Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · 호세아 13장

Hosea 13:1. When Ephraim spake, trembling— When Ephraim promulged his edicts, or first became a kingdom. Houbigant. It may be otherwise understood, that when he behaved himself with dutiful submission and obedience to God, his kingdom was powerful; but when he gave himself up to idolatry, his strength immediately declined. The word Baal is here used in its general sense, for false gods.

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Hosea 13:2. Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves— Or it should rather be rendered, Let the sacrificers of men kiss the calves. It appears from this passage, that superstition and idolatry had made such a progress among the ten tribes, that human sacrifices were made an essential rite in the worship of the calves. And this was the finishing stroke, the last stage of their impiety; that they said Let the sacrificers of men kiss the calves: let them consider themselves as the most acceptable worshippers, who approach the image with human blood. Kiss the calves; that is to say, worship the calves. Among the ancient idolaters, to kiss the idol was an act of the most solemn adoration. Thus we read in Holy Writ of all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. Tully mentions a brazen statue of Hercules at Agrigentum, in which the workmanship of the mouth was sensibly worn by the frequent kisses of the worshippers. And in allusion to this rite, the holy Psalmist, calling upon the apostate faction to avert the wrath of the incarnate God by full acknowledgment of his divinity, bids them kiss the Son; that is to say, worship him.

It may seem extraordinary, that we find it no where mentioned in the sacred history by whom the practice was introduced of sacrificing men to the calves, the pretended emblems of the true God. But this would appear an objection of no great weight to the interpretation I have given of the prophet's words, which is the only one, I think, that they will naturally bear; if the prevalence of the practice were of necessity implied in the words of the prophet so interpreted. But it is possible, that the calves themselves were never so worshipped; but that the zeal for idolatry was so great with some of the latter kings, that they made it a condition upon which alone they would tolerate the worship of Jehovah in the calves, that the worshipper should join in the offering of human sacrifices to Moloch, or some other idol. For if any of the kings of Israel issued an edict of toleration, under such a condition; he said, in effect, "Let the sacrificers of men kiss the calves." It is true, no such measure is mentioned in the sacred history. But the silence of the history is certainly no confutation of any thing, to which the prophets clearly allude as a fact. For the history of the kingdom of Israel, under the different usurpers, after the fall of Zedekiah, the son of the second Jeroboam, is so concise and general, that we know little of the detail of it, but what is to be gathered from allusions. We have the names of the kings in succession, the length of their reigns, and their principal exploits. But we know nothing of the particulars, but what we gather from the prophets, or from the more circumstantial history of the collateral reigns in the kingdom of Judah; insomuch that human victims may have been offered to the calves, or the wor-shippers of the calves may have been compelled to dip their hands in the blood of Moloch's victims; though no evidence of either practice remains, but this allusion of the prophet Hosea; which leaves some degree of doubt between the two. Sacrifices to the calves themselves seem to me the more probable object of the allusion.

When it is recollected, that Solomon himself built a temple to Moloch, and that Ahab introduced the worship of the Tyrian Baal in the kingdom of Samaria, and that both these idols were appeased with infant blood; there is too much reason to believe, that the practice must have begun early in both kingdoms; although it probably was late before it came to a height in either. And yet the first mention of it, in the history of the kingdom of Samaria, is when the sacred writer closes that history, with an enumeration of the crimes which provoked the judgment of God, and brought on its ruin, 2 Kings 17:17. Nevertheless, it is certain, that this abominable custom was of older date, and perhaps of not much older date, in the kingdom of Samaria, than in that of Judah. For, in the kingdom of Judah, Ahaz is the first king, of whom we read that he adopted the practice. And it is mentioned, as one of the things in which he followed the example of the kings of Israel;—Ahaz—did not that which was right in the sight of Jehovah, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, insomuch that he passed his son through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, &c. See 2 Kings 16:2-3.

Upon the whole, it may be concluded with certainty, from this text of Hosea, that, in the latter period of the monarchy of the ten tribes, the practice of human sacrifices came to such a height, and was so much countenanced by the kings and rulers, that it was either enjoined as an essential in the worship even of the calves; or required of their worshippers, with regard to other idols, as the only condition upon which even that shadow of the true worship would be tolerated. The time when this took place cannot be determined with certainty; I think it must have been as early as the reign of Menahem; for, from the expressions in 2Ki 16:3 we may gather, that Ahaz had the example of more kings of Israel than one or two, for the detestable rites which he introduced among his own subjects.

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Hosea 13:4. Yet I am, &c.— For I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt: And thou shalt see that there is no other God but me, nor any Saviour beside me. Houbigant.

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Hosea 13:5. I did know thee, &c.— I fed thee, &c. Houbigant after the LXX.

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Hosea 13:6. According to their pasture, so were they filled— But they were filled in their pastures. Houbigant.

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Hosea 13:7. As a leopard, &c.— As a leopard in the way to the Assyrians. Houbigant.

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Hosea 13:11. I gave thee a king— I will give thee a king in mine anger, and will take him away, &c. We retain the future, because this may be considered as an answer to the demand just made, Give me a king, &c.

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Hosea 13:12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, &c.— The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up in a bundle: His sin is kept as a deposit. Houbigant. It is laid by as a treasure; it is not forgotten; the time for punishing Ephraim is not come, though it is not far off. Manet alta mente repostum.

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Hosea 13:13. The sorrow, &c.— The sorrrows of a travailing woman shall come on his account: But he is a foolish infant; nor will he place himself where is the breaking forth of children. Houbigant.

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Hosea 13:14. I will ransom them, &c.— Shall I deliver them from the jaws of the grave? Shall I redeem them from death? O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy destructive power? Houbigant. If the ideas here used primarily refer to the restoration of the Jews; they have also, no doubt, an immediate reference to that great subject to which St. Paul applies them; 1 Corinthians 15:54-55.

Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes— The frequent and sudden transitions from threatening to promise, from indignation to pathetic persuasion, and the contrary, produce much obscurity in the latter part of this prophet; which however disappears, when breaks are made in the proper places. In the 13th verse, the peril of Ephraim's situation, arising from his own hardened thoughtlessness, is described in the most striking images. In the 14th, God the Saviour comforts him with the promise of the final deliverance of the Jewish nation. In these words, which may be rendered, No repentance is discoverable to my eye, the Saviour complains, that these terrors and these hopes are all ineffectual: that he perceives no signs of repentance wrought by them. The Hebrew sounds literally, "Repentance is hidden from mine eyes." The total defect of the thing is most strongly expressed in the assertion, that nothing of it is to be discerned by the all-searching eye of the divine Saviour. This complaint of universal impenitence, with the reason assigned, introduces new threatening, with which the chapter ends. The reason assigned for the impenitence is, that Ephraim is run wild among savage beasts, broken loose from the restraints of God's holy law, given up to his depraved appetites, and turned mere heathen.

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