Revelation 3:17(v8)Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable,…
Psalms 62:10(v8)Don’t trust in oppression. Don’t become vain in robbery. If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them.
Leviticus 23:40-43(v9)You shall take on the first day the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook;…
Deuteronomy 8:17(v8)and lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand has gotten me this wealth.”
Job 31:24-25(v8)“If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, ‘You are my confidence;’ If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and…
Show all 59 cross-references
Psalms 49:6(v8)Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches—
Psalms 52:7(v8)“Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his…
Proverbs 11:1(v7)A false balance is an abomination to Yahweh, but accurate weights are his delight.
Proverbs 30:12(v8)There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness.
Proverbs 30:20(v8)“So is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
Isaiah 10:13-14(v8)For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding. I have removed the boundaries of…
Amos 8:5-6(v7)Saying, ‘When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may market wheat, making the ephah small, and the…
Micah 6:10-11(v7)Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed? Shall I be pure with dishonest…
Zechariah 11:5(v8)Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t…
1 Timothy 6:5(v8)constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself…
Leviticus 19:35-36(v7)“ ‘You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity. You shall have just balances, just…
1 Samuel 12:3(v7)Here I am. Witness against me before Yahweh, and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I…
2 Samuel 7:2(v9)the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God’s ark dwells within curtains.”
Nehemiah 8:15-17(v9)and that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and get olive branches,…
Psalms 81:10(v9)I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
Proverbs 16:11(v7)Honest balances and scales are Yahweh’s; all the weights in the bag are his work.
Isaiah 3:5(v7)The people will be oppressed, everyone by another, and everyone by his neighbor. The child will behave himself proudly against the old man,…
Jeremiah 2:23(v8)“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift…
Ezekiel 16:3(v7)and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says to Jerusalem: “Your origin and your birth is of the land of the Canaanite. An Amorite was your father, and…
Ezekiel 22:29(v7)The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the…
Hosea 13:4(v9)“Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.
Amos 2:7(v7)They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same…
Amos 3:9(v7)Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and…
Amos 4:1(v7)Listen to this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who tell their…
Amos 5:11(v7)Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in…
Micah 3:1-3(v7)I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice? You who hate the good, and…
Micah 7:2(v7)The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his…
Habakkuk 1:16(v8)Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good.
Habakkuk 2:5-6(v8)Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous. An arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol, and he is like death, and…
Zechariah 14:21(v7)Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of Armies; and all those who sacrifice will come and take of them, and cook…
Malachi 3:5(v7)I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the…
Malachi 3:13(v8)“Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’
Luke 10:29(v8)But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?”
Luke 12:19(v8)I will tell my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” ’
Luke 16:13(v8)No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other.…
Luke 16:15(v8)He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men…
John 2:16(v7)To those who sold the doves, he said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!”
1 Timothy 6:9-10(v7)But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and…
1 Timothy 6:17(v8)Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the…
James 5:4(v7)Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have…
Genesis 25:27(v9)The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
Exodus 20:2(v9)“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Leviticus 19:36(v9)You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Leviticus 26:13(v9)I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bars of your yoke,…
Numbers 15:41(v9)I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Yahweh your God.”
Ezra 3:4(v9)They kept the feast of booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty…
Jeremiah 2:35(v8)“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
Jeremiah 35:7(v9)You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, or have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many…
Zechariah 14:16-19(v9)It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King,…
John 7:2(v9)Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.
Hebrews 11:9-13(v9)By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him…
Micah 2:1(v7)Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of…
Micah 6:4(v9)For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
Malachi 2:17(v8)You have wearied Yahweh with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv7–9But while the Prophet exhorted the Israelites to repentance,…
But while the Prophet exhorted the Israelites to repentance, he adds, that such was their perverseness, that it was done without any fruit. Canaan! he says; I read this by itself; for what some consider to be understood is frigid, as, “He was assimilated to, or was like Canaan, in whose hand,” etc.. But, on the contrary, the Prophet here condemns the Israelites by one word; as though he said, that they were wholly aliens, and unworthy to be called the children of Abraham. And thus what we say is often abrupt, when we speak indignantly. The Prophet then calls them “Canaan” through indignation; which means this, “Ye are not the children of Abraham; ye falsely boast of his name, which cannot be suitable to you; for ye are Canaan.”
He afterwards adds In his hand is the balance of fraud, he loves to plunder, or to spoil. Literally it is, he loves to spoil. But the sense is clear, that they loved to plunder; that is, they were carried away with all greediness to acts of robbery. It must first be noticed, that the Prophet here exposes to infamy the carnal descendants of Abraham by calling them Canaan, and this imputation is often to be met with in the Prophets. And the reason why they were thus addressed was, that these senseless men were wont proudly to set up as their shield the distinction of their race. “What! we are a holy people.” Since by this pretence they rejected all the warnings of the Prophets, God casts back this reproach, “Ye are not the children of Abraham; but ye are Canaan:” as though he said, “Nothing in that nation has as yet changed, the Israelites are always like themselves.” The Lord had once cleansed the land of godless men: but when the descendants of Abraham became like the Canaanites, they were called the seed of Canaan; as though the same nation, which was there formerly, had still remained; for there was no difference in their manners, for they were equal or the same in depravity.
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But the reason follows why he calls them the race of Canaan even because they carried in their hand a deceitful balance, and devoted themselves with all avidity to plunder. The deceitful balance may be extended to their dissimulations, fallacies, and falsehoods, by which God, as he had before complained, was surrounded; but as it immediately follows, He loves robberies, I prefer to understand here those two modes of doing injury which include almost every kind of wickedness; for men either craftily defraud when they injure others, or they do harm to their neighbours by open force. Since, then, they who wrong their neighbours do either openly injure them, or circumvent the simple by their frauds and crafty dealings, Hosea lays down here, in the first place, the deceitful balance, and then he adds their greediness in spoiling or plundering. It is then the same as if he had said that they were fraudulent, and that they were also robbers who proceeded with open violence. He means that they were, without law or any restraint, addicted to acts of wrong and injustice, and were so intent on doing mischief, as to do it either by craft or by open force. There is then no wonder that they were called an uncircumcised race. Why? Because they had nothing to do with God, inasmuch as they had thus departed from his law; yea, they abhorred kindness and mercy. It also follows that they were void of all piety, since they were thus unmindful of all equity towards their neighbours. This is the meaning.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv7–9As for Ephraim he is more like the wicked…
As for Ephraim he is more like the wicked Canaanites, than godly Abraham or Jacob.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Hos 12:7 [He is] a merchant, the balances of…
Hos 12:7 [He is] a merchant, the balances of deceit [are] in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
Ver. 7. He is a merchant] Heb. He is Canaan that is, a mere natural man, Eze 16:3, money merchant, who, so he may have it, careth not how he comes by it; he is more like a Canaanite than a Jacobite. Jacob said, "I have enough, my brother"; but Ephraim is sick of the plague of unsatisfiableness; and instead of keeping mercy and judgment, as in the former verse, he keepeth false balances in his hand and false weights in his bag, Deu 15:13-15 Lev 19:36 Pro 11:1; Pro 16:11; Pro 20:10 {See Trapp on "Pro 11:1"} {See Trapp on "Pro 16:11"} {See Trapp on "Pro 20:10"} He that hath his hands full of the balances of deceit, and will not loose them to take hold of God, will not part with his fat and sweet (as the vine and olive in Jotham’s parable), though it be to reign in heaven how can it be expected that he should turn to God, or that he should love to be his servant in Isa 56:6.
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When he loveth to oppress] To get gain, if not by fraud and cunning contrivance, then by force, and by forged cavillation, as Luk 19:8. Sic quaecunque potest arte nocere, nocet and all this he loveth to do; he delights in it he not only is pleased with it, but pleadeth for it, and opposeth with crest and breast whatsoever standeth in the way of his own heart; exercised with covetousness (as St Peter’s phrase is, 2Pe 2:14), which he constantly followeth as the artificer doth his trade. Let such Canaanites read that flaming text, 1Th 4:6 and take heed, lest while they get all they can by wrench and wile, lest while they count all good fish that comes to net, they catch at length the devil and all; lest they receive no less sums of curses than of coin; lest screechowls of woe cry aloud, from the beams of their chambers, &c. {See Trapp on "Hos 7:1"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv7–9He is a merchant; Ephraim, of whom here, is…
He is a merchant; Ephraim, of whom here, is so far from being Jacob, or as Jacob, that you may call and account him a Canaanite, a subtle merchant.
The balances of deceit are in his hand; what he cannot gain by fair trading, he will by downright cheating; he is covetous, and very unjust.
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He loveth to oppress; where violence, calumnies, and false accusations are needful to compass his covetous and cozening designs, he will not stick at them; this way of gain he loveth, his heart is upon it; though God hate the false balance, and false witness, and the violent man, yet Ephraim loves them all for his gain.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v7Here are intermixed, in these verses,
Here are intermixed, in these verses,
I. Reproofs for sin. When God is coming forth to contend with a people, that he may demonstrate his own righteousness, he will demonstrate their unrighteousness. Ephraim was called to turn to his God and keep judgment (Hos 12:6); now, to show that he had need of that call, he is charged with turning from his God by idolatry, and breaking the laws of justice and judgment.
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1. He is here charged with injustice against the precepts of the second table, Hos 12:7, Hos 12:8. Here observe,
(1.) What the sin is wherewith he is charged: He is a merchant. The margin reads it as a proper name, He is Canaan, or a Canaanite, unworthy to be denominated from Jacob and Israel, and worthy to be cast out with a curse from this good land, as the Canaanites were. See Amo 9:7. But Canaan sometimes signifies a merchant, and therefore is most likely to do so here, where Ephraim is charged with deceit in trade. Though God had given his people a land flowing with milk and honey, yet he did not forbid them to enrich themselves by merchandise, and they succeeded the Canaanites in that as well as in their husbandry; they sucked the abundance of the seas and the treasures hidden in the sand, Deu 33:19. And, if they had been fair merchants, it would have been no reproach at all to them, but an honour and a blessing. But he is such a merchant as the Canaanites were, who were honest only with good looking to, and, if they could, cheated all they dealt with. Ephraim does so; he deceives and thereby oppresses. Note, There is oppression by fraud as well as oppression by force. It is not only princes, lords, and masters, that oppress their subjects, tenants, and servants, but merchants and traders are often guilty of oppressing those they deal with, when they impose upon their ignorance, or take advantage of their necessity, to make hard bargains with them, or are rigorous and severe in exacting their debts. Ephraim cheated, [1.] With a great deal of art and cunning: The balances of deceit are in his hand. He uses balances, and delivers his goods by weight and measure, as if he would be very exact, but they are balances of deceit, false weights and false measures, and thus, under colour of doing right, he does the greatest wrong. Note, God has his eye upon merchants and traders, when they are weighing their goods and paying their money, whether they do honestly or deceitfully. He observes what balances they have in their hand, and how they hold them; and, though those they deal with may not be aware of that sleight of hand with which they make them balances of deceit, God sees it, and knows it. Trades by the wit of man are made mysteries, but it is a pity that by the sin of man they should ever be made mysteries of iniquity. [2.] With a great deal of pleasure and pride: He loves to oppress. To oppress is bad enough, but to love to do so is much worse. His conscience does not check and reprove him for it, as it ought to do; if it did, though he committed the sin, he could not delight in it; but his corruptions are so strong, and have so triumphed over his convictions, that he not only loves the gain of oppression, but he loves to oppress, sins for sinning-sake, and takes a pleasure in out-witting and over-reaching those that suspect him not.
(2.) How he justifies himself in this sin, Hos 12:8. Wicked men will have something to say for themselves now when they are told of their faults, some frivolous turn-off or other wherewith to evade the convictions of the word. Ephraim stands indicted for a common cheat. Now see what he pleads to the indictment. He does not deny the charge, nor plead, Not guilty, yet does not make a penitent confession of it and ask pardon, but insists upon his own justification. Suppose it were so that he did use balances of deceit, yet, [1.] He pleads that he had got a good estate. Let the prophet say what he pleased of his deceit, of the sin of it and the curse of God that attended it, he could not be convinced there was any harm or danger in it, for this he was sure of that he had thriven in it: "Yet I have become rich, I have found me out substance. Whatever you make of it, I have made a good hand of it." Note, Carnal hearts are often confirmed in a good opinion of their evil ways by their worldly prosperity and success in those ways. But it is a great mistake. Every word in what Ephraim says here proclaims his folly. First, It is folly to call the riches of this world substance, for they are things that are not, Pro 23:5. Secondly, It is folly to think that we have them of ourselves, to say (as some read it), I have made myself rich; what substance I have is owing purely to my ingenuity and industry - I have found it; my might and the power of my hand have gotten me this wealth. Thirdly, It is folly to think that what we have is for ourselves. I have found me out substance, as if we had it for our own proper use and behoof, whereas we hold it in trust, only as stewards. Fourthly, It is folly to think that riches are things to be gloried in, and to say with exultation, I have become rich. Riches are not the honours of the soul, are not peculiar to the best men, nor sure to us; and therefore let not the rich man glory in his riches, Jam 1:9, Jam 1:10. Fifthly, It is folly to think that growing rich in a sinful way makes us innocent, or will make us safe, or may make us easy, in that way; for the prosperity of fools deceives and destroys them. See Isa 47:10; Pro 1:32. [2.] He pleads that he had kept a good reputation. It is common for sinners, when they are justly reproved by their ministers, to appeal to their neighbours, and because they know no ill of them, or will say none, or think well of what the prophets charge them with as bad, fly in the face of their reprovers: In all my labours (says Ephraim) they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin. Note, Carnal hearts are apt to build a good opinion of themselves upon the fair character they have among their neighbours. Ephraim was very secure; for, First, All his neighbours knew him to be diligent in his business; they had an eye upon all his labours, and commended him for them. Men will praise thee when thou doest well for thyself. Secondly, None of them knew him to be deceitful in his business. He acted with so much policy that nobody could say to the contrary but that he acted with integrity. For either, 1. He concealed the fraud, so that none discovered it: "Whatever iniquity there is, they shall find none;" as if no iniquity were displeasing to God, and damning to the soul, but that which is open and scandalous before men. What will it avail us that men shall find no iniquity in us, when God finds a great deal, and will bring every secret work, even secret frauds, into judgment? Or, 2. He excused the fraud, so that none condemned it: "They shall find no iniquity in me that were sin, nothing very bad, nothing but what is very excusable, only some venial sins, sins not worth speaking of," which they think God will make nothing of because they do not. It is a fashionable iniquity; it is customary; it is what every body does; it is pleasant; it is gainful; and this, they think, is no iniquity that is sin; nobody will think the worse of them for it. But God sees not as man sees; he judges not as man judges.
2. He is here charged with idolatry, against the precepts of the first table, with that iniquity which is in a special manner vanity, the making and worshipping of images, which are vanities (Hos 12:11): Surely they are vanity; they do not profit, but deceive. Now the prophet mentions two places notorious for idolatry: - (1.) Gilead on the other side Jordan, which had been branded for it before (Hos 6:8): Is there iniquity in Gilead? It is a thing to be wondered at; it is a thing to be sadly lamented. What! iniquity in Gilead? idolatry there? Gilead was a fruitful pleasant country (pleasant to a proverb, Jer 22:6), and does it so ill requite the Lord? It was a frontier-country, and lay much exposed to the insults of enemies, and therefore stood in special need of the divine protection; what! and yet by iniquity throw itself out of that protection? Is there iniquity in Gilead? Yea, (2.) And in Gilgal too; there they sacrifice bullocks (Hos 9:15), and there their altars which they have set up, either to strange gods in opposition to his own appointed altar, are as thick as heaps of manure in the furrows of the field that is to be sown, Hos 8:11. Is there iniquity in Gilead only? so some. Is it only in those remote parts of the nation that people are so superstitious, where they border upon other nations? No; they are as bad at Gilgal. In Gilead God protected Jacob their father (of whom he had been speaking) from the rage of Laban; and will you there commit iniquity?
II. Here are threatenings of wrath for sin. Some make that to be so (Hos 12:9), I will make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the appointed time, that is, I will bring thee into such a condition as the Israelites were in when they dwelt in tents and wandered for forty years; that was the time appointed in the wilderness. Ephraim forgot that God brought him out of Egypt and brought him up to be what he was, and was proud of his wealth, and took sinful courses to increase it; and therefore God threatens to bring him to a tabernacle-state again, to a poor, mean, desolate, unsettled condition. Note, It is just with God, when men have by their sins turned their tents into houses, by his judgments to turn their houses into tents again. However, that is certainly a threatening (Hos 12:14), Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly. See how men are deceived in their opinion of themselves, and how they will one day be undeceived. Ephraim thought that there was no iniquity in him that deserved to be called sin (Hos 12:8); but God told him that there was that in him which was sin, and would be found so if he did not repent and reform; for, 1. It was extremely offensive to his God: Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly with his iniquities, which were so distasteful to God, and to him too would be bitterness in the latter end. He was so wilful in sinning against his knowledge and convictions that any one might see, and say, that he designed no other than to provoke God in the highest degree. 2. It would certainly be destructive to himself; that cannot be otherwise which provokes God against him, and kindles the fire of his wrath. Therefore, (1.) He shall take away his forfeited life: He shall leave his blood upon him, that is, he shall not hold him guiltless, but bring upon him that death which is the wages of sin. His blood shall be upon his own head (Sa2 1:16), for his own iniquity has testified against him and he alone shall bear it. Note, When sinners perish their blood is left upon them. (2.) He shall take away his forfeited honour: His reproach shall his Lord return upon him. God is his Lord; he had by idolatry and other sins reproached the Lord, and done dishonour to him, and to his name and family, and had given occasion to others to reproach him; and now God will return the reproach upon him, according to the word he has spoken, that those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed. Note, Shameful sins shall have shameful punishments. If Ephraim put contempt on his God, he shall be so reduced that all his neighbours shall look with contempt upon him.
