Hosea 5 commentary

The piercing eye of God saw secret liking and disposition to sin, the love the house of Israel had to their sins, and the dominion their sins had over them. Pride makes men obstinate in other sins. And as Judah was treading in the same steps, they would fall with Israel. By dealing treacherously with the Lord, men only deceive themselves. Those that go to seek the Lord with their flocks and their herds only, and not with their hearts and souls, cannot expect to find him; nor shall any speed who do not seek the Lord while he may be found. See how much it is our concern to seek God early, now, while it is the accepted time, and the day of salvation.

The destruction of impenitent sinners is not mere talk, to frighten them, it is a sentence which will not be recalled. And it is a mercy that we have timely warning given us, that we may flee from the wrath to come. Compliance with the commandments of men, who thwart the commandments of God, ripens a people for ruin. The judgments of God are sometimes to a sinful people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as a worm; as these consume the clothes and the wood, so shall the judgments of God consume them. Silently, they shall think themselves safe and thriving, but when they look into their state, shall find themselves wasting and decaying. Slowly, for the Lord gives them space to repent. Many a nation; as well as many a person, dies of a consumption. Gradually, God comes upon sinners with lesser judgments, to prevent greater, if they will be wise, and take warning. When Israel and Judah found themselves in danger, they sought the protection of the Assyrians, but this only helped to make their wound the worse. They would be forced to apply to God. He will bring them home to himself, by afflictions. When men begin to complain more of their sins than of their afflictions, then there begins to be some hope of them; and when under the conviction of sin, and the corrections of the rod, we must seek the knowledge of God. Those who are led by severe trials to seek God earnestly and sincerely, will find him a present help and an effectual refuge; for with him is plenteous redemption for all who call upon him. There is solid peace, and there only, where God is.

The Prophet here again preaches against the whole people: but he mainly directs his discourse to the priests and the rulers; for they were the source of the prevailing evils: the priests, intent on gain, neglected the worship of God; and the chief men, as we have seen, were become in every way corrupt. Hence the Prophet here especially inveighs against these orders, and at the same time, records some vices which then prevailed among the people, and that through the fault of the priests and rulers. But before I pursue farther the subject of the Prophets something must be said of the words.

When he says, To you is judgment, some explain it, “It is your duty to do judgment,” to maintain government, that every one may discharge his own office; for judgment is taken for rectitude; the word משפט, mesgepheth, means a right order of things. Hence they think that the priests and rulers are here condemned for discharging so badly their office, because they had no care for what was right. But this sense is too strained. The Prophet, therefore, I doubt not, summons here the priests and the king’s counselors to God’s tribunal, that they might give an answer there; for the contempt of God, we know, prevailed among the great; they were secure, as though exempt from judgment, as though released from laws and all order. To you, then is judgment; that is, God addresses you by name, and declares that he will be your avenger, though ye heedlessly despise his judgment.

Some again take מצפה, metsephe, for a beacon, and thus translate, “Ye have been a snare instead of a beacon.” But this mistake is refuted by the second clause, for the Prophet adds immediately, a net expanded over Tabor: and it is well known that Mizpah and Tabor were high mountains, and for their height celebrated and renowned; we also know that hunting was common on these mountains. The Prophet, then, no doubt means here, that both the priests and the king’s counselors were like snares and nets: “As fowlers and hunters were wont to spread their nets and snares on mount Mizpah and on Tabor; so the people also have been ensnared by you.” This is the plain meaning of the words. Some conjecture, that robbers were there located by the kings of Israel to intercept the Israelites, when they found any ascending into Jerusalem, as we now see everywhere persons lying in wait, that no one from the Papacy may come over to us. But this conjecture is too far fetched. I have already explained the Prophet’s meaning: he makes use, as we have said, of a similitude.

Let us now return to what he teaches: Hear this, he says, ye Priests, and attend, ye house of Israel, and give ear, ye house of the king The Prophet, indeed, includes the whole people in the second clause, but turns his discourse expressly to the priests and the king’s counselors; which ought to be specially noticed; for it is indeed, as we shall hereafter see, the general subject of this chapter. He did not without reason attack the princes, because the main fault was in them; nor the priests, because they were dumb dogs, and had also led away the people from God’s pure worship into false superstitions; and so great was their avidity for filthy lucre that they perverted the law and every thing that was before pure among the people. It is no wonder then that the Prophet, while treating a general subject, suitable to all orders indiscriminately, should yet denounce judgment on the priests and the king’s counselors. With regard to these counselors, they, in order to confirm the kingdom, had also approved of false and spurious forms of worship, as it has been before stated; and they had also followed other vices; for the Prophet, I doubt not, condemns here other corruptions besides superstitions, and those which we know everywhere prevailed among the people, and of which something has been already said.

And to show his earnestness, he uses three sentences: Ye priests, hear this; then, house of Israel, attend; and in the third place, house of the king, give ear; as though he said, “In vain do they seek subterfuges, for the Lord will execute on them the judgment he now declares:” and yet he gives them opportunity and time for repentance, inasmuch as he bids them to attend to this denunciation.

Now this passage teaches, that even kings are not exempted from the duty of learning what is commonly taught, if they wish to be counted members of the Church; for the Lord would have all, without exception, to be ruled by his word; and he takes this as a proof of men’s obedience, their submission to his word. And as kings think themselves separated from the general class of men, the Prophet here shows that he was sent to the king and his counselors. The same reason holds good as to priests; for as the dignity of their order is the highest, so this impiety has prevailed in all ages, that the priests think themselves at liberty to do what they please. The Prophet therefore shows, that they are not raised up so much on high, but that the Lord shines eminently above their heads with his word. Let us know, lastly, that in the Church the word of God so possesses the highest rank, that neither priests, nor kings, nor their counselors, can claim a privilege to themselves, as though their conduct was not to be subject to God’s word.

This then is a remarkable passage for establishing the word of God: and thus we see how abominable is the boast of the Papal clergy of this day; for they spread before us the mask of the priesthood, when the word of God is brought forward, as though they would outshine by the splendor of their dignity the whole Law, all the Prophets, and the very Gospel. But the Lord here upholds his word against all degrees of men, and shows that both kings and priests must be brought down from their eminence, that they may obey the word. Yea, we must bear in mind what I have before said, that though the whole people had sinned, yet kings and priests are here in a special manner reproved, because they deserved a heavier punishment, inasmuch as by their depraved examples they had corrupted the whole people.

When he compares them to snares and nets, I do not then confine this to one thing; but as the contagion among the whole people had proceeded from the priests and the king’s counselors, and also from the king himself, the Prophet compares them, not without reason, to snares; not only because they were the authors of superstitions, but also because they perverted judgment and all equity. Let us go on —

Hosea 5:2

2. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

2. Et jugulando declinantes profundaverunt: Respecting this clause, Poole says, locus obscurissimus — a most obscure place. But of all the explanations given, the one offered by Calvin seems the best. Horsley’s version seems fanciful, —

‘Prickers have made deep slaughter.’

By ‘Prickers’ he means attendants on the chase. Newcome’s version seems more probable, —

‘And the revolters have made deep the slaughter of victims;’

that is, multiplied their sacrifices; but this comports not well with the clause which follows. —Ed. ego autem correctio illis omnibus.

The verb שחט, shecheth, means, to kill, to sacrifice; and this place is usually explained of sacrifices; and this opinion I do not reject. But though the Prophet spake of sacrifices, he no doubt called sacrificing, in contempt, killing: as though one should call the temple, the shambles, and the killing of victims, slaughtering, so also the Prophet says, In sacrificing and killing, they, having turned aside, have become deeply fixed; that is, By turning aside to their own sacrificing, they have completely hardened their hearts, so that their depravity is incurable. For by saying that they had gone deep, the meaning is, that they were so addicted to their own superstitions, that they could not be restored to a sound mind, however often admonished by the Prophets. Yet this verb has another meaning in Scripture, even this, that men flatter themselves with their own counsels, and think that by twining together reasons of their own, they can deceive God: and this metaphor the Prophets employ with regard to profane despisers of God, whom they call לצים, latism, mockers: for these, while they deceive men, think that they have nothing to do with God. The same we see at this day: courtiers and proud men of the same character, flatter themselves with their own deceptions, and complacently laugh at our simplicity; because they think that wisdom was born with them, and that it is enclosed as it were within their brains. But I know not whether this idea is suitable to this passage. That simpler meaning which I have already stated, I prefer, and that is, that the Israelites were so obstinate in their superstitions, that they perversely despised all counsels, all admonitions, yea, that they petulantly resisted every instruction.

But each word must be noticed: turning aside in sacrificing, he says, “they became deep”. By saying, that they had turned aside in sacrificing, he no doubt makes a distinction between false and strange forms of worship and the true worship of God, prescribed in the law. The frequency of sacrificing could not indeed have been condemned in itself either as to the Israelites or the Jews; but they turned aside, that is, departed from what the law prescribes. Hence the more zealously they engaged in sacrificing, and the more victims they offered to God, the more they provoked God’s vengeance against themselves. We then see that the Prophet points out here as by the finger the sin he reproved in the people of Israel, and that was, — they sacrificed not according to God’s command and according to the ritual of the law, but turned aside and followed their own devices. Hence it is, that in contempt and in scorn he calls their sacrificing, killing, or cutting the throat: “they are,” he says “executioners,” or, “they are butchers. What is it to me, that they bring their victims with great pomp and show? That they use so many ceremonies? I repudiate,” the Lord says, “the whole of this; it is profane butchering; these slaughterings have nothing in common with the worship which I approve.”

That our sacrifices then may please God, they must be according to the rule of his word; for ‘obedience,’ as it has been said already, ‘is better than all sacrifices,’ (1 Samuel 15:22.) But when men retake themselves to false forms of worship or such as are invented, nothing then is holy or acceptable to God, but an abominable filth. And further, the Prophet, as I have said, not only accuses the people of having turned aside to perverted forms of worship, but also of having become obstinately fixed in them. They have become deep, he says, in their superstitions: as he said before, that they were fast joined to their idols, that they could not be torn away from them; so also he says now, that they were deeply rooted in their iniquity.

It follows, And I have been, or will be, a correction to them all Some think that the Prophet in the person of God threatens the Israelites, that God declares that he himself would become the avenger, because the people had so stubbornly followed wicked superstitions, — “I sit as a judge in heaven, nor will I suffer you to fall away with impunity, since you are become so hardened in your wickedness.” But they are more correct who think that their sin was more increased by this circumstance, that God by his Prophets had not ceased to recall the Israelites to a sound mind, since they might not have been wholly irreclaimable: I have been to them a correction; that is, “They cannot excuse themselves and say, that they had fallen through error and ignorance; for there has been in them a wilful obstinacy, as I have not ceased to show them the right way by my Prophets. I have, then, been a correction to them; but I could not bend them, so indomitable has been that stubbornness, or rather madness, with which they were inflamed towards their idols.” It is now seen which of the two views I deem the most correct.

But I will adduce a third: God may be thought to be here complaining that he had been an object of dislike to the Israelites, as though he said, “When I sent my Prophets, they could not bear to be admonished, because my word was too bitter for them.” Reproofs are not easily endured by men. We indeed know, that those who are ill at ease with themselves, are yet not willing to hear any reproof: every one who deceives himself, wishes to be deceived by others. As then the ears of men are so tender and delicate, that they will patiently receive no reproof, this meaning seems not inappropriate, I have been to them all a correction, that is, “My doctrine has been by them rejected because it had in it too much asperity.” But the other explanation, which I have mentioned as the second, has been more approved: I was, however, unwilling to omit what seems to me to be no less suitable.

We may now choose or receive either of these two expositions, — either that the Lord here takes away from the Israelites the excuse of error, because he had continued to reprove their vices by his Prophets, — or that he expostulates with the Israelites for having rejected his word on the ground that it was too rigid and severe: yet this main thing will still remain the same, that the people of Israel were not only apostates, having fallen away from the lawful worship of God into their own superstitions but were also contumacious and refractory in their wickedness, so that they would receive no instruction, no salutary counsels. Let us proceed —

Hosea 5:3

3. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.

3. Ego cognovi Ephraim, et Israel non esta absconditus a me: quia tu scortatus es Ephraim, pollutus est Israel.

God shows here that he is not pacified by the vain excuses which hypocrites allege, and by which they think that the judgment of God himself can be turned away. We see what great dullness there is in many, when God reproves them, and brings to light their vices; for they defend themselves with vain and frivolous excuses, and think that they thus put a restraint on God, so that he dares not urge them any more. In this way hypocrites elude every truth. But God here testifies, that men are greatly deceived when they thus judge, by their own perception, of that celestial tribunal to which they are summoned; I, he says, know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me There is to be understood an implied contrast, as though he said, that they were ignorant of themselves; for they covered their vices, as I have said, with frivolous excuses. God testifies that his eyes were not dazzled with such fine pretenses. “How much soever, then, Ephraim and Israel may excuse themselves, they shall not escape my judgment: vain and absurd are these shifts which they use; I indeed am not ignorant.”

Let us then learn not to belie, by our own notions, the judgment of God; and when he reproves us by his word, let us not delude ourselves by our own fancies; for they who harden themselves in such a state of security gain nothing. God sees more keenly than men. Let use then, beware of spreading a veil over our sins, for God’s eyes penetrate through all such excuses.

That he names Ephraim particularly, was not done, we know, without reason. From that tribe sprang the first Jeroboam: it was therefore by way of honor that the name of Ephraim was given to the ten tribes. But the Prophet names Ephraim here, who thought themselves superior to the other tribes, by way of reproach: I know them, and Israel is not hid from me He afterwards expresses what he knew of the people, which was, that Ephraim was wanton, and that Israel was polluted; as though he said “Contend as you please; but you will do so without profit: I have indeed my ears stunned by your lies; but after you have adduced everything, after you have sedulously pleaded your own cause, and have omitted nothing which may serve for an excuse, the fact still will be, that you are wantons and polluted.” In short, the Prophet confirms in this second clause what I have before stated, that men, when they flatter themselves, deceive themselves; for God in the meantime condemns them, and allows no disguise of this kind. Israel and Ephraim gloried, then, in their superstitions, as though they held God bound to them: “This is wantonness,” he says, “This is pollution.” The Prophet indeed does here cut off the handle from all those self-deceptions which men use as reasons, when they defend fictitious forms of worship; for God from on high proclaims, that all are polluted who turn aside from his word.

Hosea 5:4

4. They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord

4. Non adjicient studia sua, ut convertanur ad Deum suum: quia spiritus fornicationum in medio ipsorum, et Jehovam non noverunt.

Some translate thus, “their inclinations allow them not to turn themselves;” and this meaning is probable, that is, that they were so much given to their own superstitions, that they were not now free, or at liberty, to return to the right way; as though the Prophet said, “They are entirely enslaved by their own diabolical inventions, that their inclinations will not allow them to repent.” But the former meaning (it is also more generally approved) seems more adapted to the context. They will not apply, he says, their endeavors to turn to their God Here God declares that it was all over with the people, and that no hope whatever remained: as he said before, “Leave them, why shouldest thou do anything more? for they will not receive wholesome instruction; as they are entirely given up to destruction, there is now no reason for thee to be solicitous about their salvation, for that would be useless;” — so also he says in this place, They will not apply their endeavors to turn to their God

If the Prophet speaks here in his own person, the meaning is, “Why do I weary myself? God has indeed commanded me to reprove this people; but I find that my labour is in vain; for I have to do with brute animals, or with stones rather than with men; there is in them no reason, no discernment; for the devil has fascinated their minds: never, then, will they apply their endeavors to turn to their God.” If we prefer to view the sentence as spoken in the person of God, still the doctrine will remain nearly the same: God here declares that the people were incurable. Never, then, will they apply their endeavors. How so? For they are sunk, as it were, into a deep gulf, and their obstinacy is like the abyss. Inasmuch, then, as they are thus fixed in their superstitions, they will never apply their endeavors to turn to their God

But God in the meantime not only shows here, that there was no more any remedy for the diseases of the people; but he also gravely and severely reprobates their iniquity, because they thought not of seeking reconciliation with their God; as though he said, “What, then, do I require of these wretched men, but to return to their God? This they ought to have done of their own accord; but now, when they are admonished, they care not; on the contrary, they fiercely resist wholesome instruction. Is not this a strange and monstrous madness?” We hence see that there is an important meaning in the words, They will not apply their endeavors to return to their God; for the Prophet might have simply said, “to return to Jehovah,” or “to God;” but he says, to their God, and he says so, because God had made himself familiarly known to them, nay, brought them up in his own bosom, as though they were his children and he their Father: they had forsaken him and had become apostates; and when the Lord would now reprove this perfidy, was it not strange that the people should close their ears and harden their hearts against every instruction? We hence see how sharp this reproof is.

And he says, Because the spirit of wantonness is in the midst of them; that is, they are so pleased with their own filthiness, that there is no shame, no fear. But the reason of this comparison, which I have before explained, must be borne in mind. As a wife, though not faithful to her husband, yet retains still some modesty, as long as she continues at home, and while she is in any place classed with faithful and chaste women; but when she once enters a brothel, and openly prostitutes herself to all, when she knows that her baseness is universally known, she then throws off every shame, and entirely forgets her own character: so also the Prophet says, that the spirit of wantonness was in the midst of the people of Israel; as though he said, “The Israelites are so imbrued with their superstitions, that they cannot now be touched or moved by any reverence for God; they cannot be restored to the right way, for the devil has demented them, and having cast off every shame, they are like abominable strumpets.”

And he afterwards adds, Jehovah they have not known By this sentence the Prophet extenuates not the sin of the people, but, on the contrary, amplifies their ingratitude, because they had forgotten their God, who had so indulgently treated them. As they had been redeemed by God’s hand, as the teaching of the law had continued among them, as they had been preserved to that day through God’s constant kindness, it was truly an evidence of monstrous ignorance, that they could in an instant adopt ungodly forms of worship, and embrace those corruptions which they knew were condemned in the law. It was surely an inexcusable wickedness in the people thus to withdraw themselves from their God. This is the reason why the Prophet now says, that they knew not Jehovah. But if they were asked the cause, they could not have said that they had no light; for God had made known to them the way of salvation. Hence, that they knew not Jehovah, was to be imputed to their perverseness; for, closing their eyes, they knowingly and willfully ran headlong after those wicked devices, which they knew, as it had been stated before, to be condemned by God.

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou continues daily to exhort us, and though thou sees us often turning aside from the right course, thou yet ceases not to stretch forth thy hand to us, and also to rouse us by reproofs, that we may repent, — O grant, that we may not be permitted to reject thy word with such perverseness as thou condemnest here in thine ancient people by the mouth of thy Prophet; but rule us by thy Spirit, that we may meekly and obediently submit to thee, and with such teachableness, that if we have not hitherto been willing to become wise, we may not at least be incurable, but suffer thee to heal our diseases, so that we may truly repent, and be so wholly given to obey thee, as never to attempt any thing beyond the rule of thy word, and without that wisdom which thou hast revealed to us, not only by Moses and thy Prophets, but also by thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lecture Fourteenth

Hosea 5:5

5. And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.

5. Et respondebit (vel, testificabitur superbia Israel ad faciem ejus: Israel ergo et Ephraim concident in sua iniquitate; concidet etiam Jehudah cum ipsis.

The Prophet having condemned the Israelites on two accounts — for having departed from the true God — and for having obstinately refused every instruction, now adds, that God’s vengeance was nigh at hand. “Testify then shall the pride of Israel in his face”; that is, Israel shall find what it is thus to resist God and his Prophets. The Prophet no doubt applies the word, pride, to their contempt of instruction, because they were so swollen with vain confidence, as to think that wrong was done them whenever the Prophets reproved them. It must at the same time be observed, that they were thus refractory, because they were like persons inebriated with their own pleasures; for we know that while men enjoy prosperity, they are more insolent, according to that old proverb, “Satiety begets ferocity.”

Some think that the verb ענה, one, means here “to be humbled;” and this sense is not unsuitable: “The pride of Israel shall then be humbled before his face.” But another exposition has been most approved; I am therefore inclined to embrace it, and that is, that God needed no other witness to convict Israel than their own pride; and we know that when any one becomes hardened, he thinks that there is to be no judgment, and has no thought of rendering an account to God, for his pride takes away every fear. For this reason the Prophet says, “God will convict you, because ye have been hitherto so proud, that he could effect nothing by his warnings.”

But he adds, Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity He pursues the same subject, which is, that they in vain promised impunity to themselves, for the Lord had now resolved to punish them. He adds, Judah also shall fall with them The Prophet may seem to contradict himself; for when he before threatened the people of Israel, he spoke of the safety of Judah, — ‘Judah shall be saved by his God, not by the sword, nor by the bow.’ Since then the Prophet had before distinguished or made a difference between the ten tribes and the kingdom of Judah, how is it that he now puts them all together without any distinction? To this I answer, that the Prophet speaks here not of those Jews who continued in true and pure religion, but of those who had with the Israelites alienated themselves from the only true God, and joined in their superstitions. He then refers here to the degenerate and not to the faithful Jews; for to all who worshipped God aright, salvation had been already promised. But as many as had abandoned themselves to the common superstitions, he declares that a common punishment was nigh them all. The Jews then shall fall together, that is, “As many of the Jews as have followed impious forms of worship and other deprivations, shall not escape God’s judgment.” We now then perceive the true meaning of the Prophet. It now follows —

Hosea 5:6

6. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.

6. Cum ovibus suis et cum armentis suis ibunt ad quaerendum Jehovam, et non invenient: subduxit se ab illis.

The Prophet here laughs to scorn the hypocrisy of the people, because they thought they had ready at hand a way of dealing with God, which was, to pacify him with their sacrifices. He therefore shows that neither the Israelites nor the Jews would gain any thing by accumulating burnt-offerings, for they could not in this way return into favor with God. He thereby intimates that God requires true repentance, and that he will not be reconciled to men, except from the heart they seek him and consecrate themselves to his service; and not because they offer brute beasts. The faithful, no doubt, expiated their sins at that time by sacrifices, but only typically: for they knew for what end and purpose God had made the law concerning sacrifices, and that was, that the sinner, being reminded by the sight of the victim, might confess himself to be worthy of eternal death, and thus flee to God’s mercy and look to Christ and his sacrifice; for in him, and nowhere else, is to be found true and effectual expiation. For this end then had God instituted sacrifices: so the faithful, while offering sacrifices, did not suppose any satisfaction to be done by the external work, nor even imagined it to be the price of redemption; but they exercised themselves in these rites in faith and repentance.

The Prophet now, by implication, sets oxen, and rams, and lambs, in opposition to spiritual sacrifices; for a contrast is to be understood in the words, They shall come with their sheep, etc. What bring they to God’s presence? They bring, he says, only their rams, they bring oxen; but God commands what is far different: he commands men to consecrate themselves to him, and that in a spiritual manner, and as to external rites, to refer them to Christ, and to the true expiation, which was yet hid in hope. Since then the Israelites brought only their oxen and lambs to God, they in vain expected him to be propitious to them; for he is not pacified by such trifles; inasmuch as every one who separates the outward sacrifice from its design, brings nothing but what is profane. Indeed, the true and lawful consecration is by the word; and by the word we are guided to faith in Christ, we are guided to repentance: when these are neglected and disregarded, and men securely trust in their sacrifices, they do nothing but mock God. We hence see that the Prophet exposes not here without reason this folly of the Israelites, that they sought God with their flocks and their herds

And he says, They shall come, or shall go, to seek God By this sentence he intimates that hypocrites sedulously labour to reconcile God to themselves; and we even see with what zeal they weary themselves; and of this there is a remarkable instance at this day in the Papists; for they spare no diligence, when they seek to pacify God. But the Prophet says that this labour is vain and foolish. “Let them go,” he says, that is, “Let them weary themselves; but they shall do so without profit, for they shall not find God.” But when he says, that they would come to seek Jehovah, he is not to be understood as saying, that they would really do so; for hypocrites turn aside from God by circuitous courses and windings, rather than seek access to him. But yet they propose it as their final intention, as they speak, to seek God: they do not indeed come afterwards to him; nay, they dread his face, and shun it as much as they can; and yet when one asks them what they intend by sacrificing and by performing other rites, the answer is ready on their lips, “We worship God,” that is, “We desire to worship him.” Since then hypocrites are wont to boast of this, the Prophet speaks by way of concession, and says, They shall come to seek God, but shall not find him

The Papists of this day pursue a similar course, when they go round their altars, when they gad away to perform vowed pilgrimages, when they whisper their prayers, when they hear and buy masses; for to what purpose are all these things, but by interposing these veils to escape God’s judgment? They know themselves to be exposed to his judgment; their conscience forces them to pacify God: but what do they in the meantime? “I will find out a way in which God will not pursue me: let this then be the price of redemption, let this be a compensation.” In a word, we see that the Papists mock God with their ceremonies, that they have nothing else in view but to seek hiding-places: and hence the Lord by his Prophet complains, that his temple was like a den of robbers, (Jeremiah 7:11:) for men securely sin, when they publicly offer such expiations. Nay, the Papists, when they mutter their prayers, say that the final intention is pleasing to God, though they may wander in their thoughts: for if, when they begin to pray, it should come to their minds, that God is prayed to, though they may not attend to their prayers, though they may pollute themselves with many depraved lusts yet, if with the mouth they utter prayers, they maintain that the final intention pleases God. — Why? Because their design is to seek God. This is, indeed, extremely sottish and puerile: but, as I have already said, the Prophet does not press this point, but concedes to the Israelites what they pretended, “Ye seek God; but yet ye run not in the right way; and these circuitous courses will not lead you to God.” How so? “For ye recede farther from him.” So Isaiah says, ‘She will greatly weary herself in her ways:’ but in the meantime she followed not the right way, but, on the contrary, turned aside after various errors, and thus receded from the Lord, and came not to him.

