Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn’t realize it. Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn’t realize it.
Parallel Translations
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Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn’t realize it. Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn’t realize it.
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Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
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Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it not.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Hosea 7:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.
- Isaiah 42:22-25 But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become captives, and no one delivers, and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’ Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will listen and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they disobeyed his law. Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him, and the strength of battle. It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know. It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”
- 2 Kings 13:3-7 Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually. Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them. (Yahweh gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before. Nevertheless they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked in them; and the Asherah also remained in Samaria.) For he didn’t leave to Jehoahaz of the people any more than fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the king of Syria destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing.
- 2 Kings 13:22 Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.
- Proverbs 23:35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another.”
- Isaiah 1:7 Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
- 2 Kings 15:19 Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul one thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.
- Isaiah 57:1 The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet follows the same subject, that is, that…
The Prophet follows the same subject, that is, that Israel had not repented, though the Lord had in various ways invited them to repentance; yea, and constrained them by his scourges. It is indeed a proof of desperate and incurable wickedness, when God prevails nothing with us either by his word or by his stripes. When we are deaf to his teaching and admonitions, it is quite evident that we are wholly perverse: but when the Lord also raises up his hand and inflicts punishment, if then we bend not, what can be said, but that our sins have taken such deep roots, that they cannot be torn away from us? Hence God in these words shows that the Israelites were now past all remedy; for after having been so often and in so many ways warned, they did not return to the right way; nay, they did not think of their sins, but remained insensible. And Paul says of such that they are απηλγηκοτας, (“past feeling,” Ephesians 4:19,) that is void of feeling. When men are touched by no grief in their distresses, it is certain that they are smitten by the spirit of giddiness. Notwithstanding, the Israelites no doubt felt their evils; but the Prophet means, that they were so stupefied, that they did not consider the cause and source of them. And what can it avail, when one knows himself to be ill, and yet looks not to God, nor thinks that he is justly visited? Hence when any one cries only on account of the strokes, and regards not the hand of the striker, as another Prophet says, (Isaiah 9:13,) there is certainly in him complete stupidity. We hence see what the Prophet had in view when he said, that Israel did not understand while he was devoured by strangers, while hoariness was spreading over him; for he attended not to the cause of evils, but remained stupid; nor did he raise up his mind to God, so as to impute to his sins all the evils which he suffered.
He says, that his strength was eaten by strangers God had promised that the people would be under his protection; and when they were exposed to the plunder of strangers, why did they not perceive that they were deprived of God’s protection? And this could not have happened, except their own sin had deprived them of this privilege. Hence the Israelites must have been extremely blind and alienated in mind, when they did not perceive that they were thus spoiled by strangers, because God did not now defend them, nor was their patron, as he was wont to be formerly.
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He adds, that hoariness was upon him Some understand by this, that the Israelites were not improved by long succession of years. Age, as we know, through long experience, brings to men some prudence. Young people, even when the Lord invites them to himself, are carried away by some impulse or another; but in the aged there is greater prudence and moderation. Many hence think that the Israelites are here condemned because they had profited nothing — no, not even by the advance of age. But the Prophet, I doubt not, expresses the greatness of their calamities by this mode of speaking, when he says that hoariness was sprinkled over him; for we know, that when any one is grievously pained and afflicted, he becomes hoary through the very pressure of evils; inasmuch as hoariness proceeds not only from years, but also from troubles and heavy cares, which not only waste men, but consume them. We indeed know that men grow old through the suffering of evils. And here, in my judgment, the Prophet means, that “hoariness had come upon Israel,” — that is, that he had been visited with so many evils, that he was worn out, as it were, with old age; and that, after all, he had derived no benefit. We now perceive the truth of what I have said before, that it was the constant teaching of the Prophet, that the diseases which prevailed among the people of Israel were incurable, for they could by no remedies be brought to repentance. It follows —
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 Which are a token of his manifold afflictions.
Which are a token of his manifold afflictions.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he…
Hos 7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth [it] not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
Ver. 9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not] Strange stupidity, such as was that of Samson, who had lost his hair, and therewith his strength, and wist not at it. These strangers were the kings of Syria, but especially of Assyria. See 2Ki 13:7; 2Ki 14:25-27; 2Ki 15:19-20; 2Ki 15:29-30; 2Ki 17:6. Salmanasar, as a deep gulf, swallowed them up whole. Now that they should not know how these strangers had devoured their strength, that is, their wealth and warlike power, this was very strange. The Chaldee paraphrast helps us to the meaning of it; Non novit formidare a facie mea. He knew it not, that is, he knew not how to fear before me, to tremble at my judgments, and to flee to my mercies; this he knew not, that is, he cared not to do, as the old world "knew not till the flood came," though fairly forewarned, Mat 24:39, and as the Greeks would not know that the Turks had invaded their empire till they were got into the very bowels of it. So was it with Ephraim. A spirit of pride and of slumber had so surprised and seized him, that he took no knowledge of the enemies and evils that were upon him. Thus the spiritual sleeper stirs not, with Saul, though the waterpot and spear be taken from his bolster. Like the foolish hen, which loseth her chickens one by one by the devouring kite; when one, or two, or three, are snatched away, she still continues to pick up what lies before her. It is our wisest way to observe and improve God’s dealings with us, to be sensible of his strokes, and to return to him that smote us, and can as soon heal us, if we come to him for cure, Lev 26:40.
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Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him] Heb. sprinkled, sparci, non spissi. He began but to decline and decay, as a man doth when he grows toward fifty. And as gray hairs come the sooner through cares and grief (histories tell us of a young man, who being for some capital offence condemned to die, grew gray in one night’s space, and was therefore pitied and spared), and are forerunners and forewarners of death. So the many and grievous miseries inflicted upon this people foreshowed their utter destruction to be even at next door by. And this the rather, because they knew it not (as before), but (as it is said of the Flemings) that the older they grow the foolisher they are, Quo magis senescunt eo magis stultescunt (Erasm. Apoph.). Cleanthes was wont sometimes to chide himself; Ariston wondering thereat, asked him, whom chidest thou? Cleanthes laughed and answered, I chide an old fellow, qui canos quidem habet, sed mentem non habet, who hath gray hairs indeed, but lacks understanding and prudence worthy of them. It was Chrysippus (I think) that offered to the world that sore distribution and choice, Aut mentem, nut restim comparandam, Either get wit worthy of your years, or go out of the world by a halter. That of Eleazer is very remarkable, who would not do anything which might seem to be evil, because he would not spot his white head. Gray hairs should be a strong argument to move men to live blamelessly (because "old age is a crown, when found in the way of righteousness," as it is said of Abraham, that he went to his grave with a "good gray head," Pro 16:31 Gen 25:8); and gray hairs in a state, that is, lesser and lighter judgments, should make men prepare to meet and prevent God; because, as in a house, stillicidia praecedunt ruinam, and as in a man gray hairs foresignify death, so do these desolation, if course be not timely taken.
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 Strangers; foreigners, whose aid Ephraim sought, as 2Ki 15:19,20,…
Strangers; foreigners, whose aid Ephraim sought, as 2Ki 15:19,20, when Menahem bought the friendship of Pul king of Assyria for one thousand talents of silver, and impoverished the land thereby.
Have devoured; eat up, lived upon, as men live on bread they eat.
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His strength; the riches and goods of the kingdom of Israel; the fruit of the olive and vine; the fruit of the earth, corn; the increase of their flocks and of their herds; the most or best of all eaten up by strangers, either soldiers in garrison among them, or else courted by presents and rich gifts sent to them.
Knoweth it not; is not sensible either of the cause why, or the tendency of this hasty consumption of all; still they are secure, and sin as much as ever.
Grey hairs are here and there upon him; the manifest symptoms of approaching death, undeniable tokens of old age, and declining strength never recoverable, are upon their kingdom, like grey hairs that are here and there intermixed on the head of a man: what with domestic seditions and foreign invasions, and the fears, cares, and griefs from both, Ephraim is turned grey-headed, his vital vigour and strength decayeth, and this is a forerunner of his death.
Yet he knoweth it not; so secure and stupid, that no notice is taken of this, nor any course thought of for preventing the dismal effects of this declining consumptive state; none turn from sin, none seek to God, the only Physician that can heal.