III. Here are memorials of former mercy, which come in to convict them of base ingratitude in revolting from God. Let them blush to remember,
1. That God had raised them from meanness. When Ephraim had become rich, and was proud of that, he forgot that which God (that he might not forget it) obliged them every year to acknowledge (Deu 26:5), A Syrian ready to perish was my father. But God here puts them in mind of it, Hos 12:12. Let them remember, not only the honours of their father Jacob, what a mighty prince he was with God, Hos 12:3 (an honour which they had no share in while they were in rebellion against God), but what a poor servant he was to Laban, which was sufficient to mortify those that were puffed up with the estates they had raised. Jacob fled into Syria from a malicious brother, and there served a covetous uncle for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep, because he had not estate to endow a wife with. Jacob was poor, and low, and a fugitive; therefore his posterity ought not to be proud. He was a plain man, dwelling in tents, and keeping sheep; therefore balances of deceit ill became them. He served for a wife that was not a Canaanitess, as Esau's wives were; therefore it was a shame for them to degenerate into Canaanites, and mingle with the nations. God wonderfully preserved him in his flight and preserved him in his service, so that he multiplied exceedingly, and from that root in a dry ground sprang an illustrious nation, that bore his name, which magnifies the goodness of God both to him and them and leaves them under the stain of base ingratitude to that God who was their founder and benefactor.
2. That God had rescued them from misery, had raised them to what they were, not only out of poverty, but out of slavery (Hos 12:13), which laid them under much stronger obligations to serve him and under a yet deeper guilt in serving other gods. (1.) God brought Israel out of Egypt on purpose that they might serve him, and by redeeming them out of bondage acquired a special title to them and to their service. (2.) He preserved them, as sheep are kept by the shepherd's care. He preserved them from Pharaoh's rage at the sea, even at the Red Sea, protected them from all the perils of the wilderness, and provided for them. (3.) He did this by a prophet, Moses, who, though he is called king in Jeshurun (Deu 33:5), yet did what he did for Israel as a prophet, by direction from God and by the power of his word. The ensign of his authority was not a royal sceptre, but the rod of God; with that he summoned both Egypt's plagues and Israel's blessings. Moses, as a prophet, was a type of Christ (Act 3:22), and it is by Christ as a prophet that we are brought out of the Egypt of sin and Satan by the power of his truth. Now this shows how very unworthy and ungrateful this people were, [1.] In rejecting their God, who had brought them out of Egypt, which, in the preface to the commandments, is particularly mentioned as a reason for the first, why they should have no other gods before him. [2.] In despising and persecuting his prophets, whom they should have loved and valued, and have studied to answer God's end in sending them, for the sake of that prophet by whom God had brought them out of Egypt and preserved them in the wilderness. Note, The benefit we have had by the word of God greatly aggravates our sin and folly if we put any slight upon the word of God.
3. That God had taken care of their education as they grew up. This instance of God's goodness we have, Hos 12:10. As by a prophet he delivered them, so by prophets he still continued to speak to them. Man, who is formed out of the earth, is fed out of the earth; so that nation, that was formed by prophecy, by prophecy was fed and taught; beginning at Moses, and so going on to all the prophets through the several ages of that church, we find that divine revelation was all along their tuition. (1.) They had prophets raised up among themselves (Amo 2:11), a succession of them, were scarcely ever without a Spirit of prophecy among them more or less, from Moses to Malachi. (2.) These prophets were seers; they had visions, and dreams, in which God discovered his mind to them immediately, with a full assurance that it was his mind, Num 12:6. (3.) These visions were multiplied; God spoke not only once, yea, twice, but many a time; if one vision was not regarded, he sent another. The prophets had variety of visions, and frequent repetitions of the same. (4.) God spoke to them by the prophets. What the prophets received from the Lord they plainly and faithfully delivered to them. The people at Mount Sinai begged that God would speak to them by men like themselves, and he did so. (5.) In speaking to them by the prophets he used similitudes, to make the messages he sent by them intelligible, more affecting, and more likely to be remembered. The visions they saw were often similitudes, and their discourses were embellished with very apt comparisons. And, as God by his prophets, so by his Son, he used similitudes, for he opened his mouth in parables. Note, God keeps an account, whether we do or no, of the sermons we hear; and those that have long enjoyed the means of grace in purity, plenty, and power, that have been frequently, faithfully, and familiarly, told the mind of God, will have a great deal to answer for another day if they persist in a course of iniquity.
IV. Here are intimations of further mercy, and this remembered too in the midst of sin and wrath (as some understand Hos 12:9): "I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, who then and there took thee to be my people, and have approved myself thy God ever since, in a constant series of merciful providences, have yet a kindness for thee, bad as thou art; and I will make thee to dwell in tabernacles, not as in the wilderness, but as in the days of the solemn feast," the feast of tabernacles, which was celebrated with great joy, Lev 23:40. 1. They shall be made to see, by the grace of God, that though they are rich, and have found out substance, yet they are but in a tabernacle-state, and have in their worldly wealth no continuing city. 2. They shall yet have cause to rejoice in God, and have opportunity to do it in public ordinances. The feast of tabernacles was the first solemn feast the Jews kept after their return out of Babylon, Ezr 3:4. 3. This, as other promises, was to have its full accomplishment in the grace of the gospel, which provides tabernacles for believers in their way to heaven, and furnishes them with matter of joy, holy joy, joy in God, such as was in the feast of tabernacles, Zac 14:18, Zac 14:19.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv7–9He is a merchant,.... Here is a change of…
He is a merchant,.... Here is a change of person from "thou" to "he", from Judah to Ephraim, who is said to be a "merchant"; and if that was all, there is nothing worthy of dispraise in it; but he was a cheating merchant, a fraudulent dealer, as appears by what follows: or he is Canaan, or a Canaanite (y); more like a descendant of Canaan, by his manners, than a descendant of Jacob. But the Canaanites dealing much in merchandise, their name became a common name for a merchant, as a Chaldean for an astrologer; and as the children of Israel possessed their land, so they followed the same business and employment of life; which, had they performed honestly, would not have been to their discredit; but they were too much like the Canaanites, of whom Philostratus (z) says, they were covetous and fraudulent; and this was Ephraim's character. The Targum is,
"be you not as merchants;''
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the balances of deceit are in his hand; he used false weights and measures; made the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsified the balances by deceit; had wicked balances, and deceitful weights, and the scant measure, which is abominable, Amo 8:5; they pretended to weigh everything exactly they bought or sold; but cheated either by sleight or hand, holding the balances as they should not; or had one pair of scales and weights to buy with, and another to sell by, contrary to the law of God, Lev 19:35;
he loveth to oppress; instead of keeping and doing mercy and justice, they oppressed the poor, ground their faces, defrauded them of their due, and by secret and private methods cheated them in their dealings with them, and brought them to poverty and distress; and this they took delight and pleasure in, which showed a want of a principle of honesty in them, and that they were habituated to such a course of life, and were hardened in it, and had no remorse of conscience for it, but rather gloried in it.
(y) Sept. "Chanaan", V. L. Tigurine version; "Chanauaeum" refers, Munster. (z) Apud Grotium in loc.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv7–9A merchant - Ephraim is so far from being…
A merchant - Ephraim is so far from being as Jacob, that you may account him a Canaanite, a subtle merchant.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Verse 7. He is a merchant] Or a Canaanite;…
Verse 7. He is a merchant] Or a Canaanite; referring to the Phoenicians, famous for their traffic. Ephraim is as corrupt as those heathenish traffickers were. He kept, as many in all ages have done, a weight and a weight; a heavy one to buy with and a light one to sell by.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9Hos 12:7-8. He is a merchant, &c. — Bishop…
Hos 12:7-8. He is a merchant, &c. — Bishop Horsley renders this verse thus: Canaan the trafficker! The cheating balances in his hand! He has set his heart upon over-reaching! On which the bishop observes, “God says to the prophet, Instead of turning to me, and keeping to works of charity and justice, he is a mere heathen huckster. Thou hast miscalled him Jacob: he is Canaan. Not Jacob the god1y, the heir of the promise: Canaan the cheat, the son of the curse.” The Hebrew word כנען, rendered merchant, is both a proper name and an appellative. And to preserve the ambiguity in his translation, the bishop joins the appellative and the proper name together. Without this, as he justly observes, the whole spirit of the original would be lost to the English reader. All the ancient versions, except the Chaldee, give the proper name. The first words of the verse, He is, not being in the Hebrew, some interpreters, without supplying any thing, render the clause, The balances of deceit are in the hand of the merchant; that is, instead of practising just and fair dealing, which was the way to please God, they made use of unjust weights and measures, and practised frauds, deceits, and cunning, in buying and selling; depreciating those things they wanted to buy, below what they knew they were really worth; and setting a greater value on, and saying more in praise of, those things they wanted to sell, than they really deserved. These deceits in buying and selling are but too much used among us now, though God has so strongly declared his abhorrence of them in the Scriptures. He loveth to oppress — The Hebrew rather signifies, He loveth to defraud; to use the arts of cozenage. And Ephraim said — Rather, Nevertheless Ephraim said, I am become rich —
I have gotten riches, however, by my cunning and deceit, and as that is the case, I have no need to concern myself; for, so I have but riches, none will ask how I came by them. In this description of Ephraim, we may see but too like a picture of many in our times; for riches are too generally and too much the pursuit of mankind, and are generally too much prized; so that if men have but riches, they think they have every thing that is to be desired. Bishop Horsley presents us with a different interpretation of this verse, thus: Nevertheless, Ephraim shall say, that is, the time will come when Ephraim will repent, and say, Although I became rich, I acquired to myself [only] sorrow; all my labours procured not for me what may expiate iniquity. Thus interpreted, the words contain the penitent confession of the Ephraimites in the latter days, wrought upon at last by God’s judgments and mercies.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv7–9He is a merchant - Or, indignantly, “a merchant…
He is a merchant - Or, indignantly, “a merchant in whose hands are the balances of deceit!” How could they love “mercy and justice,” whose trade was “deceit,” who weighed out deceit with their goods? False in their dealings, in their weights and measures, and, by taking advantage of the necessities of others, oppressive also. Deceit is the sin of weakness oppression is the abuse of power. Wealth does not give the power to use naked violence but wealthy covetousness manifoldly grinds the poor. When for instance, wages are paid in necessaries priced exorbitantly, or when artisans are required to buy at a loss at their masters’ shops, what is it but the union of deceit and oppression? The trading world is full of oppression, scarcely veiled by deceit. “He loveth to oppress.” Deceit and oppression have, each, a devilish attractiveness to those practiced in them; deceit, as exercising cleverness, cunning, skill in overreaching, outwitting; oppression, as indulging self will, caprice, love of power, insolence, and the like vices. The word “merchant,” as the prophet spoke it, was “Canaan;” merchants being so called, because the Canaanites or Phoenicians were the then great merchant-people, as astrologers were called Chaldeans. The Phoenicians were, in Homer’s time, infamous for their griping in traffic. They are called “gnawers” and “money-lovers” . To call Israel, “Canaan,” was to deny to him any title to the name of Israel, “reversing the blessing of Jacob, so that, as it had been said of Jacob, “thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel,” he would in fact say, ‘Thy name shall be called no more Israel, but Canaan’; as being, through their deeds, heirs, not to the blessings of Israel but to the curse of Canaan.” So Ezekiel saith, “Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite” Eze 16:3.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Chanaan. The Phœnicians were so called, and all merchants.…
Chanaan. The Phœnicians were so called, and all merchants. Here the title is given reproachfully (Calmet) to all the posterity of Jacob. (Haydock) --- None more ignominious could be used, Daniel xiii. 56. Thus Rome is styled Babylon.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv7–9merchant--a play on the double sense of the Hebrew,…
merchant--a play on the double sense of the Hebrew, "Canaan," that is, a Canaanite and a "merchant" Eze 16:3 : "Thy birth is . . . of Canaan." They who naturally were descendants of pious Jacob had become virtually Canaanites, who were proverbial as cheating merchants (compare Isa 23:11, Margin), the greatest reproach to Israel, who despised Canaan. The Phœnicians called themselves Canaanites or merchants (Isa 23:8).
oppress--open violence: as the "balances of deceit" imply fraud.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv7–8ISRAEL’S UNHOLY AMBITION AND BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT, Hos_12:7-14.
ISRAEL’S UNHOLY AMBITION AND BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT, Hos_12:7-14.
Israel’s sole ambition had been to accumulate material wealth, even by the use of the most shameful means. This ill-gotten gain, the prophet says, will avail nothing, for Jehovah is about to reduce Israel to poverty (7-9). The latter part of the section is obscure, due perhaps to a disarrangement of the verses. They seem to contain a complaint of Jehovah because the people disregarded and rejected the prophets whom he had raised up. This obstinacy makes the judgment inevitable (10-14).
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7. He is a merchant [“trafficker”] — Literally, Canaan, without “he is”; hence margin of R.V., “As for Canaan, the… ,” is preferable. Addressed to the degenerate Israel. Because of the commercial habits of the Canaanites, including the Phoenicians, Canaan became a synonym of merchant (Job_41:6; Pro_31:24; compare Zep_1:11; Eze_17:4), just as Chaldean, at a later period, became a synonym of astrologer. “Instead of seeking high gifts from heaven, like its progenitor, Israel strives after money and goods, like the huckstering nation of the Canaanites.” Israel adopted also the fraudulent ways of the Canaanites (compare Odyssey, 14:290, 291).
Balances of deceit — Balances with which deceit is practiced. They “doctored” the scales in order to take advantage of the buyer (Amo_8:5).
Oppress — Better, with margin, R.V., “defraud.” It is significant that the prophet condemns as strongly the people’s attitude toward one another (compare Hos_4:1) as he condemns that toward Jehovah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–97. He is a merchant, &c.] Rather, Canaan! in…
7. He is a merchant, &c.] Rather, Canaan! in his hand are deceitful balances; he loveth to extort. The geographical term ‘Canaan’ simply means ‘lowland’, and therefore might be, and was, applied to Phœnicia (Isa_23:11) as well as to other lowland parts of Palestine; ‘Canaanite’ too became a synonym for ‘merchant’ (Job_41:6; Pro_31:24, comp. Zep_1:11; Eze_17:4), as ‘Chaldean’ was a synonym for ‘astrologer.’ Hosea uses the word collectively and metaphorically:—his ‘Canaan’ is a degenerate Israel. The sarcasm derives its point from the low repute of the Phœnician merchants for honesty (comp. Odyss. xiv. 290, 291).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–9(7) He is a merchant.—The vivid and fierce light…
(7) He is a merchant.—The vivid and fierce light of the prophet’s words is obscured in the English version. The rendering “he is a merchant” originates from the fact that Canaan (rendered “merchant”) is often used predominantly of Phœnicia, and Canaanites of Phœnicians, the great trading race (Isa_23:11; Job 40:30). Translate: As for Canaan, in his hand are false balances. He loves cheating. The descendants of Canaan (the son of Ham, the abhorred son of Noah) became in their whole career a curse and a bye-word in every religious and ethical sense. The princes of Tyre, the merchandise of Phœnicia, were, perhaps, then in the prophet’s mind. (Comp. Ezekiel 27)
Moreover, the prophet hints that Ephraim had imbibed Phœnicia’s love of gain and habits of unscrupulous trade. The literature of this period contains frequent references to these tendencies in Israel (Amo_2:6; Amo_8:5; Mic_6:10).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Vers. 7-14 contain a fresh description of Israel"s apostasy.…
Vers. 7-14 contain a fresh description of Israel"s apostasy. To this the prophet is led by the preceding train of thought. When he called to mind the earnestness of the patriarch to obtain the blessing, the sincerity of his repentance, and the evidences of conversion, consisting in mercy and judgment and constant waiting on God, he looks around on Israel, and finding those virtues conspicuous by their absence., he repeats the story of their degeneracy.
