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4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.

6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.

8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

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Ephraim reproved for]

CHAP. XII.

HOSEA.

EPHRAIM feedeth on wind, and

followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

2 The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:

4 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with

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[deceit and injustice.

8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am be come rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me, that weresin. 9 And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet inake thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feasts.

10 I have also spoken by the pro phets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.

11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altar are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

13 And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him, (M)

EXPOSITION-Chap. XI. Continued.

pect changes. Beams of mercy break from the clouds just now fraught with vengeance. God, to speak in the language of meu, feels the relentings of a tender parent -his bowels yearn,-his mercy triumphs, -his rebellious child shall yet be pardoned. As the lion of the tribe of Judah, he will exert his power to save his people. He will call his children from the land of their captivity and dispersion, and with the swiftness of doves they will fly to him, a faithful and a holy people.-This prophecy was partly fulfilled in consequence of Cyrus's decree, but in its fullest extent remains to be accomplished in the future

restoration of the Jews to their own land." (Dr. Jn. Smith.)

CHAP. XII.

(M) Israel and Judah reproved, and 82horted to repentance, by a recollection of God's special mercies.-God compares dangerous and unprofitable pursuits ef Ephraim to his feeding upon the wind-the pestilential east wind.

Addressing Jacob, the Lord adverts t his natural cunning in supplanting Esau; and contrasts with this bis subsequent piety, when "as a prince" he had power over the angel of the covenant at Peniel. This,

NOTES.

CHAP. XII. Ver. 1. Ephraim feedeth on.... the east wind.-To feed on the wind, is to feed on that which is unsubstantial; to feed on the east wind, is to feed on what is noxious and dangerous; see Note on Job vv. 2.-Oil is carried into Egypt-to assist 1, the idolatrous illuminations of the Nile. Harmer. r. 2. Will punish-Heb. “Will visit upon." 3. He took his brother by the heel.-See Gen. -He had power with God.-Gen. xxxii. 28. 1. Ile found him in Bethel.-Gen. xxxv. 9, 10. 5. The Lord is his memorial. - Exod. iii. 15. God's memorial; his appropriate, perpetual, sunicable name, expressing his essence." Torsley. Compare Expos. and N., Gen. xxxii. 2.7. He is a merchant-or Canaanite, or traf

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ticker. The balances - Compare ver. 3-t loveth to oppress-Marg. To deceive." Ver. 8. In all my labours, &c.--. Marg. "Alla labours suffice me not: he shall have punishment ës iniquity in whom is (found) sin."

Ver. 10. And used similitudes-by the min (Heb. "hand") of the prophets. "In other weat I have employed types, or parables, to conves, a sensible manner to their thoughts, my purposes ward them." Bp. Chandler, who quotes the Rabb Jarchi and Kimchi, to the same effect.

Ver. 11. As heaps in the furrows-that is, so

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CHAP. XIII.

CHAP. XIII.

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is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there

WHEN Ephraim spake trembling, will I devour them like a lion : the wild

he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. 2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away; as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

4 Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.

5 I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion as a leopard by the way will I observe them:

8 I will meet them as a bear that

beast shall tear them.

9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. 12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

EXPOSITION.

says Bp. Horsley, is "no other than he whom the patriarch found at Bethel, who there spake with the Israelites in the loins of their progenitor. He, whom the Patriarch found at Bethel,.... was, by the tenor of the context, the antagonist with whom he was matched at Peniel;.... and who wrestled with the patriarch in the human form. The conflict was no sooner ended,

than the patriarch acknowledged his antagonist as God.... And to make the assertion of this person's Godhead, if possible, still more unequivocal, he adds, that to him belonged, as his appropriate memorial, that name which is declarative of the very essence of the Godhead-JEHOVAH is his Memorial." (See Gen. xxxii. 24-30.)

NOTES.

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Ver. 12. Bound up.-See Job. xiv. 17.

I

Ver. 13. Stay long-Heb. "Any time;" i, e. loiter and besitate in his decision. I Kings xviii. 21. Ver. 14. From the power-Heb. "hand." will be thy plagues - Literally, "Thy sentence." The plague was understood to come immediately from God. St. Paul refers to this passage, 1 Cor. xv. 55. Repentance shall be hid-that is, I will not repent of this decree.

Ver. 15. An east wind-the east wind was blighting and drying.-See Ezek. xix. 12.--The wind of the Lord-that is, a wind specially sent by him. See Ps. Ixvii. 33.-Pleasant vessels-Heb. "Vessels of desire."

Ver. 16. They shall fall by the sword.-Comp 2 Chron. xxv. 13.

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13 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they slall return to Egypt,

14 For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. (H)

CHAP. IX.

REJOICE not, O Israel, for joy, as other people for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every corn-floor.

2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her,

3 They shall not dwell in the LORD's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted for their bread for their

CHAP. VIII.

[and misery

soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.

5 What will ye do in the solema day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction; Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be i their tabernacles.

7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; l rael shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

8 The watchman of Ephraim wai with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

9 They have deeply corrupted the selves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their inquity, he will visit their sins.

10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig tree at her first time but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame;

EXPOSITION.

(H) Farther threatenings for impiety. This chapter begins with threatening an invasion from the Assyrians, who should pounce on Israel like an eagle; so did Shalmanezer, 2 Kings xvii. 3-6. And wherefore this?-For their hypocrisy, iniquity and idolatry; particularly the worshipping the golden calves of Dan and Bethel. The folly and unprofitableness of pursuing evil courses is then set forth in brief, but very emphatic terms. The labour of the wicked is vain, like sowing of the wind; and the fruit of it destructive as the whirlwind; like corn blighted in the bud, their toil produces no increase, or

if it should have a little, their enemies should devour it. Themselves also shall suffer the same fate; and be treated by the nations (Assyria and Egypt) as the vile shreds of a useless broken vessel. Nor have they the plea of ignorauce-God had written to them the great things of his law, but they counted them strange. All their taste was for foreign gods and foreign altars: they shall go therefore where they shall see no others; and sigh in vain for those of Zion. (See 2 Kings xvi. 10.) The last words predict the burning of Jerusalem, after reproving the bouse of Judah for their confidence in their own strength.

NOTES.

CHAP. IX. Ver. 4. The bread of mourners-coarse and scanty; "the bread of affliction." Ps. Ixxx. 5. All food became polluted in the house where death entered. Numb. xix. 14.-The bread for their soul -that is, their meat offering.

Ver.6. The pleasant places for their silver-Newcome, "(Purchased) with their silver."

Ver. 7. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad:-there being no verb in the original, Newcome and others render this verse, which doubtless refers to the false prophets, in the past tense," Was foolish,

was mad."--The great hatred which they had to the house of God, ver. 8.

Ver.8. The watchman of Epkreim-the true prophet, Ezek. iii. 17 — The prophet-that is, the false prophet (as in ver. 7) is a short; a perpetus snare to the people. And hatred in-Newcome &c. "Against." The false prophets preferred the idolatrous worship of the high places to the sacred altar at Jerusalem. This was evidently brace the captivity. Mr. Townsend places it B. C. 725.

Ver. 9. The days of Gibeah. See Judges xix. 1.

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