Hosea
10
The concluding thought of the last chapter is the
commencing one of this; while the sad
subject of
chapter, and that of their punishment in the second section
(vs. 9-15), with a solemn
caution to make a better use of the future than they had
done of the past.
1 “
the epithet boqeq is
variously rendered:
strength to bring forth fruit,
nor fruit;” and thus also Kimchi explains it:
“An empty vine in which there is
not any life-sap;” and in the same sense
ymw
yb, “empty and sick,” Nahum 2:10. This, too,
is the meaning of
the Authorized Version, but is
irreconcilable with the statement in the
following clause, “he bringeth forth
fruit.” The Chaldee had preceded in
giving the word the sense of
“plundered,” “empty,” “waste.”
“emptying out its fruit.” In
this way Rashi explains it: “The Israelites
resemble a vine which casts all
its good fruit;” and similarly the marginal
rendering of the Authorized
Version has, “a vine emptying the fruit which
it giveth.”
suitable than either of the
preceding. From the primary sense of “pouring,”
“pouring itself out,” or” poured
out,” and so overflowing, comes that of
“luxuriant.” Accordingly Gesenius translates, “a wide-spreading vine.” This
agrees with the Septuagint εὐκληματοῦσα – euklaematousa - a vine
with goodly branches
- to which the Vulgate frondosa,
“leafy,” nearly
corresponds. In like manner De Wette renders it wuchernder, “growing
prosperously.” It was thus a vine of vigorous growth, and extending its
branches far and wide; a parallel expression is found in the גי סֹרַחַת
of Ezekiel 17:6, “a spreading vine.”
“he (rather, it) bringeth forth fruit unto himself (itself)”. The word יְשַׁוֶּה
]literally signifies “reset to” or “on,” and is rightly
rendered by Gesenius
“to set” or
“yield fruit.” It is
variously interpreted by theHebrew commentators, but
more or
less erroneously by them all. Rashi takes it in the sense of “to profit;” Aben
Ezra,
“to bear” or “make equal;” and Kimchi informs us that the
older interpreters
understood in the sense of “lying,” as if שוא
, the whole phrase meaning, “thefruit will lie to him,” that is, deceive or fail him (like
ch.9:2). Kimchi himself takes
the verb in the right sense, but, misled by his erroneous
explanation of boqeq,
empty or plundered, takes the clause interrogatively: “How
shall he set on
himself [equivalent to ‘yield’ any fruit], since he is as a
plundered vine; for
the enemies have plundered him and set him as an empty
vessel? how
should he still thrive and become numerous in children and
treasures?” It
makes little difference whether we take the second part of
the first clause
relatively or independently, as the sense amounts to the
same. The meaning
of the two difficult and disputed words then we take to be
respectively
“luxuriant” and “yield;” and the sense of the whole is
either:
as far as appearance went, to
set forth fruit; but the luxuriance
degenerated into leafage, and
the likelihood of fruitage failed;
—
but only for itself.
The former explanation accords with that of Jerome when he says,
“Unpruned
vines luxuriate in the juice and leaves which they ought to
transmute into wine.
They disperse in the idle ambitious show of leaves and
branches.” The more
abundantly a fruit tree gives out its strength in leaves
and branches, the less
abundant and the worse the quality of the fruit. Thus it
was with the fig tree,
with its abundant leaves and no fruit, which our Lord
cursed (Matthew 21:17-20).
But with the same or a similar rendering there is the alternative
sense of prosperous
growth and plenteous fruit, but that fruit wasted on self
or sin; and thus the meaning
in either case is much the same. The Septuagint favors this
by ὁ καρπὸς
εὐθηνῶν αὐτῆς –
ho karpos euthaenon autaes - equivalent to “its fruit exuberant.” Cyril
favors this latter also in saying, “When Israel still wisely led a life in accordance with
the Divine Law, it was as
a beautiful vine adorned with branches, which even the
neighboring nations admired.”
This was exactly the state of
Joash and
Jeroboam II.; but their
prosperity was prostituted to purposes of
idolatry. Jerome
also, in another part of his exposition, approaches this
sense. Taking ישוּה, in the sense of “to equal,” he says, “The
fecundity of
the grapes equaled the fecundity of the branches: but they
who had
previously been so fruitful before they offended God,
afterwards turned the
abundance of fruits into multiplied occasions of offence;
and the greater the
population they possessed, the more altars they built, and
exceeded the
abundant produce of the land by the multitude of their
idols.” Or the verb
may mean, “it made fruit equal to itself;” nearly so the
Vulgate. The fruit is
agreeable to it – “according to the multitude of his
fruit he hath
increased the altars;” -
In this second or middle clause of
the verse the
figure passes into the fact represented by it. It is no
longer the vine, but
produce; the multiplication of altars for idolatrous
sacrifice and service was
proportionate to their prosperity. The l’ here and
in next clause marks the
circumlocutory genitive, and the ke
is quantitative - “according to
the
goodness of his land they have made goodly images (margin, statues,
or, standing images)”. The matstsevoth
here mentioned, in the Septuagint,
are στήλης –- staelaes - statues or pillars - and those pillars were erected
to Baal or
some other idol, as we read in I Kings 14:23.
The plural of the verb in
this last clause arises from
following brief exposition: “Just in proportion as I
caused their prosperity
to overflow to them, they multiplied calves for the
altars;” but Kimchi
explains both clauses more fully and accurately thus: “As I
increased their
prosperous state in treasures and children, they
multiplied altars to Baal;
as I did good to their land in corn and wine and oil, they
waxed strong in
setting up pillars for other gods;” the verb חטי has the same sense here as
ההטי in
Jonah 4:9.
2 “Their heart is
divided;” - Here their
wickedness is traced to its fountainhead;
its source was in the corrupt state of the heart. Their heart was
worship of Jehovah and idolatry.
Chalaq is taken in this signification
by the
Chaldee, Syriac, Septuagint, and Jerome,
as also by the Hebrew
commentators. The Septuagint
has:
Ø
ἐμέρισεν – emerisin – divided
- in the singular, which affords
some support to Hitzig’s rendering, “He (God)divided their heart,” —
but this is unsuitable and
unscriptural; another
Ø
reading of the same
version is ἐμέρισαν – emerisan - , “They have
divided their hearts,”
which is somewhat better, yet incorrect.
Ø
The Authorized Version
is also questionable, as the verb is not used
intransitively in Qal.
Niphal, and interprets, “From the fear of God and from His Law
their heart
is divided,” i.e.
separated; similarly Rashi: “Their heart is divided
from
me;” Aben
Ezra somewhat peculiarly, though to the same purport: “They
(their heart) has not one part
(but several),”or is divided. But,
notwithstanding this consensus
in favor of the meaning of “divide,” the
rendering preferred, and justly
so, by modern expositors in general, is
“smooth.” This is, indeed, the primary sense, that of “divide” being
secondary, as division was made
by lot or a smooth stone, cheleq, used
for the purpose.
must be admitted that the word
is mostly applied to the tongue, lip, throat,
mouth, speech, and not to the
heart. Their heart was hypocritical and
faithless.
“now shall they be found faulty:” - rather, they
shall be dealt with
as such, or punished;
better still, perhaps, is the rendering, now shall they
atone. The “now”
defines sharply the turning-point
between God’s love
and God’s wrath. The state of things hitherto existing cannot continue; it
must soon come to an end. Ere long they are doomed to
discover their
guilt in its punishment; they shall find out their sin by suffering; suddenly
and to their cost they shall have a fearful awaking to a
sense of their
iniquity by the inflictions of Divine wrath upon their
guilty heads – “He shall
break down their altars, He shall spoil their images.” The verb עדפ
is
peculiar; being a denominative from ערֶפ, the
neck, it signifies “to break
the neck of,” like the Greek τραχηλίζειν, – trachaelizein - decollate, then
figuratively “tear
down,” “break in pieces.” This bold expression of breaking
the neck of the altars
may allude to their destruction by breaking off the horns of
the altars, or
rather to their beheading, cutting off the heads of victims at those
altars. The Hebrew expositors make the heart of
the people, not God, the
immediate object of the verb. “Their heart,” says
one of them, “shall tear
down their altars and lay waste their pillars, because it
is divided from me.
It will tear down their altars which they are said also to
have multiplied,
and lay waste their pillars which they made so goodly.” The means of
sinning shall be taken from them and destroyed — their altars broken
down and their images spoiled. As the heads of
victims had been cut off at these
altars erected for idolatrous worship; so the heads of
their altars would be
broken off.
A Divided Heart (v. 2)
The history of the people of
state of mind vividly depicted in these words. For
instance, in the time of
Elijah, the heart of
had to complain of the same distraction of mind as
characteristic of the
generation to which he ministered. And what congregation is
there addressed
by a Christian preacher which does not contain many “a divided heart”?
Ø
Others beside the Lord
lay claim to the heart. In the case of
nations to be powerful and
helpful. In the case of those professing
Christianity, there are
many rivals, in the person of earthly and
human claimants, and in the
shape of various preoccupations,
pleasures, and pursuits.
Ø
There is native weakness
and vacillation. Many natures are by
constitution unstable; and
many have encouraged weakness by
yielding to temptation.
one who has actually renounced
and abjured the worship and service of the
Lord. But in hesitating between the two different and
inconsistent
allegiances, the
divided heart is faithful to neither. We meet with
instances of such indecision in
domestic and social life, There may be a
vigorous intellect where there is a vacillating heart, affections easily
won and easily lost, prone to
transference hither and thither. And in religion
we find PERSONS WHO STRIVE TO SERVE GOD AND MAMMON
AT THE SAME TIME
or who
seem to be earnest in the service of God,
and shortly after equally
devoted to the incompatible service of God’s enemy.
