The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 300

approaches this aonee. Taking ;m,• in the equivalent to nichl,oq in the Niphal, and sense of "to eqnu.l," he sa.ya, "Tho feoundity interprets; " From t'he fee.r of God and of tho grapes equalled the feonudity of the &orn his Law their heart ie divided," i.e. branohea : but they who had previously rape.rated: eimile.rly Rubi : " Their heart been so fruitful before they offended God, is divided from me;" Aben Ezra. somewhot nftorwarda turned the abundance of fruits peculiarly, though to the se.me purport : into multiplied ooOBBions of offence; and "They (their heart) hBII not one part (b,,t the greater the population they possessed, llBveral)," oris divided. But, notwithetandin"' the more alto.re they built, o.nd exceeded the this consensus in favour of the meanina- df nbuudo.nt produce of the land by the mul- "divide," the rendering preferred, and ju~tly titude of their idols." Or the verb may 10, by modem expositors in general i~ menn, "it maria fruit equu.l to itself;" nearly "smooth." This is, indeed, tbe primary se~se so the Vnlgo.te. The fruit is agreeo.ble to that of" divide" being secondary, as diviBio~ it. Aooording to the multitude of his fruit was made by lot or a smooth stone,clieleq, used he he.th inoreaaed the altars. In this second tor the purpose. (3) "Their heart is smooth," or middle cle.nse of the verse the figure that is, bland, deceitful, hypocritical; though passes into the fact represented by it. It is it must be admitted that the word is mostly no longer the vine, but Israel The altars applied to the tongue, lip, throat, mouth, kept pace with the increase of population 11PBech, and not to the bee.rt. Their heart and abundant produce; the multiplication was hypocritiOBl a.nd faithless. Now shall of alto.re for idolatrous sacrifice and service &hey be found faulty ; rather, they shaU be wll.!! proportionate to their prosperity. The dealt with a, au.eh, or puni,,hed; better still, z, here and in next clause marks the circum- perhaps, is the rendering. now shall tl,,ey locutory genitive, and the k• is quantitntive. atom. The "now" defines sharply the According to the goodness of his le.nd they turning-point between God's Jove and God's have me.de goodly images· (margin, statue,, wrath. The state of things hitherto existing or, standing images). The matstsevoth here oa.nnot continue; it must soon come to a.n mentioned a.re tTTf/ll.11s in the LXX., that is; end. Ere long they a.re doomed to discover statues or pillars, and· those pillara were their guilt in it.a punishment; they shall erected to Baal or some other idol, as we find out their sin by suffering; suddenly read in 1 Kings xiv. 23. The plural of the and to their cost they shall have a. fearful verb in this last clause arises from Israel awaking to a sense of their iniquity by the being a. noun of multitude. Bashi gives inflictions of Divine wrath upon their guilty the following brief exposltion: "Just in heads. He shall break down their altan, proportion as I caused their prosperity to he llhall spoil their images. The verb 9,y overflow to them, they multiplied ea.Ives for is peculiar; being a denomina.tive from TJ7, the altars; " but Kimchi explnins both the neck, it signifies " to bree.k the neck of," ola.uses more fully and aoonra.tely thus: like the Greek Tpax1111.C(.,v, decollate, then " As I increased their prosperous state in figuratively "tear down,'' .. break in pieces." treasures and children, they multiplied This bold expression of breaking the neck altars to Ba.al; as I did good to their land of the altars may allude to their destruction in corn and wine and oil, they waxed by breaking off the horns of the altars, or strong in setting up pillnrs for other gods;" rather to their beheading, cutting off the the verb ,~;, has the same sense here as re;,;, heada of victims at those altars. The in Jonah iv. 9. Hebrew expositors make the heart of the Ver. 2.-Their heart is divided. Here people, not God, the immediote object of their wickedness is traced to its fountain, the verb. "Their heart," says one of them, head ; its source was in the corrn pt state of "shall tear down their altars ancl Jo.y waste the heart. Their· heart we.e (1) divided, their pillars, because it is divided from me. and so they halted between two opinions- It wi!J tear down their alta.rs which they between the worship of Jehovah and idolatry. are said also to have multiplied, nnJ lay <Jhalaq ie ta.ken in this signification by the wll.!!te their pillars which they made so Cho.Idea, Syrie.o, Septungint, and Jerome, goodly." The means of sinning shall be as also by the Hebrew commentators. The taken from them and destroyed-thtir nltars LXX ..he.ve (a) lµ.ep,a•v in the singular, which broken down and their image~ spoiled. As affords some support to Hitzi~'s rendering, the heada of victims he.cl been cnt off at "He (God) divided their hee.rt,".:....but this these altars erected for idolatrous worship ; i~ unsuitable o.nd unsoiiptura.l; another (b) so the heads of their altars would be broken reading of the same version is lµ.epitTa.v, oft'. "They have divided their'hearte," whioh is Ver. 8.-l!'or now they shall say, We have somewhat better, yet inoorrect. (c) The no king, beoanse we feared not ths Lord. In Authorized Version is also questionable, as the day of their destructiou Israel would be the verb is not used intransitively in Qal. brou~ht to see and even feel that the king (2) Kimchi, indeed, understands chalaq as appornted through their own self-will anJ.  THE BOOK OF HOSEA. (01t, x. 1-15,