By saying, that God had removed or separated himself from them, he intimates that he is not propitious but to the faithful, who think not so grossly of him, as to seek to feed him with the flesh of oxen or other sacrifices, or to pacify him with disagreeable odour; but who seek him spiritually and from the heart, who bring true repentance. It now follows —

Hosea 5:7

7. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

7. Contra Jehovam (vel, cum Jehova) perfide egerunt: quia filios alienos genuerunt: nunc vorabit eos mensis cum portionibus suis.

He says that they had acted perfidiously with God, for they had violated his covenant. We must bear in mind what I have said before of the mutual faith which God stipulates with us, when he binds himself to us. God then covenants with us on this condition, that he will be our Father and Husband; but he requires from us such obedience as a son ought to render to his father; he requires from us that chastity which a wife owes to her husband. The Prophet now charges the people with unfaithfulness, because they had despised the true God, and prostituted themselves to idols.

And he also aggravates this crime by saying, that they had begotten strange children: for he intimates, that their condition had become so vitiated, that there remained no better hope as to their posterity. Some explain the words, that they had begotten strange children, in this way, — that they had taken wives from heathen nations, contrary to the law. But this sense is very frigid. Others understand, that they had begotten spurious children, because they brought up their children badly, having, from their infancy, attached them to depraved superstitions. This is indeed true, but the prophet, as I have already said, looked further; he meant that the Israelites had not only become alienated from God, but had also taken away every hope as to the future. It may indeed be, and it sometimes happens, that men for a time abandon themselves to many vices, and afterwards return to the right way; but when corruption has so prevailed that the children are infected with the same vices, and impiety itself takes full possession of them, then the state of things is past recovery. We now then see that the Prophet means, that the Israelites were not only covenant-breakers with respect to God, but that they had also led their children into the same perfidy, so that there was no hope of repentance.

He therefore subjoins the punishment, Devour them shall a month together with their portions “With their portions,” i.e., their allotments: they shall be totally dispossessed of their country; and the boundaries of the separate allotments of the several tribes shall be confounded and obliterated. —Bp. Horsley Some restrict the word, month, to the times of the new moon, or to the new moons; and these days, we know, were festivals among the Jews: but this seems too far-fetched and strained. The Prophet therefore, I doubt not, takes here a month for a short time; and so the Hebrew scholars explain it, and yet they do not sufficiently unfold this form of speaking. Now, the Prophets are wont to use various figures, when they intend to mark out a short time. Isaiah says, ‘Yet for three years, as the time of a hireling:’ for hirelings were wont to hire themselves for three years; hence he says, This is the time fixed by the Lord as the appointed day. Contracts, also, we know, were then monthly, as they are at this day yearly, both with reference to the interest of money and other exchanges. Since, then, they usually made agreements for single months, the Prophet here, I have no doubt, takes a month metaphorically for a certain and fixed time. I do not therefore agree with the Hebrew scholars, who say that only a short time is expressed by the Prophet, but he expresses not only a short, but also a fixed time; and he did this that the Israelites might not vainly look for any deferring or respite, for hypocrites ever procrastinate and extend time by vain delusions. The Prophet therefore says here, A month shall devour them, which means, “Vengeance is now suspended over their heads, and this they shall not escape.”

And he says, “with their portions”. He intimates here, no doubt, that though they then overflowed with abundance, yet nothing would be a help to them to keep them from being destroyed, for the hand of God was against them. We indeed know, that as long as men are well furnished with provisions and protection, they are not very solicitous about their state, but heedlessly despise whatever dangers there may be in the world: therefore the Prophet says, that though they were opulent and well supplied, though they possessed every kind of defense, yet nothing would avail for their safety, but a month should devour them, together with all their wealth. It follows —

Hosea 5:8

8. Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin.

8. Clangite cornu in Gibeah, canite tuba in Ramah, buccinate etiam in Beth-aven, post te Benjamin.

The Prophet speaks here more emphatically, and there is in these words a certain lively representation; for the Prophet assumes here the character of a herald, or he introduces heralds who declare and proclaim war. The truth itself ought indeed to storm not only our ears, but also our hearts, and be more powerful than any trumpet: but we yet see how unconcerned we are. Hence the Lord is constrained here to clothe his servant with the character of a herald, or at least he bids his servant to send forth heralds to proclaim war everywhere throughout the whole kingdom of Israel. This was not, properly speaking, the office of a Prophet; but we see that Ezekiel was ordered by the Lord to besiege Jerusalem for a time, — and why? Because his whole teaching, after the Jews had been a thousand times threatened, became frigid: God then added visions, which more effectually roused torpid men. So also does Hosea in this place, Shout with the trumpet in Gibeah, blow the cornet in Ramah, and sound the horn in Beth-aven; for God, as we have said, is pursuing Israel, and will not suffer them to rest; so that the Israelites might know that God threatens not in vain, that his reproofs are not bugbears, but that he deals in earnest when he reproves the ungodly, and that execution, as they say, will follow what he teaches. In the same manner does Paul also say,

‘Vengeance is prepared by us, and is in readiness against all those who extol themselves against the greatness of Christ, how great soever they may be,’ (2 Corinthians 10:5,6.)

As, then, the ungodly are wont to make this objection, that the Prophets preach nothing but words, Hosea here testifies that he did not in vain terrify men, but that the effect, as they say, would immediately follow, unless they reconciled themselves to God.

Now, as we perceive the Prophet’s purpose, let us take care to receive by faith that peace which the Lord daily proclaims to us by his messengers. For what is the Gospel but what Paul declares it to be?

‘We discharge the office of ambassadors,’ he says, ‘for Christ, that ye may be reconciled to God, and in Christ’s name we exhort you to return into favor with God,’ (2 Corinthians 5:20.)

We then see that all the ministers of the Gospel are God’s heralds, who invite us to peace, and promise that God is ready to grant us pardon, if with the heart we seek him. But if we receive not this message and this embassy, there will remain for us the dreadful judgment, of which the Prophet now speaks, and our impiety will procure for us this awful doom. As though God then were now declaring war against all the ungodly and the despisers of his grace, the Prophet says that they shall find that God is armed for vengeance.

Moreover, the Prophet doubtless has here mentioned Gibeah, Ramah, and “Beth-aven”, because in these places great assemblies usually met; and it may be also that they were strong fortresses. Since then the Israelites thought themselves unconquerable, because they had invincible strongholds against their enemies, the Prophet here expressly declares war against them. Everywhere then sound ye the trumpet, or blow the horn, or blow the cornet, especially in the chief places of the kingdom.

After thee, O Benjamin. Benjamin is here to be taken, by a figure of speech, for the whole of Israel, because he was a brother of Joseph by the same mother: the tribe of Benjamin is therefore everywhere joined with Ephraim. It is at the same time certain, that the Prophet confines not here his address to one tribe, but includes, under one tribe or one part, the whole kingdom of Israel. It follows —

Hosea 5:9

9. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

9. Ephraim in vastitatem erit in die correctionis: in tribibus Israel docui veritatem (intelligere feci, ad verbum.)

Here the Prophet asserts, without any figure, that their chastisement would not be slight or paternal, but that God would punish the Israelites as they deserved, that he would reduce them to nothing. God, we know, sometimes spares the ungodly, while he chastises them: signs of his wrath daily appear through the whole world; but at the same time they are moderate punishments which God inflicts on men; and he in a manner invites them to repentance, when he thus mercifully chastises their sins. But the Prophet says here, that God would no longer act in this manner; for he would destroy and wholly blot out the whole kingdom of Israel. They had been already often warned, not only in words, but also in deeds and had often felt the wrath of God; but they still persisted in their course. And now, as God saw that they were wholly stupid, he says, Now, in the day of correction, Ephraim shall be for desolation; as though he said, “I will not correct Israel as heretofore, for they have been before in various ways chastised, but have not repented; I will therefore now lay aside those paternal corrections which I have hitherto used, for I have in vain applied such remedies: I will then henceforth so correct Israel, that they shall be entirely destroyed.” We now comprehend the Prophet’s meaning.

But this is a remarkable passage; for men are always slow and dilatory; even when God pricks them, as it were, with goads, they remain slothful in their sins. God adds corrections, one after the other; and when he sees men continuing as it were out of their senses, he then testifies that it is no time for reproof, but that final destruction is at hand. We hence see that every hope is here cut off from the Israelites, that they might not think that they would be punished in the usual way for their sins; for as soon as the Lord would begin to reprehend them, he would destroy and blot out their names: Israel then shall be for desolation in the day of correction

He then adds, through the tribes of Israel I have made known the truth. Some regard this sentence as spoken in the person of God, and refer it to the first covenant which God made with the whole people; and so consider this to be the sense, “I do not now of a sudden proceed to take vengeance on the Israelites; for I have begotten this people, nourished them, brought them up to manhood. Since this is the case, there is now no reason for them to complain, that I am too precipitant in taking vengeance.” This is one meaning: but I rather incline to their opinion, who regard this as spoken in the person of the Prophet; I do not yet follow altogether their opinion, for they suppose that the fault of the people in being unteachable is alone set forth: I have made known the truth through the tribes of Israel, as though the Prophet had said, “This people is unworthy that God should chastise them in a paternal manner, for they have hardened themselves in their wickedness; and though they have been more than sufficiently taught their duty, they have yet openly despised God, and have done this, not through ignorance, but through perverseness: since then the people of Israel have blinded and demented themselves, as it were, willfully, what now remains, but that God will bring them to desolation?” So they expound this place. But it seems to me that a protestation is what suits this passage: I have made known the truth through the tribes of Israel, as though he said, “This is fixed and ratified, which I now declare, and it shall certainly be; let then no one seek any escape for himself, for God threatens not now, as often before, for the purpose of recalling men to repentance, but declares what he will do.”

That this may be better understood, the mode of speaking in familiar use among all the Prophets is to be noticed: they often threaten, and then give hope of pardon, and promise salvation, so that they seem to exhibit some sort of contradiction: for after having fulminated against the people, they come at once to preach grace, they offer salvation, they testify that God will be propitious. At first sight the Prophets seem not to be consistent with themselves. But the solution is easy, for they threatened vengeance to men under condition; afterwards, when they saw some fruit, they then set forth the mercy of God, and began to be heralds of peace, to reconcile men to God, and make an agreement between them. Thus our Prophet often threatened the Israelites; and had they repented, the hope of salvation would not have been cut off from them. But after he had found them to be so obstinate that they would not receive any instruction, he then said, I have announced the truth through the tribes of Israel, that is, God does not now say, “Except ye repent, you are lost;” but he speaks positively; because he sees that the well known doctrine has been despised: this then is the truth. It is the same as if he said, “This is the last denunciation, which shall be fixed and unalterable.”

And Jeremiah also speaks in the same manner: his book is full of various threatenings; and yet they are conditional threatening. But after God had taken the matter in hand, he began to act in a different way: “I now call you no more to repentance, I contend not with you, I do not now set forth God as a judge, that ye may flee to him for mercy; all these things are come to an end; what remains now”, he says, “is the last command, to show that you are now past hope.” This is the true and real meaning of the Prophet here; and whosoever will consider the whole context, will easily perceive that this was the Prophet’s intention. He had said before, “Ephraim shall be for desolation in the day of correction,” that is, “The Lord will no longer reprove Ephraim as heretofore, but will entirely destroy him:” then he adds, I have promulgated or published the truth through the tribes of Israel: “Now,” he says, “know ye that vengeance will come shortly, and that it is ratified before God; know also that I speak authoritatively, as if the hand of God were now stretched forth before your eyes.” Now follows —

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as we are already by nature the children of wrath, and yet thou hast deigned to receive us into favour, and hast set before us a sacred pledge of thy favor in thine only-begotten Son, and that as we have not yet ceased often to provoke thy wrath against us, and also to fall away by shameful perfidy from the covenant thou hast made with us, — O grant, that being at least touched by thy admonitions, we may not harden our hearts in wickedness, but be pliant and teachable, and thus endeavor to return unto favor with thee, that through the interceding sacrifice of thy Son, we may find thee a propitious Father, and be for the future so wholly devoted to thee, that those who shall follow and survive us may be confirmed in the worship of thy majesty, and in true religion, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lecture Fifteenth

Hosea 5:10

10. The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

10. Fuerunt principes Jehudah, quasi transferentes terminum (vel potest omitti כ, nota similitudinis, et saepe etiam ita sumitur; Fuerunt igitur principes Jehudah transferentes terminum:) super eos effundam quasi aquas furorem meum (vel, indignationis meae.)

Here the Prophet transfers the blame of all the evils which then reigned in the tribe of Judah to their princes. He says, that the people had fallen away and departed from God through their fault, and he uses a most fit similitude. We know that there is nothing certain in the possessions of men, except the boundaries of fields be fixed; for no one can otherwise keep his own. But by the metaphor of boundaries in fields, the Prophet refers to the whole political order. The meaning is, that all things were now in a state of disorder and confusion among the Jews; because their leaders who ought to have ruled the people and kept them in obedience, had destroyed the whole order of things. We now then understand what the Prophet had really in view.

But it must be observed that the tribe of Judah had been hitherto kept separate, as it were by limits, as God’s heritage; for Israel had become alienated. The possession of God had been diminished by the defection of Jeroboam; and he retained only one tribe and a half in his service. The Prophet says now, that the Jews had mixed with the Israelites, and had thus become themselves alienated from the Lord; for the princes themselves had taken away the boundaries, that is, they had, through indolence and other vices, destroyed all reverence for God, all care for religion, and also every concern for what was just and right: he therefore severely threatens them, “I will pour out”, he says, “my wrath upon them like waters”.

By this metaphor, he means that God would deal much more severely with them than with the common people: “I,” he says, “will with full force pour forth upon them my fury, as if it were the deluge of antiquity.” The meaning is, “I will overwhelm them in my vengeance, because they have done more evil by their bad examples, than if they had been private individuals.” We hence see that the corruption of the people is imputed to the princes, and therefore God’s more dreadful vengeance is denounced on them.

But we must bear in mind what I have before said, that the Prophet gives here metaphorically the name of boundaries to the lawful worship of God, and to whatever he had enjoined on the people, that they might be his certain possession, as fields among men are usually separated by bounds that every one may keep his own. It follows. —

Hosea 5:11

11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.

11. Praedae expositus est Ephrain (vel, direptus est; עשק significat diripere et praedari,) fractus judicio: quia volens ambulavit post mandata.

Here again the Prophet shows that the vengeance of God would be just against Israel, because they willingly followed the impious edicts of their king. The people might indeed have appeared to be excusable, since religion had not been changed by their voice, or by public consent, or by any contrivance of the many, but by the tyrannical will of the king alone: Jeroboam was not induced by superstition, but by subtile wickedness, to erect altars elsewhere, and not at Jerusalem. The people then might have appeared to be without blame; for the king alone devised this artifices to secure himself from danger. But the Prophet shows that all were implicated in the same guilt before God, because the people adopted with alacrity the impious forms of worship which the king had commanded. He therefore says, that Ephraim is exposed to plunder, that he is broken by judgment, (or, “shall be broken,” for the words may be rendered in the future tense.) That the people then were thus torn, and were also to bear in future far more grievous things, was not, as he says, because they had to suffer all these things undeservedly, for they were not innocent. — How so? Because they willingly followed the commands of their king; for the king did not force them to forsake the doctrine of the law, but every one went voluntarily after impious superstitions. Since then they willingly obeyed their king, they could not now excuse themselves, they could not object that this was done by one man, and that they were not admitted to consult with him. Their promptitude proved them to be perfidious.

Some render הואיל, evail, to begin,” and יאל, ial, is often taken in this sense: but as it oftener signifies, “to be willing,” the Prophet no doubt means here, that the Israelites had not been compelled by force and fear to go astray after superstitions; but that they were prompt and ready to obey, for there was in them no fear of God, no religion. If any one should now ask, whether they are excusable, who are tyrannically drawn away into superstitions, as we see to be done under the Papacy, the answer is ready, that those are not here absolved who regarded men more than God: nor is terror, as we know, a sufficient excuse, when we prefer our own life to the glory of God, and when, anxious to provide for ourselves and to avoid the cross, we deny God, or turn aside from making a confession of the right and pure faith: but the fault is rendered double, when men easily comply with any thing commanded by tyrants; for they show, that they were already fully inclined to despise God and to deny true religion. Hence the impiety of Jeroboam discovered the common ungodliness and wickedness of the whole people; for as soon as he raised his finger and bid them to worship God corruptly, all joyfully followed the impious edict. There was an occasion then offered to them; but the evil dwelt before in their hearts; for they were not so inclined and prompt to obey God. We now then see what the Prophet had in view.

He says that God would justly punish all the Israelites, yea, even all the common people; for though Jeroboam alone had commanded them to worship God corruptly, yet all of them willingly embraced what he wished to be done: and thus it became manifest that they had in them no fear of God. We now see how vain is the excuse of those who say that they ought to obey kings, and at the same time forsake the word of God: for what does the Prophet reprove here, but that the Israelites had been too submissive to their king? “But this in itself was worthy of praise.” True, when the king commanded nothing contrary to God’s word; but when he perverted God’s worship, when he set up corrupt superstitions, then the people ought to have firmly resisted him: but as they were too pliant, nay, willingly allowed themselves to be drawn away from the true worship of God, the Prophet says here, that they had no reason to complain, that they were too sharply and too severely chastised by the Lord. It follows —

Hosea 5:12

12. Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

12. Et ego tanquam tinea ipsi Ephraim, et tanquam putredo (vel, caries; quanquam alii vertunt, Teredinem, qui est etiam vermiculus, qui nascitur in lignis) domui Jehudah.

God now denounces punishment in common on the two kingdoms; but he speaks not as before, he says not that his fury would be like a deluge, to overwhelm and drown the people. What then? He compares himself to little worms which gnaw wood and consume cloths; or he compares himself to rottenness; for, as we have said, the second word is to be so taken, as רקב, rekob, is properly rottenness, and is derived from רקב, rekab, to rot;” it is then rottenness or putrescence. But as I have said, some would render it, “a grub;” and there is a probable reason for this, because he first mentioned moth; and these two, moth and grub “That it signifies some kind of worm or maggot I have no doubt, because the rule of the parallelism demands some gnawing insect, that may correspond with עש, the moth.” — By. Horsley , would be more suitable to each other, than moth and rottenness. However, the meaning of the Prophet is by no means obscure, and that is, that the Lord would by a slow corrosion consume both the people; that though he would not by one onset destroy them, yet they would pine away until they became wholly rotten. This is the meaning.

But we must observe why the Prophet used this metaphor. It was, that the Israelites and the Jews might understand, that though the Lord would in some measure withhold his hand from resting heavily upon them, and that though he would spare them, yet they would not be safe, because they would by little and little feel a slow decay, that would consume them. And the Lord meant in this way to turn the people to repentance; but he effected nothing: for such was their hardness, that they felt not this slow decay; as those who are stupid are not moved, except they feel a most grievous pain; they think that they are doing well, and they struggle against their own disease: many such we see. Hence the Prophet here reminds them, that though the Lord should not openly fulminate against the Israelites and the Jews, they yet in vain flattered themselves, because the Lord would be to them a moth and a worm; that is, that however gradually he might consume them, they would yet be greatly deceived, if they did not perceive that they had to do with him.

The chief instruction is, that God does not always punish men in the same way; for he deals with them differently, either to promote their salvation, or to render them in this way more inexcusable. Hence God sometimes pours forth his severity, and at another time he slowly chastises us. But whatever may be the way, we are reminded that we ought not to sleep, whenever the Lord awakens us; nor should we wait until he appears as a lion or a bear, until he devours us, until he rages against us in dreadful fury. We are then reminded that there is no reason why we should wait for this; but that when God consumes us by degrees, it ought instantly to occur to us, that though the moth and the worm are but very small insects, hardly seen by the eyes, yet a hard and firm tree is consumed by these little worms, or by its own cariousness; and that cloths are consumed with putridity, when once the moth enters into them; we see valuable furniture perishing. Since it is so, there is no reason for men to be secure when God shows any sign of his wrath, though he pours not forth his horrible vengeance, but is as a hidden putrefaction. We now perceive what Hosea means in this verse. It now follows —

Hosea 5:13

13. When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

13. Et vidit Ephraim dolorem suum (morbum suum potius,) et Jehudah vulnus suum: profectus wst Ephraim ad Assur, et misit ad regem Jareb: ipse tamen non potuit mederi vobis, et non sanabit a vobis vulnus (dicunt Hebraei, sanare ab aliquo vulnus pro auferre vulnus: potius Latine dicendum est, non sanabit vos a plaga.)

Here the Lord complains that he had in vain chastised the Israelites by the usual means, for they thought that they had remedies ready for themselves, and turned their minds to vain hopes. This is usually done by most men; for when the Lord deals mildly with us, we perceive not his hand, but think that what evils happen to us come by chance. Then, as if we had nothing to do with God, we seek remedies, and turn our minds and thoughts to other quarters. This then is what God now reproves in the Jews and the Israelites: Ephraim, he says, saw his disease, and Judah his wound What then did he do? Ephraim went to Assyria, he says, and sent to king Jareb, that is, “They returned not to me, but thought that they had remedies in their own hand; and thus vain became the labour which I have taken to correct them.” This is the meaning.

He says that Ephraim had seen his disease, and Judah his wound: but it is not right so to take this, as if they well considered the causes of these; for the ungodly are blind to the causes of evils, and only attend to their present grief. They are like intemperate men, who, when disease seizes them, feel heat, feel pain in the head, and other symptoms, at the same time there is no concern for the disease, neither do they inquire how they procured these pains for themselves, that they might seek fit remedies.

So Ephraim knew his disease, but at the same time overlooked the cause of his disease, and was only affected by his present pain. So also Judah knew his wound; but he understood not that he was struck and wounded by the hand of God; but was only affected with his pain, like brute beasts who feel the stroke and sigh, while they have, in the meantime, neither reason nor judgment to understand whence, or for what cause the evil has come to them. In a word, the Prophet here condemns this brutish stupidity in both people; for they did not so far profit under God’s rod as to return to him, but, on the contrary, they sought other remedies; because stupor had taken such hold on their minds, that they did not consider that they were chastised by God, and that this was done for just reasons. As then no such thing came to their mind, but they only felt themselves ill and grieved as brutes do, they went to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb.

The Prophet seems here to inveigh only against the ten tribes; but though he expressly speaks of the kingdom of Israel, there is no doubt but that he accused also the Jews in common with them. Why then does he name only Ephraim? Horsley thought that there is a word left out before “sent,” and supposed it to be “Judah,” that the two parts of the verse might correspond, as Judah as well as Ephraim is mentioned in the former part of the verse. Had he well weighed the reason here given by Calvin, he would not have thought such an addition necessary. Conjectural emendations for the most part arise from the same cause, — from not understanding the design and purpose of the sacred writer. — Ed. Even because the beginning of this evil commenced in the kingdom of Israel: for they were the first who went to the king of Assur, that they might, by his help, resist their neighbors, the Syrians: the Jews afterwards followed their example. Since then the Israelites afforded a precedent to the Jews to send for aids of this kind, the Prophet expressly confines his discourse to them. But there is no doubt, as I have already said, but that the accusation was common.

We now perceive what the Prophet meant: Ephraim, he says, saw his disease, and Judah his wound; that is, “Though I have, like a moth and a worm, consumed the kingdom of Israel as well as the kingdom of Judah, and they have felt themselves to be, as it were, decaying, and though their disease ought to have led them to repentance, they have yet turned their thoughts elsewhere; they have even supposed that they could be made whole by seeking a remedy either from the Assyrians or some others: thus it happened that they hastened to Assyria, and sought help from king Jareb.” We then see, in short, that the stupidity and hardness of the people are here reproved, because they were not turned by these evils to repentance.

Some think Jareb to have been a city in Assyria; but there is no ground for this conjecture. Others suppose that Jareb was a neighboring king to the Assyrian, and was sent to when the Assyrian, from a friend and a confederate, became an enemy, and invaded the kingdom of Israel; but this conjecture also has no solid grounds. It may have been the proper name of a man, and I prefer so to take it. For it seemed not necessary for the Prophet to speak here of many auxiliaries; but after the manner of the Hebrews, he repeats the same thing twice. Some render it, “to revenge;” because they sent for that king, even the Assyrian, as a revenger. But this exposition also is forced. More simple appears to me what I have already said, that they sent for the Assyrian, that is, for king Jareb.

