or Aeeyrio.) to come against Israel, ' goeth confirmed Israel in the worship or th0 up from 1he wilderness;' wind la always in calves; for if the kings had been good, thoy the wilderness. Or the explanation is, would have brought back Israel to what becauije the wil,lerueas is botween the le.ncl we.a good." The ki. assigns the reason or of Jamel nncl the Janel of Assyria.; e.ncl before Se.mo.rio.'s desolation or guilt; it wne rebol- this wind, which is the King or Assyria., is lion e.g,.inst Jehovah, for Samaria was tha dried up tho fountain of Ephraim, which seat ancl centre of idolatry, and hence it was at first like a tree flourishing by the spread thronghout the land. They 1hall waters." Ancl now before this wind slie.ll fall by the nrord : their in!ante 1hall be its spring become clry ancl its fountain daabed in pieoea, and their women with dried up. The verb rzr,::i.'., as from l!li:.i, is ohild shall be ripped up. The deetrnction nn irregular formation for el~•:, as on the thns described was to be complete. The contrary we find the Hiph. £1•;:i\i,, as if from present population wonld perish by the l!l::i• sword; the future progeny would be ex- "ver. 16.-Bamaria ahall become deaolate; tingnishecl and all posterity cut off. Not for ahe he.th rebelled against her God. Others only the children already born, but those translate shall atone, i.e. bear guilt or punish- unborn, were devoted to destruction; and ment. In the latter sense it is from c~~. all this in the most savage and barbarous to a.tone or suffer the punishment of con- manner. The word ',7_ii1 (from ',',p, to meddle, trocted guilt; in the former sense it is from gratify one's self, indulge one's caprice) cp~, e.nd it is translated e.ccorclingly by presents childhood on the side of playful- e&<pav,rr8718,.,.a'i in the LXX., e.nd pereat by ness or petulance. The pronominal suffix Jerome; so also Aben Ezra: "It she.11 be laid attached to ,..,., refers to the city; and the wo.ste;" Kimchi: "The aleph ho.a ach'u:a feminine noun itself, forming subject to verbs alone, and the signification 'desolation,' and in the masculine, arises from the fact that eo the dwellers therein shall be made the feminine of the imperfect pl=l becomes desolate." He thus intimates that aleph, rarer; or because the feminine plural only having sch'u,a a.lone without seghol, does not gradually distinguishes itself by a peculiar belong to the root, which is not Cll'N (for its form from the mascnline. The cruelties future would be ce!Nl'I), but ccl!i. Raahi, here specified may have heen occasioned by however, understand~ Tit in tbeT sense of those of the same kind with which Menahem "atone,'' or"find out her guiltiness;" he says, King of Samaria. smote Tiphsah. On that "J<'rom now will her guilt manifest itself." occasion "all the women therein th.~t were The reason of Se.maria. being thus mentioned with child he ripped np" (compare, for the is not only that it was the capital of the cruel practice, 'Iliad,' vi. 58 ; 2 Kings viii 12 and xv. 16). northern ki11gdom, but, as Kimchi says, "it
HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1-8.-Justification of the ways of God to man. Israel had been the cause of their own calamities-another proof that sin is the procuring cause of all human suffering and sorrow. God's character is seen to be everlastingly the same-long- suffering and merciful, ever gracious to penitents, abounding in goodness a.nd truth to all, but by no means clearing the guilty. I. THE SECRET OF sucoEss. Most men are fond of power, all men value prosperity ; yet few men know the right roo.d, aud fewer still pursue it. Righteousness is the right roo.d to success of any kind, and the sure way of elevation; it exalts either nation or individual who practises it. 1. As long as Ephraim worshipped the true God aud abstained from idolatry, which subsequently became their besetting sin, they had power and pre-eminence. When they epake, their word was with power and not unfrequently inspired terror; it was sure to cowe with authority and to command respect among the other tribes of Israel. Ephraim had lonu0 been the premier tribe, enjoying the credit of great names, Joshua and Samuel; and of great deeds, the defeat of Midia.n and tho death of the two Midianite princes, Oreb and Zeeb; also of great privileges, the na.tional sanctuary having been for three centuries and a half at Shiloh, within the confines of that tribe. Nor were they slow to asBert themselves and advance their claims. 2. But the tide turned. They offended in Baal; then came national degni.dation and politicul death -they fell by their own hand as moral suicides. Sin brought Ephraim dowu from his high 11nd exalted position, and laid his honour in the dust. lie btcame like a dead ll!an, 400 TRE BOOK OF HOSEA. (cnt, :ltl1, 1-id.