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The mind of God is revealed to this prophet, and by him to the people, in the first three chapters, by signs and types, but afterwards only by discourse. In this chapter we have, I. The general title of the whole book, Ho 1:1. II. Some particular instructions which he was ordered to give to the people of God. 1. He must convince them of their sin in going a whoring from God, by marrying a wife of whoredoms, Ho 1:2,3. 2. He must foretel the ruin coming upon them for their sin, in the names of his sons, which signified God's disowning and abandoning them, Ho 1:4-6,8,9. 3. He must speak comfortable to the kingdom of Judah, which still retained the pure worship of God, and assure them of the salvation of the Lord, Ho 1:7. 4. He must give an intimation of the great mercy God had in store both for Israel and Judah, in the latter days (Ho 1:10,1), for in this prophecy many precious promises of mercy are mixed with the threatenings of wrath.

INTRODUCTION

THE first of the twelve minor prophets in the order of the canon (called "minor," not as less in point of inspired authority, but simply in point of size). The twelve are first mentioned by Jesus, the son of Sirach

(Ecclesiasticus 49:10).

St. Stephen, in

Ac 7:42

(in referring to

Am 5:27),

quotes them as forming one collective body of writings, "the book of the prophets." So JEROME and MELITO, the first Greek father who has left us a catalogue of these books. The collection of the sacred books is by Jewish tradition attributed to the great synagogue of learned scribes formed by Ezra. Many think Nehemiah completed this collection by adding to the books already in the canon those of his own times. Malachi, the last in the series, probably aided him in determining with infallible authority what books were entitled to be ranked in the inspired canon. The chronological order differs from the canonical. Joel, about 810 B.C.; Jonah, about 810 B.C., or, as others, first, 862 B.C.; Amos, about 790 B.C.; Hosea, about 784 B.C. Hosea, the contemporary of Isaiah, Micah, and Amos, seems to have entered on his prophetical office in the last years of Jeroboam (contemporary in part with Uzziah), and to have ended it in the beginning of Hezekiah's reign, 722 B.C., that is, about sixty years in all, from 784 B.C. to 722 B.C. The prophets, however, were not uninterruptedly engaged in prophesying. Considerable intervals elapsed, though their office as divinely commissioned public teachers was never wholly laid aside. The Book of Hosea which we have constitutes only that portion of his public teachings which the Holy Spirit saw fit to preserve for the benefit of the Church. The cause of his being placed first of the twelve was, probably, the length, the vivid earnestness, and patriotism of his prophecies, as well as their closer resemblance to those of the greater prophets. His style is abrupt, sententious, and unrounded; the connecting particles are few; there are changes of person, and anomalies of gender, number, and construction. His name means Salvation. He was son of Beeri, of the tribe of Issachar, born in Beth-shemesh [JEROME]. His mention, in the inscription, of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, is no proof that he belonged to Judah: for the prophets in Israel regarded its separation from Judah, civil as well as religious, as an apostasy from God, who promised the dominion of the theocracy to the line of David. Hence Elijah in Israel took twelve stones to represent Judah, as well as Israel

(1Ki 18:31).

Hence Hosea dates from Judah's kings, as well as from Jeroboam of Israel, though he belonged to Israel, with whose sins and fate his book is chiefly occupied. He, however, makes incidental references to Judah. His first prophecy foretells the overthrow of Jehu's house, fulfilled on the death of Jeroboam, Jehu's great-grandson

(2Ki 15:12),

in Zachariah, Jeroboam's son, the fourth and last from Jehu, conspired against by Shallum. This first prediction was doubtless in Jeroboam's life, as Zachariah, his son, was only suffered to reign six months; thus the inscription is verified that "the word of the Lord came unto him in the days of Jeroboam"

(Ho 1:1).

Again, in

Ho 10:14,

Shalmaneser's expedition against Israel is alluded to as past, that is, the first inroad against King Hoshea, who began to reign in the twelfth year of Ahaz; so that as Ahaz' whole reign was sixteen years, the prophecy seems to have been given about the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. Thus the inscription is confirmed that the exercise of his prophetical functions was of such a protracted duration.

Hosea

(Ho 11:1)

is quoted in

Mt 2:15;

also

Ho 6:6

in

Mt 9:13; 12:7;

compare

Ro 9:25, 26,

quoting

Ho 1:10; 2:1, 23;

1Co 15:55,

quoting

Ho 13:14;

1Pe 2:10,

quoting

Ho 1:9, 10; 2:23.

Messianic references are not frequent; but the predictions of the future conversion of Israel to the Lord their God, and David their king, and of the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham that his spiritual seed should be as the sand of the sea

(Ho 1:10; 3:5),

clearly refer to the New Testament dispensation.

The first and third chapters are in prose, the rest of the book is rhythmical.

Introduction to the Minor Prophets, And Chiefly To Hosea

The twelve prophets, at the head of whom Hosea has been placed, were called of old "the lesser, or minor prophets," by reason of the smaller compass of their prophecies, not as though their prophecies were less important than those of the four greater prophets . Hosea, at least, must have exercised the prophetic office longer than any besides; he must have spoken as much and as often, in the Name of God. A prophecy of Micah and words of Joel are adopted by Isaiah; Jeremiah employs verses of Obadiah to denounce anew the punishment of Edom; a prophecy of Joel is expanded by Ezekiel. The "twelve" were the organs of important prophecy, as to their own people, or foreign nations, or as to Him whom they looked for, our Lord. Now, since the first five were earlier than Isaiah, and next, in order of time, to the prophetic Psalms of David, Solomon, Asaph and the sons of Korah, the revelations made to these lesser prophets even ante-date those given through the four greater.

The general outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh and the Day of the Lord were first spoken of by Joel. Our resurrection in Christ on the 3rd day; the inward graces which Christ should bestow on His Church in its perpetual union with Him; the entire victory over death and the grave; and the final conversion of Judah and Israel, were first prophesied by Hosea. When James wished to show that the conversion of the Gentiles had been foretold by a prophet, he quoted a passage of Amos. "The twelve," as they begun, so they closed the cycle of those whom God employed to leave written prophecies. Yet God, who willed that of all the earlier prophets, who prophesied from the time of Samuel to Elisha, no prophecy should remain, except the few words in the books of Kings, willed also, that little, in comparison, should be preserved, of what these later prophets spoke in His Name. Their writings altogether are not equal in compass to those of the one prophet, Isaiah. And so, like the twelve Apostles, they were enrolled in one prophetic band; their writings, both in the Jewish and Christian Church (see Cosin. Section 47ff), have been counted as one book; and, like the Apostles, they were called "the twelve" (see Carpzov iii. 270, and Cosin).

The earliest of this band followed very closely upon the ministry of Elijah and Elisha. Elisha, in his parting words 2 Kings 13:14, 2 Kings 13:25. foretold to Joash the three victories whereby he recovered from Syria the cities of Israel which Hazael had taken from his father Jehoahaz. In the next reign, namely, that of Jeroboam II, there arose the first of that brilliant constellation of prophets, whose light gleamed over the fall of Israel and Judah, shone in their captivity, and set at last, with the prediction of him, who should precede the rising of the Sun of Righteousness.

In the reign of Jeroboam II, Hosea, Amos, Jonah, prophesied in the kingdom of Israel. Joel was probably called at the same time to prophesy in Judah, and Obadiah to deliver his prophecy as to Edom; Isaiah, a few years later. Micah, we know, began his office in the following reign of Jotham, and then prophesied, together with Isaiah, to and in the reign of Hezekiah.

The order, then, of "the twelve" was probably, for the most part, an order of time. We know that the greater prophets are placed in that order, as also the three last of the twelve, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Of the five first, Hosea, Amos and Jonah were nearly contemporary; Joel was prior to Amos ; and of the four remaining, Micah and Nahum were later than Jonah, whom they succeed in order; Nahum refers to Jonah; Zephaniah quotes Habakkuk. It may be from an old Jewish tradition, that Jerome says , "know that those prophets, whose time is not prefixed in the title, prophesied under the same kings, as those other prophets, who are placed before them, and who have titles."

Hosea, the first of the twelve, must have prophesied during a period, as long as the ordinary life of man. For he prophesied (the title tells us) while Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam II, king of Israel, were both reigning, as also during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. But Uzziah survived Jeroboam, 26 years. Jotham and Ahaz reigned, each, 16 years. Thus, we have already 58 years complete, without counting the years of Jeroboam, during which Hosea prophesied at the beginning of his office, or those of Hezekiah which elapsed before its close. But since the prophecy of Hosea is directed almost exclusively to Israel, it is not probable that the name of Jeroboam would alone have been selected for mention, unless Hosea had prophesied for some time during his reign. The house of Jehu, which sunk after the death of Jeroboam, was yet Joshua 1:4-5 standing, and in its full strength, when Hosea first prophesied.

