Chú giải chương
Hosea Chương 11
1
Hosea 11:1
日本語
bản gốc tiếng anh
When Israel was a child, then I loved him - God loved Israel, as He Himself formed it, ere it corrupted itself. He loved it for the sake of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as he saith, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" Malachi 1:2. Then, when it was weak, helpless, oppressed by the Egyptians, afflicted, destitute, God loved him, cared for him, delivered him from oppression, and called him out of Egypt. : "When did He love Israel? When, by His guidance, Israel regained freedom, his enemies were destroyed, he was fed with "food from heaven," he heard the voice of God, and received the law from Him. He was unformed in Egypt; then he was informed by the rules of the law, so as to be matured there. He was a child in that vast waste. For he was nourished, not by solid food, but by milk, i. e., by the rudiments of piety and righteousness, that he might gradually attain the strength of a man. So that law was a schoolmaster, to retain Israel as a child, by the discipline of a child, until the time should come when all, who despised not the heavenly gifts, should receive the Spirit of adoption. The prophet then, in order to show the exceeding guilt of Israel, says, "When Israel was a child," (in the wilderness, for then he was born when he bound himself to conform to the divine law, and was not yet matured) "I loved him," i. e., I gave him the law, priesthood, judgments, precepts, instructions; I loaded him with most ample benefits; I preferred him to all nations, expending on him, as on My chief heritage and special possession, much watchful care and pains."
I called My son out of Egypt - As He said to Pharaoh, "Israel is My son, even My firstborn; let My son go, that he may serve Me" Exodus 4:22-23. God chose him out of all nations, to be His special people. Yet also God chose him, not for himself, but because He willed that Christ, His only Son, should "after the flesh" be born of him, and for, and in, the Son, God called His people, "My son." : "The people of Israel was called a son, as regards the elect, yet only for the sake of Him, the only begotten Son, begotten, not adopted, who, "after the flesh," was to be born of that people, that, through His Passion, He might bring many sons to glory, disdaining not to have them as brethren and co-heirs. For, had He not come, who was to come, the Well Beloved Son of God, Israel too could never, anymore than the other nations, have been called the son of so great a Father, as the Apostle, himself of that people, saith, "For we were, by nature, children of wrath, even as others" Ephesians 2:3.
Since, however, these words relate to literal Israel, the people whom God brought out by Moses, how were they fulfilled in the infant Jesus, when He was brought back out of Egypt, as Matthew teaches us, they were?" Matthew 2:15.
Because Israel himself was a type of Christ, and for the sake of Him who was to be born of the seed of Israel, did God call Israel, "My son;" for His sake only did he deliver him. The two deliverances, of the whole Jewish people, and of Christ the Head, occupied the same position in God's dispensations. He rescued Israel, whom He called His son, in its childish and infantine condition, at the very commencement of its being, as a people. His true Son by Nature, Christ our Lord, He brought up in His Infancy, when He began to show forth His mercies to us in Him. Both had, by His appointment, taken refuge in Egypt; both were, by His miraculous call to Moses in the bush, to Joseph in the dream, recalled from it. Matthew apparently quotes these words, not to prove anything, but in order to point out the relation of God's former dealings with the latter, the beginning and the close, what relates to the body, and what relates to the Head. He tells us that the former deliverance had its completion in Christ, that in His deliverance was the full solid completion of that of Israel; and that then indeed it might, in its completest fullness, be said, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son."
When Israel was brought out of Egypt, the figure took place; when Christ was called, the reality was fulfilled. The act itself, on the part of God, was prophetic. When He delivered Israel, and called him His firstborn, He willed, in the course of time, to bring up from Egypt His Only-Begotten Son. The words are prophetic, because the event which they speak of, was prophetic. "They speak of Israel as one collective body, and, as it were, one person, called by God "My son," namely, by adoption, still in the years of innocency, and beloved by God, called of God out of Egypt by Moses, as Jesus, His true Son, was by the Angel." The following verses are not prophetic, because in them the prophet no longer speaks of Israel as one, but as composed of the many sinful individuals in it. Israel was a prophetic people, in regard to this dispensation of God toward him; not in regard to his rebellions and sins.
