Hosea 7
This chapter may be divided into three sections. In the first section, including vs. 1-7,
the prophet reproves with much but deserved severity the depraved morals of king
and princes. In the second section, consisting
of vs. 8-11, he rebukes their
sinfulness, silliness, pride, and stupid obstinacy, notwithstanding
the many
manifest
tokens of decay. Otherwise the
first section deals with the internal
corruption of the northern kingdom, and the second exposes their sinful and
harmful foreign policy. The third section, vs. 12-16, threatens the infliction of
punishment incurred by their gross
wickedness and base ingratitude to God.
1 “When I would have healed
healing of those prophetic
admonitions and rebukes by which God designed to cure the
transgressions and heal the backslidings of His
people. It is more probable, however,
that the reference is to the partial restoration of the
national prosperity in the days of
Jeroboam II., who “restored
the coast of
the sea of the
plain” (II Kings 14:25). Jerome’s exposition is not so natural when
he says, “The sense is: When I wished to blot out the old
sins of my people, on account
of ancient idolatry, Ephraim and
ancient idolatry he refers to the making and worshipping of
the golden calf
in the wilderness, while the new idols were the
calf-worship which
Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim instituted, and the people
of the capital,
heal,
a wound the dangerous nature of which is discovered by the
surgeon’s
probe in the effort to heal it – “then the iniquity of
Ephraim was
discovered, and the wickedness of
kingdom manifested itself in high quarters — in the premier
tribe of
and in the capital city of
comment, “they said, He hath torn, and he will heal us, he
says, When I
was disposed to heal them, the wickedness concealed in
their heart stood
before my face, which they have not left off until the
present time, for they
practice falsehood; by night they steal, and by day troops
(of bandits)
spread themselves outside the cities.” Similarly, Rashi explains: “When I
was willing to help and to heal them, their iniquities
manifested themselves
before me, for they practiced lying constantly; while
thieves of their
number entered in continually, and stole the wealth of
their companions,
and even their gangs spread themselves for robberies to rob
men.” – “for
they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of
robbers
spoileth (margin, strippeth) without.” Here follows an enumeration of the
crimes of which they were guilty. There was falsehood, or
fraud, or
deception generally, and that, not only in words, but in
works; next comes
dishonesty, both in public
and in private. The thief privately
entered the
houses, and committed burglary; gangs of highwaymen
publicly infested
the roads, spoiling the passers-by, or rather roamed or
spread themselves
abroad for plunder, since it is the causative conjugation
of pashat that has
the signification of stripping or spoiling others. The
thief within, the robber
robs without.
2 “And they consider not
in their hearts (margin, say not to
their heart)
that I remember all their wickedness:” - Between
the common
reading libravken and
bilravken found in several manuscripts
by Kennicott
and De Rossi, there is a not unimportant difference. The
latter, equivalent
to saying “in their
heart,” which is the usual expression, denotes one’s
inward thoughts or reasonings
with himself; the former, equivalent
to
saying “to their heart,” is an address to, or remonstrance
with, the heart
with the view of restraining its evil purposes. God’s
remembrance of
wickedness imports its punishment - “now
their own doings have beset them
about;” - Their doings have become evident or conspicuous as a robe
or garment
with which a man is surrounded, or a troop of body-guards
placed about him. Or
the terrors and penal consequences of their sins have
surrounded them
like a garment, as we elsewhere read, “He clothed himself with cursing like
as with his
garment”
(Psalm 109:18). In this latter sense the figure is rather
taken from enemies besieging a town or city, and
beleaguering it closely all
around, or from lictors, i.e. officers
of the law surrounding them, or even
witnesses confronting them on every side. Kimchi explains the sense as follows:
“Now their evil deeds surround them, which were before my
face and were
not hidden from me; and, while they receive the punishment,
they will
remember that I know all the whole, and that it is I who
return their
reward upon their head.”
- “they are before my face.” This last clause, has
a striking and awe-inspiring parallel in the Psalm 90:8: “Thou hast set
our iniquities
before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.”
Aben Ezra’s exposition is somewhat obscure; it is as follows:
“They think
that I do not see them, and they do not observe that their
actions encircle
them, as they are before my face.”
3 “They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the
princes with their lies. The moral corruption and depravity of
EXTREME and UNIVERSAL. They reached from the
rabble to royalty,
from the common people to the princes of the
court. The king and princes
were in full accord with fellows of the basest sort, taking
pleasure in their
wickedness and applauding their lies. Rosenmüller quotes the explanation
of Abarbanel to the following
purport: “He (the prophet) means to say that the
violent men of that age were accustomed to narrate their
atrocities to their kings,
that the latter might thence derive entertainment.” It is
much the same whether
the king and princes of that time took pleasure in the villanies which were
perpetrated, or in the narratives of those villanies to which they listened,
A somewhat different rendering, and consequently different
exposition,
have much to recommend them: “In their wickedness they make
the king
merry, and in their feigning the princes;” their wickedness
was their
diabolical design to assassinate king and princes; with
this object in view
they make the king merry with wine so that he might fall an
easy and
unsuspecting victim; their feigning was their fell purpose
of assassination
under the profession of friendship. Such was the desperate
treachery of
those miscreant conspirators. This view tallies well with
the context.
Verses. 4, 6, and 7 are linked together by the figure of an
“oven,” common to
them; while 4 and 6 have also in common the figure of a “baker.” Further, we are
helped to the literal meaning of the metaphorical language
of vs. 4 and 6 by vs.5
and 7 respectively.
4 “They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker,” - Whether the
sin indicated was idolatry, which is often represented as
spiritual adultery, or
adultery in the literal sense, which was its frequent
accompaniment; or in a larger
sense faithlessness to solemn obligations such as treason,
treachery, or
perfidy in general; it was their habitual practice, as
intimated by Piel
participle in its iterative or intensive sense. The persons
charged with this
sin were kullam, all
of them — sovereign and
subjects, princes and people
alike. The
traitors of the time referred to, or rather their
heart heated with
lawless lust and pernicious passion, is pictured by the prophet as an oven;
and the oven is heated by the baker, or more literally, burning
from the
baker. Who or what is represented by the baker? This may be a
personification of the spirit of treason like the spirit of
whoredoms
(ch.5:4), or evil agency that impelled these men to their
nefarious
deeds; or we may understand by the “baker” those persons
who were the
prime movers in such matters, and who instigated others to
become their
tools and execute their plans. In either case the burning,
once commenced,
continued of itself; the
primary instigators had no difficulty in securing
agents ready and willing as themselves for such bad and bloody work, and
who, once set agoeing, needed no further
impulse, but of their own motion
delighted to carry it through – “who ceaseth
from raising after he hath
kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.” An interval of time elapses
between the inception and execution of the work. The baker ceaseth from
raising, more literally, from stirring or stoking; after
kindling the fire in the
oven he lets it burn on and leaves off stirring it until
the kneaded dough is
fully fermented. This
respite is allowed that the leaven of wickedness may
do its work, and completely pervade the minds into which
it has been
introduced, and
until matters are thoroughly matured for action. Meantime
the fire burns steadily and sufficiently, until the oven
requires to be more
highly heated for the well-prepared and perfectly leavened
dough. The use
of the participle dy[ime is well explained
by the principle stated by Ewald as
follows: “Just as the idea of the verb ‘to be’ is placed in
immediate
construction with the word which more exactly forms the
predicate, so also
may those verbs which describe a somewhat more specific
kind of being,
e.g. verbs
which signify ‘commencing’ to be, i.e. becoming… verbs of
hastening, i.e.
quickly becoming… and those of ceasing to be.
The following verb, if such a word be required for the more
specific
predicate, most readily chooses the participial form..,
verbs denoting
continuance would be
constructed in the same way.” The particle d[",
equivalent to usque ad,
implies the completeness of the leavening.
5 “In the day of our king”
- This may mean the anniversary of his
birth — his birthday celebration, or the anniversary of his
accession or
coronation; or it may have been used in an ambiguous sense,
and to include
the day of his destruction, like the tragic irony or
contrast between the
knowledge of the spectator and the supposed ignorance of
the actor. The
expression “our”
is either a real acknowledgment of the kings of
rather the lip-loyalty of the traitorous princes who were
compassing his
ruin – “the princes have made him sick with bottles of
wine;” - The literal
rendering is, have made sick the heat of him; i.e.
made him sick with heat
from wine. The construction resembles Micah 6:13, “I will make sick
thy smiting;” i.e. I will make thee sick through smiting
thee. The heat from
wine repeats in some sort the preceding figure of a heated
oven. The object
of these wretches was twofold:
on which they were set;
“he stretched out his hand with scorners.” Whatever the real origin of this
phrase may be, the meaning is plain — he joined in
fellowship with those wicked
princes, and took part on terms of equality with them in
their brutish debauch and
profane carousal. He stretched out his hand and hailed them
as boon-companions.
6 “For they have made
ready their heart like an oven, whiles
they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth
all the night; in the morning it
burneth as a flaming fire.”