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 Strangers have devoured his strength,.... Or his substance, as…
Strangers have devoured his strength,.... Or his substance, as the Targum; his wealth and riches, fortresses and strong holds: these strangers were either the Syrians, who, in the times of Jehoahaz, destroyed Ephraim or the Israelites, and so weakened them, as to make them like the dust by threshing, Kg2 12:7; or the Assyrians, first under Pul king of Assyria, who came out against Menahem king of Israel, and exacted a tribute of a thousand talents of silver, and so drained them of their treasure, which was their strength, Kg2 15:19; and then under Tiglathpileser, another king of Assyria, who came and took away from them many of their fortified places, and carried the inhabitants captive, Kg2 15:29;
and he knoweth it not; is not sensible how much he is weakened by such exactions and depredations; or does not take notice of the hand of God in all this; does not consider from whence it comes, what is the cause of it, and for what ends;
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yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not; or, "old age has sprinkled itself upon him" (s); or, "gray hairs are sprinkled on him"; gray hairs, when thick, are a sign that old age is come; and, when sprinkled here and there, are symptoms of its coming on, and of a person's being on the decline of life; and here it signifies the weak and declining state of Israel, through the exactions and depredations of their neighbours, and that theft utter ruin was near; and yet they did not know nor consider their latter end, nor repent of their sins and acknowledge them, and return unto the Lord, and implore his mercy: so carnal professors, who mix with the men of the world, that are strangers to God and godliness, and everything that is divine and good, are devoured by them; they lose their time and substance, and their precious souls, and are not aware of it. The symptoms of the declining state of the church of God are at this time upon us, and yet not taken notice of; such as great departures from the faith; a number of false teachers risen up; great failings off of professors, and of such who have made a great figure in the church; a small number of faithful men; great coldness and lukewarmness to spiritual things; little faith on the earth; great neglect of Gospel worship and ordinances; much sleepiness and drowsiness; great immorality and profaneness: as also the symptoms of the declining state of the world, and of its drawing to its period; as wars, and rumours of wars, famine, pestilence, and earthquakes in divers places; volcanos, burning mountains, eruptions of subterraneous fire, which portend the general conflagration; and yet these things are little attended to.
(s) "canities sparsit se in eo", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Schmidt; "cani sparsi sunt", Tigurine version; "canities aspergit eum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Latin writers: "sparserit et nigras alba senecta comas". Propert. l. 3. Eleg. 4. "Jam mihi deterior canis aspergitur aetas". Ovid. de Ponto, l. 1. Eleg. 5.
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 Knoweth it not - He is not aware of…
Knoweth it not - He is not aware of the loss he hath sustained. Gray hairs - Of old age and declining strength are upon their kingdom.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Gray hairs are here and there upon…
Verse 9. Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.] The kingdom is grown old in iniquity; the time of their captivity is at hand, and they are apprehensive of no danger. They are in the state of a silly old man, who through age and infirmities is become nearly bald, and the few remaining hairs on his head are quite gray. But he does not consider his latter end; is making no provision for that eternity on the brink of which he is constantly standing; does not apply to the sovereign Physician to heal his spiritual diseases; but calls in the doctors to cure him of old age and death! This miserable state and preposterous conduct we witness every day. O how fast does the human being cling to his native earth! Reader, hear the voice of an old man: -
O my coevals! remnants of yourselves,
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Shall our pale withered hands be still stretched out?
Trembling at once with eagerness and age;
With avarice and ambition grasping-fast
Grasping at air! For what hath earth beside?
We want but little; nor THAT LITTLE long.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it…
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not - Like Samson, when, for sensual pleasure, he had betrayed the source of his strength and God had departed from him, lsrael knew not how or wherein his alliancs with the pagan had impaired his strength. He thought his losses at the hand of the enemy, passing wounds, which time would heal; he thought not of them, as tokens of God’s separation from him, that his time of trial was coming to its close, his strength decaying, his end at hand. Israel was not only incorrigible, but “past feeling” Eph 4:19, as the Apostle says of the pagan. The marks of wasting and decay were visible to sight and touch; yet he himself perceived not what all saw except himself. Israel had sought to strangers for help, and it “had turned to his decay.” Pul and Tiglath-pileser had “devoured his strength,” despoiling him of his wealth and treasure, the flower of his men, and the produce of his land, draining him of his riches, and hardly oppressing him through the tribute imposed upon him. But “like men quite stupified, they, though thus continually gnawed upon, yet suffered themselves willingly to be devoured, and seemed insensible of it.” Yet not only so, but the present evils were the forerunners of worse. Grey hairs, themselves the effects of declining age and tokens of decay, are the forerunners of death. “Thy grey hairs are thy passing-bell,” says the proverb .
The prophet repeats, after each clause, “he knoweth not.” He knoweth nothing; be knoweth not the tokens of decay in himself, but hides them from himself; he knoweth not God, who is the author of them;. he knoweth not the cause of them, his sins; he knoweth not the end and object of them, his conversion; he knoweth not, what, since he knoweth not any of these things, will be the issue of them, his destruction. People hide from themselves the tokens of decay, whether of body or soul. And so death, whether of body or soul or both, comes upon them unawares. : “Looking on the surface, he imagines that all things are right with him, not feeling the secret worm which gnaws within. The outward garb remains; the rules of fasting are observed; the stated times of prayer are kept; but the heart is far from Me, saith the Lord. Consider diligently what thou lovest, what thou fearest, whereat thou rejoicest or art saddened, and thou will find, under the habit of religion, a worldly mind; under the rags of conversion, a heart of perversion.”
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 Strangers: kings of Assyria, Damascus, &c. --- Hairs. He…
Strangers: kings of Assyria, Damascus, &c. --- Hairs. He is grown old in misery, and yet is insensible of it, and sees not that he will shortly cease to be a people, Isaias vii. 8.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Strangers--foreigners: the Syrians and Assyrians (Kg2 13:7; Kg2 15:19-20;…
Strangers--foreigners: the Syrians and Assyrians (Kg2 13:7; Kg2 15:19-20; Kg2 17:3-6).
gray hairs--that is, symptoms of approaching national dissolution.
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are here and there upon--literally, "are sprinkled on" him.
yet he knoweth not--Though old age ought to bring with it wisdom, he neither knows of his senile decay, nor has the true knowledge which leads to reformation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain Hos_7:9 calls attention to the blindness which prevented Israel…
Hos_7:9 calls attention to the blindness which prevented Israel from recognizing its helpless condition. He, Ephraim, knoweth it not — Not only, he does not understand the significance of the calamity, but he is blind and in absolute ignorance concerning it.
Strangers have devoured his strength — The foreign nations, instead of helping and strengthening, have sapped his resources. If the above-given interpretation is correct the reference cannot be primarily to territory lost in war, though this may not be excluded entirely (2Ki_8:12; 2Ki_10:32-33; 2Ki_13:3; 2Ki_13:7), but to the strength and resources lost by adopting foreign customs and entering into alliances with foreign nations. The introduction of foreign customs was accompanied by moral degradation. That immorality saps the strength of nations needs no proof. “Moral decay means political decay; sins… are the gangrene of nations.” That foreign alliances sapped the nation’s resources is definitely stated in 2Ki_15:19-20; compare 2Ki_16:7-8. Hosea may have had in mind the act of Menahem.
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Gray hairs are here and there upon him — Literally, are sprinkled upon him. The nation is personified as an individual passing through the various stages of life (compare Hos_11:1; Isa_46:4). Gray hair is an indication of old age, of impending death and dissolution. To all this the nation is blind.
The connection of Hos_7:10 with the preceding verse is obscure; perhaps it is unfortunate that the verse division was made where it now is, for Hos_7:10 a closely connects with the preceding, while 10b gives expression to a new thought and logically connects more closely with Hos_7:11.
The pride of Israel testifieth — The proud and arrogant attitude toward Jehovah, manifesting itself in blindness (see on Hos_5:5).
For all this — Though apparently all resources are sapped, and the nation is rapidly approaching dissolution, they have not returned to Jehovah nor sought him who alone could heal and restore the lost strength (Amo_4:6 ff.; compare Isa_9:12 ff.). Instead — Hos_7:11 — like a silly dove they sought help where not only no help could be found but where their hurt increased. Marti omits Hos_7:10, but without sufficient reason. Silly dove without heart [“understanding”] — The dove is celebrated for its simplicity and unsuspicious nature (Mat_10:16). An Arabic proverb says, “There is nothing more simple than a dove.”
