{"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":7,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["consider not in their hearts--literally \"say not to,\" &c. (Psa 14:1). \n\nthat I remember--and will punish. \n\ntheir own doings have beset them about--as so many witnesses against them (Psa 9:16; Pro 5:22). \n\nbefore my face-- (Psa 90:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Their princes, instead of checking, \"have pleasure in them that do\" such crimes (Rom 1:32).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["who ceaseth from raising--rather, \"heating\" it, from an Arabic root, \"to be hot.\" So the Septuagint. Their adulterous and idolatrous lust is inflamed as the oven of a baker who has it at such a heat that he ceaseth from heating it only from the time that he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened; he only needs to omit feeding it during the short period of the fermentation of the bread. Compare Pe2 2:14, \"that cannot cease from sin\" [HENDERSON].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["the day of our king--his birthday or day of inauguration. \n\nhave made him sick--namely, the king. MAURER translates, \"make themselves sick.\" \n\nwith bottles of wine--drinking not merely glasses, but bottles. MAURER translates, \"Owing to the heat of wine.\" \n\nhe stretched out his hand with scorners--the gesture of revellers in holding out the cup and in drinking to one another's health. Scoffers were the king's boon companions.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["they have made ready--rather, \"they make their heart approach,\" namely their king, in going to drink with him. \n\nlike an oven--following out the image in Hos 7:4. As it conceals the lighted fire all night while the baker sleeps but in the morning burns as a flaming fire, so they brood mischief in their hearts while conscience is lulled asleep, and their wicked designs wait only for a fair occasion to break forth [HORSLEY]. Their heart is the oven, their baker the ringleader of the plot. In Hos 7:7 their plots appear, namely, the intestine disturbances and murders of one king after another, after Jeroboam II.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["all hot--All burn with eagerness to cause universal disturbance (2Ki. 15:1-38). \n\ndevoured their judges--magistrates; as the fire of the oven devours the fuel. \n\nall their kings . . . fallen--See on Hos 7:1. \n\nnone . . . calleth unto me--Such is their perversity that amid all these national calamities, none seeks help from Me (Isa 9:13; Isa 64:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["mixed . . . among the people--by leagues with idolaters, and the adoption of their idolatrous practices (Hos 7:9, Hos 7:11; Psa 106:35). \n\nEphraim . . . cake not turned--a cake burnt on one side and unbaked on the other, and so uneatable; an image of the worthlessness of Ephraim. The Easterners bake their bread on the ground, covering it with embers (Kg1 19:6), and turning it every ten minutes, to bake it thoroughly without burning it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Strangers--foreigners: the Syrians and Assyrians (Kg2 13:7; Kg2 15:19-20; Kg2 17:3-6). \n\ngray hairs--that is, symptoms of approaching national dissolution. \n\nare here and there upon--literally, \"are sprinkled on\" him. \n\nyet he knoweth not--Though old age ought to bring with it wisdom, he neither knows of his senile decay, nor has the true knowledge which leads to reformation.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Repetition of Hos 5:5. \n\nnot return to . . . Lord . . . for all this--notwithstanding all their calamities (Isa 9:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["like a silly dove--a bird proverbial for simplicity: easily deceived. \n\nwithout heart--that is, understanding. \n\ncall to Egypt--Israel lying between the two great rival empires Egypt and Assyria, sought each by turns to help her against the other. As this prophecy was written in the reign of Hoshea, the allusion is probably to the alliance with So or Sabacho II (of which a record has been found on the clay cylindrical seals in Koyunjik), which ended in the overthrow of Hoshea and the deportation of Israel (Kg2 17:3-6). As the dove betrays its foolishness by fleeing in alarm from its nest only to fall into the net of the fowler, so Israel, though warned that foreign alliances would be their ruin, rushed into them.