2
Hosea 11:2
日本語
「彼らが彼らを呼んでも、彼らはそのもとから去って行った」――預言者は語調を変える。もはや、イスラエル全体に対する神の最初の一度きりの呼び出し、すなわちイスラエルをひとりの人のごとく、ご自身のひとり子として導き出されたあの呼び出し――それにイスラエルは従った――について語るのではない。ここで語られるのは、民の全歴史を通じての神の数々の呼び出しであり、民はそのたびに従わなかっただけでなく、正反対の方向へ進んだのである。「彼らが彼らを呼ぶ」。神がモーセを用いようと、さばきづかさ、祭司、王、預言者を用いて彼らを呼ぼうと、それはみな同じことであった。いつ、だれによって呼ばれようとも、彼らは正反対の方向へ向きを変え、偶像に仕えるために去って行ったのである。彼らはいわば、神の長忍に合わせて、自分たちの不従順を釣り合わせ、調整さえした。「そのときこそ彼らは従順を脱ぎ捨て、警告を軽んじ、始めたその罪への熱心に、ますます狂奔した」。神の使者たちである「彼らが呼んだ。それゆえ」同様に「彼らはそのもとから去って行った。彼らはバアルに犠牲をささげた」。すなわち、彼らの多くのバアルたちに。その中で彼らは偶像礼拝と残虐と肉の罪とを育んでいたのである。同様に「キリストが来られて、さまざまに彼らを呼ばれたとき――祭りの大いなる日に、『だれでも渇いているなら、私のもとに来て飲みなさい』と言われたように――主が熱心に呼べば呼ぶほど、彼らはますます熱心に主から離れて行き、自分たちの偶像のもとへ、富と家屋と快楽への愛と所有へと帰って行った。そのようなもののゆえに、彼らは真理を軽んじたのである」。
bản gốc tiếng anh
As they called them, so they went from them - The prophet changes his tone, no longer speaking of that one first call of God to Israel as a whole, whereby He brought out Israel as one man, His one son; which one call he obeyed. Here he speaks of God's manifold calls to the people, throughout their whole history, which they as often disobeyed, and not disobeyed only, but went contrariwise. "They called them." Whether God employed Moses, or the judges, or priests, or kings, or prophets, to call them, it was all one. Whenever or by whomsoever they were called, they turned away in the opposite direction, to serve their idols. They proportioned and fitted, as it were, their disobedience to God's long-suffering. : "Then chiefly they threw off obedience, despised their admonitions, and worked themselves up the more franticly to a zeal for the sin which they had begun." "They," God's messengers, "called; so," in like manner, "they went away from them. They sacrificed unto Baalim," i. e., their many Baals, in which they cherished idolatry, cruelty, and fleshly sin. : So "when Christ came and called them manifoldly, as in the great day of the feast, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink," the more diligently He called them, the more diligently they went away from Him, and returned to their idols, to the love and possession of riches and houses and pleasures, for whose sake they despised the truth."
3
Hosea 11:3
日本語
「私はまたエフライムに歩むことを教えた」――文字通りには「私はエフライムをその足の上に立たせた」。すなわち、彼らが背いている間も、私は彼らを助け、支えていた。乳母がその子にするように、小さな一歩一歩、歩くことを教え、「疲れを知らずに少しずつ歩むことに慣ら」し、それだけでなく「彼らの腕を取り」、あるいは「彼らをその腕に抱いた」とも等しく訳せる。すなわち、神は優しく「歩むことを教え」られるだけでなく、彼らが疲れたとき、「彼らをその腕に抱き上げられた」。子どもが歩こうとする小さな試みに疲れたとき、乳母がするように。これが神の愛と優しい配慮であり、教えられた神の道においてイスラエルを導き、支え、疲れから守り、疲れたときには憐れみの腕に抱いて力づけられた。モーセが言うように、「荒野で、あなたの神、主が、人がその子を抱くように、あなたがたがこの所に来るまで、あなたがたの行った道のすべてにおいてあなたを抱かれたのを、あなたは見た」Deuteronomy 1:31。また彼は神に抗弁して言う。「私がこの民をみごもったのでしょうか。私が彼らを産んだのでしょうか。あなたが『彼らをあなたのふところに抱き、乳母が乳飲み子を抱くように、彼らの先祖に誓った地まで抱いて行け』と言われるのは」Numbers 11:12。「この箇所は簡潔に、しかも壮麗に、神の驚くべき忍耐をほのめかしている。パウロもそれについて語っている。「四十年の間、荒野で彼らの振る舞いに耐えられた」Acts 13:18 と」。
というのも、乳母の務めをする父は、まだ分別の年齢に達していない子どもに忍耐強く耐える。ときには打ち返したくなることもあるだろうが、たいていはなだめることで幼い愚かさを慰め、感謝を知らない子どもであってもその腕に抱く。それと同じように、これらの言葉の主である主なる神は、天の御国の霊的な奥義を知らない、まだ形づくられていない民に忍耐強く耐えられた。そして荒野で彼らの多くの体を殺されたとはいえ、残りの者たちは多くの大いなる奇跡をもって慰め、「彼らを導き回し、教え、(モーセが言うように)ご自身の瞳のように彼らを守られた」Deuteronomy 32:10。