Their heart is the oven, as the
comparison here
teaches us; the fire by which it is inflamed is the fire of
sinful passion, and
the fuel that feeds the flame is the murderous machination
on which they
are at present so intent; the baker is either the original contrivers
and
prompters of their wickedness, or their own wicked spirit,
or the evil one
himself at the head of all. But, though there is a
temporary suspension,
there is no real cessation of their evil purpose; they are only biding their
time, lying in wait; the
baker sleeps, but it is only whilst the dough is
leavening. Soon as the suitable time has come, soon as the
occasion has
arrived, and all circumstances in readiness, in the
morning the baker rouses
from his nocturnal slumber, stirs up the fire, and sets the
oven ablaze Now
that the dough is sufficiently leavened, and the oven
thoroughly heated, the
bread is put in — the meditated assassination is accomplished
— it burneth
as a flaming fire.
This is the second and last stage of the proceeding, the
last scene of the last act of the tragic drama,
7 “They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their
judges; all their
kings are fallen:” - Here we have the application, and so the
explanation of
the figurative language of the preceding verse, which, as
we have seen, is the
second stage of the action. The heat of the oven denotes
the intense violence of
their passion, as also their fierce and fiery power
of destruction. INFERIOR
RULERS AND MAGISTRATES
fell victims to it; while regicides
(the
deliberate killing of a monarch) in incredible number were the result of it.
Three
regicides were perpetrated in thirteen years; and four in
less than forty, the
victims being Zechariah, Shallum,
Pekahiah, and Pekah. Also Nadab, Elah,
Zimri, Zibni, and Jehoram
perished by their successors. “There is
none
among them that calleth unto me.” Amid such horrid scenes of blood
and violence, of disorder
and anarchy, there was none of them to realize the
calamities of the times or RECOGNIZE THE CAUSE! Consequently
there was no one to discover
the remedy, and apply to the true and only
source of relief.
Crimes Charged on
It was a time of great corruption and of atrocious crimes.
Nor were those
crimes committed only by persons “of the baser sort;” people and princes
alike, rulers and ruled, had their share in them; the country and the capital,
Ephraim and
people as well as elite, in the former, and members
of the court in the
latter. All classes
contributed their portion to the national sins, and sins of
almost all classes were freely indulged in.
Scripture as A DISEASE — an all-pervading
disease; it is as universal as
The race, for ALL
HAVE SINNED (Romans 3:23) it is an all-embracing
disease, for it extends to the
faculties and feelings of the soul, and employs
as its instruments all the
members of the body. It infects whole peoples as
well as individual persons. The
description which Isaiah gives of its
widespread ravages applies to
the body politic as well as to the body
human: “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From
the sole of the
foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it;
but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores” (Isaiah 1:5-6).
It is thus a loathsome disease, a dangerous disease, a deadly
disease; and, unless arrested in time, IT IS
A FEARFULLY
FATAL DISEASE! . The Apostle James gives us the genesis and
development of this disease: “When lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth DEATH”
(James 1:15) and the symbol of this spiritual malady is LEPROSY —
one of the most frightful
SCOURGES OF HUMANITY!
desperate that GOD ALONE CAN CURE IT!
Ø
If there is balm in
Gilead and a physician there, God Himself is
that Physician, and a
Physician who not only supplies the balm
but applies it; He has
provided the remedy and prescribed the
way in which it is made
available. Thus the Prophet Jeremiah
prays, “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I
shall be saved: for thou art my Praise” (Jeremiah 17:14).
To a
people as well as a person
laden with sin, God promises relief when
it is earnestly sought and
properly applied for; thus we read in II
Chronicles 7:13-14, “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or
if I command the
locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence
among my people;
If my people, which are called by my Name,
shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn
from their wicked ways; then will I hear from
heaven, and will
forgive their
sin, and will heal their land.” If,
then, sin-sick
souls are not healed, it is
not that God is either unwilling or unable
to heal them. When Christ would have gathered the people of
Palestine, or the
inhabitants of its principal city, with all the
tenderness and all the carefulness
that the parent bird exercises in
gathering its brood under
its outspread wings, THEY WOULD
NOT! (Matthew 23:37). So
is it still; sinners condemnation is
self-procured as
well as justly deserved, while the salvation of
the righteous is
ONLY OF THE LORD!
Ø
The means which God
employs for healing, though various, are yet
pretty much the same at all
times. One of these means, and that most
commonly employed, is the
Word of His grace read, preached, or
meditated on. In all ages the chief instrumentality for reclaiming men
has been HIS
MESSAGE OF MERCY! Thus He dealt with
His
ancient people: “The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His
messengers,
rising up betimes, and sending; because He had
compassion on His people, and on His dwelling
place: but they
mocked the messengers of God, and despised His
words, and
misused His
prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against
His people, TILL
THERE WAS NO REMEDY (margin,
“healing” –
II Chronicles 36:15-16).
Other means used for the same end are
afflictions and adverse
circumstances of whatever kind; cases of this
sort, such as dearth, or
famine, or pestilence, or impoverishment, or
sore sickness and of long
continuance, were frequent experiences of
God’s people in the past.
David said, “Before I was afflicted I
went astray” (Psalm 119:67). But
the purpose was benevolent
and salutary: “By
this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be
purged; and this
is all the fruit to take away his sin”
(Isaiah 27:9).
It is so still; for while “no chastening for the present seemeth
to
be joyous, but
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby” (Hebrews
12:11). Again,
God sends intervals of prosperity
with like design. This He
did with Israel in the reign of Jeroboam II.,
in the days of Joash, and at other periods in their history, in order
to wean them from sin and win them to
Himself. Another means of
healing which God resorted
to in
the case of His ancient people was
the removal of ringleaders in iniquity and notable
apostates, as when
He made an end of the
dynasty of Ahab. Not
a few similar instances
in subsequent and modern
times might be, pointed out.
AT HEALING. While God
was manifesting His intentions of
mercy towards
here, in condescension to our
weakness, accommodates Himself to the
manner of men and adopts their
mode of speech. As though He had not
known the desperate state of
matters before, He speaks of it being now
discovered. It is by probing a
wound that a surgeon discovers its depth,
and whether it reaches some
vital part; it is only by careful examination a
physician detects the character of
his patient’s disease, and whether it is
curable or likely to prove
fatal. So with the Good Physician on closely
examining the state of
supposed — much worse than it
appeared to the superficial observer.
Much, no doubt, must have
appeared on the surface, and much lay hid in
secret; it had been, in fact,
“half revealed, half concealed.” When the
iniquity of Ephraim was fully
discovered and the wickedness of
clearly seen, it proved incurable (II Chronicles 36:16), so enormous was
their guilt, so hardened were
they in their transgressions, above all, so
impenitent were they and so
unwilling to be helped and healed. Their
obduracy barred the door against
the entrance of mercy, their refusal to
part with their enormities
checked the outgoings of the Divine goodness
towards them. Nay more; as when
a rock rises up in a river-bed, or the
stream is narrowed by the
encroaching banks, the water rushes with
greater violence and is lashed
into foam, so the very attempt to repress
the sin of
those who occupied high places,
as the inhabitants of the metropolis
Samaria, and the people of the
preeminent tribe of Ephraim, proved the
most incorrigible
of all. Among the vices of the time
were falsehood
and fraud, and the fraud was both PRIVATE and
PUBLIC.
THEM, AND WITH THE UNGODLY, AT ALL TIMES. This
assertion is proved by the
further enumeration of these sins by Hosea.
There was also sinful security
and senseless stupidity.
Ø
They did not confer
with their own hearts in reference to their state
in the sight of God, nor
impress on themselves their responsibility to
Him. They were strangers to any right searching of
heart, or any
serious reflection on the
issues of their conduct and conversation.
It is thus with hundreds of
our fellow-men; want of
consideration
has ruined
thousands; both for time and eternity; hence the
earnest wish of the great
lawgiver, “Oh that they
were wise, that
they understood
this, that they would consider their latter end!”
(Deuteronomy 32:29). Hence, too, the solemn command of
“the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.” (Haggai 1:5)
Ø
The want of
consideration or of communing with their own heart
had special reference to
the relationship in which they stood to God.
They did not reflect that
God remembered all their wickedness,
consequently they did not
recollect their liability to punishment for
their wickedness at the
hand of God, and therefore they did not
feel any remorse on account
of their wickedness when committed.
Being spared after their
wickedness, and not visited with immediate
vengeance because of their
wickedness, they thought themselves
certain of impunity (see
Ecclesiastes 8:11); enjoying a season of
prosperity notwithstanding
the greatness of their wickedness, they
were only emboldened
in their wicked ways.
Ø
Atheism, theoretical
or practical, or both, was at the root of the
matter with them. The first
article of belief embraces the existence
of God (Hebrews 11:6), and THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
IMPLIES A BEING
OF DIVINE ATTRIBUTES AND
INFINITE
PERFECTIONS; the second article includes a belief
in God that He is a Recompenser of men’s actions — a Rewarder
of them that diligently
seek Him (Ibid.), and a Punisher of all
workers of wickedness. They
rejected, at least practically, these
rudiments of the faith,
these primary articles of belief; “as
if God could not see their
wickedness, though He is all eye;
and did not heed it, though
His name is Jealous; or had forgotten
it, though He is an eternal
mind that can never be unmindful; or
would not reckon for it, THOUGH HE IS JUDGE OF
HEAVEN AND
EARTH! This
is the sinner’s atheism; as
good say there is no God,
as say He is either ignorant or forgetful;
none that judgeth in the earth, as say He remembers not the things
He is to give judgment
upon; it is a high affront they put upon God,
IT IS A DAMNING
CHEAT THEY PUT UPON THEMSELVES
when they say, “The Lord shall not see, nor remember.”