Then it follows, Yet could he not heal you, nor will he cure you of your wound Here God declares that whatever the Israelites might seek would be in vain. “Ye think,” he says, “that you can escape my hand by these remedies; but your folly will at length betray itself, for he will avail you nothing; that is, king Jareb will not heal you.” In this clause the Prophet shows, that unless we immediately return to God, when he warns us by his scourges, it will be in vain for us to look here and there for remedies: for in this world many allurements come in our way; but when we hope for any relief, the Lord will at length show that we have been deluded. There is, then, but one remedy, — to go directly to God; and this is what the Prophet means, and this is the application of the present doctrine. He had said before that Ephraim had felt his disease and Judah his wounds; that is, “I have led them thus far, that they have acknowledged themselves to be ill; but they have not gone on as they ought to have done, so as to return to me: on the contrary, they have turned aside to king Jareb and to other delusions.” Then it follows, “But these remedies have turned ant rather for harm to you; they certainly have not profited you.” A confirmation of this sentence follows —

Hosea 5:14

14. For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him

14. Quia ego tanquam leo ipsi Ephraim, et tanquam leunculus domui Jehudah: ego, ego rapiam, et abibo; tollam et nemo eripiet.

As I have said, the Prophet confirms this truth, that Israel had recourse in vain to false physicians, when they left God. How so? Because the whole world, were it to favor us, could not yet help us, against the will of God and his opposing power. But God here declares that he would be adverse to the Israelites; as though he said, “Provide human aids as much as you please; but will the Assyrian be superior to me in power? Can he hinder me from pursuing you as I have determined?” Thus God shows that he would deal in a new and different manner with the Israelites and the Jews: “I will not,” he says, “be any longer like a moth and a worm; I shall come like a lion to you, with an open mouth to devour you: now let the Assyrian king come forth, when I shall thus go armed against you; can he put any hindrance in my way, that I should not execute my vengeance, as it shall seem good to me?” We now then perceive the design of the Prophet.

He had said, that God would punish the Israelites and the Jews, by consuming them by degrees, that there might be more time for repentance: but he says that this would be useless, for they would not think that it was done seriously. They would therefore deceive themselves with vain fallacies. What would then at last remain? Even this, “I will,” he says, “put on a new form and go to battle: I will be to you as a lion and a young lion; I will rage against you as a fierce wild beast: your grievance shall not now be from moths and worms; but you shall have an open and dreadful contest with the lion and the young lion. What then will the Assyrian king avail you?” And this place teaches, that men, when they attempt to oppose vain helps to the wrath of God, gain only this, that they more and more provoke and inflame his wrath against themselves. After God has first gnawed, he will at length devour; after he has pricked, he will deeply wound; after he has struck, he will wholly destroy. All this we bring on ourselves by our perverse attempts, when we try to seek escapes for ourselves. Except, then, we would willingly kindle God’s displeasure, that he may appear as a lion and rage against us with the whole force of his wrath, let us take heed, that we deceive not ourselves by vain reliefs.

He therefore says, I, I will take away, or, “tear,” or, “tear in pieces;” for שרף, shereph, properly means this, and it agrees better with the rest of the context. “I will then, as lions and young lions are wont to do, tear in pieces, limb from limb, the whole people.” Then he says, I will go away as a lion, who, after he has enjoyed his prey, departs a conqueror with more courage being not put to flight, for he is moved by no fear. So also the Prophet says, “Let the Assyrian king come, he will not constrain me to retreat, nor will he rescue the spoil from me: and when I shall be satiated with your destruction, I shall not then have any fear on account of the Assyrian king, that I should stealthily flee away, as foxes are wont to do; I will not craftily contend; but I will go forth openly, my violence will be sufficient to put him to flight: I will thus depart of my own accord; for your subsidies will occasion me no fear. I will take away, he says, and none shall rescue.” We now comprehend the whole meaning of the Prophet.

Hosea 5:15

15. I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

15. Ibo, revertar ad locum meum, donex agnoscant se peccasse (ad verbum est, peccare,) et quaerant faciem meam: ubi fuerit ipsis afflictio, properabunt ad me (vel, me quaerent.)

The word שחר, shicker, signifies the morning: hence the verb means, “to seek early,” or, “to rise early,” as men do when they apply themselves diligently to anything: but in many places of Scripture it is taken simply in the sense of seeking; and this simple meaning seems most suitable to this place, They will seek me in their tribulation God here declares, that after having been dreadfully fierce against both the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, he would for a time rest quietly and wait from heaven what they would do. He then adds, “They will at length return to a sane mind: when they shall perceive the finishing part, they will then, having lost their perverseness, acknowledge their sins and be truly humbled.” This is the meaning.

The mode of speaking seems apparently strange, when God says, that he will go away; for he neither so hides himself in heaven, that he neglects human affairs, nor withdraws his hand, but that he sustains the world by the continued exercise of his power, nor even takes away his Spirit from men, especially when he would lead them to repentance; for men never of their own accord turn themselves to God, but by his hidden influence. What then does he mean by this, I will go and return to my place? Why, indeed, he speaks here of the external state of the people: then the meaning is, “After the two kingdoms shall be cut off, I will then for a time hide my face from both the people; and they will think that I care not for their salvation; they will think that they are far removed from me.” We hence see that the Prophet here only refers to what would be the external condition of the people; and then we also see, that these forms of speech are accommodated to the perceptions of men. So God also himself speaks in Isaiah 18, Isaiah 18:4. — fj. though for a different purpose; yet the Prophet expresses there in reality the same thing; ‘I will rest,’ he says, ‘and I will wait in my tabernacle.’ What was that rest of God, and what was his tabernacle? Why, when God exercised his judgments, we are then constrained to feel his presence, and when he kindly favors us and exhibits the kindness of a Father, he then really shows himself propitious to us: but when he neither visits us for our sins, nor gives us tokens of his favor, he seems to withdraw himself from us, and to show no regard for our life. We now then understand that the Prophet speaks of the time of exile; as though he said, “After God shall execute against you his extreme judgment, and ye shall be liken away into exile, God will then forsake you, as if he in no way regarded you, but were unmindful of you; for he will leave you there to rest, even in Chaldea and Assyria; and then he will not send forth any light of salvation. God therefore will be as it were idle in heaven.” This is one thing.

But the Prophet shows at the same time the final issue, that is, that they will afterwards return to the Lord; and that this is also the purpose of God he affirms, Till they acknowledge, he says, that they have sinned For it is the beginning of healing, when men consider the cause of their disease. He had said before that Israel saw his disease, but not in a right way; for the origin of the disease was hid from him, and continued as yet hid. But now the Prophet distinctly shows that it is to seek God, when people acknowledge and confess their sins. This word continually occurs in Scripture when sacrifices are spoken of. Hence men are said then to sin, when they go forth before God, making a true confession, when they acknowledge their guilt and pray for pardon. So also in this place he says, Until they confess that they have sinned I will for a time hide myself And he adds, “They will seek my face”. This is the second thing in attaining salvation — to seek the face of God: for we are reconciled to God, we know, by repentance and faith; not that repentance procures pardon for us, but because it is necessarily required; it is a cause, as they say, which is indispensable.

The first step then towards healing, as we have already said, is to be touched with grief, when we perceive that we have provoked the wrath of God, and when thus our sins displease us. But he who is thus become in himself a sinner, that is, who begins to be his own judge, ought afterwards to add this second thing — to seek the face of God, that is, to present himself a suppliant before God, and to ask for pardon; and this arises from faith. It is then to repentance that the word אשם, ahsim, belongs, which is to “acknowledge sin:” and to “seek the face of God,” properly belongs to faith.

Now let us see what is the application of this doctrine as to both people. When the Israelites and the Jews lived in exile, it was of great benefit for them to have this testified, that God was hiding his face for a time, that he might afford them time to repent; this is one thing. Now when men considerately attend to this, that they are to seek God, that they may repent, they are encouraged; and this is the sharpest goad to rouse men, that they may no longer be torpid in their vices: and this is what the Prophet meant. When the Lord shall banish into exile both the Jews and the Israelites, let them not think that though for a time he will seem to cast them away they are wholly deserted; for as yet a convenient time for repentance will be given them. He afterwards describes the way of reconciliations that is, that they shall acknowledge that they have sinned, and then that they shall seek the face of God.

And at the same time he makes known the fruit of affliction, and says, When affliction shall be to them, then they will seek me The Prophet here shows, that exile, though very bitter to Israel, would yet be useful; as when a physician gives a bitter draughts or is compelled to use strong medicine to cure an inveterate disease; so the Prophet shows that this punishment would be useful to the people, and even pleasant, however bitter it might be for a time. How so? For they will return to the Lord; and he says distinctly, “They will seek me”. He includes in this expression both faith and repentance; for he separates not the two clauses as before, but shows generally that the end of affliction would be, that the people would turn themselves to God. With respect to the expression, “to seek early,” I have said already that I do not approve of that meaning; for neither the Israelites nor the Jews, sought God early, but were with difficulty at lasts after a long period, and a long series of seventy years, led to repentance. What sort of seeking early was this? I do not then approve of rendering the word, ‘They shall seek me early;’ but, as I have said the simple idea of “seeking” is more suitable.

Prayer

Grant, Almighty God, that as we continue to kindle often thy wrath against us by our innumerable sins, — O grant, that when thou warnest and wouldest restore us to the right way, we may at least be pliant, and without delay attend to the scourges of thy hand, and not wait for extreme severity, but timely repent; and that we may truly and from the heart seek thee, let us not put on false repentance, but strive to devote ourselves wholly to thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Chapter 6

Lecture Sixteenth

Hosea 6:1

1. Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

1. Venite et convertamur ad Jehovam, quia ipse rapuit et sanabit nos; percussit et alligabit plagas nostras.

CHAPTER 5

Ho 5:1-5. God's Judgments on the Priests, People, and Princes of Israel for Their Sins.

Judah, too, being guilty shall be punished; nor shall Assyria, whose aid they both sought, save them; judgments shall at last lead them to repentance.

1. the king--probably Pekah; the contemporary of Ahaz, king of Judah, under whom idolatry was first carried so far in Judah as to call for the judgment of the joint Syrian and Israelite invasion, as also that of Assyria.

judgment is towards you--that is, threatens you from God.

ye have been a snare on Mizpah ... net ... upon Tabor--As hunters spread their net and snares on the hills, Mizpah and Tabor, so ye have snared the people into idolatry and made them your prey by injustice. As Mizpah and Tabor mean a "watch tower," and a "lofty place," a fit scene for hunters, playing on the words, the prophet implies, in the lofty place in which I have set you, whereas ye ought to have been the watchers of the people, guarding them from evil, ye have been as hunters entrapping them into it [Jerome]. These two places are specified, Mizpah in the east and Tabor in the west, to include the high places throughout the whole kingdom, in which Israel's rulers set up idolatrous altars.

2. revolters--apostates.

profound--deeply rooted [Calvin] and sunk to the lowest depths, excessive in their idolatry (Ho 9:9; Is 31:6) [Henderson]. From the antithesis (Ho 5:3), "not hid from me," I prefer explaining, profoundly cunning in their idolatry. Jeroboam thought it a profound piece of policy to set up golden calves to represent God in Dan and Beth-el, in order to prevent Israel's heart from turning again to David's line by going up to Jerusalem to worship. So Israel's subsequent idolatry was grounded by their leaders on various pleas of state expediency (compare Is 29:15).

to ... slaughter--He does not say "to sacrifice," for their so-called sacrifices were butcheries rather than sacrifices; there was nothing sacred about them, being to idols instead of to the holy God.

though--Maurer translates, "and (in spite of their hope of safety through their slaughter of victims to idols) I will be a chastisement to them all." English Version is good sense: They have deeply revolted, notwithstanding all my prophetical warnings.

3. Ephraim--the tribe so called, as distinguished from "Israel" here, the other nine tribes. It was always foremost of the tribes of the northern kingdom. For four hundred years in early history, it, with Manasseh and Benjamin, its two dependent tribes, held the pre-eminence in the whole nation. Ephraim is here addressed as foremost in idolatry.

I how ... not hid from me--notwithstanding their supposed profound cunning (Ho 5:2; Re 2:2, 9, 13, 19).

now--"though I have been a rebuker of all them" (Ho 5:2) who commit such spiritual whoredoms, thou art now continuing in them.

4. They--Turning from a direct address to Ephraim, he uses the third person plural to characterize the people in general. The Hebrew is against the Margin, their doings will not suffer them" the omission of "them" in the Hebrew after the verb being unusual. The sense is, they are incurable, for they will not permit (as the Hebrew literally means) their doings to be framed so as to turn unto God. Implying that they resist the Spirit of God, not suffering Him to renew them; and give themselves up to "the spirit of whoredoms" (in antithesis to "the Spirit of God" implied in "suffer" or "permit") (Ho 4:12; Is 63:10; Eze 16:43; Ac 7:51).

5. the pride of Israel--wherewith they reject the warnings of God's prophets (Ho 5:2), and prefer their idols to God (Ho 7:10; Jr 13:17).

testify to his face--openly to his face he shall be convicted of the pride which is so palpable in him. Or, "in his face," as in Is 3:9.

Judah ... shall fall with them--This prophecy is later than Ho 4:15, when Judah had not gone so far in idolatry; now her imitation of Israel's bad example provokes the threat of her being doomed to share in Israel's punishment.

6. with ... flocks--to propitiate Jehovah (Is 1:11-15).

seek ... not find--because it is slavish fear that leads them to seek Him; and because it then shall be too late (Pr 1:28; Joh 7:34).

7. treacherously--as to the marriage covenant (Jr 3:20).

strange children--alluding to "children of whoredoms" (Ho 1:2; 2:4). "Strange" or foreign implies that their idolatry was imported from abroad [Henderson]. Or rather, "regarded by God as strangers, not His," as being reared in idolatry. The case is desperate, when not only the existing, but also the rising, generation is reared in apostasy.

a month--a very brief space of time shall elapse, and then punishment shall overtake them (Zec 11:8). The allusion seems to be to money loans, which were by the month, not as with us by the year. You cannot put it off; the time of your destruction is immediately and suddenly coming on you; just as the debtor must meet the creditor's demand at the expiration of the month. The prediction is of the invasion of Tiglath-pileser, who carried away Reuben, Gad, Naphtali, and the half tribe of Manasseh.

portions--that is, possessions. Their resources and garrisons will not avail to save them. Henderson explains from Is 57:6, "portions" as their idols; the context favors this, "the Lord" the true "portion of His people" (De 32:9), being in antithesis to "their portions," the idols.

8. The arrival of the enemy is announced in the form of an injunction to blow an alarm.

cornet ... trumpet--The "cornet" was made of the curved horn of animals and was used by shepherds. The "trumpet" was of brass or silver, straight, and used in wars and on solemn occasions. The Hebrew is hatzotzerah, the sound imitating the trumpet note (Ho 8:1; Nu 10:2; Jr 4:5; Joe 2:1).

Gibeah ... Ramah--both in Benjamin (Is 10:29).

Beth-aven--in Benjamin; not as in Ho 4:15; Beth-el, but a town east of it (Jos 7:2). "Cry aloud," namely, to raise the alarm. "Benjamin" is put for the whole southern kingdom of Judah (compare Ho 5:5), being the first part of it which would meet the foe advancing from the north. "After thee, O Benjamin," implies the position of Beth-aven, behind Benjamin, at the borders of Ephraim. When the foe is at Beth-aven, he is at Benjamin's rear, close upon thee, O Benjamin (Jud 5:14).

9-10. Israel is referred to in Ho 5:9, Judah in Ho 5:10.

the day of rebuke--the day when I shall chastise him.

among the tribes of Israel have I made known--proving that the scene of Hosea's labor was among the ten tribes.

that which shall surely be--namely, the coming judgment here foretold. It is no longer a conditional decree, leaving a hope of pardon on repentance; it is absolute, for Ephraim is hopelessly impenitent.

11. broken in judgment--namely, the "judgment" of God on him (Ho 5:1).

walked after the commandment--Jeroboam's, to worship the calves (2Ki 10:28-33). Compare Mi 6:16, "the statutes of Omri," namely, idolatrous statutes. We ought to obey God rather than men (Ac 5:29). Jerome reads "filthiness." The Septuagint gives the sense, not the literal translation: "after vanities."

12. as a moth--consuming a garment (Job 13:28; Psa 39:11; Is 50:9).

Judah ... rottenness--Ephraim, or the ten tribes, are as a garment eaten by the moth; Judah as the body itself consumed by rottenness (Pr 12:4). Perhaps alluding to the superiority of the latter in having the house of David, and the temple, the religious center of the nation [Grotius]. As in Ho 5:13, 14, the violence of the calamity is prefigured by the "wound" which "a lion" inflicts, so here its long protracted duration, and the certainty and completeness of the destruction from small unforeseen beginnings, by the images of a slowly but surely consuming moth and rottenness.

13. wound--literally, "bandage"; hence a bandaged wound (Is 1:6; Jr 30:12). "Saw," that is, felt its weakened state politically, and the dangers that threatened it. It aggravates their perversity, that, though aware of their unsound and calamitous state, they did not inquire into the cause or seek a right remedy.

went ... to the Assyrian--First, Menahem (2Ki 15:19) applied to Pul; again, Hoshea to Shalmaneser (2Ki 17:3).

sent to King Jareb--Understand Judah as the nominative to "sent." Thus, as "Ephraim saw his sickness" (the first clause) answers in the parallelism to "Ephraim went to the Assyrian" (the third clause), so "Judah saw his wound" (the second clause) answers to (Judah) "sent to King Jareb" (the fourth clause). Jareb ought rather to be translated, "their defender," literally, "avenger" [Jerome]. The Assyrian "king," ever ready, for his own aggrandizement, to mix himself up with the affairs of neighboring states, professed to undertake Israel's and Judah's cause; in Jud 6:32, Jerub, in Jerub-baal is so used, namely, "plead one's cause." Judah, under Ahaz, applied to Tiglath-pileser for aid against Syria and Israel (2Ki 16:7, 8; 2Ch 28:16-21); the Assyrian "distressed him, but strengthened him not," fulfiling the prophecy here, "he could not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

14. lion--The black lion and the young lion are emblems of strength and ferocity (Psa 91:13).

I, even I--emphatic; when I, even I, the irresistible God, tear in pieces (Psa 50:22), no Assyrian power can rescue.

go away--as a lion stalks leisurely back with his prey to his lair.

15. return to my place--that is, withdraw My favor.

till they acknowledge their offence--The Hebrew is, "till they suffer the penalty of their guilt." Probably "accepting the punishment of their guilt" (compare Zec 11:5) is included in the idea, as English Version translates. Compare Le 26:40, 41; Jr 29:12, 13; Eze 6:9; 20:43; 36:31.

seek my face--that is, seek My favor (Pr 29:26, Margin).

in ... affliction ... seek me early--that is, diligently; rising up before dawn to seek Me (Psa 119:147; compare Psa 78:34).

Hear ye this, O priests - A process is instituted against the priests, the Israelites, and the house of the king; and they are called on to appear and defend themselves. The accusation is, that they have ensnared the people, caused them to practice idolatry, both at Mizpah and Tabor. Mizpah was situated beyond Jordan; in the mountains of Gilead; see Jdg 11:29. And Tabor was a beautiful mountain in the tribe of Zebulum. Both these places are said to be eminent for hunting etc., and hence the natural occurrence of the words snare and net, in speaking of them.

The revolters are profound to make slaughter - Here may be a reference to the practice of hunters, making deep pits in the ground, and lightly covering them over, that the beasts, not discovering them, might fall in, and become a prey.

Though I have been a Rebuker - "I will bring chastisement on them all." As they have made victims of others to their idolatry, I will make victims of them to my justice. Some have thought that as many as wished to depart from the idolatrous worship set up by Jeroboam, were slaughtered; and thus Jeroboam the son of Nebat Made Israel to sin.

I know Ephraim - I know the whole to be idolaters.

They will not frame their doings - They never purpose to turn to God, they have fully imbibed the spirit of idolatry.

The pride of Israel doth testify to his face - The effrontery with which they practise idolatry manifests, not only their insolence, but the deep depravity of their heart; but their pride and arrogance shall be humbled.

They shall go with their flocks - They shall offer many sacrifices, professing to seek and be reconciled to the Lord; but they shall not find him. As they still retain the spirit of their idolatry, he has withdrawn himself from them.

Now shall a month devour them - In a month's time the king of Assyria shall be upon them, and oblige them to purchase their lives and liberties by a grievous tax of fifty shekels per head. This Menahem, king of Israel, gave to Pul, king of Assyria, 2Kgs 15:16-20. Instead of month, some translate the original locust. "The locusts shall devour them."

Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah - Gibeah and Ramah were cities of Judah, in the tribe of Benjamin.

After thee, O Benjamin - An abrupt call of warning. "Benjamin, fly for thy life! The enemy is just behind thee!" This is a prediction of the invasion of the Assyrians, and the captivity of the ten tribes.

Among the tribes of Israel have I made known - They have got sufficient warning; it is their own fault that they have not taken it.

Like them that remove the bound - As execrable as they who remove the land-mark. They have leaped over law's enclosure, and scaled all the walls of right; they have despised and broken all laws, human and Divine.

Walked after the commandment - Jeroboam's commandment to worship his calves at Dan and Beth-el. Many of them were not forced to do this, they did it willingly.

Unto Ephraim as a moth - I will consume them by little and little, as a moth frets a garment.

When Ephraim saw his sickness - When both Israel and Judah felt their own weakness to resist their enemies, instead of calling upon and trusting in me, they sought sinful alliances, and trusted in their idols.

King Jareb - This name occurs nowhere in Scripture but here and in Hos 10:6. The Vulgate and Targum render ירב yareb, an avenger, a person whom they thought able to save them from their enemies. It is well known that Menahem, king of Israel, sought alliance with Pul and Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria, and Ahaz, king of Judah. These were the protectors that Ephraim sought after. See 2 Kings 15 and 16. But far from healing them by making them tributary, the Assyrians made their wound more dangerous.

I will be - as a lion - כשחל cashshachel, as a panther or lioness.

I will go and return to my place - I will abandon them till they acknowledge their offenses. This had the wished-for effect, as we shall see in the following chapter; for they repented and turned to God, and he had mercy upon them. These two verses are considered as instances of the true sublime.

For judgment - God's controversy is with you all. A snare - You, O priests and princes, have ensnared the people by your examples. Mizpah - By idolatries acted at Mizpah, a part of Libanus. On Tabor - Here, as in Mizpah, idolatry catched men as birds are taken in a net.

The revolters - All those that have cast off the law of God. Profound - Dig deep to hide their counsels, and to slay the innocent. Though I - Hosea.

Doth testify - Is an evident witness against him.

To seek the Lord - The Jewish doctors tell us, that under Hosea, Israel had liberty of bringing their sacrifices to Jerusalem. Shall not find him - God will not be found of them. Hath withdrawn himself - For their impenitency.

Have begotten - They have trained up their children in the same idolatry. A month - Possibly it may refer to Shallum's short time of usurpation, which lasted but a month; the Assyrians shall make a speedy conquest over you. With their portions - With all their substance.

Blow ye - Ye watchmen, sound the alarm, the enemy cometh. After thee, O Benjamin - After thy cries. After thee, O Beth - aven, let Benjamin also cry aloud: for they shall also fall for their sin.

Ephraim - The whole kingdom of the ten tribes. Rebuke - When Salmaneser shall besiege, sack and captivate all thy cities, rebuked for their sins. Of Israel - To the house of Israel openly. Made known - By my prophets.

The bound - The ancient bounds which limited every one, and prevented the encroaching of covetous men. Like water - Like an overflowing flood.

Ephraim - The ten tribes are by seditions, civil wars, unjust sentences, and bloody conspiracies eaten up already. After the commandment - To forbear going to the temple, and to worship the calves at Dan and Bethel, as Jeroboam the son of Nebat commanded.

A moth - Moths leisurely eat up our clothes; so God was then, and had been, from Jeroboam's death, weakening the ten tribes. As rottenness - Secretly consuming them.

His sickness - Weakness, like a consumption, threatening death. Then went - Made application. The Assyrian - Particularly to Israel or Pul.

Will tear - Divine vengeance by the Assyrians, shall be as a lion tearing his prey.

1 HEar ye this, O priests , and hearken, ye house of Israel , and give ye ear, O house of the king ; for judgment is toward you , because ye have been a snare on Mizpah , and a net spread upon Tabor .

Proclamation is made, and the criminals are cited to appear, and attend their charge; amongst which the Priests are first summoned: Not of the Tribe of Levi, not Gods Priests, but Baals Priests, Priests of the high places, such they called themselves, so accounted by the people and Priests, they were as good as their constitution by Jeroboam Son of Nebat, could make them.

All the people of Israel hearken and consider duly.

All you of Menahems Court, and all you that are of the Royal Family. It is very probable, if not plainly certain, that Menahem was King at this time over Israel, and that Hose[illegible: 1 letter] points him out with his whole Family.

For to you it appertain'd to execute judgment, and do right, so some, but the most read it, as we do, judgment is toward, i. e. against you. You have sinned, and God will punish. Gods controversie, chap. 4. ver. 1. is with you all, but first with Priests who neglected to instruct the people, next with the body of the people, and lastly, with the King, Court, and his Family.

You O Priests and Princes, Nobles and Judges, have ensnared the people by your examples and practices, which have been Idolatrous, and the people have imitated you; it may possibly refer to that the Jewes say was done, spies set to watch who went to Jerusalem, to worship, and to inform that they might be punisht: Or else thus; By commending the Calves, and palliating the Idolatry committed in worshipping them, by perswading the people they might as well worship there as at Jerusalem; you have been a snare unto them, and drawn them into idolatry.