Ø
It is ruinous to the
individual nature. No man can live an inconsistent
life, such as a divided
heart involves, without moral deterioration.
He loses self-respect and
moral dignity.
Ø
IT IS INJUROUS TO
SOCIETY. Men respect
decision, but they
are repelled by its
opposite, and they despise a professor of religion
whose spirit and demeanor
are inconsistent with his profession.
Ø
It is hateful to God,
who says, “My son, Give me thy heart”
(Proverbs 23:26) and who
will accept no compromise or composition.
and severe one. The heart must be withdrawn from God’s rivals, and
yielded, without
reserve and without delay, to him who has a right to it,
and who claims it
as his own.
“Prone
to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love!
Here’s
my heart, Lord; take and seal it —
Seal it from thy courts above.”
3 “For now they shall say,
We have no king, because we feared
not the Lord;” - In the day of their destruction
see and even feel that the king appointed through their own
self-will and
fancied plenitude of power was unable to protect or help them,
and that
because they had rejected Jehovah and cast aside His fear.
The point of time
denoted by “now”
is either when they see destruction before their eyes, or
when
“When destruction shall come upon them, they shall say, ‘We
have no
king,’ that is, our king on whom we set our hopes when we
said, ‘Our king
shall go out
before us and light our battles’ (I Samuel 8:20), affords us no
help whatever.” Kimchi explains
similarly, but fixes the “now” in the time of the
Captivity: “Now,
when they shall be carried out of their land, they shall
recognize and say, ‘We have no king;’ the explanation is,
as it’ we had no king
among us, for there is no strength in him to deliver us out
of the hand of our
enemies, as we thought when we asked for a king who should
march at our head
and fight our battles. God — blessed be he! — was our King,
and we
needed no king, and he it was that delivered us out of the
hand of our
enemies when we did His will.” Aben
Ezra and others understand it as the
expression of a wild license on the part of
an ANARCHIAL and ATHEISTIC SPIRIT: “As soon as their heart was
divided they had no wish to have a king over them, and had
no fear of Jehovah;
therefore they had no fear, and every one did what was
right in his own
eyes” (Judges 21:25).
This exposition neglects the note of time, as also the
causal particle that follows. They bethought themselves
that, as they had not feared
Jehovah, but neglected His Law, the king which they had
demanded could
do them no good – “what
then should a king do to us? “What,”
they asked,
“can the king do for us? He has no power to deliver us,
since God is angry with
us, for we have sinned against Him?” Such is the confession
of
Pusey remarks in reference to this: “In sin, all
the Lord was their King; in sin, Ephraim had made Jeroboam
king; in sin, their
subsequent kings were made, without the counsel and advice of
God; and
now, as the close of all, THEY REFLECT ON HOW FRUITLESS ALL
THIS WAS!
God, by the prophet, had charged
to themselves; with perverting the bounties of His
providence in promoting idolatry;
with their division of heart, or deceitfulness of heart. He
had also threatened to punish
them for their sin, and to deprive them of the means of
sinning by destroying the
instruments thereof,
and to prevent their obtaining any help from their king, proving
to them the folly of depending on him.
He now proceeds, in this and following
verses (4-8), to point out their MORAL CORRUPTION, the usual consequence
or concomitant of irreligion and of false religion,
instancing their deceptive
dealing in the common affairs of life and their perjury in
public compacts or
covenants, as also their
general unrighteousness. He threatens
to destroy
their idols to the distress of their worshippers and
ministering priests as
well as of their chief city. He threatens further to cause
their calf-idols to
be carried into captivity, pouring shame and contempt on
their enterprises;
to cut off their king; to leave the places of their
idol-worship desolate,
filling the people with distress and despair because of all
their sins.
Sin and Its Retribution (vs. 1-3)
emptied, nor plundered,
according to Calvin, say, by the tribute paid to
Pul; for, if empty, how then could he bring forth fruit,
except, indeed, at
some subsequent season? He is
compared, rather, to a wide-spreading vine,
pouring out its strength in
luxuriant leafage and show of fruit; or even
suitable fruit. But the fruit thus yielded was not fruit to God, as it should
have been, but fruit TO ITSELF and FOR ITSELF. The figure of a
flourishing vine, condensed by
the prophet here, is fully expanded and developed
by the psalmist in Psalm 80:8-11
- “Thou hast brought a vine out of
thou hast cast out
the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room
before it, and
didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The
hills were covered
with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like
the goodly cedars.
She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches
unto the river.” Such had
abundantly; their land was very
fertile: the fruit of man and beast and tree
multiplied, and their land
increased in fertility: but these blessings
of
gifts of God’s providence were
sadly misused and shockingly perverted;
instead of being employed in the
service and to the glory of the Giver, they
were used for idolatrous
purposes, and thus they ministered to
sin. Altars
were reared to idols and statues
set up; they multiplied their altars and
made goodly images.
had blessed them with prosperity
and plenty, but they made a poor return;
nay, they
returned evil for His goodness. They might well be compared to
an emptying vine, casting its
fruit before it was ripe, according to one
explanation of the word, for
they emptied themselves of the riches He
conferred on them by sending
presents to foreign princes, or purchasing
their alliance, or paying
tribute to their conquerors; or they wasted their
wealth on their idols and in
idolatrous practices, or on self and sin in some
form. Or, if they brought forth fruit
unto maturity, that fruit did not
redound to the Divine glory; the
fruit borne by them was not the fruit of
righteousness; the seemingly
good works done by them were not to the
praise and glory of God. What they did they did for their own profit or
pleasure, or to
gain the praise of men. The blessings
bestowed on them
were not used to promote the
Divine glory, or to help the Divine service,
or to advance the cause of true
religion in any way, but were lavished on
their own lusts, or selfish
gratifications, or abominable idolatries,
multiplying altars to their
idols, offering sacrifices more numerous and
expensive, making pillars or
statues of costlier metal and with richer
ornaments.
Ø
The root of the evil
was within. The seat of all their sin
was
within, and out of the
heart it proceeded; their heart was divided, or
hypocritical, and therefore
not right with God. Persons guilty of such
sin and folly and gross
ingratitude God could not hold guiltless. They
were dealt with as guilty
and punished, or were left desolate — their
land wasted, and themselves
led into captivity.
Ø
Accumulated wrath
issues in aggravated punishment. The
means
God graciously gave them
for charitable and noble purposes of
benevolence, or for high
and holy service, they threw away recklessly on
vile and worthless objects;
as the means increased, the wickedness
increased. God tried them
with prosperity; He proved them, but they did
not stand the test; every
day they persisted in their mad career of sin.
They were treasuring up for
themselves wrath against the day of wrath.
Ø
God corrects in
measure that men may repent of sin and turn to God. If
the day of visitation is
improved, it is well; if, when God withdraws His
hand and grants a respite,
or suspends the stroke, His gracious design is
duly responded to, the
chastisement is sanctified, and the person so
treated has good cause to
say, “It is good for me that I have been
afflicted” (Psalm 119:71). If
otherwise, if individuals are found faulty,
if their sin has found them
out, then the means of sinning are suddenly
and unexpectedly snatched
from them, and themselves swept awfully
as with the besom of
destruction.
Ø
Whoever be the
instrument or whatever the memos, the Author of the
infliction is God. The
subject here is not specified; as far as the grammar
goes, it might be the
Assyrian or other enemy that broke down their
altars and spoiled their
images, but sense and Scripture lead the thoughts
up to God. Though
indefinite, the emphatic use of the pronoun fixes the
sense.
SEQUEL OF A SINFUL
PRESENT. Thus it is with those who, having
perverted the gifts of God’s
goodness, do not profit by punishment mildly
administered.
find themselves deprived of
their earthly king, and reduced to a state of
anarchy. They would soon be
forced to say,” We have no king, no
protector.” This is assigned as
the cause of the preceding statement about
the wreck of their altars and
the ruin of their statues or pillars. This
catastrophe is looked upon as
brought about in consequence of their
having no kingly protection or
defense. Their rejection of Jehovah in the
double capacity of God and King,
by their turning to idolatry and refusing
the theocracy, led eventually to
ecclesiastical disaster, and civil or
secular distress. Forsaking God as King, they
have now no king — no
upholder of either Church or
state; consequently their altars, as they conceived,
were broken down and their images spoiled. Thus they bemoan
their present
anomalous and perilous position.
But they bethink themselves that even if
they had a king he could do them
no good, seeing that Divine power was
opposed to them, and Divine wrath incurred by them. What, then, under
such untoward circumstances,
could a king do for them? Here is the exact
converse of the believer’s
confidence: “If God be for us, who can be
against us?” (Romans 8:31)
Jerome’s exposition brings out the sense well,
as follows: “After God shall have shattered the images of
destroyed their altars and
statues, and the final captivity shall have come, they
shall say, “We have no king.”
And lest they should think that the sentence would
be deferred for a long time, he
added, They shall say now: when they are
being laid waste, when they
shall perceive that Hoshea, their last king, has
been removed from them, a king
is taken away from us, because we did not
fear God, our true King, for what
could a human king avail us?’”
4 “They have spoken
words, swearing falsely in making a covenant:” –
In this fourth verse the prophet deplores the absence of truth, faithfulness, and
loyalty to duty.
This expression, “they have spoken
words,” is generally
understood to signify:
verba alicui dare. Thus their vain,
deceitful, lying words in PRIVATE
TRANSACTIONS and common
affairs of everyday life would
correspond to
their PERJURY IN PUBLIC TREATIES AND
COVENANTS. Their
words were deceitful and their oaths falsehood.
