The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 209

Ver.13.-Woe unto them! for they have others tn:rned aside to the idohtry or th() :fled from me: deatruotion (margin, 8poil) calves,-all, with probably somo honourablo unt1> them I beoauae they have tranagreaaed exceptions, had proved fa.Isa to his covenant against me, Of theee exclamations, the with Israel. The last clause ha.a been taken flret ie geneml and indefinite, the eecond is (3) independently by Ewal<l, without any speoiflc end precise, 'l'he thought of coming considerable alteration of the sense : "I, for chostieemont calls forth the oxclamotion of my part, would redeem them, but they, on woe; while tho second exclamlltion fixes the their side, speak lies against me." Other character and explains the naturo of that accepta.tions, (a) interrogative and (b) con- woe denounced. In neither caee ,Joos '\I,' or ditional, eviclen tly mistake the sense. The N:l; need to be eupplied; the opposite ex- whole clause is correctly explained by Kimchi thus: "It was in my heart to redeem them pression is C1"]~ c\',vj or c.:,~ i1'.:/~"1- In out of their distress; but they speak lies assigning the reason, there is 11, retrospective against me, while they say that I know reference to the figures of the two immedi- nothing nor exercise any providential care ately preoeding verses. The word i::ii with over their actions, whether their actions are minis employed in relation to birds which, good or bad. Therefore I have withdrawn :when scared from their nest, :fly away. my providential oversight, and have hidden Kimchi thinks it applies to the abstention my face from them, and they shall be con- or withdrawal of the Israelites from Divine sumed." service in the national 011,nctuary in Jeru- Ver. 14.-And they have not cried unto salem. Hie comment is: "They fly from me with their heart, when they howled upon me, from the service of the house of my their beds. This clause may be more cor- sanctuary, to the service of the calves; and rectly rendered, They did not cry w me this is a breach of faith and defection from in their heart, but howl upon their beda. me." The LXX. translate the beginning Their falsehood manifested itself in works of the second clause freely by o«>..aio, <lulv, as well as words; o. practical example i~ equivalent to "they are cowards;" and here given. They did not, in reality, seek Jerome by "miseri (maticulose) erunt, et hcl p from God ; if they sought o.t all, it was semper timentis ac formidantes." The cause insincerely. They cried to God, but that assigned is their breaking covenant with cry did not proceed from their heart. They God, which is expressed by y~~. litera.lly, gave vent to their feelings of distress by "to break away from," '' tear one's self loose howlings upon their beds; but those howl- from." Though I have redeemed them. This ings were the expression of unbelief and first part of the last clause is rendered (1) despair, not by any means evidences of fo.ith. as a past by some, as Jerome, who refers it "They do not cry to nie," says Aben Ezra, to the redemption from Egypt; thus also "as tbe sick man cries to the physician." the Ohaldee: "And I was their Deliverer." The comment of Kim11hi is still fuller and Rosenmiiller approves of this, but, i □ stead more explicit: "They have not cried to of restricting it to the deliverance from me in their heart, because or their notion Egypt, includes their recent deliverance that I do not see their cry nor know what is from the Syrians by Jeroboam II. It is (2) good or bad for them; but they howl upon Letter rendered in a voluntative or optative their beds, i.e. when they are upon their sense: "I would (should like) to redeem bed and when they think of that misfortune tliem, but they speak lies against ( or, co_n- which is coming upon them. They howl cerning) me." 'l'he verb 'ephdem cannot and weep because of their evil case, oncl do with any propriety be taken for a preterite. not think that the evil folls on them from Yet they have spoken lies against me; rather, me, because they have broken foith with me." but they on their part have spoken lies con- The form of ,r,,~~ is correctly explained by cerning me. 'fhe prophet had already Gesenius as future Hiph. with preformative charged them with lying at ver. 3, and pre- put before the third person, the yod of the viously 11t eh. iv. 2; but their lies we1-c not simple form being superlicially taken to confined to their intercourse or dealings with belong to the stem. His derivation from S:::, their fellow-men ; they spoke lies against God, as if o cry to him for help, is i11correct; or, as the preposition sometimes signifies, it is really an onomatopootic word. They concerning God. The lies in questiou in- assemble themselves for oorn and wine, aacl cluded, no doubt, a deni[ll of his essentinl they rebel against me. What this (I) as- Deity or solo Divinity; of his power or will- semblina of themselves wns does not de,uly in!l'ness eitl,1er ~o pro~ect or punish. Or they appe[lr ;°whether it was in the markct-plac,, might con8IS~ m th~1r _false~ood in drawing or elsewhere to purchase coru in time of near to God with their lips without either truti fomine, as somo think; or in idol-temples to faith or _rer1l affectim, in their hearts; some propitiate their deities, Like the Roman sup- were d1roctly opposed to the olaims of pliccitio or lectiosternillim, us others suppuse; Jehovah, some insincere in hie servioe, and or for the performt"lnce of some ex tr,\ rite of  208 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [ctr. vu. 1-16.