Either taken comparatively, as fowlers and hunters have taken many birds and beasts, by gins and snares on Mizpah, so you have ensnared many souls in idolatry: Or by idolatries acted at Mizpah you have ensnared many, so at Mizpah there was an high place, and idolatrous worship performed there, whether at Mizpah in Judah, which is not very likely, or Mizpah part of Libanus, which is the more likely, I determine not.

A very famous mount for its exact roundness, and the height thereof, and as famous for the pleasantness thereof, which easily perswades me to think this hill must needs have some high place on it, and that where high places were so much in fashion, Tabor could not be omitted. Here, as in Mizpah, idolatry catcht men as birds or wild beasts are taken in a net, or briefly thus: The Priests and secular power did make Religion, and the civil Government, a snare for men, both so managed the lawes of each as to intrap all they could: As if Men were fowls and beasts, and Governours Civil and Ecclesiastical, hunters and fowlers; And their Laws nets and gins set to catch men, and make a prey of them. Thus 'twas in Israel at that day.

2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter , though I have been a rebuker of them all .

All those that have cast off the law of God, both in matters of Religion and Civil Government.

Dig deep to hide their counsels, or have taken deep root since their Apostacy from God, and revolt from the house of David.

All their Religion is but a butchering of Cattle, no Sacrifice to God; or which is worse. a murthering of Men.

Hosea.

a Preacher who in the name and word of God have sharply inveigh'd against their brutish Religion; and their bloody Slaughters.

None that have been guilty have escaped the reproof. I have declaimed against Idolatrous Priests, and bloody Usurpers, such as were in those times, Shallum, Menahem and Pekah.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word], and &c.; [illegible: 1 paragraph].

3 I know Ephraim , and Israel is not hid from me; for now O Ephraim thou committest whoredom , and Israel is defiled .

These revolters neither are, or can be so deep as to conceal themselves, their designs, contrivances and practices from me: I throughly know Ephraim, the revolters are called Israel in this verse, who is not hid from me. It is an elegant repetition of the same thing in different words.

All thy fair pretences thou canst put upon thy devised Religion, cannot better it, still 'tis down right Idolatry, or spiritual Whoredom.

Israel here is Ephraim, and when Israel is said to be polluted, it is to be understood both of spiritual and corporal pollution which mostly are linked together, and draw on each other.

4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God : for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them , and they have not known the LORD .

Those revolters, polluted Israelites, and idolatrous Ephraimites,

they are so intent upon their idolatries and oppressions, they have been so long inured to these doings, that now they are become slaves to their own doings, insomuch that they neither have will or power to change them, as Ier. 13.23.

To repent of those wicked courses, and to leave them, and so return to their God, who was once theirs by covenant, though now they have violated the covenant, and departed from God. They are in sin hardened to a hopeless and remediless obstinacy and impenitence.

Vid. chap. 4. ver. 12. Their mind and inclination stands bent, and fixed upon spiritual whoredoms, and they are incited to it by the seducing spirit, allured by examples, and all these hurry them on.

It is an universal distemper among them, all fill'd with this spirit, it hath siez'd the heart of them.

They never did rightly know, nor would they ever know, they forgot, were willfully ignorant of the way of Holiness and pure Religion, contained in the Law of God.

Who is pure, zealous for his Glory, sovereign in his Authority, rich in his rewards, severe in his punishments, and true to his promises and threats; That nothing can be more prejudicial to a people then to forsake, nor any thing more conducive to the good of a people then to keep his Law.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] they will [illegible: 1 word].; [illegible: 1 word] their [illegible: 1 word] will not [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 letter]hem.

5 And the pride of Israel doth testifie to his face : therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity : Judah also shall fall with them .

It might have been rendred the excellency or glory of Israel, and so refer'd to God, it would be prediction that God himself would witness against Israel. God is said to swear by the excellency of Iacob, Amos 8.7. i. e. by himself; thus interpreted it would very well accord with what follows in this 5th. and in the 6th verse. But as it is here rendred, 'tis the haughtiness, carnal confidence of Israel grown great, under the long and prosperous Reign of Ieroboam the second, that they thought it impossible such calamities, as foretold by the Prophet, should overtake them, or that God should think so ill of that worship they thought so well of; they neither confess their sins, nor fear Gods judgments.

Is so full and evident witness against Israel, that no other Testimony need be produced

to convince and silence the most impudent and shameless among them:

The nine Tribes, and the head of them Ephraim,

be ruined for their sins of which they are guilty, but repent not.

The two Tribes under Ahaz, now lapsed to Idolatry.

Be captivated too, ere long, soon after sin will undo them.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. 7.10.

6 They shall go with their flocks, and with their herds to seek the LORD , but they shall not find him : he hath withdrawn himself from them .

The people of Iudah say some, but I rather think 'tis spoken of the Ephraimites, and either implyes by what they did support their confidence of escaping ruin, or else foretels that extremity of sufferings should force them at last to offer sacrifices to God, and the Iewish Doctors do tell us, that under Hoshea's Reign Israel had liberty of bringing their Offerings and Sacrifices to Ierusalem, whether this were so or not;

'tis certain they did not seek him in right manner, it was with their flocks and herds, but not with their hearts, not with sound Repentance.

Whilst he might have been found they would not seek him, now as punishment, and to leave them remediless, God will not be found of them, he will not either accept a Sacrifice, or pardon their sin, or return to save them.

In displeasure hath withdrawn his favourable presence from them, and with resolution to leave them to the violences of the Assyrian powers.

Marginal references: Prov. 1.28. Isa. 1.15. Jer. 11.11. Ezek. 8.18. Mich. 3.4. Joh: 7.34.

7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children : now shall a moneth devour them with their portions .

The whole house of Israel, Priests, People and Princes, and their Kings with them.

Have falsified their word and promise of fidelity and constancy, of love and affection when they entred covenant with me, turned Idolaters▪ and have worshipt and rely'd on false Gods.

As if 'twere not enough that they were Idolaters, they have train'd up their Children in the same idolatry, partly by their instruction, and more by their examples.

Or therefore, or ere long, as chap. 2. ver. 10. let. q.

Either the new moon, one particular species of Ceremonial Superstitious Worship put for all the rest, as some interpret, or rather, a time not long, (as an Age) not as to the old world, nor as to Nineveh; 40 dayes, but a shorter time, possibly it may refer to Shallum's short time of usurpation, which lasted but a Moneth, a Moneth shall devour them: The Assyrians shall make a speedy conquest over you.

Not only persons, but their Goods and Chattels are exposed to speediest spoiling; and as a token of such future speedy desolation, the Prophet points out a short Reign of one of the Usurpers, and foretells the precise time of his continuance, that when they shall see this come to pass, they might believe the rest foretold by the Prophet should also come to pass. Nor is this conjecture without some ground, since we know that Shallum slew Zechariah before the people, 2 Kings 15.10. implying the peoples concurrence herein, and their accepting of Shallum with expectation of peace and prosperity, to the increase of their portion under his Government, all which was blasted at the Moneths end.

8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah , and the trumpet in Ramah : cry aloud at Beth-aven : after thee , O Benjamin.

Ye watchmen, or who ever have the care and custody of these Fortified Towns, sound the alarm, for the enemy cometh.

a Town of Benjamin scituate on a Hill, built by Asa, 1 Kings 15.22. made by him a frontier, and likely alwayes Garrison'd against the incursion of the ten Tribes.

Add to the sound of the Cornet, the Trumpet also, which is proper for war, and will be best understood by the people, lest they mistake the meaning of the Cornet, which is say some a Pastoral Instrument, proper for Shepherds, sound the Trumpet.

Of which there were three, one in Naphthall, and Rama Sophim, and this of Benjamin near Gibeah, and was an inlet into Iudah, of great importance, as appears 1 Kings 15.17, 21. a Town of strength, built on a high hill, and fit to be as a watch Tower. Be you upon your guard when the invader is so near.

As more concerned, cry out with more vehemency, awaken all to prepare for defence, or howl and lament for the things that are come upon thee, O Beth-aven. The Assyrians march will alarm thy Neighbours, but their success against thee will ruin thee utterly, let thine inhabitants therefore cry and howl; Beth-aven, if that scituate in the Wilderness; this passage foretels the destruction of it by the Assyrians, probably in the beginning of their invasion, if 'twere Bethel, 'twas the chief seat of Idolatry, and first or chief in miseries.

Thee, refer'd to Beth-aven speaks thus, after thy cryes, when thou hast howled, let Benjamin and Iudah too begin theirs, for they shall also fall for their sin.

9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke : among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be .

The whole Kingdom of the ten tribes, all sorts and ranks of men among them.

A desolation, i. e. most desolate, ut[illegible: 1 letter]terly cut off,

When Salmaneser shall come up with his Forces, besiege, sack and captivate all thy Cities, and Samaria with the rest, when by these Assyrians I shall rebuke, i. e. punish.

To the house of Israel openly, so that all might be informed.

By my Prophets I have foretold what should be, and by some judgments already executed▪ I have farther made known to them, they are sufficiently warned, and should have considered in time, and prevented their own Calamities.

What is irrevocably determin'd and ratified, and they shall never evade, nor ever overcome.

10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound : therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water .

The great Men about the King and Court, the Rulers and Governours, who by the Law of God and Man should have been the maintainers of Equity, and Justice among the people.

Of the Kingdom of Iudah, or the Two Tribes.

Have been, and now are, in the days of Ahaz, for to this mans time the Prophet now pointeth.

The antient bounds which limited every one, prevented controversies and oppressions of encroaching covetous men. The Prophet I doubt not aims at reproving the sin of these great ones in changing the Laws of Religion, as well as altering the bounds of Civil Rights, whether by encroaching upon Forreigners, and enlarging the Kingdom of Iudah by entrenching on the Neighbouring Kingdoms, or which is more certain by injustice and violence seizing what was anothers.

This was sin and forbidden, Deut. 19.14. This practice is cursed, Deut. 27.17. and God now will punish it.

Like an overflowing flood.

11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment : because he willingly walked after the commandment .

The Subjects of the Kingdom of Israel, the Ten Tribes, the Prophet resumeth his Threat against them.

Supposing, as well we may, that this Prophecy respecteth Ahaz his time; it will appear that Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah's Reigns were past, which were unjust, Seditious, Bloudy, and Tyrannical times in which oppressions abounded; and of which our Prophet now speaketh. The Ten Tribes are by Seditions, Civil Wars, and Bloudy Conspiracies eaten up already almost. But to those God will add his displeasure, and the Assyrians shall be the Executioners, and shall oppress Ephraim.

i. e. Through fear of the partiality of the Judge, though his cause be equal and just, yet Money, or Moneys-worth is extorted, to prevent an unjust, or to procure a just Sentence; a known course in such dayes as these the Prophet lived in, or as the dayes of Marius and Sylla.

Epharim spoken of as if one person perhaps to intimate the universal defection.

It was not a force upon them, they did willingly. Though there was a Law commanding, yet there was in the people a forwardness, and too great a readiness to comply and obey that Law which made Idolatry the Establishment in the Ten Tribes.

To forbear going to the Temple, and to worship the Calves at Dan and Bethel, as Ieroboam son of Nebat required.

12 Therefore I will be unto Ephraim as a moth : and to the house of Judah as rottenness .

Or And Heb.

I am, it is concise in the Hebr. and might be thus expressed. But, or And, as for me I am, and will be to the Ten Tribes.

Moths do leisurely eat up and marr our Clothes, so God was then, and had been, from Ieroboam's Death to this day, weakning the Ten Tribes, their Seditions did eat them up.

The Two Tribes who now with Ahaz did as Ephraim cast God off.

Shall secretly consume and rot as wood doth by Worms; so God will punish both Israel and Iudah, these shall be forerunners and preparatories to the final desolation of both; the one by Assyria, and of the other by Babylon.

Marginal references: Or, a worm.

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness , and Judah saw his wound , then went Ephraim to the Assyrian , and sent to king Jareb : yet could he not heal you , nor cure you of your wound .

And, Heb. after that.

The King and Counsel, and Kingdom of the Ten Tribes, Menahem is surely meant, vid. 2 Kings 15.

Weakness, like a Consumption, threatning Death. Though Menahem had killed Shallum, and got into the Throne, yet he found himself unable to hold it against the opposite faction, and therefore sent for assistance from Assyria 2 King 15.19. or at least purchased the Friendship of Pul who was come out as an Enemy.

The other Kingdom of the two Tribes.

A deep and sestering wound; or a corrupting imposthume, which needs be opened, cleans'd and bound up, such was the state of the two Tribes at that day, ulcerous and full of danger, for Ahaz had done very wickedly, and wounded the Kingdom.

Made application.

Particularly to Pul, as 2 King. 15.19, 20. Not one word of their going to God, he was not in all their thoughts: He did afflict leisurely that they might seek him, but they forgot him still.

Embassadors, and presents to entreat and procure his help.

Whilest Interpreters agree not who this Iareb was, while some will have it be a proper, others an Appellative, Name, of a Person or Place, I think 'twill be surer course to compare times, who was King of Assyria when Ephraim was sick, and Iudah was wounded, and both felt it, for whoever this will prove to be, he it is that is meant by Iareb. Pul in Menahem's time, Tiglath Pilneser in Ahaz time, or, what if Iareb be the sum of what Ephraim and Iudah desired of this Assy[illegible: 1 letter]ian King; they complain'd of wrong received, and sent to this Foreign King their complaint, and requested that he would judge, or in our modern termes be Arbitrator; so the word will bear.

Ephraims sickness grew worse by it, Israel was sicker for it.

Iudah, Ahaz, and his wounded State.

The Assyrian King was either unable, or unwilling to heal the wound which he knew would as much profit him, as hurt his Patient.

Marginal references: chap. 12.1.; Or, to the king of Iareb. Or, to the king, that should plead.

14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion , and as a young lion to the house of Judah : I, even I, will tear , and go away : I will take away , and none shall rescue him .

The Lord whose Power is infinite, whose Wrath they have enkindled, who hath threatned to extirpate them.

A Panther say some, a very swift Beast, wherein he excels the Lion, and a very fierce and ravenous Creature, wherein he equals the Lion, or a Lioness, say others: but to leave that, God will make the Assyrian a Chirurgion, such as a fierce ravenous Lyon would be to a wounded man·

Which is grown up to his strength for mischief, and retains his inclination to gamesomness, or to play with his prey; so should Iudah find himself when caught by this Lion, first made a sport to please the Tyrannous humour, and after made a feast to feed his ravenous hunger.

The threat is doubled to ascertain it, and make it more dreadful: Divine Vengeance by the Assyrian, shall be as a Lyon tearing his Prey.

When satisfied, the Lyon goes away, flyeth not for fear.

Leaveth not any behind him, carrieth away what he did not eat, so should Assyria devour the Land, and carry away the People.

None have courage to attempt, or power to effect a rescue, the prey must hopeless perish; so 'twill be with Ephraim and Iud[illegible: 2 letters], when God appears as a Lion against them.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]

15 ¶ I will go and return to my place , till they acknowledge their offence , and seek my face : in their affliction they will seek me early .

After the manner of Man God speaks, he will do that which shall be like a Man's going away from such as refuse tho' they need his help, he retires; God will withdraw his sav[illegible: 1 letter]ng help,

Till they confess, humble themselves for their sins.

Me their God, my Mercy, and my Law; my Soveraign as well as Saviour.

In deep distresses they will, at least some will seek me diligently as indeed they did at the end of I[illegible: 1 letter] dah's 70 years Captivity.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 paragraph]; [illegible: 1 paragraph]

Hos 5:1

With the words “Hear ye this,” the reproof of the sins of Israel makes a new start, and is specially addressed to the priests and the king’s house, i.e., the king and his court, to announce to the leaders of the nation the punishment that will follow their apostasy from God and their idolatry, by which they have plunged the people and the kingdom headlong into destruction. Hos 5:1-5 form the first strophe. Hos 5:1. “Hear ye this, ye priests; and give heed thereto, O house of Israel; and observe it, O house of the king! for the judgment applies to you; for ye have become a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.” By the word “this,” which points back to Hos 5:4, the prophecy that follows is attached to the preceding one. Beside the priests and the king’s house, i.e., the royal family, in which the counsellors and adjutants surrounding the king are probably included, the house of Israel, that is to say, the people of the ten tribes regarded as a family, is summoned to hear, because what was about to be announced applied to the people and kingdom as a whole. There is nothing to warrant our understanding by the “house of Israel,” the heads of the nation or elders. Lâkjem hammishpât does not mean, It rests with you to know or to defend the right; nor, “Ye ought to hear the reproof,” as Hitzig explains it, for mishpât in this connection signifies neither “the maintenance of justice” nor “a reproof,” but the judgment about to be executed by God, τὸ κρίμα (lxx). The thought is this, The judgment will fall upon you; and lâkhem refers chiefly to the priests and the king’s house, as the explanatory clause which follows clearly shows. It is impossible to determine with certainty what king’s house is intended. Probably that of Zechariah or Menahem; possibly both, since Hosea prophesied in both reigns, and merely gives the quintessence of his prophetical addresses in his book. Going to Asshur refers rather to Menahem than to Zechariah (comp. 2Ki 15:19-20). In the figures employed, the bird-trap (pach) and the net spread for catching birds, it can only be the rulers of the nation who are represented as a trap and net, and the birds must denote the people generally who are enticed into the net of destruction and caught (cf. Hos 9:8).Jerome has given a very good explanation of the figure: “I have appointed you as watchmen among the people, and set you in the highest place of honour, that ye might govern the erring people; but ye have become a trap, and are to be called sportsmen rather than watchmen.”Mizpah, as a parallel to Tabor, can only be the lofty Mizpah of Gilead (Jdg 10:17; Jdg 11:29) or Ramah-Mizpah, which probably stood upon the site of the modern es-Salt (see at Deu 4:43); so that, whilst Tabor represents the land on this side of the Jordan, Mizpah, which resembled it in situation, is chosen to represent the land to the east of the river.As Tabor, for instance, rises up as a solitary conical hill (see at Jdg 4:6), so es-Salt is built about the sides of a round steep hill, which rises up in a narrow rocky valley, and upon the summit of which there stands a strong fortification (see Seetzen in Burckhardt’s Reisen in Syrien, p. 1061).

Both places were probably noted as peculiarly adapted for bird-catching, since Tabor is still thickly wooded. The supposition that they had been used as places of sacrifice in connection with idolatrous worship, cannot be inferred from the verse before us, nor is it rendered probable by other passages.

Hos 5:2

This accusation is still further vindicated in Hos 5:2., by a fuller exposure of the moral corruption of the nation. Hos 5:2. “And excesses they have spread out deeply; but I am a chastisement to them all.” The meaning of the first half of the verse, which is very difficult, and has been very differently interpreted by both ancient and modern expositors, has been brought out best by Delitzsch (Com. on Psa 101:3), who renders it, “they understand from the very foundation how to spread out transgressions.” For the word שׂטים the meaning transgressions is well established by the use of סטים in Psa 101:3, where Hengstenberg, Hupfeld, and Delitzsch all agree that this is the proper rendering (see Ewald’s philological defence of it at §146, e). In the psalm referred to, however, the expression עשׂה סטים also shows that shachătâh is the inf. piel, and sētı̄m the accusative of the object. And it follows from this that shachătâh neither means to slaughter or slaughter sacrifices, nor can be used for שׁחתה in the sense of acting injuriously, but that it is to be interpreted according to the shâchūth in 1Ki 10:16-17, in the sense of stretching, stretching out; so that there is no necessity to take שׁחט in the sense of שׁטח, as Delitzsch does, though the use of עלוה for עולה in Hos 10:9 may no doubt be adduced in its support. שׂטים, from שׂטה (to turn aside, Num 5:12, Num 5:19), are literally digressions or excesses, answering to the hiznâh in Hos 5:3, the leading sin of Israel. “They have deepened to stretch out excesses,” i.e., they have gone to great lengths, or are deeply sunken in excesses, - a thought quite in harmony with the context, to which the threat is appended. “I (Jehovah) am a chastisement to them all, to the rulers as well as to the people;” i.e., I will punish them all (cf. Hos 5:12), because their idolatrous conduct is well known to me. The way is thus prepared for the two following verses.

Hos 5:3-4 “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou hast committed whoredom; Israel has defiled itself. Hos 5:4. Their works do not allow to return to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is in them, and they know not Jehovah.” By עתּה, the whoredom of Ephraim is designated as in fact lying before them, and therefore undeniable; but not, as Hitzig supposes, an act which has taken place once for all, viz., the choice of a king, by which the severance of the kingdoms and the previous idolatry had been sanctioned afresh. נטמא, defiled by whoredom, i.e., idolatry. Their works do not allow them to return to their God, because the works are merely an emanation of the character and state of the heart, and in their hearts the demon of whoredom has its seat (cf. Hos 4:12), and the knowledge of the Lord is wanting; that is to say, the demoniacal power of idolatry has taken complete possession of the heart, and stifled the knowledge of the true God. The rendering, “they do not direct their actions to this,” is incorrect, and cannot be sustained by an appeal to the use of נתן לב in Jdg 15:1 and 1Sa 24:8., or to Jdg 3:28.

Hos 5:5 “And the pride of Ephraim will testify against its face, and Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their guilt; Judah has also stumbled with them.” As the meaning “to answer,” to bear witness against a person, is well established in the case of ענה ב (cf. Num 35:30; Deu 19:18, and Isa 3:9), and ענה בפנים also occurs in Job 16:8 in this sense, we must retain the same meaning here, as Jerome and others have done. And there is the more reason for this, because the explanation based upon the lxx, καὶ ταπεινωθήσεται ἡ ὕβρις, “the haughtiness of Israel will be humbled,” can hardly be reconciled with בפניו. “The pride of Israel,” moreover, is not the haughtiness of Israel, but that of which Israel is proud, or rather the glory of Israel. We might understand by this the flourishing condition of the kingdom, after Amo 6:8; but it would be only by its decay that this would bear witness against the sin of Israel, so that “the glory of Israel” would stand for “the decay of that glory,” which would be extremely improbable. We must therefore explain “the glory of Israel” here and in Hos 7:10 in accordance with Amo 8:7, i.e., we must understand it as referring to Jehovah, who is Israel’s eminence and glory; in which case we obtain the following very appropriate thought: They know not Jehovah, they do not concern themselves about Him; therefore He Himself will bear witness by judgments, by the destruction of their false glory (cf. Hos 2:10-14), against the face of Israel, i.e., bear witness to their face. This thought occurs without ambiguity in Hos 7:10. Israel will stumble in its sin, i.e., will fall and perish (as in Hos 4:5). Judah also falls with Israel, because it has participated in Israel’s sin (Hos 4:15).

Hos 5:6-7

Israel, moreover, will not be able to avert the threatening judgment by sacrifices. Jehovah will withdraw from the faithless generation, and visit it with His judgments. This is the train of thought in the next strophe (Hos 5:6-10). Hos 5:6. “They will go with their sheep and their oxen to seek Jehovah, and will not find Him: He has withdrawn Himself from them. Hos 5:7. They acted treacherously against Jehovah, for they have born strange children: now will the new moon devour them with their fields.” The offering of sacrifices will be no help to them, because God has withdrawn Himself from them, and does not hear their prayers; for God has no pleasure in sacrifices which are offered in an impenitent state of mind (cf. Hos 6:6; Isa 1:11.; Jer 7:21.; Psa 50:7, Psa 50:8.). The reason for this is given in Hos 5:7. Bâgad, to act faithlessly, which is frequently applied to the infidelity of a wife towards her husband (e.g., Jer 3:20; Mal 2:14; cf. Exo 21:8), points to the conjugal relation in which Israel stood to Jehovah. Hence the figure which follows. “Strange children” are such as do not belong to the home (Deu 25:5), i.e., such as have not sprung from the conjugal union. In actual fact, the expression is equivalent to בּני זנוּנים in Hos 1:2; Hos 2:4, though zâr does not expressly mean “adulterous.” Israel ought to have begotten children of God in the maintenance of the covenant with the Lord; but in its apostasy from God it had begotten an adulterous generation, children whom the Lord could not acknowledge as His own. “The new moon will devour them,” viz., those who act so faithlessly. the meaning is not, “they will be destroyed on the next new moon;” but the new moon, as the festal season, on which sacrifices were offered (1Sa 20:6, 1Sa 20:29; Isa 1:13-14), stands here for the sacrifices themselves that were offered upon it. The meaning is this: your sacrificial feast, your hypocritical worship, so far from bringing you salvation, will rather prove your sin. חלקיהם are not sacrificial portions, but the hereditary portions of Israel, the portions of land that fell to the different families and households, and from the produce of which they offered sacrifices to the Lord.It is very evident from this verse, that the feasts and the worship prescribed in the Mosaic law were observed in the kingdom of the ten tribes, at the places of worship in Bethel and Dan.

