Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Hosea Chapter 12

Hosea 12:1. Lies and desolations— Perfidiousness and violence. Houbigant reads the next clause, They make a covenant with the Assyrians, whilst in the mean time oil is carried into Egypt. That is, "While they were in covenant with the Assyrians, they were secretly and perfidiously seeking an alliance with the Egyptians." Egypt was not a country remarkable for oil of olives, which yet is one great necessary of life in the eastern countries, being very much used there for food. At the same time oil was wanted for lights there, which must not only have been necessarily very numerous in so populous a country; but was also used by the ancient Egyptians in great quantities for illuminations, which are still very frequent in those countries; and especially in those months when the Nile overflows, of which Maillet in his Letters gives a most amusing description, and which we may suppose obtained sometimes, more or less, even in the prophetic times. To which also we may add, the custom which obtains universally there, of keeping lamps burning during the night, in all the apartments of a house that are kept in use; which occasions Maillet to say, that perhaps there is no country in the world where so much oil is consumed as in Egypt. This great consumption of oil occasioned the Egyptians anciently to extract it from other vegetables, as well as olives; and still occasions them to do so. One plant in particular, called cirika, which greatly resembles wild succory, furnishes them with a good deal of oil; but as its smell is very disagreeable, and its light not so clear as that of olive oil, it is not burnt by people of condition, or those who would be thought such. Syria, on the contrary, was a land of oil; and it was produced in great quantities in that part which the Jews inhabited. It is no wonder then, that when the Jews wanted to pay their court to the Egyptians, they sent them the present of oil, with which the prophet here upbraids them. It was what their country produced in great abundance, and it was highly acceptable in Egypt. See the Observations, p. 387.

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Hosea 12:4. Yea, he had power over the angel, &c.— Concerning this translation, see the notes on Genesis 32:0. Houbigant reads the last clause of the verse, And there he spake with him: even Jehovah God of Hosts, Hosea 12:5.: therefore the angel with whom Jacob wrestled—the angel of the covenant—is Jehovah God of Hosts.

He wept— He had wept. Of weeping, Archbishop Newcome says, "we read nothing in Genesis 32:0." Certainly we read nothing of Jacob's weeping upon the occasion of the wrestling or colluctation at Peniel. But as the weeping and supplicating stand connected here with the finding of God at Beth-el, it is evident that this weeping and supplicating were previous to any meeting with God at Bethel; consequently, previous to Jacob's first meeting with God at Beth-el. Now, previous to the first meeting, there was weeping as well as supplicating; for we read, that previous to that meeting Jacob was in distress, and that God answered him in that distress: Genesis 35:3. I allow therefore that the weeping and entreaty, which procured the very extraordinary favour of God's appearance to Jacob in the dream at Beth-el, (Genesis 28:0.) are mentioned here, as part of the means by which he obtained that strength which enabled him to prevail over the angel. The remark of Luther, upon this extraordinary conflict between Jacob and the glorious personage called the angel, is so excellent, that I cannot but subjoin a translation of it here:—

"Various have been the sentiments of learned men concerning this wrestling or colluctation of Jacob. But the history evidently shews, that Jacob was apparently brought to the utmost hazard of his life, and that all the powers of his body were forcibly assailed by his unknown antagonist. He therefore called forth the whole strength of every part of his frame against his opponent, in order to defend his life. Yea, he not only wrestled with all the powers of his body; but his faith was brought into the fullest exercise: he was above all things comforted and supported in this instant peril, from the certainty that he was commanded by Jehovah to return into the land of Canaan. In the next place, with his whole heart he laid hold of the promise given to him in Beth-el by Jehovah, in which protection was most indubitably promised. While therefore he thus agonized, and was so strongly opposed by his unknown antagonist, although he summoned all his bodily powers to his assistance, he still more mightily contended with the hand of faith, eyeing the promise, and confidently resting upon God according to his word, to be preserved and delivered from this imminent danger. Thus by faith he conquered God."