Its might apparently is contrasted with the comparative weakness of Judah Hosea 1:7. On the other hand, the office of Hosea probably closed before the end of the 4th year of Hezekiah 2 Kings 18:9. For in that year, 721 b.c., the judgment denounced by Hosea upon Samaria was fulfilled, and all his prophecy looks on to this event as yet to come: the 13th chapter closes with the prophecy of the utter destruction of Samaria; and of the horrible cruelties which would befall her helpless ones. The last chapter alone winds up the long series of denunciations by a prediction of the future conversion of Israel. This chapter, however, is too closely connected with the preceding, to admit of its being a consolation after the captivity had begun. If then we suppose that Hosea prophesied during 2 years only of the reign of Hezekiah, and 10 of those in which the reigns of Jeroboam II and Uzziah coincided, his ministry will have lasted 70 years.

A long and heavy service for a soul full of love like his, mitigated only by his hope of the coming of Christ, the final conversion of his people, and the victory over the grave! But the length is nothing incredible, since, about this time, Jehoiada 2 Chronicles 24:15 "did good in Israel both toward God and toward His House;" until he "was 130 years." The shortest duration of Hosea's office must have been some 65 years. But if God called him quite young to his office, he need but have lived about 95 years, whereas Anna the prophetess served God in the temple with fasting and prayer night and day, after a widowhood probably of 84 years ; and John the Evangelist lived probably until 104 years; and Polycarp became a martyr when he was about 104 years old, having served Christ for 86 years , and having, when 95, sailed from Asia to Italy. Almost in our own days, we have heard of 100 centenarians, deputed by a religious order who ate no animal food, to bear witness that their rule of life was not unhealthy. Not then the length of Hosea's life but his endurance was superhuman. So long did God will that His prophets should toil; so little fruit were they content to leave behind them. For these few chapters alone remain of a labor beyond the ordinary life of man. But they were content to have God for their exceeding great reward.

The time, during which Hosea prophesied, was the darkest period in the history of the kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam II was almost the last king who ruled in it by the appointment of God. The promise of God to Jehu 2 Kings 10:30 in reward of his partial obedience, that his 2 Kings 15:8 "children of the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel," expired with Jeroboam's son, who reigned but for 6 months (see 2 Kings 15:10, 2 Kings 15:14, 2 Kings 15:25, 2 Kings 15:30) after an anarchy of 11 years. The rest of Hosea's life was passed amid the decline of the kingdom of Israel. Politically all was anarchy or misrule; kings made their way to the throne through the murder of their predecessors, and made way for their successors through their own 2 Kings 15:8. Shallum killed Zechariah; Menahem killed Shallum; Pekah killed the son of Menahem; Hoshea killed Pekah. The whole kingdom of Israel was a military despotism, and, as in the Roman empire, those in command came to the throne. Baasha, Zimri, Omri, Jehu, Menahem, Pekah, held military office before they became kings 2 Kings 16:14. Pekah was a captain of Romaliah 2 Kings 16:25).

Each usurper seems to have strengthened himself by a foreign alliance. At least, we find Baasha in league with Benhadad, king of Syria 1 Kings 15:19; Ahab marrying Jezebel, daughter of a king of Tyre and Zidon 1 Kings 16:31; Menahem giving Pul king of Assyria tribute, that he might "confirm the kingdom in his hand" 2 Kings 15:19; Pekah confederate with Rezin Isaiah 7:1, Isaiah 7:9, Isaiah 7:16; 2 Chronicles 28:5-6. These alliances brought with them the corruptions of the Phoenician and Syrian idolatry, wherein murder and lust became acts of religion. Jehu also probably sent tribute to the king of Assyria, to secure to himself the throne which God had given him. The fact appears in the cuneiform inscriptions ; it falls in with the character of Jehu and his half belief, using all means, human or divine, to establish his own end. In one and the same spirit, he destroyed the Baal-worshippers, as adherents of Ahab, retained the calf-worship, courted the ascetic Jonadab, son of Rechab, spoke of the death of Jehoram as the fulfillment of prophecy, and sought help from the king of Assyria.

These irreligions had the more deadly sway, because they were countenanced by the corrupt worship, which Jeroboam I had set up as the state religion, over against the worship at Jerusalem. To allow the people to go up to Jerusalem, as the center of the worship of God, would have risked their owning the line of David as the kings of God's appointment. To prevent this, Jeroboam set up a great system of rival worship. Himself a refugee in Egypt 1 Kings 11:40; 1 Kings 12:2, he had there seen nature (i. e., what are God's workings in nature) worshiped under the form of the calf . He adopted it, in the words in which Aaron had been overborne to sanction it, as the worship of the One True God under a visible form: "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" Exodus 32:4; 1 Kings 12:28.

With great human subtlety, he laid hold of Israel's love for idol-worship, and their reverence for their ancestors, and words which even Aaron had used, and sought to replace, by this symbol of God's working. His actual presence over the mercy-seat. Around this he gathered as much of the Mosaic ritual as he could. The priests and Levites remaining faithful to God 2 Chronicles 11:13-15, he made others priests, not of the line of Aaron . Then, while he gratified the love of idolatry, he decked it out with all the rest of the worship which God had appointed for Himself. He retained the feasts which God had appointed, the three great festivals , their solemn assemblies, Amos 5:21 the new moons and sabbaths Hosea 2:11; and these last feasts were observed even by those, to whose covetousness the rest on the festival was a hindrance Amos 8:5.

Every kind of sacrifice was retained, the daily sacrifice, Amos 4:4 the burnt-offering, Amos 5:22 the meal-offering Hosea 9:4; Amos 5:22, the drink-offering Hosea 9:4, thank-offerings (Hosea 5:6; Hosea 6:6, perhaps Hosea 4:8), peace-offerings Amos 5:22, free-will offerings (Hosea 5:6; Hosea 6:6, perhaps Hosea 4:8), sin-offerings (Amos 4:5, and of this class generally, Hosea 8:13). They had hymns and instrumental music Amos 5:23; Amos 8:3. They paid the tithes of the third year Amos 4:4; probably they gave the first fruits ; they had priests 1 Kings 12:32; Hosea 4:6, Hosea 4:9; Hosea 5:1; Hosea 6:9; Hosea 10:5 and prophets Hosea 4:5; Hosea 9:7-8 and temples 1 Kings 12:31-32; Hosea 8:14; the temple at Bethel was the king's chapel, the temple of the state Amos 7:13.

The worship was maintained by the civil authority Hosea 5:11; Hosea 13:2. But all this outward show was rotten at the core. God had forbidden man so to worship Him, nor was it He who was worshiped at Bethel and Dan, though Jeroboam probably meant it. People, when they alter God's truth, alter more than they think for. Such is the lot of all heresy. Jeroboam probably meant that God should be worshiped under a symbol, and he brought in a worship, which was not, in truth, a worship of God at all. The calf was the symbol, not of the personal God, but of ever-renewed life, His continued vivifying of all which lives, and renewing of what decays. And so what was worshiped was not God, but much what people now call "nature." The calf was a symbol of "nature;" much as people say, "nature does this or that;" "nature makes man so and so;" "nature useth simplicity of means;" "nature provides," etc.; as if "nature were a sort of semi-deity," or creation were its own Creator. As men now profess to own God, and do own Him in the abstract, but talk of "nature," until they forget Him, or because they forget Him, so Jeroboam, who was a shrewd, practical, irreligious man, slipped into a worship of nature, while he thought, doubtless, he was doing honor to the Creator, and professing a belief in Him.

But they were those same workings in creation, which were worshiped by the neighboring pagan, in Baal and Ashtaroth; only there the name of the Creator was altogether dropped. Yet it was but a step from one to the other. The calf was the immediate and often the sole object of worship. They "sacrificed to the calves" 1 Kings 12:32; "kissed the calves" Hosea 13:2, in token of worship; swore by them as living gods Amos 8:4. They had literally Psalm 106:20 "changed their Glory (i. e., God) into the similitude of a bull which eateth hay." Calf-worship paved the way for those coarser and more cruel worships of nature, under the names of Baal and Ashtaroth, with all their abominations of consecrated child-sacrifices, and degrading or horrible sensuality. The worship of the calves led to sin. The pagan festival was one of unbridled licentiousness. The account of the calf-festival in the wilderness agrees too well with the pagan descriptions. The very least which can be inferred from the words "Aaron had made them naked to their shame before their enemies" Exodus 32:25, is an extreme relaxedness, on the borders of further sin.

And now in Hosea's time, these idolatries had yielded their full bitter fruits. The course of iniquity had been run. The stream had become darker and darker in its downward flow. Creature worship (as Paul points out, Romans 1), was the parent of every sort of abomination; and religion having become creature-worship, what God gave as the check to sin became its incentive. Every commandment of God was broken, and that, habitually. All was falsehood Hosea 4:1; Hosea 7:1, Hosea 7:3, adultery Hosea 4:11; Hosea 5:3-4; Hosea 7:4; Hosea 9:10; Amos 2:7, bloodshedding Hosea 5:2; Hosea 6:8; deceit to God Hosea 4:2; Hosea 10:13; Hosea 11:12 produced faithlessness to man; excess Hosea 4:11; Hosea 7:5; Amos 4:1 and luxury Hosea 4:15; Hosea 6:4-6 were supplied by secret Hosea 4:2; Hosea 7:1 or open robbery Hosea 7:1, oppression Hosea 12:7; Amos 3:9-10; Amos 4:1; Amos 5:11, false dealing Hosea 12:7; Amos 8:5, perversion of justice Hosea 10:4; Amos 2:6-7; Amos 5:7, Amos 5:12; Amos 6:3, Amos 6:12, grinding of the poor Amos 2:7; Amos 8:6.

