I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest,’ and the animals of the field shall eat them.
Parallel Translations
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I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest,’ and the animals of the field shall eat them.
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And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
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(2-14) And I will lay waste her vines and her fig-trees, whereof she hath said: 'These are my hire that my lovers have given me'; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Hosea 2:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 5:5 Now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
- Isaiah 7:23 It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.
- Hosea 2:5 For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
- Hosea 13:8 I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.
- Psalms 80:12 Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?
- Isaiah 29:17 Isn’t it yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be regarded as a forest?
- Isaiah 32:13-15 Thorns and briers will come up on my people’s land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city. For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks, until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.
- Jeremiah 8:13 “ ‘I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh. No grapes will be on the vine, no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf will fade. The things that I have given them will pass away from them.’ ”
- Jeremiah 26:18 “Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “ ‘Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.’
- Hosea 9:1 Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.
- Micah 3:12 Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain I now come to the second kind of nakedness:…
I now come to the second kind of nakedness: the Prophet says, I will waste or destroy her vine and her fig-tree, of which she has said, Reward are these to me; that is, These things are wages to me, which my lovers have given to me: and I will make them a forest, and feed on them shall the beast of the field. The second part of the spoiling, as we have said, is, that the Israelites would be reduced to miserable want, who, before, had not only great abundance of good things, but also luxury, as we shall hereafter see more fully in other passages. As then they were swollen with pride on account of their prosperity, the Prophet now announces their future nakedness, I will take away, he says, the vine and the fig-tree. It is a mode of speaking by which a part is to be taken for the whole; for under the vine and the fig-tree the Prophet intended to comprehend every variety of temporal blessings. Whatever then belongs to man’s support, the Prophet here includes in these two words: and he repeats what he had said before, that the Israelites falsely thought, that it was a reward paid them for their superstitions, while they worshipped false gods.
She said, These are my reward. The word is derived from the verb תנה tene: some have rendered it gift, but not rightly. I indeed allow that נתנו“natnu”, which means to give, follows shortly after; from which some derive this word. But we know that in many parts of Scripture אתנה, atne, is strictly taken for reward; and is sometimes applied to hired soldiers: but the Prophets often use this word when they speak of harlots. Hence the Prophet here introduces the people of Israel under the character of a harlot; These are my reward, or, These things are my reward, which to me have my lovers given.
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Since then the Israelites had so hardened themselves in their superstitions, that this false persuasion could not be driven out of them, until they were deprived of all their blessings, he announces to them this punishment, — that God would take away whatever they thought had come to them from their idols or false gods: I will turn, he says, all these into a forest, that is, “I will reduce to a waste, both the vineyards and all the well cultivated parts; so that they will produce nothing, as is usually the case with desert places.” We now understand the whole meaning of the Prophet. Let us 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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 2:12 And I will destroy her vines and…
Hos 2:12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These [are] my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
Ver. 12. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees] Not her wine and her figs only, i.e. her delicious drinks and deserts (even all her plenty), sed vineta ipsa et ficeta, as Rivet observeth: which shows a great deal of anger (for fruit trees were not to be destroyed in an enemies’ country), like as he discovered a great deal of fear of the Spanish Inquisitors, that brought one of them his pears (which he had sent for), tree, and all by the roots. It is wisdom to meet God by repentance, lest he stub up root and branch together, lest he "overturn, overturn, overturn, so as it shall be no more," Eze 21:27; lest he cry, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" since it is not for fruit, let it be for the fire, Luk 13:7.
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Whereof she hath said, These are my rewards] The wages of my wickedness, the hire of my harlotry, Deu 23:18 Eze 16:34, pretium meritorium. Adultery is costly. Whores must have their rewards, they lie in wait for a prey, Pro 23:21, and will soon bring a rich man to beggary, Pro 6:26. Solomon himself was so exhausted by such she sinners (so they call them, Cruces et crumenimulgas, suck purses the poet calleth them) that he was forced to oppress his subjects to supply his coffers: which occasioned the loss of ten tribes. Harlots know no other language but that of the horse leech, Give, give; and may fitly be compared to the ravens of Arabia, that fully gorged, have a tunable sweet voice; but empty, they screech horribly.
