as the law required, or were not
offered up in the faith of Christ, attended with repentance for sin, and in
sincerity, and were brought as real expiatory sacrifices for sin, and
especially as now abrogated by the sacrifice of Christ. And as these words are
twice quoted by our Lord, at one time to justify his mercy, pity, and
compassion, to the souls of poor sinners, by conversing with them, Matthew 9:13; and
at another time to justify the disciples in an act of mercy to their bodies
when hungry, by plucking ears of corn on the sabbath day, Matthew 12:7;
"mercy" may here respect both acts of mercy shown by the Lord, and
acts of mercy done by men; both which the Lord wills, desires, and delights in:
he takes pleasure in showing mercy himself, as appears by his free and open
declarations of it; by the throne of grace and mercy he has set up; by the
encouragement he gives to souls to hope in his mercy; by the objects of it, the
chief of sinners; by the various ways he has taken to display it, in election,
in the covenant of grace, in the mission of Christ, in the pardon of sin by him,
and in regeneration; and by his opposing it to everything else, in the affair
of salvation. And he likewise has a very great regard to mercy as exercised by
men; as this is one of the weightier matters of the law, and may be put for the
whole of it, or however the second table of it, which is love to our
neighbours, and takes in all kind offices done to them; and especially designs
acts of liberality to necessitous persons; which are sacrifices God is well
pleased with, even more than with the ceremonious ones; these being such in
which men resemble him the merciful God, who is kind to the unthankful, and to
the evil;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings; which were
reckoned the greatest and most excellent sacrifices, the whole being the Lord's;
but knowledge of God is preferred to them; by which is meant, not the knowledge
of God, the light of nature, which men might have, and not him; nor by the law
of Moses, as a lawgiver, judge, and consuming fire; but a knowledge of him in
Christ, as the God and Father of Christ, as the God of all grace, gracious and
merciful in him; as a covenant God and Father in him, which is through the
Gospel by the Spirit, and is eternal life, John 17:3; this
includes in it faith and hope in God, love to him, fear of him and his
goodness, and the whole worship of him, both internal and external. These words
seem designed to expose and remove the false ground of trust and confidence in
sacrifices the people of Israel were prone unto; as we find they were in the
times of Isaiah, who was contemporary with Hoses; see Isaiah 1:12. The
Targum interprets them of those that exercise mercy, and do the law of the
Lord.
Hosea 6:7 7 “But
like men[a] they
transgressed the covenant; There they dealt treacherously with Me.
YLT 7And they, as Adam,
transgressed a covenant, There they dealt treacherously against me.
But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant,.... The false
prophets, as Aben Ezra, whom he threatened to cut off and slay, Hosea 6:5; or
rather Ephraim and Judah, whose goodness was so fickle and unstable; and who,
instead of doing acts of mercy, and seeking after the true knowledge of God and
his worship, which are preferable to all sacrifices, they transgressed the law
of God, which they promised at Mount Sinai to obey; the precepts of the moral
law, even of both tables, which concern both God and man; and also the ceremonial
law, by appointing priests to sacrifice who were not of the tribe of Levi, as
did Ephraim or the ten tribes under Jeroboam; and by offering sacrifices to
their calves, and by not observing the solemn feasts; and the precepts relating
to both these laws constitute the covenant made with the children of Israel at
Sinai, Exodus 24:3; which
they transgressed, either "like Adam"F25כאדם "sicut Adam", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus,
Tigurine version, Castilio, Grotius, Cocceius. the first man, as Jarchi; who
transgressed the covenant of works in paradise God made with him, and all
mankind in him: or like the men of old, the former generations, as the Targum;
meaning either the old inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites; or the men of
the old world at the time of the flood, who were a very wicked and abandoned
generation of men; or like men in common, depraved and degenerated, fickle and
inconstant, vain and deceitful, and not at all to be depended upon; especially
like the lower sort of men, the common people, who have no regard to their
word, covenant, and agreement; or particularly like such men that are given to
penury, and make no conscience of oaths and covenants ever so solemnly made:
or, as others read the words, "but they have transgressed the covenant
like man's"F26"Tanquam hominis, sub. pectum",
Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Zanchius. ; making no more account of it
than if it was a man's covenant;
there have they dealt treacherously against me; in the
covenant they entered into, by breaking it, not performing their promises; and
eve in the very sacrifices they offered, and were so fond of, and put their
confidence in; either by offering such sacrifices as were not legal, or by
offering them to idols, under a pretence of offering them to God, which was
dealing treacherously against him; and in all other acts of religion, in which
they would be thought to have regard to the covenant of God, his laws and
precepts, and to be very serious and devout, yet acted the hypocritical part,
were false and deceitful, and devoid of all sincerity: or there, in the
promised land, where the Lord had so largely bestowed his favours on them; so
Jarchi, Kimchi, and Abarbinel, agreeably to the Targum, which paraphrases it
thus,
"and
in the good land, which I gave unto them to do my will, they have dealt falsely
with my word.'
Hosea 6:8 8 Gilead
is a city of evildoers And defiled with blood.
YLT 8Gilead [is] a city of
workers of iniquity, Slippery from blood.
Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity,.... The chief
city in the land of Gilead, which lay beyond Jordan, inhabited by Gad and
Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh; and so belonged to the ten tribes,
whose sins are here particularly observed. It had its name from the country, or
the country from that, or both from the mountain of the same name. It is
thought to be Ramothgilead, a city of refuge, and put for all the cities of
refuge in those parts, which were inhabited by priests and Levites; and who
ought to have had knowledge of the laws, and instructed the people in them, and
observed them themselves, and set a good example to others; but, instead of
this, the whole course of their lives, was vicious; they made a trade of
sinning, did nothing else but work iniquity; and this was general among them,
the city or cities of them consisted of none else; and all manner of iniquity
was committed by them, particularly idolatry; for so the words may be rendered,
"a city of them that serve an idol"F1קרית
פעלי און "civitas
operantium idolum", V. L. ; not only at Dan and Bethel, but in the cities
of the priests, idols were set up and worshipped; this shows the state to be
very corrupt:
and is polluted with
blood; with the blood of murderers harboured there, who ought not to
have been admitted; or with the blood of such who were delivered up to the
avenger of blood, that ought to have been sheltered, and both for the sake of
money; or with the blood of children, sacrificed to Mo: the word used has the signification
of supplanting, lying in wait, and so is understood of a private, secret,
shedding of blood, in a deceitful and insidious way: hence some render it,
"cunning for blood"F2עקבה מדם "callida et astuta sanguine", so some in
Vatablus; "callida sanguine", Castslio. ; to which the Targum seems
to agree, calling it a city
"of
them that secretly or deceitfully shed innocent blood.'
It
has also the signification of the heel of a man's foot, and is by some
rendered, "trodden by blood"F3"Calcata a
sanguine", Piscator. ; that is, by bloody men: or "footed" or
"heeled by blood"F4"Vestigiata a sanguine",
Capellus, Tarnovius; "vestigis sanguinolentis", Juuius &
Tremellius. ; that is, such an abundance of it was shed, that a man could not
set his foot or his heel any where but in blood.
Hosea 6:9 9 As
bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, So the company of priests murder
on the way to Shechem; Surely they commit lewdness.
YLT 9And as bands do wait for a
man, A company of priests do murder -- the way to Shechem, For wickedness they
have done.
And as troops of robbers wait for a man,.... As a gang
of highwaymen or footpads lie in wait in a ditch, or under a hedge, or in a
cave of a rock or mountain, for a man they know will come by that way, who is
full of money, in order to rob him; or, as Saadiah interprets it, as fishermen
stand upon the banks of a river, and cast in their hooks to draw out the fish;
and to the same purpose is Jarchi's note from R. Meir:
so the company of priests
murder in the way by consent; not only encourage murderers, and commit
murders within the city, but go out in a body together upon the highway, and
there commit murders and robberies, and divide the spoil among them; all which
they did unanimously, and were well agreed, being brethren in iniquity, as well
as in office: or, "in the way of Shechem"F5שכמה "Sichemam versus", Gussetius, Schmidt;
approved by Reinbeck. De Accent. Heb. p. 442. "qua itur Sichem",
Tigurine version; "qua via ad Shechemum factum occidunt",
Junius & Tremellius; "quae ducit ad Sichermum", Piscator. So
Abendana. ; as good people passed by Gilead to Shechem, and so to Jerusalem, to
worship there at the solemn feasts, they lay in wait for them, and murdered
them; because they did not give into the idolatrous worship of the calves at
Dan and Bethel: or, "in the manner of Shechem"F6"Sicemice",
so some in Drusius. ; that is, they murdered men in a deceitful treacherous
manner, as the Shechemites were murdered by Simeon and Levi: Joseph Kimchi
interprets this of the princes and great men, so the word "cohanim"
is sometimes used; but the context seems to carry it to the priests:
for they commit lewdness; or "enormity";
the most enormous crimes, and that purposely, with deliberation devising and
contriving them.
Hosea 6:10 10 I
have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: There is the harlotry
of Ephraim; Israel is defiled.
YLT 10In the house of Israel I
have seen a horrible thing, There [is] the whoredom of Ephraim -- defiled is
Israel.
I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel,.... Idolatry,
the calves set up at Dan and Bethel, which God saw with abhorrence and
detestation; or the prophet saw it, and it made his hair stand on end as it
were, as the wordF7שערוריה a שער "pilus". signifies, that such wickedness
should be committed by a professing people:
there is the whoredom of Ephraim; in the house
of Israel is the whoredom of Jeroboam, who was of the tribe of Ephraim, and
caused Israel to sin, to go a whoring after idols; or the whoredom of the tribe
of Ephraim, which belonged to the house of Israel, and even of all the ten
tribes; both corporeal and spiritual whoredom, or idolatry, are here meant:
Israel is defiled; with whoredom of both kinds; it had spread
itself all over the ten tribes; they were all infected with it, and polluted by
it; see Hosea 5:3.
Hosea 6:11 11 Also,
O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you, When I return the captives of My
people.
YLT 11Also, O Judah, appointed is
a harvest to thee, In My turning back [to] the captivity of My people!
Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee,.... That is,
God hath set and appointed a time of wrath and vengeance for thee, which is
sometimes signified by a harvest, Revelation 14:15;
because thou hast been guilty of idolatry also, as well as Ephraim or the ten
tribes: or rather it may be rendered, "but, O Judah"F8גם "sed", V. L. Munster, Grotius. , he, that is,
God, hath set an harvest for thee; appointed a time of joy and gladness, as a
time of harvest is:
when I returned, or "return"F9בשובי "cum ego reduco", Calvin. ,
the captivity of my people; the people of Judah from
the Babylonish captivity; so that here is a prophecy both of their captivity,
and of their return from it: and it may be applied unto their return from their
spiritual captivity to sin, Satan, and the law, through the Gospel of Christ
and his apostles, first published in Judea, by means of which there was a large
harvest of souls gathered in, and was an occasion of great joy.
──《John Gill’s
Exposition of the Bible》
New King James
Version (NKJV)