In their ordinary business
transactions they used words, empty words, words
without truth, corresponding
thereto; in international
concerns they had pursued
the same course of falsifying
and covenant-breaking.
After entering into an
engagement with the Assyrian king Shalmaneser, they made a covenant with
So King of Egypt, as we read in II
Kings 17:4, “And the King of
found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had
sent messengers to So King of
Egypt, and brought no present
to the King of Assyria, as he had done
year by year.” In this latter case they acted as covenant-breakers, and at
the same time contravened the Divine command,
which forbade them entering
into covenants with foreigners.
(Two sins with one stone – CY – 2012)
Thus Kimchi
understands it, erroneously referring it to Jeroboam and his
countrymen; thus: “Jeroboam and
his companions took counsel what they
should do in order to strengthen
the government in his hand, and they
deliberated (or held
consultation) that the people should not go up to
themselves by oath and made a
covenant. But their oath was a vain one,
because their oath was intended
to frustrate the words of the Law and the
command of God, and to make
images for their worship.” (I Kings 12:26-28)
Ø
The words אָללֺוֹ ָשוְא ;
have been explained by some as “oaths
of
vanity,” that is, oaths by
vanity or an idol, as an oath of Jehovah is an
oath by Jehovah, אָלות;
being taken for a noun in the plural;
Ø
as predicate, while
the following words supply the subject; thus: “their
covenant contracts are
oaths of vanity.” This mistake of taking אָלות ;
for a noun arose from the
anomalous form of the word, which is really
a verb. The form is explained by Aben
Ezra, who calls it an irregular
formation, as if it were compounded
of the infinitive construct as indicated
by the ending אּות,, and the infinitive absolute as indicated by the qamets
in the
first syllable; it is in reality the infinitive absolute, and the i
rregularity is owing to the assonance with karoth
thence resulting. As to
the construction, it
is that of the infinitive standing in place of the finite
verb, of which Gesenius says, “This is frequent... in the expression of
several successive acts or
states, where only the first of the verbs
employed takes the required
form in respect to tense and person, the
others being simply put in
the infinitive with the same tense and person
implied.” The meaning of the clause is obviously that there was no
longer any respect for the sanctity of an oath;
while the treaties
refer to those made with the Assyrian king,
with the object of
securing and upholding the government.
“thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of
the field.” The judgment
Here spoken of is understood:
judgment of God and consequent
punishment of
Kinchi: “Therefore there springs up against them the
judgment of
chastisements and punishments
like hemlock, which is a bitter herb that
springs up on the furrows of the
field.”
worship of idols, which,
like a bitter herb, was to issue in national ruin.
perversion of
judgment and justice. Thus Amos
addresses them as those
who “turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the
earth,” and calls on them to “establish judgment in the gate” (Amos
5:7,15),
and Habakkuk writes, “Wrong [wrested] judgment proceedeth” (Habakkuk
1:4). It is implied in the
mention of furrows that there has been careful
preparation for
the intended crop. The seed they sow is injustice; and
the plant that springs up from
it is a poison plant — hemlock,
bitter and
noxious, and is everywhere
rampant (like Johnson grass and Canadian
Thistle in our area – CY –
2012)
calls on judgment for punishment. The field is that of the Israelitish nation;
in all the furrows of that wide field judgment, that is, crime, springs up as
luxuriantly and
abundantly as hemlock. The
multiplication of crime in
conveyed. This explanation has
the appearance at least of being somewhat
strained and forced, though it
yields a good sense.
5 “The inhabitants of
once a place of sacred memory from its association
with the history of the patriarch
Jacob; afterward one of the two centers of
idolatrous worship, and here called
Beth-aven, “house of vanity,” because of the idolatry. The word for “calves” is in
the feminine, in order
to express contempt for those idols which Jeroboam set up.
(If Israelite society was like ours now, no doubt there
would be demonstrations
over the use of gender to describe what was taking place –
CY – 2012) With this
have been compared the following expressions in Greek and
Latin:
Ἀχαι'´ιδες οὐκ ἔτ
Ἀχαιοὶ, - Achaiides ouk
et Achaioi - and O vere Phrygiae,
nec
enim Phryges! The Hebrews ignored the existence of female divinities,
as of their, ten
names of the Deity all are masculine. The
feminine may also
imply their weakness; so far from helping their worshippers, their worshippers
were
in trepidation for them, or rather it, lest it should be carried away captive.
Further,
this same word is in the plural, to cast ridicule on it, as if
mimicking the plural
of majesty, or rather, perhaps, to include that of Dan, or
to intimate that
the calf of
of Dan and probably those of other places were fashioned,
especially so as
it is afterwards referred to in the singular. Besides, a
few — a very few —
manuscripts, it is true, read the singular, as also the
Septuagint, which has
μόσχος
– moschos – calf - and the Syriac; while Bathe, relying on theseauthorities, maintains the reading to have been לְעֶגְלַת in
the singular.
Others suppose an enallage of
both gender and number; or an indefinite generality
is expressed by the plural, while for abstracts the
feminine is used. THE COMING
PUNISHMENT IS CASTING ITS SHADOW BEFORE , so that the
inhabitants,
perceiving symptoms of its approach, tremble for their god
of gold, now, LIKE THEMSELVES, IN
GREATEST JEOPARDY!
“for the people thereof shall mourn over it,” - The people of
called the people of
the calf, as once they had been the
people of Jehovah, and
as
god. Of their own
free-will they had
done so, though at first enjoined and prompted
to adopt this course by the mandate of their king; they had even rejoiced
and gloried
in it. Now they mourn for
their idol, which can neither help itself nor them.
“and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory
thereof,
because it is departed from it.” According
to this rendering, the relative
must be understood before “rejoiced,” which, though quite possible and
not ungrammatical, is, however, unnecessary. The Hebrew
commentators
all understand the word in the sense of “joy” or “jubilation;” thus Rashi
says,” Why is it that its people mourn over, it and its
priests, who always
rejoiced over it, now mourn over its glory that is gone
away?” The word
lygi,
however, is primarily “to twist or whirl one’s self,” and is thence
applied to any violent emotion, generally of joy, also of
anxiety and fear, as
here, so that the simpler and more correct rendering is, the priests thereof
shall tremble for it, for its glory, because it is
departed from it. The priests
here mentioned have a peculiar name, kemarim, from kamar, to be black,
from the black garments in which they ministered, and are
thus
distinguished as ministers of a foreign cult; for kohen is the usual word for
a Hebrew priest, and his robe of office is said to have
been white. The
glory of the calf-god was not the temple treasure at
the state God set up there, but the honor and the DIVINE HALO
with which
its worship there
was surrounded. Thus Kimchi: “When its glory is
departed
from it; and this means the honor of its worship. When the
calf is broken
before their eyes its glory shall depart from it.” The
perfects of “mourn”
and “departed” are prophetic, denoting the certainty of the events,
though
yet future; while galah and yagilu
form the favorite assonance. But a
question still remains — Why is
To this the explanation of Kimchi
is a satisfactory reply: “The inhabitants
of
there were no calves there, because it was the metropolis
of the kingdom,
where the kings of
the people in the worship of the calves. And he says,” When
Bethel is laid
waste, and the calves cannot deliver it, the inhabitants of
for themselves, which place (
three years.”
6 “It shall be also
carried unto
Jareb:” - Here we have an explanation and confirmation
of what has just
been said in the preceding verse. The calf, the glorious
and magnificent
national god, as
offered as a present to the Assyrian king. The word gam is emphatic; that
is, “it also,” “itself also,” or “it also with men and
other spoils” — the
golden idol of Bethaven. Kimchi’s
explanation of gam is as follows:
“Genesis, extension or generalization of the term, refers
to the glory he had
mentioned. He says, ‘Lo, in its place the glory shall
depart from it as soon
as they shall break it. Also, the stump of the calf,
namely, the gold thereon,
after its form is broken, they shall take away as a present
to King Jareb.’”
The sign of the accusative with suffix אוחו, which here stands before a
passive verb, may be taken either:
active, and thus it may take the
object of the action in the accusative.
The word yubhal is
from yabhal, primarily used of flowing
in a strong and
violent stream, and so the root of מַבּול, the flood; then it signifies “to go,”
“to be brought or carried.” The minchah
here spoken of cannot well mean
tribute, but is rather a gift of homage .to the Assyrian
conqueror, whom the
prophet m vision sees already wasting the
all its treasures and precious things - “Ephraim shall receive shame, and
of which נּשֶׁן, the masculine, by analogy, is not in use — is wrongly
explained by the Hebrew expositors as having a pleonastic nun.
The
construction usually preferred is that given above. Others
render it, “Shame shall
seize Ephraim;” but this constructs a feminine noun with a
masculine verb, contrary
to grammar. Hitzig translates,”
He (the Assyrian king) shall take away or carry off
the shame of Ephraim; that is, the calf-idol.” He
remarks that the construct
feminine does not always in the speech of
several passages in proof.
The counsel of which
understood:
King of
counsel with his tribesmen of
Ephraim about setting up the calf idols.
Jareb is a proper name, or rather an appellation. The King of
great king, was looked up to by the smaller Asiatic states
for protection,
and consequently styled their Jareb,
avenger or defender, just as σώτηρ
–
sotaer - savior, was a title applied to or assumed by certain kings for a
similar
reason, as Ptolemy Soter and
others. The object of
carried off as a present to propitiate or appease the wrath
of the Assyrian
patron and protector — probably Shalmaneser
in the present instance — or
taken as a trophy to grace the triumph of the conqueror. So
far from
defending THE CALF-PEOPLE,
AS
could not defend itself; instead of preserving its
worshippers from deportation, IT
WAS DOOMED ITSELF TO DEPORTATION. Ephraim, the premier tribe,
received shame, and
its evil counsel, shared the shame; all of them together
were thoroughly put to
shame because of their
mistaken and wicked policy. The
counsel of Jeroboam —
for to it, in our opinion, is the reference — appeared an
able stroke of policy; but
this policy, by which he hoped to detach
but proved positively ruinous, so far were the means from
effecting the end, or the
end from justifying the wisdom of the means.