Egypt… Assyria — To the action of a silly dove is likened the policy of Israel past and present. The point of comparison is the absence of any settled plan or fixed purpose. Now they appeal to the one, now to the other, without regard for possible dangers. The additional thought brought out by many commentators, “As a dove fleeing from a hawk is snared in the fowler’s net, so Ephraim when afraid of Assyria calls in the help of Egypt, and when afraid of Egypt appeals to Assyria,” is not contained in the text. Israel is seeking to escape, not from Assyria or from Egypt, but from its own helpless condition (Hos_7:8-9); in this attempt it does not seek help from Jehovah (Hos_7:10), but now from Egypt and now from Assyria (Hos_7:11), as the Egyptian or the Assyrian party may predominate. 2Ki_15:19, illustrates the pro-Assyrian policy; of the pro-Egyptian policy we have no indication in the historical books as early as the date of this prophecy, but compare 2Ki_17:4, which speaks of events about a dozen years later.
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 9. Strangers have devoured his strength] By heavy tribute…
9. Strangers have devoured his strength] By heavy tribute and desolating invasions. The ‘strangers’ would be Hazael and Benhadad (2Ki_8:12; 2Ki_10:32-33; 2Ki_13:3; 2Ki_13:7), Pul (2Ki_15:19-20), and Tiglath-Pileser (2Ki_15:29), though the two last are really the same person, Pul being the private name of a usurper who took the old royal name of Tiglath-Pileser (as proved by Mr Pinches).
gray hairs are here and there upon him] Lit., ‘are sprinkled upon him.’ That a state has different stages, analogous to the periods of human life, was a familiar idea; comp. Hos_11:1; Isa_46:4; Psa_71:18 (where the speaker is probably the personified people, comp. Hosea 7:20 in the Hebrew).
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 (9) Have devoured.—The past tense may refer to the…
(9) Have devoured.—The past tense may refer to the invasions of Tiglath-pileser. Both Egypt and Assyria had come to regard Israel as the earthen pipkin between iron pots. These strangers have devoured his strength—i.e., he has less power to resist aggression, less treasure, less land, smaller population. The signs of senility are upon him. “Grey hairs are his passing bell.” He is under sentence of death, and knoweth it not.
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 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it…
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not. Israel"s intercourse with other nationalities could not but issue in disaster; a specimen of that disaster is here given. As the Greeks called all who did not speak the Greek language, whether they were savage or civilized, barbarians, so Israel called all foreigners, whether near or far off, strangers. The foreign nations here meant were those with which Israel had entered into treaties or formed alliances, in contravention of the constitution which God had given them. These nations, moreover, devoured their national resources by the imposition of taxes and hostile incursions; thus the King of Syria left "of the people to Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen, and ton chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the King of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like the dust by threshing;" again, when "Pul, the King of Assyria, came against the laud," we read that Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the King of Assyria;" then, "in the days of Pekah King of Israel came Tiglath-pileser King of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazer, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. "The strength here mentioned includes all those things which constitute the wealth and well-being of a country, the produce of the soil and the riches of its inhabitants. Thus Aben Ezra rightly explains this clause, referring it to "the tribute which the Israelites gave to Assyria and Egypt, as is written in the Book of Kings." Yea, grey hairs are here and there (margin, sprinkled) upon him. What from foreign foes and internal feuds, the body politic was manifesting unmistakable symptoms of decay and decrepitude and approaching dissolution, just as grey hairs on the human body give indication of the advance of old age, with its decay of strength and nearness to the tomb. "The course of nature," says Aben Ezra, "has sprinkled grey hairs upon him, just as grey hair comes on men in consequence of the course of nature;" this corresponds to the sentiment of the preceding clause, for, according to the commentator just named," the grey hair denotes that their power is weakened and their possession perished." Yet he knoweth not is parallel to. "And he knoweth (it) not," and repeats the same sentiment, of course with emphasis of what was Israel thus ignorant? Not, surely, of the declining state of the national strength and the decay of the national importance. After so many drains upon their resources and the unsatisfactory position of their foreign relations, they could not shut their eyes upon the steadily and even rapidly approaching decadence. But though they could not pretend ignorance of the fact, they remained in ignorance of the cause, its consequence, and the cure. Notwithstanding the already exhausted condition of their country, and the process of exhaustion still going on, they overlooked the lamentable cause of all, which was their sin, national and individual, in departing from the Lord; and at the same time the dangerous consequences that were neither remote nor capable of being staved off; as also the only possible cure to be found in direct and immediate return and application to that God from whom they had so revolted. The "it" supplied in the Authorized Version
(1) had better be omitted;
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(2) the construction adopted by Rashi and others, who make the first part of each clause the object of the second, is erroneous, as we have shown in the preceding observations. "They took it not to heart that the kings of Syria consumed them in the days of Jehoahaz" is the exposition of Rashi just referred to; but that of Kimchi favors the first and correct construction, as may be inferred from the words, "And he (Israel) knows not that on account of his iniquity all this has come upon him, and yet he turns not from his wickedness.
Grey hairs.
In Scripture these are sometimes associated with sentiments of honor and reverence, for they suggest the thought of ripe wisdom and venerable piety. (Lev_19:32 Pro_16:31) Here, however, they are viewed simply as premonitions of old age, and of an old age, besides, that was premature. There is a lesson in our text, taking it even in its most literal sense. The believer"s first grey hairs should remind him that the grace of God will enable him to grow old gracefully." Bat the "grey hairs" spoken of in this verse are, of course, figurative. We may consider the text in connection with
I THE DECLINE OF NATIONS. Its primary reference is to "Ephraim," and to the symptoms which Ephraim showed of approaching national ruin. But the whole Bible, and especially the Old Testament, is full of teaching about the decadence of nations. The Hebrew prophets point to "the giant forms of empires on their way to ruin." Hence the priceless value of their writings to the Christian patriot, and to the devout student of history. What are some of the "grey hairs" which forebode national decay?
1. Idolatry. The northern kingdom had departed from God, first in worshipping Jeroboam"s calves, and afterwards in serving the idol-deities of Phoenicia. And now, in his time of political need, Ephraim was looking for help to Egypt and Assyria (vers. 8-11), instead of returning to Jehovah as his Portion. This "grey hair" led quickly to the degradation and ruin of the kingdom. So, still, those nations that will not serve the Lord our God shall perish, and be utterly wasted.
2. Immorality. A people may increase greatly in civilization and intellectual culture, and yet be sprinkled all over with this "grey hair." Ancient Greece, when it was the land of art and poetry and philosophy, was morally all the while a mass of corruption. Rome, during the first century of the Christian era, was even worse. Juvenal calls it "a filthy sewer," and Seneca "a cesspool of iniquity." When immorality is rampant, it marks the commonwealth as moribund, and forebodes its decline and fall.
3. Vicious luxury. It was a sign of decay when Ephraim began to" live deliciously," like ancient Tyre and Babylon. (Amo_6:3, et seq.) In the palmy days of the Roman commonwealth the Romans were brave, hardy, and victorious; but under the Empire the inner life of the people was gradually eaten away by the canker of luxury. Our own nation, and all the great Anglo-Saxon communities at the present time, need to guard against this "grey hair.
4. Oppression of the poor. If a nation is to continue safe against dissolution, it must be governed by justice and humanity. The French revolution of 1789 was the result of the sinful waste of the Bourbon kings, and the misery of the French peasantry. But every nation is in danger which takes no care to "judge the poor of the people." This text reminds us, accordingly, of our duty as citizens. We must take order that our political representatives shall act in all public matters with justice and honor. Every Christian elector should use his ballot-paper under a sense of his responsibility to the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of nations; and he ought to do what he can otherwise to strengthen public opinion in the direction of wise political principles, and of a healthy condition of the national conscience.
II THE DECLINE OF CHURCHES. For, alas! the marks of decay are often found there also. It was so with the seven Churches of proconsular Asia in the first century. In most of the epistles which the Lord addressed to them (Re 2 Re 3) he points out the "grey hairs." How gradually, too, premonitions of spiritual decline appeared in the Church of Rome! The student of Church history sees at first only one or two "grey hairs" upon its head. We may indicate some of the signs of spiritual decay in Churches.
