The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 137

OHAPTER V. en te.ngle. East as well as west of the Jordan their evil influence had wrought Ver. 1.-Hear ye this, 0 priests; and ruin, Mizpe.b, now es-Salt, was on the east hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, of the river among the hills of Gilead, where 0 house of the king. The perBOns here Ja.cob and Laban entered into covenant; addressed comprise all the eete.t.es of the Tabor, like e. solitary cone or euge.r-loe.f, realm-priests, people, and princes. The rises up from the plain of J ezreel, or Esdrae- house of Israel is the northern kingdom ; lon, on the west of the river. On the wooded and the house of the king is the members of slopes of Tabor and the "bee.con-hill of the king's family, of his court and of hie Mizpe.h game, no doubt, a.bounded and found government. Thus the rulers and the covert, and hence the origin of the figure ruled, the spiritual teachers and the taught, here used; but they had probably become a.re comprehended ·in this e.drlress. Neither scenes of idolatry or wickedness. priestly office, nor popular power, nor Ver. 2.-And the revoltera a.re profound to princely dignity was to be exempted. But, make slaughter (or, profuse in murden or in though e.11 are summoned to give audience, sacrifices, or in dealing ccmuptly), though I the heads of the people, the men of light and have been e. rebuker of them all (rather, but lee.ding, are first arraigned. For judgment 1 am [bent upon] chastisement fi>r them all). is toward you, as the clause is correctly The literal rendering of the first clause is, rendered; not, "it devolves on you to main- sl.augl1tering they ha11e made deep, which is tain judgment," as some unde:rstand it. It 11n idiom analogous to "they have deeply had, indeed, been the province of the priest revolt.ed; " literally, " they have made re- to teach, and of the king to execute the volting deep" (Isa. mi. 6). The slaughter- judgments of God in Israel; but now they ing, though understood by Wiiusche of a.re themselves the subjects of judgment. eaorifices, is rather meant of the destruction Judgment was now to begin at the house of and carnage which the revolters ea.used to the king and of the priest ; God was nbout the people. Re.shi explains it literally in to execute judgment upon them-the judg- this way : " I said, Every one that goes not ment from that judgment-seat where justice up to the stated (ee.sts transgresses e. posi- never miscarries, nnd where no mistake is tive precept; but they decree that every one ever me.de. The cause of this is assigned. who goes up to the stated feasts shall be :Bece.use ye have been e. snare on Mizpah, and slain." This seems to imply that liers-in- a net spread upon Tabor. Instend of being wait were set probably on Mizpah and snfegunrde of the people, they had been e. Tabor, the places mentioned in the pre- snare to them ; instead of being true lenders, ceding verse, to slay the Israelites that were ns God had intended them, they had misled found going np to the feasts at J eruse.lem. them; instead of contributing to their se- Aben Ezra, taking this second verse as con- curity, they hu.d seduced them to sin and so tinuing the sentiment of the first, interprets helped to prepare them for destruotion ; they ns follows : "Ye have been a snare on Miz- hu.cl beeu n snare to entrnp and e. net to pe.h that ye might not allow them to go up  136 'l'HE BOOK OF HOSEA. [cH, V, 1-111,