He is a merchant (margin, Canaan), the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. This verse is more exactly rendered, Canaan is he, in his hand are the balances of deceit: he loveth to oppress. How the sons have degenerated from the sire! No longer do we see Jacob wrestling in prayer with the angel of the covenant, and knighted in the field with the name of Israel, or "prince with God;" but a fraudulent merchant Kenaan , seeking to aggrandize himself by cheating and oppression. His conduct is the opposite of what God requires; instead of the mercy and judgment and trust in God enjoined in the preceding verse, we have the Canaanitish (Phoenician) trader, with his false scales in his hand and the love of oppression in his heart. The word Kenaan sometimes denotes Canaan, the son of Ham, and ancestor of the Canaanitish nation; sometimes the land of Canaan, or lowlands (from nK bow the knee, gonu gnu gnupetein , genu, knee; then "to be low" or "depressed") as opposed to or" highlands" (from to be high); sometimes Phoenicia, the northern part of Canaan; also, from the Canaanites or Phoenicians having been famous as merchants, a man of Canaan, or any merchant, so Job 40 and Pro_31:24, just as Kasdi Chaldaean is applied to an astrologer. At the time of Hosea, the Phoenicians were the great merchants who had the commerce of the world in their hand. Canaan is thus a figurative designation of Ephraim in their degenerate condition as indicated by the false balances and love of oppression. The verse is well explained by Theodoret: "And thou, Ephraim, imitating
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(1) the wickedness of Canaan, hast an unjust balance of mind: thou despisest justice, thou greedily desirest unjust power, thou art high-minded in rich, S, and dost arrogate to thyself very much in prescribing and determining the conditions thereof." Rashi more briefly remarks, "Ye depend upon your wealth because ye are merchants and defraud; and of your riches ye say, "Yet I have become rich, and shall not serve the Holy One; while Kimchi marks the contrast between Israel as he ought to be and Israel as he actually is, thus: "But thou art not so (i.e. practicing love and righteousness), but thou art like the Canaanite, i.e. as
(2) the merchant, in whose hand is the deceitful balance." The character of the Phoenician trader is thus given in the "Odyssey false Phoenician of insidious mind, Vers"d in vile arts, and foe to humankind." But, in addition to secret fraud, open violence is here charged against Israel.
Vers. 7-10. Extent of Israel"s apostasy.
I Here we are shown now FOR ISRAEL HAD APOSTATIZED, how unlike they were to the patriarch of whom they boasted, and how far they fell short of admonitions that had been addressed to) them.
1. They were like the Canaanite whom they despised than the patriarch from whom they were descended. They had become liker fraudulent merchants than God-fearing members of the Church of God. To fraud they added oppression where they had the power.
2. The love of money was the root of this evil trait of Jewish character a trait that shows itself too frequently at the present day, and which is not confined to the Jew, but comprehends the Gentile also. Men hasten to be rich, and cannot long be innocent.
3. There is no greater aggravation of sin than the love of it. The people of Israel at the period specified were not only addicted to the sin of covetousness or greediness of gain, but were actually enamored of their sin. One of the worst features of wicked men, which the apostle has so vividly photographed in that black catalogue of sin, is that, "knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
4. Men addicted to covetousness and whose hearts are set on getting gain make light of the doctrines of religion. Thus in the days of our Lord "the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him." Sacred truths and Divine mysteries were despised, while the ways and means of amassing wealth were their delight. So here the connection of ver. 7 may be the prophet"s complaint of his countrymen"s neglect of his exhortations, owing to their covetousness. "The scope of the prophet and the connection here is We may exhort, but so long as their hearts are covetous, and set upon their way of getting gain, they will never regard what we say; they will not turn to God, they will not hear of it, but will rather turn a deaf ear to all entreaties.
II EXCUSES FOR SIN. Here we see how wicked men excuse themselves and palliate their sins.
1. Success furnishes them with a plausible plea for self-vindication. The prosperity of fools, we are told, destroys them; while the worldly prosperity of the wicked is frequently fatal to their spiritual welfare. "Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way," says the psalmist, afterwards adding, "for evil-doers shall be cut off." It has been well and truly said that "prosperity in sinful ways is an old snare, hindering men from heeding challenges or God"s anger because of them.
2. The boastful spirit of the wicked; they glory in their gains as self-procured; they attribute all to their own skill, or strength, or ingenuity, or industry, or ability, and refuse to acknowledge God. Nor is it, indeed, possible they should, for how could they bless God for what they have acquired by sin or gained by fraudulent dealing?
3. False refuges to which wicked men resort: they divest themselves of all dread of Divine displeasure or of danger on the ground of prosperity; they force themselves to believe that if their conduct were either displeasing to God or fraught with danger to themselves, they would not be so prosperous in getting gain or have such success in sin. Another false refuge is to seek relief for a guilty conscience from the outward comforts procurable by ill- gotten gain.
4. Other false shifts or hypocritical evasions are, as is here intimated, resorted to by sinners. Sometimes they gloss over their sins with fair names; thus their dishonesties, whether by fraud or force, take the name of the fruits of their labors, the earnings of their industry, or the profits of their calling. Sometimes they depend on secrecy and defy detection, and, while they feel themselves free from discovery, they fancy themselves safe in their sin, as though the eye of God did not penetrate such thin disguises, or as if God had not said, "Be sure your sin will find you out." Sometimes they hypocritically profess abhorrence of sins they habitually practice; or, if they acknowledge sin at all, they salve their wounds of conscience by the consideration that their sins are very venial offences, and such as are incidental to their situation, or common to their calling, or peculiar to their trade. Thus they minimize their culpability and impose on their own souls,
III EFFECTS OF SIN. God"s goodness, which is designed to lead men to repent of sin, aggravates the sin of the impenitent.
1. God"s claims on Israel"s gratitude had been, indeed, mighty and manifold, as well as from ancient times. The glorious deliverances he had wrought for them, the low estate from which he had lifted them, the great exaltation to which he had raised them, the good land into which he had brought them, the rich grace he had bestowed on them, and the religious privileges he had conferred on them, all these blessings, having been abused, increased the sin of their ingratitude and intensified their guilt.
2. God cannot hold the sinner guiltless. Sin, wherever it is found or by whomsoever it is committed, cannot pass unpunished. The offences of God"s own dear children bring down chastisement upon them; he will not spare their faults. A father does not love his son less because he corrects him; he pities while he punishes; his bowels of compassion move while his hand holds the rod. So Israel, having been unmindful of God"s mercy, must be exiled from their goodly pleasant land, and go into a bondage bad as, or worse than, that in Egypt of yore.
3. Yet God for all that does not renounce his interest in his people; he will give them occasion again to remember his goodness and to celebrate his redeeming love. Their preservation and restoration should again afford abundant matter for gladness and thanksgiving, when they would join trembling with their mirth, and celebrate the solemn Feast of Tabernacles, with joy drawing water out of the wells of salvation. Whether the reference be to a literal joyful restoration of Israel to their own land, or a glad time of revival and refreshing to all the trim Israel of God, whether Gentile or Jew in gospel times, the encouragement is gracious and the prospect glorious. Nor is it less so from the contrast between the chastisement so deserved and the consolation promised.
IV EXCELLENCE OF DIVINE TEACHING AND INEXCUSABLENESS OF THOSE PRIVILEGED THEREWITH.
1. To his people in the past God spake at sundry times and in divers manners, or in divers portions, as they needed or could bear it, and in divers ways, by prophecy, by visions, by similitudes, and by the ministry of the Word. The means of grace were thus abundant and multiplied.
2. However different the modes of ministration were, the speaker was still one and the same. It is God who thus speaks to us by his messengers. If we reject the message and the messenger that brings it, we reject the Author; if we receive the message from the lips of the messenger, we receive him who gave the commission. What a grave responsibility! What need to take heed how we hear as well as what we hear! And bow incumbent on ministers also to take good heed, not only to the matter, but to the manner in which they convey the message they have received, remembering that they stand between the living and the dead, like Aaron when he took his censer and ran into the midst of the congregation till the plague was stayed.
3. The inexcusableness of those who, like Israel, enjoy so many privileges. The plainness, the variety, and the frequency of the Divine teaching impose a weighty responsibility, for unto whomsoever much is given, of them much shall be required; it is even a human principle practiced among men, that to whomsoever men have committed much, of him they ask the more. How God has left us all without excuse, seeing that in these days of light and liberty God has given us such a clear revelation of his will, so many ministries to explain and enforce it, so much freedom to exercise our judgment upon it, and derive light and leading from it, while we sit, like Israel of old, under our vine and fig tree in peace and safety, none daring to make us afraid!
Vers. 7-14. Three painful contrasts.
In this strophe the threatening of punishment is again repeated (ver. 14). Ephraim"s blood-guiltiness is to be left upon him; i.e. his sin is not to be pardoned. The "reproach" or dishonor which he has done to God by his idolatry, and iniquity God will repay him. But the denunciation is mixed with mercy. "I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles" (ver. 9) seems to include, not only a threatening of banishment from "the Lord"s land," but a new redemption from the coming Egypt-like bondage, which shall bring with it rest and freedom and prosperity. Beyond his captivity, Ephraim shall keep the joyous Feast of Tabernacles again, as a memorial of Messianic mercies in connection with his restoration. As Ewald, however, remarks, the main feature of these verses consists in "three compressed comparisons.
I "ISRAEL" HAS BECOME "CANAAN." (Vers. 7, 8) The "prince with God" has degenerated into a cheating huckster; the descendants of the godly Jacob have become like paltry Phoenician peddlers. Instead of "keeping mercy and judgment" (ver. 6) in their commercial dealings, they love to practice deception and oppression. Ephraim, accordingly, does not deserve to be called by the honorable name of "Israel;" he exhibits rather the innate characteristics of the Canaanite tribes, and may well be spoken of as "Canaan." But, worse even than that, the people are spiritually self-complacent, all the while that they deal so dishonestly. They deceive themselves with the notion that their habits of social injustice involve no sin against God. They ignore the teaching of their law about "just balances, and just weights". (Lev_19:36 Deu_25:13-16) Enough for them if they become rich through their ill-gotten gains. They even argue that their continued success in acquiring riches by means of "the balances of deceit" is an evidence that the Lord cannot be angry with them (ver. 8).
Lessons.
1. It is a spurious piety which does not take to do with "weights and measures.
2. The dangers of covetousness, a besetting sin of many Church members.
3. Long-continued temporal prosperity is not necessarily a token of God"s favor.
4. Ungodly men pervert the Divine goodness and forbearance into an encouragement to persist in their sinful courses.
II EPHRAIM HAS FORSAKEN THE PROPHETS FOR HEATHEN ALTARS. (Vers. 10, 11) Jehovah, who had been his God "from the land of Egypt," had shown his love for the nation in raising up a succession of men as their teachers, upon whom he caused his Spirit to rest. The prophets instructed the people in spiritual truth and moral duty. They rebuked idolatry. They denounced all injustice and oppression. They warned of coming judgments. They testified beforehand of the coming of the Messiah, and of the ultimate salvation of the world through him. The larger number of the great prophets were sent to the kingdom of Judah, and yet some of the most distinguished of them labored in the northern kingdom, as e.g. Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea himself. The Lord gave his Word to the prophets in a variety of ways. Sometimes by an audible voice, as to Samuel; more frequently, by writing the message in burning thoughts upon the prophet"s soul; and often, as Hosea here reminds the people, by multiplying visions." The vision" was a frequent vehicle of Divine revelation during the whole course of the national life of Israel. Jehovah multiplied visions to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, etc. And the prophets, in delivering the Lords message, were directed to employ material signs as a means of adding emphasis to spiritual truth. The Lord, who knows our frame, and who has made the earth but the shadow of heaven" (Milton), took care to give similitudes by the prophets." Tile Hebrew seers used the metaphor, the allegory, the parable, the dramatic action. They found spiritual analogies everywhere in nature, and in the circumstances of human life. And all this was a manifestation of God"s solicitude for his people"s good. He sent the "prophets," and gave the "visions," and suggested the "similitudes" in tender love for his erring children. Yet all was in vain. The people continued to live as if God had given them no revelation. Their idolatry extended all over the region beyond Jordan, here represented by "Gilead;" and all over the west of Jordan, represented by Gilgal." They turned a deaf ear to the warning voices of the prophets. Ephraim forsook the one altar which God recognized as his, and increased the number of idol shrines until they covered the land, like the heaps of stones cleared by the farmer out of a ploughed field. The idolatry and wickedness of Israel were committed against the clearest light of prophecy, and against the yearning love of Jehovah, which had led him "daily to rise up early" and send the prophets.
Lessons.
1. The privilege of being within reach of an earnest gospel ministry.
2. The advantage of the judicious use of illustrations in religious teaching.
3. How sad it is when localities which were once the scene of special manifestations of God become polluted with scandalous wickedness!
4. How aggravated the guilt of those who" sin willfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth"! (Heb_10:26)
III EPHRAIM HAS FAILED TO LEARN THE LESSONS OF HIS OWN EARLY HISTORY. (Vers. 12-14) Had he reflected aright upon the course of Divine providence towards himself, his thoughts about God would have been thoughts especially of humility and gratitude.
1. Humility. (Ver. 12) When the Jew offered his basket of" firstfruits" annually to the Lord, he was to say, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father". (Deu_26:5) Jacob, the stem-father of the tribes, went to Mesopotamia as a fugitive, and remained there for twenty years as a servant. He had no dowry to offer for Rachel; he could only serve for her as a shepherd. Israel, accordingly, had not much to boast of as regards his national origin; the beginnings of the nation could scarcely have been more humble. And yet how different was Jacob"s life, spiritually, from that of his children to whom Hosea spoke this prophecy!
2. Gratitude. (Ver. 13) The reference now is to Moses. If Jacob"s condition of servitude in Padan-aram taught a lesson of humility, the thought of the slavery of his immediate posterity in Egypt was fitted to inspire sentiments of gratitude. What a great emancipation was that of the Exodus! And the agent by whom that deliverance had been accomplished was a prophet, and one who, like Jacob, had been a shepherd. Degenerate Israel despised the teacher whom God sent, forgetting while he did so that the emancipation from the bondage of Egypt had taken place under the leadership of one single prophet. The Prophet Moses had conducted the tribes through the Red Sea; and had acted as their guardian, and their mediator with God, during all the forty years which they spent in the Arabian desert Under him the people had passed from a state of servitude into a position of sonship. Yet, alas! the nation cherished now neither humility nor gratitude. The Lord had preserved, enriched, and blessed them; but in return they only "provoked him to auger" by their grievous sins, until it became impossible that they could escape the punishment of their impiety.
Lessons:
1. The profitableness of the study of Scripture biography and history.
2. God"s people must expect to be subjected to discipline as a condition of their spiritual advancement.
3. The Lord uses apparently humble instruments to accomplish great results.
4. The duty of cherishing gratitude for past mercies in our national history. C.J.
Vers. 7-9. Fortunes badly used, badly made, and badly ended.
"He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin. And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast." Here we have
I FORTUNES BADLY USED. "And Ephraim said, I am become rich, I have found me out substance." Here is a fortune held and no doubt employed in the spirit of haughty egotism. It is all I "I have become rich, I have found me out substance.
1. Here there is no recognition of human co-operation. No man comes in possession of wealth without the efforts of some men either living or dead. Wealth, whoever holds it, is the result in most, perhaps in all cases of the efforts of a large number of human workers. But the possessor oftentimes takes no note of this. He thinks only of himself. He does not think of the toil, the sweat, the exhaustion of those who have helped to put it into his hand.
2. Here there is no recognition of Divine agency. All fortunes roam of God out of his materials, out of his seasons, out of the activity of his creatures. But there is no recognition of him here. "I have become rich, I have found me out substance." How many fortunes are thus held and employed in England this day held and employed in a haughty egotism!
II FORTUNES BADLY MADE.
1. Here is fraud. He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand." The hand of fraud has ever been, and still is, alas! the most active of all agencies in the erection of fortunes. There is deceit everywhere. In all fabrics, groceries, trade commodities. Deceit in making, deceit both in the buying and the selling. Were all the fortunes in England that have been built up by deceit to be destroyed this day, the whole human world would be startled with the terrible crash. The event would be as the hurling of the Himalaya into the sea, causing the billows to roar on every shore.
2. Here is oppression. "He loveth to oppress." Indeed, fraud is oppression in some form or other. What unrighteous exactions there are in the building of many fortunes! Go to the pits of mine-owners, to the factories of manufacturers, to the warehouses of merchants, to the vessels of shipowners, and everywhere you will meet men and women groaning under the oppression of those for whom they are building up fortunes.
3. Here is cunning. "In all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin." Ephraim this typical fortune-maker took such care to conceal all that was unfair and nefarious in his operations that he was certain no wrong could be found in his doings. Wrong there was, he knew, but he was careful that none should discover it. By plausible and well-guarded statements, by legal formulae, by "board" resolutions, he tools that he can say, "In all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me." Who has not seen many men of this type? many who have made a fortune by a swindle, but have so guarded the transaction that they have clapped their hands and said, "None will ever find it oat.
