{"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":14,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Take with you words--instead of sacrifices, namely, the words of penitence here put in your mouths by God. \"Words,\" in Hebrew, mean \"realities,\" there being the same term for \"words\" and \"things\"; so God implies, He will not accept empty professions (Psa 78:36; Isa 29:13). He does not ask costly sacrifices, but words of heartfelt penitence. \n\nreceive us graciously--literally \"(for) good.\" \n\ncalves of our lips--that is, instead of sacrifices of calves, which we cannot offer to Thee in exile, we present the praises of our lips. Thus the exile, wherein the temple service ceased, prepared the way for the gospel time when the types of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament being realized in Christ's perfect sacrifice once for all, \"the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips\" (Heb 13:14) takes their place in the New Testament.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Three besetting sins of Israel are here renounced, trust in Assyria, application to Egypt for its cavalry (forbidden, Deu 17:16; compare Hos 7:11; Hos 11:5; Hos 12:1; Kg2 17:4; Psa 33:17; Isa 30:2, Isa 30:16; Isa 31:1), and idolatry. \n\nfatherless--descriptive of the destitute state of Israel, when severed from God, their true Father. We shall henceforth trust in none but Thee, the only Father of the fatherless, and Helper of the destitute (Psa 10:14; Psa 68:5); our nation has experienced Thee such in our helpless state in Egypt, and now in a like state again our only hope is Thy goodness.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["God's gracious reply to their self-condemning prayer. \n\nbacksliding--apostasy: not merely occasional backslidings. God can heal the most desperate sinfulness [CALVIN]. \n\nfreely--with a gratuitous, unmerited, and abundant love (Eze 16:60-63). So as to the spiritual Israel (Joh 15:16; Rom 3:24; Rom 5:8; Jo1 4:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["as the dew--which falls copiously in the East, taking the place of the more frequent rains in other regions. God will not be \"as the early dew that goeth away,\" but constant (Hos 6:3-4; Job 29:19; Pro 19:12). \n\nthe lily--No plant is more productive than the lily, one root often producing fifty bulbs [PLINY, Natural History, 21.5]. The common lily is white, consisting of six leaves opening like bells. The royal lily grows to the height of three or four feet; Mat 6:29 alludes to the beauty of its flowers. \n\nroots as Lebanon--that is, as the trees of Lebanon (especially the cedars), which cast down their roots as deeply as is their height upwards; so that they are immovable [JEROME], (Isa 10:34). Spiritual growth consists most in the growth of the root which is out of sight.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["branches--shoots, or suckers. \n\nbeauty . . . as the olive--which never loses its verdure. One plant is not enough to express the graces of God's elect people. The lily depicts its lovely growth; but as it wants duration and firmness, the deeply rooted cedars of Lebanon are added; these, however, are fruitless, therefore the fruitful, peace-bearing, fragrant, ever green olive is added. \n\nsmell as Lebanon--which exhaled from it the fragrance of odoriferous trees and flowers. So Israel's name shall be in good savor with all (Gen 27:27; Sol 4:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["They that used to dwell under Israel's shadow (but who shall have been forced to leave it), shall return, that is, be restored (Eze 35:9). Others take \"His shadow\" to mean Jehovah's (compare Psa 17:8; Psa 91:1; Isa 4:6), which Hos 14:1-2 (\"return unto the Lord,\" &c.) favor. But the \"his\" in Hos 14:6 refers to Israel, and therefore must refer to the same here. \n\nrevive as . . . corn--As the corn long buried in the earth springs up, with an abundant produce, so shall they revive from their calamities, with a great increase of offspring (compare Joh 12:24). \n\nscent thereof--that is, Israel's fame. Compare Hos 14:6, \"His smell as Lebanon\"; Sol 1:3 : \"Thy name is as ointment poured forth.\" The Septuagint favors the Margin, \"memorial.\" \n\nas the wine of Lebanon--which was most celebrated for its aroma, flavor, and medicinal restorative properties.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Ephraim shall say--being brought to penitence by God's goodness, and confessing and abhorring his past madness. \n\nI have heard . . . and observed him--I Jehovah have answered and regarded him with favor; the opposite of God's \"hiding His face from\" one (Deu 31:17). It is the experience of God's favor, in contrast to God's wrath heretofore, that leads Ephraim to abhor his past idolatry. Jehovah heard and answered: whereas the idols, as Ephraim now sees, could not hear, much less answer. \n\nI am . . . a green fir--or cypress; ever green, winter and summer alike; the leaves not falling off in winter. \n\nFrom me is thy fruit found--\"From Me,\" as the root. Thou needest go no farther than Me for the supply of all thy wants; not merely the protection implied by the shadow of the cypress, but that which the cypress has not, namely, fruit, all spiritual and temporal blessings. It may be also implied, that whatever spiritual graces Ephraim seeks for or may have, are not of themselves, but of God (Psa 1:3; Joh 15:4-5, Joh 15:8; Jam 1:17). God's promises to us are more our security for mortifying sin than our promises to God (Isa 27:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["EPILOGUE, summing up the whole previous teaching. Here alone Hosea uses the term \"righteous,\" so rare were such characters in his day. There is enough of saving truth clear in God's Word to guide those humbly seeking salvation, and enough of difficulties to confound those who curiously seek them out, rather than practically seek salvation. \n\nfall--stumble and are offended at difficulties opposed to their prejudices and lusts, or above their self-wise understanding (compare Pro 10:29; Mic 2:7; Mat 11:19; Luk 2:34; Joh 7:17; Pe1 2:7-8). To him who sincerely seeks the agenda, God will make plain the credenda. Christ is the foundation-stone to some: a stone of stumbling and rock of offense to others. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. But their fall is the most fatal who fall in the ways of God, split on the Rock of ages, and suck poison out of the Balm of Gilead.\n\n\n\n\n\nNext: Joel Introduction\n\n"]}],"introduction":"GOD'S PROMISE OF BLESSING, ON THEIR REPENTANCE: THEIR ABANDONMENT OF IDOLATRY FORETOLD: THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE, THE JUST SHALL WALK IN GOD'S WAYS, BUT THE TRANSGRESSOR SHALL FALL THEREIN. (Hos 14:1-9)\n\nfallen by thine iniquity-- (Hos 5:5; Hos 13:9).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/14.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":14},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOL/1.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOL","chapter":1},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/13.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":13},"numberOfVerses":8}