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["When they shall go--to seek aid from this or that foreign state. \n\nspread my net upon them--as on birds taken on the ground (Eze 12:13), as contrasted with \"bringing them down\" as the \"fowls of the heavens,\" namely, by the use of missiles. \n\nas their congregation hath heard--namely, by My prophets through whom I threatened \"chastisement\" (Hos 5:9; Kg2 17:13-18).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["fled--as birds from their nest (Pro 27:8; Isa 16:2). \n\nme--who both could and would have healed them (Hos 7:1), had they applied to Me. \n\nredeemed them--from Egypt and their other enemies (Mic 6:4). \n\nlies-- (Psa 78:36; Jer 3:10). Pretending to be My worshippers, when they all the while worshipped idols (Hos 7:14; Hos 12:1); also defrauding Me of the glory of their deliverance, and ascribing it and their other blessings to idols [CALVIN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["not cried unto me--but unto other gods [MAURER], (Job 35:9-10). Or, they did indeed cry unto Me, but not \"with their heart\": answering to \"lies,\" Hos 7:13 (see on Hos 7:13). \n\nwhen they howled upon their beds--sleepless with anxiety; image of deep affliction. Their cry is termed \"howling,\" as it is the cry of anguish, not the cry of repentance and faith. \n\nassemble . . . for corn, &c.--namely in the temples of their idols, to obtain from them a good harvest and vintage, instead of coming to Me, the true Giver of these (Hos 2:5, Hos 2:8, Hos 2:12), proving that their cry to God was \"not with their heart.\" \n\nrebel against me--literally, \"withdraw themselves against Me,\" that is, not only withdraw from Me, but also rebel against Me.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["I . . . bound--when I saw their arms as it were relaxed with various disasters, I bound them so as to strengthen their sinews; image from surgery [CALVIN]. MAURER translates, \"I instructed them\" to war (Psa 18:34; Psa 144:1), namely, under Jeroboam II (Kg2 14:25). GROTIUS explains, \"Whether I chastised them (Margin) or strengthened their arms, they imagined mischief against Me.\" English Version is best.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["return, but not to the Most High--or, \"to one who is not the Most High,\" one very different from Him, a stock or a stone. So the Septuagint. \n\ndeceitful bow-- (Psa 78:57). A bow which, from its faulty construction, shoots wide of the mark. So Israel pretends to seek God, but turns aside to idols. \n\nfor the rage of their tongue--their boast of safety from Egyptian aid, and their \"lies\" (Hos 7:13), whereby they pretended to serve God, while worshipping idols; also their perverse defense for their idolatries and blasphemies against God and His prophets (Psa 73:9; Psa 120:2-3). \n\ntheir derision in . . . Egypt--Their \"fall\" shall be the subject of \"derision\" to Egypt, to whom they had applied for help (Hos 9:3, Hos 9:6; Kg2 17:4).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Hosea Chapter 8\n\n"]}],"introduction":"REPROOF OF ISRAEL. (Hos. 7:1-16)\n\nProbably delivered in the interreign and civil war at Pekah's death; for Hos 7:7, \"all their kings . . . fallen,\" refers to the murder of Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah. In Hos 7:8 the reference seems to be to Menahem's payment of tribute to Pul, in order to secure himself in the usurped throne, also to Pekah's league with Rezin of Syria, and to Hoshea's connection with Assyria during the interregnum at Pekah's death [MAURER].\n\nI would have healed Israel--Israel's restoration of the two hundred thousand Jewish captives at God's command (Ch2 28:8-15) gave hope of Israel's reformation [HENDERSON]. Political, as well as moral, healing is meant. When I would have healed Israel in its calamitous state, then their iniquity was discovered to be so great as to preclude hope of recovery. Then he enumerates their wickedness: \"The thief cometh in (indoors stealthily), and the troop of robbers spoileth without\" (out-of-doors with open violence).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/7.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":7},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/8.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":8},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/HOS/6.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"HOS","chapter":6},"numberOfVerses":15}