「しかし、彼らは私が彼らをいやしたことを知らなかった」――彼らはそれを心に留めなかった。それゆえ、悟りによって知っていたことは、無知よりも悪いものであった。「父である私が乳母となり、荒野で傷つかず、暑さや闇に恐れおののかないようにと、自ら幼い者を腕に抱いた。昼は私は雲であり、夜は火の柱であった。私の光によって照らし、私が守った者たちをいやすためである。彼らが罪を犯し、子牛を造ったとき、私は悔い改めの余地を与えた。しかし彼らは、私が四十年の間、偶像礼拝の傷を閉じ、彼らを以前の健康に立ち返らせることによって、彼らをいやしたことを知らなかった」。
「神の御子は、十字架を担って出て行かれ、十字架の木の上で贖いのために御腕を広げられたとき、私たちを御腕に抱いて父のみもとへ運ばれた。キリストが日々その腕に抱いている者たち、すなわち絶えず励まし、慰め、守っておられる者たちは、大きな喜びをもって、つらい妨げなしに、神のすべてのわざを行い、広くされた心をもって、神の戒めの道を歩むというよりむしろ走る。しかし彼らは大きな慎みを必要とする。大きな慎重さと謙遜とをまとい、他人を軽んじないようにしなければならない。さもなければ、キリストは彼らについてこう言われるであろう。「彼らは、私が彼らをいやしたことを知らなかった」と。
bản gốc tiếng anh
I taught Ephraim also to go - Literally, "and I set Ephraim on his feet;" i. e., while they were rebelling, I was helping and supporting them, as a nurse doth her child, teaching it to go with little steps, step by step, "accustoming it to go by little and little without weariness;" and not only so, but "taking them by their arms;" or it may be equally translated, "He took them in His arms," i. e., God not only gently "taught" them "to walk," but when they were wearied, "He took them up in His arms," as a nurse doth a child when tired with its little attempts to walk. Such was the love and tender care of God, guiding and upholding Israel in His ways which He taught him, guarding him from weariness, or, if wearied, taking him in the arms of His mercy and refreshing him. So Moses says, "In the wilderness thou hast seen, how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came unto this place" Deuteronomy 1:31; and he expostulates with God, "Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that Thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth his sucking child, unto the land which Thou swarest unto their father's?" Numbers 11:12. : "Briefly yet magnificently doth this place hint at the wondrous patience of God, whereof Paul too speaks, "for forty years suffered He their manner's in the wilderness" Acts 13:18.
For as a nursing father beareth patiently with a child, who hath not yet come to years of discretion, and, although at times he be moved to strike it in return, yet mostly he sootheth its childish follies with blandishments, and, ungrateful though it be, carries it in his arms, so the Lord God, whose are these words, patiently bore with the unformed people, ignorant of the spiritual mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and although He killed the bodies of many of them in the wilderness yet the rest He soothed with many and great miracles, "leading them about, and instructing them, (as Moses says) keeping them as the apple of His eye" Deuteronomy 32:10.
But they knew not that I healed them - They laid it not to heart, and therefore what they knew with their understanding was worse than ignorance. : "I who was a Father, became a nurse, and Myself carried My little one in My arms, that he should not be hurt in the wilderness, or scared by heat or darkness. By day I was a cloud; by night, a column of fire, that I might by My light illumine, and heal those whom I had protected. And when they had sinned and had made the calf, I gave them place for repentance, and they knew not that I healed them, so as, for forty years, to close the wound of idolatry, restore them to their former health."
