When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty in Baal, he died.
Parallel Translations
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When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty in Baal, he died.
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When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
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When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he became guilty through Baal, he died.
Cross-references (20)
Passages linked to Hosea 13:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hosea 11:2 They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images.
- Genesis 2:17 but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
- Numbers 27:16-23 “Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in, that the congregation of Yahweh may not be as sheep which have no shepherd.” Yahweh said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Set him before Eleazar the priest, and before all the congregation; and commission him in their sight. You shall give authority to him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey. He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before Yahweh. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.” Moses did as Yahweh commanded him. He took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation. He laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as Yahweh spoke by Moses.
- Joshua 3:7 Yahweh said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
- Luke 14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
- Numbers 2:18-21 “On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their divisions. The prince of the children of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud. His division, and those who were counted of them, were forty thousand five hundred. “Next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh. The prince of the children of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur. His division, and those who were counted of them, were thirty-two thousand two hundred.
- Numbers 10:22 The standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies. Elishama the son of Ammihud was over his army.
- Numbers 13:8 Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Nun.
- Numbers 13:16 These are the names of the men who Moses sent to spy out the land. Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Joshua.
- Judges 8:1 The men of Ephraim said to him, “Why have you treated us this way, that you didn’t call us when you went to fight with Midian?” They rebuked him sharply.
- Judges 12:1 The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Jephthah, “Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn’t call us to go with you? We will burn your house around you with fire!”
- 1 Samuel 15:17 Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel;
- 1 Kings 12:25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived in it; and he went out from there, and built Penuel.
- 1 Kings 16:29-33 In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel. Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight above all that were before him. As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. He raised up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
- 1 Kings 18:18-19 He answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you, and your father’s house, in that you have forsaken Yahweh’s commandments, and you have followed the Baals. Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and four hundred fifty of the prophets of Baal, and four hundred of the prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
- 2 Kings 17:16-18 They abandoned all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made molten images for themselves, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served Baal. They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger. Therefore Yahweh was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
- Proverbs 18:12 Before destruction the heart of man is proud, but before honor is humility.
- Isaiah 66:2 For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but I will look to this man, even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.
- Romans 5:12 Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
- 2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Interpreters agree not in their view of this verse.…
Interpreters agree not in their view of this verse. Some say that trembling was excited in Israel when Ephraim, that is, Jeroboam, who was born of that tribe, exhorted the people to worship the calves. By the word רתת, retat, “trembling,” they understand, that the people were so astonished, that they without thought immediately obeyed the will, or rather the humour, of their impious king. And if this sense be approved, the word, trembling, may be in another way explained, even in this, — that the people did not immediately embrace that perverted worship, but dreaded, as is wont to be the case with regard to new things, and which seem to have nothing reasonable in their favour. But these expounders wholly depart, in my judgement, from the intention of the Prophet; for, on the contrary, he sets forth here the twofold state of the kingdom of Israel, that it might hence be manifest that the ten tribes had been through their own fault rejected by the Lord, and had thus fallen from that dignity unto which the Lord had raised them.
He therefore says, When Ephraim spake formerly, his voice dreaded, and he raised himself in Israel; that is, among the whole race of Abraham. But now he is dead, or is fallen, after he has begun to sin in Baal. Then, in the first sentence, the Prophet records the honours with which God had favoured that tribe. Ephraim, we know, was the younger of the sons of Joseph. Manasseh ought not only to have had the pre-eminence, but also to have reigned alone in that family; for the people were divided into twelve tribes. But God intended to raise up two chiefs in the house of Joseph, and preferred the younger to the first-begotten. Hence Ephraim, who had increased in number and power, and had at length obtained the royal dignity, ought to have acknowledged the singular favour of God. And by way of reproach, the Prophet here says, that all trembled at the single voice of Ephraim; that is, when he became endued with authority, and then, that he was exalted in Israel. He ought to have been deemed of no account, he ought to have been inferior to his brother, who was the first-born, and yet he excelled all the tribes. Since, then, God had conferred so much honour on the tribe of Ephraim, the more grievous was his fault, that he afterwards had fallen away unto idols; yea, that he began his reign with superstition, when God was pleased to choose and anoint Jeroboam king. And surely that he, when raised beyond all hope to the throne by the hand of God, should, instead of testifying his gratitude, immediately corrupt the whole worship of God, this was extremely inconsistent.
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But the Prophet says, in the second place, that they died from the time they had thus fallen away from true and lawful worship, in order that they might understand that they received the just reward of their impiety when God’s hand was opposed to them, when they were oppressed by adversity. We now perceive the obvious meaning, of the Prophet to be, that the Israelites formerly flourished, especially the tribe of Ephraim, from whom Jeroboam arose, so that, by their voice alone, they subdued all their neighbours, and that beyond the expectation of men, they suddenly emerged and erected a new kingdom among the children of Abraham.
He afterwards adds, that after they had sinned by Baal, they became dead: for God deprived the tribe of Ephraim of the power with which he had before adorned him, so that they were but little short of being destroyed. For though his kingdom had not wholly fallen, it had yet come to such an extremity that the Prophet might justly say that they, who were so far removed from their former state, were dead. But when he says that they sinned by Baal, he does not mean that this was the beginning of their idolatry; for Jeroboam at first made the calves, and it was his successor who built Baal, and borrowed that superstition, as it is supposed, from the neighbouring Sidonians. But God records here what is more grievous, and less excusable, — that the Israelites polluted themselves with the filth of the Gentiles, so that they differed nothing from the profane and unbelieving, who had no acquaintance with sound doctrine.
We are moreover taught in this place, that when kings are endued with any authority, when they are strong in power, all this comes from God; for unless God strikes terror into men, no one would receive the yoke of another, at least all would desire equality, or one would raise himself above others. It is then certain, that when any one excels among many in power, this is done through the secret purpose of God, who constrains to order the common people, and causes them not to deny obedience to the command of one man. This is what Hosea now teaches, when he upbraids the tribe of Ephraim with respect to this terror; for if Ephraim had been formidable through his own power, there would have been no room for the Prophet’s reproof: but as this was the peculiar gift of God, the Prophet justly says, that the tribe of Ephraim were in great honour until they had fallen into superstition. Let us now proceed —
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 He made a king of his tribe.
He made a king of his tribe.
He showeth the excellency and authority that this tribe had above all the rest.
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The Ephraimites are not far from destruction, and have lost their authority.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 13:1 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself…
Hos 13:1 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
Ver. 1. When Ephraim spake trembling] Or, there was trembling, as there is among the beasts of the field when the lion roareth. Ephraim, while innocent of the great offence, spake with authority, and none durst budge against him; for he had great power in his hand. Now, as the philosopher told Adrian the emperor, who challenged him to dispute, Difficile est ei contradicere qui potest aqua et igni interdicere; vel adversus eum scribere, qui potest proscribere. It is dangerous meddling with the lion’s beard. Nebuchadnezzar’s majesty was such that "all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him," Dan 5:19; wheresoever his commands or armies came there were very great heart quakes and concussions of spirit. "Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?" Ecc 8:4. Job was no king; and yet while he was Jobab, Gen 36:34, that is, in a prosperous condition, "The young men saw him, and hid themselves; the nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth," Job 29:8; Job 29:10. The people feared Joshua, Jos 4:14, as they feared Moses, all the days of his life; for what reason? the Lord had magnified him in the sight of all Israel. Natural conscience cannot but stoop to the image of God in whomsoever. When Ephraim was first in the throne he became formidable; but when he fell openly from God he grew feeble; first he was a terror, and then a scorn.
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But when he offended in Baal, he died] When, by Jezebel (who did all under her husband, she was king, and he queen) Baal worship was brought in, then Ephraim fell from his dignity; then every paltry adversary trampled upon him, as the hare will do upon a dead lion. See how Benhadad insulted over Ahab, 1Ki 20:3-4 "Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have." Look how the worried cur falls upon his back, and holds up all four, as craving quarter; so did this sordid idolater, glad to crouch to his enemy: when God was departed from him he was even as a dead carcase.
“ Morti vicinus iam magis atque magis. ”
He that departeth from God (who is his life) by an evil heart of unbelief, Heb 3:12, subjecteth himself to all sorts of deaths, natural, civil, spiritual, and eternal.
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 When; so soon as, or according as, as the…
When; so soon as, or according as, as the Hebrew phrase bears it, and implieth there was a time when according to the word of Ephraim there was deep impression on the hearers. Ephraim; Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephraimite, say some; but this is wide of truth, nor suits the text, which refers to their worshipping of Baal, and this came into use in Israel in Ahab’s time, 1Ki 16:31; his wife Jezebel, daughter to Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, prevailed with him to take her country idol and add to Jeroboam’s calves.
Ephraim here is either the tribe of Ephraim, which was of all the ten tribes most powerful, and when angry and discontented made the other tribes afraid; or rather the whole kingdom of Israel, called frequently in Hosea Ephraim.
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Spake; when he consulted, commanded, threatened, or sent out his proclamation; it is a speaking like a king’s or kingdom’s speaking, which is backed with power sufficient to act as they speak;
trembling; the tribes and the neighbouring kingdoms apprehended danger, were put into a fear of the consequence too, all men felt a commotion within them. Such once was the authority, power, and glory of Ephraim.
He exalted himself in Israel; was magnified, advanced, and made glorious, the kingdom flourished in multitudes of people, in abundance of wealth, in the successes of their counsels, and in their credit abroad. In this flourishing state Ephraim, a principal tribe, and which first set up for the royal dignity and carried it, had-principal share, and is mid to exalt himself in or with Israel.
But when, so soon as he sinned,
he offended in Baal, by taking Baal to be their god added this idolatry to their former sins,
he died; undid himself, lost his power, glory, and bravery, as a dead man.
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 Idolatry was the sin that did most easily beset…
Idolatry was the sin that did most easily beset the Jewish nation till after the captivity; the ten tribes from the first were guilty of it, but especially after the days of Ahab; and this is the sin which, in these verses, they are charged with. Observe,
I. The provision that God made to prevent their falling into idolatry. This we have, Hos 13:4. God did what was fit to be done to keep them close to himself; what could have been done more? 1. He made known himself to them as the Lord their God, and took them to be his people in a peculiar manner. Both by his word and by his works all along from the land of Egypt he declared, I am the Lord thy God; he told them so from heaven at Mount Sinai, that he was the Lord and their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. This he continued both to declare and to prove to them by his prophets and by his providences. 2. He gave them a law forbidding them to worship any other: "Thou shalt know no God but me; not only shalt not own and worship any other, but shalt not acquaint thyself with any other, nor make the rites and usages of the Gentiles familiar to thee." Note, It is a happy ignorance not to know that which we ought not to meddle with. We find those commended who have not known the depths of Satan. 3. He gave them a good reason for it: There is no saviour besides me. Whatever we take for our God we expect to have for our saviour, to make us happy here and hereafter; as, where we have protection, we owe allegiance, so where we have salvation, and hope for it, we owe adoration.
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II. The honour that Ephraim had, while he kept himself clear from idolatry (Hos 13:1): While Ephraim spoke trembling, or with trembling (that is, as Dr. Pocock understands it, while he behaved himself towards God as his father Jacob did, with weeping and supplications, and spoke not proudly and insolently against God and his prophets, while he kept up a holy fear of God, and worshipped him in that fear) so long he exalted himself in Israel, that is, he was very considerable among the tribes and made a figure. Jeroboam, who was of that tribe, exalted himself and his family. When he spoke there was trembling, that is, all about him stood in awe of him; so some understand it. Note, Those that humble themselves, especially that humble themselves before God, shall be exalted. When people speak with modesty and jealousy of themselves, with a diffidence of their own judgment and a deference to others, they exalt themselves, they gain a reputation. But as for Ephraim he soon lost himself: When he offended in Baal he died, that is, he lost his reputation, his honour soon dwindled and sunk, and was laid in the dust. Baal is here put for all idolatry; when Ephraim forsook God, and took to worship images, the state received its death's wound and was never good for any thing afterwards. Note, Deserting God is the death of any person or persons.
III. The lamentable growth of idolatry among them (Hos 13:2): Now they sin more and more. When once he began to offend in Baal the ice was broken, and he grew worse and worse, coveted more idols, doted more upon those he had, and grew more ridiculous in the worship of them. Note, The way of idolatry, as of other sins, is down-hill, and men cannot easily stop themselves. It is the sad case of all those who have forsaken God that they sin yet more and more. Let us trace them in their apostasy. 1. They made themselves molten images, proud to have gods that they could cast into what mould they pleased; probably these were the calves in miniature like the silver shrines for Diana; the zealots for the calf-worship carried about with them, it may be, images of the gods they worshipped, made on purpose for themselves. 2. They made them of their silver, and then doubted not of their property in them, when they purchased them with their own money or made them of their own plate melted down for that purpose. See what cost they put themselves to in the service of their idols, which they honoured with the best they had, and therefore made their molten images of silver. 3. They made them according to their own understanding, according to their own fancy. They consulted with themselves what shape they should make their idol in, and made it accordingly, a god according to the best of their judgment. Or according to their own likeness, in the form of a man. And, when they made their idols men like themselves in shape, they made themselves stocks and stones like them in reality; for those that make them are like unto them, and so is every one that trusts in them. 4. It was all the work of the craftsmen. Their images did not pretend, like that of Diana, to have come down from Jupiter (Act 19:35); no, perhaps the workmen stamped their names upon them, such an idol was such a man's work. See Hos 8:6; Isa 44:9, etc. 5. Though they were thus the work of their hands, yet they were the beloved of their souls; for they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Either the priests called upon the people thus to pay their homage, or the people, who were not allowed to come so near themselves, called upon the men that sacrificed, the priests that attended for them, to kiss the calves in their name and stead, because they could not reach to do it, so very fond were they of paying their utmost respects to such an idol as they were taught to have a veneration for. Though they were calves, yet, if they were gods, the worshippers, by themselves or their proxies, thus made their honours to them. They kissed the calves, in token of the adoration of them, affection for them, and allegiance to them, as theirs. Thus we are directed to kiss the Son, to take him for our Lord and our God.
