The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 238

while hie explanation is as follows; " Since, exhibit the ce.11se of l!!l'ael's being exposed though I preserved them and instructed to the sudden hostile attMk which the them, and gave them victory over their prophet was . commissioned to proclaim. enemies (for I strengthened them), they The provocat10ns of Israel consisted in have impiously set me at nought, worship- violating the covenant which God had been ping demons for gods, and have trusted to plea~ed to make with them, and in proving the laud of the Egyptians, and have fe.ncied unfaithful to that Le.w, obedience to which that their help shall be sufficient for their was the condition of the covenant. The prosperity, therefore their attempt shall explanation of the whole verse thus given return unto their own bosom, and they is confirmed_ by the Hebrew commentators; shall find no good reward of their temerity : thus Raslu says, "The Shechinab ( or but they shall receive, as it were, into their Divine Majeaty) says to the prophet, 'Let bosom the deserved punishment. For he the voice of thy palate be beard and shall come, he shall come who shall lay sound the trumpet and say, The enemies them waste-the King of Assyria, with an fly hither as the eagle fiietb and come unto innumerable multitude of warriors, and he the house of the Lord.' " Aben Ezra more shall come to them as the whole land and concisely conveys the same sense: "It is the region and country, that one might think words of Jehovah to the prophet, 'Set the that the whole region of the Persians and comet to thy palate, for the enemy flieth as Medes had wholly migrated and had come the eagle againat the house of the Lord.'" iuto Samaria. This is the meaning of the Kimchi differs in two respects from his whole land (&is 'l'ii), He shall likewise brethren, understandir>g the address to be, come as an eagle into the house of the not that of Jehovah to the prophet, but of Lord." (He shall come) a.a an eagle againat the prophet to the people; and the house the house of the Lord. These words cannot of the Lord to include the whole land of mean, (1) as Hitzig thinks, the rapidity with Israel and temple at Jerusalem : " The which the prophet is directed to convey his cornet to thy palate, as he said above, tidings of alarm, as if it were, "Fly [mi, 'Sound the trumpet in Gibeab.' Many o. imperfect being supplied], thou prophet, as time the prophet speaks to the people in the an engle: " nor yet, with other~, the loud- singular and many a time in tlrn pluml. ness of the alarm he was to sound. The He says, 'Put the trumpet to thy mouth, meaning abruptly though vividly expressed for behold! the enemy flies hither like the refers (2) to the appl'Oacbing invasion of the eagle over the house of J ebove.h;' he mean• enemy, though there is no need to supply to any, 'Over the whole land and also over ;iN,• or N:l'. It is the substance of the the house of Jehovah, in order to destroy it.' prophet's alarm. As an eagle the enemy And he joins the trumpet to the palate (as is evident from ver. 3) shall come (and yet man sets the trumpet to the mouth) against the house of the Lord. The enemy because the voice passes over the way of the was, in all probability, the Assyrian, in palate after it comes out of the throat." whose symbolism the eagle bulks largely; Ver. 2.-Israel ahall ory unto me, My while the griffin vulture, scenting from afar, God, we know thee. The more literal as and coming down with rapid and terrific well as more exact rendering is, !o me will swoop upon its prey, is an appropriate they cry, My God, we know thee, we IsTael ! image of the sudden and impetuous character N otwithsto.uding their provoc,,tion, their of his invasion. The house of the Lord is unfaithfulness to the covenant of God, and neither the temple at Jerusalem, for the their disobedience to the Law, they appe11.l prophecy relates to the northern kingdom ; unitedly and severally to God in the day of nor the temple e.t Se.maria, which could not their distress, and urge two pleas-their be called Beth Y'ho·vah, but Bethbamoth; knowledge of God, or e.cknowledgwent of nor the land of Israel, which could not with him 1111 the true God; and their high posi- any propriety be called o. house; but the tion as his people. Thus the Chaldee para- people of Israel, which, owing to God's phrase bas: " As often 11,s calamity comes covenant relation to that peoph•, is called upon them they pray aud say before me, his house, as in Numb. xii. 7, ·• My servant Now we acknowledge the.t we have no God Moses is not so, who is faithful in all beside thee: deliver us, because we are thy mine house." 'fbe figure seems an eoho of people Israel." As to the construction, Deut. xxviii. 49, "The Lord shall bring either "Israel" is in apposition to anachnu, a nation against thee from far, from the end the subject of the verb, or there is a trans- of the earth, e.s swift as the angle flieth:" position. Thus Rashi: ",ve must transpose while it he.s a pe.rallel in Matt. xxiv. 28, the words, and explain,' To me, cries Israel, '' For wheresoever the oarcnse is, there will My God, we know thee;'" so al.:;o Kimchi the eagles be gathered together." Beoause and Aben Ezra. The former says," 'lsrt1oel' they have transgressed my oovenll.llt, and whioh comes o.fter, should be before, after trespa11ed against m:, Law. These words 'I"~, and many inversions of this kind occlll 238 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [OH, TIU. l-14,