Blood was shed like water, until one stream met another Hosea 4:2, and overspread the land with one defiling deluge. Adultery was consecrated as an act of religion (see the note at Hosea 4:14). Those who were first in rank were first in excess. People and king vied in debauchery Hosea 7:5, and the Scottish king joined and encouraged the free-thinkers and blasphemers of his court Hosea 7:5. The idolatrous priests loved and shared in the sins of the people Hosea 4:8-9; nay, they seem to have set themselves to intercept those on either side of Jordan, who would go to worship at Jerusalem, laying wait to murder them Hosea 5:1; Hosea 6:9. Corruption had spread throughout the whole land Hosea 5:1; even the places once sacred through God's revelations or other mercies to their forefathers, Bethel Hosea 4:15; Hosea 10:5, Hosea 10:8, Hosea 10:15; Hosea 12:4; Amos 3:14; Amos 5:5; Amos 7:10, Amos 7:13, Gilgal Hosea 4:15; Hosea 9:15; Hosea 12:11, Gilead Hosea 6:8; Hosea 12:11, Mizpah Hosea 5:1, Shechem (see the note at Hosea 6:9), were special scenes of corruption or of sin. Every holy memory was effaced by present corruption. Could things be worse? There was one aggravation more. Remonstrance was useless Hosea 4:4; the knowledge of God was willfully rejected Hosea 4:6; the people hated rebuke Amos 5:10; the more they were called, the more they refused (Hosea 11:2, add 7); they forbade their prophets to prophesy Amos 2:12; and their false prophets hated God greatly Hosea 9:7, Hosea 9:9. All attempts to heal all this disease only showed its incurableness Hosea 7:1.

Such was the condition of the people among whom Hosea had to prophesy for some 70 years. They themselves were not sensible of their decay Hosea 7:9, moral or political. They set themselves, in despite of the prophet's warning, to prop up their strength by aid of the two pagan nations, Egypt or Assyria. In Assyria they chiefly trusted (Hosea 5:13; Hosea 8:9-10; Hosea 14:3; and with Egypt, Hosea 7:11; Hosea 12:1), and Assyria, he had to denounce to them, should carry them captive (Hosea 10:6; Hosea 11:9, denying it of Egypt); stragglers at least, from them fled to Egypt Hosea 9:3, and in Egypt they should be a derision Hosea 7:16, and should find their grave Hosea 9:6. This captivity he had to foretell as imminent Hosea 1:4; Hosea 5:7, certain Hosea 5:9; Hosea 9:7, and irreversible Hosea 1:6; Hosea 5:6. Once only, in the commencement of his prophecy, does he give any hope, that the temporal punishment might be averted through repentance.

This too he follows up by renewing the declaration of God expressed in the name of his daughter, "I will not have mercy" Hosea 1:2-4. He gives them in God's Name, a distant promise of a spiritual restoration in Christ, and forewarns them that it is distant Hosea 3:4-5. But, that they might not look for any temporal restoration, he tells them, on the one hand, in peremptory terms, of their dispersion; on the other, he tells them of their spiritual restoration without any intervening shadows of temporal deliverance. God tells them absolutely (Hosea 1:4, Hosea 1:6; Hosea 9:17; Hosea 9:3; Hosea 8:8, and of distant captivity, Hosea 4:19, Hosea 4:16), "I will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease;" "I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel;" "they shall be wanderers among the nations;" "they shall not dwell in the Lord's land;" "Israel is swallowed up; she shall be among the nations like a vessel in which is no pleasure." On the other hand, the promises are markedly spiritual (Hosea 1:10; Hosea 2:19 ff; Hosea 3:5; Hosea 6:1-3; Hosea 10:12; Hosea 13:14); "Ye are the sons of the living God;" "I will betroth her to Me for ever;" "they shall fear the Lord and His goodness;" "He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight;" "till He come and rain righteousness upon you." "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death." Again, God contrasts Hosea 1:7; Hosea 6:11 with this His sentence, on Israel, His future dealings with Judah, and His mercies to her, of which Israel should not partake, while of Judah's spiritual mercies, He says, that Israel should partake by being united with Judah Hosea 1:11; Hosea 3:5.

The ground of this difference was, that Israel's separate existence was bound up with that sin of Jeroboam, which clave to them throughout their history, and which none of their least bad kings ventured to give up. God tried them for two centuries and a half; and not one king was found, who would risk his throne for God. In merciful severity then, the separate kingdom of Israel was to be destroyed, and the separate existence of the ten tribes was to be lost.

This message of woe gives a unique character to the prophecies of Hosea. He, like Paul, was of the people, whose temporary excision he had to declare. He calls the wretched king of Israel "our king" Hosea 7:5; and God calls the rebellious people "thy people" Hosea 4:4 . Of that people, he was specially the prophet. Judah he mentions incidentally, when he does mention them, not in his warnings only, but in his prophecies of good also. His main commission lay among the ten tribes. Like Elijah and Elisha whom he succeeded, he was raised up out of them, for them. His love could not be tied down to them; and so he could not but warn Judah against sharing Israel's sin. But it is, for the most part, incidentally and parenthetically . He does not speak of them equally, except as to that which was the common sin of both, the seeking to Assyria for help, and unfulfilled promise of amendment Hosea 5:13-14; Hosea 6:4. And so, on the other hand, mercies, which belong to all as God's everlasting betrothal of His Church Hosea 2:19-20, and our redemption from death Hosea 13:14 and the grave, he foretells with special reference to Ephraim, and in one place only expressly includes Judah (Hosea 1:11; Judah is included virtually in Hosea 3:5).

The prophecies of Hosea (as he himself collected them) form one whole, so that they cannot be distinctly separated, In one way, as the second chapter is the expansion and application of the first, so the remainder of the book after the third is an expansion and application of the third, The first and third chapters illustrate, summarily, Ephraim's ingratitude and desertion of God and His dealings with her, by likening them to the wife which Hosea was commanded to take, and to her children. The second chapter expands and applies the picture of Israel's unfaithfulness, touched upon in the first, but it dwells more on the side of mercy; the remaining chapters enlarge the picture of the third, although, until the last, they dwell chiefly on the side of judgment. Yet while the remainder of the book is an expansion of the third chapter, the three first chapters, (as every reader has felt) are united together, not by their narrative form only, but by the prominence given to the history of Hosea which furnishes the theme of the book, the shameful unfaithfulness of Israel, and the exceeding tenderness of the love of God, who, "in wrath, remembers mercy."

The narrative leads us deep into the prophet's personal sorrows. There is no ground to justify our taking as a parable, what Holy Scripture relates as a fact. There is no instance in which it can be shown, that Holy Scripture relates that a thing was done, and that, with the names of persons, and yet that God did not intend it to be taken as literally true . There would then be no test left of what was real, what imaginary; and the histories of Holy Scripture would be left to be a prey to individual caprice, to be explained away as parables, when people disliked them. Hosea, then, at God's command, united to himself in marriage, one who, amid the widespread corruption of those times, had fallen manifoldly into fleshly sin. With her he was commanded to live holily, as his wife, as Isaac lived with Rebecca whom he loved. Such an one he took, in obedience to God's command, one Gomer. At some time after she bore the prophet's children, she fell into adultery, and forsook him. Perhaps she fell into the condition of a slave (see the note at Hosea 3:2). God anew commanded him to show mercy to her, to redeem her from her fallen condition, and, without restoring to her the rights of marriage (see the note at Hosea 3:3), to guard and protect her from her sins. Thus, by the love of God and the patient forbearance which He instructed the prophet to show, a soul was rescued from sin unto death, and was won to God; to the children of Israel there was set forth continually before their eyes a picture and a prophecy of the punishment upon sin, and of the close union with Himself which He vouchsafes to sinners who repent and return to Him.

"Not only in visions which were seen," says Irenaeus (iv. 20. 12. p. 374 Old Testament), "and in words which were preached, but in acts also was He (the Word) seen by the prophets, so as to prefigure and foreshew things future, through them. For which cause also, the prophet Hosea took 'a wife of whoredoms,' prophesying by his act, that the earth, i. e., the people who are on the earth, shall commit whoredoms, departing from the Lord; and that of such people God will be pleased to take to Himself a Church, to be sanctified by the communication of His Son, as she too was sanctified by the communion of the prophet. Wherefore Paul also saith, that 1 Corinthians 7:14 the unbelieving woman is sanctified in her believing husband." "What," asks Augustine of the scoffers of his day, "is there opposed to the clemency of truth, what contrary to the Christian faith, that one unchaste, leaving her fornication, should be converted to a chaste marriage? And what so incongruous and alien from the faith of the prophet, as it would have been, not to believe that all the sins of the unchaste were forgiven, when she was converted and amended? So then, when the prophet made the unchaste one his wife, a kind provision was made for the woman to amend her life, and the mystery (of the union of Christ Himself with the Church of Jews and Gentiles) was expressed" (Augustine, ib. 89). "Since the Lord, through the same Scripture, lays clearly open what is figured by this command and deed, and since the apostolic Epistles attest that this prophecy was fulfilled in the preaching of the New Testament, who would venture to say that it was not commanded and done for that end, for which He who commanded it, explains in the holy Scripture that He commanded, and that the prophet did it?"