Ø
The eyes of such shall
be opened one day. They shall wake up
out of their
daydream, and their delusion shall vanish when their
doings shall beset
them about and the sad effects thereof shall
entangle them as in
a net. They shall see their sins in
the
punishments they bring upon
them; they shall feel them in the
sorrows and sufferings that
attend them; and they shall
recognize that God had them
before His face all the time,
having knowledge of them
when committed, taking notice of
their demerit, and
remembering them for the exercise of His
retributive justice. Even
men’s secret sins God sets in the light
(literally “luminary,”
maor) of His countenance (Psalm 90:8);
the fireflashing
eye of the Omniscient penetrates the deep
recesses of the human
heart, and brings forth its secret workings
into the sight of the sun
and the broad light of day.
COMMANDS OR COURSES IS EXTREMELY PERNICIOUS.
It may please ungodly sovereigns
or civil rulers to find subjects so
pliable as at once to fall in
with their wicked works and ways; or to be
flattered by them; or to hear
the upright who oppose their vileness
slandered (i.e. Zedikiah’s accusations of Micaiah
before Ahab – I Kings
22:1-28 – CY – 2012); or to
listen to the lies by which the unscrupulous
seek to ingratiate themselves;
but such pandering must prove pitiful and
profitless work for both the persons who indulge in it and the princes who
encourage it. The former have
often realized, though not perhaps to the
same extent, the bitter
experience of the great cardinal when he said:
“Oh, how wretched
Is
that poor man that hangs on princes’ favors!
There
is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That
sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More
pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And
when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never
to hope again ....
Had I
but served my God with half the zeal
I served
my king, he would not in mine age
Have
left me naked to mine enemies.”
There is an alternative interpretation of v. 3 which
presents the other
side, and another aspect of the case, namely, when
deceitful men wickedly
and mendaciously impose on the credulity of princes by
false professions of
friendship at the very time they are plotting their
downfall and planning
their destruction. The ordinary acceptation, however, suits
the sense of the
passage very well. When people are so wicked as to conform
to the
idolatrous worship prescribed by godless rulers, or to
imitate their impious
and immoral practices, or to applaud their worthless
favorites, or to
calumniate those known to be obnoxious to them, those
rulers are more
than gratified add gladdened by such lying and baseness, they are
encouraged and stimulated in their wrongdoing, while a terrible
responsibility rests upon the head of both. Thus Herod,
after harassing the
Church and slaying James the brother of John, “because he saw
it pleased
the Jews, proceeded
further to take Peter” (Acts 12:3). People, again, when
they see that their acts of wickedness please their rulers,
or their accounts
thereof amuse them, are
emboldened to proceed yet further. Thus sovereigns
and subjects ENCOURAGING EACH OTHER IN SIN ULTIMATELY
WORK EACH OTHER’S DESTRUCTION! (The same in modern politics –
CY – 2012). There is probably a reference to the people’s facile
complasance with the idolatry of the calves legalized by Jeroboam, or
of
Baal by Ahab — a
conscienceless acquiescence which in the end was
fraught with THE MOST
BANEFUL RESULTS TO PRINCES AND
PEOPLE!
reprehending the profligate
pleasure which both princes and people took
in sin, the prophet reproves the
servile submission of the latter to idolatry,
and the debaucheries of the
former. The adultery which he proceeds to
stigmatize may be understood
literally as welt as spiritually, the former
being so frequent an accompaniment of the latter. In this case the heart
is aptly compared to an oven,
its lusts the fire with which it is heated;
while Satan supplies by his
temptations the fuel to the fire, and at the
same time puts the
leaven in the dough. Whether the
baker, after kindling
the fire, ceases from stirring
it till morning, by which time the dough is
leavened and ready for the oven,
which he then raises to a greater heat;
or whether he rests
comparatively while still stoking during the interval
that elapses from kneading the
dough till it is leavened and ready for use;
in either case there is a
respite, not from the fire of lust abating or the
fuel of temptation ceasing, but
from want of opportunity or courage or
ability. Soon, however:
Ø
as the occasion
presents itself or
Ø
opportunity is
afforded, or
Ø
means of gratification
are available, or
Ø
hope of impunity is
cherished,
the fire of lust that seemed
smoldering flames up with increased
intensity; the wicked plot is
executed; the covert passion breaks out into
the overt act; the half-stifled concupiscence finds vent; the lustful,
covetous, or ambitious project is accomplished.
WICKEDNESS. The
reference to it in v. 5 is interjected between the
mention of adultery and other enormities,
as if it were an incentive thereto,
Ø
The occasion on which
the intemperance took place was a
celebration day, whether
the king’s birthday, or the day of his
accession to the throne, or
his coronation day. As it was, it is;
days of celebration, while
not improper in themselves, may be
turned into days of sinful carousal. Days of high
festival that
ought to be days
of thanksgiving to God, of grateful praise and
holy joy, are too often taken advantage of for purposes of
intemperance,
gluttony, or dissipation. Days that should be
consecrated to
religious exercises or real national rejoicing
are too frequently desecrated
by irreligious sensuality and
anti-religious
debauch.
Ø
According to the
common rendering, the health of the king
suffered; according to
another rendering, which some prefer, the
day was begun so
that his honor was tarnished. According to
either, his high dignity
was leveled in the dust. It is bad enough
and sad enough to see any
man indulge in the sin of intemperance —
a sin which
deranges and disorders the body, DAMAGES THE
SOUL AND ITS ETERNAL
INTERESTS, DISHONORS GOD,
AND DEGRADES MAN BELOW THE BEASTS THAT
PERISHETH!
(Psalm 49:12,20, II Peter 2:12). But for
a king who
is appointed to govern others to lose the government of himself
through such scandalous excess, is the extreme of vileness; hence
the faithful admonition, “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it
is not for
kings to drink wine.” (Proverbs 31:4)
Ø
While the duty of a
king was neglected, the dignity of a king was
sacrificed. Kimchi has the following judicious remark in reference to
this matter: “The prophet
says, What was the business of the princes
with the king? There was no
conversation about the might and
conquest of the enemies and
about the establishment of justice, as
it becomes the king of a
free nation, but their business consisted
in eating and drinking
until they made the king sick from the excessive
drinking of wine.” Even
worse, if possible, was the fact of his debasing
himself by companionship
with profane scoffers. Rashi aptly
observes, “The king
withdraws his hand from the good and worthy
in order to join in
fellowship with scorners. The men that put the
bottle to his mouth with
professed friendliness were, as the
event proved, plotting his
ruin and preparing for his assassination.”
NATURE OF, SIN. The
respite was not a real rest from sin; it was only
the interval while the mischief
was being premeditated, and the opportunity
for putting it in practice
waited for.
Ø
In the morning, at the
first and earliest opportunity, soon as the plot was
matured and the favorable
moment for its execution arrived, the fire of
passion or lust that had
been burning slowly all the time broke out afresh
and with greatly increased
vigor. They made ready, applied, or, as Pusey
says,” literally brought
near their heart. Their heart was
ever brought
near to sin, even while the occasion was removed at a distance from
it.”
While the leaven is
commingling with the dough and the fuel combining
with the fire, the baker
may sleep, or seem to do so; so, while temptation,
like fuel, is acting on
the fire of lust within, and the evil suggestion of
Satan is pervading the
powers of the soul in which it has found lodging
(I recommend Jeremiah 4 –
Spurgeon Sermon – Bad Lodgers and
How to Treat Them –
this web site – CY – 2012); the tempter may
appear to slumber. The work
is going on internally, and once the
occasion offers it shall be
carried out externally in full force and certain
effect.
Ø
A man throws a stone
in the air and it comes back on his own head; men
sin themselves or tempt
others to sin, and the consequences recoil on
themselves. The Israelite
kings, from the period of the disruption in the
days of Jeroboam, corrupted
the worship of God or acquiesced in that
corruption (Jeremiah 5:31),
and induced the people to conform to that
corruption and other sinful
courses that followed in its wake; and ALL
FOR THEIR OWN
POLITICAL ADVANTAGE AND PRIVATE
SELFISH ENDS — to prevent, if possible, the return of power to
the Davidic line, and the
reunion of the ten tribes with the two. But the
time of reaction arrived,
and the retributive Nemesis began to work;
the people who had been
corrupted by their rulers now turned
against their corrupters; disloyalty to God brought in its train
disloyalty to man; kings and subordinate rulers perished in quick
succession. And notwithstanding the
times of anarchy, insecurity
for life and property, and GENERAL UPHEAVAL OF
SOCIAL
ORDER — amid all those
scenes of terrible confusion, there was
none among them to realize
the fact that “for the transgression of a
land many are the princes thereof” (Proverbs
28:2). Consequently
there was none among them to call
upon God in supplication for relief
and preservation. (However, ponder how Proverbs 28:2 ends:
“But by a man of
understanding and knowledge the state
thereof shall be prolonged!” - CY – 2012)
8 “Ephraim, he hath mixed
himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake
not turned.” The people of the northern kingdom had fallen away
from Jehovah,
and mixed themselves with the heathen nationalities.
They resembled a cake which,
through neglect of turning, was burnt on the one side and raw on the other.