1. Prevalence of unsound doctrine. A Church, to be spiritually healthy, must be thoroughly evangelical. Its ministers must not regard themselves merely as the educators of some native goodness in man; and they must not preach as if the cross were only a myth, or the Holy Ghost a metaphor. The Church"s best times are those in which it teaches most clearly and emphatically the three evangelical "R"s," viz. ruin by the fall, redemption by the Lord Jesus, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
2. Lack of missionary zeal. This detect frequently accompanies unwholesome doctrine. The continued vigor of a Church depends upon its aggressiveness as a crusading institute in opposition to the sin and misery of the world. It is not enough that it provide carefully for its own edification, and know that its members are benefited by its services. It will decline in spiritual life if it forgets those around who perish "for lack of knowledge.
3. Decadence of family religion. In the Bible the true ecclesiastical unit is not the individual, but the family. Holy Scripture magnifies "the Church in the house." And experience shows that a congregation, to be strong and healthy, must be composed of well-trained, intelligent, and devout families. What both the Church and the nation greatly need today is godly households. The lack of family religion is a precursor of spiritual ruin.
4. The spirit of worldliness. The Lord Jesus detected this "grey hair" in the Church of Ephesus (Rev_2:4) and in the Church of Laodicea. (Rev_3:15) And those of our own day are not untainted with the same spirit. It is a mark of decay when a denomination or congregation plumes itself upon its social importance; or when it makes an idol of decorum and good taste; or when it becomes formal in spirit, and discourages religious enthusiasm; or when it relaxes in faithfulness of discipline.
III THE DECLINE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE SOUL. The figure appropriately describes the backslidings of true and professed believers. We shall mention one or two symptoms which even those who themselves manifest them are prone to fail to recognize.
1. Habits of sin. It may be that seeds of evil which we sowed long ago in our hearts are growing up now, and occasioning us spiritual failure and confusion. Little sins are like these" grey hairs;" e.g. the spirit of over-carefulness, the spirit of caviling, the spirit of ostentation in religious duties, the unforgiving spirit, undue love of human praise, uncharitable judging, etc.
2. Neglect of ordinances. Christ has given us his Word, and has invited us to come to the throne of grace, and has spread for us the communion-table. But how gradually may we lose our relish for these means of grace, and how easily may the habit of neglecting them steal in upon our souls!
3. Covetousness. Some one has described the love of money as "the Church member"s sin." Thomas Binney has said of it that it is "about the only great damning vice which can be indulged and clung to in connection with a recognized modern religious profession." There is no sin more insidious; it may occupy the heart and one "not know" it.
4. Conformity to the world. The daily circumstances of our lot constantly appeal to sense and self, and continually tempt us to give up trying to lead a spiritual, pure, and consecrated life. Even a true believer, before he knows it, may be "following afar off," and slowly abating his testimony as a nonconformist to the ungodly customs of the world.
CONCLUSION. We require frequently to "examine ourselves, whether we be in the faith." We ought constantly to hold up before our eyes the clear mirror of Holy Scripture, that we may detect the "grey hairs." We must also see reflected in it the glorious form of the Lord Jesus, the one Image of perfect manhood. There are no "grey hairs" upon him; "his locks are bushy, and black as a raven". (Son_5:11) We must seek grace to give ourselves constantly to the imitation of Christ. C.J.
The unperceived signs of moral decay.
This chapter is occupied with a denunciation of the sins of the princes and chief men in Israel, who are designated (in ver. 1) by "Ephraim," the principal tribe, and "Samaria," the principal city. Such men are ever most condemned in Scripture, because they have
(1) more opportunity of knowing God"s will, and
(2) more influence over others. (see Mat_11:20-24)
A godless lad who has been brought up under Christian influence, and has seen the Christian life represented in his home, is more deserving of condemnation than the waif thrown up by the sea of irreligious life, who has been unblessed by teaching and prayer. The man successful in business or scholarship, the attractive and popular visitor, the gifted writer, the eldest in a family, the leader in policy, etc., have heavier responsibilities than others because they have nobler powers. The sins condemned here were
(1) drunkenness, which specially prevailed on the king"s birthday (ver. 5) and at similar festivities;
(2) passion for idolatry and its licentious rites, the heart of the people being like the oven heated hot, and needing only the stirring of opportunity to burst into flame (vers. 4, 6, 7);
(3) refusal to believe in God"s presence and watchfulness (ver. 2). These and other sins were the signs of moral decay, which were reflected in national disasters. Yet none of these were perceived by the infatuated people. (See Keil and Delitzsch in justification of the rendering "He knoweth it not" in both clauses.) Subject Unnoticed signs of moral decay.
I THAT MORAL DECAY HAS ASCERTAINABLE CAUSES. Exemplify from the sources of Israel"s decadence.
1. Want of consideration. (Ver. 2 Isa_1:3 Hag_1:5) Every faculty fails after disuse; e.g. the eyeless fishes of lakes in dark caverns. Muscular and mental development or decay, by exercise or inertness. He who will not think of God, at last cannot think of him.
2. Association with evil. (Ver. 8) Show the effects of unconscious influence in the formation of character. They must be jealously watchful over themselves who are necessarily associated with the godless. The companionship of books equally important. Sensuous or skeptical literature may emasculate character.
3. Forgetfulness of God. All are prone to this. Material life becomes increasingly aggressive in thought. The hurry of business, the whirl of society, lessen the frequency and intensity of prayer.
4. Self-indulgence. Israel gave way to drunkenness and the licorice of idolatry. It was the opportunity for gratifying the worst passions that made the worship of the groves so popular. Many begin by staining the imagination who end by defiling the life. Depict the ruin of the drunkard, who once perhaps was a leader in Christian and benevolent enterprise.
II THAT MORAL DECAY HAS OBSERVABLE SYMPTOMS. "Strangers have devoured his strength." Egypt and Assyria had despoiled Israel, sometimes by exacting tribute, sometimes by violent attack. (2Ki_13:7 2Ki_16:9) Compare the condition of the Roman empire just before its ruin by the Goths. With Israel the losses were the direct result of leagues made, contrary to God"s will, with idolatrous nations around; for they became thereby involved in their disputes and disasters. Still this was not perceived. These and other signs of wasting and decay were visible to the prophet, and seemed to him like grey hairs sprinkled here and there the effects of declining age, the tokens of decay. Point out symptoms of spiritual decline in the soul.
1. Want of appetite for what is good. The house of God neglected, the old service forsaken, the infrequency and unreality of prayer, etc.
2. Want of sensibility to what is evil. Contentment with a lower standard for Christian life, flippancy in dealing with infidelity, indifference to acts and words which at one time would have raised a flush of shame, etc.
III THAT MORAL DECAY HAS IRREVERSIBLE ISSUES. These grey hairs were the precursors of death. Israel would never be restored. The life was lived, was nearly over, and without hope of resurrection. Christ Jesus speaks of a time of probation given now which will not be given hereafter. He will do all that can be done even for a fruitless fig tree, but at last must say, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
IV THAT MORAL DECAY MAKES IMPERCEPTIBLE ADVANCE. At first grey hairs are sprinkled here and there. How fast they multiply, though no one notices the change in each hair! When first noticed, an endeavor may be made by nostrums to disguise the fact; but the decay goes on. The march of old age, as he sprinkles his snows, is not really checked. If a man could persuade himself as well as others that he was still young, that would not prolong his life. But it is far easier to disguise from ourselves the signs of moral decay, and this has been done with fatal frequency. The old world, though often warned," knew not till the flood came and swept them all away." Samson betrayed the source of his strength and lost it; but when he rose against his foes as aforetime, "he wist not that the Lord was departed from him." King Saul was robbed of his means of defense and refreshment, but he still slept on. (1Sa 26) So Israel shut its eyes to the loss of strength and hope. Beware lest character be like the cliff, secretly honeycombed by the sea, until in an unexpected moment it falls in irreparable ruin.
CONCLUSION. Address the aged. There is a natural decay, which may be the precursor of destruction or the promise of resurrection. (1Co 15)
1. "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness." Eleazar said, "I will not do that which seems to be evil, lest I should spot my white head.
2. The hoary head is a call to repentance, if it be found in the way of wickedness. "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. A.R.
