The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 145

Rin of the people, but, on the contrary, amplifies their ingratitude1 because they bad forgotten their God who bad so indulgently treated them. As they had been redeetnerl by God's hand, as the toRching of the Law had continued among them, as they had been preserved to that day through God's constant kindness, it was truly an evidence of monstrous ignorance that they could in an instant adopt ungodly forms of worship, and embrace those corruptions which they knew were condemned in the Law." VI. PROOFS AND CAUSES OF ISRAEL'S PRIDE. Ephra.im's pride and envy of Judah produced the disruption and perpetuated it. 'l'wo privileges of the birthright forfeited by Jacob's firstborn had been shared by these tribes. Joseph got the double por- tion in connection with Ephraim and Manasseh; and Judah g>tined the pre-eminence. '!'hough Judah was superior both numerically and by largeness of territory in the land of promise, Ephraim enjoyed countervailing advantages. All along from the blessin" of Jacob Ephraim was inspired with the hope of great things for himself and trib;. 'l'he Ephraimites had the choicest of the land, and a central position contributing to their influence over the other tribes. Joshua, the chosen chief who had led the people into the land of promise and settled them in it, sprang from Ephraim; Samuel, the last of the judges, was a native of Mount Ephraim ; for three centuries and a half the national sanctuary remained at Shiloh, within the confines of the tribe of Ephraim; the men of that tribe had highly distinguished themselves in the war with Midian, securing the fords of Jordan and beheading the two Midianite princes, Oreb and Zeeb, wbo had escaped at the head of .fifteen thousand men. Nor were they slow to assert their claims; such was their pride, that they could not brook a subordinate position, but insisted on pre-eminence. Their self-assertion and even unreasonable petulance were severely chastised by Jephthah. For a time the superiority inclined or actually belonged to Ephraim; but the preponderance given to Judah by the elevation of David, and Solomon his son, completely turned the scale. Moreover, the transference to Jerusalem, both of the seat of ecclesiastical authority from Shiloh and of the civil capital from Shechem, deeply wounded the pride of Ephraim, and greatly increased the rivalry with Judah. To the slight thus put upon Ephraim there is a distinct reference in several verses of the seventy-eighth psalm; thus, " God was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel : so that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men ; " and again, "He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mollllt Zion which he loved." For seven years they held out against David; they were the strength of the Absalomic rebellion; they abetted the usurpation of Jeroboam, and accepted the idolatrous worship which, for political purposes, he commended to them ; and all from their pride and overweening estimate of themselves, and envy towards their brethren of Judah. VII. THE HUldILUTI0N OF PRIDE, OR ITS TESTIMONY. 1. 'l'his overbearing spirit of Israel as a nation, and of Ephraim its kingly tribe, was sorely crushed, and the pride of both sadly humbled, when, as had been foretold, they first went into captivity. 2. The other rendering of testify is well explained by the following observations of Pusey : "They could not give up this sin of Jeroboam without endangering their separate existence as Israel, and owning the superiority of Judah. From this complete self- surrender to God their pride shrank and held them back. The pride which Israel thus showed in refusing to tum to God, and in preferring their sin to their God, itself, he says, witnessed against them, and condemned them." 3. It must have been an addition to Israel's calamity that they had been a snare to Judah, and helped to drag them down into the same slough of sin, and eventually into the same catastrophe with themselves. 4. But how are we to account for the seeming contradiction between the safety previously promised Judah and the calamity now denounced? Calvin's reply to a. similar inquiry is pertinent and plain. "The prophet," he sa.ys, "speaks here not of those Jews who continued in true and pure religion, but of those who had with the Israelites alienated themselves from the only true God a.nd joined in their superstitions. He thus refers here to the degenerate, and not t.o the faithful Jews; for to a.11 who worshipped God aright sa.lvation he.d been a.lready promised." Vera. 6-10.-No place found for repentance. They would seek the Lord with sacrifices from the flock and from the herd, but they would not find him ; they multiplied sacrifices, but the Lord had withdra.wn himself. Thus in the New Testament 144 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [ OH, V, 1-15.