IV. Threatenings of wrath for their idolatry. The Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to another; and therefore all those that worship images shall be confounded, especially if Ephraim do it, Psa 97:7. Because they are so fond of kissing their calves, therefore God will give them sensible convictions of their folly, Hos 13:3. They promise themselves a great del of safety and satisfaction in the worship of their idols, and that their prosperity will thereby be established; but God tells them that they shall be disappointed, and driven away in their wickedness. This is illustrated by four similitudes: - They shall be, 1. As the morning cloud, which promises showers of rain to the parched ground. 2. As the early dew, which seems to be an earnest of such showers. But both pass away, and the day proves as dry and hot as ever; so fleet and transitory their profession of piety was (Hos 6:4), and so had they disappointed God's expectation from them, and therefore it is just that so their prosperity should be, and so their expectations from their idols should be disappointed, and so will all theirs be that make an idol of this world. 3. They are as the chaff, light and worthless; and they shall be driven as the chaff is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, Psa 1:4; Psa 25:5; Job 21:18. Nay, 4. They are as the smoke, noisome and offensive (see Isa 65:5), and they shall be driven away as the smoke out of the chimneys, that is soon dissipated and disappears, Psa 68:2. Note, No solid lasting comfort is to be expected any where but in God.
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 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel,....…
When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel,.... Or, with trembling, as Jarchi: so Jeroboam, who was of the tribe of Ephraim, spake before Solomon, a great king, as he observes. R. Moses the priest interprets it of Jeroboam; but it may be understood of the tribe in general, and especially of the heads of it, at anytime before it fell into idolatry; when they spake with submission and humility, they were attended to by the other tribes in all consultations and debates, and great deference was paid unto them; and they were find in great esteem, and highly honoured, agreeably to that common saving of our Lord, "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted", Luk 14:11; or, "when he spake there was trembling" (q); either the neighbouring nations, when he threatened them with war: or among the other tribes of Israel, when he spake in counsel, and with authority, they rose up and heard him with great reverence and respect; see Job 29:8. So the Targum,
"when anyone of the house of Ephraim spake, trembling laid hold on the people; they became princes in Israel.''
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Some refer this to the times of Joshua, who was of that tribe, and whom the Israelites feared as they had feared Moses, Jos 4:14; others to the times of Gideon and Jephthah, with whom the tribe of Ephraim expostulated, Jdg 8:1; but others interpret it of Jeroboam's idolatry, of his setting up the worship of the calves, which he did upon his exalting himself, and setting himself up as king of the ten tribes; and, in some agreement with this, Schmidt understands, by "trembling", a terrible and horrible thing, idolatry, which he commanded and appointed; and which he "bore" or "carried", as the word (r) is interpreted by him, and may be; that is, his sin, and the punishment of it, which Jeroboam and his posterity did bear; and so it agrees with what follows:
but, or "and",
when he offended in Baal, he died; or when he sinned, and became guilty of more idolatry still, by worshipping Baal, as well as the calves, which was done in the times of Ahab, Kg1 16:31; when Ephraim or the kingdom or Israel fell into distresses and calamities, sunk in their grandeur and authority, declined in their wealth and riches, and were insulted by their enemies, particularly by Benhadad king of Syria, who sent to Ahab, and challenged his silver and gold, his wives and children, as his own, Kg1 20:3; and so they gradually decreased in credit and reputation, in power and authority, in wealth and substance, and at last were delivered to the sword of the enemy, and to captivity, which was their civil death.
(q) "quum loqueretur--tremor erat", Pagninus, Vatablus; "terror erat", Zanchius, Drusius. (r) "portavit ipse, sub. iniquitatem suam", Schmidt.
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 Israel reproved for idolatry and other sins, ver. 1-8.…
Israel reproved for idolatry and other sins, ver. 1-8. Ruin foretold, yet with encouragement to hope, ver. 9-16.
Ephraim - The ten tribes, of which Ephraim was the chief. Spake trembling - Humbled himself before God. Exalted himself - The kingdom flourished. When he offended - So soon as they sinned, taking Baal to be their God. He died - They lost their power and glory.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Thus chapter begins with observing that the fear of…
CHAPTER XIII
Thus chapter begins with observing that the fear of God leads
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to prosperity, but sin to ruin; a truth most visibly
exemplified in the sin and punishment of Ephraim, 1-3.
As an aggravation of their guilt, God reminds them of his
former favours, 4, 5;
which they had shamefully abused, 6;
and which now expose them to dreadful punishments, 7, 8.
He, however, tempers these awful threatenings with gracious
promises; and, on their repentance, engages to save them, when
no other could protect them, 9-11.
But, alas! instead of repenting, Ephraim is filling up the
measure of his iniquity, 12, 13.
Notwithstanding this, God promises to put forth has almighty
power in behalf of his people, and, as it were, raise them
from the dead, 14;
although, in the meantime, they must be visited with great
national calamities, compared first to the noxious and parching
east wind, 15,
and described immediately after in the plainest terms, 16.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII
Verse 1. When Ephraim spake trembling] When he was meek and humble, of a broken heart and contrite spirit.
He exalted himself in Israel] He became great in God's sight; he rose in the Divine esteem in proportion as he sank in his own. But this did not continue.
He offended in Baal] He became an idolater.
He died.] The sentence of death from the Divine justice went out against him.
This has been differently understood: "As soon as Ephraim spake (To your tents, O Israel!) There was a trembling or commotion: then the kingdom was exalted in Israel." Thus taken, it refers to the division of the ten tribes from Rehoboam, son of Solomon, 1Kg 12:16, c., and the establishment of the kingdom of Israel under Jeroboam in opposition to that of Judah which breach was never healed.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Hos 13:1. When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself…
Hos 13:1. When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself — While he behaved himself submissively and obediently, and humbled himself before God, he was reckoned among the principal tribes of Israel. Here Ephraim is spoken of as distinct from the other tribes: in other places of this prophecy he is put for the whole kingdom of the ten tribes. But when he offended in Baal, he died — When he gave himself to idolatry, his strength immediately declined, and had manifest symptoms of ruin and destruction. Bishop Horsley’s version of the verse is, When Ephraim spake there was dread: he was exalted in Israel. But he offended in Baal and died — “The former part of the verse describes the consequence and pre-eminence of Ephraim in his own country, and among the neighbouring nations; the latter part, his diminution and loss of consequence by his idolatry.” The word Baal is here taken in a general sense for all false gods or idolatrous ways of worship, so as to comprehend the worship of the golden calves, though they were designed for symbolical representations of the true God.
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 When Ephraim spake trembling - that is, probably “there…
When Ephraim spake trembling - that is, probably “there was ‘trembling.’” : “Ephraim was once very awful, so as, while he spake, the rest of the tribes were ready to tremble.” The prophet contrasts two conditions of Ephraim, of prosperity, and destruction. His prosperity he owed to the undeserved mercy of God, who blessed him for Joseph’s sake; his destruction, to his own sin. There is no period recorded, “when Ephraim spake trembling,” i. e., in humility. Pride was his characteristic, almost as soon as he had a separate existence as a tribe (see the note at Hos 5:5). Under Joshua, it could not be called out, for Ephraim gained honor, when Joshua, one of themselves, became the captain of the Lord’s people. Under the Judges, their pride appeared. Yet God tried them, by giving them their hearts’ desire. They longed to be exalted, and He satisfied them, if so be they would thus serve Him. They had the chief power, and were a “terror” to Judah. “He exalted himself,” (or perhaps “he was exalted,) in Israel; but when he offended in Baal he died;” literally, “and he offended in Baal and died.”
He abused the goodness of God; his sin followed as a consequence of God’s goodness to him. God raised him, and he offended. The alliance with a king of Tyre and Sidon, which brought in the worship of Baal, was a part of the worldly policy of the kings of Israel (1Ki 16:31, see Introduction). “As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took to wife the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.” The twenty-two years of Ahab’s reign established the worship. The prophets of Baal became 450; the prophets of the kindred idolatry of Ashtoreth, or Astarte, became 400; Baal had his one central temple, large and magnificent 2Ki 10:21-22, 2Ki 10:25, a rival of that of God. The prophet Elijah thought the apostasy almost universal; God revealed to him that He had “reserved” to Himself “seven thousand in Israel.” Yet these were “all the knees which had not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which had not kissed him” 1Ki 19:18.
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And died - Death is the penalty of sin. Ephraim “died” spiritually. For sin takes away the life of grace, and separates from God, the true life of the soul, the source of all life. He “died more truly, than he who is dead and at rest.” Of this death, our Lord says, “Let the dead bury their dead” Mat 8:22; and Paul, “She who liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth” 1Ti 5:6. He “died” also as a nation and kingdom, being sentenced by God to cease to be.
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 Spoke. When Jeroboam proposed to erect the golden calves,…
Spoke. When Jeroboam proposed to erect the golden calves, people were seized with horror; yet they consented, and soon after Baal and other idols were worshipped. (Worthington) --- Ephraim was one of the greatest tribes, and by its example the rest were drawn into idolatry. Achab principally introduced the worship of Baal, which caused God to decree the misery of his people, 3 Kings xvi. 31.
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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain 2. The Judgment of God’s Anger
2. The Judgment of God’s Anger
Hosea 13
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1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;1
He exalted himself in Israel,
Then he transgressed through Baal and died.
2 And now they continue to sin,
They made for themselves idols of their silver,
Images according to their understanding [as they pleased],
All of them the work of artificers;
To them men who sacrifice2 are speaking (in prayer),
They kiss the calves.
3 Therefore will they be like the morning cloud,
And like the dew, which soon passes away,
Like chaff which is whirled3 out of the threshing-floor,
And like smoke from a window.
4 And (yet) I am Jehovah, thy God,
From the land of Egypt,
And thou dost not know a God besides me,
And there is no Saviour except me.
5 I knew thee in the desert,
In the land of droughts.
6 According to their pasture [as they fed] they were satisfied,
They were satisfied, and their heart was uplifted,
Therefore they forgot me.
7 And (so) I became4 as a lion to them,
And as a leopard I lurked in the path.
8 I will attack them like a bear 5 robbed of her whelps,
And rend the inclosure of their heart,
I will devour them then like a lioness;
The wild beast of the field shall rend them.
9 It has destroyed thee,6 Israel,
That thou (hast been) against me, against thy Help.
10 Where7 then is thy king,
And he (who) will help thee in all thy cities?
And thy judgest8 of whom thou saidst:
“Give me a king and princes?”
11 I give thee a king in my anger,
And will take him away in my wrath.
12 Ephraim’s guilt is bound up,
His sin is treasured away.
13 The pains of a travailing woman shall come upon him:
(But) he is an unwise son;
Because at the (right) time9 he would not enter the opening of the womb.
14 Should I redeem them from the hand of hell?
Should I free them from death?
Where are thy plagues, O death?
Where is thy destruction, O hell?
Repentance shall be hidden from my eyes.
15 For (though) among (his) brethren he may be fruitful,10
An east wind will come,
A breath of Jehovah rising from the desert,
And his spring shall dry up and his fountain be parched;
He [Assyria] shall plunder the treasure of all the costly vessels.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Hos_13:1. When Ephraim spoke, etc. An allusion to the high respect paid to Israel. נָשָׂא here is intransitive [comp. Psa_89:10; Nah_1:5.] The reference is to the unrighteous desire for predominance cherished by Ephraim, which led at to the schism from the House of David. But internal declension was immediately connected with this. The worship of Baal evidently began really the calf-worship according to the view of the Prophet. He cannot allow it to be maintained the latter was the worship of Jehovah. And died: They died spiritually, and then outward that ruin comes also. [This view of the whole is verse approved by Henderson, Pusey, and most recent Expositors.—M.]
Hos_13:2. All their former transgressions were continued. לָהֶם הֵם אֹמְרִים. This is difficult. זֹבְהי אָדָם is not=who sacrifice men, for human sacrifices were not offered in the calf-worship, but=those among men who sacrifice, according to the analogy of אֶבְיוֹנֵי אָדָם (Isa_29:19). Keil renders: of them they say (those of the men that sacrifice); they kiss the calves. But this is linguistically harsh, for “they kiss calves” would be oratio obliqua, and לָהֶם would mean: of them, namely, of the images. It is besides unnatural. To whom should the offerers “say” that they kiss the calves? They certainly perform such actions, and it is that is the conduct here rebuked, but their saying that they do so is a very remote idea. We are therefore obliged to take אֹמְרִים here absolutely as it is nowhere else employed=speak in prayer. This is just the thought that is suitable here. It had been previously said that these images are purely the work of men themselves, and yet—how cutting is the reproof!—they speak with these very works of their hands, they kiss them, as though they were flesh and blood.
Hos_13:3. The punishment of this is swift destruction. As to the figures of the morning cloud and the early dew, see on Hos_6:4. Here there are added other comparisons; the usual one of chaff, and, besides, that of smoke, which escaped by the windows since there were no chimneys.