The best commentary on the first clause of this
verse is found in Psalm 106:35-36,
and 39; they “were
mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
And they served
their idols: which were a snare unto them.... Thus were
they defiled with their own works, and went a-whoring with
their own
inventions.” The second clause is well explained by Bishop
Horsley as follows:
“One thing on
one side, another on the other; burnt to a coal at bottom, raw
dough at the top. An apt image of A CHARACTER THAT IS ALL
INCONSISTENCIES! Such were the
ten tribes of the prophet’s day;
worshippers of Jehovah in profession, but adopting
all the idolatries of the
neighboring nations,
in addition to their own semi-idolatry of the calves.”
Similarly, the Geneva Bible has, “Baked on one side and raw on the
other, he is neither through hot nor through cold, but partly a Jew
and partly a
Gentile.” (Reminiscent of Christ’s
depiction of the
of Laodecia – “I
know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:
I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm,
and neither cold nor hot, I will spue
thee out of my mouth.” –
Revelation 3:15-16).
Jehovah had chosen
earth, and given them a special constitution. The object of this segregation
was that
distinguished, they were to dwell alone; but, ungrateful for this high
distinction, and unmindful of their high destiny, they
mingled
with the nations,
learned their heathenish ways, and worshipped
their hateful idols. Thus they forfeited their theocratic preeminence.
While it was their privilege as well as duty to follow the
precepts
of Jehovah, and serve Him with undivided affection, they
fell away from His
service and adopted the idolatries and habits of the
heathen; it was only a
just retribution, therefore, when God gave them ever into the hand
of those
heathen peoples TO WASTE THEIR RESOURCES AND LEAVE
THEM SHORN OF THEIR STRENGTH! The
second clause is the
counterpart of this; exactly like the peoples subsequently
brought from
and planted in the lands of the dispossessed Israelites,
they feared
the
Lord, but served their own gods (II Kings 17:33) — they were neither true
worshippers of Jehovah nor out-and-out followers of
Baal. In religion
THEY
WERE MONGRELS —
inconsistent and worthless
hybrids; they were, in fact,
what Calvin in
rather homely phrase says of them,” neither flesh nor fish.” The
comment of Kimchi is concise as it is clear:
“The prophet means to say, He
(
separated them from them, yet they mix themselves among them and do
according to their works.” His explanation of the second clause is not so
satisfactory when he says, “As a cake which is
baked upon the coals; if
they do not turn it, it is burnt below and not baked
above, so is the counsel
that is not right when they do not turn it from side
to side (sense to sense)
until they bring it upon their wheels (into action). So (THOUGHTLESS
and HASTY) is Ephraim in his determination
to serve the calves and
other gods without proving and choosing what is good.”
The Decline of
Spiritual Life in the Soul (v.8)
A cake not turned signifies what is
spoiled, ill-advised, and worthless.
The figure appropriately describes the backslidings of true and professed believers.
We shall mention one or two symptoms which even those who themselves manifest
them are prone to fail to recognize.
our hearts are growing up now, and occasioning us spiritual failure and
confusion. Little sins are like these” grey hairs;” e.g. the spirit of over-
carefulness, the spirit of caviling, the spirit of ostentation in religious
duties, the unforgiving spirit, undue love of human praise, uncharitable
judging, etc. (I recommend: Genesis 19 – Spurgeon Sermon – Little Sins –
this web site – CY - 2012)
to come to the throne of grace, and has spread for us the communion-table.
But how gradually may we lose our relish for these means of grace, and
how easily may the habit of neglecting them steal in upon our souls!
Church member’s sin.” Thomas Binney has said of it that it is “about the
only great damning vice which can be indulged and clung to in connection
with a recognized modern religious profession.” There is no sin more
insidious; it may occupy the heart and one “not know” it.
appeal to sense and self, and continually tempt us to give up trying to lead
a spiritual, pure, and consecrated life. Even a true believer, before he
knows it, may be “following afar off” (Matthew 26:58), and slowly abating
his testimony as a nonconformist to the ungodly customs of the world.
We require frequently to “examine
ourselves, whether we be in the faith”
(II Corinthians 13:5).
We ought constantly to hold up before our
eyes the
clear mirror of Holy Scripture, that we may detect the “grey
hairs.” We
must also see reflected in it THE
GLORIOUS FORM OF THE LORD
JESUS , THE ONE IMAGE OF PERFECT MANHOOD! There are
no “grey hairs” upon Him; “His locks are bushy, and black
as a raven”
(Song of Solomon 5:11). We
must seek grace to give ourselves
CONSTANTLY TO THE IMITATION OF CHRIST!
9 “Strangers have devoured
his strength, and he knoweth it not:” –
disaster; a specimen of that disaster is here given. As the Greeks called all
who did not speak the Greek language, whether they were
savage or
civilized, barbarians, so
strangers. The foreign nations here meant were those with
which
entered into treaties or formed alliances, in contravention
of the
constitution which God had given them. These nations, moreover,
devoured their national resources by the imposition of
taxes and hostile
incursions; thus the King of Syria left “of the people to Jehoahaz
only fifty
horsemen, and ten
chariots, and ten thousand footmen; for the King of
(II Kings 13:7);
again, when “Pul,
the King of
land,” we
read that “Menahem gave Pul a
thousand talents of silver, that
his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom
in his hand. And
Menahem exacted the money
of Israel, even of all the mighty men of
wealth, of each
man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the King of
(Ibid. ch. 15:19-20); then, “in the days of Pekah
King of
Tiglath-pileser King of
and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazer,
and Gilead, and
the
The strength here mentioned includes all those things
which constitute the
wealth and well-being of a country, the produce of
the soil and the riches of its
inhabitants. Thus Aben Ezra
rightly explains this clause, referring it to “the
tribute which the Israelites gave to Assyria and
Book of Kings.” – “yea, grey hairs are here and there (margin,
sprinkled)
upon him,” - What from foreign foes and internal feuds, the BODY
POLITIC was MANIFESTING UNMISTAKEABLE SYMPTOMS
OF DECAY AND DECRETITUDE AND APPROACHING
DISSOLUTION just as grey
hairs on the human body give indication of
the
advance of old age, with its decay of strength and nearness to the tomb.
“The course of nature,” says Aben
Ezra, “has sprinkled grey hairs upon him, just
as grey hair comes on men in consequence
of the course of nature;” this
corresponds to the sentiment of the
preceding clause, for, according to the
commentator just named,” the grey
hair denotes that their power is weakened
and their possession perished.”
- “yet he knoweth
not.” “And he knoweth
(it) not,” and
repeats the same sentiment, of course with emphasis of what was
and the decay of the national importance. After so many
drains upon their
resources and the unsatisfactory position of their foreign
relations, they
could not shut their eyes upon the STEADILY AND RAPIDLY
APPROACHING DECADENCE!
But though they could not
pretend
ignorance of the fact, THEY
REMAINED IGNORANT:
Notwithstanding the already exhausted condition of their
country, and the
process of exhaustion still going on, they overlooked the lamentable cause
of all, which was their sin, national and individual, in
departing from
the Lord; and at the
same time the dangerous consequences that were neither
remote nor capable of being staved off; as also THE ONLY POSSIBLE
CURE TO BE FOUND IN DIRECT AND IMMEDIATE RETURN
TO GOD FROM WHOM THEY HAD
SO REVOLTED!
10 “And the pride of
to the Lord their God, nor seek Him for all this.” - (amid all this). If with
Keil and others we understand “the pride of
the glory of
be that Jehovah bore witness to the face of
of their kingdom, as portrayed in the preceding verse. We
prefer to understand
“the pride of
in the sense of “being humbled,” as
in ch.5:5. The real meaning, then, is expressed
in the following rendering: And the haughtiness
of
his face. This humiliation is the effect of the wasting mentioned
in the preceding
verse; while the evidence of their humiliation is specified
in the succeeding verse
by their resorting to
their helplessness.
This rendering is countenanced by the
Septuagint., both
here and in ch.5:5; while Rashi says, “The verb עגה
has the meaning of
“humiliation.” For
all this. This emphasizes the
obstinate blindness and
perverseness of Ephraim, when, amid all the calamities and miseries of the
kingdom both within and without, they turned not to Jehovah to solicit
help and
deliverance, but concluded treaties or made alliances with
foreign nations
in hope of being
lifted up out of their NATIONAL
IMPOTENCE! On
this Aben Ezra makes the
judicious remark: “They turned not to Jehovah as
paupers who have nothing more to give foreign nations that
they may help them.”
11 “Ephraim also is like a
silly dove without heart:” - The silliness
of the dove, with which the stupidity of Ephraim is
compared, is not
manifested by its missing its nest and resting-place, and
then helplessly
fluttering about, according to Ewald;
nor by its falling into the net of the
bird-catcher in its effort to escape from the hawk,
according to Hitzig; nor
by its neither grieving nor searching for its young when it
is robbed of
them, according to Jerome; nor by its becoming dejected or
devoid of
consideration when it has lost its young, according to the Targum; BUT BY
ITS FLYING RIGHT INTO THE NET OF A BIRD-CATCHER,
WITHOUT SUSPECTING IT OR OBSERVING IT, IN ITS
SEARCH FOR FOOD, according
to Rosenmüller. Thus Kimchi
explains
it: “The prophet compares Ephraim to a dove which gets
caught in a net
owing to its simplicity, because it has no sense to perceive
that, when
it goes to gather grains of corn, a net is spread there to
catch it.
Normally, the net is spread in vain in the sight of
any bird Proverbs 1:17).