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 Grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet…
Hos_7:9
Grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
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Neglected warnings
I. Grey hairs are a sign of decay. God has for wise purposes given distinctive features to the different periods of human life, from the cradle onwards to the grave. Human life between the ages of forty and fifty is a sort of tableland. Growth has ceased, but decay has not begun. After that time decay begins. In this text grey hairs are not associated either with parental honours, or with the ripe wisdom of age, or with the piety of the venerable Simeon. They are here but the tokens of decay, marks of age, the premonitory symptoms of dissolution. The truth it announces is, that men may live in ignorance and act in disregard of signs that should warn and alarm them.
II. This appears in the history of states. The words were first spoken of the kingdom of Israel. In the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy, in the corruption of morals and the decline of true religion, the prophet saw the signs of his countrys decay--these the grey hairs that were here and there upon them, which they knew not. Nor is that uncommon.
III. The text applies to the false security of sinners. Be our profession what it may, if we have habits of sin--these are the grey hairs that, unless grace convert and mercy pardon, foretell our doom. Thick as those grey hairs on the head of age, some mens lives are full of sin. They are going to hell as plainly as one whose form is bent and whose head is hoary is going down to his grave.
IV. This appears in mens insensibility to the lapse and lessons of time. Our minds are formed to adapt themselves to the circumstances of advancing years. Indeed, we often glide down so gently as to be little disturbed with the premonitions of lifes close. Men with furrows on their brow, and grey hairs on their head, often find it difficult to remember that they are old. Death seems to flee before us, like the horizon which we ever see, but never reach. Where then is the hope of those who have trusted to turning religious when they become old, and attending to the concerns of a better world when they have ceased to feel any interest in this? Death and a man, so runs the story, once made a bargain--the man stipulating, lest he might be taken unawares, that death should send him so many warnings before he came. Well, one day, years thereafter, to his great amazement, the king of terrors stood before him. He had broken the bargain, so said the man, who clung to life. Death, he alleged, had sent him no warnings. No warnings? His eyes were dim; his ears were dull; his gums were toothless; and spare and thin were the hoar locks on his bent and palsied head; these, deaths heralds, had come, not too late, yet all in vain. Amid warnings which were, however, unnoticed or despised; his salvation was neglected, and his soul lost. And every setting sun, every nodding hearse, every passing Sabbath, warn us that days of darkness come, and opportunities of salvation go. Time has but one lock of hair on his forehead. If we would seize time, we must seize him by the forelock. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Thoughts for autumn
If we come really to know and to think seriously upon the fact that there are grey hairs here and there upon us, and that they tell us in a very simple and truthful and straightforward way that not a little of our work is done, and that many of our earthly days have passed from us, we cannot but ask ourselves, what then? We are not to sink towards nothingness by reason of feebleness increasing by the speeding years; we, if at least we have life in Christ, are not to sink gradually towards natural decay. If waning strength must sooner or later be ours here, if grey hairs here and there upon us tell us of the swift approaching drying up of the springs of natural activity, is there no prospect of any restoring power by which unfading and deathless bloom may yet be ours? Revelation declares to us those things which the speculations of earthly knowledge, or the guesses of human science, or even the certainties of human observation fail to supply us. Faith in the future; faith inspired and made intelligent by the teaching of God; faith in the unseen and eternal tells us that the future is real and truly abiding, and that it is only She extension, the carrying on or forward of our experience of the present. Time will pass on, our work will tell on us, whether we like it or not. If we will not listen to the teaching of the grey hairs, it may be so much the worse for us both in time and in eternity. We are now under a course of education. How to become fitted for another stage of life is the question of supreme interest now. If the passing seasons remind us that here we cannot abide for ever, our walk with God should be more constant than it is. (W. MIntosh Arthur, M. A.)
Imperceptible change
A grey hair? It is the signature of time. It is the beginning of the end. It is a ticket which entitles you to a seat amongst the elders. Yet you did not know of that grey hair. This is the point to keep in view. We are all undergoing imperceptible change. What is true of grey hairs is true of many other changes in human life. To what practical uses can we turn the fact of mans imperceptible decay?
I. Do not such changes remind us in the gentlest possible manner that this is not our rest? We go gradually down the steep, and as a general rule time is given for reflection. What indeed is all life, from the sunny laughter of childhood to the mellow solemnity of old age, but a succession of reminders that our days are few and our strength a bruised reed!
II. Ought not the imperceptible changes of life to modify the estimate which we form of our own powers? Other people could see the grey hairs upon Ephraim, but Ephraim himself could not see them. Application of this may be made--
1. To ministers who are unconscious of the decline of their powers.
2. To men who are officially called upon to adapt old agencies to new circumstances.
III. Ought not such changes to suggest serious inquiry as to the possible decline of spiritual power! It does not follow that physical decline necessitates spiritual decline. But--
1. The spirit must resist the decay to which it is drawn by the flesh.
2. A beneficial moral influence is exerted by such resistance.
The grey-haired Christian should be a tower of strength to the Christian cause. No beauty should exceed the beauty of his charitableness and hopefulness. (J. M. Ludlow, D. D, D. D.)
The punishment of Ephraim
I. The sad and miserable condition of Ephraim considered simply in itself.
I. The good they are deprived of. Their strength. God fits the punishment to the sin, in the old dispensation. What a sad and lament able thing it is for men to spend their youth and the strength and prime of their time in the ways of sin. It is--
1. Very disingenuous.
2. Very hazardous.
3. Very grievous and uncomfortable in the reflections upon it, when men shall call them selves to a serious reckoning and an account about it.
Take the words in their notional signification, as setting forth the condition of Israel at this time. Strangers. may mean strange gods, strange women, strange enemies. Strange gods include strange worship and strange doctrine.
II. Symptoms of ruin approaching.
1. Unfruitfulness under powerful means and dispensations of grace.
2. Strange sins, which do abound and increase in it.
3. Plagues as forewarnings.
The aggravation lay in Ephraims senselessness under all this. This proceeded from the deceitfulness of sin and the blinding of Satan. All this teaches us two lessons- pity for others and caution for ourselves. (T. Herren, D. D.)
Signs of decay
Two great unchanging, compensating laws are eternally at work in the universe--the law of growth or progress and the law of decay. They are compensating laws, because it is the function of the one to correct and balance the action of the other. When growth reaches its limit, then decay begins. This may be illustrated in the tides, the sunshine, the seasons the trees.
The process goes eternally on, growth and decay; a period of infancy and tenderness developing into full growth and maturity; these in turn giving way to decay and death. That which is going on in the world is going on in our selves. As in our bodies there is going on every day a steady process of supply and loss, so is it also in the longer day of a lifetime. Time does not stand still with any of us, though he seems to deal more gently with some than with others. But when we have reached middle life, we all begin to descend. This does not mean a sudden and total break-up. It is a gradual process, but there are not wanting signs to show us that it has begun. The commonest sign is the silvery streak, the grey hairs. There is something saddening about decay in any form. So this herald of the coming end, the grey hair, is often an unwelcome one. It is in the white heat of the furnace of affliction that the first grey hair often appears; and it may soothingly speak to us of the better life beyond the grave. There axe some people who never grow old. There are those who, however age may creep on, are always young in heart, whom the world has not been able to spoil. Then there are those of whom we should not say they never grow old, but they will not believe that they ever can grow old. The mere thought of lifes end is a horror; with decay fast taking hold on them, they will not believe it, and indulge in a miserable burlesque of youthfulness. It was of such people that Hosea was speaking. He lived in gloomy times. National magnificence was dazzling; but never had national sin been so general and so abominable. Hosea lived ahead of his times. He saw the rocks ahead; but he could not persuade his countrymen to see them, or to believe that they were there. Hoseas prophecy is one long wail for the unhappy people whose day was over and they knew it not. What was true of Israel has been true of many kingdoms, greater and mightier than it. Did we see ourselves as others see us, we might even discern grey hairs here and there upon us. Is there no falling off in our commercial integrity? Is not the Bible dishonoured by a relentless and destructive criticism? Think of the moral plague-spots of licentious literature. These are grey hairs here and there upon us. What are we to do? We cannot put the wrong right. This you can do. Never countenance what is wrong. Never consent to any lowering of the standard of Christian morality. Never sacrifice right to expediency. Never condescend to call things by wrong names. Sin is sin. (J. B. O. Murphy.)