Hos_13:4-5. As contrasted with Israel’s idolatry Jehovah points again to what he had done for Israel long ago, at first with the same words as those employed in Hos_12:10, but afterwards more fully. I knew thee, with the accessory notions of love and compassion.
Hos_13:6. The goodness of God is abused. According to their pasture, i.e., in the land given them by God. The complaint rests upon Deu_8:11 ff. (comp. also Hos 31:20; Hos 32:15 ff.). That against which they were there warned, has been done.
Hos_13:7-8 therefore describe the punishment, in accordance with the figure of the pasture, in which Israel is the flock. The flock will be rent as by wild beasts (comp. also, Hos_5:14). וֶאְהִֶי, and I became to them: the punishment had already begun and would be continued. The inclosure of their heart = their breast.
Hos_13:9. It has destroyed thee, O Israel, that thou wert against me, thy Help. The second clause gives the cause of the first. בְּ is then to be taken in the sense of “against;” that thou against me, against thy help. According to the sequel the special reference is to the falling away from the House of David. [So Ewald, Keil, and most of the recent Continental Expositors agree in adopting the above explanation. Pusey and Noyes among the Anglo-Americans also prefer it. The others generally hold to the rendering of the E. V. The two chief objections against the latter view are that it demands a very roundabout rendering of שִׁחֶתְךָ, and that the second בְּ is most naturally to be taken in the same sense as the first, and therefore cannot be a Beth essentiæ.—M.]
Hos_13:10. Israel had indeed a king, but not one who could help them, or defend their cities (against Assyria). And thy judges, probably=the princes who surround the king, “the ministers and counsellors appointed by the king, who along with him exercise the highest judicial and executive authority.” Give me a king and princes; not without allusion to the request of the people in the time of Samuel. On the case of Jeroboam, they repeated this ancient demand, at that time reproved by the Lord, in a still more sinful way.
Hos_13:11. I give thee a king in my anger, not: I gave thee, because the expression is not to be limited to the elevation of Jeroboam, but refers generally to the kings of Israel. When they separated from the House of David and set up their own kings, God punished them, because in doing so “they forsook his worship, and gave themselves over to the power of their ungodly kings.” And will take him away. This refers not merely to the dethronement of one king by another, but to the kingdom generally, which God would overthrow in his anger. The anger of God stands therefore at the beginning and at the end; giving kings and taking them away, are both an evidence of his displeasure.
Hos_13:12 shows that the taking away of the king is inevitable: “servata sunt ad vindictam omnia peccata eorum” [Henderson: “The metaphors are here borrowed from the custom of tying up money in bags and depositing it in some secret place in order that it might be preserved. The certainty of punishment is the idea conveyed by them. Comp., for the former, Job_14:17; for the latter, Deu_32:34; Job_21:19.”—M.]
Hos_13:13 describes the punishment under the image of birth-pangs, in which, however, the pains of the mother are not so much thought of as the pressure which the child must suffer. And yet, though there is distress in child-birth, it does not tend to destruction, but to birth, to a new life. So also here. But death does follow if the child is not pressed out into the vagina in consequence of the labor, so as to come into the world alive: So is it with Israel. Under God’s judgment they put off a return to Him, and will not be born again; that judgment must therefore be their destruction.
Hos_13:14, according to the common view, introduces a promise without any preparation. Yet, though we cannot be surprised at the occurrence of sudden transition in our Prophet, a promise is evidently quite unsuitable. We would from the foregoing words rather expect a mention of the punishment reserved for their guilt, or a description of their pains. It would then be surprising if a promise were introduced; and the fact is that threatening is here unmistakably becoming stronger, until Hos_14:1. To be sure, if Hos_13:14 be regarded as a promise, Hos_13:15 must bear the same character, as they are connected by “for.” But the change would be only the more violent, taking place in one and the same verse, and Keil only imports his notion into the passage, when he, for this reason, makes a distinction, and refers the beginning of the verse to those who walk in the footsteps of the faith, etc., of their progenitor, and the rest to Ephraim who had become changed into Canaan [a merchant]. But, besides, the second part of Hos_13:15 manifestly presupposes the beginning of the same verse, the image of the blasting wind presupposing that of the fruit-bearing, or the former is chosen with direct reference to the latter; the judgment is regarded as a devastation by scorching wind, because Israel is conceived of as a fruitful field. Under any other view members of a verse, which are connected in meaning, would be sundered. If therefore Hos_13:15 throughout is nothing but threatening, its beginning with “for” argues the same character for Hos_13:14. The beginning of Hos_13:14 is then to be explained as a question, though without the particle of interrogation: From the hand of hell should I deliver them? The second member contains an energetic negative response. Nay, even death and hell are summoned and charged to inflict and execute the judgment upon them. אֱהְי as in Hos_13:10 =where (see farther in the Doctrinal Section, No. 4).
נֹחַם: either repentance or compassion. The former is most suitable: it is not to be supposed that I repent of this threatening, that I recall it.
Hos_13:15. כִּי הוּא וְג׳ alludes, with a play upon the name Ephraim (יַפְרִיא and אֶפְרָאִים), to their fruitfulness, in order to represent the judgment as a scorching wind destroying that fertility. He will spoil. “He,” i.e., the enemy presented under the image of the parching wind, Assyria. The treasure of all precious vessels, is to be sought especially in the chief city, Samaria, which is named immediately hereafter.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Apostasy from Jehovah, which appears here also as Israel’s chief sin, brought death upon them: they died (Hos_13:1). This conception sounds the depths of the subject. Outwardly regarded, they lived long, even after they gave themselves up to the worship of Baal (just like a fruitful tree, Hos_13:15), but in truth inwardly they were dead. For true life consists in union with Jehovah: idols can give no life. Israel owed its life to Jehovah alone (Hos_13:4). Therefore, Hos_13:9 : “It has destroyed thee that thou hast been against me, thy help.” What God had done for Israel from the beginning is here again (Hos_13:4-5) made prominent, and the deliverance from Egypt with the leading through the Desert appear again as the fundamental act of mercy, for through them Israel became “living.” Their present conduct towards God was a base and ungrateful ignoring of those deeds in the presumption of a prosperity which they owed to their God (Hos_13:6). A people who are inwardly dead cannot long outwardly survive. That God whom they had forgotten and from whom they had turned away, would and must at last show them that He had not forgotten them (Hos_13:12) by destroying them without sparing. This is indeed the only means of bringing them to life. For that and that alone is designed by God in their case; see Hosea 14. This must ever be kept in view if we are to understand the threatenings aright, which are reproduced here in a peculiarly intensified form: Hos_13:7-8, Hos_13:12 to Hos_14:1. But how true and striking is such a description seen to be, when we remember that this divine judgment is executed by the invasion of a foreign conqueror! With what can his attack be better compared than with the attack of devouring beasts, or, after another image, with a scorching wind that destroys everything in its course? How often has that been repeated in the history of the nations!
2. The whole (temporal) kingdom was a divine system of punishment and chastening. At the request of the people, He granted them a king, but with the expression of his displeasure at their desire because it proceeded from unbelief and vanity, and with the declaration that they would lose their freedom by its realization. But, at the same time, this kingdom of Israel might become a blessing if it with its king would obey God. Nay, God, by establishing the throne of David in Zion, even connected the most precious promises with this kingdom, if the king were entirely one with God and should gather about him a nation obedient to God. But the people with their king followed more and more decidedly a course opposed to God by separating (in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes) from the house with which God had connected his promises, and so forsaking the king which God had given them, they must therefore be punished by having this self-erected kingdom taken away, and the punishment is all the greater that they shall never return to a state of freedom, but must lie under the much viler bondage of foreign rulers until they return to the king whom God had promised to raise up from the House of David.
3. The passage in Hos_13:14 is and remains difficult, and, although in the light of the context we cannot regard it as containing a promise, yet the view which regards it as such is in so far to be respected as the beginning of the verse especially, taken by itself, makes it appear natural. For this reason, probably, the LXX. translate in this sense, and the Apostle Paul, freely following them, cites these words (in connection with Isa_25:8; 1Co_15:55), in the sense of a challenge indeed, but in the same with the implication that death and hell should reveal their impotence, and therefore in the sense of a promise. But this will not compel us to explain the words otherwise than as the context requires, and we find this in accord path any but the simply mechanical theory of inspiration. But it is still to be kept in mind that in one passage the possibility of a redemption from death and hell is presupposed even if its accomplishment is refused by the threatening. But it corresponds with the character of the New Testament that it has changed the threatening into a promise. While the Old Testament summons death and the underworld to execute judgment upon their servants, the New Testament rather shows them conquered and powerless, so much so that they must even yield up the prey which they already have, and so far Paul had internal justification to convert the Old Testament threatening into a promise, or rather into a pæan of triumph, and thus in the Spirit chose the true course. For the view of Hos_13:14 as containing a promise, we may cite further the beautiful remarks of Rieger: “Outward ruin becomes to many a path upon which they rush suddenly down to death and hell, and with their hardened hearts they prefer to be lost beyond redemption in death and hell rather than turn to God with contrite hearts, and yield themselves up to trust in Him. Therefore God’s promise comprehends the whole ruin, the whole abyss of destruction into which the sinner rushes, so as to subdue proud unbelief by the promised redemption from death and hell, and make men driven to extremity well disposed towards God. O, that all to whom sin has become their destruction would allow themselves to be rescued by this hand offered them at the brink of death and hell, especially as we can behold more fully in the New Testament the victory which God has given us through Christ Jesus, and thus more easily gain its consolation.”
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Hos_13:1. Gerlach: Pride comes before a fall. See how the sins of pride and false worship lead to spiritual and eternal death! With sin there came not only guilt but also the seeds of death, and so the heart and life-blood are consumed. On the other hand, with the new righteousness comes new life into dead souls.
[Fausset: Sin separates from God, the true life of the soul. Let all professors of religion ever remember this, that sin, habitual or unatoned for, and spiritual life cannot coexist in the same individual (Rom_8:6).—M.]
Hos_13:4. Pfaff. Biblewerk: Since God has showered down upon us so many blessings from our youth up, and since all that we have we owe to his goodness, it is vile ingratitude to rely, not upon Him, but upon human power, false worship, and the like. We have only one God and Redeemer. Besides Him we must know no other.
[Matthew Henry: It is a happy ignorance not to know that which we are not to meddle with. Whatever we take for our God we expect to have for our Saviour, that is, to make us happy here and hereafter. As where we have protection we owe allegiance, so where we have salvation, and hope for it, we owe adoration.”—M.]
Hos_13:6. Pfaff. Bibelwerk: So is it with the ungodly. They misuse God’s blessings and become secure, forgetting the gracious Giver, when they should rather erect an imperishable monument to Him in their souls. See thou, too, O my soul! whether thou art thankful to thy Saviour, whether thou dost bring home to thyself rightly and constantly the blessings which God has given thee, both temporal and spiritual, whether thou dost praise and live for the gracious Giver with mouth and heart and a holy walk.
[Pusey: They who follow God for Himself, things of this sort are not called their pasture, but the Word of God is their pasture, according to Deu_8:3. In like way, let all think themselves blamed, who attend the altar of Christ not for the love of the sacraments [ordinances] which they celebrate, but only to live of the altar.—M.]
Hos_13:9. It is the conduct of men towards God which determines their woe or weal. God alone is our true Help; therefore everything that resists Him must be lost; and there is no greater folly than to rise up against Him.
Pfaff. Bibelwerk: God is guilty of no man’s destruction, but only man himself.
Hos_13:11. Pfaff. Bibelwerk: It is a great callamity to a country when the Lord gives it a prince in his anger that he may be the instrument of his vengeance.
[Fausset: God often punishes men by giving them their wish.—M.]
Hos_13:12. God can and would remit our sins; but He can also retain them, and must do so as long as we remain impenitent; and as long as God retains them all hope of being freed from them is vain.
Hos_13:14. So far can the love of God be changed into wrath that He, to whom it were easy to save, does not do so, but delivers over to death and destruction, nay, even, as it were, invokes the powers of destruction to execute his wrath, without his repenting or recalling his purpose. Even in this God has assuredly purposes of salvation. He punishes so severely only to open the eyes, when and since all other means have failed. [See the Exegetical and Doctrinal Remarks.—M.]
Hos_13:15. When God withdraws his hand all prosperity disappears, and that often suddenly, before men are aware.
[Matthew Henry: See the folly of those that lay up their treasures on earth, that lay it up in pleasant vessels, vessels of desire, so the word is, on which they set their affections, and in which they place their comfort and satisfaction.
Pusey: Such are ungodly greatness and prosperity. While they are fairest in show their life-fountains are drying up—M.].
Footnotes:
[1]Ver. l. רְתֵת, ἅπ. λεγ.= רֶטֶט [Jer_49:24. Targ. רְתִיתָא.—M.]
[2][Hos_13:2.—זֹבְחֵי אָדָם. This construction is to be explained on the principle laid down by Ewald, § 287 g, that the subordinate word in the construct may sometimes denote the individual or individuals of the class denoted by the principal word. For an example of the same construction in addition to the one given in the exposition, see Mic_5:4, נְסִיּכֵי אָדָםט, those of men that are anointed.—M.]
[3][Hos_13:3.—יְסֹער. See Green, § 92 b—M.]
[4][Hos_13:7.—יָאֶהי. ו is inferential, Green, § 287, 1.—M.]
[5][Hos_13:8.—דֹּב here means the female bear, and yet, being of the common gender, it may be joined with a part, masculine. Comp. Psa_144:14 for a parallel case—M.]
[6][Hos_13:9.—שִׁחֶתְךָ. We have here the third sing. Piel. There is no ground for assuming a substantive: destruction, as Henderson does.—M.]