So Ephraim, when they went and asked help from Assyria or
from
not perceive) that they went to their hurt, when they
sought help from the
foreign nations and not from God — Blessed be Be! — in whose hand all is.
And he mentions the dove, though it is the manner of other
birds, because
the dove has no bitterness, as if it went in simplicity and
without
apprehension of the evil that would come upon it.” – “they
call to
they go to
attacks from the two great rival powers of
“It stood midway,” says
empire,
of these mighty powers, the prize for which they contended,
the battlefield
on which they fought, the lofty bridge over which they
ascended and
descended respectively into the deep basins of the Nile and
Accordingly the rulers of the people sought help, now from
strengthen them against the oppression of
sought to secure the support of
northern kingdom was
more, until at last they made an end of it. “But,” says Kimchi, “while they
think to obtain
help by them (
the Almighty — Blessed be He! — and this is what He says (in the following
verse). As they go I spread my net over them.”
The
Silly Sinful Pride and Obduracy of
Tokens of Decay, or Their Disastrous
Foreign Policy (vs. 8-11)
The prophet had described the corruption; he now turns to
the state of the
country. From the iniquity of the princes he descends to THE
SIN OF THE
PEOPLE. The figure of baking
is still present to the prophet, as is evident
from the metaphor of a cake.
ALLEGIANCE. God had
intended to separate
nations, and by prohibiting
intermarriages to keep them distinct.
Ø
The great purpose of this
separation was to prevent their associating
with their heathen
neighbors, and conforming to their idolatries and
immoralities. Thus they
were to conserve the doctrines of the Divine
unity, the knowledge of the
true God, and the purity of His worship.
But by intercourse with
their neighbors, and forming alliances now
with one then with another,
in order to secure their help — the help
of one against another — they
got mixed up with them, and
became like a cake in which
two ingredients at least, Judaism and
Gentilism, were kneaded together. The consequence of such
admixture, as the word (יִתְבּוֹלָ֑ל) implies, was CONFUSION!
Ø
But, in addition to
baking the cake of such heterogeneous elements,
there was the defective ovening, or rather imperfect hardening of the
cake by fire, so that one
side was burnt and blackened, the other
doughy and damp — neither
roast nor raw, and consequently useless.
Thus
and Baal (I Kings 18:21);
now zealous for the latter and indifferent to
the former, or the
converse; more commonly cold towards Jehovah
and warm for Baal;
frequently neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm
(Revelation 3:15-16). They
blended Gentile idolatry with the worship
of the true God; they
joined in the calf-worship at Dan and
while they swore by the
Name of Jehovah. It is thus also with many
professing Christians: they
have a name to live, but are dead
(Ibid. v.1); they have a
form of godliness, but want the power
(II Timothy 3:5); they are
hypocritical professors, but are devoid
of real godliness. Whatever
outward services they perform, it is
for parade or to be seen of
men, while they are strangers to the
practice of piety and
exercise of charity. The Targum explains this
of punishment rather than
of position. “The house of Ephraim is like
to a cake baked on coals,
which before it is turned is eaten;” that is,
they are suddenly destroyed
by their enemies, who are like hungry
men that, without waiting
for the turning and proper baking of a cake,
snatch it up, though only
half baked, and speedily devour it.
a person or a people, one way in which
He manifests such displeasure is by
DESERTION! He leaves them in the hands of their enemies.
On the
contrary, when a man’s
ways please the Lord, He makes his enemies to be
at peace with him (Proverbs 16;7). When
thus deserted, strangers devoured his strength, that is to say, his
substance;
they robbed him of his wealth,
they wasted the fruits of his field, they dismantled
his fortresses, they destroyed
the flower of the population, and they imposed
oppressive tribute. The
strangers referred to included several nationalities. The
Syrians had so weakened and
distressed
they had made them “like the
dust by threshing” (II Kings 13:7). Then
came
the Assyrians under Pul in the days of Menahem King
of
a tribute of a thousand talents
of silver, thus draining their resources and
devouring their strength.
Subsequently, Tiglath-pileser, monarch of
captured many of the Israelitish fortresses, and carried the inhabitants into
captivity. By such exactions and
devastations strangers exhausted the
strength of
plentiful, are a sign that old
age has already arrived; grey hairs, when
sprinkled here and there, are
symptoms of its approach, and of life’s
decline.
Ø
Grey hairs had at this
time appeared here and there in
proved the kingdom to be in
a weak and declining state; they were not
only symptomatic of the
present, but prognostic of the future. The
afforded proof plain and
simple of national declension at present
existing through the
depredations and exactions of the enemy; they
also foreboded the
melancholy fact that UTTER DECAY WAS
NEAR AT HAND.
Ø
But there is also
spiritual decay, and the life of the
soul IS
SUBJECT TO IT! How
many professing Christians — members
of the visible Church — are in this sad
condition of spiritual declension,
and hardly conscious of it! Grey hairs are here and there upon them,
and they know it not. The dwelling-place of
God is not so lovely, nor
the tabernacles of His grace so amiable, as they
once were; there is
not the same relish for the Word
of God
as there once was; prayer
is not so fervent or so frequent
as formerly; praises
are not so hearty
nor so heavenly as when the
Christian life began; — all such
circumstances give evidence that
grey hairs are here and there upon
persons in the condition
indicated, whether they perceive them or
not. But we cannot stay to
dwell on the nature of spiritual decay and the
marks thereof; we may,
however, briefly sum them up. They are such as
the following: diminished
appreciation of the Divine Word, without self-
application of it or growth
in the knowledge of it; restraining prayer
before God, without supplication
for one’s self on special occasions
and under particular
circumstances, and without earnest intercession
for others; less love to
Christ and less leaning on Him; less hatred of
sin and less esteem for the
righteous.
Ø
It is of prime
importance to ascertain the causes of decay. What
caused the national decay
of
“They are all
adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker;”
this
was one of the causes of
intercourse with the
ungodly: “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself
among the people” (v. 8). These may be taken as
specimens of the
causes which brought about
the national decline of
prevailed, or when they
associated freely among the nations instead
of dwelling alone, grey
hairs appeared here and there upon them. So
is it with spiritual decay
in the case of Christians. When sensual
lust, or lust for gold, or
for pleasure, or for praise, overmasters a
follower of Christ, decay has
set in, grey hairs show themselves here
and there upon him. Again,
when worldly society is eagerly sought
and keenly relished by
Christians, forgetful that, like
they are a peculiar people,
as our Lord has said, “Ye are not of
the world, as I
am not of the world” (John 17:16), then spiritual
affections are decaying,
grey hairs are here and there upon them.
Ø
The most surprising
circumstance of all is the ignorance of those who
are sufferers by this
process of decay.
did not wish to
know, as if by ignoring it he could
conceal it from
himself or others. “He knoweth not,” says Pusey, “the tokens of
decay in himself, but hides
them from himself; he knoweth not God,
who is the Author of them;
he knoweth not the cause of them, his
sins; he knoweth not the end and
object of them, his conversion;
he knoweth
not what, since he knoweth not any of these things,
will be the issue of them, his destruction.” Somehow thus it is
with spiritual decay. Most
persons dislike the idea of growing old,
or even of being thought
old. They care not to notice themselves,
and they conceal from others
as much as possible, the marks of age
and the progress of decay. All the while grey hairs multiply, and
old age creeps on apace, almost imperceptibly and without being
observed, so that in a
certain sense many
persons become old without
fully realizing the fact. Likewise in the decay of
life in a Christian’s
soul, it goes on secretly, and little, if at all, noticed, like the silent
advance of age with its
gradually increasing decrepitude and decay;
grey hairs are here and
there upon him, and he knows it not. Let us
beware of the insidious
approach of spiritual decay, and be on our
guard against it.
AND GOD. Notwithstanding
remained unsubdued;
it prevented their return to God; it stood in the way
of their seeking Him. Or, if the
other translation be preferred, and if it be
granted that
upon them, those calamities had
not been sanctified, and so they returned
not to nor sought
the Lord. For all this, and in spite of all God’s merciful
dealings with them, they
persisted in their impenitence and stood out
against the Most High. God had
shown them His loving-kindness, and again
He had visited them with severe
corrections; He had almost exhausted the
resources of His grace; and yet
they were in no way bettered, but rather
grew worse. So is it with many.
God’s gracious dealings fail to draw them
to God; His afflictive
dispensations too often drive them away from God.
And yet, when He sends affliction, it is A LOUD CALL on men, not
only to seek
relief from God, BUT TO SEEK GOD HIMSELF
(Our testimony should be with
the psalmist, “When thou saidst,
Seek ye
my face; my heart said unto thee, THY FACE, LORD, WILL I
SEEK!” - Psalm
27:8 – CY – 2012), His face and favor-free as
well as that help which He alone
can give; whereas obstinate impenitence
frustrates the dispensations of
way better men or improve their
state.
RESORTING TO WRONG SOURCES OF SUCCOR AND RELIEF.
Ø
Simplicity with godly
sincerity, in accepting the Word of God and in
obeying the will of God, is
estimable and highly commendable; simplicity
without a heart to love
God, following His guidance, and delighting in His
governance, is both
wrong-headed and reprehensible. With regard to the
former there is the
promise, “The Lord preserveth
the simple”
(Psalm 116:6), in relation
to the latter the solemn question is asked,
“How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity?” (Proverbs
1:22) - The union of simplicity or ingenuousness of
purpose with
understanding of heart is
commended by the exhortation of our Lord,
“Be ye
wise as serpents, harmless [or, ‘simple ‘]
as
doves”
(Matthew 10:16).