7 “As for
waters).”
Instead of the throne of
consolidated by the idolatrous measures which Jeroboam
had adopted for the
purpose, the king himself was cut off as foam upon the
surface of the waters, or as
a chip carried off by the current, and the kingdom
ingloriously ruined. Though the
sense is sufficiently plain, the sentence has been
variously constructed. Thus:
king has been made like foam on
the surface of the water” (be being
understood and נדמה taken in the sense of “being like”).
explains, “The King of Samaria
is brought to silence.”
·
The correct
signification of the verb, however, is “cut
off” or
“annihilated,” while
the construction may be
Ø
an asyndeton; thus: “
Ø
Version, “(As for)
Ø
supplying נדמה to the second noun,
with Aben Ezra, “
cut off, her king is cut
off.”
Ø
Some consider it
simpler to translate as follows: “
Ø
her king is like [literally,
‘as’] a chip on the surface of the waters.”
In this way the Massoretic
punctuation is neglected. Sheraton is feminine, as the names
of cities and countries usually are, and therefore the
suffix to “king” is feminine, while
the masculine form, נִדְמֶה, is justified by its position at the head of the sentence;
for,
according to Gesenius, the
predicate at the beginning of a clause or sentence “often
takes its simplest and readiest form, viz. the masculine
singular, even when the subject,
not yet expressed, but coming after, “is feminine or
plural.” קצפ is explained
either as “foam” or “splinter.” The latter is, perhaps,
preferable, as the
verbal root cognate with the Arabic katsapha
signifies “to break,” “break
off,” “crack;” then “to be angry” (its most common meaning)
from the
sudden breaking out or breaking loose of passion. The word קצפה in Joel 1:7,
from the same root, is literally a” breaking or breaking
off,” “barking,” The word
דמה, again, has two principal meanings — one “to be like,” the
other “to
be silent” (connected, according to Gesenius,
with a different root,
damam, dum, like the English “dumb”); or the meanings are traceable to
one root, in the sense of “making flat,” “plane,” “smooth;”
then “silent,”
and so “reduced to silence,” “destroyed.”
8 “The high places also of
Aven, the sin of
By Aven is generally understood Beth-aven, that is,
as an appellative, and thus bamoth-aven
would signify the “high places of iniquity.”
These unlawful places of sacrifice and unholy places
of iniquity are further characterized
by the appositional “the sin of
Jehovah on these high places instead of in
service under the Law, THEIR NATIONAL SIN IN THE MATTER OF
WORSHIP BEGAIN;
subsequently, however, things became worse, and these
high places became scenes of most abominable idolatries and
shamelessly sinful
practices. Those places — one and all — are in the words
before us DOOMED
TO DESTRUCTION - “the thorn and the thistle shall come up on
their altars;”
The destruction is thus vividly described as total and
complete; those bad eminences
were devoted to entire wasteness
and desolation. “It is a sign of extreme solitude,”
says Jerome, “so that no
traces even of wall or buildings remained to be seen;”
similarly Rashi says, “Thorns and
thistles shall grow up upon their altars, because the
worshippers thereof have departed and no one longer remains
to attend to them”
so Kimchi: “On the altars of
horns spring up” - “and
they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to
the hills, Fall on us.”
The sight of such fearful ruin and
desolation overwhelms
the wretched inhabitants of the land with distress and
dismay; in sheer despair and
even desperation they invoke a sure and sudden death as much
preferable to
their remaining longer spectators of such heart-rending
scenes. Their
exclamation appears to be proverbial, and to have had its
origin in the
custom of the Israelites fleeing, in seasons of great
calamities, to the
mountains and clefts of the rocks to hide themselves; thus
in Judges 4:2
we read that “because
of the Midianites the children of
the dens which are
in the mountains, and eaves, and strongholds.” The
object of their exclamation is to be buried under the hills
or mountains
rather than endure such calamities longer; or rather than
the enemies
should see them in their shame. Aben
Ezra makes “altars” the subject of
“shall say,” as if it were the wish of the altars to be
covered that they may
never more be seen. Theodoret
considers the sense of the passage to be
that the multitude of calamities in the war occasioned by
hostile invasion
would be so great that there would be no one who would not
prefer being
overwhelmed in an earthquake or by the sudden fall of the
mountains,
rather than endure the calamities inflicted by the enemies.
Similarly, but
more concisely, Jerome says, “They are more willing to die than see the
evils that bring death.” (The classic wish though, is reserved for the last
days – see Revelation 6:12-17 – CY 2012)
Israel’s Sin, Sorrow, Shame, and Suffering
(vs. 4-8)
These verses exhibit them with marvelous conciseness and
great impressiveness.
·
period of which the prophet
speaks was of the most reckless kind. It took
the form:
Ø
of idolatry with
respect to God,
Ø
of disloyalty to their
sovereign, and
Ø
of falsehood in their
dealings with their fellow-men in general.
By their idolatry they renounced
the covenant of their God, which had the
seal of circumcision; their
promises of reformation, when they made such,
were falsified; the vows wrung
from them in distress or otherwise they
failed to pay. The most sacred
bonds did not bind them; subjects violated
their oath of allegiance, and
sovereigns their coronation oath; alike in
treaties with foreign powers as
in contracts with their fellow-men, they
made no conscience of keeping
faith. Add to all this the perversion of
justice and the misuse of
judgment, and the picture is complete; perfidy,
perjury, and the
perversion of judgment being in the foreground, and
untruthfulness the
dark background of all. Such was the
growth, prolific
and pestiferous as hemlock, which at this period overspread the
land of
·
sure that their sin shall find
them out, by detection, or punishment, or both;
while sorrow follows in the wake
of sin. The inhabitants of the northern
capital, like the people of
therefore, called the people of
the calf, would naturally be overwhelmed
with consternation and alarm,
when the news of an invading host
approaching the provincial town,
which was the chief seat of the calf-worship,
reached them; still more so when
that hostile host had actually
entered it and carried off their
idol. Their fear before the event would be
succeeded by sorrow after it. Not
only would the Samaritans sympathize
with their coreligionists of
because of their own proximity
to peril, not knowing how soon the tide of
conquest should sweep over
themselves. Both peoples, Samaritans and
Beth-avenites,
united in a common cause, and, involved in a common
calamity or soon to be so, would
mourn for the loss of their idol. This
Scripture may well impress its
lesson, and a most salutary one, on all
idolaters, whether those who bow down to those idol vanities of wood, or
stone, or metal, made by their
own hands, or those spiritual idolaters
whose hearts are
swayed by some lust or passion, OR ANY OTHER
OBJECT RATHER
THAN GOD.
Any earthly object that
engrosses our
affections, or usurps that place
in our heart WHICH BELONGS TO
GOD ALONE is our god for the
time being — our idol, and that which
commands our homage or
adoration. And surely, as we set up any such
object of spiritual idolatry in
our heart and elevate it to the throne of our
affections, we shall come to
grief; we shall be disappointed in it while we
possess it, or disappointed of
it when we lose it. Bitterly shall we be
made
to feel and to mourn its loss;
nor is this to be wondered at or complained of,
for God is a jealous God, and
will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8).
Matthew Henry has well observed
that “whatever men make a god of, they
will mourn for the loss of; and inordinate sorrow
for the loss of any worldly
good is a sign we
made an idol of it.” The idol-priests
who derived their
emolument and livelihood from
idolatry were plunged in still greater mourning
than the people for whom they
ministered (Compare Acts 19:24-28). The
wages of sin do not last long, and do not satisfy the short time they do last.
(God has designed our hearts to
where nothing will suffice EXCEPT HIM! –
CY – 2012) Thus it was with the priests when the source of their gain
and the object of their glow
departed.
·
down and defaced, and yet
more to see it, or at least the gold that adorned it,
carried away in triumph as
a present or peace offering to King Jareb. There
was yet deeper cause of shame.
It was not only that they gloried in their god
of gold, and confided in it
for protection, but that their policy was completely
frustrated. The political
sagacity on which, no doubt, they piqued themselves,
as certain to keep
the latter in worshipping
at the national sanctuary in
originated, received shame;
while the remaining tribes of
with such FACILE COMPLIANCE ACQUIESCED in
their counsel
and followed their example, were PUT TO SHAME!
Thus the wise are
often caught in their own
craftiness.
“The
sinners’ hands do make the snares
Wherewith
themselves are caught.”
·
SUFFERING IS ANOTHER RESULT OF SIN. Creature-confidences
fail to succor; without Divine
help and blessing, sovereign and subject are
alike powerless and
resource-less. The king, on the appointment of whom
the people had so set their
heart at first, and on whose power all along they
continued to place such
confidence, was too weak to help; and in utter
impotence was
himself cut off — cut off
ignominiously as foam on the face
of the water, or chip carried
headlong by the current. The scenes of their
sin were so desolated, and left
without a single worshipper, that thorns and
thistles came up upon those
altars where multitudes once had worshipped.