Hos 5:8

The prophet sees in spirit the judgment already falling upon the rebellious nation, and therefore addresses the following appeal to the people. Hos 5:8. “Blow ye the horn at Gibeah, the trumpet at Ramah! Raise the cry at Bethaven, Behind thee, Benjamin!” The blowing of the shōphâr, a far-sounding horn, or of the trumpet“The sophar was a shepherd’s horn, and was made of a carved horn; the tuba (chătsōtserâh) was made of brass or silver, and sounded either in the time of war or at festivals.” - Jerome. (chătsōtserâh), was a signal by which the invasion of foes (Hos 8:1; Jer 4:5; Jer 6:1) and other calamities (Joe 2:1, cf. Amo 3:6) were announced, to give the inhabitants warning of the danger that threatened them. The words therefore imply that foes had invaded the land. Gibeah (of Saul; see at Jos 18:28) and Ramah (of Samuel; see at Jos 18:25) were two elevated places on the northern boundary of the tribe of Benjamin, which were well adapted for signals, on account of their lofty situation. The introduction of these particular towns, which did not belong to the tribe of Israel, but to that of Judah, is intended to intimate that the enemy has already conquered the kingdom of the ten tribes, and has advanced to the border of that of Judah. הריע, to make a noise, is to be understood here as relating to the alarm given by the war-signals already mentioned, as in Joe 2:1, cf. Num 10:9. Bethaven is Bethel (Beitin), as in Hos 4:15, the seat of the idolatrous worship of the calves; and בּית is to be taken in the sense of בּבית (according to Ges. §118, 1). The difficult words, “behind thee, Benjamin,” cannot indicate the situation or attitude of Benjamin, in relation to Bethel or the kingdom of Israel, or show that “the invasion is to be expected to start from Benjamin,” as Simson supposes. For the latter is no more appropriate in this train of thought than a merely geographical or historical notice. The words are taken from the ancient war-song of Deborah (Jdg 5:14), but in a different sense from that in which they are used there. There they mean that Benjamin marched behind Ephraim, or joined it in attacking the foe; here, on the contrary, they mean that the foe is coming behind Benjamin - that the judgment announced has already broken out in the rear of Benjamin. There is no necessity to supply “the enemy rises” behind thee, O Benjamin, as Jerome proposes, or “the sword rages,” as Hitzig suggests; but what comes behind Benjamin is implied in the words, “Blow ye the horn,” etc. What these signals announce is coming after Benjamin; there is no necessity, therefore, to supply anything more than “it is,” or “it comes.” The prophet, for example, not only announces in Hos 5:8 that enemies will invade Israel, but that the hosts by which God will punish His rebellious people have already overflowed the kingdom of Israel, and are now standing upon the border of Judah, to punish this kingdom also for its sins. This is evident from Hos 5:9, Hos 5:10, which contain the practical explanation of Hos 5:8.

Hos 5:9-10 “Ephraim will become a desert in the day of punishment: over the tribes of Israel have I proclaimed that which lasts. Hos 5:10. The princes of Judah have become like boundary-movers; upon them I pour out my wrath like water.” The kingdom of Israel will entirely succumb to the punishment. It will become a desert - will be laid waste not only for a time, but permanently. The punishment with which it is threatened will be נאמנה. This word is to be interpreted as in Deu 28:59, where it is applied to lasting plagues, with which God will chastise the obstinate apostasy of His people. By the perfect הודעתּי, what is here proclaimed is represented as a completed event, which will not be altered. Beshibhtē, not in or among the tribes, but according to ענה ב, in Deu 28:5, against or over the tribes (Hitzig). Judah also will not escape the punishment of its sins. The unusual expression massı̄gē gebhūl is formed after, and to be explained from Deu 19:14, “Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour’s landmark;” or Deu 27:17, “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark.” The princes of Judah have become boundary-removers, not by hostile invasions of the kingdom of Israel (Simson); for the boundary-line between Israel and Judah was not so appointed by God, that a violation of it on the part of the princes of Judah could be reckoned a grievous crime, but by removing the boundaries of right which had been determined by God, viz., according to Hos 4:15, by participating in the guilt of Ephraim, i.e., by idolatry, and therefore by the fact that they had removed the boundary between Jehovah and Baal, that is to say, between the one true God and idols. “If he who removes his neighbour’s boundary is cursed, how much more he who removes the border of his God!” (Hengstenberg). Upon such men the wrath of God would fall in its fullest measure. כּמּים, like a stream of water, so plentifully. For the figure, compare Psa 69:25; Psa 79:6; Jer 10:25. Severe judgments are thus announced to Judah, viz., those of which the Assyrians under Tiglath-pileser and Sennacherib were the instruments; but no ruin or lasting devastation is predicted, as was the case with the kingdom of Israel, which was destroyed by the Assyrians.

Hos 5:11

From these judgments Israel and Judah will not be set free, until in their distress they seek their God. This thought is expanded in the next strophe (Hos 5:11-15). Hos 5:11. “Ephraim is oppressed, broken in pieces by the judgment; for it has wished, has gone according to statute.” By the participles ‛âshūq and râtsūts, the calamity is represented as a lasting condition, which the prophet saw in the spirit as having already begun. The two words are connected together even in Deu 28:33, to indicate the complete subjection of Israel to the power and oppression of its foes, as a punishment for falling away from the Lord. Retsuts mishpât does not mean “of broken right,” or “injured in its right” (Ewald and Hitzig), but “broken in pieces by the judgment” (of God), with a genitivum efficientis, like mukkēh Elōhı̄m in Isa 53:4. For it liked to walk according to statute. For הלך אחרי compare Jer 2:5 and 2Ki 18:15. Tsav is a human statute; it stands both here and in Isa 28:10, Isa 28:13, the only other passages in which it occurs, as an antithesis to the word or commandment of God. The statute intended is the one which the kingdom of Israel upheld from beginning to end, viz., the worship of the calves, that root of all the sins, which brought about the dissolution and ruin of the kingdom.

Hos 5:12 “And I am like the moth to Ephraim, and like the worm to the house of Judah.” The moth and worm are figures employed to represent destructive powers; the moth destroying clothes (Isa 50:9; Isa 51:8; Psa 39:12), the worm injuring both wood and flesh. They are both connected again in Job 13:28, as things which destroy slowly but surely, to represent, as Calvin says, lenta Dei judicia. God becomes a destructive power to the sinner through the thorn of conscience, and the chastisements which are intended to effect his reformation, but which lead inevitably to his ruin when he hardens himself against them. The preaching of the law by the prophets sharpened the thorn in the conscience of Israel and Judah. The chastisement consisted in the infliction of the punishments threatened in the law, viz., in plagues and invasions of their foes.

Hos 5:13

The two kingdoms could not defend themselves against this chastisement by the help of any earthly power. Hos 5:13. “And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his abscess; and Ephraim went to Asshur, and sent to king Jareb (striver): but he cannot cure you, nor drive the abscess away from you.” By the imperfects, with Vav rel., ויּלך, ויּרא, the attempts of Ephraim and Judah to save themselves from destruction are represented as the consequence of the coming of God to punish, referred to in Hos 5:12. Inasmuch as this is to be seen, so far as the historical fulfilment is concerned, not in the present, but in the past and future, the attempts to obtain a cure for the injuries also belong to the present (? past) and future. Mâzōr does not mean a bandage or the cure of injuries (Ges., Dietr.), but is derived from זוּר, to squeeze out (see Del. on Isa 1:6), and signifies literally that which is pressed out, i.e., a festering wound, an abscess. It has this meaning not only here, but also in Jer 30:13, from which the meaning bandage has been derived. On the figure employed, viz., the disease of the body politic, see Delitzsch on Isa 1:5-6. That this disease is not to be sought for specially in anarchy and civil war (Hitzig), is evident from the simple fact, that Judah, which was saved from these evils, is described as being just as sick as Ephraim. The real disease of the two kingdoms was apostasy from the Lord, or idolatry with its train of moral corruption, injustice, crimes, and vices of every kind, which destroyed the vital energy and vital marrow of the two kingdoms, and generated civil war and anarchy in the kingdom of Israel. Ephraim sought for help from the Assyrians, viz., from king Jareb, but without obtaining it. The name Jareb, i.e., warrior, which occurs here and at Hos 10:6, is an epithet formed by the prophet himself, and applied to the king of Assyria, not of Egypt, as Theodoret supposes. The omission of the article from מלך may be explained from the fact that Jârēbh is, strictly speaking, an appellative, as in למוּאל מלך in Pro 31:1. We must not supply Yehūdâh as the subject to vayyishlach. The omission of any reference to Judah in the second half of the verse, may be accounted for from the fact that the prophecy had primarily and principally to do with Ephraim, and that Judah was only cursorily mentioned. The ἅπ. λεγ. יגהה from גּהה, in Syriac to by shy, to flee, is used with min in the tropical sense of removing or driving away.

Hos 5:14-15

No help is to be expected from Assyria, because the Lord will punish His people. Hos 5:14. “For I am like a lion to Ephraim, and like the young lion to the house of Judah: I, I tear in pieces, and go; I carry away, and there is no deliverer. Hos 5:15. “I go, return to my place, till they repent and shall seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me early.” For the figure of the lion, which seizes its prey, and tears it in pieces without deliverance, see Hos 13:7 and Isa 5:29. אשּׂא denotes the carrying away of booty, as in 1Sa 17:34. For the fact itself, compare Deu 32:39. The first clause of Hos 5:15 is still to be interpreted from the figure of the lion. As the lion withdraws into its cave, so will the Lord withdraw into His own place, viz., heaven, and deprive the Israelites of His gracious, helpful presence, until they repent, i.e., not only feel themselves guilty, but feel the guilt by bearing the punishment. Suffering punishment awakens the need of mercy, and impels them to seek the face of the Lord. The expression, “in the distress to them,” recals בּצּר לך in Deu 4:30. Shichēr is to be taken as a denom. of shachar, the morning dawn (Hos 6:3), in the sense of early, i.e., zealously, urgently, as the play upon the word כּשׁחר in Hos 6:3 unmistakeably shows. For the fact itself, compare Hos 2:9 and Deu 4:29-30.

Charge against Israel and Judah; Judgments Threatened. (b. c. 758.)

1 Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. 2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled. 4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord . 5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them. 6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord ; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them. 7 They have dealt treacherously against the Lord : for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

Here, I. All orders and degrees of men are cited to appear and answer to such things as shall be laid to their charge (v. 1): Hear you this, O priests! whether in holy orders (as those in Judah, and perhaps many in Israel too, for in the ten tribes there were divers cities of priests and Levites, who, it is probable, staid in their own lot after the revolt of the ten tribes and did so much of their office as might be done at a distance from the temple) or pretending holy orders, as the priests of the calves, who, some think, are included here. "Hearken, you house of Israel, the common people, and give ear, O house of the king!" let them all take notice, for they have all contributed to the national guilt, and they shall all share in the national judgments. Note, If neither the sanctity of the priesthood nor the dignity of the royal family will prevail to keep out sin, it cannot be expected that they should avail to keep out wrath. If the priests, and the house of the king, though they bear such noble characters, sin like others, their noble characters will not excuse them, but they must smart like others. Nor shall it be any plea for the house of Israel that they were misled by their priests and princes, but they shall receive their doom with them, and neither their meanness nor their multitude shall be their exemption.

II. Witness is produced against them, one instead of a thousand; it is God's omniscience (v. 3): I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. They have not known the Lord (v. 4), but the Lord has known them, knows their true character however disguised, knows their secret wickedness however concealed. Note, Men's rejecting the knowledge of God will not secure them from his knowledge of them; and when he contends with them he will prove their sins upon them by his own knowledge, so that is will be in vain to plead Not guilty.

III. Very bad things are laid to their charge. 1. They had been very ingenious and very industrious to draw people either into sin or into trouble: You have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor (v. 1), that is, such snares and nets as the huntsmen used to lay upon those mountains in pursuit of their game. When the worship of the calves was set up in Israel the patrons of that idolatry, and sticklers for it, contrived by all possible arts and wiles to draw men into it and reconcile those to it that at first had a dread of it. Note, Those that allure and entice men to sin, however they may pretend friendship and good-will, are to be looked upon as snares and nets to them, and their hands as bands, Eccl. vii. 26. But to those whom they could not seduce into sin they were as a net and a snare to bring them into trouble. Some think it was their practice to set spies in the road, and particularly upon the mountains of Mizpah and Tabor, at the times of the solemn feasts at Jerusalem, to watch if any of their people who were piously affected went thither, and to inform against them, that they might be prosecuted for it, thus doing the devil's work, who disquiets those whom he cannot debauch. 2. They had been both very crafty and very cruel in carrying on their designs (v. 2): The revolters are profound to make slaughter. Note, Those who have themselves apostatized from the truths of God are often the most subtle and barbarous persecutors of those who still adhere to them. Nothing will serve them but to make slaughter (it is the blood of the saints that they thirst after): and with the serpent's sting they have his head; they are profound to do it. O the depth of the depths of Satan, of the wickedness of his agents, of those that have deeply revolted! Isa. xxxi. 6. Now that which aggravated this was the many reproofs and warnings that had been given them: Though I have been a rebuker of them all. The prophet had been so, a reprover by office. He had many a time told them of the evil of their ways and doings, had dealt plainly with them all, and had not spared either the priests or the house of the king. God himself had been a rebuker of them all by their own consciences and by his providences. Note, Sins against reproof are doubly sinful, Prov. xxix. 1. 3. They had committed whoredom, had defiled their own bodies with fleshly lusts, had defiled their own souls with the worship of idols, v. 3. This God was a witness to, though secretly committed and artfully palliated. Nay, the piercing eye of God saw the spirit of whoredom that was in the midst of them, their secret inclination and disposition to those sins, the love they had to their sins, and the dominion their sins had over them, how much they were under the power of a spirit of whoredom, that root of bitterness which bore all this gall and wormwood, that corrupt and poisoned fountain. 4. They had no disposition at all to come into acquaintance and communion with God. The spirit of whoredoms, having caused them to err from him, keeps them wandering endlessly, v. 4. (1.) They have not known the Lord, nor desire to know him, but have rather declined, nay dreaded, the knowledge of him, for that would disturb them in their sinful ways. (2.) Therefore they will not frame their doings to turn to their God, by which it appeared that they did not know him aright. This intimates their obstinate persistence in their apostasy from God; they would not turn to God, though he was their God, theirs in covenant, by whose name they had been called, and whom they were bound to serve. They would not return to the worship of him, from which they had turned aside. Nay, they would not frame their doings to turn to God. They would not consider their ways, nor dispose themselves into a serious temper, nor apply their minds to think of those things that would bring them to God. It is true we cannot by our own power, without the special grace of God, turn to him; but we may by the due improvement of our faculties, and the common aids of his Spirit, frame our doings to turn to him. Those that will not do this, that prepare not their hearts to seek the Lord (2 Chron. xii. 14), owe it to themselves that they are not turned; they die because they will die; and to those that will do this further grace shall not be wanting. (5.) They were guilty of notorious arrogancy, and insolence in sin (v. 5): The pride of Israel doth testify to his face, doth witness against him that he is a rebel to God and his government. The spirit of whoredoms which was in the midst of them showed itself in the gaiety and gaudiness of their worship, as a harlot is known by her attire, Prov. vii. 10. The wantonness of her dress testifies to her face that she is not a modest woman. Or their pride in confronting the prophets God sent them and the message they brought (Jer. xliii. 2), or a haughty scornful conduct towards their brethren and those that were under them, witnessed against them that they were not God's people and justified God in all the humbling judgments he brought upon them. His pride testifies in his face; so some read it, agreeing with Isa. iii. 9, The show of their countenance doth witness against them. They have that proud look which the Lord hates. (6.) They departed from God to idols, and bred up their children in idolatry (v. 7): They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, as a wife, who, in contempt of the marriage covenant, forsakes her husband, and lives in adultery with another. Thus those who are guilty of spiritual idolatry, whose god is their money, whose god is their belly, deal treacherously against the Lord; they violate their engagements to him and frustrate his expectations from them. Note, Wilful sinners are treacherous dealers. They have begotten strange children, that is, their children which they have begotten are estranged from God, and trained up in a false way of worship; they are a spurious brood, as children of fornication (John viii. 41), whom God will disown. Note, Those deal treacherously with God indeed who not only turn from following him themselves but train up their children in wicked ways.

IV. Very sad things are made to be their doom. In general (v. 1), "Judgment is towards you. God is coming forth to contend with you, and to testify his displeasure against you for your sins." It is time to hearken when judgment is towards us. In particular,

1. They shall fall in their iniquity. This follows upon their pride testifying to their face (v. 5) Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity. Note, Pride will have a fall; it is the certain presage and forerunner of it. Those that exalt themselves shall be abased. The face in which pride testifies shall be filled with confusion. They shall not only fall, but fall in their iniquity, the saddest fall of any. Their pride kept them from repenting of their iniquity, and therefore they shall fall in it. Note, Those that are not humbled for their sins are likely to perish for ever in their sins. It is added, Judah also shall fall with them in her iniquity. As the ten tribes were carried captive into Assyria, for their idolatry, so the two tribes, in process of time, were carried into Babylon for following their bad example; but the former fell and were utterly cast down, the latter fell and were raised up again. Judah had the temple and priesthood, and yet these shall not secure them, but, if they sin with Israel and Ephraim, with them they shall fall.

2. They shall fall short of God's favour when they profess to seek it (v. 6): They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but in vain; they shall not find him. This seems to be spoken principally of Judah, when they fell into their iniquity, and when they fell in their iniquity. (1.) When they fell into their iniquity they sought the Lord; but they did not seek him only, and therefore he was not found of them. When they worshipped strange gods, yet they kept up the show and shadow of the worship of the true God; they went as usual, at the solemn feasts, with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord; but their hearts were not upright with him, because they were not entire for him, and therefore he would not accept them; for then only shall we find him when we seek him with our whole heart, not divided between God and Baal, Ezek. xiv. 3. (2.) When they fell in their iniquity, or found themselves falling by it, they sought the Lord; but they did not seek him early, and therefore he will not be found of them. They shall see ruin coming upon them, and shall then, in their distress, flee to God, and think to make him their friend with burnt-offerings and sacrifices; but it will be too late then to turn away his wrath when the decree has gone forth. Even Josiah's reformation did not prevail to turn away the wrath of God, 2 Kings xxiii. 25, 26. Those that go with their flocks and their herds only to seek the Lord, and not with their hearts and souls, cannot expect to find him, for his favour is not to be purchased with thousands of rams. Nor shall those speed who do not seek the Lord while he may be found, for there is a time when he will not be found. They shall not find him, for he has withdrawn himself; he will not be enquired of by them, but will turn a deaf ear to their sacrifices. See how much it is our concern to seek God early, now while the accepted time is, and the day of salvation.

3. They and their portions shall all be swallowed up. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, and have thought to strengthen themselves in it by their alliances with strange children; but now shall a month devour them with their portions, that is, their estates and inheritances, all those things which they have taken, and taken up with, as their portion; or by their portions is meant their idols, whom they chose for their portion instead of God. Note, Those that make an idol of the world, by taking it for their portion, will themselves perish with it. A month shall devour them, or eat them up—a certain time prefixed, and a short time. When God's judgments begin with them they shall soon make an end; one month will do their business. How much may a body be weakened by one month's sickness, or a kingdom wasted by one month's war! Three shepherds (says God) I cut off in one month, Zech. xi. 8. Note, The judgments of God sometimes make quick work with a sinful people. A month devours more, and more portions, than many years can repair.

Threatenings of Judgment. (b. c. 758.)

8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin. 9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. 10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. 11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment. 12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. 13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. 14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. 15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

Here is, I. A loud alarm sounded, giving notice of judgments coming (v. 8): Blow you the cornet in Gibeah and in Ramah, two cities near together in the confines of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, Gibeah a frontier-town of the kingdom of Judah, Ramah of Israel; so that the warning is hereby sent into both kingdoms. "Cry aloud at Beth-aven, or Bethel, which place seems to be already seized upon by the enemy, and therefore the trumpet is not sounded there, but you hear the outcries of those that shout for mastery, mixed with theirs that are overcome." Let them cry aloud, "After thee, O Benjamin! comes the enemy. The tribe of Ephraim is already vanquished, and the enemy will be upon thy back, O Benjamin! in a little time; thy turn comes next. The cup of trembling shall go round." The prophet had described God's controversy with them as a trial at law (ch. iv. 1); here he describes it as a trial by battle; and here also when he judges he will overcome. Let all therefore prepare to meet their God. He had before spoken of the judgments as certain; here he speaks of them as near; and, when they are apprehended as just at the door, they are very startling and awakening. The blowing of this cornet is explained, v. 9. Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be, that which is true or certain, so the word is. Note, The destruction of impenitent sinners is a thing which shall surely be; it is not mere talk, to frighten them, but it is an irrevocable sentence. And it is a mercy to us that it is made known to us, that we have timely warning given us of it, that we may flee from the wrath to come. It is the privilege of the tribes of Israel that, as they are told their duty, so they are told their danger, by the oracles of God committed to them.

II. The ground of God's controversy with them. 1. He has a quarrel with the princes of Judah, because they were daring leaders in sin, v. 10. They are like those that remove the bound, or the ancient land-marks. God has given them his law, to be a fence about his own property; but they have sacrilegiously broken through it, and set it aside; they have encroached even upon God's rights, have trampled upon the distinctions between good and evil, and the most sacred obligations of reason and equity, thinking, because they were princes, that they might do any thing, Quicquid libet, licet—Their will was a law. Or it may be understood of their invading the liberty and property of the subject for the advancing of the prerogative, which was like removing the ancient land-marks. Some have observed that the princes of Judah were more absolute, and assumed a more arbitrary power, than the princes of Israel did; now, for this, God has a controversy with them: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water, in great abundance, like the waters of the flood, which were poured upon the giants of the old world, for the violence which the earth was filled with through them, Gen. vi. 13. Note, There are bounds which even princes themselves must not remove, bounds both of religion and justice, which they are limited by, and, if they break through them, they must know that there is a God above them that will call them to account for it. 2. He has a quarrel with the people of Ephraim, because they were sneaking followers in sin (v. 11): He willingly walked after the commandment, that is, the commandment of Jeroboam and the succeeding kings of Israel, who obliged all their subjects by a law to worship the calves at Dan and Bethel, and never to go up to Jerusalem to worship. This was the commandment; it was the law of the land, and backed with reasons of state; and the people not only walked after it in a blind implicit obedience to authority, but they willingly walked after it, from a secret antipathy they had to the worship of idols. Note, An easy compliance with the commandments of men that thwart the commandments of God ripens a people for ruin as much as any thing. And the punishment of the sequacious disobedience (if I may so call it) answers to the sin; for it is for this that Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, has all his civil rights and liberties broken in upon and trodden down; and, (1.) It is just with God that it should be so, that those who betray God's property should lose their own, that those who subject their consciences to an infallible judge, and an arbitrary power, should have enough of both. (2.) There is a natural tendency in the thing itself towards it. Those that willingly walk after the commandment, even when it walks contrary to the command of God, will find the commandment an encroaching thing, and that the more power is given it the more it will claim. Note, Nothing gives greater advantage to a mastiff-like tyranny, that is fierce and furious, than a spaniel-like submission, that is fawning and flattering. Thus is Ephraim oppressed and broken in judgment, that is, he is wronged under a face and colour of right. Note, It is a sad and sore judgment upon any people to be oppressed under pretence of having justice done them. This explains the threatening v. 9, Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke. Note, Daring sinners must expect that a day of rebuke will come, and such a day of rebuke as will make them desolate, will deprive them of the comfort of all they have and all they hope for.

III. The different methods that God would take both with Judah and Ephraim, sometimes one method and sometimes the other, and sometimes both together, or rather by which, first the one and then the other, he would advance towards their complete ruin.

1. He would begin with less judgments, which should sometimes work silently and insensibly (v. 12): I will be (that is, my providences shall be) unto Ephraim as a moth; nay (as it might better be supplied), they are unto Ephraim as a moth, for it is such a sickness as Ephraim now sees, v. 13. Note, The judgments of God are sometimes to a sinful people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as a worm. The former signifies the little animals that breed in clothes, the latter those that breed in wood; as these consume the clothes and the wood, so shall the judgments of God consume them. (1.) Silently, so as not to make any noise in the world, nay, so as they themselves shall not be sensible of it; they shall think themselves safe and thriving, but, when they come to look more narrowly into their state, shall find themselves wasting and decaying. (2.) Slowly, and with long delays and intervals, that he may give them space to repent. Many a nation, as well as many a person, in the prime of its time, dies of a consumption. (3.) Gradually. God comes upon sinners with less judgments, so to prevent greater, if they will be wise and take warning; he comes upon them step by step, to show he is not willing that they should perish. (4.) The moth breeds in the clothes, and the worm or rottenness in the wood; thus sinners are consumed by a fire of their own kindling.

2. When it appeared that those had not done their work he would come upon them with greater (v. 14): I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and to the house of Judah as a young lion, though Judah is himself, in Jacob's blessing, a lion's whelp. Lest any should think his power weakened, because he was said to be as a moth to them, he says that he will now be as a lion to them, not only to frighten them with his roaring, but to pull them to pieces. Note, If less judgments prevail not to do their work, it may be expected that God will send greater. Christ is sometimes a lion of the tribe of Judah, here he is a lion against that tribe. See what God will do to a people that are secure in sin: Even I will tear. He seems to glory in it, as his prerogative, to be able to destroy, as the alone lawgiver, Jam. iv. 12. "I, even I, will take the work into my own hands; I say it that will do it." There is a more immediate work of God in some judgments than in others. I will tear, and go away. He will go away, (1.) As not fearing them; he will go away in state, and with a majestic face, as the lion from his prey. (2.) As not helping them. If God tear by afflicting providences, and yet by his graces and comforts stays with us, it is well enough; but our condition is sad indeed if he tear and go away, if, when he deprives us of our creature comforts, he does himself depart from us. When he goes away he will take away all that is valuable and dear, for, when God goes, all good goes along with him. He will take away, and none shall rescue him, as the prey cannot be rescued from the lion, Mic. v. 8. Note, None can be delivered out of the hands of God's justice but those that are delivered into the hands of his grace. It is in vain for a man to strive with his Maker.