: "The Son of God carried us in His arms to the Father, when He went forth carrying His Cross, and on the wood of the Cross stretched out His arms for our redemption. Those too doth Christ carry daily in His arms, whom He continually entreateth, comforteth, preserveth, so gently, that with much alacrity and without any grievous hindrance they perform every work of God, and with heart enlarged run, rather than walk, the way of God's commandments. Yet do these need great caution, that they be clothed with great circumspection and humility, and despise not others. Else Christ would say of them, "They knew not that I healed them."
4
Hosea 11:4
日本語
「私は人間の綱で彼らを引いた」――「イスラエルのような気まぐれな若い雌牛は、綱で引かれるものである。しかし、エフライムが私に逆らっても、私は彼を獣のように引こうとはしなかった。人として――しもべとしてではなく、子として――愛の綱で引いたのである」。「愛は愛の磁石である」。「律法の最初の、また最大の戒めは、恐れに基づくものではなく、愛に基づくものである。神は、戒めを与えられる者たちを、しもべよりもむしろ子どもとされることを望んでおられるからである」。「私たちの主は言われる。『わたしを遣わした父が人を引いてこられるのでなければ、だれもわたしのところに来ることはない』と。主は『導く』とは言わず、『引く』と言われた。この力は、体ではなく、心に及ぶ。なぜ驚くのか。信じなさい。そうすればあなたは来る。愛しなさい。そうすればあなたは引かれる。これを荒々しく、不安な力だと思ってはならない。それは甘く、魅惑的である。その甘さがあなたを引くのだ。飢えた羊は、草を見せられるとき、引かれないだろうか。体で駆り立てられているのではない。渇望によってしっかりと縛られているのだ。あなたもそのようにキリストのもとに来なさい。長い旅路を思い描いてはならない。信じるとき、あなたは来るのである。どこにいます方のもとへは、人は旅によってではなく、愛によって来るのだから」。花嫁もまた言う。「私を引き寄せてください。私はあなたのあとを追って走ります」Sol 1:4。回心したときのアウグスティヌスは言う。「あの玩具どもの甘さを欠く者となることが、私にとってたちまちどれほど甘く感じられたことか。離れることを恐れていたものから離れることは、今や喜びとなった。あなたが、それらを私から追い出されたからです。まことの、いと高き甘さである、あなたが。あなたはそれらを追い出し、それらに代わってご自身が入って来られた。すべての快楽よりも甘く、しかし肉と血にはそうではない方。すべての光よりも明るく、しかしすべての深淵よりも隠されている方。すべての誉れよりも高く、しかし自分を高く考える者たちにはそうでない方よ」。
「キリストもまた、私たちのために人となり、私たちの肉、私たちの兄弟となられたとき、『人間の綱で』私たちを『引かれた』。教えることによって、苦しむことによって、私たちのために死ぬことによって、驚くべき仕方で、私たちをご自身に、また神に縛り、引くためである。地のアダムを贖い、彼を造り変えて天の者とするためである」。「言い表せない愛のしるしを私たちに与えて。ご自身を私たちの食物として与え、聖礼典を与え、バプテスマと悔い改めによって、私たちを原初の義に新しく従わせられる。それゆえ主は言われる。『わたしが地から上げられれば、すべての人をわたし自身へ引くであろう』John 12:32 と。パウロも言う。『私が今肉体の中で生きているのは、私を愛し、私のためにご自身を与えてくださった神の御子への信仰によるのである』Galatians 2:20 と。この最も愛に満ちた引き寄せのわざを、私たちの鈍さと弱さは必要としている。恵みなしには、常に卑しく地上的なものの中を這い回っている私たちであるから」。
「神の統治のすべての方法と部分は、神からの多くのより合わされた愛の綱として、互いに撚り合わされている。それがそのように秩序づけられているのは、人がその心を尽くして、再び神を愛するように引かれるべきためである」。「神の思いのかたちである人は、神への奉仕への熱心へと、恐れによってではなく、愛によって駆り立てられる。これほど力強い縛りはなく、心のすべての感情をこれほど堅く束縛するものもない。この縛りは、心が反逆し、逃れたいと渇望しながら、体だけを鎖につなぎ止めるものではない。心と意志をそれ自体にこれほど結びつけるので、心は、死の脅しの中にあっても、いかに神の戒めに従うか以外には、何も望まず、渇望せず、企てないようにされるのである。縛りではあるが、あまりにも優しく、この上なく甘い縛りであるので、私たちはそれらを完全な自由、最高の尊厳とみなさなければならない」。
「私は彼らにとって、くびきを取り除く者のようであった」――(文字通りには「持ち上げる」者)。「彼らのあごの上のくびきを」。このように解釈すれば、この言葉は、神が奴隷のくびきを彼らの上に重くのしかからせなかったという、神の善さの描写を続けることになる。神が言われるとおりである。「わたしはあなたがたの神、主である。わたしはあなたがたをエジプトの地から導き出した。あなたがたが彼らの奴隷とならないためである。わたしはあなたがたのくびきの横木を折り、あなたがたをまっすぐに歩かせた」Leviticus 26:13。また神は彼らに訴えられる。「わたしはどのようにしてあなたを疲れさせたのか。わたしに対して証言せよ」Micah 6:3。
