(2) The Internal Mhntle. — Whether Hose.i directly calls the internal political condition ' whoredom ' is not quite certain. lie does so name the external politics: making alliances abroad is 'hiring loves' (S"). And there was no reason why he should not have given the .same name to the internal politics, for • whoredom ' is less particular actions than a state of the mind, indifference to J". In 8* 'setting up kings' and making images are coupled togetlier, and perhaps called ' their two transgressions' (10'"). The term 'to be unfaitlifur (iJ3) appears used both of political and religious defection (6' (i". possibly 10" for 'stood'). The term ' adulterei-s ' (T-*) hardly refei-s to political immorality, but . I" complains of the i)eople that 'they have departed from him' and ' s))eak lies against him' (7'^), that they surround Him with lies and deceit (11'-), and mulliply lies and violence (11" 12' i:{i«). They are untrue to J" ; they make ami unmake kings, with no regard to Ilim or the i)rinciples of His religion : ' They have set up kings but not by me, princes and I knew it not' 8*); 'all their kings are fallen, there is none among them that calleth upon me' (7'). The ' pride ' (!''•''}) of Israel, i.e. his self-eonti- dence and indifference to J", teslilielh to his face (6" 7">).
The picture which the prophet draws of the internal condition of the kingdom in his day is a terrible one. .leroboam, who is supixised (■> have died r. 740-."), was succecdeil by his son Zeihariah, who, after a reign of six months, was as.sa.ssinnli'd by Shallnm. The mnnlerer was able to maiiilain him.self no more than a month, when he was attacked and slain in Samaria by Meiiahem. In all likelihood .Menahem would have shared tin' same fate at the hand of some other conspirator bill for the assistance of rul. kin:; of Assyri:i, to whom he p:ud lOUO talents of silver that his haml might bu with him to confirm the kingdom in his
r>i
HUSEA
IIUSEA
liand (2 K I5'»). As an Assyrian vassal (5'^ 7" H^ 12') .Menahem was able to maintain himself for some years against other factions, whicli probably sonuht the help of Efoi)t ("" 8'^i>^* 11'). L'nder the long anil successful reitfii of Jeroboam the counliy had ailvance<l greatly in material pro- sperity. There were ami)le resources in the lanil to nourish the various factions, and they struggled with one another with a fury which the prophet can compare to nothing but the raging heat of an oven, though the figure contains the darker trait of a long-sighted policy which supjjressed the lire till the time came to let it blaze out ("*-'). Society ai)peai-s completely dissolved : there is nothing but ' false swearing, and munler, and stealing, and com- mitting adultery,' and one deed of blood follows on the heels of another (4-). The prophet alludes to incidents which would be understood by his hearers, though they are obscure to us. We cannot identify that scene of revelry and possibly regicide which signalized 'the day of our king' (T'); nor tell why (iilead ((iilgal '.') is said to be ' tracked with blood ' (([8 pjii^ . ,),,]. \vhy it is .said that ' all their wicked- ness is in (jilgal ' (9'*) ; nor what is meant by ' transgressing the covenant,' nor what there refers to ((!") ; nor explain the allusiim, ' the company of priests murder in the way to Shechem ' (<!") ; nor what is meant when the rulers and priests arc cliarged with being ' a snare on .\Iiz]iah. and a net spread on Talxn-' {i>^). Tliese and other allusions, such as to 'the days of (libeah ' (IP 10"), are ob- scure, but they indicate that internal convulsions were breaking the nation to pieces (")>' 7' '■> 8*).*
When Ilo.sea as.sails ' king and princes,' he is scarcely condemning monarchy in principle as a form of govermnint incompatible with the idea of the theocracy. His judgment is practical and his- torical, not theoretical. As a matter of history, and particularly in the prophet's day, the mon- archy has failed to secure the peace and well-being of the people : ' Where now is thy king that he may save thee, and thy princes that they may deliver thee ? ' (l:j'*'). It has, on the contrary, been the constant source of faction and anarchy. It is the motives and methods of setting up and depos- ing dynasties that Hosea condemns, of which the revolution of Jehu is an example (l-*). It Is true that in his picture of the linal condition of Israel (-213-2! 14-) (i,g i;i„jj finds no place ; but this is due to his personification of the community, and his think- ing not of its form but of its mind. Following the Tarirum, some scholars interpret ' the days of (iibeah' (<J« 10'') of the election of Saul ; but though Saul belonged to Gibeah he was not made king there, but at Mizpah according to one tradition (1 S 10''«'), or at Gilgal according to another (1 S 1115). Hosea .speaks of the days of Gibeah as signalized by some crime, (lit'), though the story of Jg I'.tff. scarcely corresponds to his allusions. At any rate, his reprobation of ' king and princes ' mu.st not be read as merely a condemnation of the ' schism ' of the North ; his idea is nmch wider and more general. He is weary of Politics. His ideal is already that of the Church of God.