[7]Hos_13:10.—אֱהִי. A particle of interrogation. It is dialectical, and occurs only here and in Hos_13:14. It is = אַיֵּה: where, and is strengthened by אֵפוֹא = tandem, ποτέ when then?
[8][Hos_13:10.—Supply אֱהִי before שֹׁפְטֶיךָ.
[9][Hos_13:13.—עֵת must be taken here adverbially: at the (right) time.—M.]
[10][Hos_13:15.—יַפְרִיא A ἅπ. λεγ. The form פָרָא is supposed, with probable correctness, to have been chosen instead of the usual פָּרָה, in order to conform to אֶפְרָאִים, of which it is the root.—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1-3. Israel’s apostasy its own death warrant. Though the…
1-3. Israel’s apostasy its own death warrant. Though the interpretation of Hos_13:1 is not quite certain, that embodied in the translation of R.V. and suggested in the introductory remarks above is preferable to all others that have been proposed. Ephraim’s experience should have been a warning to the whole people.
Ephraim — Not synonymous with Israel, as in practically every other case in the book, but the tribe of Ephraim.
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When… spake trembling, he exalted himself — If rendered thus the meaning of the passage would be, “When the Ephraimites in trembling accents responded to the divine call, they rose to the exalted position which their prophetic ancestor foreshadowed” (Gen_49:22-26). This translation and interpretation are open to criticism on linguistic and other grounds, and there can be no doubt that R.V. has come nearer the truth: “When Ephraim spake, there was trembling.” The other tribes looked up to Ephraim with fear and trembling (Jdg_8:1; Jdg_12:1; compare Gen_49:16; Deu_33:17).
He exalted himself — Not in a bad sense, “he became proud,” but, “he became a leader, a prince.” Many commentators read, with a slight alteration, “he was a prince.”
He died — Loyalty to Jehovah contained elements insuring permanence; apostasy, on the other hand, contained those elements that made death and destruction inevitable (Hab_2:4). As soon as Ephraim apostatized the dying process began (Gen_2:17).
He offended in Baal — Or, became guilty through the Baal (compare Hos_10:2). He became guilty when he accepted from the Canaanites Baal ideas and allowed these to corrupt the Jehovah worship (Hos_2:5 ff.). Baal is identical with Baals in other parts of the book (see on Hos_2:5). There may be also an allusion to the setting up of the “calves” (Hos_8:5; Hos_10:5) by Jeroboam I (1Ki_12:29), who was of the tribe of Ephraim (1Ki_11:26). The tribe of Ephraim, once so powerful, had become, in the days of Hosea, of little significance. The words of the prophet by no means imply that Ephraim alone was guilty, or that he alone suffered; only, in his experience the contrast between the former glory and the present oblivion illustrated most perfectly the lesson Hosea desired to teach. The experience of this one tribe should have had a wholesome effect upon the others. Not so.
Now — In the prophet’s own day.
They — The whole nation.
Sin more and more — Or, they continue to sin (G.-K., 114m) notwithstanding the warnings.
The offense of Ephraim consisted in apostasy to the Baals; the nation as a whole gave itself to even grosser idolatry.
Molten images — See on Nah_1:14 (compare Exo_34:17). These images may have been intended primarily to be representations of Jehovah (1Ki_12:28).
Idols — The general term for an image of a deity.
According to their own understanding — Their own skill and proficiency. What, power can there be in such images? LXX. reads, and other ancient versions, in part, favor the reading, “They made them molten images of their silver according to the likeness of idols.”
The work of the craftsmen — Whatever the exact reading of the preceding, this clause brings out the point of greatest importance: the images are man-made; there is nothing divine about them. Hos_13:2 b is obscure. Various translations, all more or less forced, have been proposed. The text may be corrupt; at any rate, many emendations have been suggested.
They — The indefinite people.
Say of them — Or, concerning them, that is, the idols.
Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves — The kiss is the kiss of homage (Psa_2:12; 1Ki_19:18). Those who offer sacrifice are urged ironically to bestow the kiss of homage upon the idolatrous calves. How absurd for human beings to kiss calves! Another possible translation is suggested in the margin, “Let the sacrificers of men kiss the calves.” This rendering emphasizes even more the absurdity of the religious practices. Men they sacrifice and beasts they kiss, instead of sacrificing beasts, and kissing men. That human sacrifices were offered in Israel at this time is not definitely stated in Hosea (but compare 2Ki_17:17); in Judah the practice was not unknown (2Ki_16:3; 2Ki_21:6). A third possible translation, secured by dividing the words into two clauses, reads, “To them (the idols) they speak (in prayer).” How absurd to address prayers to the work of their own hands! “Men that sacrifice (or, sacrificers of men) kiss the calves.” Sacrificers of men is the more natural translation of the Hebrew, but the other is not impossible (G.-K., 1281). The two clauses would have to be understood as exclamations of disgust by the prophet. Which one of these interpretations is right cannot be asserted with certainty. The Hebrew is peculiar and may be corrupt. Of proposed emendations two may be mentioned. Marti, omitting several words, reads, “Sacrificers of men they are; calves they kiss.” Harper, “People sacrificing to demons; men kissing calves.”
Such a condition of affairs cannot be permitted to continue. 3. Swift retribution will overtake them. This thought is expressed very emphatically by the accumulation of four separate figures, each one describing utter destruction. On the first two see Hos_6:4.
As the chaff — The threshing floors were usually located on elevations, so as to take advantage of every breeze. The grain was winnowed by throwing it up into the air with shovels. The solid grains fell back to the ground, while the chaff was carried away by the wind. The stronger the wind the more quickly the chaff vanished; a whirlwind would drive it out of sight in a very short time (Psa_1:4; Isa_17:13; Isa_41:15-16, etc.).
Smoke — It also is swiftly driven away by the breeze (Psa_68:2).
Chimney — The same word is sometimes rendered “window”; literally, lattice (see on Joe_2:9).
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 1. When Ephraim spake trembling, &c.] The Hebrew is…
1. When Ephraim spake trembling, &c.] The Hebrew is difficult, and the soundness of the text is perhaps questionable. At any rate, the rendering will depend on one’s impression of the requirements of the context. To the present writer, no translation appears preferable to that of King James’s Bible, and he has a pleasure in finding himself in accord with this version, which must of necessity rarely be the case in obscure passages. The single objection to the rendering is that expressed by Mr Huxtable in the Speaker’s Commentary, viz. that it ‘would give to the tribe of Ephraim a character out of harmony alike with Hosea’s description of it in Hos_5:5 and with the history.’ But the passage referred to requires to be explained differently, and as to the history of the tribe, we are not here concerned with the facts as viewed critically, but as they presented themselves to a preacher in search of edification. Hosea has once already pointed the people of Israel to the golden age of the past, when Israel as a whole was comparable to ‘grapes in the wilderness’ and ‘the firstripe in the fig tree’ (Hos_9:10, see note); he conceives of Jehovah as kindly overlooking the human frailty of his child in consideration of Israel’s latent possibilities. ‘When Ephraim spake trembling’, &c., may therefore be expanded thus, ‘When the Ephraimites in trembling accents responded to the divine call (comp. Hos_2:15), they rose to the exalted position which its prophetic ancestor foreshadowed (Gen_49:22-26).’ The reference is partly to the leadership of the Ephraimite Joshua, partly to the prosperity which attended the tribe of Ephraim even when it no longer supplied a general, a judge, or a king to the entire nation. The other chief renderings are, ‘When Ephraim spake, [there was] terror’, &c., i.e., men listened to Ephraim with fear and trembling; and, ‘When Ephraim spake of revolt (?), [and] lifted itself up [as a rebel] in Israel’, continuing in the next clause, ‘it became guilty through Baal, and died.’ In the latter case, the reference is to the revolt of the Ten Tribes, and the public sanction then given to a retrograde religion. The advantage of this view is that it enables us to give precisely the same meaning to Ephraim in both parts of Hos_13:1; but as the text stands, the writer feels unable to accept it, as the sense of ‘revolt’ cannot be justified. It is very possible that the text is corrupt.
but when he offended in Baal, he died] Rather, if the Authorized Version’s view of the meaning be retained, but he became guilty through the Baal, and died. That is, in course of time, the Ten Tribes severed themselves definitely from the progressive teaching of the higher spiritual prophecy, and by so doing sealed their doom as a nation. The Baal-worship spoken of is not the form of religion against which Elijah thundered; that was introduced from Phœnicia, whereas a simpler but still idolatrous worship was offered by the northern Israelites to Jehovah under the name of ‘Baal’ (see on Hos_2:13; Hos_2:16). Finding a multitude of Canaanitish sacred places dedicated each to its own ‘Baal’ or patron-deity, they forthwith identified this Baal with their own Jehovah, and so fell under the same condemnation as their heathen predecessors. They failed to go forward with Amos and Hosea, and so they could not but fall behind to a degenerate and lower type of religion.
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died] Ephraim was ‘dead while he lived’ (1Ti_5:6, comp. Pro_9:18, and Dante, Inferno XXXIII. 139–157). So Gen_2:17, ‘in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.’ Till Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, there was the hope that, though not created immortal, he might yet be exempted from decay and death. So, till Ephraim deliberately corrupted his religion, there was always the possibility that God might recognize him as a permanent factor in the religious history of the world. Comp. on Hos_5:12.
1–8. Israel signed his own death-warrant when he lapsed into Baal-worship. Foolish as it is to ‘kiss calves’, they persist in the practice. Therefore the nation can but drift away, like cloud, or chaff, or smoke. How little Jehovah deserves such treatment! But Israel’s destruction has already begun: they shall be torn piecemeal.
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 (1) There is a difference of opinion as to…
XIII.
(1) There is a difference of opinion as to the construction and rendering of this verse. We adopt the interpretation, When Ephraim uttered terror, he rebelled in Israel; then he committed sin through Baal, and died. This points to the revolt of the Ten Tribes, and the consequent abandonment of the pure traditions of Jehovah worship for those of Baal. This idea and that of the previous verse (Hos_12:14) may have been brought into prominence by the recent untoward antagonism aroused by the Syro-Ephraimitish war against Judah.
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 The first eight verses of this chapter form the…
The first eight verses of this chapter form the premises from which the prophet, in the ninth verse, draws the conclusion that the conduct of Israel had been suicidal; that they had brought on themselves the calamities which they had experienced, and ultimately the ruin in which those calamities eventuated. The various particulars of their sin are enumerated, with the provocation caused or the punishment incurred by each. Thus the idolatry of Baal stripped them of the authority they once possessed, and issued in the dissolution of their state. After they had been to some small extent reclaimed from this national sin, and had somewhat retrieved their position, their perseverance in the calf-worship and the progress of their idolatrous practices provoked Jehovah so grievously as to threaten their sudden and entire destruction. Then their gross ingratitude to God for his great goodness and long-continued mercies, followed by pride and haughtiness and forgetfulness of the Most High, brought down on their guilty heads fearful vengeance. All these circumstances justify the conclusion to which he comes, that while God had been their Helper and Deliverer all along, they were chargeable with their own destruction.
When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel. This rendering of the Authorized Version
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(1) is supported by the Syriac, which is: "When Ephraim spake trembling, then he was, and was great in Israel." Rashi has a similar rendering of the word retheth, which is an apax legomenon , and causes the diversity of translation in this clause; but his exposition of the whole sentence is vague and unsatisfactory. Referring it to Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim, he explains as follows: "When Jeroboam, zealous for God, spoke against Solomon hard words, and with terror, Solomon was a great king." Pococke"s exposition is in harmony with the Authorized Version, and is the following: "When Ephraim spake with fear and trembling (like his forefather Jacob, in his humble supplication to God), he exalted himself in Israel." But
(2) the rendering adopted by most moderns, is decidedly preferable, as agreeing better with the context, and much more in bar-runny with tribal characteristics of Ephraim, as intimated in this very book, and exhibited elsewhere. The translation we thus prefer is: "When Ephraim spake, there was trembling; he, even he, exalted himself in Israel." Such was the fear inspired, and the deference paid to the authority of that powerful tribe. The word reheth, though not found elsewhere, has a cognate root in Aramaic, with the meaning here assigned to it; for ttr is to fear, shudder, tremble; there is also, in Jer_49:24, the word ffr, equivalent to "fear," similar in both sense and sound. The Chaldee supports this rendering; its paraphrase is: "When one of the house of Ephraim spake, trembling seized the peoples." Also Aben Ezra and Kimchi. The former"s brief comment is: "Before his speaking the peoples were afraid; and the word ttA has no analogue except in the Aramaic." Kimchi"s explanation is, "From the beginning, before Ephraim sinned, the fear of him was great over the peoples who surrounded him; for when he spake, fear and trembling were wont to seize him who heard him; and he was great and strong among the tribes of Israel, as it was said of him, "And his seed shall be a multitude of nations.
(3) The LXX renders reheth by dikaiwmata , thus:" According to the word of Ephraim, be adopted ordinances for himself in Israel," that is, when Ephraim spoke, the rest of the Israelites assented to his ordinances and rights, reverencing his authority, so that the general sense differs little from the Chaldee.
