the making of the golden calf, and, again, the 11hameful apostasy of Baal-peor, Ho inexouee.bly wicked. To see sin in its full enormity we must count up the mercies of God e.ge.inHt which we are offending-must reflect, above e.11, on God's love to us as displayed in Christ. lll. 'l'HE PRJNCIPLE OF' CONTJNUITY IN BIN. Israel's apostasy, Hosea seeks to show, was no new thing. It began at a very early period (cf. eh. x. \l). The strain of it had continued in the blood of the people ever since. ft was proved to be a. constitu- tional disorder which no mild treatment would eradicate. We gain insight into the virulence of depravHy by studying its hereditary ma.n.ifesta.tion.-J. 0. Vera. 11-17.-Ephraim's woe. "Woe also to them when I depart from them" (ver. 12). It ia this thought of woe as the result of God departing from Ephraim- " hating them," "loving them no more"(ver. 15)-which is the key-note of the passage. 'l'he prophet compares the ideal which God set up for Ephmim-frnitfulness, Tyre-like pleasantness of situation, settled habitation in Canaan-with the miserabl~ end now awaiting the people. His mind dwells with a sort of fixity of horror on the bringing forth of the children to slaughter with the sword (vers. 12, 13, 16). Woe would descend on Ephraim to the reversal of the Divine ideal. I. IN BESPEOT OF' FBUITF'ULNESS. (Vera. 11, 12.) Fruitfulness and strength of numbers was an especial part of the promise to Ephraim (Gen. xlix. 22, 26; Dent. xxxiii. 17), even as a numerous posterity was the promise to Israel generally. This " glory " would now be taken from the people that boasted of it. Licentiousness had already, in part, undermined the nation's strength (eh. iv. 10). 'l'he sword would now finish what their own misconduct had begun. As in a previous figure (eh. viii. 7), and in ver. 16, the curse is represented as working to the frustration of the people's wishes at every stage in the advance of their hopes. First, there is no conception; then, in the cases where there is conception, there is" a miscarrying womb" (ver. 14); then, at the stage of birth, there is failure to bring forth; even if the child is born, it is doomed to be killed by the sword. Nothing goes right; everything goes wrong; there is but woe, failure, frustration, disappointment, when God departs from us. The numbers of a nation are in God's hand. He can bless or he can blast. His judgment works both through natural laws and events of providence. II. IN RESPECT OF PLEASANTNESS. (Vers. 13, 14, 16.) God designed for Ephraim a situation pleasant as that of Tyre; he had in reserve for him all "precious things"- " blessings of the heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under" (Gen. xlix. 25, 26; Deut. xxxiii. 13-15). Thus gloriously planted, Ephraim was to be the cynosure of the tribe!, a paragon of sweetness and beauty. How ghastly the contrast-" But Epbraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer" (ver. 13)! 1. .A worm at the root. " Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit," etc. (ver. 16). This is the fate of all glory without God. Its root is not drawn from the sources of perennial life in the eternal One. It has in it the principle of decay. It is a. glory of the world, fading, perishing. Sic transeat. The Christian's inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadcth not away (1 Pet. i. 4). 2. Ruthless butchery. (Vers. 13, 16.) 'l'he pleasantness of Ephraim would be smutched with the bluod of his own children-the "beloved" ones, the "darlings" of the womb. 'l'he very thought of the carnage that is to come almost makes the prophet's brain reel. He has threatened Ephraim with barrenness, but now that he has to frame a prayer for his people, he can think of no kinder one than that they may have "a miscarrying womb and dry breasts" (cf. Luke xxiii. 29). One woe swallows up another, and makes it all but seem a blessing in comparison. Terrible, truly, when God departs I III. IN RESPEOT OF SETTLEMENT. (Vers. 15, 17.) Ephraim would be driven from God's house, i.e. rejected from being his people, o_r spiri~ual ho~se, and w~u\d b? sent abroad as "wanderers among the nations." 'l'h1s, agBlil, was Ill contradistmct1on to the original design of a permanent settlement as the Lord's people in the Lord's land. 1. The _often-reiterated ca~se ~f the banishment is here again sp~cified. 'l'he people were dnven out (1) for their w1Ckedness, which had assumed peculiarly aggravated and concentrated forms (" in Gilgal "); and (2) for their obduracy: "They did not hearken unto him," i.e. God. Even their wickedness would not have ruined them, had they repented of it when God reproved and pleaded with them. Now th11 day for repentance 298 THE BOOK OF HOSEA.
was J16st. "I will love them 'JIO more." B. The doom is further lrnlivitluali~ed. " Wanderel"!I Bmong the nations.'' Suoh an1 the Jews at thlll ·uay, Prophecy never spoke a truer word.-J. O. I