Vers. 15, 16.-Figure and fact. The end of the kingdom is first described in e:i:pressive figure; it is then foretold in plain terms, which give a fearful idea. of its horrors. I. THE FIGURE ANSWEBD TO THE FACTS. (Ver. 15.) Ephraim was as a fruitful tree among his brethren. But: I. The east wind would blight him. To this answers the statement that Samaria would become desolate. Ephraim fed on wind, and pursued the east wind; now its hot, scorching breath was his destruction. 2. His spring would become dry. To this answers the statement that mothers and children wciuld be destroyed. These were the spring, the fountains of his fruitfulness. He ·would be.dried up at his roots. The hope of revival through offspring would be .cut off. from ,him. 3. His tre,asures of goodly vessels would be plundered. This leaves the image of ,the tree. It returns to realism. Plundering would succeed victory. .Wi3 may apply to sin. It blights the soul; robs it of its bloom and fruitfulness ; .dries up the springs uf its life, which are in God; despoils it of its costly treasures of goodness, truth, holiness, affection, etc. . , 1L Tm: FACT IS NOT LESS TERRIBLE TH.AN THE FIGURE. (Ver.16.) We are apt, in reading figurative descriptions of the doom. of the sinner-the worm, the fire, weeping and gnashing of teeth. etc.-to break their force to our min~~ by the secret reflection that they are "only figures." " Only ~"W'es l '.' But the figures surely mean something. And ie the reality likely to be less terrible than the figures of it? The verse before us should warn us against this delusion. We have in ver. 15 the figure; we have the reality in plain terms here. Which is the more awful? The naked description of what will happen to Samaria greatly surpasses in terribleness all the figures that a.re employed t.o image it. And what was predicted actually occurred. -J.O.
EXPOSITION. return to which they are invited is ex• CHAPTER XIV. pressed, not by~~•• to or towards, but by iv, Ver. ].-The foregoing pa.rt of this book quite up to, or a.e far a.e right home; the &bounds with denunciations of punishment; penitent, therefore, is not merely to turn thiB closing chapter superaliounds with his mind or his fe.ce toward God, but to promises of pardon. Wave after wave of turn his face and his feet home to 'God ; he tLreatenecl wrnth had rolled over Israel and is not to go half the way and then turn come in unto their soul; now offer after e.eide, or part of the way and then turn offer of grace ii, made to them. 0 llrael, back, but the whole way; in other words. retum unto the Lord thy God. The invita- his repentance is to be complete and entire, tion to return implies previous departure, wanting nothing, e.ccording to the state- or distance, or wandering from God. The ment of the psalmist, " It is good for me to OH, XIV, 1-9.] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 431