IV. The different effects of those different methods. 1. When God contended with them by less judgments they neglected him, and sought to creatures for relief, but sought in vain, v. 13. When God was to them as a moth, and as rottenness, they perceived their sickness and their wound; after a while they found themselves going down the hill, and that they were behind—hand in their affairs, their estate was sensibly decaying, and then they sent to the Assyrian, to come in to their assistance, made their court to king Jareb, which some think, was one of the names of Pul, or Tiglathpileser, kings of Assyria, to whom both Israel and Judah applied for relief in their distress, hoping by an alliance with them to repair and re-establish their declining interests. Note, Carnal hearts, in time of trouble, see their sickness and see their wound, but do not see the sin that is the cause of it, nor will be brought to acknowledge that, no, nor to acknowledge the hand of God, his mighty hand, much less his righteous hand, in their trouble; and therefore, instead of going the next way to the Creator, who could relieve them, they take a great deal of pains to go about to creatures, who can do them no service. Those who repent not that they have offended God by their sins are loth to be beholden to him in their afflictions, but would rather seek relief any where than with him. And what is the consequence? Yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. Note, Those who neglect God, and seek to creatures for help, will certainly be disappointed; those who depend upon them for support will find them, not foundations, but broken reeds; those who depend upon them for supply will find them, not fountains, but broken cisterns; those who depend upon them for comfort and a cure will find them miserable comforters, and physicians of no value. The kings of Assyria, whom Judah and Israel sought unto, distressed them and helped them not, 2 Chron. xxviii. 16, 28. Some make king Jareb to signify the great, potent, or magnificent king, for they built much upon his power; others the king that will plead, or should plead, for they built much upon his wisdom and eloquence, and in his interesting himself in their affairs. They had sent him a present (ch. x. 6), a good fee, and, having so retained him of counsel for them, they doubted not of his fidelity to them; but he deceived them, as an arm of flesh does those that trust in it, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. 2. When, to convince them of their folly, God brought greater judgments upon them, then they would at length be forced to apply to him, v. 15. When he has torn as a lion, (1.) He will leave them: I will go and return to my place, to heaven, or to the mercy-seat, the throne of grace, which is his glory. When God punishes sinners he comes out of his place (Isa. xxvi. 21); but, when he designs them favour, he returns to his place, where he waits to be gracious, upon their submission. Or he will return to his place when he has corrected them, as not regarding them, hiding his face from them, and not taking notice of their troubles or prayers; and this for their further humiliation, till they are qualified in some measure for the returns of his favour. (2.) He will at length work upon them, and bring them home to himself, by their afflictions, which is the thing he waits for; and then he will no longer withdraw from them. Two things are here mentioned as instances of their return:— [1.] Their penitent confession of sin: Till they acknowledge their offence; marg. Till they be guilty, that is, till they be sensible of their guilt, and be brought to own it, and humble themselves before God for it. Note, When men begin to complain more of their sins than of their afflictions then there begins to be some hope of them; and this is that which God requires of us, when we are under his correcting hand, that we own ourselves in a fault and justly corrected. [2.] Their humble petition for the favour of God: Till they seek my face, which, it may be expected, they will do when they are brought to the last extremity, and they have tried other helpers in vain. In their affliction they will seek me early, that is, diligently and earnestly, and with great importunity; and if they seek him thus, and be sincere in it, though it might be called seeking him late, because it was long ere they were brought to it, yet it is not too late, nay, he is pleased to call it seeking him early, so willing is he to make the best of true penitents in their return to him. Note, When we are under the convictions of sin, and the corrections of the rod, our business is to seek God's face; we must desire the knowledge of him, and an acquaintance with him, that he may manifest himself to us, and for us, in token of his being at peace with us. And it may reasonably be expected that affliction will bring those to God that had long gone astray from him, and kept at a distance. Therefore God for a time turns away from us, that he may turn us to himself, and then return to us. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray.

CHAP. V.

Verſe 1. HEare ye this ye Prieſts] For you are not ſo wiſe,Prov. 1.5. but that ye may heare and increaſe learning. Chap. 4.6. and beſides, from you is profaneneſſe gone forth into all the land. Jer. 23.15. For you therefore in the firſt place I have a citation to appeare before Gods tribunall, to heare your ſin & your ſentence,Jac. Ren. de. vit. Pont. your crime, & your doom God cited Adam immediately & by himſelf. Gen. 7.9. Adam, where art thou? ſo he did Cain, Laban, Nabal, & others, when he ſends for them by death, ſaying as once to that Pope, Veni miſer in judicium, Come away, and heare thy ſentence.Centum revolutis annis Deo. reſpon debitis & mihi. Mediately he citeth men by the mouth of his miniſters; as he did the Councill of Conſtance by his faithfull martyr John Huſſe, and his word ſtood: and as he doth here the three Eſtates of the kingdome, Prieſts, People, and Princes, by the Prophet Hoſea. That was very ſtrange and extraordinary, that Mr. Knox reporteth in his hiſtory of Scotland,Hiſt. of Scot. of one Sr. John Hamilton murthered by the kings meanes: that he appeared to him in a viſion with a naked ſword drawn, and ſtrikes off both his armes with theſe words, Take this before thou receive a finall payment for all thine impieties: and within 24 houres, two of the Kings ſons died. It is indeed but part of their puniſhment that wicked men here receive, ſeem it never ſo grievous when, God entreth into judgment with them, as here it is ſaid.

for judgment is toward you] that is [illegible: 1 letter]am about to pronounce ſentence againſt you, and to do execution: and therefore hear, harken, and give-eare, the firſt ſecond and third time I admoniſh you, that ye may know that my citation is ſerious and peremptory: and that your damnation ſleepeth not. Prieſt and people are ſet before the houſe of the king; Salvian. becauſe theirs was ſedes prima, & vita ima, an high place but a low life. And beſides, Courtiers and great men, though they be in other caſes forward enough to take place of others, yet in point of puniſhment they ſlink back, and are well content that others ſhould go before them. God regards none for his greatneſſe (Potentes potenter torquebuntur) neither ſpareth he any for his meanneſſe, or becauſe they were born down either by the lawes, or lives of their Superiours. The people are here placed betwixt the Prieſts and Princes, and with them appealed and impeached, to ſhew how frigid and inſufficient their excuſe is, who plead that they did but as they were taught by their Miniſters, and as they were commanded by their Governours. Ephraim is oppreſſed and broken in judgement, becauſe h[illegible: 1 letter] willingly walked after the commandement, as it is in the eleventh verſe of this chapter. See the note.

for judgement is toward you] Vengeance is in readineſſe for the diſobedient, be he what he will, keſar or caytiffe, Lord or loſell, Prieſt or people: every whit as ready in the Lords hand as in the miniſters mouth. 2. Cor. 10.6. neither ſhall multitudes priviledge or ſecure them. Though they be quiet or combined, and likewiſe many, yet thus ſhall they be cut down, when he ſhall paſs through. Nah. 1.12. yea though they be briers and thorns that ſet againſt him in battle (and thoſe never ſo much confortuplicated and ſharpened) yet God will go through them, and burn them together. Eſay. 27.4. he will cut off the ſpirit of Princes, and deſtroy a whole rabble of rebels that riſe up againſt him.

becauſe ye have been a ſnare on Mizpah] That God may be juſtified and every mouth ſtopped, a reaſon is here rendred of his moſt righteous proceedings, and the ſame recited (after the manner of men) in the preamble to their condemnatory ſentences.

becauſe ye have been a ſnare on Mizpah, & a net ſpred upon Tabor] Theſe were two very high hils, much haunted by hunters, and frequented by fowlers, to whom theſe Idolaters (ſtriving to catch people ritibus ſuis velut retibus et laqueis, with their nets and ſnares of errours and ſuperſtitions) are fitly compared. For they lie in in wait for mens ſouls and catch many of them either by perſwaſions or puniſhments, by allurements or affrightments, as Julian the Apoſtate did of old, and as the Papiſts do at this day. That Jeroboam and his counſellours ſet watchers in theſe two mountains, to obſerve who would go from him to Judah to worſhip, that he might intercept them and puniſh them, is a plauſible opinion, but wants proof. I know what is alledged, Viz 1 King. 12.28. and Hoſ. 6.8. according to the vulgar tranſlation. I confeſſe alſo that it is not unlikely that ſuch things ſhould be done then (as lately wait was laid by the Papiſts for ſuch as had a minde to betake themſelves as Geneva, Tygure, Baſil, &c. for conſcience ſake. It is more probable that upon thoſe high hils Idolatry was committed (ſee chap. 4.13. with the Note) and thereby people enſnared, as birds and wilde beaſts are in the mountains: and ſo made ſlaves to the devill, and even fatted for his tooth. Hence in the next words.

Verſe 2. And the revolters are profound to make ſlaughter] They lay their nets and ſnares deep, and lie down upon the ground that they may take the ſilly birds that dread no danger. He croucheth and humbleth himſelf that the poor may fall into his ſtrong pawes, Pſal. 10.10. He ſtudies the devils depths Rev. 2.24. poiſonfull and peſtilent pollicies, Machiavellian myſteries of miſchief. His head is a forge and fountain of wicked wiles: he hath ſtore & ſtrength of ſtrange traps and trains, frauds and fetches, to draw in and deceive the ſilly ſimple. That theſe ſeducers were deeply revolted Eſay 31.6. they had deeply corrupted themſelves Hoſ. 9.9. they ſinned not common ſins; as Kore and his complices died not a common death. They made great flaughter of mens ſouls, and of their bodies too, that refuſed to yeeld to them. Craft and cruelty ſeldom ſundred in ſeducers: as ſome write of the Aſp that he never wanders alone, without his companion with him; and as thoſe birds of prey and deſolation Eſay 34.16. it is ſaid that none of them want their mate. The devil lendeth them his ſeven heads to plot, and his ten horns to puſh and gore, &c.

though I have been a rebuker to them all] Heb. a correction. [non-Latin text not transcribed] Underſtand it either of the Prophet, that he had dealt plainly with them, and done his utmoſt to reclaim them, yet they refuſed to be reformed, hated to be healed. We would have cured Babylon but ſhe would not be cured: Or elſe of God, that he had both by words and ſcribes rebuked their ſuperſtitions but nothing had wrought upon them. They were tormented with the wrath of God, but repented not to give him the glory, Rev. 16.9. Corrigimur, might they ſay, ſed non corrigimur, plectimur, ſed non flectimur. See how God complains of this ſtubbornneſſe, Jer. 6.28, 29, 30. and learn to tremble at his rebukes, to profit by his chaſtiſements, leſt a worſe thing befall us.Zeph. 3.5. The juſt Lord is in the middeſt thereof: he will not do iniquity; every morning doth he bring his judgements to light, he faileth not: but the unjuſt knoweth no ſhame. There are that take the words poſſively and render them thus Ego vero illis omnibus caſtigationi ſum I have been rebuked or corrected by them all.Levely. See the like Lam. 3.13. and in the Pſalms often I am a reproach to mine enemies: thou makeſt us a reproach to all that are round about us, &c. So the Prophet here may ſeem to complain, as Jeremy did after him, that he was born a man of contentions, that all the people curſed him, that he was a common by-word, and but-mark: that they ſharpened their tongues againſt him and flew in his face. To Preach, ſaith Luther, Totius erbis furorem in [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 2 letters]are. [non-Latin text not transcribed] [illegible: 1 word] 11.19. Judicatur vel ſententia pronuncia[illegible: 1 letter]ur. C[illegible: 1 letter]merar. S[illegible: 2 letters]ltet. Repetitione etiam auget populi rebelliauem. Rivet. is nothing elſe but to derive [illegible: 1 word] rage of the whole world upon a mans ſelf. Wiſdom (that ſhould be juſtified of her children) is eftſoones judged of her childrens, as ſome read thoſe words of our Saviour Mat. 11.19. But I like the actiue ſence better.

Verſ. 3. I know Ephraim and Iſrael is not hid from me] Thoſe that by Ephraim underſtand the Princes, and by Iſrael the common people etiam hoc operae addant, et illud ex ſcriptura probent, ſaith Tarnovius, let them prove what they ſay by Scripture, and we will ſay with them: Till then we take them for Synonima's. An hypocritical nation they were Iſai. 9.17. and Athieſtically they thought, by hiding God from themſelves, to hide themſelves from God. Hear them elſe Chap. 12.8. And Ephraim ſaid, yet I am become rich, I have found me out ſubſtance; In all my labour they ſhall finde none iniquity in me: that were ſin, that were an hainous buſineſs, that iniquity ſhould be found in them, though they were a people laden with iniquity. But I know them through and through, intus et in cute ſaith God,Iſai. 1. I am privy to all their plots and policies. And although they are profound to make ſlaughter (Tindall reades it, They kill ſacrifices on heapes to deceive) yet let not them be deceived, I am not mocked. They muſt not think to put me off with ſhewes and ſhadowes: to colour and cover their baſe ſpirits and vile ends with ſpecious pretences. For I ſearch the hearts, and try the reines: neither is there any creature (no not the creature of the heart, the thoughts and intentions) that is not manifeſt in his ſight: but all things are naked and open (naked for the outſide, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Tectus clathratum. Luc. and open for the inſide; the Greek word ſignifieth diſſected, quartered, and as it were cleft through the back-bone) before the eyes of him with whom we have to deal. Heb. 4.13. Indeed he is all eye; and every man before God is all window: ſo that no man needeth a window in his breaſt (as the Heathen Momus wiſht) for God to look in at. For his eyes are upon the wayes of man: and he ſeeth all his goings. There is no darkneſſe nor ſhadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themſelves Job. 24.21.22. His eyes behold, his eye-lids try the children of men Pſal. 11.4. the former points out his knowledge, the later his critical deſcant. David Pſal. 139. findeth God not onely at his finger ends, but at his tongues end too verſ. 4. His knowledge ſtayes not here in the porch or lobbyes, but paſſeth into the preſence, yea privy-chamber ver. 2. yea my thoughts in poſſe before I think them. Deus intimo noſtro nobis intimior. The word is to God a ſea of glaſſe Rev. 4 6. a clear tranſparent body: and his eyes are as a flaming fire Reu. 1.14. which needs no outward light, becauſe it ſeeth extramittendo by ſending out a ray;Pſal. 139.12. ſo that the night ſhineth as the day, the darkneſſe and the light are both alike to him. What wonder therefore though he know Ephraim, and Iſrael is not hid from him? And how ſhould this both humble them (for which cauſe it is here urged) and caution them for the future, as it did that holy man, who had written upon the walls and windowes of his ſtudy theſe verſes, Ne pecces, Deus ipſe videt, bonns Angelus aſtat, Accuſat ſatanas, et lex, mens conſcia culpae, &c.

For now O Ephraim thou committeſt whoredom and Iſrael is defiled] in body and ſoul,Eph. 4.19. ruſhing into all impiety without reſtraint: working all uncleanneſs with greedineſs: being filled withall unrighteouſneſs, fornication wickedneſs, covetouſneſs, maliciouſneſs: full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, &c. Rom. 1.29.30. All theſe evil things come from within and defile a man Mar. 7.23. worſe then any leproſie, worſe then the vomit of a dog, or the mire of a ſwine. It is the pollution of fleſh and ſpirit, 2 Cor. 7.1. it is the putrefaction of a dead carcaſe, the ſanies of a plague-ſore, the devils excrement, and that which defileth far worſe then that which is caſt into the draught. Mar. 7.21. It ſets defilement upon our ſelves, others, the whole land, Jer. 3.1. yea upon the viſible heavens, which muſt therefore be purged by that laſt fire. And this was typified by thoſe many Leviticall waſhings and purification of garments, veſſels, perſons, &c. Waſh you therefore, make you clean put away the evil of your doings &c. Eſay 1.16. Waſh thy heart from wickedneſs O Jeruſalem, [illegible: 1 word] hands onely as Pilate, though thoſe too, Jam. 4.8. Jer. 4.14. Cleanſe your ſelves from all filthineſs of fleſh and ſpirit, 2 Cor. 17.1. Of the fleſh that is, fleſhly luſts and groſs evils, as uncleanneſs, earthly mindedneſs, or Of ſpirit, that is, thoſe more ſpirituall luſts that lie more up in the heart of the countrey, ſuch as are pride, creature-confidence, ſelf-deceit, preſumption, &c. Out with all theſe: there's both a ſtain and a ſting in them. Run to the Bath of Chriſts blood, that bleſſed fountain, Zech. 13.1. and there waſh and be clean. Look not upon Gods Jordan with Syrian eyes, as Naaman did. Abanah and Pharphar may waſh and ſcoure: but Jordan is for cure. And if God ſee fit to Iay us a froſting, to fetch out our filth, yea or caſt into the fire to take away our defilements, let us be contented.

Verſe 4. They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God] Or, their doings will not ſuffer them. That is, they are ſo habituated and hardened in ſinfull practices that they are not onely diſinabled to converſion but evil-affected thereunto: they ſtand a-croſſe to all good: to their ſinewes of iron, they have added browes of braſſe, Iſai. 48.4. to their ſin they adde rebellion, which is as bad as witch-craft, 1. Sam. 15.23. till at length they loſe all paſſive power alſo of being converted: and ſo are transformed, as it were, into ſo many devils: having by cuſtome contracted a neceſſitie of ſinning, they are become incurable: they neither will nor can return to their God: they will not frame their doings to it. The Vulgar hath it, their ſtudies, the Septuagint their counſels: Caſtalio, their endeavours, Pagnine their pains &c. The Originall is very elegant, and metricall Lo ijttenu magnallchem Laſhub el Elohehem. I ſcarce know a like text in all the Scripture, unleſſe it be that Lam. 5.16. Oi na lanu, chi chattanu. Woe to us that we have ſinned: which is ſo elegant alſo in the Originall, that Maſter Wheatly of Banbury (who uſed to be very plain in his Preaching, and not to name a Greek, Latine, or Hebrew word: Maſter Leigh nis Saints encouragement, &c. ep. dedic. quoted it once in the Hebrew, as witneſſe learned Maſter Leigh who lived ſome while under his Miniſtry. But to return to the text: whereas ſome might poſſibly conceive or reply, Ephraim is far gone indeed, but he may return. No, never, ſaith God: for he will not give his minde to it, or ſhew his good will: he is even ſet; and there is no removing of him; he hath made his concluſion, and is as good as ever he meaneth to be. They are ſo far from yielding themſelves unto the Lord, as 2 Chro. 30.8. that they ſtand in full oppoſition to him, yea ſend meſſages after him. We will not have this man to rule over us. The Jewes were an untoward generation, ſaith Peter Act. 2.40. they, by their obſtinate refuſall of the Goſpel, judged themſelves unworthy of everlaſting life, ſaith Paul Act. 13.46. there were unmalleable, unframeable, ſo knotty that they were fit for nothing but the fire, ſo naſtie, that they were fit for no place but the dunghill. And why?

the ſpirit of whoredoms is in the midſt of them] The devill is at Inne with them as that Martyr ſaid: he even ſits abrood upon them,Maſter Bradford. Eph. 2.2. hatching all manner of evil counſels and courſes, he worketh effectually in theſe children of diſobedience, as a ſmith doth in his forge, an artificer in his ſhop: he acts them and agitates them, making their ſouls and all the powers thereof nothing elſe but a ſhop of ſin, their bodies and all the parts thereof tooles of ſin, their lives and all their actions of both ſoul and body a trade of ſin, a web of wickedneſs ſpun out and made up by the hands of the devil and the fleſh, an evil ſpinner, and a worſe weaver. Hence they he rotting all their lives long in the graves of ſin, wrapt up in the winding ſheet of hardneſs, of heart (they will not frame their doing to turn to God) and blindneſs of mind (they have not known the Lord:) and as a carcaſe crawleth with wo[illegible: 1 letter]mes, ſo do theſe men ſwarm with thoſe noiſome luſts, that are able to poiſor[illegible: 3 letters] an honeſt heart. How can it be otherwiſe? the ſpirit of fornication is in the m[illegible: 2 letters]deſt of them, as a King in his Kingdom: yea hath filled their hearts from corner to corner, as he had done the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira? Act. [illegible: 1 letter]. That unclean ſpirit beſiegeth the pu[illegible: 1 letter]eſt hearts, and compaſſeth them about, ſeeking to devour them, 1 Pet. 5.8. but they keep him out, ſtedfaſt in the faith, or if he any way get in, they quickly caſt him out again: ſo that he cannot long reſt or rooſt, much leſſe raign there: for the Spirit of God keepeth them,1 Joh. 5.18 Caietan. and that evil one toucheth them not tactu qualitativo with a deadly touch; they regard not iniquity in their heart, there is no way of wickedneſſe found in them. Of the ſpirit of whoredomes ſee the Note on Chap. 4.11.

And they have not known the Lord] He knowes them well enough verſe 3. and they ſhall know it, Jer. 16.21. to their coſt: but they know not the Lord, ſc. ſavingly and effectually: for if they did, they could not be ſo vile and vitious, ſo looſe and licentious. A man is properly ſaid to know no more of Gods minde then he practiteth: like as of our Saviour it is ſaid, that he knew no ſin, that is,2 Cor. 5.21. he did none: with an intellectuall knowledge he knew it (how elſe could he reprove it) but not with a practical: and as it is ſaid of Elies two ſons, that they knew not God becauſe they obey'd him not. Lo ſuch was the ignorance of this people, aſſected and acquired; and this is peccatorum omnium fons et fomes, the mother of all miſchief and miſery; as hath been oft ſet forth in the Notes upon the former chapter.

Verſe 5. And the pride of Iſrael teſtifieth to his face] Pride is the great maſterpock of the ſoul: it will bud, and cannot be hid Ezek. 7.10. It is the grandiabolo, that filthy ſpirit that is gotten into the midſt of men, into the very heart of the country as it were. It is the leproſie of the ſoul that breakes forth in the very forehead, and ſo teſtifieth to his face. It proceeds from ignorance of God and his will, of a mans ſelf and his duty: hence that connexion of this verſe and the former. They know not the Lord; And the pride of Iſrael teſtifieth to his face. The Laodiceans were therefore proud, becauſe ignorant: thou knoweſt not that thou art wretched and miſerable, and poor, &c. So thoſe queſtion-ſick phantaſticks in Saint Paul were proud knowing nothing, 1 Tim. 6.4. And I would not have you ignorant of this myſtery, ſaith he to his Romans Chap. 11.25. leſt ye ſhould be puffed up in your own conceits. Humble Agur though full of heavenly light, yet vilifies and nullifies himſelf to the utmoſt Prov. 30.2. and ſo exemplifies that Proverb of Solomen, with the lowly is wiſdom, Prov. 11.2. And as wiſdom maketh the face to ſhine, and humility rendreth a man lovely: ſo pride on the contrary, ſitteth in the face, and deformeth it. The proud man flattereth himſelf in his own lies, till his iniquity be found to be hatefull, Pſal. 36.2. till his ſwelling break forth in loathſome ulcers. Thus Miriams pride teſtified to her face, and Ʋzziah's, and Sodoms, Eſay. 3.9. The ſhew of their countenance witneſſing againſt them. Pride is a fooliſh ſinne, it cannot keep in, it will be above-board, and diſcover it ſelf by lofty looks, big-ſwoln-words, proud gate, ridiculous geſtures, gariſh attire, that neſt of pride; but eſpecially by ſtoutneſſe and ſtubbornneſſe againſt God and his wayes (as here in this Text it is to be taken.) When men commit ſin with an high hand, and as it were, in deſpite of God, and on purpoſe to croſſe him. Hence it is that God ſo hateth this ſinne above other: for whereas all other ſins flee from God, pride lets flye at him, nay flees in his face, ſaying, Who is the Lord, that I ſhould obey him? Hence he will be a ſwift witneſſe againſt ſuch, and a ſevere Judge. Learned Mr. Leveley, reads this Text thus; The excellency of Iſrael (that is God, as Amos 8.7. 2 Sam. 1.19.) will teſtifie to Ephraims face, give in evidence againſt them. He will indeed be Index, Judex, Vindex, to ſuch: for he reſiſteth the proud, and delighteth to ſtain their glory, to caſt dirt in thoſe faces of theirs, that are ſo hatcht with impudence, as to face the very heavens, and to conteſt with Omnipotency. Hence their fall with a violence, with a vengeance.

