The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 402

ever, the plural of (o) ,~7, pestilence, 11nd e.postlee do not avowedly o.t e.11 timee ad- "l=!l?R, peetilence, destruction, from :mp, to cnt duce pe.e11ages which in their whole con• off', akin to ::ir::,n. HHzig eaya that ::ibf?, ~:JP., text apply to the subject they handle ; bnt eomet!mes they allude to a word only, e.nd Jbf? are origino.lly inlinltivee, e.nd the ~omet1mes they apply a passage oo o. subject Jo.et two deeignate inetrumente or membere, ID the way of resemblance, and sometim0s and thus givo e. sort of support to the tradi- they bring forward psBBllges as testimonies. tional 1d11Tpov of the LXX. Now, this verse When the apostles use the testimonies of has been understood by some in the sense Scripture, then the genuine and real truth (1) of oonsole.tion; and by others (2) in must be sought out; but when they glance that of oommination. In the latter sense only o.t ooe word, there is no occasion to it is understood by the Hebrew commenta- make any anxious inquiry; and when they tors, e.nd by not a few Christian interpreters. quote any passage of Scripture in the wa.y 0{ Thus Raehi: "I am he who redeemed them resemblance, it is e. too scrnpulous anxiety from the hand of Sheol, and delivered them to seek oat how all the parts agree. Bat it from death; but now I will eet myself to is qnite evident that Paul, in I Cor. xv., speak against thee words of death." Aben has not quoted the testimony of the prophet Ezra : " I redeemed thy fathers; now I for the purpose of confirmin~ the doctrine of she.II be thy deadly pestilence; I will also which he speaks. What then? As tho be thy destruction." Kimchi is more dif- resurrection of the flesh was a truth very fuse, as usual; he explains thus : "I would difficult to be believed, nay, wholly con- have redeemed them from the power of trary to the jurlgment of nature, Paul says Sheol, if they had been wise. But now that that it is no matter of wonder ... because he ie not wise, but a fool, and denies my it is the peculiar prerogative of God to be the goodness, it is not enough that I ehe.11 not perdition of death and the destruction of redeem thee from death, but I shall bring thf3 grave. . . . He is endued with that upon thee death by pestilence, and by the incompreheneible power by which he can sword, e.nd by famine, and by evil beast." raise us from a etate of putrefaction ; nay, The condition eupplied by Kimchi is entirely since he created the world from nothino- arbitrary e.nd without anything in the con- he will also raise us up from the !mlve, f~; text to suggest it. Calvin in like manner he is the clce.th of death, the gra;e of the interjects a condition ; thus : "I will redeem grave, the ruin of ruin, e.nd the destruction them from the power of the grave, I will of destruction ; e.nd the aim pie object of redeem them from death; that is, except Paul is to extol by these striking words they resist, I will become willingly their that incredible power of God, which is Redeemer. Some have, therefore, rendered beyond the reach of human understandin~." the passage in the subjunctive mood,• From _Others, viewing the ;abject in the sa~e the hand of the grave I would xedeem them, light, read the clauses interrogatively, and from death I would deliver them. . . . I the imperfec::a in 11, 6Ubjanctive sense; will then redeem them, e.s far BB this de- thus- pends on me : for e. conclition ie to be in- " From the power of Sheol should I ransom troduced, as though God ea.me forth and them? declared that he was present, to fulfil the From death deliver them ? " office of 11, Redeemer. What, then, does stand in the way? Even the hardness of The answer being, " Certainly not." the people. . . . He afterwards ad,ls, • I will " Where a.re thy pestilences, 0 Death? be thy perdition, 0 Death; I will be thy Where is thy destruction, 0 Sheol? Let excision, 0 Grave.' By these words ,the those peetilen ces and that dee truction be prophet more dietinctly sets forLh the power produced for Ephraim's min." of God, and magnificently extols it, lest men should think that there is no way open to him Bepentanco (relenting) sha.11 be hid from mine to save, when no hope aceordingto thejudg- eyes. 'rhis Rsshi explains : " I will feel no meut of the flesh appears. Hence the pro- regret over this calamity." But we greatly phet BBys, 'Though men a.re now dead, thereie prefer tht1 sense of consolation assigned by yet nothing to preTent God to quicken them. many Christian interpreters to the pas;;a.ge. How eo? For he ie the ruin of death, and No doubt the verse before and that follow- the excision of the grave: ' that is,• Though ing this fourteenth verse are a threat which death should ewallow up all men, though probably induced so many, as we have seen, the grave should consume them, yet God is to include thie verse in the menace. But superior to both deuth and the grave, for he the abruptness of the prophet's style euffi- cam elal death, for he can abolish the oiently accounts for a bright MeBllianic grove.'' He afterwards proceeds to" a.newer promise to relieve the gloom of the dark to that which is so.id of Paul quoting this prediotione among which it is interjected. fflBijl'gll, Thti so\11tio11 is not diffioult. The Redemptiou f?ol!l the !K'wer of Shcol signi- 404 THE IlOOK OF HOSEA. [on. xm. 1-18.