The names which Hosea, by God's command gave to the children who were born, expressed the temporal punishment, which was to come upon the nation. The prophet himself, in his relation to his restored yet separated wife, was, so long as she lived, one continued, living prophecy of the tenderness of God to sinners. Fretful, wayward, jealous, ungovernable, as are mostly the tempers of those who are recovered from such sins as her's, the prophet, in his anxious, watchful charge, was a striking picture of the forebearing loving-kindness of God to us amid our provocations and infirmities. Nay, the love which the prophet bare her, grew the more out of his compassion and tenderness for her whom God had commanded him to take as his own. Certain it is, that Holy Scripture first speaks of her as the object of his love, when God commanded him a second time to take charge of her who had betrayed and abandoned him. God bids him show active love to her, whom, amid her unfaithfulness, he loved already. "Go yet, love a woman, beloved of her husband, yet an adulteress." Wonderful picture of God's love for us, for whom He gave His Only-begotten Son, loving us, while alien from Him, and with nothing in us to love!

Such was the tenderness of the prophet, whom God employed to deliver such a message of woe; and such the people must have known to be his personal tenderness, who had to speak so sternly to them.

The three first prophecies, contained severally in the three first chapters, form each, a brief circle of mercy and judgment. They do not enter into any detail of Israel's sin, but sum up all in the one, which is both center and circumference of all sin, the all-comprehending sin, departure from God, choosing the creature rather than the Creator. On this, the first prophecy foretells the entire irrevocable destruction of the kingdom; God's temporary rejection of His people, but their acceptance, together with Judah, in One Head, Christ. The second follows the same outline, rebuke, chastisement, the cessation of visible worship, banishment, and then the betrothal forever. The third speaks of offence against deeper love, and more prolonged punishment. It too ends in the promise of entire restoration; yet only in the latter days, after many days of separation, both from idolatry and from the true worship of God, such as is Israel's condition now.

The rest is one continuous prophecy, in which the prophet has probably gathered into one the substance of what he had delivered in the course of his ministry. Here and there, yet very seldom in it Hosea 4:5; Hosea 5:3, Hosea 5:7; Hosea 9:1, the prophet refers to the image of the earlier chapters. For the most part he exhibits his people to themselves, in their varied ingratitude, folly, and sin. The prophecy has many pauses, which with one exception coincide with our chapters . It rises and falls, and then bursts out in fresh tones of upbraiding (see the beginnings of Hosea 5:1-15; Hosea 7; Hosea 8:1-14; Hosea 9; Hosea 10:1-15; Hosea 11:1-12; Hosea 12:1-14; Hosea 13), and closes mostly in notes of sorrow and of woe , for the destruction which is coming. Yet at none of these pauses is there any complete break, such as would constitute what preceded, a separate prophecy; and on the other hand, the structure of the last portion of the book corresponds most with that of the first three chapters, if it is regarded as one whole. For as there, after rebuke and threatened chastisement, each prophecy ended with the promise of future mercy, so here, after finally foreannouncing the miseries at the destruction of Samaria, the prophet closes his prophecy and his whole book with a description of Israel's future repentance and acceptance, and of his flourishing with manifold grace.

The brief summary, in which the prophet calls attention to all which he had said, and foretells, who would and who would not understand it, the more marks the prophecy as one whole.

Yet, although these prophecies, as worked into one by the prophet, bear a strong impress of unity, there yet seem to be traces, here and there, of the different conditions of the kingdom of Israel, amid which different parts were first uttered. The order, in which they stand, seems, upon the whole, to be an order of time. In the first chapters, the house of Jeroboam is still standing in strength, and Israel appears to have trusted in its own power, as the prophet Amos Amo 2:14, Amos 2:16; Amos 6:13 also, at the same time, describes them. The fourth chapter is addressed to the "house of Israel" Hosea 4:1 only, without any allusion to the king, and accords with that time of convulsive anarchy, which followed the death of Jeroboam II. The omission of the king is the more remarkable, inasmuch as the "house of the king" is included in the corresponding address in Hosea 5:1. The "rulers" Hosea 4:18 of Israel are also spoken of in the plural; and the bloodshed Hosea 4:2 described seems to be more than individual insulated murders.

In this case, the king upbraided in Hosea 5:1-15 would, naturally, be the next king, Zechariah, in whom God's promise to the house of Jehu expired. In Hosea 7 a weak and sottish king is spoken of, whom his princes misled to debauchery, disgusting drunkenness and impiety. But Menahem was a general of fierce determination, energy and barbarity. Debauchery and brutal ferocity are natural associates; but this sottishness here described was rather the fruit of weak compliance with the debauchery of others. "The princes made him sick" Hosea 7:5, it is said. This is not likely to have been the character of successful usurpers, as Menahem, or Pekah, or Hoshea. It is far more likely to have been that of Zechariah, who was placed on the throne for 6 months, "did evil in the sight of the Lord," and then was "slain publicly before the being people" 2 Kings 15:10, no one resisting. Him, as the last of the line of Jehu, and sanctioned by God, Hosea may the rather have called "our king" Hosea 7:5, owning in him, evil as he was, God's appointment.

The words, "they have devoured their judges, all their kings have fallen" Hosea 7:7, had anew their fulfillment in the murder of Zechariah and Shallum (772 B. C) as soon as the promise to the house of Jehu had expired. The blame of Judah for "multiplying fenced cities" Hosea 8:14, instead of trusting in God, probably relates to the temper in which they were built in the days of Jotham 2 Chronicles 27:2-4, between 758, and 741 b.c. Although Jotham was a religious king, the corruption of the people at this time is especially recorded; "the people did corruptly." Later yet, we have mention of the dreadful battle, when Shalman, or Shalmanezer, took and massacred women and children at Betharbel Hosea 10:14 in the valley of Jezreel, about 729 b.c. Hosea, thus, lived to see the fulfillment of his earlier prophecy, "I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel" (Hosea 1:4, see the note at Hosea 10:14). It has been thought that the question "where is thy king?" relates to the captivity of Hoshea, three years before the destruction of Samaria. This sort of question, however, relates not to the actual place where the king was, but to his ability or inability to help.

It belongs to the mournful solemnity of Hosea's prophecy, that he scarcely speaks to the people in his own person. The ten chapters, which form the center of the prophecy, are almost wholly one long dirge of woe, in which the prophet rehearses the guilt and the punishment of his people. If the people are addressed, it is, with very few exceptions, God Himself, not the prophet, who speaks to them; and God speaks to them as their judge . Once only does the prophet use the form, so common in the other prophets, "saith the Lord" Hosea 11:11. As in the three first chapters, the prophet, in his relation to his wife, represented that of God to His people, so, in these ten chapters, after the first words of the fourth and fifth chapters, "Hear the word of the Lord, for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land," "Hear ye this, O priests" Hosea 4:1; Hosea 5:1, whenever the prophet uses the first person, he uses it not of himself, but of God. "I" "My" are not Hosea, and the things of Hosea, but God and what belongs to God. God addresses the prophet himself in the second person Hosea 4:4, Hosea 4:17; Hosea 8:1.

In four verses only of these chapters does the prophet himself apparently address his own people Israel, in two Hosea 9:1, Hosea 9:5 expostulating with them; in two, (Hosea 10:12; (but followed by a declaration of the fruitlessness of his call Hosea 10:13, Hosea 10:15) Hosea 12:6) calling them to repentance. In two other verses he addresses Judah Hosea 4:13, or foretells to him judgment mingled with mercy (see the note at Hosea 6:11). The last chapter alone is one of almost unmingled brightness; the prophet calls to repentance Hosea 14:1, Hosea 14:3, and God in His own Person Hosea 14:4, Hosea 14:8 accepts it, and promises large supply of grace. But this too closes the prophecy with the warning, that righteous as are the ways of God, the transgressors should stumble in them.

It is this same solemn pathos, which has chiefly occasioned the obscurity, complained of in Hosea. The expression of Jerome has often been repeated ; "Hosea is concise, and speaketh, as it were, in detached sayings." The words of upbraiding, of judgment, of woe, burst out, as it were, one by one, slowly, heavily, condensed, abrupt, from the prophet's heavy and shrinking soul, as God commanded and constrained him, and put His words, like fire, in the prophet's mouth. An image of Him Who said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not" Matthew 23:37, he delivers his message, as though each sentence burst with a groan from his soul, and he had anew to take breath, before he uttered each renewed woe.

Each verse forms a whole for itself, like one heavy toll in a funeral knell. The prophet has not been careful about order and symmetry, so that each sentence went home to the soul. And yet the unity of the prophecy is so evident in the main, that we cannot doubt that it is not broken, even when the connection is not apparent on the surface. The great difficulty consequently in Hosea is to ascertain that connection in places where it evidently exists, yet where the prophet has not explained it. The easiest and simplest sentences (for example, Hosea 12:9, Hosea 12:12-13) are sometimes, in this respect, the most difficult. It is in remarkable contrast with this abruptness in the more mournful parts, that when Hosea has a message of mercy to deliver, his style becomes easy and flowing. Then no sign of present sin or impending misery disturbs his brightness. He lives wholly in the future bliss which he was allowed to foretell.