So true it is that “if the grace of
God prevail not to destroy the love of sin
in us, it is just that the providence of God should destroy the food and
fuel of sin about us.” Sinners in general suffer sooner or later shame and
contempt, disgrace and
disappointment, poignant sorrow and mental
anguish. To such an extent was
this the case with the hapless idolaters, that
their distress was so
intolerable that, feeling life not worth living, they
preferred death to life. Times
there are so sad, and suffering, both bodily
and mental, so acute, that death
is more than welcome. To be swallowed in
the yawning earth, or covered by
the falling hill, or whelmed in the surging
sea, was welcome to such
sufferers. So with impenitent sinners in the day
of judgment (Revelation 6:16).
So with the Jews in their distressful
circumstances at the siege of
This cry for death passed into a
proverb; it was the offspring of despair.
SUMMARY OF THIS SECTION.
Such a summary is contained in vs. 7-8.
their king and their idolatry — one civil or secular, the
other ecclesiastical or sacred, both
to the rejection and neglect of the true Source of hope and
help. Neither of
these is any longer available or any longer reliable. The king or head of
their civil polity is cut off like foam on the surface of a
stream — a moment
there, then gone forever. The high places of Aven, that is, Beth-aven,
“house of vanity,” the name given in contemptuous reproof
of idolatry to
Beth-el, once the “house of God” — these high places
consecrated to
idolatry, at once the occasions of sin to
people’s sin, are doomed to destruction, TOTAL
DESTRUCTION! The
altars erected thereon are destined to be heaps of ruins,
so forsaken and desolate,
that where the whole burnt offering went up in smoke
(hl;[O, whole burnt
offering, from hl[, to go up), the thorn and the thistle now go up (wl[y),
and bear undisputed sway. The SIN-LADEN PEOPLE who had
forsaken their
own mercies and pursued their idolatrous practices on those
hills and at
those altars, are in the end so overwhelmed with calamity
and so
thoroughly miserable, that, as we have seen, they prefer
death to life,
reckoning a life so wretched not worth living. Hence arose
their cry of
desperation — a cry that may have had its origin in the
local situation of
the people who uttered it. Situated on a hill as
surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills still higher, the
intervening valley
and narrow outlets being occupied by the enemy, those hills
to which they
once looked for safety, instead of helping, now hemmed them
in, and the
only help they could now afford was to fall on their
devoted heads, to
screen them from wrath and deliver them from misery.
Despair (v.8)
The picture of the text is awful in the extreme. The
condition of those to
whom destruction and annihilation would be a relief is
appalling to
contemplate. What fearful
vengeance must be overtaking those, what
indescribable forebodings must have taken possession of their
nature, who
cry, “Mountains, cover us I Rocks,
fall upon us!” It is the language
of
despair!
·
THE CAUSES OF DESPAIR.
Much must have transpired before such a
state of mind could exist. There
must have been:
Ø
sin committed,
Ø
mercy rejected,
Ø
authority defied,
Ø
forbearance abused,
before the soul of man could have
abandoned itself to
hopelessness like this.
·
THE HORROR OF DESPAIR.
This is not unnatural. It arises from
reflection upon the rebellion
and INEXCUSABLE WICKEDNESS
of the past; from the declaration
of conscience to the effect that GOD
HAS OBSERVED THAT
REBELLION, that sinfulness, with
indignation, and from the
anticipation of impending judgment. Only
such thoughts and feelings could
account for the unparalleled horror
declaring itself in such
invocations and imprecations as these.
·
THE CRY OF DESPAIR. The
dreadful language proceeding from the
lips of the hopeless is an
appeal to nature to save the sinner from nature’s
Lord. It is an appeal
unreasonable and absurd, but not unnatural, as uttered
by a bewildered,
terrified, and unfriended soul. Can anything give a
more awful and impressive
representation of THE WRETCHEDNESS
into which he is surely led WHO PERSERVERES IN SIN and
hardens himself
against GOD,
the Law and the Gospel?
·
THE PREVENTION OF DESPAIR. It may be well to see whither a
certain course leads us, if the
result be to save us from the issue, by saving
us from what involves it. It is to be remembered with gratitude that hearers
of the gospel of Christ have
not reached the stage now described. They
may be prisoners, but they are
“prisoners
of hope.” The
word of the Lord
does indeed come
as a word of WARNING but it comes also
as a word
of PROMISE! NEGLECTED,
it will be A SENTENCE OF
CONDEMNATION; ACCEPTED, it will be AN ASSURANCE OF
PARDON and A PLEDGE OF LIFE
ETERNAL!
9 ‘O
explanations given of this clause — namely, that which
understands, rain
comparatively, that is, “more than” — their sins were
greater than those of
the Benjamites in the days of Gibeah; and that which refers the sin here
spoken of to the appointment of Saul, who was of Gibeah of Benjamin, to
be king — must be unhesitatingly rejected. The sin of the
men of Gibeah
was the shameful outrage committed on the Levite’s
concubine by the men
of Gibeah, which with its
consequences is recorded in Judges 19. and 20.
That sin became proverbial, overtopping, as it did, all
ordinary iniquities by
its shameless atrocity and heinousness. By along-continued course of sin,
even from ancient days, EPHRAIM HAS BEEN PREPARING FOR
A FEARFUL DOOM - “there they
stood: the battle in Gibeah against
the children of iniquity did not overtake them.” This
portion of the verse is
not a little perplexing, and in consequence has called forth considerable diversity
of exposition. There
is:
·
that which is implied
in the Authorized Version, viz. “there they stood,”
smitten twice but not destroyed,
chastened but not killed, the battle in
Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them
then so as
utterly to destroy them, but it shall overtake them now. Or if the verb
“overtake,” which is
future, be strictly rendered, the meaning is — Not a
battle like that in Gibeah against the children of iniquity shall overtake
them, but one much more
sanguinary and terrible, resulting, not in the
reduction of a
single tribe to six hundred men, BUT IN
EXTIRPATION OF TEN
TRIBES!
·
that of Keil and others, though not the same, is similar. It is:
“There, in
Gibeah, did they remain, persevering in the sin of Gibeah, and yet the war in
Gibeah against the sinners has not overtaken them.” This makes the
meaning of the prophet to be that
since the days of Gibeah the Israelites
persevered in the same or like sin
as the Gibeahites; and, though the
Gibeahites were so severely punished, actually destroyed, because of
their
sin, the ten tribes of
yet been resisted with any such
exterminating war. Jehovah announces
His intention
NOW TO VISIT THEM WITH PUNISHMENT
AND SEVEREST
CHASTISEMENT FOR ALL! The
meaning
which Keil
aims at may be better brought out by rendering the latter
clause interrogatively; thus:
“There they stood — persisting in the
criminality of Gibeah — shall there not overtake them, living as they do
in
Gibeah, the war which exterminated the children of crime?” It is
admitted
that עמר may
have been the meaning of “persevering;” but:
·
a better sense is
gained by Wunsche referring the subject of עמדו to the
Benjamites; the suffix of תשינם to the בני עולה, or “children of
iniquity,”
that is, their guilty
tribesmen in Gibeah; taking the intermediate clause
parenthetically; עמד with על to
“stand in defense of;” thus: “Since the
days of Gibeah
hast thou sinned, O Israel: there they (the Benjamites)
stood in defense of the children
of iniquity, that the war might not reach
them in Gibeah.”
This gives a satisfactory sense, and intimates that, by A
LONG-CONTINUED
COURSE OF INIQUITY AND CRIME,
the Ephraimites were
preparing themselves for a FEARFUL FATE!
Already from days long gone by, grievous guilt
cleaved to them; thus in the
days of Gibeah
they (the Benjamites) stood
by their iniquitous brethren that
the battle in Gibeah might not reach them. As this was before the disruption,
the Benjamites were part and
parcel of
·
Rosenmüller’s explanation is the following: “They (the Benjamites)
survived (עָמַד, opposed to אָבַד, as in Psalm 102:27) being
severely
punished, though they did not
entirely perish, six hundred being left to
revive the tribe.”
BUT A STILL AND MORE SEVERE
PUNISHMENT AWAITS
THE ISRAELITES (the
person being
changed from the second to the
third, and the prophet addressing himself
to hearer or reader): not the
war waged in Gibeah (or on account of the
crime committed there) against
the children of iniquity shall overtake them,
BUT A FAR MORE
DEADLY AND DESTRUCTIVE WAR! The
word עלוה is by
metathesis for עולה as זְעַוָה for זְוָעָה, commotion; כֶשָׂב
for כֶבֶשׂ; and שַׂלְמָה, for שִׂמְלָה.
10 “It is in my desire
that I should chastise them; and the people shall be
gathered against them,” -
This is better translated thus: When
I desire it, then
(vav of the
apodosis) shall I chastise them; and the peoples shall be
gathered
against them. This expresses GOD’S
DETERMINATION TO PUNISH
SIN AND VINDICATE HIS JUSTICE AS THE INFINITELY HOLY ONE!
It means, not only
that His desire to punish them does exist, but that, this desire
being taken for granted, there shall be no let nor
hindrance; NOTHING CAN
STAY HIS HAND! Then the mode and means of chastisement are
indicated — peoples, foreign invaders, shall be gathered
against them. The
verb אָסֹר; is future Qal of יסר irregularly, as if
coming from נסד, the
daghesh in samech compensating
for the absorbed yod – “when they shall
bind themselves in their two furrows.” - margin, When I shall bind them
for their two transgressions, or, in their two habitations.
Gesenius, Ewald, and others, abiding by
the Kethir or textual reading of
the original, translate, “Jehovah will chastise them before with their eyes,”
that is, NOT IN SECRET BUT OPEN BEFORE THE WORLD! They
thus refer the word to עַיִן, eye, but עְינָותis
“fountains,” not “eyes.”