しかし、この言葉は、より自然には次のことを意味するように思われる。「私は彼らにとって」――彼らの目には、彼らによってそのように見なされていた――「あごの上のくびきを持ち上げる者のようであった」。すなわち、くびきを(すでに彼らにかかっているものとしてではなく)持ち上げて、彼らの「あごの上に」置く者のようにである。「くびきがあごの上に休まることは決してなく、首にかけられるときか、外されるときかに、ただあごの上を通過するだけである」。神は彼らの目には、いつも何か新しいくびきか束縛を彼らの上に置いているように見えた。そして「私である神は」、その間ずっと「彼らの前に食物を置いて」いた、と付け加えられる。すなわち、神があらゆる仕方で彼らを気にかけ、「すべてのものを豊かに与えて楽しませ」ていたその間、神は彼らの目には、「食物を彼らの前に置く」代わりに「くびきを彼らのあごの上に持ち上げている」者と見なされていたのである。神は彼らにすべての善を行われたのに、彼らはそのすべてを辛苦と考えたのである。
bản gốc tiếng anh
I drew them with the cords of a man - o: "Wanton heifers such as was Israel, are drawn with ropes; but although Ephraim struggled against Me, I would not draw him as a beast, but I drew him as a man, (not a servant, but a son) with cords of love." "Love is the magnet of love." : "The first and chief commandment of the law, is not of fear, but of love, because He willeth those whom He commandeth, to be sons rather than servants." : "Our Lord saith, 'No man cometh unto Me, except the father who hath sent me, draw him.' He did not say, lead 'him,' but 'draw him.' This violence is done to the heart, not to the body. Why marvel? Believe and thou comest; love and thou art drawn. Think it not a rough and uneasy violence: it is sweet, alluring; the sweetness draws thee. Is not a hungry sheep drawn, when the grass is shewn it? It is not, I ween, driven on in body, but is bound tight by longing. So do thou too come to Christ. Do not conceive of long journeyings. When thou believest, then thou comest. For to Him who is everywhere, people come by loving, not by traveling." So the Bride saith, "draw me and I will run after Thee" Sol 1:4. "How sweet," says Augustine, when converted, "did it at once become to me, to want the sweetnesses of those toys; and what I feared to be parted from, was now a joy to part with. For Thou didst cast them forth from me, Thou true and highest Sweetness. Thou castedst them forth, and for them enteredst in Thyself, sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, but more hidden than all depths; higher than all honor, but not to the high in their own conceits" .
: "Christ "drew" us also "with the cords of a man," when for us He became Man, our flesh, our Brother, in order that by teaching, suffering, dying for us, He might in a wondrous way bind and draw us to Himself and to God; that He might redeem the earthly Adam, might transform and make him heavenly;" : "giving us ineffable tokens of His love. For He giveth Himself to us for our Food; He giveth us sacraments; by Baptism and repentance He conformeth us anew to original righteousness. Hence, He saith, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all men unto me" John 12:32; and Paul, "I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" Galatians 2:20. This most loving drawing, our dullness and weakness needoth, who ever, without grace, grovel amidst vile and earthly things."