(4) Rosenm constructs and explains differently; his exposition runs somehow thus: "When Ephraim spake, instituting that horrible worship of the calves, he himself bore the sin of that horrible dictum, i.e. was guilty of, and bore its punishment." This explanation of a is farfetched and unnatural. We have no hesitation in preferring "lifted up," i.e. his head, or exalted himself, for, though it is usually the Hithp. that is employed in this sense, examples also occur in which Qal is so used, for example Psa_89:10 and Nah_1:5. Kimchi supplies rosho. We adhere, therefore, to the rendering and exposition of (2). But when he offended in Baal, he died. This was not merely the calf-worship which, for political reasons, Jeroboam instituted and his successors retained, but the worship of Baal for which, no doubt, the calf-worship had prepared the way, and which had been introduced by Ahab at the instigation of his Sidonian queen. And though the people were partially and temporarily reformed through the efforts of Elijah the prophet and by the royal authority of Jehu, son of Nimshi, the evil was not eradicated, but frequently broke out again. The exaltation of Ephraim was not so much his distinction among his brethren as the governmental predominance at which that tribe ever aimed. That elevation, however, was soon followed by religious declension, culminating in the idolatry of Baal, which soon sealed the doom of the northern kingdom, thenceforth given up to destruction. The sentence of death was pronounced, and the actual dying commenced with the introduction of idolatrous worship. Thus, correctly, Kimchi: "He lifted up his head in Israel. And after he offended in Baal he died, as if he said, he was beaten before his enemies, as if he were dead, the power of his hand had departed.
Vers. 1-8. Justification of the ways of God to man.
Israel had been the cause of their own calamities another proof that sin is the procuring cause of all human suffering and sorrow. God"s character is seen to be everlastingly the same long-suffering and merciful, ever gracious to penitents, abounding in goodness and truth to all, but by no means clearing the guilty.
I THE SECRET OF SUCCESS. Most men are fond of power, all men value prosperity; yet few men know the right road, and fewer still pursue it. Righteousness is the right road to success of any kind, and the sure way of elevation; it exalts either nation or individual who practices it.
1. As long as Ephraim worshipped the true God and abstained from idolatry, which subsequently became their besetting sin, they had power and pre-eminence. When they spake, their word was with power and not infrequently inspired terror; it was sure to come with authority and to command respect among the other tribes of Israel. Ephraim had long been the premier tribe, enjoying the credit of great names, Joshua and Samuel; and of great deeds, the defeat of Midian and the death of the two Midianite princes, Oreb and Zeeb; also of great privileges, the national sanctuary having been for three centuries and a half at Shiloh, within the confines of that tribe. Nor were they slow to assert themselves and advance their claims.
2. But the tide turned. They offended in Baal; then came national degradation and political death they fell by their own hand as moral suicides. Sin brought Ephraim down from his high and exalted position, and laid his honor in the dust. He became like a dead man, despoiled of his authority, deprived of many of his subjects, and on the verge of ruin; his activities and vigor gone and his dignity departed, himself already dead though not yet buried. "When Ephraim forsook God and took to worship images, the state received its death-wound, and was never good for anything after. Note: deserting God is the death of any person or persons.
II SIN IS A DOWNWARD SLOPE. The sin of idolatry was gradually developed in Israel. It began with the modification of the national worship by Jeroboam, when he changed the place and plan of that worship. When he had audaciously transferred the place of worship from Jerusalem to Dan on the Syrian frontier, and to Bethel on the border of the kingdom of Judah, in order to keep the people away from Jerusalem, the true place of worship and seat of the Davidic dynasty, he proceeded further to introduce the worship of the calves a relapse, at least as to form, into the idolatry of Egypt. His design was not, indeed, the introduction of a new and rival deity, but the modeling of Jehovah"s worship under an external and symbolic form. The sin did not stop here; it progressed until, in the days of Ahab, the Phoenician deity Baal became an object of worship. It was bad enough to make a graven image or material representation of the true God and bow down to it, thus violating the second commandment and neglecting the solemn instruction that the worship of God must be spiritual, not material; but it was still worse to introduce other gods, as the Phoenician Baal, in direct violation of the first commandment of the Law, which requires the exclusive worship of Jehovah. Thus the sin of idolatry progressed in Israel. Nor is this all; along with the worship of Baal the idolatry of the calves, as we learn from this Scripture, still survived two hundred years after its introduction by Jeroboam. Thus they "grew worse and worse; coveted more idols, doted more upon those they had, and grew more ridiculous in the worship of them." Superstition is an expensive thing. Israel used much of the means God had them in making molten images. It is a whimsical thing; men follow their own fancies in carrying it out. It is an unspeakably stupid thing; that image which is man"s work, man"s wisdom, the product of man"s willfulness, becomes the object of man"s worship. It is, moreover, a debasing thing; the fervor of their worship is stimulated by an authoritative, perhaps a royal, edict, enjoining reverence and homage to the senseless image of a calf But whether the command proceeds from priests, or people, or prince, the kissing of the calves was in token of "the adoration of them, affection of them, and allegiance to them as theirs." It has been justly remarked by Pusey that "sin draws on sin. This seems to be a third stage in sin. First, under Jeroboam, was the worship of the calves. Then, under Ahab, the worship of Baal. Thirdly, the multiplying of other, (2Ki_17:9, 2Ki_17:10) penetrating and pervading the private life, even of their less wealthy people.
III THE SHORT-LIVED STATE OF SINNERS. They have often the show of prosperity, but their prosperous state is short-lived. "I have seen," says the psalmist, "the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree" (or a green tree growing in its native soil). "Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." This truth is illustrated by four very striking similitudes. The morning cloud glowing in the early sunshine, assuming phantastic forms and displaying varying hues of beauty, often presents itself as a forerunner of the rain-shower to moisten the dry parched ground; but ere long it vanishes, and the cloudy morning ushers in a clear and rainless day. The early dew, with its pearly drops so bright and beautiful on the grass of a summer morning, which appears as if to promise sufficient moisture to the earth even in the absence of the long looked-for rain, is soon brushed aside by a passing foot, or coal rates before the day has far advanced. Both similitudes had already been employed by the prophet to exhibit the fleeting and transitory nature of Israel"s religious profession and the consequent disappointment to the Divine expectations, so they are used here in turn to represent the transient character of sinners" prosperity and their disappointment from worldly things. The two other similitudes, though less pleasing, are equally powerful as representations of what is evanescent: the worthless chaff, which is whirled away in winnowing; and the offensive smoke, which, as has been pithily said, swelleth, welleth, and vanisheth both soon dissipated and disappearing. While these four emblems in common," says Pusey, "picture what is fleeting, two, the early dew and the morning cloud, are emblems of what is in itself good, but passing; the two others, the chaff and the smoke, are emblems of what is worthless. "The dew and the cloud were temporary mercies on the part of God which should cease from them; good in themselves, but, to their evil, soon to pass away."... Such dew were the many prophets vouchsafed to Israel; such was Hosea himself, most brilliant, but soon to pass away. The chaff was the people itself, to be carried out of the lord"s land; the smoke, "its pride and its errors, whose disappearance was to leave the air pure for the household of God.
IV SIN IS BASE INGRATITUDE TO GOD.
1. God assures Israel that, however far they had degenerated and fallen, however much they had changed, the change had been entirely on their side, not on his; as though he had said, "And I, even I," fur the pronoun is emphatic, "am still Jehovah, the same unchanging and unchangeable Being, the same in mightiness to succor, the same in willingness to help is also thy God, the same in covenant relation, the same in faithfulness to every promise, and the same in ability to fulfill the word he has pledged.
2. He pleads their past experience and the many proofs he had given them of his goodness; he appeals to them in regard to his treatment of the fathers and founders of their race, going back to the period of the Exodus, and thus gently hinting the covenant entered into at Sinai and reminding them of its conditions. In view of God"s faithfulness and their own faithlessness, of God"s goodness and their ingratitude, of his enduring mercies which they and their progenitors had experienced for centuries, and of the fitful and infrequent conformity of their conduct therewith, they must surely have hung their head in shame and cried out in the language of another prophet, "O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day.
3. The law of reciprocity demands a return on the part of the people of God. He had made himself known to them by his Word and by his works, by his providences and by his prophets; he had made himself known to them as their fathers" God, as their own God in a special relationship, acknowledging them as his peculiar people, he naturally claimed, not only their knowledge, but acknowledgment of himself. It was their bounden duty, in turn, to acquaint themselves with him, to know him to be their God and no other, to acknowledge him in his ineffable perfections, in his glorious attributes, and in the ordinances of his worship, and also to own allegiance to him alone. And if all this was a duty incumbent on Israel, surely it is a duty equally incumbent, yea, much more so, upon ourselves; while neglect of such duty on our part brands us with an ingratitude deeper, blacker, and baser than that of Ephraim when the prophet wrote.
4. He backs all with the assurance of his saving power, and assigns as a special reason for knowing and acknowledging God that there is no Savior besides him. Of this he had given abundant proof by the deliverances he had wrought and the provision he had made for them, as for their fathers before them, under the most trying circumstances, when they were in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. The very idea of God implies saving power on his part, and happiness in time and eternity for all who are his true Israel; and "as where we have protection we owe allegiance, so where we have salvation and hope for it we owe adoration." Now, a friend in need is a friend indeed. Such a Friend was God to Israel, an all-sufficient Friend; and just such a Friend is God to his people still.
V SIN, BY REASON OF CERTAIN AGGRAVATIONS, BECOMES MORE HEINOUS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. This is the case specially when the good gifts of his providence are used to the dishonor of God and the neglect of his service. It was thus with Israel, when pride of heart and forgetfulness of God were the return they made him for all his goodness to themselves and their fathers during all the years that had been from their entrance into the land of promise. The Lord himself had been their Shepherd; he had tended them with greatest care, leading them in green pastures and by still waters. But "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked." How often is this conduct of Israel repeated! Prosperity pampers pride, and pride makes men forget God, as if it were men"s necessities that kept them mindful of God. "It is sad that those favors which ought to make us mindful of God, and studious what we shall render to him, should make is unmindful of him, and regardless what we do against him. We ought to know that we live upon God, when we live upon common providence, though we do not, as Israel in the wilderness, live upon miracles.
VI SIN"S SAD SEQUEL. The sins of the people grew worse and became more aggravated; the Divine judgments are in proportion. In an early verse (third) of the chapter they are threatened with the evanescence of their prosperous condition, but something much worse and more alarming is predicted (vers. 7, 8) as ready to follow. Not only was all good to be taken from them, but all evil was to come upon them. The Lord"s flock is to lose the Shepherd"s care; thus deserted, they will soon fall victims to savage beasts nay, their former Shepherd not only abandons them to beasts of prey, but does himself assume the character and put forth the fierceness of such beasts. The ferocity of the lion, the fleetness of the leopard, and the fury of the robbed or ravenous she-bear, now represent the means which he employs against them. And as if it were not enough to specify the lion, the leopard, the bear, and the lion a second time, he adds "the wild beast," that is, wild beasts in general. It appears as if the dreadfulness of all wild beasts combined was required to exhibit the power of God"s wrath and the fury of his anger. If the sinner escaped from the lion, a leopard overtakes him; or if he escapes the vigilance of the leopard"s keen vision, a bear meets him; in a word, the fierceness of all wild beasts together is not equal to that of God"s wrath. "All the dreadfulness of ell creatures in the world combined meets in the wrath of God." A sorrowful contrast is here presented. God had once watched over them for good; now, leopard-like, he watches their wanderings, and with lynx-eyed vigilance waits as if to take advantage of them. On the other hand, their heart had been puffed up with pride, as well as hard and closed against the gentlest admonitions and most faithful instructions; now their heart shall be torn open with leonine force and violence. Sinners may shut the remonstrances and warnings of the Divine Word out of their hearts and remain obdurate, but afflictive providences or untoward events of some kind, may at God"s pleasure tear away the obstruction, and tear open the hardest heart. Whether the opinion of those who think there is a reference here to the four ancient monarchies is founded in fact, or is only the mere offspring of fancy, we care not to examine. That there is a resemblance between the terrible threats of this passage and the terrible treatment which the people of God experienced at the hands of those monarchies, there can be little doubt. Of the four monarchies represented by beasts in the seventh chapter of Daniel, the Babylonish was the lion, the Persian a bear, the Grecian a leopard, the fleetness of which suitably set forth the rapidity of Alexander"s exploits, all of which he performed in the space of twelve years, while he himself at his death had only reached the age of thirty-three years. The Roman empire is not likened to any one beast in particular, but is described as dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly, with great iron teeth, devouring and breaking in pieces and stamping the residue with the feet, its ten horns standing for the ten kingdoms into which it was subsequently parceled.
HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN Vers. 1-8. Ephraim, living and dead.
This passage portrays anew the dreadful prevalence of apostasy and idolatry throughout the nation. "The same strings, though generally unpleasing ones, are harped upon in this chapter that were in those before" (Matthew Henry). Much of the imagery continues to be anthropopathic; the prophet exhibits an apparent tumult of contending passions in the Divine mind towards unfilial and rebellious Ephraim.
I EPHRAIM WAS ONCE ALIVE. He had been so, both spiritually and temporally. The time was when the tribe of Ephraim, and the other nine tribes over which it cast its shadow, contained many God-fearing families. Joshua, the illustrious hero who led the Hebrews into Palestine, was of this tribe; and to him, doubtless, it owed not a little of its subsequent eminence. The "life" which once dwelt in Ephraim was reflected in:
1. God"s mercies towards him. (Vers. 4, 5) The Almighty set his love upon Israel; and "in his favor is life". (Psa_30:5) God had manifested himself to his people in the Exodus from Egypt. He "did know Ephraim in the wilderness;" he visited him there in pity and love revealing his will at Sinai, feeding the people with manna, bringing them water out of the rock, leading them by the cloudy pillar, and delivering them from their enemies. He "led Joseph like a flock," and at last "made him to lie clown in the green pastures" of Canaan a land which was the glory of all lands." The Lord had set up his tabernacle in Ephraim; for Shiloh was a city of that canton, and the sacred tent remained at Shiloh for upwards of three centuries.