“ Corpus, opes, animum, famam, vim, lumina, scortum,
Debilitat, perdit, necat, aufert, eripit, orbat. ”
Idolatry also is no less costly: witness this harlot’s habit, Hos 2:13, and the purple whore of Rome, with all her trinkets, and those masses of money that she drains out of many parts of Christendom for the support of her state. Otto (one of her mice catchers, muscipulata res, as the story calleth him), sent hither into England by Gregory IX, after three years’ raking together of money for pardons, and other palterments, at last departing, he left not so much money in the whole kingdom, as he either carried with him or sent to Rome before him. What will not men part with to purchase heaven? Now they persuaded the poor people (and still they do) that good works (and what so good as to gratify the pope with great sums?) were mercatura regni coelestis, the price to be given for heaven (Bellarm.). Idolaters are all merit mongers: they will have heaven as a purchase; they lay claim to it, as wages for their work. They say, with that wretched monk, Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes, Give me eternal life which thou owest me, "Give me the portion that belongeth to me," Luk 15:12. God forbid, saith another Papist, that we should enjoy heaven as of mere alms to us. On the other side, the godly disclaim their own merits, beg hard for mercy, expect a recompense of reward from him, but all of free grace; accounting all that they can do for God but a little of that much that is due to him, and that they could well beteem him: they do all righteousness, but rest in none: they know that God’s kingdom is partum et non paratum; that their reward is the reward of inheritance, and not of acquisition; and that if they could do anything this way, yet would it be mercy in God to "reward every one according to his work," Psa 62:12.
And I will make them a forest] See this more fully set forth Isa 5:5-6. Such is the hatred God beareth to sin that he makes bloody weals, as it were, upon the backs of the insensible creatures for man’s sake. "A fruitful land turneth he into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein," Psa 107:34. Thus he dealt by Sodom, which was once as Egypt, yea, as Eden, but is now a place of nettles and salt pits; by Judea, that once lumen totius orbis, the light of the whole world, now laid desolate; as Babylon, where Strabo saith their barley yielded three hundred fold increase, and their palm tree three hundred and sixty several sorts of commodities, as bread, honey, wine, vinegar, &c.; but what devastation befell it by the Medes, see Isa 13:19, &c. It were easy to instance in the seven Churches of Asia, the Palatinate and other parts of Germany, in Ireland, and now Scotland: and what may England look for? Shall we altogether pass unpunished? Shall we still sit safely under our vines and fig trees, and not be forested, and by those wild beasts of the field devoured? Sure it is, that no beast of the field doth show itself more raging or ravenous than do the wicked, when God suffers, or rather sends, them to break into his vineyard. Witness those breathing devils, the Irish rebels, more cruel than any cannibals. Cursed be their wrath; for it was cruel, transcendently so, extending itself both to the living and the dead. Ursi non saeviunt in cadavera: but these bears, Psa 58:4, boars, Psa 80:13, lions, leopards, did rage against dead carcases, and tore them with their teeth. Histories tell us that the first founders of Rome were nourished by a wolf: certain it is that the offspring of that people have the hearts of wolves, being savage and cruel above measure. Their city was first founded in blood, and so was the papacy: for the foundation of that see was laid when Phocas slew his liege lord and emperor, Mauritius, whom he stewed in his own blood. Whence the poet wittily;
“ Suffocas, Phoca, imperium; stabilisque Papatum. ”
The habit of that harlot is, according to her heart, purple and scarlet; and her diet is the diet of the cannibals. "I saw her drunken with the blood of the saints," Rev 17:6. They are wholly bloody, both in their positions and dispositions, their plots and practices. The pope is said to be a leopard, or panther, with his feet like a bear, and his head like a lion, Rev 13:2. {See Trapp on "Rev 13:2"} And of their St Dominic (the father of the Dominicans) it is reported, that when his mother was with child of him she dreamed that she brought forth a wolf, with a firebrand in his mouth: and he proved, accordingly, a brutish man, skilful to destroy, to devour the man more righteous than himself, by his bloody inquisitors, Eze 21:31 Hab 1:2-3. I pray that God would deliver his turtle from these savage creatures; that he would cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, Eze 34:25, that the beasts of the land may no more devour them, Eze 34:28.
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 God will do it either by blasting, or by…
God will do it either by blasting, or by the Assyrians, who, as other invaders, shall spoil all.