"All the methods and parts of God's government are twined together, as so many twisted cords of love from Him, so ordered, that they ought to draw man with all his heart to love Him again." : "Man, the image of the Mind of God, is impelled to zeal for the service of God, not by fear, but by love. No band is mightier, nor constrains more firmly all the feelings of the mind. For it holdeth not the body enchained, while the mind revolteth and longeth to break away, but it so bindeth to itself the mind and will, that it should will, long for, compass, nought beside, save how, even amid threats of death, to obey the commands of God. Bands they are, but bands so gentle and so passing sweet, that we must account them perfect freedom and the highest dignity."
And I was to them as they that take off - (literally, "that lift up") the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them Thus explained, the words carry on the description of God's goodness, that He allowed not the yoke of slavery to weigh heavy upon them, as He saith, "I am the Lord your God, Which brought you out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen, and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright" Leviticus 26:13; and God appealeth to them, "Wherein have I wearied thee? testify against Me" Micah 6:3.
But the words seem more naturally to mean, "I was to them," in their sight, I was regarded by them, "as they that lift up the yoke on their jaws," i. e., that raise the yoke, (not being already upon them) to place it "over their jaws." "For plainly the yoke never rests on the jaws, but only passed over them, either when put on the neck, or taken off." This, God seemed to them to be doing, ever placing some new yoke or constraint upon them. "And I, God" adds, all the while "was placing meat before them;" i. e., while God was taking all manner of care of them, and providing for them "all things richly to enjoy," He was regarded by them as one who, instead of "laying food before them, was lifting the yoke over their jaws." God did them all good, and they thought it all hardship.
5
Hosea 11:5
日本語
「彼はエジプトに帰らない」――すでにエジプトに帰った者もあったかもしれない。残りの者たちはエジプトに助けを求め、(彼らの王ホセアがそのしもべとなっていた)アッスリヤに反逆し、エジプトの王ソと同盟を結んでいた。預言者は彼らに全体として告げる。彼らが望んだエジプトには帰らず、望まなかったアッスリヤが王となるであろう、と。彼らは、愛をもって呼んでおられた神に「立ち返ることを拒んだ」。それゆえ、望んだものは得られず、恐れたものを得ることになる。彼らは神を王とすることを望まなかった。それゆえ「アッスリヤが彼らの王」となる。エジプトの捕囚よりも悪い捕囚が彼らに臨むであろう。エジプトの捕囚「からは」彼らは救い出された。しかし、今彼らの上に差しかかっているこの捕囚からは、決して回復されることがないからである。
bản gốc tiếng anh
He shall not return to Egypt - Some had probably returned already to Egypt; the rest were looking to Egypt for help, and rebelling against the Assyrian, (whose servant their king Hoshea had become), and making alliance with So king of Egypt. The prophet tells them, as a whole, that they shall not return to Egypt to which they looked, but should have the Assyrian for their king, whom they would not. "They refused to return" to God, who lovingly called them; therefore, what they desired, they should not have; and what they feared, that they should have. They would not have God for their king; therefore "the Assyrian" should "be their king," and a worse captivity than that of Egypt should befall them. For, from "that" they were delivered; from this, now hanging over them, never should they be restored.