The Hebrew commentators, Aben Ezra and Kimchi, explain the
word in
the sense of “two furrows” as in
Authorized Version; and refer them to
Judah and Ephraim. Thus Kimchi says, “The prophet compares
Ephraim to two plowing oxen. I thought
they would plough well, but they
have ploughed ill, since they have bound themselves together one with the
other and have
allied themselves the one with the other to do evil in the
eyes of
Jehovah.” Similarly Rosenmüller: “To be bound to two furrows is
said of oxen plowing when they
are bound together in a common yoke, so
that in two
adjacent furrows they walk together and with equal pace.”
·
The Septuagint
rendering, based on the Qeri and followed by the Syriac
and Arabic, gives a better and
clearer sense than the preceding. It is,
Ἐν ταῖς δυσὶν
ἀδικίαις αὐτῶν,– En tais dusin
adikais aoton –
to their two trangressions - and is followed by Jerome in Super duas
iniquitates suas, as also by the most judicious expositors of ancient and
modern times. Yet there is great
variety as to what those iniquities are.
Some, like Jerome, refer to the
double idolatry — that of Micah and that of
Jeroboam; others, like Dathe, to the two golden calves set up at Dan and
devotion to idols; De Wette and Keil to the double
unfaithfulness of
to Jehovah and the royal house
of David. The exact rendering would,
according to any of these views,
be, “When I bind them to their two
transgressions,” or, “When I
allow the foreigners to bind them on account
of their two transgressions;”
that is to connect or yoke them to their two
transgressions by the
punishment, so that they, like beasts of burden,
MUST DRAG AFTER
THEM, whatever be the view we take of
the nature of THOSE
TWO TRANSGRESSIONS!
11 “And Ephraim is as an
heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the
corn;” - Ephraim is compared to a heifer trained. The work she was
taught to
do was treading cut the corn; by training and habit it had
became a second nature,
so that she took delight in it. The connecting vowel
occurs seldom, and usually
with an antique coloring in prose, according to Ewald; it is poetical besides, and
used in the concourse of words somewhat closely
connected, but not in the strict
construct state. Thus
is לֺאהַבֵתִּי accounted
for. This work was probably easier,
at all events pleasanter, than plowing or harrowing.
In treading out corn oxen were
not yoked together, but worked singly, treading it
with their feet, or drawing a
threshing-sledge, or iron-armed cylinder, over it; they
were not muzzled
also, so that they were free to snatch an occasional
mouthful of the grain,
and frequently fattened by such indulgence. Such had been
the position of
Ephraim in easy employment, comfortable circumstances like
the heifer
threshing and allowed to eat at pleasure, pleasantly
situated prosperous,
self-indulgent, and luxurious. The victories of Ephraim —
threshing and
treading down may perhaps be also hinted at – “but I
passed over upon her
fair neck (margin, the
beauty of her neck): I will make Ephraim to ride;
Judak shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.” TIMES
HAVE
CHANGED as is
here indicated A YOKE, that of
ON THE FAIR NECK, A RIDER IS SET ON THE SLEEK BACK!
Mere onerous and less pleasant labor is now imposed.
share the toil, being put to the heavier work of plowing
while Jacob — the
ten tribes, or the twelve including both
and thus both alike shall be henceforth employed in the
heaviest labors
of the field and the severest toils of agriculture. Once victorious, Ephraim
is now to be subdued; once free and intractable, it must now receive the yoke
and engage in laborious service. The expression עבר, followed by על, is
generally used in a bad sense; “to pass over,” says Jerome, “especially when
it is said of God, always signifies inflictions and troubles.” The fatness of
the
neck is the ox’s ornament or beauty. That is now to be assaulted or invaded
gently it may be, and softly, as men are wont to approach a young untamed
animal in order to put the yoke upon it. This passing over, however
tender,
fixes the yoke on Ephraim’s neck all the same. A more difficult word
is
אדכיב, which:
·
Ewald renders, “I will set a rider” on Ephraim, of course to subdue and tame;
·
Jerome has, “I will
mount or ride,” thus representing Jehovah Himself as
the mediate rider on Ephraim.
The first sense has a parallel in Psalm 56:12,
“Thou hast made men to ride over our head,” and thus ruling them
at pleasure. Unwilling to bear the
easy yoke of their Divine Ruler,
they shall be
subjected to THE TYRANT MASTERY OF MAN!
(How is it with you, My Friend? Are you at ease under the gentle touch
of the Master?
Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and
learn of me; for
I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye
shall find
rest unto your
souls. FOR MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN
IS LIGHT!” - Matthew 11:28-30 – Or are you galling under the yoke
of a world gone amok?
Jesus also said, “In the world ye will have
tribulation:
but be of good cheer; I HAVE OVERCOME THE
WORLD!” - John 16:33 – CY – 2012)
for drawing and driving,’ i.e.
to harness,” as to the plough and harrow.
This meaning is best reached by understanding
the words thus: “I will make
the yoke to ride on Ephraim’s neck;” as הרכב
is used in II Kings 13:16,
for “put thine
hand upon the bow,” margin, “make thine hand to ride
upon the
bow.” The remaining clauses of the verse is a
further development of this
expression, but extending to
or Jacob — both kingdoms. The
Septuagint version of the last clause is peculiar;
it is Παρασιωπήσομαι Ἰούδαν ἐνισχύσει
αὐτῷ Ἰακώβ – Parasiopaesomai
Ioudan henischusei auto Iakob – That is, as explained by Jerome, “I shall
leave
Ephraim or Judah, shall observe
my precepts, he shall acquire strength for himself
and be called Jacob.”
12 “Sow to yourselves in
righteousness, reap in mercy;” - These next two
verses
contain a call to
repentance and reformation of
life, in figurative language
borrowed
from the same department of human industry, לצדי is “for righteousness;”
that is, sow
such seed as that righteousness may spring from it. לפי הי is “according
to,” or “in
proportion to, mercy.” When two imperatives are joined, is
here, the latter indicates a
promise, and may be expressed by a future, as, “Do this and
live,” i.e. “ye shall live”
(Genesis 42:18). Kimchi explains
it correctly, thus: “Sow to yourselves, etc., that is,
do good in mine eyes, and the recompense from me shall be
far greater than
your good deeds, just as if one sows a measure (seah),
and hopes to reap therefore
two measures (seahs) or still
more. Therefore, he uses in sowing righteousness, and in
connection with reaping grace, in order to intimate that
grace surpasses righteousness.
Or that God rewards men’s actions, not according to merit,
but according to grace.
As men sow, they reap (Galatians 6:6-9); accordingly
according to righteousness — to act righteously in their
dealings with their
fellow-men; and their reaping or reward would be, not in proportion to
what they had sown, not
merely commensurate with their righteous actions
or dealings, not proportionate to what justice would give; BUT IN
PROPORTION TO MERCY – DIVINE MERCY, and so far above their
highest deserts.
They are promised a reward far above their poor doings, and
irrespective of their sad failings — a reward, not of debt,
not of merit, but
OF GRACE! . The seed-time of righteousness would be followed by a
time
of reaping PROPORTIONATE TO
THE BOUNDLESS MEASURE OF
DIVINE MERCY! - “break up
your fallow ground: for it is time to seek
the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.” Here they are
urged to turn over a new leaf, as we say; to begin a new
life; to root out the weeds
of sin; to eradicate those evil passions that checked and
stifled any noble feelings, as
the husbandman runs his plough through the fallow field,
and breaks it up,
clearing out the weeds and roots, that the ground may be
pure and clean
for the sowing of the seed in spring. They are further
reminded that it is high time to
begin this process, laying aside their stiff-necked,
perverse ways; expelling
from their heart the noxious growth that had overspread it;
and by every
way and means working earnestly and zealously for a renewal
of life and
return to the long-neglected
work and worship of Jehovah. Neither
were
they to relax their efforts till the blessed end was
attained, עד, , with
imperfect, marking the goal to be reached; nor would their efforts be in
vain. The Lord would
rain — bestow abundantly upon them, or touch
(another and more frequent meaning of the word), their righteousness.
Thus the ground that had long lain fallow must be broken
up; its waste,
wild state must cease and give place to cultivation; the
ploughshare must
be driven through it; its wild growths and weeds must be
cut down and
uprooted. A process of renewal must succeed; the vices of
their natural
state, the idolatrous and wicked practices that had sprung
up, must be
abandoned. Renewal and radical reform are imperatively
demanded.
Matters had remained too long in a miserable and
unsatisfactory condition.
A long night of sinful slumber had overcome them; it was
high time to
awake out of that sleep (Romans 13:11-14). Too long had
they shamefully
forgotten and forsaken God; it was more than time to wait
upon Him. Nor
would such waiting, if persevered in, end in
disappointment; notwithstanding their
great and manifold provocations, He would come and rain righteousness in
welcome, refreshing, and plenteous showers UPON RETURNING
PENITENTS and with righteousness would be conjoined its
reward
of blessing and salvation, both temporal and spiritual.
A Checkered Picture (vs. 9-12)
These verses exhibit the continuance in sin and its
consequences, chastisement and its
lessons, change of circumstances and its bitter
experiences, the call to repentance and
the blessed promises to the penitent.
days of Gibeah
(ch. 9:9), and, as we are told in v.9, had sinned
from the
days of Gibeah.
Ø
Grievous as their sin
had been at first, it was greatly aggravated by
being long continued. Age after
age sin had run its course; one
generation after another
had helped to fill up the cup of iniquity until
it had become brimful,
successive generations thus corrupting
themselves, each
outstripping that which preceded in iniquity:
“What is there wasting time
does not impair? The age of our parents,
worse than our grandsires,
has borne us yet more wicked, who in
our turn are destined to
beget a progeny more sinful still.”