Destroy; make very desolate, or lay waste.
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Her vines and her fig trees: these two were mentioned, but all other fruit trees are meant.
Whereof she hath said, These are my rewards: this was in peculiar manner the sin for which Israel was punished thus, they gave the praise of the fruitfulness of these trees, and the abundance of them, to idols, robbed God of the praise due for them, therefore God will take them away.
That my lovers have given me: their false gods are here made the givers of all outward blessings to Israel: see Hos 2:5.
I will make them; their vineyards and oliveyards, and places where they planted and fenced in their fig trees, and other fruitful trees.
A forest; wild and uncultivated, the hedges and fences shall be thrown up, and all run into the wildness of a forest, as it came to pass in the Assyrian invasion.
The beasts of the field; savage men, such as the Assyrians were; or rather in the letter, the beasts of the field should break down their branches, and devour them, and pull off the fruit, as foxes pull the grapes, or wild boars of the wood root up and eat the tender and sappy branches and springles.
Shall eat them; the trees and their fruits.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Therefore, behold, I will allure her,.... Since these rough…
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,.... Since these rough ways will not do, I will take another, a more mild and gentle way; instead of threatening, terrifying, and punishing, I will allure, persuade, and entice, giving loving words and winning language: or "nevertheless", or "notwithstanding" (m): so Noldius and others render the particle; though they have thus behaved themselves, and such methods have been taken with them to no purpose, yet I will do as follows: the words may be understood of the call and conversion of the people of God, the spiritual Israel of God, both Jews and Gentiles, in the first times of the Gospel, as Hos 2:23 is quoted and applied by the Apostle Paul, Rom 9:24 and be understood also of the call of the believing Jews out of Jerusalem, before the destruction of it, Luk 21:21, from whence they removed to Pella, as Eusebius (n) relates: and of the apostles out of the land of Judea into the wilderness of the people, the Gentile world, to preach the Gospel there; where vineyards or churches were planted; the door of faith and hope, were opened to the Gentiles, that had been without hope; and the conversions now made, both among Jews and Gentiles, opened a door of hope, or were a pledge of the conversion of the Jew, and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles in the latter day; to which times also these words may be applied, when the Jews shall be allured and persuaded to seek the Lord their God, and David their King, and join Gospel churches in the wilderness of the people, and shall have abundance of spiritual consolation and joy; and they may also be applied to the conversion of sinners in common, and set forth the methods of God's grace in dealing with them: there is throughout an allusion to Israel's coming out of Egypt, from whence the Lord allured and persuaded them by Moses and Aaron; and then brought them into the wilderness, where he fed and supplied them, and spoke comfort to them, and gave them the lively oracles; and whence, from the borders of it, they had and entered into the vineyards in the land of Canaan; and in the valley of Achor ate of the grain of the land, which was a door of hope to them they should enjoy the whole land; and when they rejoiced exceedingly, particularly at the Red sea, at their first coming out. The word rendered "allure" signifies to persuade (o), as in Gen 9:27 and in conversion the Lord persuades men, not merely by moral persuasion, or the outward ministry of the word, but by powerful and efficacious grace; opening the heart to attend to things spoken, and the eyes of the understanding to behold wondrous things in the word of God; working upon the heart, and removing the hardness and impenitence of it; quickening the soul, drawing it with the cords of love, and sweetly operating upon the will: and on a sudden and unawares making the soul like the chariots of Amminadib, or a willing people; persuading it to true repentance for sin, to part with sins and sinful companions, and with its own righteousness, and to come to Christ, and to look to him, and lay hold on him as the Saviour, and to submit to his ordinances: moreover, the Lord persuades men at conversion of his love to them, and of their interest in Christ, and all the blessings of grace in him. Kimchi's note is,
"I will put into her heart to return by repentance;''
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and compares with it Eze 36:26. The Targum is,
"I will subject her to the law.''
