Bible Commentaries

Ho 11:1-12.

GOD'S FORMER BENEFITS, AND ISRAEL'S INGRATITUDE RESULTING IN PUNISHMENT, YET JEHOVAH PROMISES RESTORATION AT LAST.

Ho 11:5

shows this prophecy was uttered after the league made with Egypt

(2Ki 17:4).

1. Israel . . . called my son out of Egypt--BENGEL translates, "From the time that he (Israel) was in Egypt, I called him My son," which the parallelism proves. So

Ho 12:9 and Ho 13:4

use "from . . . Egypt," for "from the time that thou didst sojourn in Egypt."

Ex 4:22

also shows that Israel was called by God, "My son," from the time of his Egyptian sojourn

(Isa 43:1).

God is always said to have led or brought forth, not to have "called," Israel from Egypt.

Mt 2:15,

therefore, in quoting this prophecy (typically and primarily referring to Israel, antitypically and fully to Messiah), applies it to Jesus' sojourn in Egypt, not His return from it. Even from His infancy, partly spent in Egypt, God called Him His son. God included Messiah, and Israel for Messiah's sake, in one common love, and therefore in one common prophecy. Messiah's people and Himself are one, as the Head and the body.

Isa 49:3

calls Him "Israel." The same general reason, danger of extinction, caused the infant Jesus, and Israel in its national infancy (compare

Ge 42:1-43:34; 45:18; 46:3, 4; Eze 16:4-6; Jer 31:20)

to sojourn in Egypt. So He, and His spiritual Israel, are already called "God's sons" while yet in the Egypt of the world.

2. As they called them--"they," namely, monitors sent by Me. "Called," in

Ho 11:1,

suggests the idea of the many subsequent calls by the prophets.

went from them--turned away in contempt

(Jer 2:27).

Baalim--images of Baal, set up in various places.

3. taught . . . to go--literally, "to use his feet." Compare a similar image,

De 1:31; 8:2, 5, 15; 32:10, 11; Ne 9:21; Isa 63:9; Am 2:10.

God bore them as a parent does an infant, unable to supply itself, so that it has no anxiety about food, raiment, and its going forth.

Ac 13:18,

which probably refers to this passage of Hosea; He took them by the arms, to guide them that they might not stray, and to hold them up that they might not stumble.

knew not that I healed them--that is, that My design was to restore them spiritually and temporally

(Ex 15:26).

4. cords of a man--parallel to "bands of love"; not such cords as oxen are led by, but humane methods, such as men employ when inducing others, as for instance, a father drawing his child, by leading-strings, teaching him to go

(Ho 11:1).

I was . . . as they that take off the yoke on their jaws . . . I laid meat--as the humane husbandman occasionally loosens the straps under the jaws by which the yoke is bound on the neck of oxen and lays food before them to eat. An appropriate image of God's deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian yoke, and of His feeding them in the wilderness.

5. He shall not return into . . . Egypt--namely, to seek help against Assyria (compare

Ho 7:11),

as Israel lately had done

(2Ki 17:4),

after having revolted from Assyria, to whom they had been tributary from the times of Menahem

(2Ki 15:19).

In a figurative sense, "he shall return to Egypt"

(Ho 9:3),

that is, to Egypt-like bondage; also many Jewish fugitives were literally to return to Egypt, when the Holy Land was to be in Assyrian and Chaldean hands.

Assyrian shall be his king--instead of having kings of their own, and Egypt as their auxiliary.

because they refused to return--just retribution. They would not return (spiritually) to God, therefore they shall not return (corporally) to Egypt, the object of their desire.

6. abide--or, "fall upon" [CALVIN].

branches--that is, his villages, which are the branches or dependencies of the cities [CALVIN]. GROTIUS translates, "his bars" (so

La 2:9),

that is, the warriors who were the bulwarks of the state. Compare

Ho 4:18,

"rulers" (Margin), "shields"

(Ps 47:9).

because of their own counsels--in worshipping idols, and relying on Egypt (compare

Ho 10:6).

7. bent to backsliding--Not only do they backslide, and that too from ME, their "chief good," but they are bent upon it. Though they (the prophets) called them (the Israelites) to the Most High (from their idols), "none would exalt (that is, extol or honor) Him." To exalt God, they must cease to be "bent on backsliding," and must lift themselves upwards.

8. as Admah . . . Zeboim--among the cities, including Sodom and Gomorrah, irretrievably overthrown

(De 29:23).

heart is turned within me--with the deepest compassion, so as not to execute My threat

(La 1:20;

compare

Ge 43:30; 1Ki 3:26).

So the phrase is used of a new turn given to the feeling

(Ps 105:25).

repentings--God speaks according to human modes of thought

(Nu 23:19).

God's seeming change is in accordance with His secret everlasting purpose of love to His people, to magnify His grace after their desperate rebellion.