{"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":12,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["controversy with Judah-- (Hos 4:1; Mic 6:2). Judah, under Ahaz, had fallen into idolatry (Kg2 16:3, &c.). \n\nJacob--that is, the ten tribes. If Judah, the favored portion of the nation, shall not be spared, much less degenerate Israel.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["He--Jacob, contrasted with his degenerate descendants, called by his name, Jacob (Hos 12:2; compare Mic 2:7). He took Esau by the heel in the womb in order to obtain, if possible, the privileges of the first-born (Gen 25:22-26), whence he took his name, Jacob, meaning \"supplanter\"; and again, by his strength, prevailed in wrestling with God for a blessing (Gen 32:24-29); whereas ye disregard My promises, putting your confidence in idols and foreign alliances. He conquered God, ye are the slaves of idols. Only have Jehovah on your side, and ye are stronger than Edom, or even Assyria. So the spiritual Israel lays hold of the heel of Jesus, \"the First-born of many brethren,\" being born again of the Holy Spirit. Having no right in themselves to the inheritance, they lay hold of the bruised heel, the humanity of Christ crucified, and let not go their hold of Him who is not, as Esau, a curse (Heb 12:16-17), but, by becoming a curse for us, is a blessing to us. \n\npower with God--referring to his name, \"Israel,\" prince of God, acquired on that occasion (compare Mat 11:12). As the promised Canaan had to be gained forcibly by Israel, so heaven by the faithful (Rev 3:21; compare Luk 13:24). \"Strive,\" literally, \"as in the agony of a contest.\" So the Canaanitess (Mat 15:22). \n\nhis strength--which lay in his conscious weakness, whence, when his thigh was put out of joint by God, he hung upon Him. To seek strength was his object; to grant it, God's. Yet God's mode of procedure was strange. In human form He tries as it were to throw Jacob down. When simple wrestling was not enough, He does what seems to ensure Jacob's fall, dislocating his thigh joint, so that he could no longer stand. Yet it was then that Jacob prevailed. Thus God teaches us the irresistible might of conscious weakness. For when weak in ourselves, we are strong by His strength put in us (Job 23:6; Isa 27:5; Co2 12:9-10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["the angel--the uncreated Angel of the Covenant, as God the Son appears in the Old Testament (Mal 3:1). \n\nmade supplication-- Gen 32:26; I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.\" \n\nhe found him--The angel found Jacob, when he was fleeing from Esau into Syria: the Lord appearing to him \"in Beth-el\" (Gen 28:11-19; Gen 35:1). What a sad contrast, that in this same Beth-el now Israel worships the golden calves! \n\nthere he spake with us--\"with us,\" as being in the loins of our progenitor Jacob (compare Psa 66:6, \"They . . . we;\" Heb 7:9-10). What God there spoke to Jacob appertains to us. God's promises to him belong to all his posterity who follow in the steps of his prayerful faith.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Lord God--JEHOVAH, a name implying His immutable constancy to His promises. From the Hebrew root, meaning \"existence.\" \"He that is, was, and is to be,\" always the same (Heb 13:8; Rev 1:4, Rev 1:8; compare Exo 3:14-15; Exo 6:3). As He was unchangeable in His favor to Jacob, so will He be to His believing posterity. \n\nof hosts--which Israel foolishly worshipped. Jehovah has all the hosts (saba) or powers of heaven and earth at His command, so that He is as all-powerful, as He is faithful, to fulfil His promises (Psa 135:6; Amo 5:27). \n\nmemorial--the name expressive of the character in which God was ever to be remembered (Psa 135:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["thou--who dost wish to be a true descendant of Jacob. \n\nto THY God--who is therefore bound by covenant to hear thy prayers. \n\nkeep mercy and judgment-- (Mic 6:8). These two include the second-table commandments, duty towards one's neighbor, the most visible test of the sincerity on one's repentance. \n\nwait on thy God--alone, not on thy idols. Including all the duties of the first table (Psa 37:3, Psa 37:5, Psa 37:7; Psa 40:1).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["merchant--a play on the double sense of the Hebrew, \"Canaan,\" that is, a Canaanite and a \"merchant\" Eze 16:3 : \"Thy birth is . . . of Canaan.\" They who naturally were descendants of pious Jacob had become virtually Canaanites, who were proverbial as cheating merchants (compare Isa 23:11, Margin), the greatest reproach to Israel, who despised Canaan. The Phœnicians called themselves Canaanites or merchants (Isa 23:8). \n\noppress--open violence: as the \"balances of deceit\" imply fraud.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["And--that is, Notwithstanding. \n\nYet I am . . . rich--I regard not what the prophets say: I am content with my state, as I am rich (Rev 3:17). Therefore, in just retribution, this is the very language of the enemy in being the instrument of Israel's punishment. Zac 11:5 : \"They that sell them say . . . I am rich.\" Far better is poverty with honesty, than riches gained by sin. \n\nmy labours--my gains by labor. \n\nthey shall find none--that is, none shall find any. \n\niniquity . . . that were sin--iniquity that would bring down the penalty of sin. Ephraim argues, My success in my labors proves that I am not a guilty sinner as the prophets assert. Thus sinners pervert God's long-suffering goodness (Mat 5:45) into a justification of their impenitence (compare Ecc 8:11-13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["And--rather, \"And yet.