And bring her into the wilderness: so in conversion the Lord calls and separates his people from the world, as the Israelites were from the Egyptians, when brought into the wilderness; and when they are solitary and alone, as they were, and so in a fit circumstance to be spoken unto, and to hear comfortable words, as follows; and when the Lord feeds them with the grain of heaven, with hidden manna, the food of the wilderness; and when they come into trouble and affliction for the sake of Christ and his Gospel. Some understand this of the church into which they are brought, because separate from the world, and attended with trouble; but this is rather a garden than a wilderness. Some, as Noldius and others, render it, "when" or "after I have brought her into the wilderness" (p); so after the Lord has shown men their sin and danger, their wilderness, desolate, state and condition, and stripped them of all help elsewhere; or has brought them under afflictive dispensations of Providence; then he does what he said before, and follows after.
And speak comfortably unto her; or, "speak to her heart" (q), as in Isa 40:2 as he does when he tells them their sins are forgiven; that he has loved them with an everlasting love; what exceeding great and precious promises he has made unto them; and when he speaks to them by the Spirit and Comforter, who takes his and the things of Christ, and shows them unto them; and in his word, written for their consolation; and by his ministers, who are "Barnabases", sons of comfort; and in the ordinances, those breasts of consolation. The Targum is,
"and I will do for her wonders and great things, as I did for her in the wilderness; and by the hand of my servants the prophets I will speak comforts to her heart.''
The Jewish writers (r) interpret this of the Messiah's leading people into a wilderness in a literal sense; they ask where will he (the Messiah) lead them? the answer of some is, to the wilderness of Judea, Mat 3:1; and of others is, to the wilderness of Sihon and Og (the wilderness the Israelites passed through when they came out of Egypt): they, who are on the side of the first answer, urge in favour of it Hos 12:9 and they who are for the latter produce this passage.
(m) "atqui, vel attamen", Glassius. (n) Hist. Eccles. l. 3. c. 5. (o) "persuadendo inducam eam", Munster; "persuadebo illi", Calvin; "persuadens, vel persuadebo illi", Schmidt. (p) "postquam duxero eam in desertum", Calvin, Drusius, "quum deduxero", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. (q) "ad cor ejus", Pagniaus, Cocceius; "super cor ejus", Munster, Montanus, Schmidt. (r) Shirhashhirim Rabba, fol. 11. 2. Midrash Ruth, fol. 33. 2.
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 My rewards - They gave the praise of all…
My rewards - They gave the praise of all their abundance to idols. Them - Their vine-yards and olive-yards, and the places where they planted their fig-trees, and other fruit-trees.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. These are my rewards] They attributed all…
Verse 12. These are my rewards] They attributed all the blessings of Providence as rewards received from the idols which they worshipped.
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 2:12-13. And I will destroy her vines —…
Hos 2:12-13. And I will destroy her vines — Those blessings, or fruits of the earth, which she has attributed to her false gods, I will give to the beasts of the field to eat, making the whole land only a wilderness for beasts. Among other objects of their false worship, the Israelites worshipped the celestial luminaries, and, it is likely, attributed the fruits of the earth to them, as self-sufficient, or producing them by their own power, and not as mere instruments in the hands of Jehovah. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim — I will punish her for all the idolatries she has committed from the days of Jeroboam, who first set up the worship of false gods: see chap. Hos 13:1. The chief god of every country was called by the name of Baal, which means lord: so Baal-peor was the god of the Moabites, Baal-zebub was the god of Ekron, (2Ki 1:2,) Baal-berith the god of the Phenicians, Jdg 8:33. These several deities are in the plural number called Baalim, lords; for they had lords many, 1Co 8:5. And she decked herself with her ear-rings — She put on the richest ornaments on their idolatrous festivals.
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 And I will destroy her vines and her fig…
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees - Before, God had threatened to take away the fruits in their seasons; now He says, that he will take away all hope for the future; not the fruit only, but the trees which bare it. “The vine is a symbol of joy, the fig of sweetness” (see Jdg 9:11, Jdg 9:13). It was the plague, which God in former times laid upon those, out of the midst of whom He took them to be His people (Psa 105:33; see Jer 5:17). “He smote their vines also and their fig trees, and brake the trees of their coasts.” Now that they had become like the pagan, He dealt with them as with the pagan.
Of which she said, these are my rewards - Literally “my hire.” It is the special word, used of the payment to the adulteress, or degraded woman, and so continues the likeness, by which he had set forth the foulness of her desertion of God.