6
Hosea 11:6
日本語
「剣は彼の町々にとどまる」――文字通りには「舞い降り、旋回する」。力をもって投げ旋回されるものとして、剣は暴力的に彼らに臨み、そして留まり、彼らを滅ぼすためにとどまるのである。エレミヤが言うように、「主の暴風が、怒りのうちに出て行く。はなはだしく激しい暴風が。それは悪者の頭の上に、激しく(文字通りには、旋回して)降りかかる」Jeremiah 23:19。神が、ウリヤの殺害の後にダビデに言われたように、「それゆえ、剣は決してあなたの家を離れないであろう」2 Samuel 12:10。流血によって即位した王たちを持つイスラエルについても同様である。神の任命によって、「血は血を要求する」。彼ら自身の剣がまず下って彼らの上に留まり、次にアッスリヤの剣が来た。同様に、彼らが「聖なる方正しい方」を殺した後、ローマ人による破壊に先立って、熱心党員たちの剣が下って彼らの上に留まったのである。
「その枝を食い尽くす」――すなわち、その力強い者たちを。力強い者たちが、木の「枝」からのたとえでそう呼ばれるのであれ、その枝から作られた町の「閂」からそう呼ばれるのであれ、それは同じことである。彼らの力強い者たちは、その強さゆえに逃れるどころか、真っ先に滅びる者となるのである。
「彼らを食い尽くす。自分たちのはかりごとのゆえに」――彼らのはかりごとは、この世の知恵に従えば賢いものであったが、神を欠いた、神のはかりごとに逆らうものであった。それゆえ彼らの滅びは、自分たち自身の知恵から来ることになる。詩篇に「彼らを、そのはかりごとによって倒させてください」Psalm 5:10 と言われ、ヨブも、「神は悪賢い者をその悪賢さのうちに捕らえられる。狡猾な者のはかりごとは破滅に追いやられる」Job 5:13 と言う。すなわち、それは彼らの意図や計画の正反対となるのである。彼らは、自分の考えでは、慎重に企てる。しかし目に見えない力が、彼らの企てを旋回させ、破滅へと突き落とす。「彼自身のはかりごとが彼を倒す」Job 18:7。上に述べたように、「イスラエルは自分のはかりごとによって恥じる」Job 10:6。アッスリヤに対する自分の支えとなるはずであったソとのホセアの陰謀は、アッスリヤを彼に向かって来させ、彼の民を捕囚へと導いたのである。
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And the sword shall abide on his cities - Literally, "shall light, shall whirl" down upon. It shall come with violence upon them as a thing whirled with force, and then it shall alight and abide, to their destruction; as Jeremiah says, "a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously (literally, whirl down) on the head of the wicked" Jeremiah 23:19. As God said to David, after the murder of Uriah, "Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thy house" 2 Samuel 12:10, so as to Israel, whose kings were inaugurated by bloodshed. By God's appointment, "blood will have blood." Their own sword first came down and rested upon them; then the sword of the Assyrian. So after they "had killed the Holy One and the Just," the sword of the Zealots came down and rested upon them, before the destruction by the Romans.
And shall consume his branches - that is, his mighty men. It is all one, whether the mighty men are so called, by metaphor, from the "branches of" a tree, or from the "bars" of a city, made out of those branches. Their mighty men, so far from escaping for their might, should be the first to perish.
And devour them, because of their own counsels - Their counsels, wise after this world's wisdom, were without God, against the counsels of God. Their destruction then should come from their own wisdom, as it is said, "Let them fall by their own counsels" Psalm 5:10, and Job saith, "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong" Job 5:13, i. e., it is the clean contrary of what they intend or plan; they purpose, as they think, warily; an unseen power whirls their scheme on and precipitates it. "And his own counsel shall cast him down" Job 18:7; and above; "Israel shall be ashamed through his own counsels" Job 10:6. Hoshea's conspiracy with So, which was to have been his support against Assyria, brought Assyria against him, and his people into captivity.
7
Hosea 11:7
日本語
「わたしの民は、わたしから離れようと身を傾けている」――文字通りには「それに吊るされている」。私たちの言う「人の全存在が一つの物事に吊るされている」というように。ある物に「吊るされた」物は、一定の範囲内で揺れ動くが、吊るされている対象との関係は不動のままである。その運動の力はその範囲内に制限されている。そのように、イスラエルも、罪人も、罪の細部と状況においてどれほどあちらこちらへ向きを変えようとも、罪そのものへの固着においては固定され、動かないのである。イスラエルが他に何をしようとも、国民としてその全存在が依存していた一つのこと、それは「離反」、すなわち神からの忌避であった。分離王国としてのイスラエルの政治的存在は、子牛礼拝、すなわちヤロブアムが「イスラエルに罪を犯させたあの罪」に依存していた。これが、彼らが「立ち返ることを拒んだ」Hosea 11:5 根拠である。習慣的な罪を通して、彼らはもはや自分自身の力の内になかった。悪の内に固定されていたのである。
「彼らがいと高き方に呼びかけようとも」――文字通りには「彼を呼んだ」。預言者たちは一人の人としてイスラエルを呼んだ。イスラエルは一人の人として立ち返ることを拒んだ。「だれひとりとして、彼を高めようとしない」。文字通りには「共に、彼は彼を高めはしない」。
bản gốc tiếng anh
And My people are bent to backsliding from Me - Literally, "are hung to it!" as we say, "a man's whole being "hangs" on a thing." A thing "hung to" or "on" another, sways to and fro within certain limits, but its relation to that on which it is hung, remains immovable. Its power of motion is restrained within those limits. So Israel, so the sinner, however he veer to and fro in the details and circumstances of his sin, is fixed and immovable in his adherence to his sin itself. Whatever else Israel did, on one thing his whole being, as a nation, depended, on "backsliding" or aversion from God. The political existence of Israel, as a separate kingdom, depended on his worship of the calves, "the sin wherewith" Jeroboam "made Israel to sin." This was the ground of their "refusing to return" Hosea 11:5, that, through habitual sin, they were no longer in their own power: they were fixed in evil.