Unconscious deterioration
Sin in its worst forms was prevalent among the people. Their strength was consumed by their indulgence in kinds of wickedness which strangers had introduced among them: and everything betokened, to those who could read the signs aright, that they were rapidly hastening to national extinction. They were already in the old age of their history, and they knew it not. This unconsciousness of deterioration marks the distinction between the common backslider and the open repudiator of the faith. In ordinary backsliding the most dangerous element is that the man is largely unaware of the change that has come over him. We attempt to account for the fact that a man may have largely fallen away from Christian rectitude of heart and life without being aware of his defection.
I. We are all inclined to look more favourably on ourselves than on others. This is especially true in spiritual matters. A mans self-love, or self-conceit, or self-security, prevents him from coming to an impartial decision, and he may be far gone in a course of backsliding before lie takes note of the fact. Matthew Henry says, Apostasy from God generally begins in the place of prayer. There we axe set in the white light of Gods own purity, and every spot in ourselves is revealed to us. We are afraid of such self revelations.
II. Backsliding steals gradually upon a man. If hair changed from raven blackness to snowy whiteness in a single night, we should be struck by the change. But because the grey hairs come one by one, the transformation is little noticed. Backsliding is a gradual motion; it isa sliding rather than a stepping. How may we counteract this tendency and discover our true position? We shall know where we are if we test ourselves by the Word of God, as that has been vindicated for us by the example and the Spirit of the Lord Jesus.
III. Backsliding may be accounted for by the fact that the individuals are absorbed in other matters to such an extent that the state of the heart is forgotten. It may be thus with the successful merchant. This danger is to be obviated, either by curtailing the business, or by consecrating it as a whole to God. He who in his daily calling is consciously and deliberately seeking to do the best for his Lord, and is trying to serve Him in the store as really as in the closet, has most effectually overcome the world. If, then, any one among us has to.day discovered his deterioration, let him not wait a single moment for restoration. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Causes of declension in religion
A nation has often exhibited every outward mark of prosperity, while the elements of decay had already begun their silent work, and were hastening forward the period of its ruin. Illustrate by Rome, in the reign of Augustus. So with Ephraim. The land was wrapped in fatal security, and indulging visions of prosperity, which hindered them from seeing the decay, already visible to the eye of God and His prophets. A wise and skilful physician often discovers symptoms of disease, and even of approaching death, of which the patient himself may have no suspicion. So there may be already much spiritual declension; the evil heart of unbelief may have begun to depart from the living God, and yet the man may be unconscious of his peril. It has been said that where a man hath real grace, it may be part of a dispensation towards him that he is suffered to decline. He walked carelessly; he was left to stumble and fall that he might be brought to feel his need of prayer, vigilance, and the help of almighty grace. The causes of declining religion are--
I. An increasing association with the world. The people of Israel had fatally identified themselves with the sons and daughters of idolatry around them. The disciples of Jesus are not of the world; and to them He says, by His servant, Love not the world neither the things that are in the world. The love of Christ burns purely and brightly in the heart, when Christ is all in all; but bring it into contact with the world, and gradually but surely it declines, until it becomes insensible.
II. Increasing zeal for partial views of religion. As bread exposed with one surface to the fire would feel the influence of the heat on that side, while the under portion was only partially acted upon, so was it with the divided heart of this people. Some acknowledgment of God was outwardly made, but His fear was not in their hearts. They were a nation made up of contradictions; always in one extreme or the other. Such partial views of religion are common among professors, and they will be invariably found to mark a declining state of heart. Partial views of religion lead to partial and reserved instead of entire and willing obedience.
III. Inattention to our spiritual condition. Israel gave a double proof of this dangerous symptom.
1. By an external weakness, which, however hidden from others, might have been observable by themselves.
2. Ephraim also exhibited external manifestations of weakness, which all around might see, though they were hidden from his own knowledge. Do our exertions to promote the Divine glory relax and become faint? This is a sign which we may disregard, but which others well understand, and they place it as it ought to be placed, to the account of declining religion. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.)
Unconscious decay
In comparing physical and spiritual decay, attention is confined to the common element of unconsciousness. The decline of the body, and the decline of the soul are alike in this, that both may proceed imperceptibly. Unawares, a man grows older, and, unawares, too, a man may grow worse. Notice the representation of true soul-prosperity. It is a state of perpetual youth. It should be characterised by incessant development, untiring energy, and ever-brightening hope. Whatsoever be the case with nature, grace should know no old age. Old age may crown the life that precedes it with the calm and the fruitage of a mellow autumn. The text shows the believers ideal, but it also reminds of the possibility of falling short of it; and it tells us of the real source of danger. That consists in association with the world--contact with its ungodly practices, fellowship with its ungodly men. In communion with God lies the well-spring of exhaustless refreshment, of tireless and immortal youth. The unconsciousness that accompanies spiritual decay is illustrated by the ignorance so often exhibited as regards the advances and infirmities of bodily old age. As with the decays of nature, so with the decays of grace. The waste goes on; the chill steals round; the corroding process makes sure and certain headway; faithlessness in duty, indulgences in sin, conformity to the world, may be making their havocs in the soul, and printing their tokens in the life. And all the time, while God is grieved, the man himself lives in complete unconsciousness of his state. Content with its weakness, accepting its humiliations, and heedless of its ultimate issue.
I. As to the evidences of ignorance concerning spiritual decline.
1. It proves itself by the views which the backslider often entertains as to others. Men are far more alive to the ravages of time in their friends than in themselves. And so men who are themselves inconsistent very frankly and pointedly remark on the alterations they perceive in others. Men lay their fingers so readily on those faults of a brother which society, by common consent, has set down as their own. In laying charges at other men s doors, men too often lay them at their own. The man is ignorant of his own condition, and because ignorant, he is at peace.
2. It is proved by the back-sliders views of sin. As men decline in years, it is not infrequently the case that they show their unwillingness to believe the fact by the notions they hold as to what old age really is. The boundary line is always receding; as they move, it moves, always away from them and always ahead. So in the Case of spiritual decline. What would once have been regarded as a symptom, is looked at as a symptom no longer, while the decay it betokens is actually going on. Men thus learn to palliate omissions of duty, excuse indulgences in sin, and accustom their consciences with acts which at one time they would have shrunk from.
3. It is proved by the backsliders views as to circumstances. It is often the tendency of the old to complain; and their discontent is directed against the particular surroundings where their lot for the time being is cast. They blame the rigours of the weather, the fastenings of the house, the texture of their garments, for the feelings which distress them. But the true reason is that they themselves are feebler; the quantity of life in them has gone down. It is so with the decays of the soul. Some men are constantly telling us that religious character and religious agencies around them have changed for the worse. According to them, everything is against them in the situation they occupy; they have neither the Christian fellowship that will suit them, nor the Christian ministry that will profit. But the fault is nearer home. It is this, the eye that discerns things is dim.
4. It is proved by mens views of truth and duty. Old age painfully betrays its unconsciousness by tricking itself out in the dress and aping the manners of a youth. Time that has long gone by. And does not the ignorance of the backslider betray itself in the same self-willed way? Men in whom the paralysis of a religious decay has begun, continue to use the language, and engage in the services, and involve themselves in the responsibilities that are proper only to those who are in possession of grace,--strong with the strength and bright with the bloom of a youth which their God maintains.
II. The causes of this unconscious decay.
1. This spiritual deterioration is usually so very gradual. If the infirmities of old age leapt forth at a spring, the reality would be plain and undeniable enough. So with the soul. The lapse of strength is so gradual, the progress of decay is so subtle and so slow. Spiritual decline is like physical decline,
2. While the process is gradual, it is sometimes general, affecting others than ourselves. One reason why so many are unconscious of the havocs of old age lies in this, that their companions are getting old round about them. In the spiritual sphere, let a man surround himself with the society of the irreligious and the worldly, let him live where, on every side of him, he sees habits of life and standards of thought that are all but the counterparts of his own; is it so strange that he should be unconscious of his state? It is just such society a backslider seeks, to the silencing of his better nature, and the confirmation of his own self-deception. There is no human standard he can judge by, no human contrast that can rouse him.