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Hosea 12:5. The Lord is his memorial— The person, of whom it is here said, that the name Lord or JEHOVAH is his memorial, is no other than he whom the patriarch found at Beth-el, who there spake with the Israelites in the loins of their progenitor. He, whom the patriarch found at Beth-el, who there, in that manner, spake with the Israelites, was, by the tenor of the context, the antagonist with whom Jacob was afterwards matched at Peniel. The antagonist, with whom he was matched at Peniel, wrestled with the patriarch, as we read in the book of Genesis, (chap. Genesis 32:24.) in the human form. The conflict was no sooner ended, than the patriarch acknowledged his antagonist as God, Genesis 32:30. The holy prophet first calls him angel, מלאךֶ malaak, Hos 12:4 and after mention of the wrestling or colluctation, and of the meeting and conference at Beth-el, says, (Hosea 12:5.) that he, whom he had called angel, was JEHOVAH God of Hosts. And to make the assertion of this person's godhead, if possible, still more unequivocal, he adds, that to him belonged, as his appropriate memorial, that name, which is declarative of the very essence of the godhead. This Man therefore of the book of Genesis, this Angel of Hosea, who wrestled with Jacob, could be no other than the JEHOVAH-ANGEL, of whom we so often read in the English Bible, under the name of the Angel of the Lord: a phrase of an unfortunate structure, and so ill-conformed to the original, that it is to be feared, it has led many into the error of conceiving of the Lord as one person, and of the Angel as another. The word of the Hebrew, ill rendered, the Lord, is not, like the English word, an appellative, expressing rank, or condition; but it is the proper name JEHOVAH. And this proper name Jehovah is not, in the Hebrew, a genitive after the noun substantive Angel, as the English represents it; but the words Jehovah and Angel, are two nouns substantive in apposition, both speaking of the same person; the one, by the appropriate name of the essence; the other, by a title of office. Jehovah-Angel would be a better rendering. The JEHOVAH-ANGEL of the Old Testament is no other than He, who, in the fulness of time, "was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary."

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Hosea 12:6. Therefore turn thou, &c.— From these words we learn on what account that which is said concerning Jacob, and concerning God, is spoken; and how it so concerned the Israelites of Hosea's time, as that this exhortation should be thence inferred to them. With respect to the things which are mentioned concerning Jacob, they were manifestly so ordered by God, as to be a sign to his sons or posterity after him, and more evidently to be fulfilled in them than in him. What was done by him, shews what ought to have been done by them, that they might approve themselves to be his genuine offspring. What was done or spoken by God, and promised to Jacob, shews what God would certainly do for them, and make good to them, if they so approved themselves; which if they did not, they shewed themselves to be degenerate from him, and to be ungrateful to God; unmindful of his goodness to Jacob, and in him to them: and if they did not enjoy or were deprived of those blessings to him, and in him to them promised, it was through their own fault; not through any failure on God's part; who still continued to be the mighty God of Jacob, able and willing to bless all those who strive with him for a blessing. See Pococke.

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Hosea 12:7. He is a merchant, &c.— Canaan holds the balances of deceit in his hands; Ephraim is so called, because he imitates the practice of fraudulent merchants.

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Hosea 12:8. In all my labours, &c.— My labours shall be my own nor shall the iniquity be found out, wherein I have sinned. Houbigant.

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Hosea 12:9. And I—will yet make, &c.— I, the Lord thy God, brought thee out of the land of Egypt, till I gave thee such a habitation in tents as thou hast in the days of the solemn feast; meaning that of tabernacles.

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Hosea 12:10. I have also spoken by the prophets— Here are three species of prophesy distinctly mentioned: first, immediate suggestion or inspiration, when God dictates the very words which the prophet is to deliver. Secondly, vision, or a representation made of external objects to the imagination, in as lively a manner as if they were conveyed to the senses: and thirdly, parables and apt resemblances. The Lord is here recounting some of the distinguished acts of his sovereign mercy to the Israelites, in order to shew their ingratitude more fully.

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Hosea 12:11. Is there iniquity, &c.— If there was a vain religion in Gilead, certainly they are vain in Gilgal: They sacrifice bullocks; therefore their altars shall be, &c. Houbigant. The tribes beyond Jordan, in one of which was Gilead, were now subdued by Tiglath-Pileser, when the prophet delivered this. He therefore denounces that such should be the case of Gilgal also, where was the same vain and idolatrous worship, on this side of Jordan.

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Hosea 12:12. And for a wife he kept sheep— And for a wife was he detained. Houbigant.

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