2. His own influence. (Ver 1) "When Ephraim spake, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel." In the early days of the nation Ephraim had been the most powerful of the twelve tribes. Long before the lamentable disruption of the Hebrew state, it had exercised a sort of control over the others. It had a high reputation, and commanded unfeigned respect. At length Ephraim became itself a kingdom, and as such seemed for a time strong and prosperous, and was regarded by Judah as a formidable rival.
II EPHRAIM IS NOW DEAD SPIRITUALLY. Spiritual life consists in union with Jehovah, and is maintained by communion with him. But sin separates from God, and gradually kills the life of the soul. Now, Ephraim in his prosperity had apostatized from God. The Divine complaint is, They have forgotten me" (ver. 6). Although the people owed everything to God, they allowed the very abundance of his gifts to become the means of withdrawing their hearts from him. In the time of Hoses the nation was really "dead in trespasses and sins." Again, in this passage, the prophet laments the manifestations of this state of death.
1. The Baal-worship. (Ver. 1) "When he offended in Baal, he died." The introduction of the Phoenician idolatry involved Israel in spiritual ruin. The rites of that idolatry were in the highest degree obscene and cruel; and by the Law of Moses every breach of the first commandment was to entail terrible penalties. Yet, notwithstanding all, Israel went aside to serve Baal and Ashtaroth, and thereby became morally degraded and spiritually destroyed.
2. The image-worship. (Ver. 2) Although Jeroboam"s sin (1Ki_12:28) was manifestly distinct kern that of Ahab, (1Ki_16:31-33) and in itself by no means so heinous, it had yet been the beginning of the evil disease which, under Ahab and Jezebel, culminated in the spiritual death of the nation. Image-worship is idolatry; and the kissing" of the two golden calves had led to the multiplication of idolatrous images all over the land. The people in their blindness were addicted in their private life to all manner of "will-worship." How melancholy that Ephraim should forsake Jehovah to bow down to manufactured gods of them the work of artificers"!
3. The self-worship. (Ver. 6) Ephraim abused his prosperity to such an extent that his heart became at once steeped in materialism and elated with pride. He minded earthly things. His pasture" became everything to him; he was greedy, and could never have enough. Jeshurum waxed fat, and kicked". (Deu_32:15) Selfishness and insolence and tyranny were born of Ephraim"s abundance; he became puffed up with self-sufficiency, forgot Jehovah his God, and died.
III EPHRAIM WILL SOON BE DEAD OUTWARDLY. As the dissolution of the body follows death, so the temporal ruin of a state is the natural result of its moral decay. In cherishing his pride and pursuing his idolatries, Israel was busily digging his own grave. As his wealth and power increased, he steadily deteriorated in moral fiber, and thus gradually lost his prestige and reputation. So:
1. His destruction shall be swift. (Ver. 3) This part of the prophecy probably belongs to the time of Hoshea, the last of the kings of Israel, who was "cut off as the foam upon the water," and in whoso day the unhappy Ephraimites were carried away into Assyria. The captivity, therefore, was now at hand. The suddenness of the impending transplantation is indicated by four similitudes morning cloud," "the early dew," "the chaff," and "the smokey." Such is the result of the prosperity of nations which continue to be incurably wicked; the time comes at last when the whole fabric of the commonwealth suddenly falls to pieces
2. It shall be dreadful. (Vers. 7, 8) Here also there are four comparisons a "lion," "a leopard," "a bear," and "the wild beast." These shall comedown upon the flock in their fat "pasture," and devour them. It is remarkable that the same fern beasts reappear in Daniel"s vision of the four world-empires, (Da 7) and that they are combined into one bestial form in "the wild beast" of the Apocalypse. (Rev_13:1-3) Alas! Jehovah, who has been the Shepherd of Israel, is now compelled to become Israel"s Devourer! He will send the Assyrian strong as a lion, fierce as a leopard, and savage as a bear to tear the very heart of the nation. Thus would Israel "destroy himself" (ver. 9), being carried away into sudden exile and total oblivion
LESSONS.
1. "Righteousness exalteth a nation" (ver. 1).
2. "The Lord is a jealous God;" "His glory he will not give to another, neither his praise to graven images" (vers, 2, 8)
3. God destroys our idols that we may learn to "kiss the Son;" for he is "the true God and eternal life," and "there is no Savior beside him" (vers. 3, 4).
4. The dangers of material prosperity to all who neglect those means of grace which make prosperity safe (ver. 6).
5. "Pride goeth before destruction" (ver. 6).
6. The great moral evils of our age (intemperance, impurity, profanity, infidelity, social disorders, etc.) constitute a call to God"s people to more faith and prayer and Christian activity. C.J.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-4. Baal-exaltation.
The first clause is better read, "When Ephraim spake, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel." The contrast is between what Ephraim once was, and what his offending in Baal had now brought him to. Once he was great in Israel. He had authority, influence, power to inspire terror. Now he was but the wreck of his former self. He would be swept away like chaff before the whirlwind.
I THE FIRST FALSE STEP. (Ver. 1) It is the first false step in sin which needs specially to be guarded against. Israel"s first false step as a separate kingdom was the denial of God"s spirituality, and the breach of his commandment, in the setting up of the worship of the calves. This was:
1. Trespass in a fundamental article. It was practically the denial of the Godhead. It made God like not to corruptible man-but, worse, to four-footed beasts. (Rom_1:23) They called their worship still Jehovah worship, but God repudiates it as in no sense his. It was really Baal-worship. God gives the sin its right name
2. The admission of a wrong principle. The principle was that of self-will in religion. Setting aside God"s commandment, Ephraim claimed to organize his worship after his own heart. He would have no law but his own will. It was to gratify himself that he had set up an independent kingdom. It was to gratify himself that he now set up the golden calves. The adoption of a wrong principle by an individual or nation is the sowing of a seed out of which is sure to spring ulterior mischief. Israel reaped from this seed of self-will, sown in the heart of the constitution, an unforeseen harvest of evil and woe.
3. A fatal step. One false step is often decisive of a whole future, it was so with our first parents. Adam"s sin determined the spiritual condition of the race. "In Adam all die". (1Co_15:22) It was so with this first false step in Israel. "When he offended in Baal, he died." tie died:
(1) Morally. We die morally the moment we determine to take our own will rather than God"s as the law of our life. Self-wall is the seed-principle of sin. It is a seed of death.
(2) As a nation. That was the step which settled Ephraim"s future. It determined the direction of his after-way. Looking back from the end, it could be seen that this was the time when the fatal course was entered on. Virtually, this step doomed him. As Adam, on the day of his transgression, became a dying man, though he did net actually die till long after, so Israel, in this early sin, wrote out their sentence of death as a people.
II SIN"S PROGRESS. (Ver. 2) Sin, like strife, is in its beginning as the letting in of water. Israel, having admitted into its midst a wrong principle, went on from bad to worse. Idolatry spread in the nation. In the practice of this idolatry the people were:
1. Extravagant. "They have made them molten images of their silver." They lavished their wealth upon their idols. People are generally willing to spend extravagantly upon their vices.
2. Ingenious. "Idols according to their understanding; all of it the work of the craftsmen." Not content with the gods of their neighbors, they invented new forms of idolatry for themselves. They were ingenious in forming, adorning, and diversifying their idols. Nothing they could do, however, could make the objects of their ingenuity aught else than idols. "All of it the work of the craftsmen this only. And to this product of their own crafts they bowed themselves down. Men whose hearts are too proud to bow to God are ready to bow clown to idols of their own making. (Isa_2:9)
3. Intolerant. "They say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves." The world will brook no refusal to worship at its shrines. E.g. the tyranny of codes of fashion.
III VANISHING PROSPERITY. (Ver. 3) Four images are employed to set forth the swiftness, suddenness, and completeness with which Ephraim"s once lordly prosperity would vanish. These are
(1) the morning cloud;
(2) the early dew;
(3) the chaff driven by the whirlwind;
(4) smoke escaping from a chimney (or window).
Some of these things are:
1. Beautiful at first. The cloud hangs gay and gilded in the morning sky, and the dewdrop sparkles with a heavenly beauty as it catches the sun"s rays.
2. Unsubstantial. The cloud, though fair, is a mere mass of vapor. The dew but borrows its sparkle from the light. The chaff is husk without substance. The smoke, rising at first in a solid-looking column, or in thick, heavy folds, is bodiless and without coherence.
3. They rapidly vanish. All the four metaphors represent something that "appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away". (Jam_4:14) The cloud is gone while yet we gaze on it. The dew, drenching grass and flowers at dawn, soon dries up with the heat. The wind rapidly bears off the chaff. The smoke scatters, or is dispersed by the breeze, and vanishes. In combination, the figures point to different causes of vanishing. Internal lightness (chaff), dissipation of parts (vapor, smoke), external absorption (sun and air), strong forces of destruction (whirlwind). The whole show the short-lived nature of the sinner"s prosperity. Its beauty is not abiding. It is substanceless. It is soon swept away.
IV GOD, NOT BAAL. (Ver. 4) The end of this judgment was, not utterly to destroy the people, but to drive them out of false confidences, and tend them to the right knowledge of God. It would bring them to see:
1. That God had been faithful to them, though not they to him. "Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt.
2. That there was no God but himself. "Thou shalt know no God but me." They worshipped Baal as God, but experience only showed that he was none.
3. That God was the only Savior. "There is no Savior beside me." Yet be was a Savior. He had sought to be their Savior all through. He would save them still, if they would but turn to him. 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 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel;…
Hos_13:1
When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
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Two conditions of Ephraim
Spake trembling, i.e., there was trembling. Ephraim was once very awful, Bishop Hall says, so as, while he spake, the rest of the tribes were ready to tremble. The prophet contrasts two conditions of Ephraim, of prosperity and destruction. His prosperity he owed to the undeserved mercy of God, who blessed him for Josephs sake; his destruction, to his own sin. There is no period recorded when Ephraim spake tremblingly, i.e., in humility. Pride was his characteristic, almost as soon as he had a separate existence as a tribe. Under Joshua, it could not be called out, for Ephraim gained honour, when Joshua, one of themselves became the captain of the Lords people. Under the judges, their pride appeared. Yet God tried them, by giving them their hearts desire. They longed to be exalted, and He satisfied them, if so be they would thus serve Him. They had the chief power, and were a terror to Judah. But he abused the goodness of his God; his sin followed as a consequence of Gods goodness to him. God raised him, and he offended. The alliance with a king of Tyre and Sidon, which brought in the worship of Baal, was a part of the worldly policy of the kings of Israel. The twenty-two years of Ahabs reign established the worship. The prophets of Baal became 450, the prophets of the kindred idolatry of Ashtoreth, or Astarte, became 400; Baal had his one central temple, large and magnificent, a rival of that of God. The prophet Elijah thought the apostasy almost universal. (E. B. Pussy, D. D.)
The responsibility of those having authority and influence
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. There was a time when Ephraim was very honourable among the tribes, when the very speaking of Ephraim had great power, and took great impression upon whomsoever he spoke to.
1. It is an honour to have respect from others when we speak, to have what we say received with reverence and respect, showing that it impresses the hearts of others, and is not cast out as a vain and worthless thing. Let children, servants, and all inferiors, learn to give due honour to those whom God has set above them.
2. Those who are in place of power over others account it their honour, not only that those under them should regard, but that they should tremble at what they say. Man greatly delights to lift himself above others, and to lord it imperiously over them.
3. The subjection of the hearts of men to those in authority is a work of God, and God is to have the glory of it.
4. The meaner the beginnings of men are, the more imperious they often prove when in power.
5. Sin will bring mens honour down. Let men take heed of trusting their former repute, for let them have done what they will heretofore, yet if they depart from God, their honour will depart too. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Gods gifts dependent on mans mood
s:--Over and over again Hosea denounces Ephraim for their infatuated idolatry. All through the history idolatry, like a hideous disease, disfigured the national life, but yet in varying degree. With their faith went their strength, and in those days individual prophets or pious kings were powerless to stem the wave of destruction that overwhelmed the land. The lesson is for all time. God matches His gifts to mans believing. They who tremble, acknowledge their guilt before Him, are made strong. They who go after idolatry are heavily punished or swept away. Idolatry has changed its symbols, but it has not changed its nature. What are our own temptations to idolatry in England at the end of the nineteenth century? One of our chief dangers is idolatry of the visible. The difficulty of believing that love means something besides ministry to the body and mind. But national benevolence and national progress will never make up for national apostasy. Once lose hold on the unseen, once rest satisfied with our good intentions, and we, as a nation, shall cease to carry on our mission. For a nation to be true to itself is for it to be true to its best. The national faith is the first thing to preserve. (W. R. Hutton, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Hosea 13 - Hosea 14:1
2. THE LAST JUDGMENT
Hosea 13 - Hosea 14:1
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The crisis draws on. On the one hand Israels sin, accumulating, bulks ripe for judgment. On the other the times grow more fatal, or the prophet more than ever feels them so. He will gather once again the old truths on the old lines-the great past when Jehovah was God alone, the descent to the idols and the mushroom monarchs of today, the people, who once had been strong, sapped by luxury, forgetful, stupid, not to be roused. The discourse has every mark of being Hoseas latest. There are clearness and definiteness beyond anything since chapter 4. There are ease and lightness of treatment, a playful sarcasm, as if the themes were now familiar both to the prophet and his audience. But, chiefly, there is the passion-so suitable to last words-of how different it all might have been, if to this crisis Israel had come with store of strength instead of guilt. How these years, with their opening into the great history of the world, might have meant a birth for the nation, which instead was lying upon them like a miscarried child in the mouth of the womb! It was a fatality God Himself could not help in. Only death and hell remained. Let them, then, have their way! Samaria must expiate her guilt in the worst horrors of war.