3. As the unconsciousness of old age is always associated with the wish to believe ones self young, so the unconsciousness of spiritual decay is produced by the desire to believe ones self prosperous. With the man who tries to minimise his shortcomings, and persuade himself that his life and his creed are in harmony, self-examination is neglected, the plain speaking of faithful friends is resented, the home-thrusts of a Gospel ministry are parried, the testimony of the revealing Word is avoided. All the time the decay is going on. The man is unfeeling and in danger of becoming past feeling. What of ourselves, brethren? (W. A. Gray.)
The blindness of a people to their own degeneracy
Grey hairs on Ephraim denoted his moral degeneracy, or spiritual declension. He is described in this chapter as very immoral, corrupt, and profligate. But he was so stupid in his degenerate and languishing state that he took no notice of the visible and mortal symptoms upon him. When a degenerate people are blind to the marks of their degeneracy, they are in a dangerous condition.
I. When do a people bear marks of moral degeneracy?
1. When they neglect the religious duties which they once practised. The children of Israel were once a very religious people. After a while they began to degenerate; forsook the house and worship of God, cast His laws behind their backs, and did what was right in their own eyes. They became formal, insincere, and hypocritical. In the time of Hosea they were covered with grey hairs, the sad marks of religious degeneracy.
2. When they dislike, oppose, and reject the plain and important doctrines of true religion, which they once professed to love and believe. A people generally become corrupt in practice before they become corrupt in principle. Gods people soon became unsteadfast in their covenant, and as corrupt in sentiment as they had been in practice. They took up with the doctrines and delusions of the grossest idolaters.
3. When they run into such irreligious and vicious practices, as they once hated and avoided. This was the case of Israel in the days of their declension. They fell into every species of vice and dissipation. A sure sign of degeneracy.
4. When they justify themselves and others in the evil courses which they once condemned. When Israel became degenerate, they justified unholy, unscriptural, and ungodly conduct in themselves and others. A people often become very wicked when they presume to justify one another in their wickedness. This is one of the most visible and striking signs of a general and gross degeneracy.
II. Why are a degenerate people so blind to the visible marks of their degeneracy?
1. Because they have degenerated gradually. This the metaphor of the text intimates. They neglect one religious duty, then another and another, until they neglect them all. They countenance and justify one sinful course after another, and finally justify all evil and condemn all good.
2. Moral degeneracy is of a blinding nature. It flows from a corrupt heart, which blinds reason and conscience.
3. They choose to be blind, because they are loath to see their own criminality. When they review their past, they feel self-reproach and self-condemnation: so they avoid reviewing. They hold fast deceit and refuse o return.
III. Their voluntary and criminal blindness to their degeneracy exposes them to peculiar danger.
1. It prevents them from using the proper means of reformation. So long as people think they are pursuing a right course, they will have no thought or desire of reforming. A great politician says, It was never known that any degenerate nation ever reformed themselves. If reformed, it was owing to some foreign superior power. This is as true of religion as of civil government.
2. It disposes them to resist all means that are used to reform them Such persons may fear that God will say, Let them alone, and use no more means with them. Improvement--
(1) A people may degenerate in religion while they are making great progress in other respects. Success in their secular concerns naturally tends to make them worldly-minded. They ardently desire temporal prosperity, and prefer it to religious attainments and growth in grace.
(2) It is a favour to a degenerate people to have the marks of their degeneracy plainly pointed out. For though they are so visible, yet they are willingly blind to them. The more unwilling they are to see the disagreeable marks of their degeneracy, the more necessary it is that they should be made, if possible, to see them; for without the sight of them, God Himself cannot reform them.
(3) Have you not degenerated in respect to the religious duties which you once practised?
(4) Manifestly the people referred to in the text were in a very dangerous state.
(5) There is peculiar need of special Divine influence to revive the languishing state of religion, over which we may have to mourn.
(6) A time of religious declension is a time for all the sincere, faithful friends of God to seek unto Him for His gracious, renewing, sanctifying, and quickening influences. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Grey hairs
The wise man has said, A hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. It is so, as a symbol of honoured age, bringing deserved veneration; a type of wisdom; a sign of long and faithful service to God and man; and is thus deserving of honour; while the fresh young heart is always moving with its own enthusiasm, though sometimes fettered by increasing infirmities. Over such a grey head no one has need to mourn. Why then does Hosea speak in these terms of Ephraim? Because, as drivelling dotage and decrepitude are the result and penal consequence of a misspent life, and as old age to such is the sere and yellow leaf, so its near approach is to be dreaded and shrunk from. Ephraims was an ungodly, immoral, irreligious dotage. Grey hairs is simply a typical phrase setting forth the loss of the promise of early youth, through a prodigal disregard of Divine favour and support.
I. The twofold sign of religious declension. Grey hairs, and ignorance of their existence. The symptoms by which it is manifested.
1. Decline of interest in Divine things. When a mans enthusiasm cools down, and he forgets the freshness and vigour of his spiritual youth, he exhibits the grey hairs--the first streaks of silver whiteness which betoken spiritual decrepitude. True, there are many godly Christians who, marking that their interest is not so deep and fresh as in the past, are under a constant cloud of dread. Now this concern is not a symptom of real decline, but of intensified and increased anxiety and desire for the things an interest in which we fear to lose. It is not the issuing forth of the verdict of conscience; but such dissatisfaction is similar to that of the apostle Paul: Not as though I had already attained, etc. Such concern is salutary and preservative--a sign of watchfulness and vigour, and it will succeed in averting the evil it dreads. It is a great blessing when a Christians conscience is sensitive and active. But what I mean is, that listless indifference to the blessings of Christian privileges, that indolent abstinence from the performance of Christian duty which marks the conduct of so many in our churches.
2. Too great a love of worldliness. Ah! say you, there you are again! Worldliness! just one of the counters you ministers play with, words which mean anything or nothing. Well, so long as the New Testament stands it will be the duty of every minister of Christ to repeat these words: Love not the world, neither the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It is all very well to reply this was said of the heathen world, but times are different now. Talk about pagan Rome! What about London? What about Oxford? Are our streets so pure that we can dispense with the exhortation, Love not the world, etc.? There may be, e.g., too much absorption in permissible things. No man has a right to forbid us to devote a due portion of our time to lawful business; but it is so easy for a man, when he at first becomes lawfully absorbed, to glide insensibly into too much absorption. I value no mans manhood who is not anxious about his worldly position and reputation; but when this becomes all in all; or when he longs for the condiments and stimulants of worldly pleasure; when a man yawns and looks about him and feels theres nothing in life worth living for; when Christianity does not satisfy his desires, and so he goes in search of objects which gradually usurp the position of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the whilom Christian begins by giving undue prominence to worldly things and ends by substituting them for the Divine; then let him beware--Grey hairs are here and there upon him, though perhaps he knows it not.
3. Loss of power: for Christian work and for spiritual conflict. You ask a man to undertake some Christian duty, and he says he cannot do it. He means it, and it is true! for it is, alas! very possible for a Christian man to lose not only inclination, but power. Watch that man, and as time goes on his powerlessness is more and more evident, till he becomes a mere creature of circumstances, a waif on the current, a piece of thistle-down, the sport of contrary winds: instead of placing his heel on the neck of his lusts. Your indisposition and incapacity for work have this awful other side: you are unable to resist the power of temptation. You can do nothing for God, and have no power to strive against evil. Beware of loss of energy: your enfeebled state, the result of wasted substance is a sure sign that grey hairs are here and there upon you.
II. Its causes.
1. Indolence: this always ends in inability. First and foremost the Christian has to cultivate the grace of industry. With activity and watchful earnestness, there is no fear of inability and decrepitude.
2. Neglect of wholesome spiritual food--Gods appointed ordinances and means of grace.
3. Unchristian society. Strangers have devoured his strength. Descending to the level of such society makes us feel we are fit for no higher, and disinclines us for the work of God. And with it all, the saddest thing is, he knoweth not. Because thou sayest, and knowest not, etc. (Rev_3:1-22.). Awful ignorance, accompanied by a senile conceit. Havent looked in the glass of Gods Word.
III. The cure. Not a mere nostrum. You will never get rid of the deep-running evil by cleansing the surface of the stream.
