{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"HOS","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Hosea","commonName":"Hosea","introduction":"THE first of the twelve minor prophets in the order of the canon (called \"minor,\" not as less in point of inspired authority, but simply in point of size). The twelve are first mentioned by Jesus, the son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus 49:10). St. Stephen, in Act 7:42 (in referring to Amo 5:27), quotes them as forming one collective body of writings, \"the book of the prophets.\" So JEROME and MELITO, the first Greek father who has left us a catalogue of these books. The collection of the sacred books is by Jewish tradition attributed to the great synagogue of learned scribes formed by Ezra. Many think Nehemiah completed this collection by adding to the books already in the canon those of his own times. Malachi, the last in the series, probably aided him in determining with infallible authority what books were entitled to be ranked in the inspired canon. The chronological order differs from the canonical. Joel, about 810 B.C.; Jonah, about 810 B.C., or, as others, first, 862 B.C.; Amos, about 790 B.C.; Hosea, about 784 B.C. Hosea, the contemporary of Isaiah, Micah, and Amos, seems to have entered on his prophetical office in the last years of Jeroboam (contemporary in part with Uzziah), and to have ended it in the beginning of Hezekiah's reign, 722 B.C., that is, about sixty years in all, from 784 B.C. to 722 B.C. The prophets, however, were not uninterruptedly engaged in prophesying. Considerable intervals elapsed, though their office as divinely commissioned public teachers was never wholly laid aside. The Book of Hosea which we have constitutes only that portion of his public teachings which the Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve for the benefit of the Church. The cause of his being placed first of the twelve was, probably, the length, the vivid earnestness, and patriotism of his prophecies, as well as their closer resemblance to those of the greater prophets. His style is abrupt, sententious, and unrounded; the connecting particles are few; there are changes of person, and anomalies of gender, number, and construction. His name means Salvation. He was son of Beeri, of the tribe of Issachar, born in Beth-shemesh [JEROME]. His mention, in the inscription, of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, is no proof that he belonged to Judah: for the prophets in Israel regarded its separation from Judah, civil as well as religious, as an apostasy from God, who promised the dominion of the theocracy to the line of David. Hence Elijah in Israel took twelve stones to represent Judah, as well as Israel (Kg1 18:31). Hence Hosea dates from Judah's kings, as well as from Jeroboam of Israel, though he belonged to Israel, with whose sins and fate his book is chiefly occupied. He, however, makes incidental references to Judah. His first prophecy foretells the overthrow of Jehu's house, fulfilled on the death of Jeroboam, Jehu's great-grandson (Kg2 15:12), in Zachariah, Jeroboam's son, the fourth and last from Jehu, conspired against by Shallum. This first prediction was doubtless in Jeroboam's life, as Zachariah, his son, was only suffered to reign six months; thus the inscription is verified that \"the word of the Lord came unto him in the days of Jeroboam\" (Hos 1:1). Again, in Hos 10:14, Shalmaneser's expedition against Israel is alluded to as past, that is, the first inroad against King Hoshea, who began to reign in the twelfth year of Ahaz; so that as Ahaz' whole reign was sixteen years, the prophecy seems to have been given about the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. Thus the inscription is confirmed that the exercise of his prophetical functions was of such a protracted duration.\n\nHosea (Hos 11:1) is quoted in Mat 2:15; also Hos 6:6 in Mat 9:13; Mat 12:7; compare Rom 9:25-26, quoting Hos 1:10; Hos 2:1, Hos 2:23; Co1 15:55, quoting Hos 13:14; Pe1 2:10, quoting Hos 1:9-10; Hos 2:23. Messianic references are not frequent; but the predictions of the future conversion of Israel to the Lord their God, and David their king, and of the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that his spiritual seed should be as the sand of the sea (Hos 1:10; Hos 3:5), clearly refer to the New Testament dispensation.\n\nThe first and third chapters are in prose, the rest of the book is rhythmical. \n\n\n\nNext: Hosea Chapter 1\n\n","order":28,"numberOfChapters":14,"sha256":"5e42d4aa9dac6f16a101b90c3b192f5999d67bedbf1535a0de2ab14bf9b0b597","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":14,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/14.