Therefore ſhall Ephraim and Iſrael fall in their iniquity:] Corruet, they ſhall fall with a puſh, with a powther, as we ſay: and in their iniquity, that's worſe then all the reſt. Ye ſhall die in your ſinnes, ſaith Chriſt to thoſe rebellious Jews, Ioh. 8.21. that was a great deal worſe then to die in priſon, to die in a ditch, or in the worlds disfavour. Or, in their iniquity, that is, for their iniquity which is indeed the cauſe of calamities. At the loſſe of Calice, when a proud French-man demanded of an Engliſh Captain, When will you fetch Calice again? he gravely replied, Quando peccata veſtra erunt noſtris graviora. When you ſinnes ſhall weigh down ours.Tarnov. in loc. If any man ask, (ſaith Tarnovius upon this [illegible: 1 word]) Ʋnde hodi[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 letter]anta paſſim in Germania vaſtitas? efficit hanc peccatorum atr[illegible: 2 letters]ita[illegible: 1 letter]. Whence ſo great deſolations in Germany? It is for the grievouſneſſe of our [illegible: 2 letters]iquity. [illegible: 1 word] [illegible: 1 letter]his was better yet, then the reſult of that conſultation held once at Hambo[illegible: 1 letter] [illegible: 1 word], [illegible: 2 letters] ſ[illegible: 1 letter]me of his Latheran fellow-Miniſters,Vol. 1. p. 465. concerning the cauſe and cure [illegible: 1 word] manies calamities. They concluded (ſaith Mr. Boroug[illegible: 3 letters] on Hoſea, from the mouth of a Miniſter there, who told it him with grief) that it was, becauſe their [illegible: 1 word] in [illegible: 1 span] not adorned enough, which therefore they [illegible: 1 span]. A ſad huſineſſe, Solomon would have told them, that it is a mans pride that brings him low, Prov. 29.23. And that before deſtruction the heart of a man is haughty, [illegible: 1 letter]ov. 18.12 And that pride goeth before deſtruction, and an haughty ſpirit [illegible: 1 span] fall, Prov. 16.18. If the pride of Iſrael doth teſtifie to his face, the next news we [illegible: 3 letters]all hear of him is, that Iſrael and Ephraim are fallen in their iniquity. A bulging wall cannot ſtand: a ſwelling ſore will ſhortly break. This ſhall they have for their pride, becauſe they have reproached and magnified themſelves againſt the people of the Lord of Hoaſts. The Lord will be terrible unto them: for he will famiſh all the gods of the earth, &c. Zeph. 2.10, 11. all thoſe deunculi, thoſe pretty pictures that men ſo much dote upon: which ſhould not be ſuffered, if for nothing elſe, yet for the diſtraction they may cauſe in Divine worſhip. In the Councel-chamber of the Lacedemonians, no picture or image was ſuffered; leſt in conſultation of weighty matters, their mindes thereby might be diſtracted. Irenaeus reproveth the Gnoſticks for their pictures of Chriſt, though made in Pilates time, after his own proportion. Auſtin denieth that images can be ſet up in Churches, ſine praeſentiſſimo idololatriae periculo, without exceeding great danger of idolatry.In Pſal. 114. Epiphanius ſaith, it is an abomination of deſolation, to ſet up pictures in the Churches of Chriſtians. Plutarch an Heathen ſaith,Paul. Jovius. lib. 4. it is ſacriledge: And Solyman the great Turk, when he had taken Buda in Hungary, would not enter into the great Church there, to give God thanks for the victory, till all the images were caſt out. But this by the way onely. Let us take heed by thoſe miſtaken Lutherans, Eſay 44.20. whom a deceived heart hath turned aſide, that we likewiſe fall not from our own ſtedfaſtneſſe.

leſt Judah alſo fall with them.] Leſt we be wrapt up in the ſame condemnation, leſt we follow Germany in her plagues, as we began apace to do in her ſins: for the which we have alſo already ſeverely ſmarted. If Judah comply with Iſrael in falſe worſhip, they ſhall fall with Iſrael. God is not tied to any people, but can well be without them. The Lord is with you, whilſt ye are with him. If ye ſeek him, he will be found of you: but if you forſake him, he will forſake you, 2 Chron: 15.2. But will the Lord be certainly found of them that ſeek him? yes, if they ſeek him ſeriouſly and ſeaſonably, in a time when he may be found,Pſal. 32.6. Eſay 55.6. and before he be utterly departed. But here was the miſtake, and the miſchief of it. Theſe Apoſtata's went to ſeek the Lord, and they went with their coſt, but they came too late: they had ſinned away their God, and wiped off all their comfortables, as Saul had done before them. The Philiſtims are upon me, ſaith he, and God hath forſaken me: he anſwereth me no more, neither by Prophets nor by dreams, &c. It is ſaid,1 Sam. 28.15. 1 Chron. 10.14. that Saul did not enquire of the Lord, therefore he ſlew him. He did, and yet he did not, becauſe he ſought him not with all his heart: his devotion was fained and forced. Now it is a rule in the Civil Law, Ficta pro factis non habentur: nec videtur fieri quod non legitimc ſit. Fained ſervice is loſt labour: neither is that done to any purpoſe, that is not orderly done. And this was the caſe of theſe ſacrificers in the next verſe. Sodomites God calleth them, Eſay 1.10.

Verſe 6. They ſhall go with their flocks, and with their heards] Curſitabunt, they ſhall out up and down, from altar to altar, with all their ſtock, as if they would buy off their ſins, redeem their ſorrows, with hecatombs, and ſtore of holocauſts; and then be ready to ſay, as that Heathen Emperour did, when he was to meet his enemie in the field, Non ſic Deos coluimus, aut ſic viximus ut ille nos vinceret. Antonin. Philoſoph. ap. Vulcat. Gallic. in Av[illegible: 2 letters]io Caſſio. Mic. 6.7. we have not ſo ſerved the gods, or lived ſo, that the enemy ſhould have the better of us. They thought they had merited better at Gods hands, by their thouſands of rams, and ten thouſand rivers of oil, then to fall, as in the former verſe, then to be relinquiſhed by him, as here. Lo this is the guiſe of graceleſſe hypocrites: by their outward performances they think to oblige God unto them; and by their good deeds to ſet off for their bad. Thus Brunheldis (that French Athaliah) after many murders, and much miſchief wrought by her, Anno 600. built many Colledges for Prieſts, and Monks, in Burgundy and Auſtria, Eo ſcilicet beneficio maleficia ſua expiavit, ſaith the French Chronicler;Epit. hist. Gal. pag. 25. Dan. hist. fol. 76. thereby thinking to ſatisfie for all her cruelty. So here in King Stevens time, there were more Abbeys built then in an hundred yeers before. So the Papiſts at this day, ſpend and are ſpent in their blinde devotions: they laviſh money out of the bag, and run up and down from Saint to Saint with their coſt: They pray publikely in publike calamities,Quarantoras Italico nomine iſtas preces vocant. Polan. in loc. quem conſule. for fourty hours together, by the Popes command, that they may pacifie God, and divert his diſpleaſure. For the ſame cauſe, they make the ſame man (in their greater Cities appointed) to preach every day in Lent without intermiſſion; ſo as ſix dayes in the week he preacheth on the Goſpel of the dayes; and on the Saturday, in honour and praiſe of our Lady, as they call her. Lo, thus they go, as they think,Spec. Europ. to ſeek God with their will-worſhip, and work done, &c. but they finde him as little as they did here, with their flocks, and with their herds: And why? Firſt, they go to ſeek him: they run, but in a wrong way; and ſo fulfill that ſacred proverb, He that haſteth with his feet ſinneth: for the faſter he runs, the farther he is out. Next,Prov. 19.2. they pretend to ſeek him, but indeed they ſeek themſelves: they ſeek him, but it is to be rid of his rod: they do not ſo much ſerve him, as ſerve themſelves and their own turns upon him; as thoſe hypocrites in Zachary faſted to themſelves; Zech. 7. not to get off their ſins, but their chains. Thirdly, they go with their flocks, &c. not mine, but theirs, ſaith God; he will not ſo much as own them, though they were tendered to him in ſacrifice; becauſe brought with a wicked minde, Prov. 21.27. as Balac and Balaam did, Num. 23.1, 2. and as Cain did, Gen. 4.5. to whom therefore God had no reſpect, becauſe he brought non perſonam ſed opus perſonae, not himſelf, but his ſacrifice, as Luther hath it: who alſo calleth all thoſe Cainiſts, that offer to God the work done, but preſent not their bodies for a lively ſacrifice, Rom. 12.1. Hence he rejects their ſervices with infinite diſdain, as Eſay 1.11, 12. and 66.2, 3. though never ſo numerous and precious, Mic. 6.7. Hoſ. 8.13. And to ſet forth this, as he calleth them here, their flocks, and not his, ſo Fourthly, he calleth them flocks and herds, not ſacrifices: that was too good a name for them. Thus, Ier. 7.21. in ſcorn he calleth their ſacrifice fleſh; ſuch as was ordinary, ſold in the ſhambles. And thus alſo, Hoſ. 9.4. ſpeaking of the meat-offering appointed, Lev. 2.5. he calleth it, their bread for their ſouls, or, for their life and livelihood, the bread for their naturall ſuſtenance; and ſaith, it ſhall not come into his houſe, he will none of it. See Mal. 1.7. with the Note.

but they ſhall not finde him] Non erit ipſis domi, non favebit eis, ſaith an interpreter here, he will not be at home, not within, to open to them when they knock at his doore: he will be as ſtrange to them as ever they were to him, becauſe they bring him not that beſt ſacrifice of a broken heart: and becauſe they come too late when the gate of grace is ſhut, when the gale of grace is over, when he hath fully reſolved upon their ruine, and will not repent

when he hath withdrawn himſelf from them] Heb. hath ſnatcht away himſelf, hath thrown himſelf out of their company, [non-Latin text not transcribed] as Peter threw himſelf out from the rude ſouldiers into a by-corner, to weep bitterly, Mark. 14.72. Cum ſe proripuiſſet, ſo Beza rendreth it. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. When God is well pleaſed with his people, they can no ſooner cry, but he will ſay, Here I am, Iſay. 58.9. And though they offer but ſmall things unto him, as Samuel did a ſucking lamb, 1 Sam 7.9. they are highly accepted, and graciouſly anſwered. But woe unto them when I depart from them, ſaith God Hoſ. 9 12. yea woe upon woe when Gods ſoul is once diſioynted from them. Jer. 6.8. anevill, an onely evill, behold, is come. An end is come, the end is come, it watcheth for thee, behold it is come. Ezek. 7.5.6. and why? becauſe God was withdrawing from them: Hence all evils came ruſhing in, as by a ſluce. In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters of that Propheſy, God maketh diverſe removes. And ſtill, as he goes out, ſome judgement comes in. Firſt he removeth from the Cherubins in the Oracle, to the threſhold Chap, 9.3. and upon that Remove, ſee what followeth Verſe 5, 6, 7. &c. Secondly he removeth to the Cherubins on the right ſide of the houſe Chap. 10.1. and ſee what followes Verſ. 2. Thirdly to the Eaſt-gate of the houſe, and the firſt entrance into the Temple, Chap. 10.19. and then ſee what ſucceeds Chap. 11.8.9.10. Fourthly he removeth to mount Olivet, quite out of the city, Chap. 11.23. and when God was quite gone, then follwed the fatall calamity in the ruine thereof. As there is no light in the world but from the Sun, no water but from the Sea; ſo no ſound comfort or happineſſe to be had but with and in God. Better have him angry with us, then not have him at all with us. The loſs of God is a peece of hell; in the ſuburbs whereof the Saints feel themſelves, when but a while deſerted.

Verſe 7. They have dealt treacherouſly againſt the Lord] They have dealt deceitfully in the Covenant, they are a perfidious curſed crew of them: this I ſee well enough, ſaith God, though they may think to darken mine eye-ſight with the ſmoke of their many ſacrifices, or to ſtop my mouth with their great preſents. See how he complaineth as in this Propheſie often, ſo, Jer. 3.20. Surely as a wife treacherouſly departeth from her husband, ſo have you dealt treacherouſly with me, O houſe of Iſrael. Now in ſuch a caſe a man will not regard any ranſom: neither will he reſt content, though thou giveſt many gifts:Prov. 6.35. he will not be a pandar to his own bed, unleaſs he be very baſe indeed. Moſt certain it is, that God will not endure any ſuch doings: but though he love his Spouſe never ſo well, yet if ſhe play falſe with him, and admit any other into the bridall-bed,Jer. 12.7. he will forſake his houſe that hath been ſo diſhoneſt, he will leave his heritage that hath been ſo embaſed; he will give the dearely beloved of his ſoul into the hand of her enemies, who ſhall hate her more then ever they loved her, as Amnon did Tamar, and deale cruelly with her, as Ezek. 16. is at large diſcourſed. The wickedneſſe of this people was the greater, for that they pretended religion (as in the former verſe) to their baſe beaſtly practiſes. Deſſembled ſanctity is double iniquity. See how hainouſly God takes it, Jer. 7.9, 10. And when others deale treacherouſly and unworthily with you, ſee whether you have not done as bad and worſe againſt the Lord. Alphonſus king of Arragon in a ſpeech to the Popes Embaſſadour profeſſed, that he did not ſo much wonder at his Courtiers ingratitude to him, (who had raiſed ſundry of them from meane to great eſtates) as at his own to God.

for they have begotten ſtrange children] baſtards ſuch as the Jewes call Mamzer, as ye would ſay aliena labes, a ſtrange blot. They call them alſo brambles, ſuch as was Abimelech who grew in the hedge-row of an harlot, and ſcratcht and drew blood to purpoſe, Judg. 9.14. That which is here charged upon the Iſralites is, that they had not onely taken to wife the daughters of a ſtrange God, or begotten baſtards of harlots, but that they had nuzzled up their children in idolatry, and ſo made them ſevenfold worſe the children of the devill then before. This was a very great aggravation of their treachery, that they ſhould impoiſon their poſterity, and propagate their wickedneſſe from one generation to another; that there ſhould be a line and a ſucceſſion of it from their loins. None are ſo ready to drink in falſe principles, and corrupt practiſes as young ones. Such parents as have a hand in undoing their children, either by ill counſell, or example, are peremptores potius quàm parentes, ſaith Bernard, rather parricides then parents.Ber. Ep. 111. They ſhall give an heavy account to God for their childrens miſcarriages. Let it therefore be the care of parents, as to keep themſelves pure, ſo to ſee to their little ones, that they be not corrupted. Satan bears an implacable ſpite and hatred to them, as the ſeed-plot of heaven; and hath his emiſſaries abroad to marre them. Such was Protagoras, of whom Plato reporteth, that he gloried of this, that whereas he had lived ſixty years in all, fourty of them he had ſpent in corrupting of young people.Plato in Menone. Of Julian the Apoſtate it is reported, that being of excellent parts and proof, both in learning and religion, whileſt he was young: he was afterwards corrupted by his two Heatheniſh Tutours Libanius, and Jamblichus, through the careleſſeneſſe of Euſebius, Biſhop of Nicomedia, who ſhould have ſeen better to it: and that this was a main cauſe of his Apoſtacy.

now ſhall a moneth devour them with their portions.] Some read it thus. Now ſhall the enemy devour them moneth after moneth: Others put menſes for menſtrua, and give this ſence. Like as this people make no bones to break their faith with God by ſpirituall fornication, mingling as it were their ſeed with ſtrange gods and forraine people: ſo ſhall it come to them, which happeneth to women worn with adulteries, See Tremel. & Jun. Annat. (as Ezekiel ſpeaketh) that their monethly diſeaſes procured by inordinate luſt, ſhall eat up and conſume their bodies. For confirmation, they alledge (but not ſo properly) Jer. 2.24. I willingly concur with thoſe that by a moneth underſtand a little ſhort time. How ſoon is a moneth run out? And yet what havock will an enemy make in a moneths ſpace? as we have had wofull experience in theſe late ſtripping and killing times. Them and their portions ſhall one moneth make an end of. Death heweth its way thorow a wood of men, in a minute of time, from the mouth of a murdering-piece. The ſword contemneth the rod, Ezek. 21.13. as if it ſhould ſay; What doth this ſilly rod do here? Let me come; Ile quickly make work among them. Ile dung the land with their carcaſes, &c. with their portions, the lots of their inheritance. Wicked men alſo have their portions in this life, Pſal. 17.14. they live in pleaſure on the earth, and are wanton, Jam. 5.5. but their portion is no other, but a moneth may devour it: their pleaſure no other but one drop of an evil conſcience may damp and diſſweeten it. But if God be thy portion, &c.

Verſe 8. Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramab,] Clangite, clamate, not with the inverſe trumpets of Furius Fulvius, which ſounded a retreat when they ſhould have ſounded an alarme. But blow ye the cornet; give notice to all the countrey, that Hannibal eſt ad portas, the enemy is at the very gates, ſending a ſummons, and ſounding for a ſurrender. The deſolation of warre had been denounced in the former verſe; here it is proclaimed, as it were by ſound of Trumpet: the Prophet acting the part of an herauld; and, by a rhetoricall hypotypoſis, repreſenting the enemies approach, as if it were already under view: and not foretold, but acted before their eyes. Rhetorick, we ſee here, is an art ſanctified by Gods Spirit; and may lawfully be uſed in handling of Gods word. The Scripture is full of it in every part: and happy is that Miniſter, that thereby can make himſelf maſter of his hearers affections: as potent in his Divine Rhetorick as Pericles, or Cicero, were in their humane. Let him (by our Prophets example) ſtrive to make the things whereof he preacheth to the people, as reall before their eyes, as poſſibly he can. The power of a miniſtery conſiſteth much in this; to ſet forth ſin, Chriſt, heaven, hell, in ſuch lively colours, that the hearer (though unlearned) may be convinced of all, judged of all, and having the ſecrets of his heart made manifeſt, 1 Cor. 14.84, 25. he may fall down on his face, worſhip God and report, that God is in the Miniſter of a truth: Chryſoſtom. Eze k. 4.1. Lo this is Preaching indeed. For as every ſound is not Muſick, ſo neither is every Pulpit-diſcourſe Preaching. Nihil frigidius eſt doctore verbis ſolummodo philoſophante, &c. Ezekiel muſt lay ſiege to Jeruſalem, pourtraying it upon a tile, &c. So did Jeremy and other Prophets uſe ſignes, and ſimilitudes, Saint Pauls ſpeech and Preaching was not indeed with enticing words of mans wiſdom, (he did not ſo paint the window as to keep out the light) but yet in demonſtration of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 2.4. and of power, cloſe to the conſcience.

Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah] that is in the bounds of the Kingdom of Judah, Gibeah of Benjamin, Gibeah of Saul.

And the trumpet in Ramah] Samuels country, afterward called Arimathaea, Joſephs country: this is ſaid to be in the borders of Iſrael. Strong garriſons they were both; and places of great reſort: they are now alarmed, and bidden to prepare for the approach of the Aſſyrian. [non-Latin text not transcribed]

Cry aloud at Bethaven] Or Bethel, as Chap. 4.11. a city (as it is ſaid of Athens, Acts 17.16.) wholly given to idolatry: and therefore more ſtupid and ſtubborn then the reſt. Here therefore the Prophet cries louder then ordinary, claſſicum canit, ſic clamat ut ſtentora vincere poſſit, he ſets up his note that he may the ſooner awaken them, and cauſe them to apprehend their danger, as preſent and reall. Bethaven was the great place of ſuperſtition, and now Rome is the neſt of Antichriſt, the habitations of devils, and the hold of every foul ſpirit, a cage of every unclean and hatefull bird: therefore the Angel crieth mightily with a ſtrong voice, ſaying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, certò, citò, penitus, ſurely, ſuddenly, utterly. Rev. 18.2.

After thee ô Benjamin] who art at the back of Bethaven, and fareſt the worſe for her neighbourhood: like as Hamath did for Damaſcus Zech. 9.2. See the Note there. Some underſtand Hoſtis adeſt, the enemy is at they heeles; make away, or ſtand upon thy guard: for thou art like to be put to't. And this conciſe kind of warning here given implies a minde moved and diſturb'd, either with fear or anger.

Verſe 9. Ephraim ſhall be deſolate in the day of rebuke] Correptionis, vel Correctionis, ut Pagninus: when thou with rebukes doſt correct man for iniquity, &c. Pſal. 39.11. God hath a day for ſuch ſharp rebukes, or childings by way of conviction, or Argument (as the word ſignifieth) wherein he will be ſure to carry it, with a great deal of ſound reaſon and evident demonſtration: ſo that Ephraim ſhall have nothing to ſay, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Vaſtri ita ut videntes obstupeſcant. &c. why he ſhould not be deſolated; yea ſo deſolated as to make the beholders amazed thereat, as the Hebrew word importeth God, will not now dally with Ephraim, or deal favourably with him as heretofore: he will not ſhake his rod at him only, but waſt it to the very ſtumps: he ſhall be utterly deſtroyed from being a people: the day that now comes is a black day indeed, a day not of inſtruction, but of deſtruction, not of correction but of execution; a very doomeſday, wherein God will bring them into the furnace, and there leave them Ezek. 22.20. And that none may think this ſentence over ſevere: or not ſo ſure but that it might be avoyded or vacated, ſee what followeth in the text;

among the tribes of Iſrael have I made known that which ſhall ſurely be] i.e. Either I have forewarned them ſufficiently, but they would take no warning, which is both a juſt preſage and deſert of their ruine: Or elſe thus: I am now fully reſolved upon their ruine, neither is there cauſe that any man ſhould deceive himſelf with a vain hope, as if theſe evils that I foretell ſhould not befall you. Experience the miſtreſſe of fools, ſhall teach you, that the ſentence I now pronounce is preciſe and peremptory, not conditionall as heretofore, but abſolute, and unchangeable: and this I here aſſure you of by this ſolemn conteſtation.

Verſ. 10. The Princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound] A wickedneſs condemned by the law and light both of Nature,Deut. 19.14. Prov. 22.28. and Scripture Deut. 27.17. The Princes are mentioned, becauſe corruption in a people (as putrefaction in a fiſh) begins at the head. Now the land-mark or limit is removed many wayes. As firſt Religione, in Religion: when the true is changed into that which is falſe, as was here in Queen Maries dayes againſt her promiſe, to the Suffolk men. Secondly, in Regione, Tarnon. in the civil State: when one man violently invadeth the right of another (as Ahab did Naboths vineyard) and no man muſt queſtion them becauſe it is facinus majoris Abollae the fact of a great one.Junenal. Thirdly, In officio, in a mans office or particular ſtation, when he keeps not within his circle, but take liberty to tranſgreſſe, preſcribing new worſhips as 2 King. 16.10, 11. 2 Coro. 28.23. taking upon them to teach Miniſters what to teach them, as Mic. 2.6. or themſelves invading the Miniſteriall office uncalled thereunto as did Jeroboam 1 King. 13.4. and Ʋzziah 2 Chron. 26.16. to their coſt. This (ſaith an Interpreter) is grandis culpa, et atrox crimen, a foul fault, a crimſon crime. Let our Lay-preachers and Levellers look to it, unleſſe they covet a curſe. Deut. 27.17. He that breaketh an hedge, a ſerpent ſhall bite him. Fourthly, In negotio, in buſineſſes and tranſactions, in contracts and covenants he removeth bounds, who cozeneth and circumventeth another in any matter 1 Theſ. 4.6. Theſe muſt remember that God is the avenger of all ſuch:Heb. 10. and that it is a fearfull thing to fall into the puniſhing hands of the living God. The Papiſts fall foul upon us as Innovatours, and removers of the ancient bounds: becauſe we reject their Eccleſiaſtical traditions and unwritten verities (as they call them) commended unto us by the Ancients, and embraced by whole nations for many ages. To whom we anſwer, that Multitude and Antiquity are but ciphers in Divinity: they muſt (at leaſt) have no more authoritie, then what they can maintain. Let them boaſt, with the Gibeonites, of their old ſhooes, mouldy bread, &c. we hold us to the Scriptures, for our limits and land-markes unmoveable and immutable. And when they ſhall ask us as they oft do, where was your Religion before Luther? we anſwer as one once did, In the Bible, where yours never was. Eraſmus met with an adverſary ſo ſilly as to charge him for a remover of the ancient bounds,Eraſm. in Apolog. becauſe he had anew Tranſlated the New Teſtament: a work of ſingular uſe to the Church of Chriſt, in thoſe dark times.

therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water] which ſhall overflow the bankes to overwhelm thoſe that remove the bounds. Yea God will pour it upon them by whole pailefuls, or ſpouts (as they call them) at ſea. Or if but by vials (as Rev. 16.1. which are veſſels of narrow mouthes and pour out ſlowly, howbeit) they drench deeply, and diſtill effectually the wrath of God, which wretched ſinners, ſhall never be able to avoid or abide. Oh when God ſhall ſet himſelf to ſet open the cataracts of his wrath as once at Noahs flood, and to come againſt a ſinner with a deluge of deſtruction to pour out his indignation upon him, as water haſtily, heavily, irreſiſtibly, what will he do, and where will he finde refuge? This made David pray ſo hard. Let not the waterfloods overflow me: nor the deep ſwallow me up, Pſal. 69.15. It is the priv[illegible: 1 letter]ledge of every godly perſon, that in the floods of great waters, they ſhall not come nigh to him, Pſal. 32.6. Or if they come up to his neck, yet they ſhall not take away his breath: for his head is ever above water. Waſht he may be (as Paul was in the ſhipwrack) drowned he cannot be. Sink he may ſeem to do once and again to the bottom: but he ſhall up again with Jonas, if out of the deep, he call upon the Lord, who will ſet him on a rock that is, higher then he.

