The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 141

prophet must have written merely •3,or.,, and an arbitrary or self-imposed precept. The not •i•otlJ." Similarly Aben Ezra: "'.rhey LXX. (2) seem to have read 1el, equivalent exercise violence towards those who are in to N:ci', vanity, transle.ting, " for he began to their powor, whilst they are like those who go after vanities (Tciiv µ.anlo,v);" which the secretly remove the lcmdmark." The people Chaldee and Syrie.e follow. But (3) it i.e of JudCLh hnd also sinned, and, like Israel in rather the commandment of Jeroboam about ain, they resemble them in suffering. There- the worship of the calves which Jay at the fore I will pour out my wrath upon them root of the nation's sin. It is well P,Xplained like water. The word "wrath" here is from by Kimchi: "Although the word 'Jeroboam• a root which signifies "to overflow;" it is thus is wanting, so that he makes no mention of the overflowing of Divine indignation; while it after tl!av, such is the script11?al usage in the outpouring thereof denotes the full flood certain places, i.e. to omit a word where the of wrath that will overwhelm those lawless sense i.e plain. For it was a well-known fact leaders of e. misguided e.nd misgoverned that in that generation they walked not people. The execution of the threatening after the commandment, but after t.h.at of wns reserved for the Assyrione, who, under Jeroboam; therefore he has abbreviated the Tigle.th-pileser and Sennacherib, invaded and word to indicate the worthlessness, and used laid waste the land. And yet those judg- tsav instead of mitBvah." Perhaps it may ments, though so severe o.nd plentiful, were he.'l'e the concrete sense of the object of not to end in tote.I and lasting devastation idolatrous worship. o.s in the case of Israel. The following vers. Ver. 12.-Therefore will I be unto Ephraim 11-15 teach the inevitable nature of the u a moth, and. to the house of Judah as j udgments that were coming upon both Israel rottennea& This verse is well explained by and Judah, and from which no earthly power Calvin o.s follows: "The meaning of the could deliver them. The only relief pos- prophet is by no means obscure, and that is, sible depended on their seeking God in the that the Lord would by e. slow corrosion day of their distress. consume both the people; and that, though Ver. 11.-Ephraim is oppressed and broken he wonld not by one onset destroy them, yet in judgment. The expression ,..tsuts mishpat they would pine away until they became is (I) by some explained, "crushed by the wholly rotten." The two agents of destruc- judgment,'' that is, of God, according to tion here named-the moth which eats away which mishpat would be the genitive of the clothes, and the woodworm which gnaws agent e.s muklceh Elohim. But "crushed of away wood-figuratively represent slow but judgment" or in judgment is justly pre- sure destruction. They are found t.ogether ferred by others, the genitive taking the in Job xiii. 28. Kimchi explains the sense place of the accusative. Again, though the in like manner: "Like the moth which eats combination of 'ashuq with rotsuta is fre- away garments, and like the woodworm quent, occurring ae early as Dent. xxviii. 33, which consumes bones and wood, so shall I the latter is the stronger term. The op- consume you." The pronoun at the begin- pression is (2) not that which their own ning of the verse is emphatic : "I your God, kings and princes practised upon their sub- who would have been your protector and jects, according to Aben Ezra, '' Their kings preserver, whom you have sinfully forsaken, oppressed and cheated them ; " nor the in- and whose com.m.e.ndments you have arbi- justice practised by the people of Ephraim trarily set a.side-even I am to yon e.s the umong themselves, e.s implied by the LXX., source of rottenness, and of slow but sure " Ephraim altogether prevailed age.inst his rnina'' 11.dversary, he trod judgment underfoot." Ver. 13.-Then went Ephraim to the As- The reference (3) is re.the.r to Ephraim being syrian, and sent to King J'areb. Both king- oppressed and crushed in judgment by the doms became conscious of their disease and heathen nations around; thus Re.shi ex- decline; Ephraim felt it.a sickness or internal: plains, " Oppressed is Ephraim ever by the consumptioa, Judah its wound or external h,1nd of the heathen-ehastised with chas- corruption (mazor, a festering wound, from tisements;" so also Kimchi, '' By the ho.nd zur, to squeeze out); they were both con- of the heo.then who oppressed and crushed scious of rottenness in their condition. The.t them through hard judgments." The con- diseased condition was rather spiritual e.pos- struction is e.syndetous, like Cant. ii. 11, te.sy the.n political adversity, though these '' '.rhe ro.in is over, is gone." Beoause he were connected e.s cause o.nd effect. But, in- willingly walked after the oommand.ment. stead of applyiag to Jehovah, Ephraim had 'l'his do.use assigns the rco.sou of Ephraim's recourse to Assyria and its king for he11,lth oppression. '.rhey evinced ready willing- and help, but in vain; for no earthly power hood in following (I) thc commandments of could avert the Divine judgment~. The n1eu instead of the commandments of God. punishment threatened in the twelfth verse TBav is thus understood by Aben Ezra, ,md prompts the efforts to obtain succour men- in like manner Ewald explains it to mean tioned in this. Th~ gener11l sense of the  TRE BOOK OF HOSEA. [on. v. 1-15.