III FORTUNES BADLY ENDED. "And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast." The meaning of this is Rich as thou art, I will strip thee of thy wealth, drive thee from thy home, send thee back again to the wilderness a vagrant, to howl for bread and water. Ay, ay, to all such fortune-holders and fortune-makers retribution must come sooner or later. "I tell thee," says Thomas Carlyle, "there is nothing else but justice: one strong thing I find here below the just thing, the true thing. My friend, if thou hadst all the artillery of Woolwich marching at thy back in support of an unjust thing, and infinite bonfires visibly waiting ahead of thee to blaze centuries to come for thy victory on behalf of it, I would advise thee to call "Halt!" to fling down thy baton, and say, "In God"s Name, no!" What will the success amount to? If the thing be unjust, thou hast not succeeded, though bonfires blazed from north to south. and bells rang, and editors wrote leading articles, and the just thing be trampled out of sight to all mortal eyes, an abolished and an annihilated thing. D.T.
Vers. 7-11. Balances of deceit.
In the manner of his acquisition of wealth, Ephraim conjoined deceit and oppression. He was dishonest in trade. He oppressed the poor. He was a better imitator of Jacob in his act of laying hold of his brother"s heel than in his earnestness in wrestling with the angel. He inherited the evil, not the good, traits in the character of his progenitor He was a "Jacob," not an "Israel." Yet he plumed himself on his success.
I EPHRAIM"S SAY IN THE MATTER. (Ver. 8)
1. He was puffed up with the thought of being rich. "Ephraim said, I am rich, I have found me out substance." This was the main thing he was rich. It did not matter how the riches had been got, when they were there. The existence of the riches covered a multitude of sins. This is too much the way in which wealth is looked at in the world. The possessor of it can count on being honored, courted, applauded for success, with few questions asked as to the means by which his wealth has been acquired. The love of the honor and position which wealth gives lead men to seek after it by fair means and foul. "Balances of deceit" are not unknown among ourselves. "Tricks innumerable," says Mr. Spencer, "lies acted or uttered, elaborately devised frauds, are prevalent many of them established as " customs of the trade; " nay, not only established, but defended." Yet this is thought of little moment, if only men can say in the end, "I am rich.
2. He took the glory of his riches to himself. "I have found me out substance." It was himself that did it. To him the credit and glory of it belonged. He said in his heart, "My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth," forgetting that it is God alone that had given him power to get wealth. (Deu_8:17, Deu_8:18)
3. He justified himself in his ways. "In all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin." As Spencer says above of rogueries in trade, "not only established, but defended." The dishonest trader is yet to be found who is not disposed to justify himself. He gets to look on his dishonesties as trifles bagatelles. He defies proof of them. He justifies himself by the practice of others. That cannot be wrong which everybody does. If, like Ephraim, he is assiduous in the practice of the outward duties of religion (ver. 11), he may regard this as amply outweighing the deceits and oppressions of his business life.
II GOD"S SAY IN THE MATTER. (Vers. 8, 9) God:
1. Exposes the sin and folly o/ Ephraims boasting, "And I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt." If Ephraim was rich, it was God who made him rich. If he had substance, it was God who gave him substance, not Ephraim who had found it out for himself: Ephraim"s boasting was, therefore, entirely out of place. It was as foolish as it was wicked and ungrateful.
2. Shows the inexcusableness of Ephraim"s conduct. "I have also spoken by the prophets," etc. Ephraim had been well taught and warned. Moses, in the plains of Moab, had already foreshown the dangers to which Israel would be exposed when they came into possession of the goodliness of Canaan, and had forewarned them against pride and undue self-elation. (Deu_8:7-18) Other prophets had been sent as occasion required. God had "multiplied visions" to the people, and had "used similitudes" to make matters plainer, and to draw attention. In spite of all, Ephraim continued sinning. If such were his privileges, what are ours, to whom God, "who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken by his Son? (Heb_1:1, Heb_1:2)
3. Declares Ephraim"s punishment. "I will make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast?" Ephraim, having forfeited his blessings by his sin, would be turned back again into the wilderness, there to renew the experience of the old wanderings, of which the Feast of Tabernacles was a memorial. (Lev_23:42, Lev_23:43) The words are a threatening, yet imply mercy. The wilderness wanderings were a punishment, but also a discipline. During these wanderings, Israel enjoyed God"s protection and sheltering care. The end of the wandering was Canaan. So Israel"s present banishment is with a view to ultimate recovery.
III THE DELUSION PRICKED. (Ver. 11) Ephraim, like the Laodicean Church, said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," and knew not that he was "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked". (Rev_3:17) He had failed to take God"s counsel (by the prophets), to buy of him "gold tried in the fire" that he might be rich, and white raiment" that he might be clothed, and to anoint his eyes with eye-salve that he might see. (Rev_3:18) He still pursued vanity and deceit, and multiplied transgressions. This state of delusion in which he lived was now to be rudely broken in upon. Gilead, for its iniquity, would become (or, perhaps, had already become) vanity, nothingness. Gilgal, where bulls were offered in such numbers in sacrifice, would witness (or had already witnessed) its altars made as heaps of stones in the furrows of the field. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv7, 9He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are…
Hos_12:7-9
He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress, etc.
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Fortunes
I. Fortunes badly used.
1. Here there is no recognition of human co-operation. No man comes in possession of wealth without the efforts of some men either living or dead. Wealth, in most cases, is the result of the efforts of a large number of human workers But the possessor oftentimes takes no note of this. He thinks only of himself.
2. Here there is no recognition of Divine agency. All fortunes come of God. Out of His materials, out of His seasons, out of the activity of His creatures. Many fortunes are held and employed in a spirit of haughty egotism.
II. Fortunes badly made.
1. Here is fraud. There is deceit everywhere. In all fabrics, groceries, trade commodities. Deceit in making, deceit both in the buying and the selling.
2. Here is oppression. Fraud is oppression, in some form or other.
3. Here is cunning. Ephraim--this typical fortune-maker--took such care to conceal all that was unfair and nefarious in his operations that he was certain no wrong could be found in his doings. Many who have made a fortune by a swindle have so guarded the transaction that they have clapped their hands and said, None will ever find it out.
III. Fortunes badly ended. To all such fortune-holders and fortune-makers retribution must come sooner or later. (Homilist.)
And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance.--
I am rich
Literally, I am simply rich, in all my labours they shall find none iniquity that is sin. It was the custom of the trade; that is how it is. In forty pounds weight of calico put sixteen pounds weight of china clay--it is the custom of the trade: a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Sell for ten yards of cloth nine yards and seven-eighths. A man likes an eighth of a lie; a little fraction of falsehood is a kind of condiment in his supper; it is the custom of the trade. And especially if a man, after doing this, can take the chair at a missionary meeting, and speak lugubriously and tediously about the condition of the heathen he has never seen, but often cheated; he feels that there is none iniquity in him that is sin; he says, Business is business. He always says that when he wins; when he loses he says, There ought to be some morality in business after all. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Keeping up appearances
I. The hiding of sin. Ephraim is in truth most unrighteous, but he contrives to sin in such a way that he appears innocent. And do we not attempt by many subtilties to hide the real qualities of our actions, to shelter ourselves from their just penalties?
1. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within the civil law. National and international law were scrupulously observed by Ephraim. Men still flatter themselves that they keep the law of the land. A man may do that and still be an infinite scoundrel. He may be guilty of gross dishonesty. He may keep the civil law with very little sense of generosity. We may be guilty of deep cruelty to our fellows, and the law of the magistrate takes no cognisance of our actions. Often the very worst escape, whilst those far less guilty are denounced and punished.
2. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within public opinion. A public opinion exists which is more strict and pervasive than the civil law. This public opinion we are bound to respect, we do respect it, and some of us are abundantly satisfied if we succeed in meeting its exactions. But how much personal, commercial, political immorality is yet untouched by public opinion! A man may be a rascal, and yet a gentleman. With a plausible tongue, a polished style, with fine phrases and fine manners, a man may be guilty of fraud, cruelty, uncleanness, and yet remain throughout popular in society! Rotten at the core, he is painted on the rind, and the world sees the skin and not the soul. Some of the handsomest butterflies have the strangest tastes--they turn aside from the most glorious flowers to sip filthiest messes.
3. We sin deeply, and yet maintain the sense of personal dignity. Ephraim hid the fact of his guiltiness by looking at his successfulness. Men still forget their sinfulness in their prosperity. A man may be a conqueror, and yet his glory be his shame; he may attain honour, and his scarlet robe be the fitting sign of his scarlet sins; he may grow rich, and every coin in his coffers witness against him. His honour rooted in dishonour stood. Proud, selfish, dishonest, sensual men flatter themselves in their own eyes until their iniquity is found to be hateful.
4. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within ecclesiastical discipline. Ephraim would do no iniquity that were sin from an ecclesiastical point of view. Yet all the while he was guilty of falsehood, robbery, injustice, uncleanness; he called himself Israel, but God called him a Canaanite. A man may be a terrible sinner, and yet observe all the ceremonial law.
II. Mark the inevitable exposure and punishment of sin. Cleverly disguised as sin may be, it will surely suffer detection. God knows nothing about appearances; He knows us as we think in our heart. And what stands revealed is bound to meet with just retribution. Then in all life let us--
1. Aim at the highest; and--
2. Test ourselves by the highest; let us judge ourselves in the sight of God, and by the absolute standard. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v7Hos_12:7. Merchant] Marg. a Canaanite, a heathen, unlike Israel,…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Hos_12:7. Merchant] Marg. a Canaanite, a heathen, unlike Israel, to whom Canaanites were a reproach (Eze_16:3). Oppress] Lit. deceive. Men whose trade is deceit, whose balances are unjust, cannot love mercy and do judgment.
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Hos_12:8. Eph. said, in a spirit of disregard to the prophets, and in self-justification, “I am become rich, God prospers me; this is a proof that he is not displeased, and that there is no iniquity in me.” But these riches were not enjoyed on account of sin. Their attitude towards God and man was the very opposite of right.
Hos_12:9. I] God meets their delusion by reminding them that he had been their guide, defence, and source of prosperity, from wandering in the wilderness, and to settlement in tents now. Others take this as a threat to reduce them to their ancient helpless condition.
PROSPERITY UNLAWFULLY GAINED AND ABUSED WILL BE TAKEN AWAY BY GOD.—Hos_12:7-9
Israel was not like Jacob, who wrestled with God, but like a merchant who sought to become rich by fraud and oppression. Instead of keeping judgment and mercy (Hos_12:6), Ephraim prided himself in deceit, and justified his wickedness by its success. But God threatens to punish by stripping them of wealth, and throwing them into privation and distress.
I. Prosperity acquired by unlawful means. When men make haste to be rich, they rush into danger, and care nothing for the means, so that they accomplish the end. Trade is lawful, necessary, and advantageous. Prosperity is a cause for gratitude; but how many have become Canaanites in their character and conduct.
1. Deceit. “The balances of deceit are in his hand.” Fraud is sadly too common now. Short weight and short measure, trickery and false dealing, evading legal duties, taking advantage of the unwary, are a flagrant breach of the golden rule, and an abomination to the God of truth (Pro_20:10). “That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter.”
2. Oppression. “He loveth to oppress.” Oppression assumes many forms. When artisans are compelled to buy at a loss at their master’s premises, when their lawful wages are withheld, or their proper rights trampled upon, there is oppression. In all abuse of power and insolent treatment of others we see oppressive conduct. A bargain is sometimes unmerciful as a robbery, and wealth gained by oppression is of little value. “Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right.”
II. Prosperity considered to justify wicked conduct. “Ephraim said, Yet I am rich.” I have succeeded; I must be right. If God prospers me, it is a proof that I am innocent, and that he is not displeased with me. Men have pleas for their sins, and excuses to ward off conviction from the word. Here we have—
1. Prosperity defended in pride. “I am rich.” Wealthy men are apt to be proud, to forget God, and claim honour and reverence from their fellow-men. Oppressors are esteemed great by the world; but men are to be judged by God’s rule, not by man’s rule. “Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.”
2. Prosperity defended in self-righteousness. “They shall find none iniquity in me.” They protest their innocence, and declare none can find any sin in their buying and selling. None suspect themselves less than the self-righteous and the proud. They see fraud and deceit in other traders, but not in themselves. They glorify themselves, build up their fortunes, defend them by wickedness, and deceive their own souls. “Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
III. Prosperity abused will be taken away by God. God reminds them of forgotten mercy. In all their history he never left himself without witness of his goodness.
1. Past prosperity was the gift of God. In one brief sentence he reviews the past and comprehends the present. “I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt.” They were in bondage and slavery, and God delivered them. They depended upon him for food, clothing, and guidance in the wilderness. And they were grateful to God once, commemorated his goodness in feasts of tabernacles; but now these mercies are all forgotten. They boasted in their wealth, and sought it independently of God. God will therefore teach them dependence upon him.
2. Present prosperity is the gift of God. From Egypt up to the present time have “I the Lord thy God” taken an interest in thee. Israel’s possession of the land and deliverance from enemies, all their glory and wealth, had come from God. We have nothing that we have not received, and we should not boast as if we had not received it. Our skill and fortunes are from God, on whom we all depended. If we attribute all to self, and nothing to him, he will claim his own, and rob us of our enjoyments.
3. God who gives prosperity can easily take it away. He “will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days” of old. What a helpless people Israel were, when kings and nobles, rich and poor, left their palaces to dwell in booths! How unsettled their residence, and how slight the tenure of their worldly wealth which they held at the command of God! In God alone is power and stability, true riches and happiness. If we indulge in oppression, pride, and deceit—defend acts of injustice, and trust to unlawful gains, God will reduce us to poverty and want. “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished.” Revenues without right can never be kept. When the judgment of God falls upon dishonest trades there will be no shelter. “Riches profit not in the day of wrath.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos_12:8. The shadow taken for the substance. “I have found substance.”
1. It is folly to take wealth and worldly honours as substance, for they are emptiness and vanity, things that are not (Pro_23:5; Pro_27:4).
2. It is wrong to think that we gain substance and prosperity by our own industry and skill. “I have found it.” We say concerning our houses and fortunes, Look what “I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty.”
3. It is selfish to think that all our substance is given for our own use merely. “I have found me out substance.” Wealth, time, talents, and all are given in trust, to be employed for the good of others and the glory of God.
4. It is deceptive to think that wealth sinfully acquired will increase our happiness and protect our souls. The love of ease and oppression, pride and dishonesty, ripen for destruction. “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” “In all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us.”
“Find none iniquity in me.” Characters innocent before men ungodly in the sight of God. Men considered successful, remarkable for business tact, and held up as examples, condemned and punished by God.
Honesty is the best policy.
1. As a matter of policy.
2. As a matter of principle. Character is property. A man may not be rich in this world, yet be rich towards God and in the general good will of men. “As a man can never be truly honest unless he be religious, so, on the other hand, whatever show of religion he may make, he cannot be truly religious in God’s judgment unless he is honest in his conversation towards his neighbour” [Bp Mant].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 12
Hos_12:7-8. Rich. Endeavour to be honestly rich, or contentedly poor; but be sure that your riches be justly got, or you spoil all [Izaak Walton]. He that resteth upon gains certain, shall hardly grow to great riches; and he that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes break and come to poverty. It is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses [Bacon].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v7Another Serious Reproach
Another Serious Reproach
v. 7. He is a merchant, rather, "Canaan," the name here applied to the northern kingdom, since, like a dishonest merchant, he sought greatness by deceit and oppression, the balances of deceit are in his hand; he loveth to oppress, so that the inhabitants practiced the very opposite of what was enjoined in the preceding verse.
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v. 8. And Ephraim said, in refusing to heed the Lord’s admonitions through His prophets, Yet I am become rich, thus trying to excuse his dishonest ways, I have found me out substance, becoming prosperous as a result of doubtful cleverness; in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin, or, "all my gains shall find no transgression in me which would be sin. " This blindness toward their own guilt and the culpability of their sin was the big misfortune of the Israelites, for it hindered them from feeling sorry for their transgressions.
v. 9. And I that am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt, where He first revealed the greatness of His mercy toward Israel, will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the solemn feast, the allusion doubtless being to the Feast of Tabernacles, which not only commemorated the privations of the wilderness journey, but also brought to the attention of the Israelites the blessings with which the Lord so richly supplied them in the Land of Promise.
v. 10. I have also spoken by the prophets, so that He had always been in close touch with His chosen people, and I have multiplied visions and used similitudes, making known His will by parables, by the ministry of the prophets. All this surely showed the interest which the Lord had in His people and should be an inducement to them to return to Him with a repentant heart.
v. 11. Is there iniquity in Gilead? Surely they are vanity, or, "If Gilead," representing the eastern half of the northern kingdom, "is worthlessness and iniquity," if it has reached the depths of moral ruin, then physical annihilation will certainly follow. They sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal, which represents the western part of the kingdom, with its idolatrous practices; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields, the altars being demolished and their stones scattered over the fields.
v. 12. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep, the purpose of this reference being to remind Israel of the labor and misery which their forefather endured in comparison with the blessings which the Lord was pouring out over his descendants.
v. 13. And, this being noted by way of contrast, by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, Num 12:6-8; Deu 18:15, and by a prophet was he preserved, for it was the intercession of Moses which saved Israel from being destroyed by the Lord.
v. 14. Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly, in spite of all the blessings which God had showered upon His people; therefore shall He, the Lord, leave his blood upon him, leave Israel in his blood-guiltiness, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him, so that it would be charged to his account and kept there. When men refuse to repent and scorn all the efforts of the Lord aiming at their deliverance from sin and guilt, the Lord leaves them to their fate and to the punishment which they invited upon themselves.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 9General Information:
General Information:
Hosea the prophet is speaking about Israel.