\" Though Israel deserves to be cast off for ever, yet I am still what I have been from the time of My delivering them out of Egypt, their covenant God; therefore, \"I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles,\" that is, to keep the feast of tabernacles again in remembrance of a new deliverance out of bondage. Fulfilled primarily at the return from Babylon (Neh 8:17). Fully and antitypically to be fulfilled at the final restoration from the present dispersion (Zac 14:16; compare Lev 23:42-43).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["by . . . the prophets--literally, \"upon,\" that is, My spirit resting on them. I deposited with them My instructions which ought to have brought you to the right way. An aggravation of your guilt, that it was not through ignorance you erred, but in defiance of God and His prophets [CALVIN]. Ahijah the Shilonite, Shemaiah, Iddo, Azariah, Hanani, Jehu, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, Joel, and Amos were \"the prophets\" before Hosea. \n\nvisions . . . similitudes--I adopted such modes of communication, adapted to man's capacities, as were calculated to arouse attention: I left no means untried to reform you. The first, second, and third chapters contain examples of \"similitudes.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Is there iniquity in Gilead?--He asks the question, not as if the answer was doubtful, but to strengthen the affirmation: \"Surely they are vanity\"; or as MAURER translates, \"They are nothing but iniquity.\" Iniquity, especially idolatry, in Scripture is often termed \"vanity.\" Pro 13:11 : \"Wealth gotten by vanity,\" that is, iniquity. Isa 41:29 : \"They are all vanity . . . images.\" \"Gilead\" refers to Mizpah-gilead, a city representing the region beyond Jordan (Hos 6:8; Jdg 11:29); as \"Gilgal,\" the region on this side of Jordan (Hos 4:15). In all quarters alike they are utterly vile. \n\ntheir altars are as heaps in the furrows--that is, as numerous as such heaps: namely, the heaps of stones cleared out of a stony field. An appropriate image, as at a distance they look like altars (compare Hos 10:1, Hos 10:4; Hos 8:11). As the third member in the parallelism answers to the first, \"Gilgal\" to \"Gilead,\" so the fourth to the second, \"altars\" to \"vanity.\" The word \"heaps\" alludes to the name \"Gilgal,\" meaning \"a heap of stones.\" The very scene of the general circumcision of the people, and of the solemn passover kept after crossing Jordan, is now the stronghold of Israel's idolatry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Jacob fled . . . served--Though ye pride yourselves on the great name of \"Israel,\" forget not that your progenitor was the same Jacob who was a fugitive, and who served for Rachel fourteen years. He forgot not ME who delivered him when fleeing from Esau, and when oppressed by Laban (Gen 28:5; Gen 29:20, Gen 29:28; Deu 26:5). Ye, though delivered from Egypt (Hos 12:13), and loaded with My favors, are yet unwilling to return to Me. \n\ncountry of Syria--the champaign region of Syria, the portion lying between the Tigris and Euphrates, hence called Mesopotamia. Padan-aram means the same, that is, \"Low Syria,\" as opposed to Aramea (meaning the \"high country\") or Syria (Gen 48:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["by a prophet--Moses (Num 12:6-8; Deu 18:15, Deu 18:18). \n\npreserved--Translate, \"kept\"; there is an allusion to the same Hebrew word in Hos 12:12, \"kept sheep\"; Israel was kept by God as His flock, even as Jacob kept sheep (Psa 80:1; Isa 63:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["provoked him--that is, God. \n\nleave his blood upon him--not take away the guilt and penalty of the innocent blood shed by Ephraim in general, and to Moloch in particular. \n\nhis reproach shall his Lord return unto him--Ephraim's dishonor to God in worshipping idols, God will repay to him. That God is \"his Lord\" by right redemption and special revelation to Ephraim only aggravates his guilt, instead of giving him hope of escape. God does not give up His claim to them as His, however they set aside His dominion.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Hosea Chapter 13\n\n"]}],"introduction":"REPROOF OF EPHRAIM AND JUDAH: THEIR FATHER JACOB OUGHT TO BE A PATTERN TO THEM. (Hos 12:1-14)\n\nThis prophecy was delivered about the time of Israel's seeking the aid of the Egyptian king So, in violation of their covenant with Assyria (see Hos 12:1). He exhorts them to follow their father Jacob's persevering prayerfulness, which brought God's favor upon him. As God is unchangeable, He will show the same favor to Jacob's posterity as He did to Jacob, if, like him, they seek God.\n\nfeedeth on wind-- (Pro 15:14; Isa 44:20). Followeth after vain objects, such as alliances with idolaters and their idols (compare Hos 8:7). \n\neast wind--the simoon, blowing from the desert east of Palestine, which not only does not benefit, but does injury. Israel follows not only things vain, but things pernicious (compare Job 15:2). \n\nincreaseth lies--accumulates lie upon lie, that is, impostures wherewith they deceive themselves, forsaking the truth of God. \n\ndesolation--violent oppressions practised by Israel [MAURER]. Acts which would prove the cause of Israel's own desolation [CALVIN]. \n\ncovenant with . . . Assyrians-- (Hos 5:13; Hos 7:11). \n\noil . . . into Egypt--as a present from Israel to secure Egypt's alliance (Isa 30:6; Isa 57:9; compare Kg2 17:4). Palestine was famed for oil (Eze 27:17).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/12.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":12},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/13.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":13},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/11.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":11},"numberOfVerses":13}