Yet, meanwhile, no prophet had a darker future to declare. The prophets of Judah could mingle with their present denunciations a prospect of an early restoration. The ten tribes, as a whole, had no future. The temporal part of their punishment was irreversible. Hosea 54ed almost to see its fulfillment. Yet not the less confidently does he foretell the spiritual mercies in store for his people. He promises them as absolutely as if he saw them. It is not a matter of hope, but of certainty. And this certainty Hosea announces, in words expressive of the closest union with God; an union shadowed by the closest union which we know, that, whereby a man and his wife are "no more twain, but one flesh." Here, as filled and overfilled with joy, instead of abrupt sentences, he gladly lingers on his subject, adding in every word something to the fullness of the blessing contained in the preceding" Hosea 2:14-20; Hosea 14:1-7. He is, indeed, (if one may venture so to speak) eminently a prophet of the tenderness of the love of God. In foretelling God's judgments, he ventures to picture Him to us, as overcome (so to speak) by mercy, so that He would not execute His full sentence Hosea 11:8-9. God's mercies he predicts in the inmost relation of love, that those whom He had rejected, He would own, as "sons of the living God;" that He would betroth them to Himself in righteousness, in judgment, loving-kindness, mercies, faithfulness, and that, forever; that He would raise us up on the third day, and that we should live in His sight, ransoming us, Himself, and redeeming us, as our Kinsman, from death and the grave (see the notes at Hosea 1:10; notes at Hosea 2:19 ff; notes at Hosea 6:2; notes at Hosea 13:14).

In this prophecy of the betrothal of the Church to God, he both applies and supplies the teaching of Psalm 45 and of the Song of Solomon. Moses had been taught to declare to his people that God had, in a special way, made them His people, and was Himself their God. The violation of this relation, by taking other gods, Moses had also spoken of under the image of married faithlessness. But faithlessness implies the existence of the relation, to which they were bound to be faithful. The whole human family, however, had once belonged to God, and had fallen away from Him. And so Moses speaks of the pagan idolatry also under this name, and warned Israel against sharing their sin. "Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods - and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods" Exodus 34:15-16. The relation itself of betrothal Moses does not mention; yet it must have been suggested to the mind of Israel by his describing this special sin of choosing other gods, under the title of married faithlessness Leviticus 17:7; Leviticus 20:5-6; Numbers 14:33 and of desertion of God Deuteronomy 31:16, and by his attributing to God the title of "Jealous" Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24; Deuteronomy 5:9; Deuteronomy 6:15; Numbers 25:2. It was reserved to Hosea, to exhibit at once to Israel under this image, God's tender love for them and their ingratitude, to dwell on their relation to God whom they forsook , and explicitly to foretell to them that new betrothal in Christ which should abide forever.

The image, however, presupposes an acquaintance with the language of the Pentateuch; and it has been noticed that Hosea incidentally asserts that the written Pentateuch was still used in the kingdom of Israel. For God does not say, "I have given to him," but "I have written," or "I write Hosea 8:12 to him the great" or "manifold" things of the law. The "ten thousand things" which God says that He had written, cannot be the decalogue only, nor would the word "written" be used of an unwritten tradition. God says moreover, "I write," in order to express that the law, although written once for all, still came from the ever-present authority of Him Who wrote it.

The language of Hosea is, for the most part, too concise and broken, to admit of his employing actual sentences from the Pentateuch. This he does sometimes (see Hosea 3:1; Hosea 4:8, Hosea 4:10; Hosea 5:6, Hosea 5:10-11, Hosea 5:14; Hosea 6:2-3; Hosea 10:14; Hosea 11:7-8; Hosea 12:4, Hosea 12:6; Hosea 13:6, Hosea 13:9; Hosea 14:2), as has been pointed out . On the other hand, his concise allusions would scarcely be understood by those who were not familiar with the history and laws of the Pentateuch (see Hosea 1:10-11; Hosea 3:2; Hosea 4:4, Hosea 4:8; Hosea 8:6, Hosea 8:11, Hosea 8:13; Hosea 9:3, Hosea 9:10; Hosea 10:4, Hosea 10:11; Hosea 11:8; Hosea 12:4-6, Hosea 12:10-12; Hosea 14:3-4). Since then plainly a prophet spoke so as to be understood by the people, this is an evidence of the continual use of the Pentateuch in Israel, after the great schism from Judah. The schools of the prophets, doubtless, maintained the teaching of the law, as they did the public worship. The people went to Elisha on new-moons and sabbaths, and so to other prophets also 2 Kings 4:23. Even after the great massacre of the prophets by Jezebel 1 Kings 18:13, we have incidental notices of schools of the prophets at Bethel 2 Kings 2:3, Jericho 2 Kings 2:5, Gilgal 2 Kings 4:38, Mount Ephraim 2 Kings 5:22, Samaria , from which other schools were formed 2 Kings 6:1. The selection of Gilgal, Bethel, and Samaria, shows that the spots were chosen, in order to confront idolatry and corruption in their chief abodes. The contradiction of people's lives to the law, thus extant and taught among them, could scarcely have been greater than that of Christians now to the Bible which they have in their houses and their hands and their ears, but not in their hearts.

Introduction to the Book of the Prophet Hosea

Hosea, the son of Beeri, is the first of the minor prophets. Epiphanius says that he was of the town of Belemoth, in the tribe of Issachar; which is no other, in all probability, than Beelmeon, towards Esdraelon, in this tribe. The rabbins say that Bura was his father, who is mentioned in the Chronicles, and was prince of the tribe of Reuben at the time when Tiglath-pileser carried some of the tribes of Israel into captivity. But if it be so, Hosea must be said to be of the tribe of Reuben; and a native of Beelmeon, beyond Jordan. This prophet lived in the kingdom of Samaria; and his prophecies for the most part have a view to this state, though there are likewise some particular things which concern the kingdom of Judah.

We read, in the introduction to his prophecy, that he prophesied under the kings of Judah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, and under Jeroboam II., king of Israel. If he prophesied in the reign of all these princes, he must have lived a very long time; for there are a hundred and twelve years from the beginning of Uzziah's reign to the end of Hezekiah's reign. Uzziah began to reign A.M. 3194, and Hezekiah's reign ended in 3306. Add, if you please, twenty or five and twenty years, which might be the age of Hosea when he began to prophesy; and this will make one hundred and thirty-two, or one hundred and thirty-seven years. And if we were to take ten years from Uzziah, and as many from Hezekiah, during which Hosea might not have prophesied, there will still remain one hundred and twelve, or one hundred and fifteen years.

In the whole collection of Hosea's prophecies, we find nothing which proves that he prophesied so long. And, besides, why should his prophecies be dated in the title by the reigns of the kings of Judah, when he did not live under their dominion? It is therefore very probable that this title is not Hosea's, but some ancient transcriber's; and that the true beginning of this prophet's work is at these words: "The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea." It is our opinion that he began about the end of Jeroboam's reign, who was the second king of Israel of this name. See Calmet.

St. Jerome and many others believe Hosea to be the oldest prophet, whose writings are in our possession; and that he was witness to the first captivity of the four tribes carried away by Tiglath-pileser, and the extinction of the kingdom of Samaria by Shalmaneser. St. Jerome will have it that he prophesied even afterwards. The first verses of 1: have a view to the death of Zechariah, king of Israel, and son of Jeroboam II: From the sixth verse of the first chapter to the third chapter, is a prediction of the captivity of Israel: but after he has foretold this captivity, he declares the return and end of it. He inveighs strongly against the disorders which prevailed in the kingdom of the ten tribes. It appears that in his time there were idols; not only at Dan, Beth-el, and Samaria, but likewise at Gilgal, upon Tabor, at Sichem, Beer-sheba, and upon the mountains of Gilead. He speaks of the Israelites as of a people entirely corrupted, and the measure of whose sins was filled up; he foretells that their golden calves should be pulled down, cast upon the ground, and carried into Assyria.

He reflects, with the same severity, upon the irregularities which reigned in Judah. He stands up against those who went to worship false gods at Gilgal. He speaks of Sennacherib's invading the territories of Judah. He foretells that the people of Judah should still continue some time in their country after the captivity of the ten tribes; but that after this they themselves should likewise be carried captives beyond the Euphrates, from whence the Lord would bring them back after a certain number of years. The style of Hosea is obscure, and his expressions often dubious and perplexed. The things whereof he speaks contribute farther to his obscurity, by reason of their distance, and our ignorance of the history of those times.

In the beginning of Hosea's prophecy, we read that the Lord directed him "to take unto him a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms;" that is, to marry a woman who, before her marriages had lived a debauched life, but who, after her marriage, should retire from all bad conversation, and whose children should be legitimate, notwithstanding that, by reason of the blemish which their mother had contracted by her former life, they were called the children of whoredoms. This prostitute woman, and the children who were to be born of her, were a figure and a kind of real prophecy which described the idolatry and infidelity of Samaria and the ten tribes, formerly the Lord's spouse, but who afterwards became idolatrous and corrupt.

