View Hosea 1 in the note window.
The general title of the book, ver. 1.
He is to convince them of their whoreing against God, by marrying a
wife of whoredoms, ver. 2, 3.
He is to foretell their ruin, by the names of his sons, ver. 4 - 9.
He intimates, that God still had mercy in store for them, ver. 10, 11.
2: Go take - This was, probably, done in vision, and was to be told
to the people, as other visions were: it was parabolically proposed to
them, and might have been sufficient to convince the Jews, would they
have considered it, as David considered Nathan's parable.
A wife of whoredoms and children - Receive and maintain the children she
had before.
4: The blood - The slaughters made by Jehu's hand or by his order,
in Jezreel. The house of Jehu - Which had now possessed the throne,
through the reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoash, and Jeroboam; but the
usurper, and his successors adhering to the idolatry of Jeroboam the
son of Nebat, and adding other sins to it, had now provoked God to
declare a sudden extirpation of the family: all this came to pass when
Shallum conspiring against Zechariah, slew him, (2Ki 15:8-10).
The kingdom - After one and forty years tottering it fell to utter ruin
and hath so continued to this day.
5: At that day - When my vengeance hath overtaken the house of
Jehu. Break - Weaken and by degrees quite break. The bow - All
their warlike provision, power and skill. Jezreel - In this valley it
is probable the bloodiest battles in the civil wars were fought; the
reason whereof might be, because whoever carried the victory in this
place, were soon masters of Samaria and Jezreel, and consequently
of the kingdom.
6: Lo - ruhamah - Not pitied. Israel's name had been through many
ages Ruhamah, that is, pitied. God had pitied them, and saved them
from their enemies. But now Israel should be no more pitied, God
would throw them up to the rage of usurpers, and conspirators.
7: Save them - I will preserve them, that violence do not swallow
them up, nor length of captivity wear them out; and this preserved
remnant shall return and be planted in their own land, and there kept
in safety. By the Lord - Particularly in that extraordinary deliverance
of Hezekiah and Jerusalem, from Sennacherib.
9: Loammi - That is, not my people. Tho' once you were a
peculiar people, you are so no more; you are cast off as you deserved.
I will not be your God - I will be a God to you, no more than to any of
the Heathen nations. This God executed when he gave them up into the
hands of Salmaneser, who sent them where none now can find them.
10: The children of Israel - Not Israel after the flesh, not those
very families that are carried captive. In the place - In those places,
were a people dwelt who were not his people, there shall be a people of
God. The living God - Who is the fountain of life to all his children,
and who enables them to offer living sacrifices to the living God.
11: Then - This verse has both an historical and a spiritual sense;
the one referring to the return out of Babylon, the other to a more
glorious deliverance from a more miserable captivity. Judah - The two
tribes, who adhered to the house of David. Israel - Some of the ten
tribes who were incorporated with the kingdom of Judah, and so carried
captive with them. But this is spiritually to be understood of the
whole Israel of God. One head - Zerubbabel, who was appointed by
Cyrus, yet with full approbation of the people. And so Christ is
appointed by the Father, head of his church, whom believers heartily
accept. Come up - Literally out of Babylon, spiritually out of
captivity to sin and to Satan. Great - Good, joyous and comfortable.
Of Jezreel - Israel is here called Jezreel, the seed of God.
This seed is now sown in the earth, and buried under the clods; but
great shall be its day, when the harvest comes. Great was the day
of the church, when there were daily added to it such as should be
saved.