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false scales
The merchants use scales that do not accurately measure the weight of the money or products they are buying or selling.
they love to defraud
The merchants cheat their customers by lying to them and taking more money than they should.
I have certainly become very rich; I have found wealth for myself
These two phrases mean the same thing and mean that the people of Ephraim consider themselves to be very prosperous. (See: Parallelism)
I have found wealth
Becoming wealthy by trading is spoken of as finding wealth. AT: "I have made much money" (See: Metaphor)
they will not find any iniquity in me, anything that would be sin
These two phrases mean the same thing and emphasize that the people of Ephraim consider themselves to be blameless. Learning that someone has sinned is spoken of as finding sin in that person. AT: "they will not discover that I have done anything sinful" (See: Doublet and Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 912:7-8 During the reign of Jeroboam II (793–753 BC),…
12:7-8 During the reign of Jeroboam II (793–753 BC), Israelite merchants became fabulously wealthy, often by using deceitful business practices like dishonest scales (see Amos 8:5-6). • The Hebrew term translated merchants is kena‘an (“Canaan”). Canaanite traders were notorious in the ancient world for their crafty dealings. The Israelites had imitated their pagan neighbors not only in religion but also in commerce.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7–9 But while the Prophet exhorted the Israelites to repentance,…
But while the Prophet exhorted the Israelites to repentance, he adds, that such was their perverseness, that it was done without any fruit. Canaan! he says; I read this by itself; for what some consider to be understood is frigid, as, “He was assimilated to, or was like Canaan, in whose hand,” etc.. But, on the contrary, the Prophet here condemns the Israelites by one word; as though he said, that they were wholly aliens, and unworthy to be called the children of Abraham. And thus what we say is often abrupt, when we speak indignantly. The Prophet then calls them “Canaan” through indignation; which means this, “Ye are not the children of Abraham; ye falsely boast of his name, which cannot be suitable to you; for ye are Canaan.”
He afterwards adds In his hand is the balance of fraud, he loves to plunder, or to spoil. Literally it is, he loves to spoil. But the sense is clear, that they loved to plunder; that is, they were carried away with all greediness to acts of robbery. It must first be noticed, that the Prophet here exposes to infamy the carnal descendants of Abraham by calling them Canaan, and this imputation is often to be met with in the Prophets. And the reason why they were thus addressed was, that these senseless men were wont proudly to set up as their shield the distinction of their race. “What! we are a holy people.” Since by this pretence they rejected all the warnings of the Prophets, God casts back this reproach, “Ye are not the children of Abraham; but ye are Canaan:” as though he said, “Nothing in that nation has as yet changed, the Israelites are always like themselves.” The Lord had once cleansed the land of godless men: but when the descendants of Abraham became like the Canaanites, they were called the seed of Canaan; as though the same nation, which was there formerly, had still remained; for there was no difference in their manners, for they were equal or the same in depravity.
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But the reason follows why he calls them the race of Canaan even because they carried in their hand a deceitful balance, and devoted themselves with all avidity to plunder. The deceitful balance may be extended to their dissimulations, fallacies, and falsehoods, by which God, as he had before complained, was surrounded; but as it immediately follows, He loves robberies, I prefer to understand here those two modes of doing injury which include almost every kind of wickedness; for men either craftily defraud when they injure others, or they do harm to their neighbours by open force. Since, then, they who wrong their neighbours do either openly injure them, or circumvent the simple by their frauds and crafty dealings, Hosea lays down here, in the first place, the deceitful balance, and then he adds their greediness in spoiling or plundering. It is then the same as if he had said that they were fraudulent, and that they were also robbers who proceeded with open violence. He means that they were, without law or any restraint, addicted to acts of wrong and injustice, and were so intent on doing mischief, as to do it either by craft or by open force. There is then no wonder that they were called an uncircumcised race. Why? Because they had nothing to do with God, inasmuch as they had thus departed from his law; yea, they abhorred kindness and mercy. It also follows that they were void of all piety, since they were thus unmindful of all equity towards their neighbours. This is the meaning.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7–9 As for Ephraim he is more like the wicked…
As for Ephraim he is more like the wicked Canaanites, than godly Abraham or Jacob.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Hos 12:7 [He is] a merchant, the balances of…
Hos 12:7 [He is] a merchant, the balances of deceit [are] in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
Ver. 7. He is a merchant] Heb. He is Canaan that is, a mere natural man, Eze 16:3, money merchant, who, so he may have it, careth not how he comes by it; he is more like a Canaanite than a Jacobite. Jacob said, "I have enough, my brother"; but Ephraim is sick of the plague of unsatisfiableness; and instead of keeping mercy and judgment, as in the former verse, he keepeth false balances in his hand and false weights in his bag, Deu 15:13-15 Lev 19:36 Pro 11:1; Pro 16:11; Pro 20:10 {See Trapp on "Pro 11:1"} {See Trapp on "Pro 16:11"} {See Trapp on "Pro 20:10"} He that hath his hands full of the balances of deceit, and will not loose them to take hold of God, will not part with his fat and sweet (as the vine and olive in Jotham’s parable), though it be to reign in heaven how can it be expected that he should turn to God, or that he should love to be his servant in Isa 56:6.
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When he loveth to oppress] To get gain, if not by fraud and cunning contrivance, then by force, and by forged cavillation, as Luk 19:8. Sic quaecunque potest arte nocere, nocet and all this he loveth to do; he delights in it he not only is pleased with it, but pleadeth for it, and opposeth with crest and breast whatsoever standeth in the way of his own heart; exercised with covetousness (as St Peter’s phrase is, 2Pe 2:14), which he constantly followeth as the artificer doth his trade. Let such Canaanites read that flaming text, 1Th 4:6 and take heed, lest while they get all they can by wrench and wile, lest while they count all good fish that comes to net, they catch at length the devil and all; lest they receive no less sums of curses than of coin; lest screechowls of woe cry aloud, from the beams of their chambers, &c. {See Trapp on "Hos 7:1"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–9 He is a merchant; Ephraim, of whom here, is…
He is a merchant; Ephraim, of whom here, is so far from being Jacob, or as Jacob, that you may call and account him a Canaanite, a subtle merchant.
The balances of deceit are in his hand; what he cannot gain by fair trading, he will by downright cheating; he is covetous, and very unjust.
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He loveth to oppress; where violence, calumnies, and false accusations are needful to compass his covetous and cozening designs, he will not stick at them; this way of gain he loveth, his heart is upon it; though God hate the false balance, and false witness, and the violent man, yet Ephraim loves them all for his gain.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v7 Here are intermixed, in these verses,
Here are intermixed, in these verses,
I. Reproofs for sin. When God is coming forth to contend with a people, that he may demonstrate his own righteousness, he will demonstrate their unrighteousness. Ephraim was called to turn to his God and keep judgment (Hos 12:6); now, to show that he had need of that call, he is charged with turning from his God by idolatry, and breaking the laws of justice and judgment.
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1. He is here charged with injustice against the precepts of the second table, Hos 12:7, Hos 12:8. Here observe,
(1.) What the sin is wherewith he is charged: He is a merchant. The margin reads it as a proper name, He is Canaan, or a Canaanite, unworthy to be denominated from Jacob and Israel, and worthy to be cast out with a curse from this good land, as the Canaanites were. See Amo 9:7. But Canaan sometimes signifies a merchant, and therefore is most likely to do so here, where Ephraim is charged with deceit in trade. Though God had given his people a land flowing with milk and honey, yet he did not forbid them to enrich themselves by merchandise, and they succeeded the Canaanites in that as well as in their husbandry; they sucked the abundance of the seas and the treasures hidden in the sand, Deu 33:19. And, if they had been fair merchants, it would have been no reproach at all to them, but an honour and a blessing. But he is such a merchant as the Canaanites were, who were honest only with good looking to, and, if they could, cheated all they dealt with. Ephraim does so; he deceives and thereby oppresses. Note, There is oppression by fraud as well as oppression by force. It is not only princes, lords, and masters, that oppress their subjects, tenants, and servants, but merchants and traders are often guilty of oppressing those they deal with, when they impose upon their ignorance, or take advantage of their necessity, to make hard bargains with them, or are rigorous and severe in exacting their debts. Ephraim cheated, [1.] With a great deal of art and cunning: The balances of deceit are in his hand. He uses balances, and delivers his goods by weight and measure, as if he would be very exact, but they are balances of deceit, false weights and false measures, and thus, under colour of doing right, he does the greatest wrong. Note, God has his eye upon merchants and traders, when they are weighing their goods and paying their money, whether they do honestly or deceitfully. He observes what balances they have in their hand, and how they hold them; and, though those they deal with may not be aware of that sleight of hand with which they make them balances of deceit, God sees it, and knows it. Trades by the wit of man are made mysteries, but it is a pity that by the sin of man they should ever be made mysteries of iniquity. [2.] With a great deal of pleasure and pride: He loves to oppress. To oppress is bad enough, but to love to do so is much worse. His conscience does not check and reprove him for it, as it ought to do; if it did, though he committed the sin, he could not delight in it; but his corruptions are so strong, and have so triumphed over his convictions, that he not only loves the gain of oppression, but he loves to oppress, sins for sinning-sake, and takes a pleasure in out-witting and over-reaching those that suspect him not.
(2.) How he justifies himself in this sin, Hos 12:8. Wicked men will have something to say for themselves now when they are told of their faults, some frivolous turn-off or other wherewith to evade the convictions of the word. Ephraim stands indicted for a common cheat. Now see what he pleads to the indictment. He does not deny the charge, nor plead, Not guilty, yet does not make a penitent confession of it and ask pardon, but insists upon his own justification. Suppose it were so that he did use balances of deceit, yet, [1.] He pleads that he had got a good estate. Let the prophet say what he pleased of his deceit, of the sin of it and the curse of God that attended it, he could not be convinced there was any harm or danger in it, for this he was sure of that he had thriven in it: "Yet I have become rich, I have found me out substance. Whatever you make of it, I have made a good hand of it." Note, Carnal hearts are often confirmed in a good opinion of their evil ways by their worldly prosperity and success in those ways. But it is a great mistake. Every word in what Ephraim says here proclaims his folly. First, It is folly to call the riches of this world substance, for they are things that are not, Pro 23:5. Secondly, It is folly to think that we have them of ourselves, to say (as some read it), I have made myself rich; what substance I have is owing purely to my ingenuity and industry - I have found it; my might and the power of my hand have gotten me this wealth. Thirdly, It is folly to think that what we have is for ourselves. I have found me out substance, as if we had it for our own proper use and behoof, whereas we hold it in trust, only as stewards. Fourthly, It is folly to think that riches are things to be gloried in, and to say with exultation, I have become rich. Riches are not the honours of the soul, are not peculiar to the best men, nor sure to us; and therefore let not the rich man glory in his riches, Jam 1:9, Jam 1:10. Fifthly, It is folly to think that growing rich in a sinful way makes us innocent, or will make us safe, or may make us easy, in that way; for the prosperity of fools deceives and destroys them. See Isa 47:10; Pro 1:32. [2.] He pleads that he had kept a good reputation. It is common for sinners, when they are justly reproved by their ministers, to appeal to their neighbours, and because they know no ill of them, or will say none, or think well of what the prophets charge them with as bad, fly in the face of their reprovers: In all my labours (says Ephraim) they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin. Note, Carnal hearts are apt to build a good opinion of themselves upon the fair character they have among their neighbours. Ephraim was very secure; for, First, All his neighbours knew him to be diligent in his business; they had an eye upon all his labours, and commended him for them. Men will praise thee when thou doest well for thyself. Secondly, None of them knew him to be deceitful in his business. He acted with so much policy that nobody could say to the contrary but that he acted with integrity. For either, 1. He concealed the fraud, so that none discovered it: "Whatever iniquity there is, they shall find none;" as if no iniquity were displeasing to God, and damning to the soul, but that which is open and scandalous before men. What will it avail us that men shall find no iniquity in us, when God finds a great deal, and will bring every secret work, even secret frauds, into judgment? Or, 2. He excused the fraud, so that none condemned it: "They shall find no iniquity in me that were sin, nothing very bad, nothing but what is very excusable, only some venial sins, sins not worth speaking of," which they think God will make nothing of because they do not. It is a fashionable iniquity; it is customary; it is what every body does; it is pleasant; it is gainful; and this, they think, is no iniquity that is sin; nobody will think the worse of them for it. But God sees not as man sees; he judges not as man judges.
2. He is here charged with idolatry, against the precepts of the first table, with that iniquity which is in a special manner vanity, the making and worshipping of images, which are vanities (Hos 12:11): Surely they are vanity; they do not profit, but deceive. Now the prophet mentions two places notorious for idolatry: - (1.) Gilead on the other side Jordan, which had been branded for it before (Hos 6:8): Is there iniquity in Gilead? It is a thing to be wondered at; it is a thing to be sadly lamented. What! iniquity in Gilead? idolatry there? Gilead was a fruitful pleasant country (pleasant to a proverb, Jer 22:6), and does it so ill requite the Lord? It was a frontier-country, and lay much exposed to the insults of enemies, and therefore stood in special need of the divine protection; what! and yet by iniquity throw itself out of that protection? Is there iniquity in Gilead? Yea, (2.) And in Gilgal too; there they sacrifice bullocks (Hos 9:15), and there their altars which they have set up, either to strange gods in opposition to his own appointed altar, are as thick as heaps of manure in the furrows of the field that is to be sown, Hos 8:11. Is there iniquity in Gilead only? so some. Is it only in those remote parts of the nation that people are so superstitious, where they border upon other nations? No; they are as bad at Gilgal. In Gilead God protected Jacob their father (of whom he had been speaking) from the rage of Laban; and will you there commit iniquity?
II. Here are threatenings of wrath for sin. Some make that to be so (Hos 12:9), I will make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the appointed time, that is, I will bring thee into such a condition as the Israelites were in when they dwelt in tents and wandered for forty years; that was the time appointed in the wilderness. Ephraim forgot that God brought him out of Egypt and brought him up to be what he was, and was proud of his wealth, and took sinful courses to increase it; and therefore God threatens to bring him to a tabernacle-state again, to a poor, mean, desolate, unsettled condition. Note, It is just with God, when men have by their sins turned their tents into houses, by his judgments to turn their houses into tents again. However, that is certainly a threatening (Hos 12:14), Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly. See how men are deceived in their opinion of themselves, and how they will one day be undeceived. Ephraim thought that there was no iniquity in him that deserved to be called sin (Hos 12:8); but God told him that there was that in him which was sin, and would be found so if he did not repent and reform; for, 1. It was extremely offensive to his God: Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly with his iniquities, which were so distasteful to God, and to him too would be bitterness in the latter end. He was so wilful in sinning against his knowledge and convictions that any one might see, and say, that he designed no other than to provoke God in the highest degree. 2. It would certainly be destructive to himself; that cannot be otherwise which provokes God against him, and kindles the fire of his wrath. Therefore, (1.) He shall take away his forfeited life: He shall leave his blood upon him, that is, he shall not hold him guiltless, but bring upon him that death which is the wages of sin. His blood shall be upon his own head (Sa2 1:16), for his own iniquity has testified against him and he alone shall bear it. Note, When sinners perish their blood is left upon them. (2.) He shall take away his forfeited honour: His reproach shall his Lord return upon him. God is his Lord; he had by idolatry and other sins reproached the Lord, and done dishonour to him, and to his name and family, and had given occasion to others to reproach him; and now God will return the reproach upon him, according to the word he has spoken, that those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed. Note, Shameful sins shall have shameful punishments. If Ephraim put contempt on his God, he shall be so reduced that all his neighbours shall look with contempt upon him.
III. Here are memorials of former mercy, which come in to convict them of base ingratitude in revolting from God. Let them blush to remember,
1. That God had raised them from meanness. When Ephraim had become rich, and was proud of that, he forgot that which God (that he might not forget it) obliged them every year to acknowledge (Deu 26:5), A Syrian ready to perish was my father. But God here puts them in mind of it, Hos 12:12. Let them remember, not only the honours of their father Jacob, what a mighty prince he was with God, Hos 12:3 (an honour which they had no share in while they were in rebellion against God), but what a poor servant he was to Laban, which was sufficient to mortify those that were puffed up with the estates they had raised. Jacob fled into Syria from a malicious brother, and there served a covetous uncle for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep, because he had not estate to endow a wife with. Jacob was poor, and low, and a fugitive; therefore his posterity ought not to be proud. He was a plain man, dwelling in tents, and keeping sheep; therefore balances of deceit ill became them. He served for a wife that was not a Canaanitess, as Esau's wives were; therefore it was a shame for them to degenerate into Canaanites, and mingle with the nations. God wonderfully preserved him in his flight and preserved him in his service, so that he multiplied exceedingly, and from that root in a dry ground sprang an illustrious nation, that bore his name, which magnifies the goodness of God both to him and them and leaves them under the stain of base ingratitude to that God who was their founder and benefactor.