The children of this faithless woman are children of prostitution, since they imitate the idolatry of their mother. God gives these children the names of Jezreel, God will disperse; Lo-rechamah, or Without mercy; and Lo-ammi, Thou art no longer my people; to show, -

1. That God was going to revenge upon the house of Jehu, king of Israel, the sins which he had committed at Jezreel, when he usurped the kingdom of the ten tribes.

2. That the Lord would treat his idolatrous and sinful people without mercy.

3. That he would reject them, and no more look upon them as his people.

Hosea is concise, sententious, and abrupt. It is his manner to omit the connexive and adversative particles; an observation which we should recollect when we observe them occasionally supplied by versions or manuscripts. These are among the causes of that obscurity for which he is remarkable: but the greatest difficulties arise from the corrupt readings which deform the printed text. He chiefly addresses Israel; but introduces frequent mention of Judah. He not only inveighs against the vices of the people, but sharply arraigns the conduct of their kings, princes, and priests.

Like many of the Hebrew prophets, he tempers denunciations of God's vengeance against an idolatrous and vicious people, with promises of abundant mercies in store for them; and his transitions from one of these subjects to the other are rapid and unexpected. He abounds with short and lively comparisons; and, like the best Greek and Roman writers, often omits the particle of similitude. These comparisons he sometimes accumulates in the spirit of that poetry which is most admired. See Hosea 6:3, Hosea 6:4; Hosea 9:10; Hosea 11:11; Hosea 13:3; Hosea 14:5-7. He has often a Great Force of Expression. See Hosea 1:7; Hosea 2:3, Hosea 2:18, Hosea 2:21, Hosea 2:22; Hosea 4:2; Hosea 6:5; Hosea 11:4; Hosea 12:1. He is sometimes Highly Animated. See Hosea 4:14; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 8:1; Hosea 9:5, Hosea 9:14; Hosea 13:10, Hosea 13:14. Many Beautiful Passages occur in this prophet, as in the Similes throughout; in the Allegories, Hosea 2:2, Hosea 2:20; Hosea 7:11, Hosea 7:12, Hosea 8:7; Hosea 10:11, Hosea 10:12, Hosea 10:13; Hosea 13:15; in the Pathos, Hosea 11:3; and Hosea 11:8, Hosea 11:9; in the Figures, Hosea 13:12; Hosea 14:2. There are also some parts which are truly Sublime, as Hosea 5:14, Hosea 5:15; Hosea 8:7; Hosea 10:8; Hosea 13:7, Hosea 13:8.

I have already, at the beginning of Isaiah, given a table of the chronological succession of all the prophets: that of Archbishop Newcome on the twelve minor prophets I subjoin here, because it contains some differences from the preceding.

Order and Time in Which the Twelve Minor Prophets Flourished

1. Jonah Prophesied between 823 b.c. and 783 b.c. in the reign of Jeroboam II., king of Israel. See 2 Kings 14:25.

2. Amos prophesied from about 823 b.c. to about 785 b.c. in the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in that of Jeroboam II., king of Israel. See Amos 1:1.

3. Hosea flourished from about 809 b.c. to about 698 b.c., in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in that of Jeroboam II., king of Israel. See Hosea 1:1. [But see the observations in the preceding page].

4. Micah flourished between 757 b.c. and 698 b.c., in the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. See Micah 1:1.

5. Nahum is supposed to have prophesied between 720 b.c. and 698 b.c., in the reign of Hezekiah.

6. Joel is supposed to have prophesied between 697 b.c. and 660 b.c., in the reign of Manasseh.

7. Zephaniah prophesied between 640 b.c. and 609 b.c., in the reign of Josiah. See Zephaniah 1:1.

8. Habakkuk is thought to have prophesied between 606 b.c. and 598 b.c., in the reign of Jehoiakim.

9. Obadiah prophesied soon after 587 b.c., between the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and the destruction of the Edomites by the same prince.

10. Haggai prophesied about 520 b.c. after the return from Babylon. See Haggai 1:1.

11. Zechariah prophesied from 520 b.c. to about 518 b.c.; and was contemporary with Haggai. See Zechariah 1:1.

12. Malachi is generally believed to have prophesied about 436 b.c.

Under the figure of a wife proving false to her marriage vows, and bearing children that would follow her example, the prophet represents the shameful idolatry of the ten tribes, which provoked God to cast them of. The whole passage is information by action instead of words. This names of the children are all emblematical. The first is intended to put Israel in mind of their unrepented guilt, and the acts of cruelty committed in their palace of Jezreel, (1 Kings 21:1.) The second and third, signifying not finding mercy, and not my people, denote that, in consequence of their guilt, they were to be rejected of God, Hosea 1:1-9. God promises, however, to repair the loss to his Church by calling in the Gentiles, Hosea 1:10; and by uniting all the children of God under one head, the Messiah, in the latter days, Hosea 1:11.

INTRODUCTION TO HOSEA

This book, in the Hebrew Bibles, at least in some copies, is called "Sopher Hosea", the Book of Hoses; and, in the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions, "the Prophecy of Hoses": and, in the Syriac version, "the Prophecy of Hoses the Prophet". It is the first of the twelve lesser prophets, so called, not because they were of less value, credit, and authority, than the other prophets; but because of their smallness in bulk; and which, as Kimchi says, upon the authority of their Rabbins, were put together in one book, that no one of them might be lost, because of their smallness; and Josephus (a) reckons them but as one book; and they are quoted in the New Testament under the name of the Book of the Prophets (b). This prophet was one of them, and therefore placed here; though, as Kimchi, in his preface to this book, and R. David Ganz (c), observe, his prophecy was before the prophecy of Isaiah; and yet he was not the first of these minor prophets, as to order of time; not only Jonah, but Joel and Amos, were before him; and so they are placed by some writers; according to Mr. Whiston (d), he began to prophesy about the year of the world 3196 A.M. and 808 B.C. Mr. Bedford (e) places him in 804 B.C. His name is the same with Joshua and Jesus, and signifies a saviour; and he was not only, as all the true prophets of the Lord and faithful ministers of the word are, the means and instruments in the hand of God of saving people; but he was a type of Christ the Saviour, as well as prophesied concerning him, and salvation by him. Of his parentage, and the time of his prophesying, see Hosea 1:1, by which it appears that he lived in several reigns, and to a very great age. He chiefly prophesied against the ten tribes of Israel; reproved them for their sins; exhorted them to repentance; threatened them with destruction in case of impenitence; and comforted the truly godly with the promise of the Messiah, and of the happy state of the church in the latter day. His style, is short and concise; in some places sententious, and without connection, obscure and difficult of interpretation; and in others very pathetic and moving. Of the divine inspiration and authority of this book there is no room to doubt; since passages out of it are quoted and referred to by Christ and his apostles; by Christ himself, Matthew 9:13 1 Peter 2:10 There are some things said of the descent, death, and burial of this prophet, not to be depended on. Pseudo Epiphanius (f) and Isidorus (g) say he was of the tribe of Issachar, and born in Belomoth or Bethlemoth; and that he died in peace, and was buried in his own country; but, according to a tradition of the Jews (h), he died in Babylon, and was buried in Tzapheth, a city in upper Galilee; but all this is uncertain, and not very probable, and is of no importance to be known.

(a) Contr. Apion. l. 1. c. 8. (b) Acts 7.42. (c) Tzemach David, fol. 12. 2.((d) Chronological Tables, cent. 7. (e) Scripture Chronology, B. 6. ch. 2. p. 645. (f) De Prophet. Vit. &c. c. 11. (g) De Vita & Mort. Sanct. c. 41.

INTRODUCTION TO Hosea 1

After the general inscription of the book, in which the author, penman, and time of this prophecy, are expressed, Hosea 1:1, the people of Israel are reproved for their idolatry, under the representation of a harlot the prophet is bid to marry, which he is said to do, Hosea 1:2, and their ruin and destruction are foretold in the names of the children he had by her, and by what is said on the occasion of the birth of each, Hosea 1:4, but mercy and salvation are promised to Judah, Hosea 1:7 and the chapter is concluded with a glorious prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles, and the calling of the Jews in the latter day; and of the union of Judah and Israel under one Head and Saviour, Christ; and of the greatness and glory of that day, Hosea 1:10.

HOSEA.

Hosea.

BY

THE REV. H. R. REYNOLDS, D.D.,

AND

THE REV. PROFESSOR WHITEHOUSE.

INTRODUCTION

TO

HOSEA.

THE importance of Hosea is testified not only by the foremost position which his prophecy occupies in the LXX. and Masoretic Canon, but by the evident traces of his influence on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Moreover, he is probably the only prophet of the kingdom of Israel whose oracles have come down to us in complete and literary form, bearing in their very language traces of the dialect of Northern Palestine.