Instead of with one definite historical event, this last effort of Hosea opens more naturally with a summary of all Ephraims previous history. The tribe had been the first in Israel till they took to idols.
"Whenever Ephraim spake there was trembling. Prince was he in Israel; but he fell into guilt through the Baal, and so-died. Even now they continue to sin and make them a smelting of their silver, idols after their own modelsmiths work all of it. To them"-to such things-"they speak! Sacrificing men kiss calves!" In such unreason have they sunk. They cannot endure. "Therefore shall they be like the morning cloud and like the dew that early vanisheth, like chaff which whirleth up from the floor and like smoke from the window. And I was thy God from the land of Egypt; and god besides Me thou knowest not, nor savior has there been any but Myself. I shepherded thee in the wilderness, in the land of droughts"-long before they came among the gods of fertile Canaan. But once they came hither, "the more pasture they had, the more they ate themselves full, and the more they ate themselves full, the more was their heart uplifted, so they forgat Me. So that I must be to them like a lion, like a leopard in the way I must leap. I will fall on them like a bear robbed of its young, and will tear the caul of their hearts, and will devour them like a lion-wild beasts shall rend them."
When "He hath destroyed thee, O Israel-who then may help thee? Where is thy king now? that he may save thee, or all thy princes? that they may rule thee; those of whom thou hast said, Give me a king and princes." Aye, "I give thee a king in Mine anger, and I take him away in My wrath!" Fit summary of the short and bloody reigns of these last years.
"Gathered is Ephraims guilt, stored up is his sin." The nation is pregnant - but with guilt! "Birth pangs seize him but"-the figure changes, withHoseas own swiftness, from mother to child-"he is an impracticable son; for this is no time to stand in the mouth of the womb." The years that might have been the nations birth are by their own folly to prove their death. Israel lies in the way of its own redemption-how truly this has been forced home upon them in one chapter after another! Shall God then step in and work a deliverance on the brink of death? "From the hand of Sheol shall I deliver them? from death shall I redeem them?" Nay, let death and Sheol have their way. "Where are thy plagues, O death? where thy destruction, Sheol?" Here with them. Compassion is hid from Mine eyes.
This great verse has been variously rendered. Some have taken it as a promise: "I will deliver. I will redeem" So the Septuagint translated, and St. Paul borrowed, not the whole Greek verse, but its spirit and one or two of its terms, for his triumphant challenge to death in the power of the Resurrection of Christ. As it stands in Hosea, however, the verse must be a threat. The last clause unambiguously abjures mercy, and the statement that His people will not be saved, for God cannot save them, is one in thorough harmony with all Hoseas teaching.
An appendix follows with the illustration of the exact form which doom shall take. As so frequently with Hosea, it opens with a play upon the peoples name, which at the same time faintly echoes the opening of the chapter.
"Although he among his brethren is the fruit-bearer"-yaphri, he Ephraim-"there shall come an east wind, a wind of Jehovah rising from the wilderness, so that his fountain dry up and his spring be parched." He -" himself," not the Assyrian, but Menahem, who had to send gold to the Assyrian-"shall strip the treasury of all its precious jewels. Samaria must bear her guilt: for she hath rebelled against her God." To this simple issue has the impenitence of the people finally reduced the many possibilities of those momentous years; and their last prophet leaves them looking forward to the crash which came some dozen years later in the invasion and captivity of the land. "They shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child ripped up." Horrible details, but at that period certain to follow every defeat in war.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Hos_13:1. Eph.] formerly enjoyed great distinction in Israel. Men…
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Hos_13:1. Eph.] formerly enjoyed great distinction in Israel. Men listened with fear and trembling to him (Job_29:21); he exalted himself, secured the rule among the tribes, and then seceded and established a separate kingdom. By the introduction of the worship of Baal and the custom of calf-worship he offended and died. Two conditions of Eph. are contrasted, prosperity and destruction.
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Hos_13:2. Sin] Add sin to sin, i.e. continue in former transgressions. “This seems to be a third stage in sin. First, under Jeroboam, was the worship of the calves. Then, under Ahab, the worship of Baal. Thirdly, the multiplying of other idols (2Ki_17:9-10), penetrating and pervading the private life, even of their less wealthy people” [Pusey]. Say of them] Such things as these mentioned. Kiss] An act of adoration (Psa_2:2; Psa_106:20).
Hos_13:3. Therefore] punishment shall be swift. Their goodness is fleeting as the dew, and the morning cloud; their prosperity worthless is the chaff or the smoke.
HOMILETICS
SELF-ESTIMATION THE MEASURE OF RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE.—Hos_13:1-3
God raised Ephraim to chief power, and Judah was afraid of him. Through God’s goodness he was respected; but when he sinned, he lost his reputation and honour. When he exalted himself, he offended and died. When we walk humbly before God we prosper; but when we are proud and forsake him we die.
I. Humility exalts. “When Ephraim spake” all reverently feared him. “Princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.” Men whom God blesses have mighty influence.
1. Humility exalts before God. God looks upon the contrite, and dwells with the humble. The world counts nothing great without display. The “honour that cometh from God only” is despised. Men like Job, Isaiah, and Paul, who abhor themselves in dust and ashes, are considered weak-minded. Humility is not a heathen, but a Christian, virtue. Conscious dependence upon God, as the animating principle of life in all its relations and duties, is opposed to the self-esteem and self-confidence of modern philosophy. True humility will lead to dependence upon God, and those who trust most in God will be the strongest and most honoured by God. Such “the king delighteth to honour.”
2. Humility exalts before men. Self-conceit will lower men in the estimation of others; but a true spirit and noble life will gain real worth. The dogmatical opinion, the fancied superiority, the over-weening pride of men will clothe them with shame (Pro_26:12; Pro_29:20). We lost our position through pride, and must recover it by humility. He that would build a lasting fame must begin low. David was as distinguished in retirement as in the court of Saul. Washington as a private citizen was admired as much as Washington the commander of an army. Some become great by elevation, others by condescension. We stoop to conquer, and “before honour is humility.” When God exalts and magnifies men, they are formidable, as Joshua and Moses. When crowned with virtues, and strong in faith, they are greater than Alexander and Cæsar. “It is an uncontroverted truth,” said Swift, “that no man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one who mistook them.” “Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
II. Self-exaltation destroys. The proud and insolent fall into danger. “A man’s pride shall bring him low; but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”
1. Self-exaltation tends to idolatry. Man unduly values himself, and raises himself to lofty heights only to fall from them. Men are proud of rank, talent, and success. They adore their gold and silver, and make idols of vanities. Disaffected toward God, they run to excess, unchecked by Divine goodness, and emboldened by human flattery. They lean “to their own understanding,” and reject the word of God. They cut out and carve images of their own, multiply and deify gods with their own fancies, and worship them. “Go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands.”
2. Self-exaltation tends to self-degradation. “Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.” What a degradation for king and counsellors, priests and people, to fall down to calves! What do we see now? The objects may be changed, but the same spirit is displayed. We have rivals of the Living God in the forms of human device. Potentates and princes kiss the feet of the Pope. Rich and poor adore the consecrated wafer, and fall before the golden crucifix. In the Christian Church, we have “craftsmen,” and gods that oppose and exalt themselves “above all that is called God.” Mortals sitting “as God in the temple of God,” and demanding the homage and service which are due to God. God has made us for himself, and to kiss any idol is to degrade our mental and moral nature. “Stand up; I myself also am a man.”
3. Self-exaltation tends to self-destruction. “When he offended in Baal, he died” by the judgments of God, which he brought upon himself.
(1) It increases sin. “They sin more and more.” They added one sin to another, until it became habitual and universal. Sin is essentially cumulative in its nature and consequences. One sin contains and brings on another. The perversion of religion leads to more ungodliness. To the guilt of idolatry is added obstinate persistence in evil courses. Under the pretence of ignorance and infirmity, idolators pursue their malicious designs.
2. It brings destruction. “He died.” Death, spiritual and eternal, is the penalty of sin. Israel died as a kingdom and nation. God is the fountain of all life, and departure from him is real death. “The wages of sin is death.” All prosperity and reputation based on wickedness, will violently and swiftly pass away like the morning cloud and the early dew. Every fleeting object in nature preaches the vanity of idolatry, and the transient hopes built upon it. Judgments upon the proud and impenitent will bring utter desolation. “As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more; but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos_13:1. Natural conscience cannot but stoop to the image of God in whomsoever found. When Ephraim was first in the throne he became formidable; but when he fell openly from God he grew feeble; first he was a terror and then a scorn [Trapp].
Hos_13:2. Idolatry. I. Its origin. A human creation. “God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Discontent with God, they have invented a new mode of happiness. The first invention was the parent of many, all marked by the same folly and lies. Craftsmen now make their own deities, and worship creatures inferior to themselves.
1. An idol is the conception of man. It was the device of the human mind. It represents what the mind has imagined, and is no better, no higher than its creator. “Idols according to their own understanding.”
2. An idol is the work of man. “All of it the work of the craftsmen,” who completed with their hands what they conceived with their minds. Diana was said to have come from Jupiter (Act_19:35); but men stamp their names upon and give their hearts to their own workmanship (Isa_44:9). The scene at Sinai is often repeated in history and experience. “These be thy Gods, O Israel.” II. Its expense. “Molten images of their silver.” Wood and stone were not good enough. Gold and silver were thought to honour and exalt the gods. Wealth is often lavished on selfish ends, and men spare no expense to decorate and support their own idols. They tax their minds and spend their silver in the service of sin. What a blessing if men would devote as much time and energy in the service of God as in the because of idolatry! III. Its degradation. “Men kiss the calves.”
1. It degrades human nature. When we exclude spiritual interests, inferior matters become great, and the same energy of mind that might be employed for good will be expended in evil. The mind contracts its dimensions, impairs its powers, by devoting itself to objects below itself, and lowers itself to the level of those objects. But applied to higher objects, it is expanded, elevated, and strengthened. God’s service dignifies human nature by giving it useful activity, wise direction, and Divine influence.
2. It degrades the Divine nature. The conceptions and ideas of a corrupt mind are in harmony with that mind. Its worship is “according to the flesh.” As man cannot rise to God, God is brought down to the level of sinful man. “And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” IV. Its guilt. “They add sin to sin.” Idolatry is not a mere mistake, nor infirmity, but a guilty departure from God.
1. Men sin by forgetting God. We never forget anything in which we take great interest. The carnal mind takes no interest in God, is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God. God is excluded from the thoughts and life of the wicked.
2. Men sin by substituting idols for God. Men will worship something. If the true God is forsaken, they make gods of their own. This provokes God to anger, and brings misery upon them. Impenitence after Divine chastisement, perseverance in known sin after Divine warning, will aggravate human guilt, and result in “fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which will devour the adversary.” “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way.”
Hos_13:3. The prosperity of the wicked. I. It is of short duration. It may flourish and make a fair show for a while; but it vanishes away. It is evanescent “as the early dew,” which glistens only to pass away. It is deceptive “as the morning cloud.” You admire its beauty and changing hues. But its existence is short; it is only a temporary substance, and like men’s goodness, “it goeth away” (ch. Hos_6:4). II. It is worthless in its nature. If it continues long it does not satisfy. Like chaff, it is light and unsubstantial; lifted up, the sport of every wind, and carried along to be seen no more. “As smoke out of the chimney,” empty, baseless, and inflated, it disappears for ever. Such the prosperity of Ephraim, and such the prosperity built on any wickedness. The wicked may seem to live and flourish; but they sin, die, and perish eternally. “Virtue makes man upright and stable; vice, empty and unstable,” says an author. “They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away” (Job_21:18; Psa_1:4; Psa_35:5; Pro_14:32).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 13
Hos_13:1-3. Humility. The more God honoureth men, the more they should humble themselves. The more bounty God shows, the more humility he requires. Humility teaches us in our works to draw strength from God, not from ourselves; in our graces to ascribe their goodness to God, and their weakness to ourselves [Reynolds]. Praise is a comely garment. But though thyself doth wear it, another must put it on, or else it will never sit well on thee. Praise is sweet music, but it is never tuneable in thine own mouth. If it cometh from the mouth of another it soundeth most tuneably in the ears of all that hear it [Jermin].
When people once fall into the habit of admiring and encouraging ability as such, without reference to moral character, they are on the highway to all sorts of degradation.
Kiss. Read the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and see if there is one exaggerating touch. That chapter is a terrible but true picture of the lower strata of humanity. What were the deities in heathen times? Jupiter was a monster, Mercury a thief, Mars a sort of cannibal, who drank the blood of his victims. Such the gods of the heathen; and like gods like people.
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.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain I. Self-destruction is possible to us men—even the destruction…
Hos 13:9
I. Self-destruction is possible to us men—even the destruction of the highest, noblest, and divinest part of our nature.
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II. The only power by which we can destroy ourselves is the power of sinning.
III. Every finally destroyed man is self-destroyed.
IV. The self-destroyer who is in this perilous position may be saved from self-destruction. (1) A man cannot save himself. (2) No fellow-man can save the sinner. God can save the self-destroyer, but God alone. (3) Think of the encouragement to return. "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should return unto Me and live."