Ø
The silliness of
the specimen of
their conduct which the prophet subjoins. The
calamities which befell them were so many calls to them to return
to God and seek His
merciful interposition; but, instead of
applying
to God, they exhibited unspeakable folly in having recourse to one or
other of the two great
rival powers,
former was as unreliable as
a broken reed, piercing the hand that leans
on it (Isaiah 36:6), and
the latter crushing and cruel as the king of
foreign beasts in devouring
his prey. “
“was a delusive promiser, not failing only, but piercing those who
leant on it;
Ø
The miseries which
frequently involve
themselves by taking a similarly silly and simple
course, were:
o
inescapable, and such as they could by no possibility
extricate themselves from,
for the net of God would ensnare
and envelop them.
o
unquestionably
certain; for however high hopes men
may
entertain of their carnal
confidences, to whatever height of
temporary prosperity they
may be elevated, God is sure to
bring them down, and their
fall will be disgraceful in proportion
to the elevation they
fancied themselves to have attained.
o
sore chastisements, and all the sorer from being so
well deserved.
Ø
The folly of such
conduct in the face of warnings so great and manifold
is as inexcusable as
undeserving of pity.
or traveled northward to
turning their back on God;
while to all the exhortations and
remonstrances addressed to the congregation of
lend an ear. Line upon line they had been favored with in the book
of the Law — in the
blessings on obedience and the curses on
disobedience which Ebal and Gerizim respectively
re-echoed
(Deuteronomy 27:11-26), in
the teachings of other prophets, in the
appeals of Hosea himself;
their heedlessness to all these disentitled
them to sympathy from man or SUCCOR FROM GOD!
12 “When they shall go, l
will spread my net upon them;” - Threats
of punishment are contained in this and the following
verses. He begins by
the application of the comparison of Ephraim to a dove.
Exactly as a dove
in its silliness falls into the net set by the fowler, so
of destruction in seeking help from
is, according as they go, or, whatsoever way they shall go.
God threatens
to spread a net over them, from which there can be no
escape. The chief
aim of Hebrew sovereigns and rulers was to defend
themselves from
by the help of Assyria, or from Assyria by the aid of
God threatens to spread over them the net of destruction as
the bird-catcher.
The application to one or other of these powers God
forbade, but
when they go to either for relief, the result is sure to
prove fatal. The image
of a net is frequent in Ezekiel; so in Job, he “hath compassed me with his
net” (Job
19:6) - “I will bring them down as
the fowls of the heaven;” -
The comparison with birds and bird-catching continues.
Though their sunward
soaring flight be high as the eagle’s, or rapid as the soft
swift wing of the
dove, they cannot outrun or escape the hand of God, but
shall be
brought down to earth. Or the idea may be that, swiftly as
a bird of prey
swoops down out of the free air of heaven upon its quarry
on the low-lying
earth, Jehovah will bring
of captivity. Thus in Obadiah 1:4 we read, “Though thou exalt thyself
as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the
stars, thence will I
bring thee down, saith the
Lord;” likewise in Amos 9:2, “Though they
dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though
they climb up to
heaven, thence will I bring them down” - “I will chastise
them as their
congregation hath heard.”
The word אַיְסִידֵם is an anomalous Hiphil
instead of אֵיסִירֵם, that is, yod mobile
instead of yod quiescent or
diphthongal zere. The literal
rendering makes the meaning more obvious; it
is: “I will chastise
them according to the tidings [or,’ announcement ‘] to
their
congregation.” In the Law and by the
prophets it was repeatedly
declared that judgments would fall upon the disobedient and
rebellions. As
specimens of such announcements, we may refer to Leviticus
26:14-39;
Deuteronomy 28:15-68; and 32:15-35. The prophet
now assures Ephraim
that the judgments so frequently and forcibly announced
to the congregation
of the children of
times by the prophets, WOULD BE EXECUTED ON THE REBELLIOUS
RIGOROUSLY and IN EXACT ACCORDANCE WITH THOSE MANY
PREVIOUS DENUNCIATIONS!
Kimchi has the
following comment: “I will
assemble them through the chastisement of the peoples, as I
announced to
their assembly in the wilderness words of chastisement,
which are written
in the Law, if they will not hearken to the words of the
Law.” The Septuagint
may
have read μtrx, as their rendering is ἐν τῇ ἀκοῇ τῆς θλίψεως
αὐτῶν,– en tae akontaes thlipseos auton - equivalent to “‘I will chasten them
with the rumor of their (coming)
affliction,”
13 “Woe unto them! for
they have fled from me: destruction (margin,
spoil)
unto them! because they have transgressed
against me.” Of these exclamations,
the first is general and indefinite, the second is specific
and precise. The thought of
coming chastisement calls forth the exclamation of
woe; while the second exclamation
fixes the character and explains the nature of that
woe denounced. In neither case
does יְהִי or ךיבֹא need to be supplied; the opposite expression is שָׁלום
לָהֶם or בְּלָכָה לָהָם.
In assigning the reason, there is a
retrospective reference to the
figures of the two immediately preceding verses. The word נָדַד
with min
is
employed in relation to birds which, when scared from their nest, fly
away. Kimchi thinks it applies to the abstention
or withdrawal of the
Israelites from Divine service in the
national sanctuary in
comment is: “They fly from me, from the service of the
house of my
sanctuary, to the service of the calves; and this is a
breach of faith and
defection from me.” The Septuagint translate the beginning
of the second clause
freely by δειλαῖοι εἰσὶν – deilaioi eisin
- equivalent to “they are cowards.”
The cause assigned is their breaking covenant with God,
which is expressed by
פָשַׁע, literally, “to break away from,” “tear one’s self loose
from” – “though
I have redeemed them,” - This first part of the last
clause is rendered
as a past by some, as Jerome, who refers it to the
redemption from
approves of this, but, instead of restricting it to the
deliverance from
includes their recent deliverance from the Syrians by
Jeroboam II. It is
better rendered in a voluntative
or optative sense: “I would (should
like) to redeem them, but they speak lies against (or,
concerning) me.” The
verb ‘ephdem cannot
with any propriety be taken for a preterite. Yet they
have spoken lies against me; rather, but they on their
part have spoken lies
concerning me. The
prophet had already charged them with lying at v. 3,
and previously in ch. 4:2; but
their lies were not confined to their
intercourse or dealings with their fellow-men; they spoke
lies against or, as
the preposition sometimes signifies, concerning God.
The lies in question
included, no doubt, a denial of His essential Deity or sole
Divinity; of His
power or willingness either to protect or punish. Or they
might consist in
their falsehood in drawing
near to God with their lips without either true
faith or real affection in their hearts; some were directly opposed to the
claims of Jehovah, some insincere in His service, and others
turned aside to
the idolatry of the calves — all, with probably some
honorable exceptions,
had proved false to His covenant with
independently by Ewald, without
any considerable alteration of the
sense: “I, for my part, would redeem them, “yet they have spoken lies
against me.” The
whole clause is correctly explained by Kimchi thus: “It
was in my heart to
redeem them out of their distress; but they speak lies against
me, while they
say that I know nothing nor exercise any providential care over
their actions,
whether their actions are good or bad. Therefore I have withdrawn
my providential oversight, and have hidden my face from
them, and they
shall be consumed.”
14 “And they have not
cried unto me with their heart, when
they howled upon their beds:” - This clause may be more correctly
rendered, They did not cry to me in their heart, but
howl upon their beds.
Their falsehood manifested itself in works as well as words; a practical
example is here given. They did not, in reality, seek help
from God; if they
sought at all, it was insincerely. They cried to God, but that cry did not
proceed from their heart. They gave vent to their feelings of distress by
howlings upon their beds; but those howlings
were the
expression of
unbelief and despair, not by any means evidences of faith. “They do not cry
to me,” says Aben Ezra, “as the
sick man cries to the physician.” The
comment of Kimchi is still fuller
and more explicit: “They have not cried to
me in their heart, because of their notion that I do not
see their cry nor
know what is good or bad for them; but they howl upon their
beds, i.e.
when they are upon their bed and when they think of that misfortune which
is coming upon them. They howl and weep because of their evil case, and
do not think that the evil falls on them from me, because
they have broken
faith with me.” The form of יְיֵלִלִוּ is
correctly explained by Gesenius as
future Hiphil with preformative
put before the third person, the yod of
the
simple form being superficially taken to belong to the stem. His
derivation
from אֵל, God, as if a cry to Him for help, is incorrect; it is
really an
onomatopoetic (the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom,
by
imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent) word -
“they assemble themselves for corn
and wine, and they rebel against me.”
What this assembling of themselves
was does not clearly appear; whether it was in the market-place or elsewhere to
purchase corn in time of famine, as some think; or in
idol-temples to propitiate their deities, like the Roman supplicatio or lectiosternium,
as others suppose; or for the performance of some extra rite of worship
to Jehovah; or for the purpose of plunder in a season of scarcity; or generally
their assembling in knots
and
crowds to discuss anxiously and lament
despairingly the distressed state of the
country; — their
chief design and highest aim being a good supply of corn
and wine, that is, the
supply of MERE BODY WANTS! The construction
of the last clause is pregnant, that is “they turn aside (and turn) against me.”