2. That God had rescued them from misery, had raised them to what they were, not only out of poverty, but out of slavery (Hos 12:13), which laid them under much stronger obligations to serve him and under a yet deeper guilt in serving other gods. (1.) God brought Israel out of Egypt on purpose that they might serve him, and by redeeming them out of bondage acquired a special title to them and to their service. (2.) He preserved them, as sheep are kept by the shepherd's care. He preserved them from Pharaoh's rage at the sea, even at the Red Sea, protected them from all the perils of the wilderness, and provided for them. (3.) He did this by a prophet, Moses, who, though he is called king in Jeshurun (Deu 33:5), yet did what he did for Israel as a prophet, by direction from God and by the power of his word. The ensign of his authority was not a royal sceptre, but the rod of God; with that he summoned both Egypt's plagues and Israel's blessings. Moses, as a prophet, was a type of Christ (Act 3:22), and it is by Christ as a prophet that we are brought out of the Egypt of sin and Satan by the power of his truth. Now this shows how very unworthy and ungrateful this people were, [1.] In rejecting their God, who had brought them out of Egypt, which, in the preface to the commandments, is particularly mentioned as a reason for the first, why they should have no other gods before him. [2.] In despising and persecuting his prophets, whom they should have loved and valued, and have studied to answer God's end in sending them, for the sake of that prophet by whom God had brought them out of Egypt and preserved them in the wilderness. Note, The benefit we have had by the word of God greatly aggravates our sin and folly if we put any slight upon the word of God.
3. That God had taken care of their education as they grew up. This instance of God's goodness we have, Hos 12:10. As by a prophet he delivered them, so by prophets he still continued to speak to them. Man, who is formed out of the earth, is fed out of the earth; so that nation, that was formed by prophecy, by prophecy was fed and taught; beginning at Moses, and so going on to all the prophets through the several ages of that church, we find that divine revelation was all along their tuition. (1.) They had prophets raised up among themselves (Amo 2:11), a succession of them, were scarcely ever without a Spirit of prophecy among them more or less, from Moses to Malachi. (2.) These prophets were seers; they had visions, and dreams, in which God discovered his mind to them immediately, with a full assurance that it was his mind, Num 12:6. (3.) These visions were multiplied; God spoke not only once, yea, twice, but many a time; if one vision was not regarded, he sent another. The prophets had variety of visions, and frequent repetitions of the same. (4.) God spoke to them by the prophets. What the prophets received from the Lord they plainly and faithfully delivered to them. The people at Mount Sinai begged that God would speak to them by men like themselves, and he did so. (5.) In speaking to them by the prophets he used similitudes, to make the messages he sent by them intelligible, more affecting, and more likely to be remembered. The visions they saw were often similitudes, and their discourses were embellished with very apt comparisons. And, as God by his prophets, so by his Son, he used similitudes, for he opened his mouth in parables. Note, God keeps an account, whether we do or no, of the sermons we hear; and those that have long enjoyed the means of grace in purity, plenty, and power, that have been frequently, faithfully, and familiarly, told the mind of God, will have a great deal to answer for another day if they persist in a course of iniquity.
IV. Here are intimations of further mercy, and this remembered too in the midst of sin and wrath (as some understand Hos 12:9): "I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, who then and there took thee to be my people, and have approved myself thy God ever since, in a constant series of merciful providences, have yet a kindness for thee, bad as thou art; and I will make thee to dwell in tabernacles, not as in the wilderness, but as in the days of the solemn feast," the feast of tabernacles, which was celebrated with great joy, Lev 23:40. 1. They shall be made to see, by the grace of God, that though they are rich, and have found out substance, yet they are but in a tabernacle-state, and have in their worldly wealth no continuing city. 2. They shall yet have cause to rejoice in God, and have opportunity to do it in public ordinances. The feast of tabernacles was the first solemn feast the Jews kept after their return out of Babylon, Ezr 3:4. 3. This, as other promises, was to have its full accomplishment in the grace of the gospel, which provides tabernacles for believers in their way to heaven, and furnishes them with matter of joy, holy joy, joy in God, such as was in the feast of tabernacles, Zac 14:18, Zac 14:19.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–9 He is a merchant,.... Here is a change of…
He is a merchant,.... Here is a change of person from "thou" to "he", from Judah to Ephraim, who is said to be a "merchant"; and if that was all, there is nothing worthy of dispraise in it; but he was a cheating merchant, a fraudulent dealer, as appears by what follows: or he is Canaan, or a Canaanite (y); more like a descendant of Canaan, by his manners, than a descendant of Jacob. But the Canaanites dealing much in merchandise, their name became a common name for a merchant, as a Chaldean for an astrologer; and as the children of Israel possessed their land, so they followed the same business and employment of life; which, had they performed honestly, would not have been to their discredit; but they were too much like the Canaanites, of whom Philostratus (z) says, they were covetous and fraudulent; and this was Ephraim's character. The Targum is,
"be you not as merchants;''
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the balances of deceit are in his hand; he used false weights and measures; made the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsified the balances by deceit; had wicked balances, and deceitful weights, and the scant measure, which is abominable, Amo 8:5; they pretended to weigh everything exactly they bought or sold; but cheated either by sleight or hand, holding the balances as they should not; or had one pair of scales and weights to buy with, and another to sell by, contrary to the law of God, Lev 19:35;
he loveth to oppress; instead of keeping and doing mercy and justice, they oppressed the poor, ground their faces, defrauded them of their due, and by secret and private methods cheated them in their dealings with them, and brought them to poverty and distress; and this they took delight and pleasure in, which showed a want of a principle of honesty in them, and that they were habituated to such a course of life, and were hardened in it, and had no remorse of conscience for it, but rather gloried in it.
(y) Sept. "Chanaan", V. L. Tigurine version; "Chanauaeum" refers, Munster. (z) Apud Grotium in loc.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7–9 A merchant - Ephraim is so far from being…
A merchant - Ephraim is so far from being as Jacob, that you may account him a Canaanite, a subtle merchant.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Verse 7. He is a merchant] Or a Canaanite;…
Verse 7. He is a merchant] Or a Canaanite; referring to the Phoenicians, famous for their traffic. Ephraim is as corrupt as those heathenish traffickers were. He kept, as many in all ages have done, a weight and a weight; a heavy one to buy with and a light one to sell by.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 Hos 12:7-8. He is a merchant, &c. — Bishop…
Hos 12:7-8. He is a merchant, &c. — Bishop Horsley renders this verse thus: Canaan the trafficker! The cheating balances in his hand! He has set his heart upon over-reaching! On which the bishop observes, “God says to the prophet, Instead of turning to me, and keeping to works of charity and justice, he is a mere heathen huckster. Thou hast miscalled him Jacob: he is Canaan. Not Jacob the god1y, the heir of the promise: Canaan the cheat, the son of the curse.” The Hebrew word כנען, rendered merchant, is both a proper name and an appellative. And to preserve the ambiguity in his translation, the bishop joins the appellative and the proper name together. Without this, as he justly observes, the whole spirit of the original would be lost to the English reader. All the ancient versions, except the Chaldee, give the proper name. The first words of the verse, He is, not being in the Hebrew, some interpreters, without supplying any thing, render the clause, The balances of deceit are in the hand of the merchant; that is, instead of practising just and fair dealing, which was the way to please God, they made use of unjust weights and measures, and practised frauds, deceits, and cunning, in buying and selling; depreciating those things they wanted to buy, below what they knew they were really worth; and setting a greater value on, and saying more in praise of, those things they wanted to sell, than they really deserved. These deceits in buying and selling are but too much used among us now, though God has so strongly declared his abhorrence of them in the Scriptures. He loveth to oppress — The Hebrew rather signifies, He loveth to defraud; to use the arts of cozenage. And Ephraim said — Rather, Nevertheless Ephraim said, I am become rich —
I have gotten riches, however, by my cunning and deceit, and as that is the case, I have no need to concern myself; for, so I have but riches, none will ask how I came by them. In this description of Ephraim, we may see but too like a picture of many in our times; for riches are too generally and too much the pursuit of mankind, and are generally too much prized; so that if men have but riches, they think they have every thing that is to be desired. Bishop Horsley presents us with a different interpretation of this verse, thus: Nevertheless, Ephraim shall say, that is, the time will come when Ephraim will repent, and say, Although I became rich, I acquired to myself [only] sorrow; all my labours procured not for me what may expiate iniquity. Thus interpreted, the words contain the penitent confession of the Ephraimites in the latter days, wrought upon at last by God’s judgments and mercies.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–9 He is a merchant - Or, indignantly, “a merchant…
He is a merchant - Or, indignantly, “a merchant in whose hands are the balances of deceit!” How could they love “mercy and justice,” whose trade was “deceit,” who weighed out deceit with their goods? False in their dealings, in their weights and measures, and, by taking advantage of the necessities of others, oppressive also. Deceit is the sin of weakness oppression is the abuse of power. Wealth does not give the power to use naked violence but wealthy covetousness manifoldly grinds the poor. When for instance, wages are paid in necessaries priced exorbitantly, or when artisans are required to buy at a loss at their masters’ shops, what is it but the union of deceit and oppression? The trading world is full of oppression, scarcely veiled by deceit. “He loveth to oppress.” Deceit and oppression have, each, a devilish attractiveness to those practiced in them; deceit, as exercising cleverness, cunning, skill in overreaching, outwitting; oppression, as indulging self will, caprice, love of power, insolence, and the like vices. The word “merchant,” as the prophet spoke it, was “Canaan;” merchants being so called, because the Canaanites or Phoenicians were the then great merchant-people, as astrologers were called Chaldeans. The Phoenicians were, in Homer’s time, infamous for their griping in traffic. They are called “gnawers” and “money-lovers” . To call Israel, “Canaan,” was to deny to him any title to the name of Israel, “reversing the blessing of Jacob, so that, as it had been said of Jacob, “thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel,” he would in fact say, ‘Thy name shall be called no more Israel, but Canaan’; as being, through their deeds, heirs, not to the blessings of Israel but to the curse of Canaan.” So Ezekiel saith, “Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite” Eze 16:3.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Chanaan. The Phœnicians were so called, and all merchants.…
Chanaan. The Phœnicians were so called, and all merchants. Here the title is given reproachfully (Calmet) to all the posterity of Jacob. (Haydock) --- None more ignominious could be used, Daniel xiii. 56. Thus Rome is styled Babylon.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–9 merchant--a play on the double sense of the Hebrew,…
merchant--a play on the double sense of the Hebrew, "Canaan," that is, a Canaanite and a "merchant" Eze 16:3 : "Thy birth is . . . of Canaan." They who naturally were descendants of pious Jacob had become virtually Canaanites, who were proverbial as cheating merchants (compare Isa 23:11, Margin), the greatest reproach to Israel, who despised Canaan. The Phœnicians called themselves Canaanites or merchants (Isa 23:8).
oppress--open violence: as the "balances of deceit" imply fraud.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–8 ISRAEL’S UNHOLY AMBITION AND BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT, Hos_12:7-14.
ISRAEL’S UNHOLY AMBITION AND BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT, Hos_12:7-14.
Israel’s sole ambition had been to accumulate material wealth, even by the use of the most shameful means. This ill-gotten gain, the prophet says, will avail nothing, for Jehovah is about to reduce Israel to poverty (7-9). The latter part of the section is obscure, due perhaps to a disarrangement of the verses. They seem to contain a complaint of Jehovah because the people disregarded and rejected the prophets whom he had raised up. This obstinacy makes the judgment inevitable (10-14).
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7. He is a merchant [“trafficker”] — Literally, Canaan, without “he is”; hence margin of R.V., “As for Canaan, the… ,” is preferable. Addressed to the degenerate Israel. Because of the commercial habits of the Canaanites, including the Phoenicians, Canaan became a synonym of merchant (Job_41:6; Pro_31:24; compare Zep_1:11; Eze_17:4), just as Chaldean, at a later period, became a synonym of astrologer. “Instead of seeking high gifts from heaven, like its progenitor, Israel strives after money and goods, like the huckstering nation of the Canaanites.” Israel adopted also the fraudulent ways of the Canaanites (compare Odyssey, 14:290, 291).
Balances of deceit — Balances with which deceit is practiced. They “doctored” the scales in order to take advantage of the buyer (Amo_8:5).
Oppress — Better, with margin, R.V., “defraud.” It is significant that the prophet condemns as strongly the people’s attitude toward one another (compare Hos_4:1) as he condemns that toward Jehovah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7. He is a merchant, &c.] Rather, Canaan! in…
7. He is a merchant, &c.] Rather, Canaan! in his hand are deceitful balances; he loveth to extort. The geographical term ‘Canaan’ simply means ‘lowland’, and therefore might be, and was, applied to Phœnicia (Isa_23:11) as well as to other lowland parts of Palestine; ‘Canaanite’ too became a synonym for ‘merchant’ (Job_41:6; Pro_31:24, comp. Zep_1:11; Eze_17:4), as ‘Chaldean’ was a synonym for ‘astrologer.’ Hosea uses the word collectively and metaphorically:—his ‘Canaan’ is a degenerate Israel. The sarcasm derives its point from the low repute of the Phœnician merchants for honesty (comp. Odyss. xiv. 290, 291).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–9 (7) He is a merchant.—The vivid and fierce light…
(7) He is a merchant.—The vivid and fierce light of the prophet’s words is obscured in the English version. The rendering “he is a merchant” originates from the fact that Canaan (rendered “merchant”) is often used predominantly of Phœnicia, and Canaanites of Phœnicians, the great trading race (Isa_23:11; Job 40:30). Translate: As for Canaan, in his hand are false balances. He loves cheating. The descendants of Canaan (the son of Ham, the abhorred son of Noah) became in their whole career a curse and a bye-word in every religious and ethical sense. The princes of Tyre, the merchandise of Phœnicia, were, perhaps, then in the prophet’s mind. (Comp. Ezekiel 27)
Moreover, the prophet hints that Ephraim had imbibed Phœnicia’s love of gain and habits of unscrupulous trade. The literature of this period contains frequent references to these tendencies in Israel (Amo_2:6; Amo_8:5; Mic_6:10).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Vers. 7-14 contain a fresh description of Israel"s apostasy.…
Vers. 7-14 contain a fresh description of Israel"s apostasy. To this the prophet is led by the preceding train of thought. When he called to mind the earnestness of the patriarch to obtain the blessing, the sincerity of his repentance, and the evidences of conversion, consisting in mercy and judgment and constant waiting on God, he looks around on Israel, and finding those virtues conspicuous by their absence., he repeats the story of their degeneracy.
He is a merchant (margin, Canaan), the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. This verse is more exactly rendered, Canaan is he, in his hand are the balances of deceit: he loveth to oppress. How the sons have degenerated from the sire! No longer do we see Jacob wrestling in prayer with the angel of the covenant, and knighted in the field with the name of Israel, or "prince with God;" but a fraudulent merchant Kenaan , seeking to aggrandize himself by cheating and oppression. His conduct is the opposite of what God requires; instead of the mercy and judgment and trust in God enjoined in the preceding verse, we have the Canaanitish (Phoenician) trader, with his false scales in his hand and the love of oppression in his heart. The word Kenaan sometimes denotes Canaan, the son of Ham, and ancestor of the Canaanitish nation; sometimes the land of Canaan, or lowlands (from nK bow the knee, gonu gnu gnupetein , genu, knee; then "to be low" or "depressed") as opposed to or" highlands" (from to be high); sometimes Phoenicia, the northern part of Canaan; also, from the Canaanites or Phoenicians having been famous as merchants, a man of Canaan, or any merchant, so Job 40 and Pro_31:24, just as Kasdi Chaldaean is applied to an astrologer. At the time of Hosea, the Phoenicians were the great merchants who had the commerce of the world in their hand. Canaan is thus a figurative designation of Ephraim in their degenerate condition as indicated by the false balances and love of oppression. The verse is well explained by Theodoret: "And thou, Ephraim, imitating
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(1) the wickedness of Canaan, hast an unjust balance of mind: thou despisest justice, thou greedily desirest unjust power, thou art high-minded in rich, S, and dost arrogate to thyself very much in prescribing and determining the conditions thereof." Rashi more briefly remarks, "Ye depend upon your wealth because ye are merchants and defraud; and of your riches ye say, "Yet I have become rich, and shall not serve the Holy One; while Kimchi marks the contrast between Israel as he ought to be and Israel as he actually is, thus: "But thou art not so (i.e. practicing love and righteousness), but thou art like the Canaanite, i.e. as
(2) the merchant, in whose hand is the deceitful balance." The character of the Phoenician trader is thus given in the "Odyssey false Phoenician of insidious mind, Vers"d in vile arts, and foe to humankind." But, in addition to secret fraud, open violence is here charged against Israel.
