The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 10

can ec11rooly understand it of o. vision; for children by her, not take such a wife anri thoro ie no mention of or reference to rmy- such children alreo.dy bnrn to her. This thing· of tho.t kincl in the poeeoge, nor cloee tho view is favoured by the Vulgnte, 8U11M tibi context oountonance the notion of a vision, inorem f<Yrnicati<Ynwm et Jae tibi filios j<Yrni- Keil regnrds it ne euoh when he epeo.ke of it cationum; though Keil maintains that oe "nn inward ond spiritual intuition in Hosea. was to take children of prostitntinn which tho wor,l of God was nddreseecl " to as well as a wife who ho.d lived by prostitu- the prophot. Wo aro, thereforo, ehut up to tion. J'or the land bath committed great tbot intorprototion which explains the whole whoredom, departing from. the Lord. Thi• ne on ollogorico.l or imo.gino.ry no.rro.tive, is more exactly rendered, JM the land ha/Ji wbich ie thus construoted in order to impart 11Uerly gone a-whoring from aftn (that is, greater vividness to the prophet's cleclaro.tion. from following) the Lord. From this we The Chaldee po.rnphruse unclereto.nds it in learn the symbolic import of the command, thie eenee. " Go," enye the po.raphrost, in whatever way that command is inter "declare a prophecy ago.inst the inhnbito.nte pretecl, whether as a reality, or vision, or of the idolatrous city, who persist in sin." allegory. The prophet's mo.rrio.:;:e to an un- Jerome also explains it o.llegorico.lly, and faithful wife sets forth J ehovah's mo.rria:se urge~ ago.inst the litero.l sense that po.ssago to an unfo.ithfnl nation. Goel often concle- in Ezek. iv, 4-6, where the prophet ie com- scends-gro.ciously condescends-to repre- mamj.ed by God to bao.r the iniquity of t110 sent his relation to his people e.s a marriage house. of Israel, and to lie upon his left covenant; while unfaithfulness on their aide three hundred and ninety days-a part is spiritual adultery. The mother and thing impossible according to the liternl the children may represent the country and understanding of the injunction; he accord- its inhabitants, or the nation as a whole ingly concludes, in reference to the po.rticn- and its several members, or generally the le.rs ·here commanded, that "so.cramento. people and their posterity in succeeding indicant futurorum." Calvin rightly under- genern.tions. The father of the Hebrew race stands it in the sense of o. po.rabolio repre- had served other gods on the other side or sentation as follows: "'The Lord ho.d bidden the flood, that is, in Ur, in the land of the him (the prophet) to relote this parable, so Chaldees, whence God had calle,l Abra- to speak, or this similitude, that the people ham. When ta.ken iuto covenont relation- might see, as in a living portroiture, their ship, how often had they fallen into the turpitude and perfidiousness. It is, in short, former sin of idolatry I The fearful conse- an exhibition in. which th!' thing itself is quences of their sin is graphically poi·- not only set forth in words, but is al.so placed, trayed in the verses immediately following:, as it were, before their eyes in a \ isible symbolized in the names of the prophet's form.'' Kimchi considers it to be a pro- children. They e.re-national rnin, the loss phetic vision; while some of the older of the Di vine fa vonr, and the forfeiture of Hebrew interpreters viewed it in the light their proud position o.s tbe chosen people of of an :ictuo.l transaction. Kimchi'B words Jehovah. are: "And the whole took place in the Ver. 3.-So he went and took Gomer the vision of prophecy, not that Hoseo. the daughter of Diblaim ; which conoeived, and prophet ho.cl to.ken to himself o. wife of bare him a son. Kimchi conjectUJ'es thot whoredoms; although it is found in the "Gomer was the no.me of e. ho.rlot well words of our ro.bbius that the meaning is known at thnt time ; " he also explo.ins the according to tho literal significo.tion of the no.me, accorcling to his view of its symbolic Wurds." lly '',. wifo of wboredoms" \'le under- import, as follows : " Gomer has the meaning stand o. wom&.u addicted to whoredome, and of• completion;' o.s if the prophet so.id, He thus likely to prove on unraithful wife, as" e. will fully execute on them the punishment woman of quarrels" is a quarrelsome woman, of their transgressions that he may forgive "a man of bloods" is a bloody man, "a mo.n of their iniquity." The no.mes of the children sorrows" o. sorrowful man ; while "children born to the prophet o.re significant o.nd sym- of whoredoms" aro children who follow in bolioe.l ; and their symbolic significance is the footsteps of their mother's lewdness, or explained. The names mentioned in this children on whose birth their mother's verse are o.lso significant, though their sig- licentiousness ho.d left o. stigmo. so that their nificance is not expressly stated, o.s in the legitimacy is questim1able. The construc- former case ; the cause of the omission being tion of the verb "take," with both objects, is the fact that these names were not, like the an exnmplo of lhe figure zeugma, by which others, now received for the first time, but one word does duty to two clauses, though simply retained. Gomer denotes "com- it undergoes a modification or seuso in its pletion" or " consummation," from a verlml application to the second. The meaning root signifying "to perfect" or " coma to nn here is clearly that thti prophet should take end ; " and Dible.im is the duo.1 of d•bhiilah, ~ wife of tho charo.cter indicated, and beget the plural being d•bhelim, from the vel'b 4 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [oR. L 1-11,