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":14},"totalNumberOfVerses":181},"chapter":{"number":11,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["As they called them--\"they,\" namely, monitors sent by Me. \"Called,\" in Hos 11:1, suggests the idea of the many subsequent calls by the prophets. \n\nwent from them--turned away in contempt (Jer 2:27). \n\nBaalim--images of Baal, set up in various places.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["taught . . . to go--literally \"to use his feet.\" Compare a similar image, Deu 1:31; Deu 8:2, Deu 8:5, Deu 8:15; Deu 32:10-11; Neh 9:21; Isa 63:9; Amo 2:10. God bore them as a parent does an infant, unable to supply itself, so that it has no anxiety about food, raiment, and its going forth. Act 13:18, which probably refers to this passage of Hosea; He took them by the arms, to guide them that they might not stray, and to hold them up that they might not stumble. \n\nknew not that I healed them--that is, that My design was to restore them spiritually and temporally (Exo 15:26).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["cords of a man--parallel to \"bands of love\"; not such cords as oxen are led by, but humane methods, such as men employ when inducing others, as for instance, a father drawing his child, by leading-strings, teaching him to go (Hos 11:1). \n\nI was . . . as they that take off the yoke on their jaws . . . I laid meat--as the humane husbandman occasionally loosens the straps under the jaws by which the yoke is bound on the neck of oxen and lays food before them to eat. An appropriate image of God's deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian yoke, and of His feeding them in the wilderness.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["He shall not return into . . . Egypt--namely, to seek help against Assyria (compare Hos 7:11), as Israel lately had done (Kg2 17:4), after having revolted from Assyria, to whom they had been tributary from the times of Menahem (Kg2 15:19). In a figurative sense, \"he shall return to Egypt\" (Hos 9:3), that is, to Egypt-like bondage; also many Jewish fugitives were literally to return to Egypt, when the Holy Land was to be in Assyrian and Chaldean hands. \n\nAssyrian shall be his king--instead of having kings of their own, and Egypt as their auxiliary. \n\nbecause they refused to return--just retribution. They would not return (spiritually) to God, therefore they shall not return (corporally) to Egypt, the object of their desire.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["abide--or, \"fall upon\" [CALVIN]. \n\nbranches--villages, which are the branches or dependencies of the cities [CALVIN]. GROTIUS translates, \"his bars\" (so Lam 2:9), that is, the warriors who were the bulwarks of the state. Compare Hos 4:18, \"rulers\" (Margin), \"shields\" (Psa 47:9). \n\nbecause of their own counsels--in worshipping idols, and relying on Egypt (compare Hos 10:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["bent to backsliding--Not only do they backslide, and that too from ME, their \"chief good,\" but they are bent upon it. Though they (the prophets) called them (the Israelites) to the Most High (from their idols), \"none would exalt (that is, extol or honor) Him.\" To exalt God, they must cease to be \"bent on backsliding,\" and must lift themselves upwards.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["as Admah . . . Zeboim--among the cities, including Sodom and Gomorrah, irretrievably overthrown (Deu 29:23). \n\nheart is turned within me--with the deepest compassion, so as not to execute My threat (Lam 1:20; compare Gen 43:30; Kg1 3:26). So the phrase is used of a new turn given to the feeling (Psa 105:25). \n\nrepentings--God speaks according to human modes of thought (Num 23:19). God's seeming change is in accordance with His secret everlasting purpose of love to His people, to magnify His grace after their desperate rebellion.