View Hosea 13 in the note window.
Israel reproved for idolatry and other sins, ver. 1 - 8.
Ruin foretold, yet with encouragement to hope, ver. 9 - 16.
1: Ephraim - The ten tribes, of which Ephraim was the chief.
Spake trembling - Humbled himself before God. Exalted himself - The
kingdom flourished. When he offended - So soon as they sinned, taking
Baal to be their God. He died - They lost their power and glory.
2: Of them - Of the idols. Let the man - Let all that bring their
offerings to these idols, worship and adore, and shew they do so by
kissing the calves.
4: Thou shalt know - I forbad thee to know any other God but me, in
gratitude thou shouldest know no other.
5: I did know - Owned, took care of, guided and supplied.
6: Their pasture - When they were come into Canaan, and had
abundance of all things, they ran into luxury. Was exalted - They
grew proud.
7: Observe them - Watch for them, that I might be sure to take them.
8: Rent - First kill, then tear in pieces, and pull out the very
heart.
10: Thy king - I would have been thy king to govern and save thee,
but thou refusedst me in both: yet I will be thy king to punish thee.
Thy judges - Where are they now?
And princes - Necessary to assist the king.
11: A king - Such as Shallum, Menahem, Pekah.
12: Is bound up - As sins unpardoned; for to loose sins is to forgive,
and to bind sins is to charge them upon the sinner, (Mt 16:19).
Hid - Not from God, but laid up with God against the day of recompense.
13: The sorrows - The punishment of his sins will overtake him
suddenly, with great anguish. An unwise son - A foolish son, who
endangers himself and his mother. He should not stay - As a child
that sticks in the birth, so is Ephraim, one while will, another
while will not return to God; and thus dies under the delay.
14: Ransom - By power and purchase, by the blood of the lamb of God,
and by the power of his Godhead. Them - That repent and believe.
From the grave - He conquered the grave, and will at the great day of
the resurrection open those prison - doors, and bring us out in glory.
From death - From the curse of the first death, and from the second death,
which shall have no power over us. Thy plagues - Thus I will destroy
death. I will pull down those prison - walls, and bring out all that
are confined therein, the bad of whom I will remove into other prisons,
the good I will restore to glorious liberty. Repentance shall be hid - I
will never, as a man that repenteths, change my word and purpose, saith
the Lord. What a glorious promise is this, which is interposed in the
midst of all these judgments!
15: He - Ephraim. His brethren - Either the rest of the tribes,
or the nations who by league are become as his brethren.
An east - wind - An enemy as pernicious to his estate as the east - wind is to
fruits. Of the Lord - A mighty enemy, called here the wind of the Lord,
the usual superlative in Hebrew. The wilderness - Which lay south - east
from Canaan. The south - east winds in that country were of all, most
hot and blasting. He - The Assyrian army. Shall spoil - Shall carry
away all desirable vessels and furniture.