1. Through self-examination. Let us be candid with ourselves. The first result may be panic and shivering dread; but dont be afraid of the mirror: take it in your hand on bended knees. There must be fair dealing with conscience: let it speak out! If it condemns, well and good! Better to know now than through all eternity what fools we have been. Know the best, or know the worst. Be thankful to God if the best be; be thankful, too, if the worst leads you to return to Him with broken heart. A hearty, humbling sense of sin means sanctification and salvation.
2. Humble application to the Great Physician. He has had many such cases. Poor David became exceedingly grey-headed, but under the bracing remedies of the Great Physician he went forth once more the man after Gods own heart. (J. Dunn.)
Grey-haired unawares
Among the reminders and remonstrances which it was the mission of the prophet, the son of Beeri, in the days of Ahaz and Hezekiah, to deliver to Ephraim, there was this significant passage, expressive of a reckless peoples unconscious decline, whose lapses were taken account of on high, and Ephraim knew it not--Yea, grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. Who, asks Hartley Coleridge, ever saw their first grey hairs, or marked the crow feet at the angle of the eyes, without a sigh or a tear, a momentaneous self-abasement, a sudden sinking of the soul, a thought that youth is fled for ever? None but the blessed few that, having dedicated the spring of their life to heaven, behold in the shedding of their vernal blossoms a promise that the season of immortal fruit is near. Grey hairs, in an advancing stage of the plural number, may be here and there upon us before we know of it. But the actual discovery of the first is a bit of an epoch in ones life; and if one exclaims, Eureka! it is hardly in the most jubilant of tones, or the most exultant of tempers. It is among the graver of his recreations that a clerical essayist pictures to himself, man or woman, thoughtful, earnest, and pious, sitting down and musing at the sight of the first grey hairs. Here is the slight shadow, he puts it, of a certain great event which is to come; the earliest touch of a chili hand that must prevail at length. Here is manifest decay; we have begun to die. (Francis Jacox, B. A.)
Signs of spiritual declension
We note such as may be found in the individual life.
I. Some of the signs of spiritual decay. They are not numerous and obtrusive, betokening one ripe for the grave, but the grey hairs are here and there, requiring some attention ere we are aware of them.
1. There is the growth of the critical temper. There is a critical temper which is no sign of health. It is a ready fault-finding. Hosea accuses the people of outspoken and defiant unbelief; he stretched out his hand with scorners. That was the ending and consummation of apostasy; but the beginning was the hinted dislike, the cool acquiescence, the captious criticism, the inclination to see spots in the sun, to pick holes in sacred things. The habit of criticism grows as faith declines.
2. An abatement of feeling. A sincere, consecrated soul is full of feeling, emotion, intensity. It regards the good and beautiful with enthusiasm, the evil and ugly with abhorrence. But it is possible for the most intense Christian soul to lose its sensibility and to become callous. And such a process of hardening may be very gradual. There is a creeping moral paralysis.
3. A relaxed conscience. Hosea saw in Ephraim luxury, profligacy, license, idolatry--things they had learned from the pagan. In this direction we too must watch for signs of degeneration. There may be no overt act of iniquity whilst the process of deterioration is still going on. We hear it said of a Christian man, he is not as particular as he used to be. That often means that grey hairs are seen upon them. Any practical antinomianism is a sure sign of spiritual decay.
4. An increased leaning to the worldly side of life. The world grows upon us, its interests, its friendships, its pleasures. Men choke the higher life with the lust of gold, they strangle it with silken cords of fashion and pleasure; and the gold that chokes is taken in small doses, the cord that strangles is woven a thread at a time. Grey hairs have a tendency to multiply quickly, and secret venial weaknesses may precipitate flagrant backsliding.
II. We may be quite unconscious of the mischief. The complaint, he knoweth it not, is repeated with an air of surprise. Men are often unconscious of the decay of their physical powers and mental faculties. It is the same with men morally and spiritually--conscience, faith, feeling, hope, and aspiration decline, and yet they go on as confidently as ever. How do men resist the teaching of the grey hairs?
1. They make light of them. It is quite a humorous event, those first grey hairs. But for all the merriment it is a pathetic signal. So men talk away and smile away the first signs of spiritual declension.
2. They pull out the grey hairs; resolutely refusing to look at the fact of growing weakness and age. There is a corresponding mood to this in the spiritual life. Whenever disquieting signs appear, we absolutely decline to give them a place in our thoughts.
3. Sometimes the grey hairs are hidden. People are very clever in hiding the warning hints of nature. So we have ingenious ways of hiding from ourselves and passing over the ominous signs of a weakened faith, an impaired conscience, a declining spirituality, a less strenuous Christian life. We enlarge upon our excelling good, instead of noting the exceptional and unusual evil which, spreading, may spoil all.
4. Perhaps we give the grey hairs another colour. We are masters in these days of capillary chromatics. The tokens of decay are turned into things of beauty and pride. And we often give to the signs of spiritual decay another colour. We do not call our carping criticism of revelation unbelief; we dub it an open mind. We do not brand our coolness and insensibility as indifference; we know it as the philosophic mind. We do not call our carnal compliances walking after the flesh; we are getting rid of puritanism. Christian men transfigure the very signs of their backsliding, and glory in the things which ought to fill them with concern (W. L. Watkinson.)
The unobserved grey hairs
Take the text--
I. Literally.
1. Grey hairs excite our admiration. Beautiful arrangement of Providence--that old age should be spent in sitting still and taking life easily. The first years of a mans life are spent in weakness. Why? That he may prepare himself--physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually--for the life that lies before him. So also the last years. Age resembles childhood as sunset resembles sunrise.
2. Grey hairs are matter for gratitude. Life is like a table-land: many die in descending the slope from birth to the age of thirty; many more in walking along the level plain from thirty to fifty; few live to descend the slope on the other side.
3. Grey hairs are matter for serious contemplation. It is an awful pity, said Sir Thomas Smith, Queen Elizabeths Secretary of State, that so few men know for what purpose they came into the world until they are ready to go out of it.
4. Grey hairs are matter for searching of heart. Opportunities wasted: the final opportunity almost gone.
II. Figuratively. The folly of neglecting lifes warnings.
1. We ought not to need special warnings.
(1) Reason speaks to us. We know that as surely as night crones after day and autumn follows summer, so death follows life and eternity time.
(2) Observation and experience speak to us. The noise of weeping is in palace and hovel: old and young, good and evil, fair and frail go in steady procession to the grave.
(3) Revelation warns us that it is appointed unto man once to die, etc.
2. Yet the gradualness of lifes transitions renders these special messengers acceptable. And experience proves them necessary. Our clock, says Carlyle, strikes when there is a change from hour to hour; but no hammer in the horologue of time peals through the universe when there is a change from era to era. The transitions of our lives from one stage to the next are wrought in similar silence. They are hardly perceptible. And yet--to-day, to-morrow, and the next day, and in all its vivid reality, the sea of glass and the eternal shore will burst upon us. In view of the gradualness of this progress to eternity, and the certainty of our destiny, we may be grateful for the reminder of grey hairs.
3. The angels of God come to us with silent footsteps. Grey hairs are the first faint streaks of the morning; but then, what will that morning mean to us?
III. Spiritually. A neglected Bible, listlessness in prayer, coldness towards the Master, indifference towards sin, the shunning of Christian companionships, carelessness as to attendance at the house of God, callousness as to the eternal welfare of others,--these are grey hairs that appear upon us, but we neither notice them, nor the fearful declension of which they tell. One day I met a man of eighty. I said: My friend, will you not truss the Saviour? No, no, he answered; Im too old, too old! The very next day I met a youth of sixteen. My friend, I said again, will you not trust the Saviour? No, no, he answered; Im too young, too young! And betwixt that too old and that too young we all go dancing to our everlasting doom. What a strain on the mercy of God! (F. W. Boreham)
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Hoariness was upon man
Some understand by this that the Israelites were not improved by long succession of years, by advance of age. But the prophet rather expresses the greatness of their calamities, when he says, hoariness was sprinkled over him. When any one is grievously pained and afflicted, he becomes hoary through the very pressure of evils. Israel had been visited with so many evils that he was worn out, as it were, with old age; the prophet intimates that the diseases which prevailed among the people of Israel were incurable, for they could by no remedies be brought to repentance. (John Calvin.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 7:9 foreign gods (literally foreigners): Israel’s political involvement with…
7:9 foreign gods (literally foreigners): Israel’s political involvement with foreign nations had harmed their spiritual well-being.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.