Respecting the prophet Hosea (Hebrew חךשﬠ, salvation, LXX. Ωσηέ, and even Αὐσή), we only know for certain that he was the son of Beeri, and from internal indications we infer that he prophesied in the northern kingdom during the closing years of its existence. This epoch was characterised by moral and social dissolution. The death of Jeroboam II. left Israel a prey to anarchy. A series of short and violent usurpations undermined the prestige of royalty, and the kingdom fell a victim to disorder. While idolatrous sensuality and excess prevailed as it had done from the days of Israel’s disruption, robbery and oppression grew to alarming proportions. Bands of priests waylaid pilgrims on the way to local shrines, and the nobles were given up to violence and drunkenness. Meanwhile, the vast overshadowing military power of Assyria was advancing with rapid strides under the energetic rule of Tiglath-pileser. Egypt was unable to present an effectual resistance, and the tide of Assyrian conquest rolled with scarcely a check to the banks of the Jordan.

“The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel.” This superscription, or heading to the prophecy, in the first verse, furnishes a rough conception of the period over which Hosea’s prophetic activity extended. Without discussing the question whether the superscription, like that of the collected prophecies of Amos and of Isaiah, proceeded from the prophet’s own hand or from that of a later editor (as many critics assume), it may be affirmed that no cogent argument has yet been adduced impugning its historic accuracy. Formerly difficulties were felt to exist in the excessive length of active life therein assigned (65 years according to Keil, in his Introduction to the Old Testament). But the whole question of Scripture chronology has been profoundly affected by the results of Assyrian discovery, and is a problem still unsolved. (See Geo. Smith, Assyrian Eponym Canon, pp. 150 sqq.; Kamphausen, Die Chronologie der hebräischen Könige; Bleek, Einleiting in das alte Testament, 4th ed., pp. 263-66; Schrader, Keilinschriften, 2nd ed., pp. 222 sqq., 458 sqq.); and the tendency of modern inquiry is to abridge the interval between the reign of Jeroboam II. and that of Hoshea. (See article Hosea in Encyc. Brit.)

Critics at the present time lay stress on the argument that the internal evidence of the oracles themselves leads to the assumption that the mention of the Judæan kings is due to a later and incorrect interpolation. (1) It is said that the allusions to Gilead are incompatible with a time subsequent to its depopulation by Tiglathpileser (734 B.C.). But in the first place the extent of the destruction there wrought cannot be ascertained from the mutilated records of his campaign; while, secondly, the very disorders in that region, graphically portrayed by the prophet, may have been aggravated by the disturbing effects wrought by that invasion. This is confirmed by the language of Hosea 12:11, where the prophet refers to the destruction which had been wrought in Gilead, and points to the ruined “stoneheaps” which were once the altars of a false worship in the adjoining district of Gilgal on the west side of the Jordan. (See Notes on Hosea 7:9; Hosea 7:11.) (2) It is urged that these prophecies, if subsequent to the Syro-Ephraimitic war against Judah, would not have passed over it in silence. But the argumentum e silentio is perilous, unless adequate motive can be assigned for such allusions relative to the general scope and purpose of the prophecy. That purpose was to awaken the slumbering consciousness of Israel (the northern kingdom) to a sense of its unfaithfulness to Jehovah. But why should war against so unworthy a representative of David as the effeminate and superstitious Ahaz (Isaiah 3:4) appear in the eyes of the prophet dishonouring to Jehovah, and why should we expect a special reference to the subject in these oracles? If, as some writers argue, the policy of Rezin and Pekah was to compel Ahaz to unite in resisting the encroachments of Assyria (see Cheyne’s Isaiah, Introduction to Hosea 7), the moral sympathies of Hosea may well have been on the side of his countrymen, and opposed to a monarch whose policy of subservience to Asshur he would emphatically condemn. (Comp. Hosea 5:13; Hosea 7:11; Hosea 14:3.)

On the other hand, indications are not wanting that the year 726 B.C. circ. may be assumed as the terminus ad quem of the prophet’s career. This was admitted by Bleek (Introduction to Old Testament). The references to Judah in Hosea 4-14 are such as point to the national degradation brought about by the reign of Ahaz (Hosea 4:6; Hosea 4:13; Hosea 6:11). Moreover, Samaria was not yet destroyed, but there are evidences in the closing chapters that the impending shadows of that terrible catastrophe darkened his soul (Hosea 9:13; Hosea 10:3-8; Hosea 10:14-15; Hosea 13:7-11; Hosea 13:15-16), and added pathos to his last appeal (Hosea 14).

The writings of Hosea, like most Old Testament oracles, are in a minor key, but are characterised by the prevalence of a tragic discord, which was the ever-recurring grief of a sorrow-stricken heart. For Hosea was doomed by the chastening hand of God to suffer the domestic misery of an unfaithful wife. Soon after his marriage to Gromer, daughter of Diblaim, the infidelities of her past and present conduct became apparent. The children born under these sad auspices received significant names from the prophet, which exhibit how the mind of the seer was working by Divine enlightenment to a clear interpretation of the sorrowful mystery. Did the prophet’s marriage become to him ultimately a Divine summons to his sacred office? We do not know, but we are justified in inferring from his language that this marriage was regarded by him as part of a special Divine purpose. The wrongs he had suffered were now understood by him to be a parable of the sins committed by Israel against Jehovah, and of the long history of unfaithfulness to the God of Jacob who had brought His people out of Egypt. In the Commentary it will be seen that we have maintained the view that regards the marriage with Gomer not as mere allegory, but as historic fact. The opinion there adopted is that of Duhm (Theologie der Propheten, p. 82), Wellhausen, and Nowack, and has also been followed by Mr. W. R. Smith. In the second part of this collection of prophecies it will be seen that Israel’s unfaithfulness to Jehovan, which is the central theme, falls into two clearly marked types.

(1) Unfaithfulness in political relations. From 2Kings 15:19-20 we learn that Menahem purchased immunity from the attacks of Pul (Tiglath-pileser II.) by paying a tribute of 1,000 talents of silver. This event may probably be assigned to about 738 B.C., and is confirmed by the mention in Tiglath-pileser’s records of Menahem of Samaria in a list of monarchs who paid tribute to Assyria. This may, with considerable likelihood, be assumed to have taken place at a time when a confederacy organised by the powerful and valiant Azariah (Uzziah), king of Judah, was being broken up by the rapid successes achieved by the Assyrian monarch. Menahem thus inaugurated a fatal policy of dependence on Assyria, which was only too faithfully imitated by Ahaz, king of Judah, and opened the way to the complete subjugation of the Western Syro-Palestinian chain of kingdoms and states. This policy was carried to its highest pitch in the reign of king Hoshea. This monarch, as we clearly see from the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser (G. Smith, Assyrian Eponym Canon, pp. 123, 4), obtained his elevation to power by the aid of Assyria, and paid tribute to Assyria as a humble vassal. But Hoshea could not have maintained his position long under such conditions. He had to reckon with a powerful party in Israel who aimed at throwing off the yoke of Assyria by courting an alliance with Egypt, and at length he felt compelled to adopt their views, and play a double part between these two world-powers. But all this policy of subservience to foreign empires was in flagrant violation of the old theocratic principle. To the mind of the prophet it was treacherous abandonment of Israel’s God, and with scathing words he denounced the unfaithfulness of Ephraim to Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, the leader of Israel’s armies, and the supreme protector of their soil. Ephraim is compared to a silly dove hovering between Egypt and Assyria (Hosea 7:11, comp. Hosea 5:13). “A covenant is made with Assyria and oil is carried to Egypt” (Hosea 11:1). “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not” (Hosea 7:9). It was the aim of these stern denunciations to lead Israel back to faithful dependence on the God of Jacob, that they might “return to Jehovah their God” and confess with penitence: “Asshur shall not save us” (Hosea 14:1-3).

(2) Unfaithfulness shown in idolatry. The worship of the true God had been degraded in the northern kingdom into the calf-worship erected by Jeroboam I. into a state-religion. The step from the calf-worship to the Baal-worship of the Canaanites was an easy one. The latter, indeed, had long exercised its fatal seductions upon the Hebrew race. Jehovah was even called by the name of Baal, as Hebrew proper names, closely analogous to Phœnician, clearly testify; and the God of Israel was thus in reality worshipped in local shrines with all the loathsome accompaniments of licentious excess (see Hosea 2:13; Hosea 2:16-17; Hosea 4:12-14; Hosea 9:10, &c.; comp. Introduction to Amos), and hence there resulted a hideous blending of a foreign cultus with a national religion. This idolatry was regarded by Hosea, as it was by Elijah, and afterwards by Isaiah, as treachery to the pure and Holy God of Israel. It was the aim of the prophet to awaken a yearning for the olden time and the old covenant-relations when “by a prophet Jehovah led Israel out of Egypt,” so that the nation might be brought to make the solemn vow, “We will say no more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods” (Hosea 12:13; Hosea 14:3).

The latter aspect of Hosea’s prophecy is highly important. Some modern critics attempt to represent Amos and Hosea as epoch-making in the sense of introducing entirely new religious conceptions. But this is an unwarrantable inference. The language clearly points in the opposite direction. Hosea recognises what all Israel likewise recognised from the days of Ahab to those of Hezekiah, that an old order and system of worship existed (Hosea 8:11-14; Hosea 12:9-10; Hosea 12:13), and to this they were summoned to return. If this common ground did not exist, on what basis could the prophet’s appeal to the national conscience rest?

