The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 276

fruiUeee, rejoicee over them; and 1111 he the very meaning of the no.me-and the mul• rejoices when ho finds a firstrruit in the fig tiplication of their numbers; now that glory tree in ite beginning ; oven so have I found of populousness was to vanish speedily and lerBol in the wildi,rnose, Bnd ferl them and entirely, like birds wingin"' their way swiftly nourished them: they lncked nothing, aud out of sight. After th~ figure c0mes the equally ns if they had been in nn inhBbited fact, and it is expressed in anti-clirno.etio la.ncl; but they have not recognizer( my form-~o child-bearing, no pregnancy, no goorlncse." As the fig lmrvest is rnther late conception. The course of barrenness takes in Po.Jestine-about the middle of August-- tho place of the blessing of fruitfulness. early flge have epccial wo-rth, and are re- Though they bring np their children, yet gBrded ns u delicacy. Th<' c'o,nparison then will I balieve them, that there shall not be a. i~, according to Hashi, with tho "e:uly fig man left. Even if their Sf')ns should g,-ow on the fig tree, wliich is ripti; like the fig up to manhood and attain maturity, yet on the fig tree in ltEI beginning, i.~. in the they would be cut off hy the sword and beginning of the ripening of the figs;" then swept away by death, so that their progeny ho subjoins, " Even so did your fathers would perish. This sccorus with the appear in my eyes, that I loved them." Bot threatened punishment of unfaithfulness re- they went to Bae.1-peor, and separated them- corded in Deut. xxxii. 25, "The sword with- selves un.to that shame. Israel did not con- out, and terror within, shall destroy both the tinue long in a condition so pleasing to God, young man and the virgin, the suckling also but fell away from him, forgot his benefits, with the man of grey liuirs." 1'he negative and turned aside to the abominable idols of sense of min, equivalent to "so that not," is the surrounding Gentiles. As Aben Ezra common before verbs, also before nouns the somewhat pathetically expresses it, " Yet min being put for the fuller n\•;:iJ;?. Yea, my joy was only small and of short duration, woe also to them when I depart from them ! for they did homage to Bo.al-peor, and sep1.1- This accounts for the corning calamity; it is ro.ted themselves from me." Long, there- the departure of Jel,ovah from Israel, and fore, before ,the sin of Gibeah they trans- the withdrawal of his favour. The word gressed in Baal-peor; in the early period of i1iil (1) stands for "TIO, sin and samech being their history they apostatized and proved 'interchanged; or (2) it may be for ,1~, sin unfaithful to Jehovah. To this hideous put for shin by e. clerical error. The meaning god, corresponding to Priapue of the Greeks, ise. little difi'erent; "when Ilook away from the maidens of Moab sacrificed their vir- them." Rashi mentions the fact that this ginity. The Israelites were designed to be word belongs to those words written with Naze.rites, thnt is, separated.to Jellovah and Bin but read with samech. His comment on consecrated to hie 11ervice,; but· they sepa- the verse is correct: "For what benefit have rated themselves unto that shame, either the they wheu they bring up their children? idol or his worship. And their abominations Because, if they do bring them up, then I were aooording as they loved. If men are bereave them so that they do not become slaves to appetite, they make a god of their men ; " similarly Kimchi : "If there be some belly; if to lust, Be.al-peor is their god; and ·among them who escape these mishaps and men become like what they worship, and reach the birth, and they (the pa.rents) bring abominBble as the idols they serve, as the them up, yet shall they die in youth, and psalmist says, " They tha,t make them are never reach the season when they shall be like unto them; so is every one that trusteth called men." (3) Themisreadingof•1 in- :z-~ iu them." They "became abominations stead of •:11:11~ by the LXX. led to the strange like their lover" (ohabh, paramour; namely, misrendering, "Wherefore also there is a. woe Baal-peor), that is, as abominable nod loath- to them (though) my flesh is of them (oul-r, some in the sight of God as the idols which «a.l oJ"l uU-roi's lcrn· trd.pt µ.ov EC alJTliw)," f:'( they adulterously worshipped. which Cyril connects the first member with Vars. 11-14.-Having referred to the the preceding words, and, detaching the re- most fie.grant instances of Israel's transgres- mainder, interpreted, " Let my flesh be fe.r sions in the past-Gibeah in the time of the from them ; " i.e. let me Bod my race be as far judges, Bao.I-pear at a still earlier period awo.y from them as possible; thus he prays even in the days of Moses, and having for exemption from the punishment threat- merely indicated the parallel between their ened. Ephraim, as I saw Tyms, is planted present sin and previous enormities, the in a pleasant plaoe : but Ephraim llhall bring prophet proceeds to denounce the punish- forth his children to the murderer. The first ments deserved and reo.dy to descend upon member of this verse has called forth grea.t them. As for Ephraim, their glory shall diversity of translation and interpretation. 11.y away like a bird, from the birth, and from It were tedious, and not conducive to the the womb, and from the oonoeptio11. The right understanding of the verse, to enume- greatest glory, perhaps, of Ephraim was their rate the various expositions given of it. A frnitfnlneRs-" doublo th1itfulnose" being vory few of the most important may be 276 THE BOOK OF HOSEA.. [on. IX, 1-17.