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And I will make them a forest - The vines and fig-trees which had aforetime been their wealth, and full of beauty, should, when neglected, run wild, and become the harbor of the wild beasts Which should prey upon them. So to the wicked God causes, “that the things which should have been for their wealth should be an occasion of falling” Psa 69:22. They contain in themselves the sources of their own decay.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain my rewards--my hire as a harlot (Isa 23:17-18).
my rewards--my hire as a harlot (Isa 23:17-18).
lovers--idols.
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destroy . . . vines . . . make . . . forest-- (Isa 5:6; Isa 7:23-24). Fulfilled in the overthrow of Israel by Assyria (Hos 9:4-5).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. her vines and her fig trees] The Hebrew…
12. her vines and her fig trees] The Hebrew has ‘her vine and her fig-tree’. It would seem as if here, as in Joe_1:7, Israel personified were represented with a vine and a fig-tree, like any individual Israelite (1Ki_4:25). But A. V. gives the right sense.
my rewards] The ‘hire’ or ‘reward’ of a prostitute is meant (comp. Hos_9:1, and see on Hos_2:5).
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a forest] A frequent feature in descriptions of desolation (comp. Isa_5:6; Isa_7:23; Isa_32:13; Mic_3:12). ‘A forest’ however is misleading; the word (ya‘ar) often means low, tangled brushwood (e.g. Son_2:3; Isa_21:13; 1Sa_14:25-26). The idea in the prophet’s mind is inaccessibility, not stateliness (like that of forest-trees).
the beasts of the field] ‘Field’ = open country. The enemies of Israel are compared to wild beasts in Isa_56:9; Eze_34:25.
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 (12) Destroy.—For this read, with margin, make desolate. The…
(12) Destroy.—For this read, with margin, make desolate. The vine and fig tree are employed as the symbol of possession and peace (1Ki_4:25; Isa_36:16, &c.). The desolation may be by fire or drought.
Make them a forest.—The LXX. render make them a testimony, reading in the Hebrew text l’‘ed instead of l’ya‘ar. The latter certainly yields a more vivid sense. The rest of the verse in the LXX. is amplified: “And the wild beasts of the field, and the birds of the heaven, and the creeping things of the earth shall devour them.” While no candid critic will deny the possibility that such words may have originally stood in the text, it is à priori more probable that it is a gloss from Hos_2:18 (Hos_2:20 in LXX.). Even so late as in Hadrian’s days wild beasts rushed in upon the blood-stained ruins of Jerusalem.
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 And I will destroy (make desolate) her vines and…
And I will destroy (make desolate) her vines and her fig trees, whereof she said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me. God had already threatened to deprive Israel of the means of support the corn, wine, wool, and flax; he now threatens the removal of the very sources whence that support was derived. The vine and fig tree are usually conjoined, and by a common synecdoche convey the idea of all those sources that combine to support life and supply its luxuries. When the united kingdom of Judah and Israel, before the disruption, had obtained the zenith of prosperity in the reign of Solomon, it is thus expressed: Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon." Yet Israel knew not the time of her merciful visitation, and not only turned aside to idols, but most stupidly and most inexcusably attributed the many mercies she enjoyed to the idols which she worshipped. Like a foul adulteress despising the tokens of her husband"s affection and delighting in the rewards of lewdness received from licentious paramours, Israel forfeited all her privileges, and forced the Lord to withdraw his bounties and destroy their very source. pg, rad. pg, equivalent to at, to be bent, from the arch made by its drooping boughs, hnaet, rad. at, equivalent to nt, to extend from its length. And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. The places where fig trees flourished and vines abounded shall be stripped of those trees, with their pleasant fruits shall become a forest. The vineyards being no longer hedged or fenced, no longer cultivated or cared for, the beasts of the field shall, in consequence, find free ingress and roam there at large, devouring and devastating at pleasure. The Septuagint translates the first part of the above sentence by kai yhsomai auta eiv marturion , "and I will make them a testimony," thus reading, according to Jerome, de, instead of ry; while Cyril comments on the words so read as follows: "For these things being taken away shall testify as it were against Israel"s depravity, and render their punishment more signal, and make the wrath conspicuous." The context, however, militates against the reading in question, for in time of war or general devastation places, through neglect, grow trees and brushwood, where wild beasts lair and lay waste. The explanation of the verse is well given by Kimchi in his commentary: "Because she said, "These are the hire of my harlotry;" because she said that from the hand of her lovers came the corn and must and oil and all good things; I will make them a desolation, that she may know whether she had those good things from me or from them hnta, because he has compared her to a harlot, he calls those good things hnta, equivalent to hnyw nja; while their signification is identical with yanj, and their root, hnt extend, reach, give, the aleph being prosthetic. But Jonathan renders hnta by rqy, precious things. And he mentions the vine and the fig tree because grapes and figs are the best part of the food of man after the produce of the earth (i.e. corn); and already he had said, "I will also take away my corn in its season.