Here, again the Septuagint seem to have read יִוָּסְרוּ, to which their
translation,
ἐπαιδεύθησαν - epaideuthaesan en emoi - equivalent to “they were
instructed by me,” corresponds.
Useless prayers (v.14)
There are two instances in Scripture of true repentance at
the point of death.
Manasseh in the Old Testament (II Chronicles 33:12-13), and
the dying thief
in the New Testament (Luke 23:42). These save from despair,
yet are too
few to allow any to presume on them, Four characteristics
of the useless
prayer mentioned in the text,
the idols had been worshipped.
Now death seemed near, the Name of
Jehovah was on the
trembling lip. Mercifully, delay is not of itself sufficient
to make a cry to God useless.
David lingered in sin till Nathan rebuked
him. The prodigal dwelt in the far
country till all was gone, etc. Still it is
perilous to defer
any known duty, most of all that of coming to God.
their heart.” This fact would make any prayer useless. “God is a Spirit,
and they that worship Him must worship Him in
spirit, and in truth”
(John 4:24). Compare the prayers of the Pharisees’in
the temple or the
street with those of publicans and
sinners (Matthew 6:5,7; 15:8).
The agony of pain or the dread
of meeting God, not the consciousness of
sin, caused this. Repentance is
not the dread of sin’s punishment, but the
turning from sin because of its
sinfulness. Contrast the cry of the
condemned criminal with the
prayer of the dying Christian. Depict, for
example, the death of Stephen
(Acts 7:55-60), and the utterance of Paul
about his departure (II Timothy
4:6-8).
subsequent conduct of those who offered
it. This is described in the next
clause. No sooner were they
restored to health than “they assembled
for
corn and wine,” i.e.
went back to the old revelries and
forgetfulness. How
many have dealt thus with
God! Brought back from the gates of
death,
the spared life
is no more sober, devout, and holy than the past. Let us
beware lest we harden ourselves
through the deceitfulness
of sin (Hebrews
3:13). If, of those restored (“Where
are the nine?” - see Luke 17:17), so
small a proportion prove that
the prayers and vows in illness were genuine
and availing, how can we indulge
much hope of those whose future is not in
time but in eternity?
In view of this solemn subject: We need to :
15 “Though I have bound (margin, chastened) and strengthened their arms,
yet do they imagine mischief against me.” The first
clause of this verse is more
accurately translated as follows: And yet I have
instructed, have strengthened
their arms. Here we have another instance of God’s goodness
and
ingratitude. He had done much
for them, and would fain have
done more;
and yet the return they
made was devising mischief against Him.
The arms are
the seat and symbol of strength, as the hands and fingers
symbolize skill; thus,
in reference to the
latter the psalmist says, “Blessed be the Lord my Strength,
which teacheth my hands to war,
and my fingers to fight” (Psalm 144:1);
and with regard to the former he says, “He teacheth my hands to war, so that a
bow of steel is broken by mine arms” (Ibid. ch. 18:34). Two benefits are here
included in the prophet’s enumeration. He instructed the arms, by
which is meant
that he showed them how and where to get strength.
But this was not all; He not
only directed to the source, and taught the secret of
acquiring strength, He actually
supplied strength, thereby giving them power
to contend against and conquer their
enemies. At a time when “there
was not any shut up, nor any left
[that is,
‘neither bond nor free’] nor
helper for
the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash” (II Kings 14:26).
Notwithstanding
all this, they acted the
part of apostates and rebels against Him: they devised
mischief against Him by their idolatry which denied Him the
Godhead glory which
was His due, and by their rebellion which aimed at
depriving Him of His kingly
power and dignity. The reference of the last clause, according to Ewald, is to
the treaties which
defense; and according to Kimchi,
to
government and providence of Jehovah: “For they say the good
or evil does not
come to them from me, but is purely accidental.” With
respect to יסר, it must be
borne in mind that, like ינח, it has two meanings, viz. the chastisement of
punishment (κόλασις - kolasis - punishment) and the
chastisement of love
(παιδεία - paideia – correction; chastisement ).
16 “They return, but not
to the Most High:” - This verse is closely
connected in sense with the preceding. Their God-defying attitude, as
described in v.15, is represented in v 16 allegorically as
a deceitful
bow, which fails to send the arrow to the mark; also their
ill success is
represented as exposing them to the derision of
who spake so exceeding proudly,
and who instigated their ungodliness and
consequent wretchedness, would be slain with the sword.
This is the drift
of the whole verse; its details, however, demand more
particular
consideration.
equivalent to “the Most High;” by
others it is taken adverbially, and
translated “upwards.”
The Septuagint does not express it translating
ἀπεστράφησαν εἰς οὐθέν - apestraphaesan eis outhen - They turned
aside to that which is not [literally, ‘nothing’].”
Jerome translates it as is
עֶלְיון, were equivalent to “yoke:
They returned that they might be without
a yoke.” Their return,
according to Jerome, would be to
their pristine
condition before the call
of Abram, like the other nations,
without yoke
or knowledge of law.
“they are like a deceitful
bow: there princes shall fall by the
sword for
the rage of their
tongue: this shall be their derision in
the land of
seemed disposed to return to religiousness, but ere long
they again relapsed
into idolatry. They disappointed the high hopes raised, and
missed their
own high destiny, and thus they resembled a bow, of which
the string,
losing its elasticity, could not propel the arrow to the
object aimed at.
Appearing to return to the worship of Jehovah, they turned
aside to an
idol. Thus in Psalm 78:57, they “turned
back and dealt unfaithfully like
their fathers: they were turned aside like a
deceitful bow.”
Ephraim’s Flight from God
(vs.11-16)
Every sinner may read a warning in the words here addressed
to Ephraim.
Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy
ways” (Job
21:14). They
themselves try, though vainly, to escape from God. They
would fain put a great distance between Him and them (Jonah; the
prodigal).
Ø
Fleeing from God is sin. It
is an attempt on the part of the creature
to establish an independence which the Creator does not
allow. Even
the attempt at such flight God must check and punish.
Ø
Fleeing from God is folly. It
is foolish:
o
because it is an
attempt at the impossible; and
o
because, if the wicked
could succeed in the attempt, it would
still be to their own hurt. Abandoning God, the soul is doomed
to the pursuit of vanity. It cannot rest in itself, for it is
not self-
centered; but neither can it rest in the creature, for the creature
is constantly proving itself a false support. Besides, life without
God has no
longer a proper aim. The soul is thus smitten
with restlessness; its movements become vague, aimless,
erratic. “They call to
from one object to another, and FINDS
REPOSE IN
NONE! (God has designed it this way – CY – 2012)
Existence is a succession of new
trials, and a series of
new disappointments.
Ø
Fleeing from God is destruction. God declares that when the sinner
flees, He will pursue (v.12). No matter how lofty their soarings, He will
spread His net for them, and bring them down. He has forewarned them
of this, and they will find it true, Jonah found, when he
tried to escape,
that God’s net was spread for him. EVERY
SINNER WILL FIND
THE SAME! The net which God spreads for the haughty,
would-be
independent ones is that of His punitive justice. Their pride will end,
as all evil ends, IN
DESTRUCTION!
charge against Ephraim is falsehood (vs. 1, 3). The falsehood is
primarily
falsehood towards God. We have here three phases of it.
Ø
Insincerity in repentance. “They have not
cried with their heart,
When they howled upon their beds, etc. (v.14). The insincerity of
their repentance was evinced:
o
By the very noise they
made about it “they howled,” etc.
o
By their unabridged indulgence in sin: “They assemble
themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against
me.”
They insulted God by lying protestations of a desire to return
to Him, while openly dishonoring Him by their wickedness.
It is not loud outcries,
but changed actions, which show the
reality of repentance (Matthew 3:8).
Ø
Speaking lies against God.
o
God had attested His
willingness to redeem, but they alleged that
He would not do so. “I would redeem them, but they speak lies
against
me” (v. 13). It was easier to profess
doubt of God’s
Word than to fulfill the
moral conditions necessary for the securing
of the blessing.
o
God had shown himself
their true Helper — “ I instructed
and
strengthened their arms” —
yet they plotted alliances with
heathen powers, disowning His past goodness. “They imagine
mischief against me” (v.15). Thus, doubly, they made God a liar.
But their whole life and
worship was a denial of his Word. They
gainsaid the Word sent them by the prophets, denied His anger
at their sins, changed His truth into a lie in the worship of
the calves,
etc. (Modern society also - CY – Romans 1:25).
Ø
Faithlessness in promises. Even when, for a brief moment,
they
seemed wishful of amendment, their goodness did not last
(ch.6:4).
Their promises were broken.
They did not keep faith with God.
They were as “a deceitful bow” (v.16). The
deceitful bow:
o
holds out a promise. The person who shoots thinks he can
depend upon it. It seems a bow that will serve his ends.
o
suggests an aim. The use of a bow is to drive the arrow to
the point aimed at. God had an aim in the calling of Israel.
It
was His desire to reach that aim through the obedience of the
nation. He has an aim in
our own creation, calling, and
moral discipline.
o
proves treacherous on
trial. It
either does not shoot at all, or
sends the arrow but a little way, or turns it off in a different
direction from that which the shooter intended. In any case,
it proves incapable of being depended on. Confidence
cannot be placed in it. It deceives and disappoints.
thus repeatedly disappointed the expectations raised by
repentances and vows.
derision in the,
language — “the rage of their
tongue.” Once their pretensions were
exposed, they would become a mockery to those for the sake of
whose friendship and help THEY HAD
DESERTED GOD!