(I once was sympathetic to
the teen agers mentioned in II Kings
2:23-25 until I realized
they were an extension of previous sinful
generations – CY – 2012)
Ø
This continuance in
sin shall be attended by dreadful consequences
some day. This is a
legitimate inference, whatever view we take of this
difficult ninth verse.
Whether the meaning be that the Israelites stood
their ground, and did not
perish though twice defeated by the men of
Benjamin, and that with a
loss of forty thousand slain; and that, though
spared, their destruction
as dreadful as deserved shall overtake them
now, and that without any
possibility of escape, and when it does come
it shall be found all the
more dreadful from having been delayed in its
course; or whether the
sense is that
alienated from His favor
(possibly implied by the change from the
second to the third
person), have stood, that is, persisted in their sin
as there and then so ever
since; shall not the battle overtake such
incorrigible
offenders; persevering so long in sin
like the men of
Gibeah, can they expect to escape the war that of old did all
but exterminate the
transgressors? Or whether the sense be that the
Benjamites, then an integral part of
defending, and so virtually
abetting them in their iniquity, that the battle in
Gibeah might not overtake those vile delinquents, and that
resembling the Benjamites in spirit, have sinned ever since, aiding,
abetting, and taking part
in similar or greater atrocities and abominations.
They are then left to infer
that a day of reckoning still more terrible was
to be expected by them.
were not left merely to infer
the approach of chastisement, they were
positively assured
of it.
Ø
Men are forewarned
that they may be forearmed. God had exercised
much long-suffering and
forbearance, but His goodness failed to lead
them to repentance. They
had abused His patience, and now His purpose
is to chastise; but even in
chastising them He is exercising mercy in order
to prevent final and
inevitable ruin. He had rejoiced over them to do them
good; He now takes pleasure
in correcting them — it is His desire. The
nature of the chastisement with which
resembles that which had been inflicted on the Benjamites. (Judges
20-22)
Ø
The reference to that
transaction may have suggested to the prophet his
description of the coming
chastisement. The tribes of
themselves against Benjamin
in the battle of Gibeah; so the peoples, the
Assyrians and their allies,
would be gathered against
well expressed the cause of
the chastisement by representing God as
saying, “According to my
good will and pleasure will I chastise them;
because they do not receive
chastisement from me by my prophets who
rebuke them in my Name, I
will chastise them by the hands of the
peoples which shall be
gathered against them.”
Ø
When men refuse to be
God’s freemen, and prefer continuing to be
servants of sin, they are preparing themselves to be the bondmen of
their enemies. The allusion
in the last clause of v:10 is obscure, and yet
the general sense is
tolerably plain. Much depends on the one word
variously rendered “eyes,”
“furrows,” “habitations,” or “sins.” The figure
may be taken from two oxen
abreast in a yoke, plowing together side
by side in two adjacent
furrows; and it may indicate the combination
of the Israelites to ward
off the threatened danger, but to no purpose,
since Jehovah had decreed
their chastisement, and, in case it failed,
their destruction; or the
two divisions of
respective places of habitation; or the two
places of idolatrous worship,
Dan and
two transgressions, which
appears the preferable sense. Whichever of
these we adopt, the idea of
binding, that is, of thraldom or captivity,
remains the same.
Ø
There are two kinds of
service and two claimants for the soul of man:
o
the service of sin,
and the
wages of that service is death;
o
the service of God,
and the fruit of that service is unto holiness,
and the end everlasting life.
Satan claims us, but he is
a usurper; besides, he is the worst of all
masters — keeping his
servants in bondage, working them to
death, and at last paying them with damnation. God claims us.
His claim is just; He is the
rightful Proprietor; He made us, and not
we ourselves. His claim is,
in fact, threefold — creation,
preservation,
and redemption. We cannot serve two masters; we cannot obey both;
and we may not attempt the
unholy compromise made by the peoples
brought from the regions of
dispossessed Israelites,
who worshipped the Lord and served their
own gods (II Kings
17:33). To be
the slaves of Satan or the freemen
of Jehovah, that is the question; the bondage of sin or the freedom
of righteousness is the
alternative. There must be decision in the
matter. Let our
determination be like Joshua’s, that whatever others
do, we will serve the
Lord. “Choose you this day whom ye will
serve, but as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
(Joshua 24:15)
When
like oxen laboring in the yoke
up and down the furrows of the field, the
change came. Ephraim had been treated gently and trained indulgently;
their yoke had been an easy one,
and their burden a light one; but they did
not value their privileges, nor
know the day of their merciful visitation.
They had been in easy circumstances;
the lines had fallen to them in
pleasant places (Psalm
16:6), they had long enjoyed privileges and
advantages of no ordinary kind.
But times are now changed, and that change,
the bitter fruit of their own
doings, was sad as it was sudden. A yoke is now
put on the neck, a rider on the
back, and drudgery becomes the lot of the
once fair and delicate heifer.
Subjection and slavery to foreigners, with
hardships great and many, and
such as they had never experienced before,
now awaited Ephraim; while
punishment, as they had had part
in the sin; and thus at last Jacob, that is,
both kingdoms, the northern
and the southern, having thrown off the yoke
of Jehovah, fall each in turn under the
galling yoke of Assyrian and
Chaldean conqueror. Let men beware
of exchanging the pleasant
service of the
Savior for the painful drudgery of Satan!
The severity of the foregoing threatenings is alleviated by the present call
to reformation and repentance,
with the accompanying promises.
Ø
A seed-time of
righteousness must precede a reaping-time of mercy.
The figures are still
borrowed from husbandry; and thus every action is
represented as seed sown,
and every good work is seed sown in
righteousness. The rule of righteousness is the Law of God, and the
directions of that rule
include our duty both to God and man. To sow in
righteousness, therefore,
is to discharge the duties of righteousness,
comprehending piety
towards God, justice and charity towards man,
together with propriety
of personal conduct.
Ø
The seed sown shall
come up one day. If we sow tares, they will come
up; if we sow wheat, it
will come up. The seed of righteousness is called
by the psalmist precious
seed (Psalm 126:6). It is not in the power of
man to cause a single seed
to germinate and spring up (Mark 4:27); but
God in His justice will
bring up the bad seed for punishment, and in His
mercy the good seed for
reward.
Ø
There is a
correspondence between the seed-time and the harvest. If
Men sow to the flesh, they
shall reap corruption; if to the Spirit, they
shall reap life everlasting
(Galatians 6:6-8). As we sow we reap, and
what we sow we reap. Our
reaping shall be according to the measure
of God’s mercy. Not a reward
of merit, but of mercy; not a recompense
of desert, but of grace.
Men often sow in tears, but if the seed be that
of righteousness, and the
sowing after the right method and with the
right motive, they shall
reap in joy. “Blessed,” says the saintly Burroughs,
“are those who have sown
much for God in their lifetime! Oh, the glorious
harvest that these shall
have! The very angels shall help them to take in
their harvest at the great
day; and they need not take thought for barns —
the very heavens shall be
their barns. And oh, the joy that there shall be
in that harvest! The angels
will help to sing the harvest-song that they
shall sing who have been sowers in
righteousness.”
Ø
Reformation is the
effect and evidence of repentance. If reformation be
genuine, repentance must go
before; a
change of life that is real and
permanent must be preceded by a change of heart. Thus, in
order
to sow in righteousness,
the fallow ground must be broken up. If the
seed is to take root in the
soil, grow up and yield an abundant increase
at the time of harvest, the
soil must be carefully prepared. The plowing,
though mentioned after the
sowing, must precede it, otherwise the seed
of truth will be lost or
choked by the weeds of sin. Dropping the figure,
or realizing the fact set
forth by it, we must break up the fallow ground
of the heart. The weeds and
thorns and thistles that overspread it in its
natural state must be
rooted out; the evil passions, corrupt affections,
and hateful lusts must be
eradicated; the heart itself must be broken
and contrite on account of
sin; the spirit must be subdued by a sense
of sin; shame and sorrow
must penetrate the soul because of sin; like
land long untilled, and so
hard and difficult to plough, the hard heart
must be broken
with contrition and softened, and the stubborn
will subdued. Thus, too, the field that had lain fallow after a
first
plowing must be broken up
anew and made to shine (as the original
word, from נוּר, according to Gesenius and Ewald, signifies),
and prepared for future and
abundant fruitfulness.
Ø
The exhortation is
enforced by two arguments — the past loss of time,
and prospective spiritual
prosperity.
o
Much time had been
misspent (I recommend The Preciousness
of Time by Jonathan Edwards - # 7 – this web site – CY – 2012)
the duty of seeking God had
been sadly and sinfully neglected.
The language of the prophet
here is expanded and enforced by
the apostle, when he says, “The time past of our life may
suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when
we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings,
banquetings, and abominable
idolatries” (I Peter 4:3). We
are now called to
redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16). It is
our duty at all times to seek the Lord, but especially so after
such tong delay on our part, and such forbearance and
long-
suffering on God’s part.
And yet there is time. It is of His
mercy
that we are still allowed
opportunity to repent and return to
Him.
Even now is the accepted
time; but soon it may be too late.
Let us,
then, seek the Lord while He may be found, and call
upon Him while
he is near (Isaiah 55:6), before He withdraws
Himself, and swears in His
wrath that we shall not enter into His
rest. (Hebrews 3:11)
o
Another source of
encouragement is here presented. If we seek
Him He shall be found of
us, according to the promise, “Seek,
and ye shall
find” (Matthew 7:7). Thus encouraged, let us
seek Him
presently, patiently, and perseveringly until He
comes,
as He will be sure to do, and rain righteousness upon us.