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["I will not return to destroy Ephraim--that is I will no more, as in past times, destroy Ephraim. The destruction primarily meant is probably that by Tiglath-pileser, who, as the Jewish king Ahaz' ally against Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria, deprived Israel of Gilead, Galilee, and Naphtali (Kg2 15:29). The ulterior reference is to the long dispersion hereafter, to be ended by God's covenant mercy restoring His people, not for their merits, but of His grace. \n\nGod, . . . not man--not dealing as man would, with implacable wrath under awful provocation (Isa 55:7-9; Mal 3:6). I do not, like man, change when once I have made a covenant of everlasting love, as with Israel (Num 23:19). We measure God by the human standard, and hence are slow to credit fully His promises; these, however, belong to the faithful remnant, not to the obstinately impenitent. \n\nin the midst of thee--as peculiarly thy God (Exo 19:5-6). \n\nnot enter into the city--as an enemy: as I entered Admah, Zeboim, and Sodom, utterly destroying them, whereas I will not utterly destroy thee. Somewhat similarly JEROME: \"I am not one such as human dwellers in a city, who take cruel vengeance; I save those whom I correct.\" Thus \"not man,\" and \"in the midst of thee,\" are parallel to \"into the city.\" Though I am in the midst of thee, it is not as man entering a rebellious city to destroy utterly. MAURER needlessly translates, \"I will not come in wrath.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["he shall roar like a lion--by awful judgments on their foes (Isa 31:4; Jer 25:26-30; Joe 3:16), calling His dispersed \"children\" from the various lands of their dispersion. \n\nshall tremble--shall flock in eager agitation of haste. \n\nfrom the west-- (Zac 8:7). Literally, \"the sea.\" Probably the Mediterranean, including its \"isles of the sea,\" and maritime coast. Thus as Hos 11:11 specifies regions of Africa and Asia, so here Europe. Isa 11:11-16, is parallel, referring to the very same regions. On \"children,\" see Hos 1:10.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["tremble--flutter in haste. \n\ndove--no longer \"a silly dove\" (Hos 7:11), but as \"doves flying to their windows\" (Isa 60:8). \n\nin their houses-- (Eze 28:26). Literally, \"upon,\" for the Orientals live almost as much upon their flat-roofed houses as in them.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["MAURER joins this verse with the twelfth chapter. But as this verse praises Judah, whereas Hos 12:2 censures him, it must belong rather to the eleventh chapter and a new prophecy begins at the twelfth chapter. To avoid this, MAURER translates this verse as a censure, \"Judah wanders with God,\" that is, though having the true God, he wanders after false gods. \n\nruleth with God--to serve God is to reign. Ephraim wished to rule without God (compare Co1 4:8); nay, even, in order to rule, cast off God's worship [RIVETUS]. In Judah was the legitimate succession of kings and priests. \n\nwith the saints--the holy priests and Levites [RIVETUS]. With the fathers and prophets who handed down the pure worship of God. Israel's apostasy is the more culpable, as he had before him the good example of Judah, which he set at naught. The parallelism (\"with GOD\") favors Margin, \"With THE MOST HOLY ONE.\"\n\n\n\n\nNext: Hosea Chapter 12\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Hos 11:5 shows this prophecy was uttered after the league made with Egypt (Kg2 17:4))\n\nIsrael . . . called my son out of Egypt--BENGEL translates, \"From the time that he (Israel) was in Egypt, I called him My son,\" which the parallelism proves. So Hos 12:9 and Hos 13:4 use \"from . . . Egypt,\" for \"from the time that thou didst sojourn in Egypt.\" Exo 4:22 also shows that Israel was called by God, \"My son,\" from the time of his Egyptian sojourn (Isa 43:1). God is always said to have led or brought forth, not to have \"called,\" Israel from Egypt. Mat 2:15, therefore, in quoting this prophecy (typically and primarily referring to Israel, antitypically and fully to Messiah), applies it to Jesus' sojourn in Egypt, not His return from it. Even from His infancy, partly spent in Egypt, God called Him His son. God included Messiah, and Israel for Messiah's sake, in one common love, and therefore in one common prophecy. Messiah's people and Himself are one, as the Head and the body. Isa 49:3 calls Him \"Israel.\" The same general reason, danger of extinction, caused the infant Jesus, and Israel in its national infancy (compare Gen. 42:1-43:34; Gen 45:18; Gen 46:3-4; Eze 16:4-6; Jer 31:20) to sojourn in Egypt. So He, and His spiritual Israel, are already called \"God's sons\" while yet in the Egypt of the world.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/11.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":11},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/12.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":12},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/10.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":10},"numberOfVerses":11}