Vers. 7-10. Extent of Israel"s apostasy.
I Here we are shown now FOR ISRAEL HAD APOSTATIZED, how unlike they were to the patriarch of whom they boasted, and how far they fell short of admonitions that had been addressed to) them.
1. They were like the Canaanite whom they despised than the patriarch from whom they were descended. They had become liker fraudulent merchants than God-fearing members of the Church of God. To fraud they added oppression where they had the power.
2. The love of money was the root of this evil trait of Jewish character a trait that shows itself too frequently at the present day, and which is not confined to the Jew, but comprehends the Gentile also. Men hasten to be rich, and cannot long be innocent.
3. There is no greater aggravation of sin than the love of it. The people of Israel at the period specified were not only addicted to the sin of covetousness or greediness of gain, but were actually enamored of their sin. One of the worst features of wicked men, which the apostle has so vividly photographed in that black catalogue of sin, is that, "knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
4. Men addicted to covetousness and whose hearts are set on getting gain make light of the doctrines of religion. Thus in the days of our Lord "the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him." Sacred truths and Divine mysteries were despised, while the ways and means of amassing wealth were their delight. So here the connection of ver. 7 may be the prophet"s complaint of his countrymen"s neglect of his exhortations, owing to their covetousness. "The scope of the prophet and the connection here is We may exhort, but so long as their hearts are covetous, and set upon their way of getting gain, they will never regard what we say; they will not turn to God, they will not hear of it, but will rather turn a deaf ear to all entreaties.
II EXCUSES FOR SIN. Here we see how wicked men excuse themselves and palliate their sins.
1. Success furnishes them with a plausible plea for self-vindication. The prosperity of fools, we are told, destroys them; while the worldly prosperity of the wicked is frequently fatal to their spiritual welfare. "Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way," says the psalmist, afterwards adding, "for evil-doers shall be cut off." It has been well and truly said that "prosperity in sinful ways is an old snare, hindering men from heeding challenges or God"s anger because of them.
2. The boastful spirit of the wicked; they glory in their gains as self-procured; they attribute all to their own skill, or strength, or ingenuity, or industry, or ability, and refuse to acknowledge God. Nor is it, indeed, possible they should, for how could they bless God for what they have acquired by sin or gained by fraudulent dealing?
3. False refuges to which wicked men resort: they divest themselves of all dread of Divine displeasure or of danger on the ground of prosperity; they force themselves to believe that if their conduct were either displeasing to God or fraught with danger to themselves, they would not be so prosperous in getting gain or have such success in sin. Another false refuge is to seek relief for a guilty conscience from the outward comforts procurable by ill- gotten gain.
4. Other false shifts or hypocritical evasions are, as is here intimated, resorted to by sinners. Sometimes they gloss over their sins with fair names; thus their dishonesties, whether by fraud or force, take the name of the fruits of their labors, the earnings of their industry, or the profits of their calling. Sometimes they depend on secrecy and defy detection, and, while they feel themselves free from discovery, they fancy themselves safe in their sin, as though the eye of God did not penetrate such thin disguises, or as if God had not said, "Be sure your sin will find you out." Sometimes they hypocritically profess abhorrence of sins they habitually practice; or, if they acknowledge sin at all, they salve their wounds of conscience by the consideration that their sins are very venial offences, and such as are incidental to their situation, or common to their calling, or peculiar to their trade. Thus they minimize their culpability and impose on their own souls,
III EFFECTS OF SIN. God"s goodness, which is designed to lead men to repent of sin, aggravates the sin of the impenitent.
1. God"s claims on Israel"s gratitude had been, indeed, mighty and manifold, as well as from ancient times. The glorious deliverances he had wrought for them, the low estate from which he had lifted them, the great exaltation to which he had raised them, the good land into which he had brought them, the rich grace he had bestowed on them, and the religious privileges he had conferred on them, all these blessings, having been abused, increased the sin of their ingratitude and intensified their guilt.
2. God cannot hold the sinner guiltless. Sin, wherever it is found or by whomsoever it is committed, cannot pass unpunished. The offences of God"s own dear children bring down chastisement upon them; he will not spare their faults. A father does not love his son less because he corrects him; he pities while he punishes; his bowels of compassion move while his hand holds the rod. So Israel, having been unmindful of God"s mercy, must be exiled from their goodly pleasant land, and go into a bondage bad as, or worse than, that in Egypt of yore.
3. Yet God for all that does not renounce his interest in his people; he will give them occasion again to remember his goodness and to celebrate his redeeming love. Their preservation and restoration should again afford abundant matter for gladness and thanksgiving, when they would join trembling with their mirth, and celebrate the solemn Feast of Tabernacles, with joy drawing water out of the wells of salvation. Whether the reference be to a literal joyful restoration of Israel to their own land, or a glad time of revival and refreshing to all the trim Israel of God, whether Gentile or Jew in gospel times, the encouragement is gracious and the prospect glorious. Nor is it less so from the contrast between the chastisement so deserved and the consolation promised.
IV EXCELLENCE OF DIVINE TEACHING AND INEXCUSABLENESS OF THOSE PRIVILEGED THEREWITH.
1. To his people in the past God spake at sundry times and in divers manners, or in divers portions, as they needed or could bear it, and in divers ways, by prophecy, by visions, by similitudes, and by the ministry of the Word. The means of grace were thus abundant and multiplied.
2. However different the modes of ministration were, the speaker was still one and the same. It is God who thus speaks to us by his messengers. If we reject the message and the messenger that brings it, we reject the Author; if we receive the message from the lips of the messenger, we receive him who gave the commission. What a grave responsibility! What need to take heed how we hear as well as what we hear! And bow incumbent on ministers also to take good heed, not only to the matter, but to the manner in which they convey the message they have received, remembering that they stand between the living and the dead, like Aaron when he took his censer and ran into the midst of the congregation till the plague was stayed.
3. The inexcusableness of those who, like Israel, enjoy so many privileges. The plainness, the variety, and the frequency of the Divine teaching impose a weighty responsibility, for unto whomsoever much is given, of them much shall be required; it is even a human principle practiced among men, that to whomsoever men have committed much, of him they ask the more. How God has left us all without excuse, seeing that in these days of light and liberty God has given us such a clear revelation of his will, so many ministries to explain and enforce it, so much freedom to exercise our judgment upon it, and derive light and leading from it, while we sit, like Israel of old, under our vine and fig tree in peace and safety, none daring to make us afraid!
Vers. 7-14. Three painful contrasts.
In this strophe the threatening of punishment is again repeated (ver. 14). Ephraim"s blood-guiltiness is to be left upon him; i.e. his sin is not to be pardoned. The "reproach" or dishonor which he has done to God by his idolatry, and iniquity God will repay him. But the denunciation is mixed with mercy. "I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles" (ver. 9) seems to include, not only a threatening of banishment from "the Lord"s land," but a new redemption from the coming Egypt-like bondage, which shall bring with it rest and freedom and prosperity. Beyond his captivity, Ephraim shall keep the joyous Feast of Tabernacles again, as a memorial of Messianic mercies in connection with his restoration. As Ewald, however, remarks, the main feature of these verses consists in "three compressed comparisons.
I "ISRAEL" HAS BECOME "CANAAN." (Vers. 7, 8) The "prince with God" has degenerated into a cheating huckster; the descendants of the godly Jacob have become like paltry Phoenician peddlers. Instead of "keeping mercy and judgment" (ver. 6) in their commercial dealings, they love to practice deception and oppression. Ephraim, accordingly, does not deserve to be called by the honorable name of "Israel;" he exhibits rather the innate characteristics of the Canaanite tribes, and may well be spoken of as "Canaan." But, worse even than that, the people are spiritually self-complacent, all the while that they deal so dishonestly. They deceive themselves with the notion that their habits of social injustice involve no sin against God. They ignore the teaching of their law about "just balances, and just weights". (Lev_19:36 Deu_25:13-16) Enough for them if they become rich through their ill-gotten gains. They even argue that their continued success in acquiring riches by means of "the balances of deceit" is an evidence that the Lord cannot be angry with them (ver. 8).
Lessons.
1. It is a spurious piety which does not take to do with "weights and measures.
2. The dangers of covetousness, a besetting sin of many Church members.
3. Long-continued temporal prosperity is not necessarily a token of God"s favor.
4. Ungodly men pervert the Divine goodness and forbearance into an encouragement to persist in their sinful courses.
II EPHRAIM HAS FORSAKEN THE PROPHETS FOR HEATHEN ALTARS. (Vers. 10, 11) Jehovah, who had been his God "from the land of Egypt," had shown his love for the nation in raising up a succession of men as their teachers, upon whom he caused his Spirit to rest. The prophets instructed the people in spiritual truth and moral duty. They rebuked idolatry. They denounced all injustice and oppression. They warned of coming judgments. They testified beforehand of the coming of the Messiah, and of the ultimate salvation of the world through him. The larger number of the great prophets were sent to the kingdom of Judah, and yet some of the most distinguished of them labored in the northern kingdom, as e.g. Elijah, Elisha, Amos, and Hosea himself. The Lord gave his Word to the prophets in a variety of ways. Sometimes by an audible voice, as to Samuel; more frequently, by writing the message in burning thoughts upon the prophet"s soul; and often, as Hosea here reminds the people, by multiplying visions." The vision" was a frequent vehicle of Divine revelation during the whole course of the national life of Israel. Jehovah multiplied visions to Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, etc. And the prophets, in delivering the Lords message, were directed to employ material signs as a means of adding emphasis to spiritual truth. The Lord, who knows our frame, and who has made the earth but the shadow of heaven" (Milton), took care to give similitudes by the prophets." Tile Hebrew seers used the metaphor, the allegory, the parable, the dramatic action. They found spiritual analogies everywhere in nature, and in the circumstances of human life. And all this was a manifestation of God"s solicitude for his people"s good. He sent the "prophets," and gave the "visions," and suggested the "similitudes" in tender love for his erring children. Yet all was in vain. The people continued to live as if God had given them no revelation. Their idolatry extended all over the region beyond Jordan, here represented by "Gilead;" and all over the west of Jordan, represented by Gilgal." They turned a deaf ear to the warning voices of the prophets. Ephraim forsook the one altar which God recognized as his, and increased the number of idol shrines until they covered the land, like the heaps of stones cleared by the farmer out of a ploughed field. The idolatry and wickedness of Israel were committed against the clearest light of prophecy, and against the yearning love of Jehovah, which had led him "daily to rise up early" and send the prophets.
Lessons.
1. The privilege of being within reach of an earnest gospel ministry.
2. The advantage of the judicious use of illustrations in religious teaching.
3. How sad it is when localities which were once the scene of special manifestations of God become polluted with scandalous wickedness!
4. How aggravated the guilt of those who" sin willfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth"! (Heb_10:26)
III EPHRAIM HAS FAILED TO LEARN THE LESSONS OF HIS OWN EARLY HISTORY. (Vers. 12-14) Had he reflected aright upon the course of Divine providence towards himself, his thoughts about God would have been thoughts especially of humility and gratitude.
1. Humility. (Ver. 12) When the Jew offered his basket of" firstfruits" annually to the Lord, he was to say, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father". (Deu_26:5) Jacob, the stem-father of the tribes, went to Mesopotamia as a fugitive, and remained there for twenty years as a servant. He had no dowry to offer for Rachel; he could only serve for her as a shepherd. Israel, accordingly, had not much to boast of as regards his national origin; the beginnings of the nation could scarcely have been more humble. And yet how different was Jacob"s life, spiritually, from that of his children to whom Hosea spoke this prophecy!
2. Gratitude. (Ver. 13) The reference now is to Moses. If Jacob"s condition of servitude in Padan-aram taught a lesson of humility, the thought of the slavery of his immediate posterity in Egypt was fitted to inspire sentiments of gratitude. What a great emancipation was that of the Exodus! And the agent by whom that deliverance had been accomplished was a prophet, and one who, like Jacob, had been a shepherd. Degenerate Israel despised the teacher whom God sent, forgetting while he did so that the emancipation from the bondage of Egypt had taken place under the leadership of one single prophet. The Prophet Moses had conducted the tribes through the Red Sea; and had acted as their guardian, and their mediator with God, during all the forty years which they spent in the Arabian desert Under him the people had passed from a state of servitude into a position of sonship. Yet, alas! the nation cherished now neither humility nor gratitude. The Lord had preserved, enriched, and blessed them; but in return they only "provoked him to auger" by their grievous sins, until it became impossible that they could escape the punishment of their impiety.
Lessons:
1. The profitableness of the study of Scripture biography and history.
2. God"s people must expect to be subjected to discipline as a condition of their spiritual advancement.
3. The Lord uses apparently humble instruments to accomplish great results.
4. The duty of cherishing gratitude for past mercies in our national history. C.J.
Vers. 7-9. Fortunes badly used, badly made, and badly ended.
"He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin. And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast." Here we have
I FORTUNES BADLY USED. "And Ephraim said, I am become rich, I have found me out substance." Here is a fortune held and no doubt employed in the spirit of haughty egotism. It is all I "I have become rich, I have found me out substance.
1. Here there is no recognition of human co-operation. No man comes in possession of wealth without the efforts of some men either living or dead. Wealth, whoever holds it, is the result in most, perhaps in all cases of the efforts of a large number of human workers. But the possessor oftentimes takes no note of this. He thinks only of himself. He does not think of the toil, the sweat, the exhaustion of those who have helped to put it into his hand.
2. Here there is no recognition of Divine agency. All fortunes roam of God out of his materials, out of his seasons, out of the activity of his creatures. But there is no recognition of him here. "I have become rich, I have found me out substance." How many fortunes are thus held and employed in England this day held and employed in a haughty egotism!
II FORTUNES BADLY MADE.
1. Here is fraud. He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand." The hand of fraud has ever been, and still is, alas! the most active of all agencies in the erection of fortunes. There is deceit everywhere. In all fabrics, groceries, trade commodities. Deceit in making, deceit both in the buying and the selling. Were all the fortunes in England that have been built up by deceit to be destroyed this day, the whole human world would be startled with the terrible crash. The event would be as the hurling of the Himalaya into the sea, causing the billows to roar on every shore.
2. Here is oppression. "He loveth to oppress." Indeed, fraud is oppression in some form or other. What unrighteous exactions there are in the building of many fortunes! Go to the pits of mine-owners, to the factories of manufacturers, to the warehouses of merchants, to the vessels of shipowners, and everywhere you will meet men and women groaning under the oppression of those for whom they are building up fortunes.
3. Here is cunning. "In all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin." Ephraim this typical fortune-maker took such care to conceal all that was unfair and nefarious in his operations that he was certain no wrong could be found in his doings. Wrong there was, he knew, but he was careful that none should discover it. By plausible and well-guarded statements, by legal formulae, by "board" resolutions, he tools that he can say, "In all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me." Who has not seen many men of this type? many who have made a fortune by a swindle, but have so guarded the transaction that they have clapped their hands and said, "None will ever find it oat.
III FORTUNES BADLY ENDED. "And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast." The meaning of this is Rich as thou art, I will strip thee of thy wealth, drive thee from thy home, send thee back again to the wilderness a vagrant, to howl for bread and water. Ay, ay, to all such fortune-holders and fortune-makers retribution must come sooner or later. "I tell thee," says Thomas Carlyle, "there is nothing else but justice: one strong thing I find here below the just thing, the true thing. My friend, if thou hadst all the artillery of Woolwich marching at thy back in support of an unjust thing, and infinite bonfires visibly waiting ahead of thee to blaze centuries to come for thy victory on behalf of it, I would advise thee to call "Halt!" to fling down thy baton, and say, "In God"s Name, no!" What will the success amount to? If the thing be unjust, thou hast not succeeded, though bonfires blazed from north to south. and bells rang, and editors wrote leading articles, and the just thing be trampled out of sight to all mortal eyes, an abolished and an annihilated thing. D.T.
Vers. 7-11. Balances of deceit.
In the manner of his acquisition of wealth, Ephraim conjoined deceit and oppression. He was dishonest in trade. He oppressed the poor. He was a better imitator of Jacob in his act of laying hold of his brother"s heel than in his earnestness in wrestling with the angel. He inherited the evil, not the good, traits in the character of his progenitor He was a "Jacob," not an "Israel." Yet he plumed himself on his success.
I EPHRAIM"S SAY IN THE MATTER. (Ver. 8)
1. He was puffed up with the thought of being rich. "Ephraim said, I am rich, I have found me out substance." This was the main thing he was rich. It did not matter how the riches had been got, when they were there. The existence of the riches covered a multitude of sins. This is too much the way in which wealth is looked at in the world. The possessor of it can count on being honored, courted, applauded for success, with few questions asked as to the means by which his wealth has been acquired. The love of the honor and position which wealth gives lead men to seek after it by fair means and foul. "Balances of deceit" are not unknown among ourselves. "Tricks innumerable," says Mr. Spencer, "lies acted or uttered, elaborately devised frauds, are prevalent many of them established as " customs of the trade; " nay, not only established, but defended." Yet this is thought of little moment, if only men can say in the end, "I am rich.
