The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 398

lot ua serve them" (Deut. xiii. 3); or (2) rather he re'1;arded as conourrent, being in "'fhou ehouldest not know or recognize Bny point of time llimultaneoue or nearly eo. god boside me." So Kimchi: '' 'fhou shou ldest Therefore have they forgotten me. Thie not )mow other gods, nor servo them beside forgetfulness of God ia identifie,l with tho me, for ye see there is no holpor beside me." abandonment of his worship in the Chaldee Lllrewise Rashi: "Thou shouldcst not rebel Version, which is," They have abandoned ngainst me." Also Aben Ezm: " H,,w hast my service." The metaphor contained in 1hou turned to kiss the co.If, which does not thiH verse is taken from a. domestic animal, ~o,ve nor satisfy, nnd hast left him who has which, in a too luxuriant pasture, becomes been thy God from ancient days, who has headstrong and unmanageable. Thus Rnshi: helped thee and knows all thy necessities." " As soon as they co.me into the la.nd or The word •n,11 (from Sr., which, as the their pasture, they were filled." The last cognate Arabic signifies, " to go forth or cla.use of the verse notices the misuse which Israel made of the riches and blessing of away") is synonymous with 'T)~':/- Jehovah, by forgetting their gracious Bene- Ver. 5.-1 did know thee in the wildar- factor; this the prophet attributes to the nese. The pronoun at the beginning of the abuse of the blessings so richly bestowed verse is emphatic: .As for me; or, I it was upon them. Aben Ezra identifies the bless- that knew thee. The meaning of the senti- ings here mentioned with those vouchsafed ment is : I acknowledged thee with kind- to them on their entrance into Canaan ; ness, with paternal care and kind providence thus: "The prophet enamera.tee the benefit.a watching over thee, "Thou shouldest which J ehova.h bestowed on their fathers gratefully acknowledge me," is the comment when they came out of the wilderness into of Kimchi, '' because I knew thee in the the land of Cana.an." K.i.mchi quotes, as a wilderness, and co.red for thy necessity in parallel to this passage, Dent. viii., of which the wil,lerness, in which there were no it is undoubtedly a reminiscence; he says, means of livelihood." In the land of great "When they entered into the place of their drought. The root of the word n::11N7r:, is pasture, and it was the land of Canaan, :::i.NS, unused in Hebrew, but signifying, in they had all good, and were filled ; and their heart was exalted, and they forgot me, Arabic, "to burn, dry, be dry," akin to :::i.r:i~- as it is said in the Thorah that they were Aben. Ezra correctly efpla.ins it to be "a. ready to do so. He said,' Lest when thou dry and thirsty land, a.ud so in the Ara.hie hast eaten and art full . . . then thine language; and (that it is so called) on heart be lifted up, and then forget the account of all hardships being in it, is the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out allegorical explanation and not the literal of the land of Egypt . . . who led thee sense." Instead of a lengthened enumera- through that great and terrible wilderness, tion of all God's loving-kindnesses to Israel . . . who fed thee in the wilderness.' " at the Exodus and during the desert wander- ings, the prophet sums up all in the ex- Vere. 7, 8.-These verses teach that the pressive, "the Lord thy God from the land result of their sins is inevitable destruction, of Egypt;" and "I it was that did know and that Jehovah, merciful and gracious thee in the wilderness." It is as though he though he is, has now divested himself of had said, "I pitied thee in the bondage and all compassion on them. The appropriate- among the brick-kilns of Egypt; I brought ness of the terrible figures here employed thee forth with a strong hand and out- arises from the fact that Israel had been stretched arm ; I led thee through the compared in the previous verse to a flock wilderness; I relieved thee in thy straits ; fed and filled in a lll.l:nriant pasture; the I gave thee bread from heaven to satisfy punishment of that flock is now fitly com- thy hunger, and water from the rock to pared to "the tearing in pieces and devour- quench thy thirst; I defended thee from ing of that fattened flock by wild beasts." enemies ; nor did I relax my care till I 'fhe beasts in question are a lion, a leopard, gave thee the goodly laud of promise." a bear, a lioness, and fierce wild beasts in Ver. 6.-Aooording to their pasture so general. were they :filled. The literal rendering is, Ver. 7.-Therefore I will be Ullto them as according to their pasturing so were they filled. a lion. The verb 'i:1.1\1 is the future changed The reference is rather to the care in pas- into the preterite or past tense by '!la11 con- turing than to the pasture-ground. By secutive, and marks the consequence of God's care to the sheep of his pasture they forgetting God. So Aben Ezra.: " The waxed full. They were :filled, and their preterite in reference to the evils which heart was n:alted. Two consequences fol- Jehovoh brought upon them." While the lowed from God's great goodness to Israel- past thus implies that the punishment has the immediate consequence was pride of commenced, the futures whioh follow denote l,eart; the more remote was forgetfulness its contiuurmce. Rosenmuller regards the of God. Perhaps tb eso results should preterite here as prophetic and contiuuativc,  4-00 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [ OH, XIII, 1-16