Was this appeal in vain? We are disposed to think that a considerable awakening of Israel’s slumbering religious life was the result. The brighter visions of the concluding strophes (Hosea 14) might seem to indicate, when connected with a phrase in 2Kings 17:2, that even in the worldly heart of king Hoshea a change had been wrought by the exhortations of the prophet. In the kingdom of Judah the policy and utterances of his younger contemporary, Isaiah, were profoundly moulded by the words of Ephraim’s great preacher of repentance, and more than a century after the language of Jeremiah shows traces of the same influence.

We have seen that the oracles of Hosea are linked by one dominant conception arising out of his personal history. These writings, like the “Faust” of Goethe, are fragmentary in character, and were composed at intervals extending over a large part of the prophet’s lifetime.

An exact chronological arrangement of the prophecies of Hosea is, from the conditions of the case, impossible. They may, however, with some probability, be divided according to their general contents as follows:—

I.Hosea 1-3 (written in the closing years of the reign of Jeroboam II., as is shown by the references to the “house of Jehu” in Hosea 1:4).—Descriptive of the unfaithfulness of Hosea’s wife as figurative of Israel’s sin.

II.Hosea 4-14—A series of discourses (belonging to a later period), in which the key-note of Israel’s fidelity to Jehovah, her Lord, constantly recurs.

Hosea 4—Moral degradation and idolatrous corruption of people and priests.

Hosea 5, 6 (Tiglath-pileser’s invasion).—Demoralisation of nobles and priests in Judah and Ephraim. Their repentance is a hollow one, as is proved by the murders in Gilead.

Hosea 7, 8 (Hoshea’s reign).—The drunkenness of the princes, and the foolish alliances with Assyria or Egypt. Idolatrous corruption of Ephraim and unfaithfulness to Jehovah.

Hosea 9-11—Divine chastisement and Divine pleading.

Hosea 12-14—The teachings of patriarchal history. Last words of rebuke and final hope.

It has been well observed that Hosea is “a man of emotion rather than of logic, a poet rather than a preacher,” in this respect standing in contrast with Amos, the prophet of well-ordered argument. Justice is the key-note of the denunciations of Amos; love, outraged love, is the key-note of Hosea’s pleading. And with what a wealth of resource the pleading is enforced! “The language of the prophet,” says Eichhorn, “resembles a garland of divers flowers; images are woven to images, similes strung to similes, metaphors ranged on metaphors.” And the rapidity of transition from one to another, especially when confused by corruption of the text, occasionally renders the path of interpretation perilous and uncertain (e.g., Hosea 6:9; Hosea 9:12). For further information we would refer the reader to the admirable chapter in W. R. Smith’s Prophets of Israel, pp. 159-169, and to Prof. Davidson’s article on “Hosea” in the Expositor (1879). The many points of contact between Hosea and the Pentateuch are clearly indicated in Curtiss’ Levitical Priests, pp. 175-181.

EXCURSUS ON NOTES TO HOSEA.

EXCURSUS A: ON JAREB (Hosea 5:13).

Schrader, in his “Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament,” has the following note:—“King Combat, or Contention (Jareb), is not a proper name—none such being found in the Assyrian lists. In the prevailing uncertainty respecting Biblical chronology, it is hard to determine what Assyrian monarch is meant by this appellative. If we are to understand Salmanassar III. (781-772) as the king in Hosea 10:14, under the name Salman, the allusion here may be to Assur-dan-ilu (771-754), who conducted a series of expeditions to the West.” But when we turn to Schrader’s comment on Hosea 10:14, we find that he abandons the theory that Salman is Salmanassar III. (see ad. Loc.). On the other hand, Tiglath-pileser, whom Schrader and Sir H. Rawlinson identify with the Pul of Scripture, was a warrior of great prowess, to whom such a designation as “King Combat” from Hosea and his contemporaries would admirably apply. The verse might then be taken to refer to the events of the reign of Menahem (2Kings 15:19, see also Introduction). But this explanation, probable as it is, is complicated with questions of Biblical chronology. (See Introduction).

EXCURSUS B (Hosea 6:7).

Buhl, in Zeitschrift für Kirchliche Wissenschaft, Part 5, 1881, throws some light on the enigmatical phrase keAdam, by pointing out that Adam is employed in many places to express all the other races of mankind as opposed to Israel. Thus, he translates Jeremiah 32:20, “Thou who didst perform wonders in Israel, as well as in Adam.” Similarly Isaiah 43:4, on which Delitzsch remarks that those who do not belong to the chosen people are called Adam, because they are regarded as nothing but descendants of Adam. In this passage the emphatic position of the Hebrew pronoun hemmah lends significance to the contrasted term Adam. The meaning, therefore, is—the Israelites, who should be a chosen race, belong now, through their violation of the covenant, to the heathen: have become, in fact, Lo’Ammi. (Comp. Hosea 1:9.) The word “there” in the last clause may refer to some local sanctuary, notorious for idolatrous corruption. This is confirmed by the mention of localities in the next verse. We prefer, however, to understand it (with the Targum of Jonathan) as referring to the Holy Land.

Hosea and his Wife. A Parable for the Israelites

The Time of Hosea's Prophecy (768 BC)

¹ The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

1. Here is the prophet's name and surname; which he himself, as other prophets, prefixes to his prophecy, for the satisfaction of all that he is ready to attest what he writes to be of God; he sets his hand to it, as that which he will stand by. His name, Hosea, or Hosea (for it is the very same with Joshua's original name), signifies a saviour; for prophets were instruments of salvation to the people of God, so are faithful ministers; they help to save many a soul from death, by saving it from sin. his surname was Ben-Beeri, or the son of Beeri. As with us now, so with them then, some had their surname from their place, as Micah the Morashite, Nahum the Elkoshite; others from their parents, as Joel the son of Bethuel, and here Hosea the son of Beeri. And perhaps they made use of that distinction when the eminence of their parents was such as would bring honour upon them; but it is a groundless conceit of the Jews that where a prophet's father is names he also was a prophet. Beeri signifies a well, which may put us in mind of the fountain of life and living waters from which prophets are drawn and must be continually drawing. 2. Here are his authority and commission: The word of the Lord came to him. It was to him; it came with power and efficacy to him; it was revealed to him as a real thing, and not a fancy or imagination of his own, in some such way as God then discovered himself to his servants the prophets. What he said and wrote was by divine inspiration; it was by the word of the Lord, as St. Paul speaks concerning that which he had purely by revelation, 1Th 4:15. Therefore this book was always received among the canonical books of the Old Testament, which is confirmed by what is quoted out of it in the New Testament, Mt 2:15,9:13,12:7, Ro 9:25,26, 1Pe 2:10. For the word of the Lord endures for ever. 3. Here is a particular account of the times in which he prophesied—in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. We have only this general date of his prophecy; and not the date of any particular part of it, as, before, in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and, afterwards, in Haggai and Zechariah. Here is only one king of Israel named, though there were many more within this time, because, having mentioned the kings of Judah, there was no necessity of naming the other; and, they being all wicked, he took no pleasure in naming them, nor would do them the honour. Now by this account here given of the several reigns in which Hosea prophesied (and it should seem the word of the Lord still came to him, more or less, at times, throughout all these reigns) it appears, (1.) That he prophesied a long time, that he began when he was very young, which gave him the advantage of strength and sprightliness, and that he continued at his work till he was very old, which gave him the advantage of experience and authority. It was a great honour to him to be thus long employed in such good work, and a great mercy to the people to have a minister so long among them that so well knew their state, and naturally cared for it, one they had been long used to and who therefore was the more likely to be useful to them. And yet, for aught that appears, he did but little good among them; the longer they enjoyed him the less they regarded him; they despised his youth first, and afterwards his age. (2.) That he passed through a variety of conditions. Some of these kings were very good, and, it is likely, countenanced and encouraged him; others were very bad, who (we may suppose) frowned upon him and discouraged him; and yet he was still the same. God's ministers must expect to pass through honour and dishonour, evil report and good report, and must resolve in both to hold fast their integrity and keep close to their work. (3.) That he began to prophesy at a time when the judgments of God were abroad, when God was himself contending in a more immediate way with that sinful people, who fell into the hands of the Lord, before they were turned over into the hands of man; for in the days of Uzziah, and of Jeroboam his contemporary, the dreadful earthquake was, mentioned Zec 14:5, Am 1:1. And then was the plague of locusts, Joe 1:2-4, Am 7:1, Ho 4:3. The rod of God is sent to enforce the word and the word of God is sent to explain the rod, yet neither prevails till God by his Spirit opens the ear to instruction and discipline. (4.) That he began to prophesy in Israel at a time when their kingdom was in a flourishing prosperous condition, for so it was in the reign of Jeroboam the second, as we find 2Ki 14:25, He restored the coast of Israel, and God saved them by his hand; yet then Hosea boldly tells them of their sins and foretels their destruction. Men are not to be flattered in their sinful ways because they prosper in the world, but even then must be faithfully reproved, and plainly told that their prosperity will not be their security, nor will it last long if they go on still in their trespasses.