Verſe 11. Ephraim is oppreſſed and broken in judgement] Calumniam paſſus eſt Ephraim ſo the vulgar hath it: Ephraim was falſe accuſed and ſlandered: he ſuffered much by Sycophants, who depraved his good actions, drew him before the judgement-ſeats and there oppreſſed him; as Jam. 2.6. But the word here uſed ſignifieth all manner of injuries and oppreſſions, whether by vexatious ſuits, by fraud or by force, virulent tongues or violent hands, wrangling or otherwiſe wronging a man, to his cruſhing and utter undoing many times: For a poor man in his houſe is like a ſnaile in his ſhell: cruſh that, and you kill him. Ephraim was cruſhed in judgement by his countrymen, who would do him no right: but much more by the cruell Aſſyrians, who ſoon after this carried him captive, and left him without all remedy of law, without hope of a better condition or place for a worſe. And what wonder though men ſo ſet againſt him, when God was pouring out his wrath upon him as water? ſith all creatures are up in arms againſt Gods rebels. If the cauſe go againſt a man though he have never ſo much right on his ſide (for oft-times cedit viribus aequum, might overcomes right) and he be broken in judgement, Let him ſee whether things be right between God and himſelf: and if broken in judgement, let him be of a broken ſpirit, and he ſhall be relieved.

becauſe he willingly followed after the commandment] He was too ſequacious and obſequious to Jeroboam and his Princes, commanding him to worſhip the golden calves. Queniam voluit, juit, like a tame fool; or, at leaſt, as a fooliſh childe (ſo this Prophet calleth him) he was ſoon won over, he came off with little ado. Jeroboam did but hold up his finger, and he had him ſtraight: A mere fatuellus carried away to thoſe dumb idols even as he was led. 1 Cor. 12.2. a Melchite, ſuch a generation of Heretickes there were in the Primitive Church;Niceph. ſo called becauſe they followed the examples and decrees of the Emperours: reſolving to be of the Kings Religion, whatſoever it were, right or wrong. The Ruſſians are ſuch at this day. God and their Emperour they ſay know beſt what's truth or falſhood: and it is their part to obey, not to enquire. But all Chriſts ſheep are rationall; and will try before they truſt, look before they leap: the ſpirituall man judgeth all things, yet he himſelf is judged by no man, 1 Cor. 2, 15. Shew him a clear text of Scripture for what you would perſwade him to, and convince him thereby that it is the minde of God, and you may have what you will of him.Jam. 2.1. But for theſe maſters of opinions ſuch as are magiſtri noſtri Pariſienſes, that obtrude their own placits upon people, and require to be beleeved upon their bare word without further proof, he abhors them. And for the decrees of Princes and Rulers, if they croſſe the Scriptures, he will take leave to diſobey them, as the Apoſtles did, Acts 4.19. as the three children in Daniel did, and Daniel himſelf Chap. 6. and as all the holy confeſſours and Martyrs both ancient and modern did.Act. and Mon. The Biſhop of Norwich asked Roger Coo Martyr whether he would not obey the Kings Lawes? he anſwered yes, as far as they agree with the Law of God, I will obey them. Then ſaid the Biſhop, whether they agree with the word or not, we are bound to obey them, if the King were an infidell.Act. and Mon. fol. 1550. Coo anſwered, If Shadrach Meſhach and Abednego had done ſo, Nabuchadnezzar had never confeſt the living God. True it is that Magiſtrates muſt be obeyed: [non-Latin text not transcribed] Baſil. thoſe that are good muſt be obeyed as God, thoſe that are bad, for God: but then it muſt be in licitis in things lawfull, and warrantable by the word: and herein we muſt not frame excuſe. The bleſſed Virgin, though unweildy, went four dayes journey (ſo far it was from Nazareth to Bethlehem) to obey Auguſtus his decree, the charge was not ſo peremptory, but the obedience was as exemplary. Whoſo keepeth the commandment, ſc. of the King ſhall know no evil thing, Eccleſ. 8.4.5. And whereas ſome might reply, why then, let's do all the King bids us without ſciſcitation, without further delay or enquiry: Solomon anſwers in the next words. And a wiſe mans heart diſcerneth both time and judgement, that is, he knowes both when and how, and how far forth fitly and lawfully the commands of a King may be diſpatched; and no further will he go, then he can with a good conſcience. The Pope writing to Bernard, requiring him to do that which was unlawfull, Bernard writes back again this anſwer and it was taken; I as a childe, do not obey, and I obey in diſobeying. Antigona in Sophocles ſaith well, Magis obtemperandum eſt Dijs, &c. We ſhould rather obey God with whom we muſt live ever, then men with whom we have but a while to ſojourn. Lo blind nature ſaw ſo much. See the Note on Act. 4.19. It may not be forgotten or ſlipt over, that the word here rendred the Commandment ſignifies Command thou: [non-Latin text not transcribed] Becauſe he willingly walked after Command thou: he danced after Jeroboams pipe, ſaying to him as he did once to Julius Caeſar, Juſſa ſequi tam velle mihi quàm poſſe, neceſſe eſt.Lucan.

Or as Tiberius anſwered Juſtin. Ʋtere me pro rota figulari Plaut. (though upon a better ground & end) Si tu volueris, ego ſum: Situ non vis, Ego non ſum, I am onely thy clay, and thy wax, &c. Or laſtly, as Luther at firſt ſubmitted to the Pope in theſe words (though afterwards, God gave him more courage in his cauſe) I proſtrate my ſelf at your Holineſle feet, with all that I am and have. Vivifica, occide, voca, revoca, approba, reproba; vocem tuam vocem Chriſti in te praeſidentis et loquentis agnoſcam: Anne 1518. Epiſt. ad Leon. Pontific. Kimchi. that is, Quicken me, kill me, call me, recall me, receive me, reject me: I ſhall acknowledge your voice as the voice of Chriſt himſelf ruling and ſpeaking in you. Jeroboam is not once named here: nor the word (Commandment) ſet down at large out of deteſtation (likely) both of it, and Him, becauſe it was a wicked commandment: and He no better then an Uſurper. For although he had it cleared to him, that Gods will was that he ſhould be King over the ten tribes, yet becauſe it was a will of Gods decree, and not of his Command, as of a duty done by him, he goes among Divines for an intruder and uſurper in and for that fact of his. 'Tis obedience when we follow a Divine precept: but not ever, when we follow a divine inſtinct.

Verſe 12. Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth,] Their ſin was the greater, becauſe they were ſo willing to it, and ſo eaſily drawn to idolatry, as moſt agreeable to their nature, and making much for their eaſe: which was Jeroboams main argument. It may very well be, that he threatned puniſhment to thoſe that diſobeyed his commandement: but here they ſhould have ſtood out, and have bide the worſt; chuſing affliction rather then ſin; which becauſe they did not, therefore they ſhould periſh by their own hand, and counſels: they ſhall be motheaten, as a garment that breedeth the moth, and as a tree that breedeth the worm that waſteth it. Not but that God had a ſpeciall hand in their puniſhment: and this not permiſſive onely, but active too, I will be unto Ephraim, &c. For is there evil in a city, and he hath not done it? The changes and periods of Kingdoms are of him, Pſal. 75.6, 7. that men may know that the Heavens do rule, Dan. 4.26. ſo are the alterations in mens bodies and eſtates, as Job ſetteth it forth, Chap. 4.19. and 13.28. and 27.18. Every one (ſay ſome Chymicks) hath his own balſam within him: his own bane 'tis ſure that he hath: his clay-cottage is every day ready to drop on his head. And for his Eſtate,2 Cor. 5.1. there are oft-times ſecret iſſues and drains of expence, at the which it runs out, as at an hole in the bottom of the bag, Hag. 1.6. See the Note there. Howbeit Gods holy hand is in all this; I will be unto Ephraim as a moth, &c. that is, I will waſt them ſenſim, ſine ſenſu. Secretly, inſenſively, ſlowly; but ſurely, and inevitably: This David after Job, acknowledgeth, Pſal 39.11. When thou with rebukes doſt correct man for iniquity, thou makeſt his beauty to conſume away like a moth, thou caſteſt him into a corruptio totius ſubſtantiae, as the Phyſicians call the Hectick: ſurely every man is vanity. Selah: Yea he is altogether vanity, yea and that in his beſt eſtate, when he is beſt underlaid, when ſetled on his beſt bottom, verſe 5. when he is gotten upon his mount with David, and thinks to die in his neſt with Iob: Pſal. 130.7. Job 29.18. Luk. 12. Mar. in cap. 28. & 11. c. 25. when he counts upon much good laid up in ſtore for many years, as that rich fool, that reckoned without his hoſt, as we ſay. Tinea damnum facit, & ſonitum non facit, ſaith Gregory. The moth maketh no noiſe, but doth a great deal of hurt among clothes. The worm here, rendred rottenneſſe, is minutiſſimus vermisulus, ſaith Luther here, a very ſmall creature, but doth no ſmall miſchief:Teredo. for it eats out the heart of the ſtrongeſt wood, yea of the ſtrongeſt oaken planks at Sea. See here what a poor creature is man, yea a whole kingdom, when as a moth and a little worm may conſume them: when they may be cruſhed before the moth, as Iob ſpeaks, Chap. 4.19. he ſaith not, before the Lion, but before the moth. Learn alſo to take heed of ſin, yea of ſecret ſins, 2 King. 17, 9. leſt we be ſecretly waſted, our graces caſt into a conſumption, our comfortables wiped away, our conſciences wearied with ſecret buffets, as being ſmitten with the rod of Gods mouth, Eſay 11.4. our eſtates melted as the fat of lambs before the fire, and our land inſenſibly waſted, and by degrees deſolated; as Ephraim and Iudah were, as the Greek Empire was, and as it began to be here with us, in Queen Maries raigne, which was never proſperous after that ſhe had aboliſhed the Goſpel: for beſide forraigne loſſes, of Calice, Speed. &c. extreme dearths raged, much hurt was done by thunder from heaven, and by fire in the royall Navie, and all things went to worſe, till Queen Eliſabeth came in,Q. Eliz. life by M. Clark. Mart. 2. part, pag. 319. a repairer of the breach, a reſtorer of paths to dwell in, Eſay 53.12. according to that glorious Epitaph, cauſed by King Iames to be inſcribed upon her Princely Monument by him erected.

Verſe 13. When Ephraim ſaw his ſickneſſe,] i. e. Felt himſelf moth-eaten, hard-driven, and at a very great under, as thoſe muſt needs bee whom God ſetteth againſt.

and Iudah his wound,] Heb. his ulcer, that needeth cruſhing to get out the filth, Ier. 30.13. Obad. 7. Ephraim was ſick, (God had made him ſick in ſmiting of him, Mich. 6.13.) and Iudah was ſore, yea ulcerated, impoſtumated, and they were both ſenſible of it: but no otherwiſe then bruit beaſts, which when they are ſmitten or ſick, feel it, and howl out, but have not the reaſon to think whence the pain comes, what may be the cauſe, and cure of it. Ephraim and Iudah make out indeed for help, but they run to wrong remedies, and refuges: they turn not to him that ſmote them, neither do they ſeek the Lord of Hoſts: therefore is not his anger turned away, but his hand is ſtretched out ſtill, Eſay 9.12, 13. If God be angry, no other helps can relieve us; no creature comfort us; no combination with King Iareb ſecure us. In a Mine, if a damp come, it is in vain to truſt to your lights; they will burn blew and dim, and at laſt vaniſh; you muſt make haſt to be drawn upward, if you will be ſafe. So muſt men make to God; fleeing from his anger to his grace. Blood-letting is a cure of bleeding, and a burn a cure againſt a burn; and the running to God is the way to eſcape him; as to cloſe and get in with him that would ſtrike you, doth avoid the blow. In a tempeſt at Sea, it is very dangerous to ſtrike to the ſhoar: the ſafeſt way is to have Sea-room, and to keep in the Main ſtill, &c. Iareb cannot be a Defender (according to the import of his name) if God come againſt a people or perſon. Braſſe and Iron can fence a man againſt a bullet or a ſword; Eſay 30.33. D Rainolds, ſerm. before Parl. Iuly 27. 1642. but if he were to be caſt into a furnace of fire, it would help to torment him; if into a pit of water to ſink him. Now our God is a conſuming fire, and his breath a ſtream of brimſtone, &c. as a Reverend man maketh the compariſon.

Then went Ephraim to the Aſſyrian, and Iudah ſent to king Iareb,] Or, to the king of Iareb, or to the king that ſhould plead, and revenge his cauſe and quarrell. Ad Regem propugnaturum, ſaith Iunius. Help O king, ſaid ſhe in the holy hiſtorie. Kings ſhould be Helpers, Propugnatours, Protectours. Sanctuaries of ſafety to the oppreſſed, whether Subjects or Neighbours: ſuch as the late king of Sweden was to the oppreſſed Princes of Germany: And before him, Queen Eliſabeth to the Low-countrey-men; whoſe protection when ſhe undertook, the king of Sweden that then was ſaid,Camd. that ſhe had taken the crown off her own head, and ſet it upon the head of Fortune. But what a madneſſe was it in Ephraim and Judab to call in the Aſſyrian to their help, as they did, 2 King. 16.7. 2 Chron. 28.16, 21. but eſpecially 2 King. 15.19, 20. & 17.3. This was to invite the enemy into their kingdome, and to ſhew gold-thirſty Babel, where ſhe might have her full draught. Thus Judea was (after the return from Babylon) loſt again to the Romans, by their calling Pompey to decide the controverſie betwixt the diſagreeing brethren. And ſuch an ungain courſe was attempted by Iohn King of England, when, being overlaid in his Barons warres,Heyl. Geog. he ſent to the Monarch of Morocco for aid, offering to hold his kingdome of him. and to receive the law of Mahomet; but he was rejected with ſcorne. Afterwards, he paſſed away his kingdome to the Pope, in hope of help; but had ſo little joy of it, that he was heard to complain, Poſtquam me ac mea regna (proh dolor.) Rom. ſubjeci Eccleſia, nulla mihi proſpera, ſed omnia contraria advenerunt, I never proſpered ſince I ſubjected my ſelf and my Kingdomes to the Sea of Rome. No more did the Greek Churches, as above hath been mentioned. By iniquity, ſaith Solomon, ſhall no man be eſtabliſhed, Prov. 12.3. Shall they eſcape by iniquity?Pſal. 56.7. ſaith David: What? no better means and wayes to help themſelves by? In thine anger caſt down ſuch a people, O God. It is not more a prayer then a prophecy: and it was fulfilled upon this people.

Yet could he not heal you, [non-Latin text not transcribed] medela. nor cure you of your wound.] Kings have their names in Greek from healing: they ſhould be Phyſicians, and binders up of wounds, as Eſay 3.7. (ſee Corn. à Lapide on that Text) But King Jareb proved a Phyſician of no value: inſtead of healing the wound, he made it wider; inſtead of helping King Ahaz, 2 Chro. 28.20. he diſtreſſed him, ſaith the Text. The creature was never true to thoſe that truſted to it. Such are ſure to be fruſtrated, Jer. 14.3. ſubjected to Gods wrath, Pſal. 78.22. curſed with a curſe, Jer. 17.5, 6. pointed at as forlorn fools, Pſal. 52.7.

Verſe 14. For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion,] I, that is, my Aſſyrian, the rod of my wrath: will be as a lion, or leopard, a creature ſwift and fierce above meaſure.Aelian. de var. hiſt. lib. 12. cap. 39. The Vulgar rendreth it, a lioneſſe, which, ſaith Aelian, is robuſtiſſimum & bellicoſiſſimum animal, a moſt ſtrong and ſtout creature: Hence Semiram's gloried much, when in hunting ſhe had taken not a lion, but a lioneſſe. What is ſtronger then a lion, ſaid thoſe Philiſtims to Sampſon, Judg. 14.14. See 2 Som 1.23. Prov. 30.29. The Lion (but eſpecially the young Lion, that is in his hot blood) fears no other creature, falls upon his prey with great fury, and teareth it; carrieth it away when he hath done in his mouth, or devours it in the place, and fears no reſcue. If purſued, he altereth not his gate though he die for it. Some ſay that he is frighted at the crowing of a cock, or the creaking of wheeles. But the Lion of the tribe of Judah cannot be terrified by any thing or turned out of his track. And Nebuchadnezzar his ſervant is oft compared to a Lion, Eſa. 5.29. Jer. 41.7. Dan. 7.4. as being ſet awork by God to revenge the quarrell of his Covenant, upon a perverſe and perfidious Nation. Hence that oft-repetition here of the pronoune I.

I, even I will tear and go away] Tear the very kell of their heart in ſunder, tear them by the teeth of my terrible ſword, which ſhall devour fleſh and drink blood; yea be drenched and drunk in the gall of theſe ungodly wretches. They have no way to help themſelves better then to fall down flat before this Lion,Satis est proſtraſſe leoni. Plin. lib. 8. cap. 15. to rend their hearts and not their garments, to break off their ſins by repentance, and to be abrupt in the work, leſt he tear them to pieces, and there be none to deliver them. If this be not timely and truely done, God will go on in his wrath: and of a moth and little worm become a ramping and a roaring Lion. The little cloud though at firſt but as an handbredth, will ſoon overſpread the whole heaven: yea as one cloud followeth thick upon another, ſo will one judgement upon another, if the Sun of Repentance do not interpoſe and diſperſe them. Light afflictions not improved to this purpoſe, will be but as a drop of wrath forerunning the great ſtorm: as a crack forerunning the ruine of the whole building. That is a known text, If you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will puniſh you ſeven times more, and ſeven times more and ſeven to that, Levit. 26.18, 28. Three ſeverall times God raiſeth his note, and he raiſeth it by ſevens; and thoſe are diſcords in Muſick. Such ſaying will be heavy ſongs, and their execution heavy pangs to the wicked.

Verſe 15. I will go and return to my place] To my palace of Heaven: ſo the Chaldee rendereth it, I will withdraw my Majeſtie, and return into the habitation of my holineſſe, which is in heaven. I will go from them that they may come to themſelves, with the Prodigal: I will forget them that they may remember themſelves: I will trouble my ſelf no further with them (when God comes againſt ſinners he is ſaid to come out of his place, and ſo to diſeaſe himſelf Eſay 26.21. with Lam. 3.33.) that they may be afflicted and weep and mourn after me Jam. 4.9. I will take my reſt, and I will conſider in my dwelling place, as Eſay 18.4. I will hide my face from them, I will ſee what their end ſhall be: for they are a very froward generation, &c. Deut. 32.20. and they ſhall ſee that I will be as froward as they, for the hearts of them, Pſ. 18.26. I will gather them in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave them there, Ezek. 22.20. that they may know the worth of my gracious preſence, (which they have not prized) by the want of it: and be pricked on thereby to pray, Return O Lord: how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy ſervants. O ſatisfie us early with thy mercy, &c. Pſal. 90.13, 14. Thus mothers uſe to leave their children (or at leaſt turn their backs upon them) till they mourn and make moane after them. Thus the Lion ſeems to leave her yong ones, till they have almoſt killed themſelves with roaring and howling: but at laſt gaſp ſhe relieves them, whereby they become the more couragious. God alſo will return to his people, when they once turn ſhort again upon themſelves, and ſee their ſin-guiltineſſe, and ſeek his favour. This is Gods end 1 Cor. 11.32. and the happy effect of affliction ſanctified, 1 King. 8.47.

Till they acknowledge their offence] Heb. Till they become guiltie: till they plead guiltie, and carry themſelves accordingly, bluſhing and bleeding in my preſence. Thus Saint James, Be afflicted, or be miſerable, Chap. 4.9. ye are ſo; but ſee your ſelves to be ſo: tremble and humble at Gods feet for mercy: give glory to God my Son, and confeſſe thy ſin, Joſh. 7.19. The viper beaten caſts up her poiſon. The traytour on the rack confeſſeth all. He that in affliction acknowledgeth not his offence, and ſeeketh Gods face, is more hard-hearted then a Jew, as is to be ſeen here and Pſal. 78.34. and 1 Sam. 7.6. In the year of Grace 1556. at Weiſſenſton in Germany, a Jew for theft was in this cruell manner to be executed. He was hang'd by the feet with his head downward, betwixt two dogs, which conſtantly ſnatcht & bit at him. The ſtrangenes of the torment moved Jacob Andreas, a grave Divine, to go to behold it. Coming thither he found the poor wretch as he hung, repeating verſes out of the Hebrewes Pſalms, wherein he cried out to God for mercy. Andreas hereupon took occaſion to counſell him to truſt in Jeſus Chriſt, the true Saviour of mankind.Melch. Adam. in vit. Jac. Andreae. the Jew embracing the Chriſtian faith, requeſted but this one thing, that he might be taken down and baptized, though preſently after he were hanged again (but by the neck as Chriſtian malefactours ſuffered) which was accordingly granted him.Lat. Serm. Latimer reports a like ſtory of one in his time, who being executed at Oxford, was cut down but not quite dead. And means being uſed to recover him, he came again to himſelf, and then confeſſed all his villany, which before he would not be drawn to do. In the life of Maſter Perkins alſo mention is made of a luſty fellow at Cambridge, who being upon the ladder and affrighted with the forethought of hell-torments, was called down a gain by Maſter Perkins, who prayed with him and for him ſo effectually, as that the beholders could not but ſee a bleſſed change thereby wrought in the priſoner; Maſter Fuller and Mr. Clark in Mr. Perk. his life. who took his death with ſuch patience and alacritie, as if he actually ſaw himſelf delivered from the hell which he feared before, and heaven opened for the receiving of his ſoul to the great rejoycing of the beholders. How well might theſe men ſay with Themiſtocles Periiſſem niſi periiſſem. I had been undone, if I had not been undone. David was brought home by the weeping-croſſe, Pſal. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Herod. lib. 1. Alſted. Cbroni. pag. 325. 119.67. Affliction was a better Schoolmaſter to Queen Elizabeth then Maſter Aſcham; Nocumenta documenta, ſaid Craeſus, when he was in the hands of his enemies. The Burgundians well beaten by the Hunnes, fled to Chriſt the God of the Chriſtians, and embraced his Religion.

and ſeek my face] Out of a deep ſenſe of their ſin-guiltineſſe. This is the work of Faith, as the former of Repentance. God was not ſo gone from his people, nor ſo far out of their call: but that if they could find a praying heart, he would find a pittying heart: if they would acknowledge their offence; he would forgive the iniquity of their ſin, Pſal. 32.5. If they would ſet their Faith a work (as ſhe in the Goſpel did, of whom it is ſaid, that when Chriſt would have hid himſelf, it could not be: for a certain woman whoſe daughter was diſeaſed, came and fell at his feet, fetcht him out of his retiring-room Mark 7.24.25.) he would break the heavens and come down from his place Iſai. 64.1, 2. he would come leaping over all lets and impediments, thoſe mountains of Bether or of diviſion, to the relief of his people (See this ſet forth Cant. 5. with the Notes there.) Provided that they ſeek not ſo much their own eaſe and ends as his face and favour, the ſenſe of his preſence and light of his countenance, the fear of his name, and comforts of his ſpirit. Thus David Pſal. 63.1. O God thou art my God, early will I ſeek thee: my ſoul thirſteth for thee in a dry and barren Land. Carnall prayers in time of miſery are but ſuch as the dry earth, or the hungry raven make. They are the prayers of nature for eaſe, not of the ſpirit for grace: ſuch as was that of Pharaoh, when the rack made him roar, the rod ſlatter. See Zach. 7.5, 6. with the Notes.

In their affliction they will ſeek me early] Manicabunt. [non-Latin text not transcribed]. Sept. They will morning me, ſo the Orginall hath it. They will do it, ſaith God, for I will give them to do it; both to will it, and to work it: for otherwiſe afflictions (Gods hammers) do but beat cold iron: wicked men grow worſe for corrections, as water is more cold after a beat, as naughty boyes are more ſtubborn or more ſtupid after a whipping. Theſe alſo may cry to God, as priſoners at the bar, or malefactours upon the rack: yea ſeek him early, after a ſort, and yet not finde him Prov. 1.27. no though they ſeek him with their herds and flocks. Hoſ. 5.6. becauſe they ſeek him not early, and earneſtly, or diligently as Prov. 7.15. inflamedly as Baruch Nehe. 3.20. and Jabez 1 Chro. 4.10. accurately and anxiouſly, as the Church ſought her beloved Cant. 5.1. as the Virgin Mary ſought her loſt Son. Luke 2. they ſeek him, not for himſelf, but for his corn wine and oil Hoſ. 7.14. they ſeek not him but his; they ſeek him not till they have nothing elſe to ſeek to. Moſt juſtly therefore may God reject their ſuits and regeſt upon them,Judg. 10. Depart from me ye wicked, Get ye to the gods whom ye have choſen, &c. Juſtly may he ſay to them as once Jephta did to his country men. Do ye now come to me in your diſtreſſe, who in your proſperity ſaid unto me, Depart from us, we will none of the knowledge of thy wayes? Thoſe that will finde God muſt ſeek him early. O ſatisfie us early with thy mercies, Pſal. 90.14. They muſt ſeek him early and late too Eſay 26.9. alwayes and by all means, as the Apoſtle ſpeaketh in another caſe; but eſpecially in affliction, as here; for he lookes for it. Our Saviour being in an agony prayed more intenſively; ſo did David out of the deep, Jonah out of the whales belly, the Church when ſhe was in danger, as ſhe thought of loſing God, then ſhe ſet up her note and cryed, Thou art put in the midſt of us, Jer. 14.9. leave us not Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam. Thus afliction exciteth devotion in the Saints: and although they ſeek the Lord and his ſtrength, ſeek his face evermore, yet eſpecially, In their diſtreſſe they cryed unto the Lord, and he heareth them, Pſal. 120.1. in the night of affliction they take the light of a lively faith, and ſeek him early. And that they may not fail to finde him, they call in help of others, as here in the next chapter. Come and let us return, &c.