The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 119

Yers. 6-H.-Israel's guJlt and punishment. Priests and people were guilty alike, and would be overtaken by one common doom. L THE SIN OF THE PRIESTS. 1. They rejected the knowledge of God (ver. 6). They did not engage in the study of the Divine Law, and their lives were a violation of its precepts. 2. They consequently failed to teach the Law to the people (ver. 6), ::l. They connived at the national idolatry, on account of the material profit which they obtained from it (ver. 8). The calf-worship brought them many sacrificial fees; so the priests, instead of rebuking the iniquity, "set their heart" upon its continuance. IL THE SIN OP THE PEOPLE. 1. They wilfully forgot the Law of God (ver. 6), 2. The more prosperous they became externally, the more grievously they sinned (\'er. 7). 3. They addicted themselves to idolatrous divination, using sometimes teraphim, and sometimes divining rods (ver. 12). In. worshipping wooden gods, they showed themselves t.o be at once wooden-headed and wooden-hearted (Pe. cxv. 8), 4. They practised the sensual rites of nature-worship with the temple prostitutes of Ashtaroth, and even were so shameless as sometimes to appear with them at the altar (vers. 13, 14). Impurity in one's religion is often joined with uncleanness of body. Ill. Tm: DOOM THREATENED UPON BOTH. (Ver. 9.) 1. The priests and their sons would be deprived of their office, and the people would lose their high prerogative of being a priestly nation (ver. 6). 2. The glory of the kingdom would be turned into shame by reason of the loss of the numbers, wealth, and power in which they gloried (ver. 7). 3. Their sin would also become its own punishment (vers. 10, 11). The Lord would cause them to "eat of the fruit of their own way." The result would be surfeit, not satisfaction. Their sin would be their torment. 4. God would "give them up to vile affections ; " he would cease to correct them for their idolatry and licentiousness, and thus visit them with reprobation (ver, 14). CoNOLUBION. Ver.11 contains the solemn statement of a greatmoral truth respecting all sin, and which is specially applicable to sins of sensuality. Who can place confidence in the moral judgments of an adulterer or a fornicator? How sad when such men occupy positions of influence in Church or et.ate ! "'Beware of lust; it doth pollute and foul Whom God in baptism washed with his own blood: It blots thy leBBon written in thy soul; The holy lines cannot be understood. How dare those eyea upon a Bible look, Much less toward.a God, whose lust is all their book I" (George Herbert.) O.J. Ver. 9.-" Li~ pe,cple, li~ prust." In this passage' the Lord charges the priests of the ten tribe& with having grievously abetted the idolatry and immorality which were rampant in Israel; and in the verse before us he declares that, as people and priest have been one in guilt, they shall be one also in punishment, When the OH, IV, 1-19.] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 111