In the fullness of
time the Savior came, who is “THE LORD
OUR
RIGHTEOUSNESS”(Jeremiah 23:6); He came
as
“a Light to
lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of His
People
soul, Gentile or Jew, that
seeks Him, and
when He comes
HE WILL RAIN
RIGHTEOUSNESS ON US!
o
Righteousness, like
the rain, descends from above; for
“every good gift
and every perfect gift cometh down from
above, even from
the Father of lights, with whom there is
no variableness,
neither shadow of turning” (James
1:17).
He will bestow it in great
abundance, for He will rain it upon us;
sending down, not merely a
few drops, but a plentiful rain and
copious showers. The
righteousness so abundantly vouchsafed
includes His righteous
fulfillment of His promises; the righteousness,
moreover, that is witnessed
both by the Law and the prophets —
righteousness reckoned to us for
justification, and righteousness
wrought in us for sanctification.
The effect of this righteousness
is blessed and
beneficent. “And the work of righteousness
shall be peace; and
the effect of righteousness QUIETNESS
and ASSURANCE FOR
EVER” (Isaiah
32:17). As the
natural seeds sown in the soil of the earth
which has been
ploughed and prepared for
them require, besides,
the rain of
heaven to make them bud and
bring forth the blade, the
ear and the full corn in
the ear (Mark 4:28); so the spiritual
seeds that men
sow in righteousness require the rain of
righteousness and the rich blessing of heaven to fructify and
refresh.
13 “Ye have ploughed
wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye
have eaten the fruit of lies:” Hitherto
their course had been the very
opposite of that which they are now exhorted to enter on.
Hitherto their
work had been wickedness, and their wages, as might be
expected, THE
FRUIT OF INIQUITY. (“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” – Romans 6:23)
What they had wrought for they reaped. Their plowing had
been sin, their
sowing wickedness,
and their harvest sorrow. Wickedness
against God and man was what they both ploughed and sowed;
oppression
at the hand of their enemies was the harvest or reward of
iniquity which
they reaped. Their lies, including their idolatry in
reference to God,
disloyalty to their king, their false words and false works
with one another,
bore fruit, bitter fruit, sour fruit, and they were obliged
to eat that fruit till
their teeth were set on edge. Thus Kimchi
explains it: “After the plowing
follows the sowing, and both of them are a figurative
representation of
work, as we have explained it. The prophet says, ‘Ye have
done the
opposite of that which I commanded you, when I said, Sow to
yourselves
in righteousness.’” The harvest is the reward of the work
done; the genitive
is expressive of contents — that in which the fruit
consists; the fruit of lies
against God is the fruit which disappoints those who wait
for it. Ki
directs
attention to the ground of ISRAEL’S
GRADUAL DECLENSION AND
FINAL DESTRUCTION; the
two fundamental errors, or rather evils, that
led on to
self-confidence. Sunk in
idolatry, they no longer looked TO JEHOVAH
AS THE SOURCE of their power and strength, while they pursued their
own ways, confident of the excellence of their own sagacity
and foresight –
“because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.”
They had placed their confidence in the wisdom of their own
ways — their
prudent plans and wise counsels; in the heroism of their
soldiers and the excellence
of their preparations of war. By these means they fancied
themselves independent
of the Almighty, and sufficiently defended against their
enemies. “Thou hast trusted,”
says Kimchi, in his exposition,
“to thine own way which thou goest;
and that is
the way of iniquity and of confidence in evil; and in like
manner thou hast
trusted in the multitude of thy men of war which thou hast
had among thine
own people, or among the Egyptians, from whom they sought
help, and
thou hast made flesh thine arm, and NOT TRUSTED IN ME therefore
thou hast stumbled.”
14 “Therefore shall a
tumult arise among thy people, and all
thy fortresses shall be spoiled,” - This was the fruit of their doings, the
result of their sins. The tumult of war is already heard,
and the work of
destruction has begun. The word shaon,
tumult, is from ha;v;, as applied to
the loud rushing of waters, then the tumult of advancing
warriors. The
preposition be is rendered as above by the
Authorized Version, Umbreit, and
others; and, joined with “peoples” (which is plural),
signifies that the confused noise
of war would be heard among their own peoples, or the
multitude of the mighty
ones in whom they had had such confidence; or the plural
may refer to the
tribes of
meaning to Pentateuchal times.
Host of the versions read the singular, like
our own Authorized Version, yet it must still be referred
to the people of
thus the confused noise of the advance of the enemy against
denoted. The attack of the invaders is directed against the
fortresses, or
fenced cities, so called from a verb denoting “to cut off”
(dxb), as if all
approach to them were cut off, and assault impossible.
Nevertheless they
were to go down, all of them, before the enemy — laid
waste and spoiled;
while inhuman cruelty would characterize the conquerors. As an
illustration of or specimen resembling that cruelty, an
obscure piece of
history is quoted - “as Shal-man spoiled Beth-arbel in
the day of battle:
the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.” In the great variety
of opinion with respect to the event referred to, and the
consequent
diversity of exposition, we shall not venture to do more
than select that
which on the whole, notwithstanding a certain chronological
difficulty that
lies against it, appears the most probable. Accordingly, Beth-arbel may
have been
Josephus, in
Tiberias, now Irbid; and Shalman may be an abbreviation for Shalmaneser;
while the circumstance here mentioned may have been an
incident
of the campaign of which we read in II Kings 17:3, 5. “Against him
came up Shalmaneser King of
Then the King of
when the mother, with true motherly affection, bent over her
children to
defend them, and she and they perished in a common ruin, or
when the
children were dashed to the ground before their mother’s
eyes, and she,
done to death, hurled upon them.
15 “So shall
(margin, the evil of your evil): in a morning
shall the King of
utterly be cut off.” Their coming
sufferings were all TRACEABLE
TO THEIR SIN.
of their coming calamities, not the place itself, but the
wickedness of which it was
the scene. The real cause was
the great and crowning WICKEDNESS
PRACTICED
THERE!
Become another Beth-arbel,
the house of the ambush of God. In the morning,
when perhaps a season of prosperity seemed beginning to
dawn, or at an early
and speedy manner, quickly as the morning dawn gives place
before the rising sun,
the king, Hoshea, or perhaps no
particular king, but merely the representative of the
royal office, would be cut off-entirely cut off. Thus their
main refuge would come to
an ignominious end, bringing along with it the frustration
of all their hopes and the
conclusion of their mistaken and misplaced confidences.
The Prolific Fruits of Evil (vs. 13-15)
The Israelites are not only charged with neglect of duty,
but with sins of commission.
The concluding verses of the chapter point out this
contrariety of their conduct to the
foregoing exhortation, and its consequences; trace the
source of their sinful courses
to their carnal confidences; and foretell the coming
calamities caused thereby.
CONTRARY TO THE ADMONITION JUST GIVEN.
Ø
They had been not only
neglectful of duty, indifferent and careless
about spiritual
concerns, and self-satisfied with
their sinful course,
but had taken much pains in
pursuing a course the opposite of what
duty demanded. They had not only lived in sin, enjoying its
so-called
pleasures, but had labored
in the practice of it, serving Satan and doing
his drudgery. Thus they
ploughed wickedness. Not content with the
spontaneous growth thereof,
which is sufficiently abundant in every
natural heart, they actually cultivated it, sparing no pains and
grudging no diligence in
its culture. Thus they ploughed and sowed
laboriously; but it was
tares, not wheat or good grain they spent
their labor on.
Ø
As they ploughed and
sowed, so they reaped; the crop in harvest-time
corresponded with the seed
which they had sown, and for which they
had made such careful
preparation. The harvest was abundant, the
increase thirty, or sixty,
or a hundredfold. The quantity was large, but
the quality was bad. “In all labor there is profit,” said a minister to a
man at work. “There is one
exception,” was the reply; “for years I labored
in the service of Satan,
and of that labor I can truly say, ‘What fruit had
ye in those
things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those
things is death.’” (Romans 6:21)
Ø
The fruit of lies, like
lies themselves, is deceptive; such fruit resembles
the fabled apples on the
shore of the
appearance, but ashes in
the mouth. The pleasures of the wicked do
not satisfy; their gains don’t profit in the end; all sinful works are
unfruitful works. Thus it was with
abominations.
of
prowess of their mighty men.
Their statecraft, their calf-worship, their
military preparations, were
their confidences. The fountainhead of their
offending, the source whence
such bitter waters flowed, and flowed so
copiously, was the confidence
they reposed in refuges of lies — their way
inclusive of their wicked
calf-worship, their tortuous worldly policy, and
their forbidden foreign
alliances with the heathen. Such was their internal
safeguard, while the multitude
of their mighty men was their external
defense. All these confidences
failed them. EVERY PROMISE THAT
SIN MAKES TO THE
SINNER IS A LIE: the fruit of sin, like
sin
itself, is fallacious and deceptive.
CONSEQUENCES, AND IN PUNISHMENT, OF SIN.
Ø
Their cities were
sacked, their fortresses dismantled, their citizens and
countrymen butchered, and
unheard-of cruelties perpetrated.
Ø
Here we see how the
worldly wise are taken in their own craftiness,
and how sin finds the sinner
out. The consequence of all was not a time
of peace, but the tumult of
war extending to the whole people in their
tribal divisions, and
probably to their neighbors, with whom they were
in alliance; while the
issue of the war was defeat and disaster — their
defenses were destroyed,
their strongholds rifled, the triumph of the
enemy complete, and their
cruelty unchecked.
Ø
Thus: THE BITTER
FRUIT OF SIN!
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