Terms to
Consider:
Half-Heartedness Moral
Decay Sin’s Malignancy
Wrong Companionship Proverbs
13:20
The following is for advanced
scholars:
SUPPLEMENTARY
NOTES ON vs. 4-7
v. 4 - The
difficulty of the section including vs. 4-7 has occasioned considerable
difference of exposition; it may not, therefore, be amiss to
supplement
the
foregoing observations:
1. Aben Ezra
accounts for בערה being accented as milel
(a) on the ground that, though a feminine formation, it is
really masculine
(to agree with תניו), like נחלה and לילה, both of which, though feminine
in form, are
notwithstanding of the masculine gender. Abarbanel,
who
who is followed by Wimsche:
(b) takes בֹּעָרְה as a participle feminine for בֹּעָרהָ or בֹּעֶרָח, which is justified by the
circumstance that the names of fire and of what is connected
therewith are
feminine in the Semitic, so that חנור is feminine.
2. The word מֵעִיר, which Ewald and others take,
properly we think,
(a) as
participle of Hiphil, is treated
(b) by
Genenius and Maurer as infirmitive
Qal with rain prefixed,
which would
occasion the awkward and unusual combination of two
infinitives each prefixed
with rain in
immediate sequence; while
(c) Kimchi
takes it as infinitive Hiphil contracted for מֵהֵעִיר.
3. More important still is the
interpretation of the verse. There is:
(a) that already given, and which is in some measure supported
by the following
rabbinic comments: "Their evil passion," says Rashi, "which stirs them up, rests
from kneading the dough until it is leavened, i.e. from the
time that any one has
thought on evil in his heart how he shall execute it, he
rests and sleeps till the
morning, when he shall be able to execute it, as the baker
rests from kneading
the dough until it is leavened, when he can bake it."
Similar and yet
somewhat peculiar is the concluding portion of Kimchi's comment:
"As soon as
he lays the pieces of wood into the oven, in order to heat it,
he commands the women to knead, and he ceases to stir them
(the women) up until
the dough is leavened, as he estimates it in his heart, and
then he rouses them to
come with the dough to bake it. And this is the time when
the oven is heated."
(b) The
Septuagint takes עיר as a noun prefixed with the preposition min (ἀπὸ τῆς
φλογός
- apo taes phlogos
- from the flame), and translates the whole as
follows: "They are all adulterers as an oven glowing
from flame for hot-baking,
from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened."
The interpretation
(c) of Wunsche differs considerably
from both the preceding; it is, "They are all
adulterers, like an even, burning from a baker, who rests while stoking from
the
kneading of the dough till its fermentation;" and he
cites in favor of this view
Aben Ezra as follows: "This verse is inverted, and
accordingly the sense is: As the
oven of a baker burneth from the
kneading of the dough till its fermentation, so
that the baker can
scarcely cease to stir it up, but must stir it up and heat it
violently."
v. 5 - In the day of our king the
princes have made him sick with bottles of wine;
he stretched
out his hand with scorners. A like diversity of exposition is found
in connection with ver. 5, at
least it, first clause.
1. There the rendering already given;
but:
2. Wunsche, taking החלו from חלל, to begin, as is done by the Septuagint, Syriac,
Chaldee, and Jerome, translates:" The princes begin [i.e. open] the
day of our
king in the heat of wine." Consequently, yom is
(a) the object of this verb; while,
(b) according to the usual
rendering, it is the accusative of time, equivalent to ביום;
others again
(c) take the word as a nominative absolute, or translate the
clause as an independent
one; thus Simson: "It is the
day of our king."
3. Again, חֲמַח st.
construct of חֵמָה, from the root חמם or יחם, (for the construct state
is used, not only for the genitive-relation, but also before
prepositions, the relative
pronoun, relative clauses, even vav copulative, etc.), is
(a) the accusative of the clause, equivalent to "in the
heat (proceeding) from wine;" or
(b) be may be understood; or
(c) the
preposition rain may be regarded as transposed, - Rashi
explains it: "From the
heat of the wine that burneth in
them;" or
(d) בַּעֲלֵי may be supplied, as Wunsche
suggests, equivalent to "possessors (bearers) of
heat from wine."
4. לֵצ is a scoffer and worse than כְסִיל, a fool, or פְחִי, a simpleton; the last acts through
inexperience, the second from unwisdom,
the first, though possessing in some measure
both wisdom and experience, acts in disregard of both. The
meaning is given by
Kimchi in the following comment: "The sense of חי מי is that the one came with his
bottle full of wine, and the other with his bottle; and they
made the king sick;" and to
this there is an exact parallel in Habakkuk 2:15, "Woe
unto him that giveth his neigh
hour drink, that puttest thy
bottle to him, and makest him drunken also." In the
second clause the expression, "drawing out the
hand," is borrowed from drunken
carousals, in which the hand is stretched out in asking,
receiving, and handing the
goblets; or, more simply, according to Pussy, who says,
"Men in drink reach out their
hands to any whom they meet, in token of their sottish would be friendliness."
v. 6 - For they have made ready
their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their
baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.
This verse, Wunsche thinks, is
probably the most difficult in the whole book.
1. The translation of the first clause in
the Authorized Version is susceptible of a more
literal and improved rendering.
(a) "For they bring near as an oven their
heart, whilst they lie in wait;" that is, they
approach the king with loyalty on their lips, but hatred in
their heart. Their heart
(which is the fact) is heated with evil passion, as an oven
(which is the figure) is
heated for baking purposes; while they are secretly set for
wickedness.
(b) Wunsche, after enumerating
a great variety of renderings and expositions, with none
of which he is satisfied, gives the following: "For
they press close together; like an
oven is their heart in their artifice (cunning)." The
meaning, according to the same
author, is that all, scoffers and king alike, press near
each other, being of one heart
and disposition; cunning makes them one single society.
(c) Keil translates more simply
as follows: "For they have brought their heart into their
ambush, as into the oven." In this rendering he
combines the explanation of Ewald
and Hitzig.
2. In the second clause which Keil translates in the same sense as:
(a) the Authorized
Version, Wunsche
(b) changes the
common reading into אַפְהָם, equivalent to אַפָם, their anger, and
translates accordingly, "All night their anger sleeps,
in the morning it burns like
flaming fire." That the reading here is somewhat
doubtful may be inferred from the
fact that the Septuagint has Ἔφραιμ - Ephraim - Ephraim while the Chaldee
and
Syrian rugzehon, their fury;
still, as it is only a conjectural emendation, we prefer
abiding by the ordinary reading and rendering, at least in
this instance. The following
explanation of the whole verse by Aben
Ezra gives a consistent sense:"By בארבם are
meant their evil purposes, which they devise all night long.
And their heart is like an
oven, only with the difference that there the baker sleeps
the whole night, and only in
the morning kindles the oven; but their heart does not sleep
at all, but devises evil the
whole night." It is curious how Rashi
and Kimchi, while giving in the main the same
explanation with Aben Ezra, differ
from him about the meaning of the sleeping. The
former has the following brief comment: "Their baker
lights the oven. After they
have prepared their heart and thought out the consummation
of their wickedness,
how they could carry the same into effect, then their baker
sleeps, that is, they sleep
till morning; at the break of day, however, they burn like fire,
until they have brought
their wickedness fully to an end." Kimchi
goes into the matter a little more fully, as
is usual with him; he comments as follows: "The heart
is the instrument of the
thought, and the power that works therein is the baker by
way of figure. And as the
baker lights the oven
at night, and in the morning finds that the pieces of wood have
burnt out, and he baketh therein
the bread, which is the chief end of the work of
heating; and lo, the baker sleeps in the night after he has
put the pieces of wood into
the oven, because he has nothing more to do till the
morning. Just so the baker in this
figurative sense, which is the power of thought - he sleeps
in the night; as if he said
he lies there and rests, because the project comes not forth
into execution until the
morning; and the prophet calls him who thinks sleeping,
because that there is no
effort of the body in thought, In the morning he burneth, as if he said that they are in
flame in the morning to execute the evil which they have
devised at night."
v. 7 They are all
hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are
fallen: there is none among them that calleth
unto me.
7. -
1. "To call unto me (God)" is
to cry to God for help and succor, to seek safety and
deliverance with Him. It is not the same with that other
expression, viz. "to call on
the Name of
Jehovah," which is rather to reverence and worship Jehovah.
2. The word דין is more poetic than שָׁפַט, though the meaning of both is "judging," the
latter probably derived from שָׁפַח, to set, then to set right, defend.
3. Their not calling unto God is well
explained by Kimchi as follows: "Also they (the
people) had failed by the hand of their enemies, the kings
of the Gentiles; but,
notwithstanding this, no one among them calls to me. They should have
thought
in their heart, There is no power in the hand of our king to
help us out of
our
distress; we will turn to JEHOVAH, FOR HE IS
OUR HELPER!
This verse is
not so difficult as the three preceding; we proceed,
therefore, in
regular order
to the next.
"Excerpted text Copyright AGES Library, LLC. All rights reserved.
Materials are reproduced by permission."
This material can be found at:
http://www.adultbibleclass.com
If this exposition is helpful,
please share with others.