Vers. 12, 13. The prosperity of the wicked.
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"And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her ear-rings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord." These verses lead us to look upon wicked man in three aspects.
I As PROSPERING IN THE WORLD. "I will destroy her i.e. idolatrous Israel vines and. her fig trees." Vines and fig trees stand for prosperity. There is a synecdoche here: vines and fig trees mean all outward prosperity. Wicked men are allowed to prosper on this earth; they are often more successful in worldly enterprises than the righteous. They live for the world and to the world, and they have their reward. Their ground becomes fruitful, their trade prosperous, their profession remunerative.
II AS ASCRIBING THEIR PROSPERITY TO WRONG CAUSES. "These are my rewards that my lovers have given me." Israel ascribed its prosperity to its idols, here called its "lovers." The wicked ascribe their success sometimes to fortune, sometimes to chance, sometimes to their own industry, and sometimes to their rogueries. They don"t trace it to the true Source, the great God.
III AS DEVOTING THEIR PROSPERITY TO WRONG OBJECTS. "And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them," etc. "Baalim" is the plural number, by which some suppose inferior gods are meant. Israel is here accused of burning incense to these deii minores. Wicked men devote their wealth, not to the improvement of their minds or to the true progress of mankind, but to their own selfish and superstitious ends. God is recognized in the use no more than in the pursuit of their wealth. "She went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.
IV AS DEPRIVED OF THEIR PROSPERITY BY THE GREAT GOD. "I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim." The threatening is, that God will not only destroy all their prosperity, "the vines and fig trees," but punish them for their idolatry. "I will visit upon her the days of Baalim.
CONCLUSION. "The tinsel glare upon a sinner is too apt to offend the weak eyes of a saint. Alas! why should he envy him a little light who is to be shrouded in everlasting darkness? Why should we throw bludgeons at boughs which are only laden with poisonous fruits? D.T.
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 She decked herself with her ornaments and her Jewels.
Hos_2:12-13
She decked herself with her ornaments and her Jewels.
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The prosperity of the wicked
The wicked--
I. As prospering in the world. Vines and fig-trees stand for prosperity. Wicked men are allowed to prosper on this earth: they are often more successful in worldly enterprises than the righteous. They live for the world and to the world, and they have their reward.
II. As ascribing their prosperity to wrong causes. Israel ascribes to its idols or lovers. The wicked ascribe to fortune, chance, their own industry, their own scheming. The true source is God.
III. Devoting their prosperity to wrong objects. Israel is here accused of burning incense to Baalim, these Deii minores. Wicked men devote their wealth to their own selfish and superstitious ends.
IV. As deprived of their prosperity by the great God. The threatening here is, that God will not only destroy all their prosperity, but punish them for their idolatry. The tinsel glare upon a sinner is too apt to offend the weak eyes of a saint. (Homilist.)
And forgat Me, saith the Lord.
Forgetting God
Such is the character of all engrossing passion, such is the course of sin, to which the soul gives way, in avarice, ambition, worldliness, sensual sin, godless science. The soul, at last, does not rebel against God, it forgets Him; it is taken up with other things, with itself, with the subjects of its thoughts, the objects of its affections, and it has no time for God. So God complains of Judah by Jeremiah, Their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Hos_2:12. Vines and fig-trees] Esteemed rewards, wages of prostitution…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hos_2:12. Vines and fig-trees] Esteemed rewards, wages of prostitution (Deu_23:19; Isa_23:17); the choicest produce of earth, denoting sustenance and prosperity, would be destroyed by Assyria (ch. Hos_9:4-5).