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 4th series, No. 11.
References: Hos 13:9.—W. Jay, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 61. Hos 13:10.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 321.
Hos 13:11
The Israelites seem to have asked for a king from an unthankful caprice and waywardness. To punish them, God gave them a king after their own heart, Saul, the son of Kish, a Benjamite; of whom the text speaks in these terms: "I gave them a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath."
I. Saul, the king whom God gave them, had much to recommend him to minds greedy of the dust of the earth. He was brave, daring, resolute; gifted, too, with strength of body as well as of mind—a circumstance which seems to have attracted their admiration. Both his virtues and his faults were such as became an Eastern monarch, and were adapted to secure the fear and submission of his subjects. Pride, haughtiness, obstinacy, reserve, jealousy, caprice,—these, in their way, were not unbecoming qualities in the king after whom their imaginations roved. On the other hand, the better parts of his character were of an excellence sufficient to engage the affection of Samuel himself.
II. Why was Saul marked for vengeance from the beginning? Is his character so essentially faulty that it must be thus distinguished for reprobation above all the anointed kings after him? This question leads us to a deeper inspection of his character. Now we know the first duty of every man is the fear of God—a reverence for His Word, a love of Him, and a desire to obey Him; and besides, it was peculiarly incumbent on the king of Israel, as God’s vicegerent, by virtue of his office, to promote His glory whom his subjects had rejected. Now Saul lacked this one thing. It would appear that he was never under the abiding influence of religion—or, in Scripture language, the fear of God—however he might be at times moved and softened. Mere natural virtue wears away, when men neglect to deepen it into religious principle. Saul appears in his youth to be unassuming and forbearing; in advanced life he is not only proud and gloomy (as he ever was in a degree), but cruel, resentful, and hardhearted, which he was not in his youth. He began by consulting Samuel as a diviner; this showed the direction of his mind. It steadily persevered in its evil way—and he ends by consulting a professed sorceress at Endor. Unbelief and wilfulness are the wretched characteristics of Saul’s history—an ear deaf to the plainest commands, a heart hardened against the most gracious influences.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iii., p. 29.
Hos 13:14
I. There are other graves worse than the graves which lie in the churchyard. The grave of which Hosea and Isaiah speak is partly the grave of Israel’s fallen state, and partly the consequence of that fallen state—their captivity at Babylon. Of every grave, physical and moral, Christ is the destruction. His own grave was a grave annihilated, simply because He was in it.
II. There are Kibroth-hattaavahs, "graves of lust." Do you wish to escape from that lust? Have you been wrestling to get out, and you cannot? It is a resurrection, it requires the supernatural agency of a resurrection. There is only one can do it, and that one is Christ. Use that Conqueror’s hand; take Christ into your heart, and realize Him there. He will break through that iron-bound gate of the moral death in which you lie, and He will say to that evil which is enthralling you, "Oh grave, I will be thy destruction."
III. There is another state—a soul which has once tasted life, life from God. But now it is gone. The spiritual life is fled, it is in the dust, it cannot lift itself up again. Who will roll away the stone? What shall we do? Believe in the resurrection. The heart that has Christ in it cannot be a sepulchre long. He will make the way through as surely as He did in the sepulchre at the garden.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 69.
Reference: Hos 13:14.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 1994.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Israel's Idolatry and its Consequences
Israel's Idolatry and its Consequences
The main thought of this c., which is a continuation of the last (cp. Hos_12:9; Hos_13:4), is the folly of Israel incurring the enmity of God, who had shown Himself such a loving friend, but might become so terrible an enemy. The sudden change of tone in Hos_13:14 is highly characteristic.
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1. When.. trembling] RV 'When Ephraim spake, there was trembling.' Ephraim was a strong and powerful tribe, which could command obedience, as especially in the days of Joshua. He died] Baal-worship was the cause of the national decay and its final doom.
2. Kiss] as an act of worship. For men that sacrifice RM has 'sacrificers of men.' Murder is combined with sacrifice: cp. Isa_1:15.
4. Yet.. Egypt] see on Hos_12:9.
5, 6. I.. thee] In the wilderness Jehovah became their friend. He knew them, and bade them know Him. But when they prospered in a land of fertility, they became proud and forgot Him.
10. 1.. king] RV 'Where now is thy king?' What use would the king and princes whom they had so clamoured for be in their trouble?
11. 1.. anger] This has often been referred to Saul, but the Hebrew tenses suggest repeated action, and the allusion may, therefore, be to the frequent changes of dynasty in the northern kingdom.
12. Hid] RV 'laid up in store.' The sin of Israel is kept stored in God's remembrance, and will surely bring about its own punishment.
13. He is an unwise son, etc.] Ephraim is like a foolish child that delays his own birth by staying in the passage from the womb. In other words, he has not the wisdom to rouse himself in this great crisis.
14. With a startling transition of thought, Hosea contemplates the power of Jehovah to save, even from death itself: cp. Isa_26:19. If it is too much to regard it as a definite prophecy of the resurrection, it is at least an example of faith in the unbounded mercies of God, and His power to trample even upon death and Hades.
O death.. destruction] RV 'O death, where are thy plagues? O grave' (RM 'Sheol'), 'where is thy destruction?' Cp. Hos_13:10, where the same negative answer to the rhetorical question is intended. See 1Co_15:55, where St. Paul, quoting freely from LXX, gives a better rendering than AV. Sheol is the place of departed spirits, Hades, as in Isa_14:9, etc.
Repentance.. eyes] i.e. I will not relent in my purpose.
15. Suddenly again the hope vanishes. Ephraim in his prosperity is compared to a fertile country suddenly dried up by the east wind from the desert, and the failure of water.
Wind.. Lord] RV 'breath of the Lord,' the wind being poetically conceived of as God's breath, just as the thunder was His voice: cp. Gen_1:2. He shall spoil] i.e. the east wind, or rather the enemy whom it typifies.
16. Shall become desolate] RV 'shall bear her guilt,' i.e. be punished for her sin. Their.. up] Ephraim would have to bear the cruelties inflicted by a merciless foe in a barbarous age.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTER 13 Ephraim’s Ruin and judgment
CHAPTER 13 Ephraim’s Ruin and judgment
1. Ruin and judgment (Hos 13:1-8)
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2. It is thy destruction, O Israel! (Hos 13:9-11)
3. Mercy to follow wrath (Hos 13:12-14)
4. The desolation of the nearing judgment (Hos 13:15-16)
Hos 13:1-8. In the beginning Ephraim was humble, and knowing his dependence, he spoke with trembling. Then he became puffed up, exalted himself in Israel, loving the preeminence, it led on to the schism from Judah and the house of David. The next step after this separation from Judah was idolatry, then the dying of the nation began. This sad history of Ephraim, revealing the steps of decline, beginning with self-exaltation and ending in ruin and death, has often been repeated in the individual history of countless multitudes among the professing people of God.
Then they went from sinning to sinning, from bad to worse, just as in our own days, the apostates in Christendom go from bad to worse in fulfillment of 2Ti 3:13. “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” Idolatry flourished on all sides. They added idol images in Gilgal and Beer-sheba to the golden calves Amo 8:14. Then the judgment is announced. Just as the rising sun quickly disperses the morning clouds and the dew, so they should pass away (Hos 6:4). They would be like the chaff driven with a whirlwind out of the threshing floor Psa 1:4; Psa 35:5; Isa 17:13; Isa 41:15-29); they would be like the quickly evaporating smoke, which comes out of the windows of a house without a chimney.
Then the Lord reminds them of their former relationship and that He is the true God, “and there is no Saviour beside Me.” In the land of the wilderness He knew them and there He cared for them and provided all their needs. But instead of acknowledging Him, they became full; self-exaltation followed, and then they forgot Him. Throughout the Word of God self-exaltation, pride is always given as the starting point of departure from God and the consequent ruin.
Hos 13:7-8 are interesting. They are to be rent by wild beasts, which, symbolically, represent the Gentiles. The ten tribes were carried away by the Assyrian, while later, when Judah met its judgment, the whole land was devastated by the lion-empire (Babylonia); by the bear (Medo-Persia); by the leopard (the Graeco-Macedonia); and finally by the dreadful beast, “the beast of the field shall tear them,” the Roman power.
Hos 13:9-11. “It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against Me, against thy help.” What they had done in lifting themselves up, in forsaking Jehovah was spiritual and national suicide. They were alone responsible for their destruction. Where was their king to save them out of such ruin and destruction? The house of David with which the covenant had been made they had forsaken. He reminds them again of an episode in their past history, when they, their fathers, were rebellious and asked for a king. Such kings like Saul had been their kings which reigned over the ten tribes.
Hos 13:12-14. Ephraim deliberately held on to his sin. Their iniquity was bound up; it was laid by in store. The reference is to the oriental custom of tying up money and other valuables into a bundle and hiding it somewhere. It was done for security. So the Lord would see to it that their sins and iniquity would not be forgotten; all their sins were preserved for punishment (see Deu 32:34). Sorrow and great trouble should come upon them. It has been thus in the past, it will be so in the future, in the time of “Jacob’s trouble” Jer 30:7. When that time comes, when all their hope and strength is gone Deu 32:36-52) then He will deliver. Then all the enemies will be put down. Redemption from death and the plagues will come; they will be ransomed from the power of Sheol (not hell). Israel will be raised from its national death-sleep. Long she has been buried among the nations, without spiritual and national life, like those who are in the power of Sheol. But Jehovah will deliver the faithful portion of Israel and Judah, and they will rise from the dust of the earth, the symbol of their national restoration. To use this passage, as it has been done, to teach the restitution of the wicked, is wrong. It has nothing to do with the wicked dead and their future, but all applies to the restoration of Israel. (See the annotations of chapters 16 and 37 of the Prophet Ezekiel.)
Hos 13:15-16. These verses describe the horrors of the coming judgment by the Assyrians 2Ki 8:12; 2Ki 15:16, and Amo 1:13).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain God’s Benefits Scorned by Israel
God’s Benefits Scorned by Israel
v. 1. When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel, rather, "When Ephraim," as the mightiest of the northern tribes, "spoke, there was trembling"; for the other tribes were so much weaker that they could not hold out against the leading tribe; he exalted himself in Israel, assuming the leadership and enforcing his will; but when he offended in Baal, when he transgressed through his idolatry in serving Baal, he died, his destruction was determined upon.
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v. 2. And now, after idolatry had thus been introduced, they sin more and more, multiplying their transgressions, and have made them molten images of their silver and idols according to their own understanding, making use of their ideas of art in constructing these statues, all of it the work of the craftsmen; they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves, literally, "to them they are speaking, men who sacrifice: they kiss the calves"; that is, the foolish idolaters speak with the very work of their hands and pray to them; they even kiss these pictures of calves, as though they were on a level with human, beings. The reproof is purposely couched in words of cutting irony.
v. 3. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, the vapor which arises at dawn, and as the early dew that passeth away, Cf Hos 6:4, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, being carried away from the threshing-floor by every passing breeze, and as the smoke out of the chimney, rather, like smoke from a window; for chimneys were not in general use in the Orient.
v. 4. Yet, over against the faithlessness of an apostate people, I am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt, since the days when He delivered His people from the house of bondage, and thou shalt know no god but Me, there being no deliverer like the true God; for there is no savior beside Me.
v. 5. I did know thee, with true love and compassion, in the wilderness, even during the desert journey, in the land of great drought, where the land and its inhabitants languished with thirst.
v. 6. According to their pasture, so were they filled, their enjoyment of the goodness of God causing them to become proud in their own conceit; they were filled, and their heart was exalted, at the very time when they should have bowed down before the Lord with the greatest feeling of humility; therefore have they forgotten Me. Cf Deu 6:11-12.
v. 7. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion; as a leopard by the way will I observe them, lurking by the path ready to pounce upon his victims;
v. 8. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, which is known for her fierceness, and will rend the caul of their heart, the pericardium or membrane enclosing the heart, and there will I devour them. like a lion; the wild beast shall tear them. The punishment of the apostate people is represented as a rending and devouring of a herd, which has grown fat with a rich pasture, by wild beasts. In the midst of His most serious rebukes the Lord still inserts a pleading cry admonishing men to turn to their only Savior with a repentant heart.
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 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh is speaking.
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When Ephraim spoke
Hosea uses the term "Ephraim" to refer to the entire northern kingdom, although it was also the name of one of the ten tribes. Hosea seems to be speaking of a long-past time, when the northern kingdom was strong and honored, unlike at the present time. (See: Synecdoche)
there was trembling
It is understood that people were trembling because they were afraid of Ephraim. This can be stated clearly. AT: "there was trembling among the people" or "people trembled in fear"
He exalted himself in Israel
Here "exalting" means to make oneself important. (See: Metaphor)
but he became guilty because of Baal worship, and he died
When the people of Ephraim began worshiping Baal, they grew weak, and their enemies defeated them. Here "died" refers to the nation growing weak. (See: Metaphor)
Now they sin more and more
Here "they" refers to the tribe of Ephraim and the entire nation of Israel, who followed Ephraim's example.
These men who sacrifice kiss calves
Part of idol worship was kissing idol figures that were images of calves. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
Ephraim
exalt
Israel
guilt
Baal
worship
die
sin
image
false god
sacrifice
kiss
cow
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 13:1 At the height of its power, the tribe…
13:1 At the height of its power, the tribe of Ephraim evoked terror among other Israelites (see Isa 7:2). • and thus sealed their destruction (literally and he [Ephraim] died): Because of their idolatry, they had cut themselves off from the Lord, the only true source of life.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.