2. He took the glory of his riches to himself. "I have found me out substance." It was himself that did it. To him the credit and glory of it belonged. He said in his heart, "My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth," forgetting that it is God alone that had given him power to get wealth. (Deu_8:17, Deu_8:18)
3. He justified himself in his ways. "In all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin." As Spencer says above of rogueries in trade, "not only established, but defended." The dishonest trader is yet to be found who is not disposed to justify himself. He gets to look on his dishonesties as trifles bagatelles. He defies proof of them. He justifies himself by the practice of others. That cannot be wrong which everybody does. If, like Ephraim, he is assiduous in the practice of the outward duties of religion (ver. 11), he may regard this as amply outweighing the deceits and oppressions of his business life.
II GOD"S SAY IN THE MATTER. (Vers. 8, 9) God:
1. Exposes the sin and folly o/ Ephraims boasting, "And I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt." If Ephraim was rich, it was God who made him rich. If he had substance, it was God who gave him substance, not Ephraim who had found it out for himself: Ephraim"s boasting was, therefore, entirely out of place. It was as foolish as it was wicked and ungrateful.
2. Shows the inexcusableness of Ephraim"s conduct. "I have also spoken by the prophets," etc. Ephraim had been well taught and warned. Moses, in the plains of Moab, had already foreshown the dangers to which Israel would be exposed when they came into possession of the goodliness of Canaan, and had forewarned them against pride and undue self-elation. (Deu_8:7-18) Other prophets had been sent as occasion required. God had "multiplied visions" to the people, and had "used similitudes" to make matters plainer, and to draw attention. In spite of all, Ephraim continued sinning. If such were his privileges, what are ours, to whom God, "who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken by his Son? (Heb_1:1, Heb_1:2)
3. Declares Ephraim"s punishment. "I will make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast?" Ephraim, having forfeited his blessings by his sin, would be turned back again into the wilderness, there to renew the experience of the old wanderings, of which the Feast of Tabernacles was a memorial. (Lev_23:42, Lev_23:43) The words are a threatening, yet imply mercy. The wilderness wanderings were a punishment, but also a discipline. During these wanderings, Israel enjoyed God"s protection and sheltering care. The end of the wandering was Canaan. So Israel"s present banishment is with a view to ultimate recovery.
III THE DELUSION PRICKED. (Ver. 11) Ephraim, like the Laodicean Church, said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," and knew not that he was "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked". (Rev_3:17) He had failed to take God"s counsel (by the prophets), to buy of him "gold tried in the fire" that he might be rich, and white raiment" that he might be clothed, and to anoint his eyes with eye-salve that he might see. (Rev_3:18) He still pursued vanity and deceit, and multiplied transgressions. This state of delusion in which he lived was now to be rudely broken in upon. Gilead, for its iniquity, would become (or, perhaps, had already become) vanity, nothingness. Gilgal, where bulls were offered in such numbers in sacrifice, would witness (or had already witnessed) its altars made as heaps of stones in the furrows of the field. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are…
Hos_12:7-9
He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress, etc.
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Fortunes
I. Fortunes badly used.
1. Here there is no recognition of human co-operation. No man comes in possession of wealth without the efforts of some men either living or dead. Wealth, in most cases, is the result of the efforts of a large number of human workers But the possessor oftentimes takes no note of this. He thinks only of himself.
2. Here there is no recognition of Divine agency. All fortunes come of God. Out of His materials, out of His seasons, out of the activity of His creatures. Many fortunes are held and employed in a spirit of haughty egotism.
II. Fortunes badly made.
1. Here is fraud. There is deceit everywhere. In all fabrics, groceries, trade commodities. Deceit in making, deceit both in the buying and the selling.
2. Here is oppression. Fraud is oppression, in some form or other.
3. Here is cunning. Ephraim--this typical fortune-maker--took such care to conceal all that was unfair and nefarious in his operations that he was certain no wrong could be found in his doings. Many who have made a fortune by a swindle have so guarded the transaction that they have clapped their hands and said, None will ever find it out.
III. Fortunes badly ended. To all such fortune-holders and fortune-makers retribution must come sooner or later. (Homilist.)
And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance.--
I am rich
Literally, I am simply rich, in all my labours they shall find none iniquity that is sin. It was the custom of the trade; that is how it is. In forty pounds weight of calico put sixteen pounds weight of china clay--it is the custom of the trade: a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Sell for ten yards of cloth nine yards and seven-eighths. A man likes an eighth of a lie; a little fraction of falsehood is a kind of condiment in his supper; it is the custom of the trade. And especially if a man, after doing this, can take the chair at a missionary meeting, and speak lugubriously and tediously about the condition of the heathen he has never seen, but often cheated; he feels that there is none iniquity in him that is sin; he says, Business is business. He always says that when he wins; when he loses he says, There ought to be some morality in business after all. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Keeping up appearances
I. The hiding of sin. Ephraim is in truth most unrighteous, but he contrives to sin in such a way that he appears innocent. And do we not attempt by many subtilties to hide the real qualities of our actions, to shelter ourselves from their just penalties?
1. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within the civil law. National and international law were scrupulously observed by Ephraim. Men still flatter themselves that they keep the law of the land. A man may do that and still be an infinite scoundrel. He may be guilty of gross dishonesty. He may keep the civil law with very little sense of generosity. We may be guilty of deep cruelty to our fellows, and the law of the magistrate takes no cognisance of our actions. Often the very worst escape, whilst those far less guilty are denounced and punished.
2. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within public opinion. A public opinion exists which is more strict and pervasive than the civil law. This public opinion we are bound to respect, we do respect it, and some of us are abundantly satisfied if we succeed in meeting its exactions. But how much personal, commercial, political immorality is yet untouched by public opinion! A man may be a rascal, and yet a gentleman. With a plausible tongue, a polished style, with fine phrases and fine manners, a man may be guilty of fraud, cruelty, uncleanness, and yet remain throughout popular in society! Rotten at the core, he is painted on the rind, and the world sees the skin and not the soul. Some of the handsomest butterflies have the strangest tastes--they turn aside from the most glorious flowers to sip filthiest messes.
3. We sin deeply, and yet maintain the sense of personal dignity. Ephraim hid the fact of his guiltiness by looking at his successfulness. Men still forget their sinfulness in their prosperity. A man may be a conqueror, and yet his glory be his shame; he may attain honour, and his scarlet robe be the fitting sign of his scarlet sins; he may grow rich, and every coin in his coffers witness against him. His honour rooted in dishonour stood. Proud, selfish, dishonest, sensual men flatter themselves in their own eyes until their iniquity is found to be hateful.
4. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within ecclesiastical discipline. Ephraim would do no iniquity that were sin from an ecclesiastical point of view. Yet all the while he was guilty of falsehood, robbery, injustice, uncleanness; he called himself Israel, but God called him a Canaanite. A man may be a terrible sinner, and yet observe all the ceremonial law.
II. Mark the inevitable exposure and punishment of sin. Cleverly disguised as sin may be, it will surely suffer detection. God knows nothing about appearances; He knows us as we think in our heart. And what stands revealed is bound to meet with just retribution. Then in all life let us--
1. Aim at the highest; and--
2. Test ourselves by the highest; let us judge ourselves in the sight of God, and by the absolute standard. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v7 Hos_12:7. Merchant] Marg. a Canaanite, a heathen, unlike Israel,…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Hos_12:7. Merchant] Marg. a Canaanite, a heathen, unlike Israel, to whom Canaanites were a reproach (Eze_16:3). Oppress] Lit. deceive. Men whose trade is deceit, whose balances are unjust, cannot love mercy and do judgment.
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Hos_12:8. Eph. said, in a spirit of disregard to the prophets, and in self-justification, “I am become rich, God prospers me; this is a proof that he is not displeased, and that there is no iniquity in me.” But these riches were not enjoyed on account of sin. Their attitude towards God and man was the very opposite of right.
Hos_12:9. I] God meets their delusion by reminding them that he had been their guide, defence, and source of prosperity, from wandering in the wilderness, and to settlement in tents now. Others take this as a threat to reduce them to their ancient helpless condition.
PROSPERITY UNLAWFULLY GAINED AND ABUSED WILL BE TAKEN AWAY BY GOD.—Hos_12:7-9
Israel was not like Jacob, who wrestled with God, but like a merchant who sought to become rich by fraud and oppression. Instead of keeping judgment and mercy (Hos_12:6), Ephraim prided himself in deceit, and justified his wickedness by its success. But God threatens to punish by stripping them of wealth, and throwing them into privation and distress.
I. Prosperity acquired by unlawful means. When men make haste to be rich, they rush into danger, and care nothing for the means, so that they accomplish the end. Trade is lawful, necessary, and advantageous. Prosperity is a cause for gratitude; but how many have become Canaanites in their character and conduct.
1. Deceit. “The balances of deceit are in his hand.” Fraud is sadly too common now. Short weight and short measure, trickery and false dealing, evading legal duties, taking advantage of the unwary, are a flagrant breach of the golden rule, and an abomination to the God of truth (Pro_20:10). “That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter.”
2. Oppression. “He loveth to oppress.” Oppression assumes many forms. When artisans are compelled to buy at a loss at their master’s premises, when their lawful wages are withheld, or their proper rights trampled upon, there is oppression. In all abuse of power and insolent treatment of others we see oppressive conduct. A bargain is sometimes unmerciful as a robbery, and wealth gained by oppression is of little value. “Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right.”
II. Prosperity considered to justify wicked conduct. “Ephraim said, Yet I am rich.” I have succeeded; I must be right. If God prospers me, it is a proof that I am innocent, and that he is not displeased with me. Men have pleas for their sins, and excuses to ward off conviction from the word. Here we have—
1. Prosperity defended in pride. “I am rich.” Wealthy men are apt to be proud, to forget God, and claim honour and reverence from their fellow-men. Oppressors are esteemed great by the world; but men are to be judged by God’s rule, not by man’s rule. “Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.”
2. Prosperity defended in self-righteousness. “They shall find none iniquity in me.” They protest their innocence, and declare none can find any sin in their buying and selling. None suspect themselves less than the self-righteous and the proud. They see fraud and deceit in other traders, but not in themselves. They glorify themselves, build up their fortunes, defend them by wickedness, and deceive their own souls. “Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”
III. Prosperity abused will be taken away by God. God reminds them of forgotten mercy. In all their history he never left himself without witness of his goodness.
1. Past prosperity was the gift of God. In one brief sentence he reviews the past and comprehends the present. “I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt.” They were in bondage and slavery, and God delivered them. They depended upon him for food, clothing, and guidance in the wilderness. And they were grateful to God once, commemorated his goodness in feasts of tabernacles; but now these mercies are all forgotten. They boasted in their wealth, and sought it independently of God. God will therefore teach them dependence upon him.
2. Present prosperity is the gift of God. From Egypt up to the present time have “I the Lord thy God” taken an interest in thee. Israel’s possession of the land and deliverance from enemies, all their glory and wealth, had come from God. We have nothing that we have not received, and we should not boast as if we had not received it. Our skill and fortunes are from God, on whom we all depended. If we attribute all to self, and nothing to him, he will claim his own, and rob us of our enjoyments.
3. God who gives prosperity can easily take it away. He “will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days” of old. What a helpless people Israel were, when kings and nobles, rich and poor, left their palaces to dwell in booths! How unsettled their residence, and how slight the tenure of their worldly wealth which they held at the command of God! In God alone is power and stability, true riches and happiness. If we indulge in oppression, pride, and deceit—defend acts of injustice, and trust to unlawful gains, God will reduce us to poverty and want. “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished.” Revenues without right can never be kept. When the judgment of God falls upon dishonest trades there will be no shelter. “Riches profit not in the day of wrath.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos_12:8. The shadow taken for the substance. “I have found substance.”
1. It is folly to take wealth and worldly honours as substance, for they are emptiness and vanity, things that are not (Pro_23:5; Pro_27:4).
2. It is wrong to think that we gain substance and prosperity by our own industry and skill. “I have found it.” We say concerning our houses and fortunes, Look what “I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty.”
3. It is selfish to think that all our substance is given for our own use merely. “I have found me out substance.” Wealth, time, talents, and all are given in trust, to be employed for the good of others and the glory of God.
4. It is deceptive to think that wealth sinfully acquired will increase our happiness and protect our souls. The love of ease and oppression, pride and dishonesty, ripen for destruction. “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.” “In all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us.”
“Find none iniquity in me.” Characters innocent before men ungodly in the sight of God. Men considered successful, remarkable for business tact, and held up as examples, condemned and punished by God.
Honesty is the best policy.
1. As a matter of policy.
2. As a matter of principle. Character is property. A man may not be rich in this world, yet be rich towards God and in the general good will of men. “As a man can never be truly honest unless he be religious, so, on the other hand, whatever show of religion he may make, he cannot be truly religious in God’s judgment unless he is honest in his conversation towards his neighbour” [Bp Mant].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 12
Hos_12:7-8. Rich. Endeavour to be honestly rich, or contentedly poor; but be sure that your riches be justly got, or you spoil all [Izaak Walton]. He that resteth upon gains certain, shall hardly grow to great riches; and he that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes break and come to poverty. It is good, therefore, to guard adventures with certainties that may uphold losses [Bacon].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v7 Another Serious Reproach
Another Serious Reproach
v. 7. He is a merchant, rather, "Canaan," the name here applied to the northern kingdom, since, like a dishonest merchant, he sought greatness by deceit and oppression, the balances of deceit are in his hand; he loveth to oppress, so that the inhabitants practiced the very opposite of what was enjoined in the preceding verse.
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v. 8. And Ephraim said, in refusing to heed the Lord’s admonitions through His prophets, Yet I am become rich, thus trying to excuse his dishonest ways, I have found me out substance, becoming prosperous as a result of doubtful cleverness; in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin, or, "all my gains shall find no transgression in me which would be sin. " This blindness toward their own guilt and the culpability of their sin was the big misfortune of the Israelites, for it hindered them from feeling sorry for their transgressions.
v. 9. And I that am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt, where He first revealed the greatness of His mercy toward Israel, will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the solemn feast, the allusion doubtless being to the Feast of Tabernacles, which not only commemorated the privations of the wilderness journey, but also brought to the attention of the Israelites the blessings with which the Lord so richly supplied them in the Land of Promise.
v. 10. I have also spoken by the prophets, so that He had always been in close touch with His chosen people, and I have multiplied visions and used similitudes, making known His will by parables, by the ministry of the prophets. All this surely showed the interest which the Lord had in His people and should be an inducement to them to return to Him with a repentant heart.
v. 11. Is there iniquity in Gilead? Surely they are vanity, or, "If Gilead," representing the eastern half of the northern kingdom, "is worthlessness and iniquity," if it has reached the depths of moral ruin, then physical annihilation will certainly follow. They sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal, which represents the western part of the kingdom, with its idolatrous practices; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields, the altars being demolished and their stones scattered over the fields.
v. 12. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep, the purpose of this reference being to remind Israel of the labor and misery which their forefather endured in comparison with the blessings which the Lord was pouring out over his descendants.
v. 13. And, this being noted by way of contrast, by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, Num 12:6-8; Deu 18:15, and by a prophet was he preserved, for it was the intercession of Moses which saved Israel from being destroyed by the Lord.
v. 14. Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly, in spite of all the blessings which God had showered upon His people; therefore shall He, the Lord, leave his blood upon him, leave Israel in his blood-guiltiness, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him, so that it would be charged to his account and kept there. When men refuse to repent and scorn all the efforts of the Lord aiming at their deliverance from sin and guilt, the Lord leaves them to their fate and to the punishment which they invited upon themselves.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9 General Information:
General Information:
Hosea the prophet is speaking about Israel.
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false scales
The merchants use scales that do not accurately measure the weight of the money or products they are buying or selling.
they love to defraud
The merchants cheat their customers by lying to them and taking more money than they should.
I have certainly become very rich; I have found wealth for myself
These two phrases mean the same thing and mean that the people of Ephraim consider themselves to be very prosperous. (See: Parallelism)
I have found wealth
Becoming wealthy by trading is spoken of as finding wealth. AT: "I have made much money" (See: Metaphor)
they will not find any iniquity in me, anything that would be sin
These two phrases mean the same thing and emphasize that the people of Ephraim consider themselves to be blameless. Learning that someone has sinned is spoken of as finding sin in that person. AT: "they will not discover that I have done anything sinful" (See: Doublet and Metaphor)
translationWords
Ephraim
works
iniquity
sin
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9 12:7-8 During the reign of Jeroboam II (793–753 BC),…
12:7-8 During the reign of Jeroboam II (793–753 BC), Israelite merchants became fabulously wealthy, often by using deceitful business practices like dishonest scales (see Amos 8:5-6). • The Hebrew term translated merchants is kena‘an (“Canaan”). Canaanite traders were notorious in the ancient world for their crafty dealings. The Israelites had imitated their pagan neighbors not only in religion but also in commerce.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.