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PROSPERITY TURNED INTO ADVERSITY.—Hos_2:12-13
Festive rejoicing was to end. Israel loved new moons and sabbath days not for the sake of religious worship, but for sinful pleasures and delight. The vine and fig-tree, the choicest productions of the land, and the source of great wealth and sustenance, were to be taken away. Orchards, gardens, and vineyards were to be neglected, deprived of defences, and exposed to wild beasts.
I. Prosperity in rich abundance. God is the Giver. There is no moment in all history, in all departments of life, in which he is not giving with a liberal and powerful hand. He is the author of abundance everywhere—abundant light, abundant rain, and abundant joys. Israel had a land flowing with milk and honey. The necessities and luxuries of life are given to men in abundance. Giving doth not impoverish him, nor withholding make him rich. But even to those who abuse his gifts, to the wicked and unthankful, God bestows prosperity. The ungodly prosper on earth. They are successful in business. Their bread seems to be gained without care, and their wines without stint. They are often in great power, ruling with the might of Cæsar and the wealth of Crœsus. “Spreading themselves like a green bay tree,” they are rooted in the world, add house to house, and field to field, rise higher and higher in splendour and pride. “They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.” They escape many anxious cares and killing toil. God’s people smart under the rod while the wicked escape. But to the eye of faith and in the sanctuary of God these perplexities are unriddled. “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious at the prosperity of the wicked.”
II. Prosperity greatly abused.
1. Ascribed to wrong sources. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven; but he looks to sinful and secondary causes, and boasts as if he had received nothing. Israel thought all their prosperity was bestowed by their idols. “These are my rewards that my lovers have given me.” Men look to their neighbours, or thank their stars, for their good fortune. They attribute success in business to their diligence and talent; believe themselves to be the architects of their own fortunes; and cry in the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built,” &c.
2. Leading to sinful practices. “Wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels.” Like harlots, the Israelites adorned themselves to attract admirers; and like heathens, they burned incense to idol gods. One sin leads to another. Prosperity begets pride, and pride begets ingratitude. Then when God is deserted, his power, goodness, and love are attributed to another; sacrifices are offered and incense burned to unworthy deities. Ancient and modern idolatry have filled the world with corrupt practices and tendencies. Impurity, unchastity of every description, is most deteriorating. In dishonouring God, men have “dishonoured their own bodies” (Rom_1:24). Moral corruption is followed by physical debasement. The grossness of Pagan idolatry is only equalled by the degrading immoralities which it fostered and consecrated. Gluttony, drunkenness, and every “sin without the body,” only injures, does not alienate the body from God: “but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body,” commits sacrilege, and makes it like a harlot’s body (1Co_6:18-19).
III. Prosperity visited by Divine judgment. “I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees.” What God gives he can easily take away—turn our joy into mourning—our prosperity into adversity.
1. Temporal judgment. Before, God had threatened only to take away the fruits in their season; now he will take away not only fruit, but the trees that bare it. Present enjoyments and future prospects can be cut off; beauty, wealth, and honour wither like a flower; famine and sword can turn our vineyards into a desert. “He smote their vines also and their fig-trees; and brake the trees of their coast.”
2. Spiritual judgment. “I will visit upon her the days of Baalim.” Take one step to idolatry, we may be given up to more. God may seem to wink for a time, but a continual course of impenitence will be visited with severe punishment. Change Jehovah for Baal, you change prosperity for adversity, honour for shame, real enjoyment for sensual pleasure. God’s presence is seen and God’s voice is heard in all the vicissitudes of men. Woe to men when their table becomes a snare, “and that which should have been for their welfare a trap,” a retribution for their departure from God, and their inhumanity to themselves (Psa_69:22).
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.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh is speaking to Hosea about what he will do to Israel.
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These are the wages that my lovers gave me
This refers to payment that Israel received from the false gods or Baals. This direct quotation can be stated as an indirect quotation. AT: "that these were the wages that her lovers had given to her" (See: Metaphor and Direct and Indirect Quotations)
make them a forest
Yahweh will destroy the vineyards and fruit trees by allowing other trees and weeds to grow among them. (See: Metaphor)
this is Yahweh's declaration
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. AT: "this is what Yahweh has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
translationWords
vine
fig
lover
Baal
feast
incense
declare
Yahweh
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.