Though they called them to the most High - Literally, "called him." As one man, the prophets called Israel; as one man, Israel refused to return; "none at all would exalt" Him, literally, "together he exalteth Him not."
8
Hosea 11:8
日本語
「エフライムよ。わたしはどうしてあなたを引き渡せようか」――「神は限りなく正義であり、限りなく憐れみ深い。この二つの属性は、常に一であられ、その考えに『変化も、移り変わる影もない』方のうちに、それほどに結合され、いや、一であって、一方が他方の働きを妨げることは決してない。しかし、私たちの災いが私たち自身の悪い行いの報いから出ており、悪を下すことへの神の喜びから出ているのではなく、神が示される憐れみが、私たちのうちの何ものからでもなく、神ご自身の善性からであることを示すために、神はこの感情に満ちた表現において、疑いのうちに、(いわば)正義と憐れみとの間で引き裂かれているかのように描かれている。一方が他方に訴えかけ合いながら。最後に神は、両者がその結末において分に与るように、すなわちイスラエルが正義をもって罰せられると同時に、憐れみをもって赦され、救われるように決定される」。
神は、判決を和らげながら、イスラエルの悪い行いの報いを宣告される。罪人の罪の深さは、神の憐れみの深さをいっそう鮮やかに映し出すのである。「わたしはどうしてあなたをアデマのようにし、ツェボイムのようにすることができようか」と言われるとき、神は事実上、彼らがその罪のゆえに、ソドムとゴモラがそのうちに数えられ、神が「永遠の火の刑罰を受けて、見せしめとされた」Jde 1:7 五つの「平野の町々」のような永遠の荒廃を除いては、痕迹も記念も残さず完全に滅ぼされるに値することを語っておられる。それが彼らの受けるに値するものであった。しかし神は、言い表せない優しさをもって言われる。「わたしの心はわたしのうちで翻られる」。文字通りには「わたしの上に、あるいはわたしに逆って」。神にとって重荷となるように。私たちが心について「重い」と言うのと同じである。神は、彼らの罪が受けるに値する刑罰について思いを巡らされたとき、ご自身の愛が重い、あるいはご自身の上の重荷であるかのように語ることを、いみしたまわない。
「わたしの心は翻られる」――「あなたに悪を語るとすぐに、憐れみが勝り、優しさがわたしに触れた。父の優しさが、さばき主の厳格さに打ち勝ったのである」。
「わたしの憐れみは共に燃え立つ」――あるいは、わたしの強い同情が燃え立つ。すなわち、愛の熱と輝きをもって。弟子たちが「私たちの心は道で燃えていたではありませんか」Luke 24:32 と言い、ヨセフについて「その深い情が(文字通りには、熱くなった)その兄に向かって動いた」Genesis 43:30 と言われ、ソロモンの前の真の母について「その深い情が(欄外注では、熱くなった)その子に向かって動いた」1 Kings 3:26 と言われるのと同じである。
「アデマ」と「ツェボイム」は、ソドムとゴモラと同じ平野の町々であり、それぞれ小さな王を持っていた Genesis 14:2。ソドムとゴモラの滅亡の歴史では、それらの名は挙げられておらず、「それらの町々とすべての平野」(Genesis 19:25)という一般的な題のうちに含まれている。それだけに、ホセアの聞き手たちは、モーセがそれらに実際に言及し、同じような終わりをもって彼らを脅しておられる箇所を、なおさら思い浮かべたことであろう。「他国人が来て、その地全体が硫黄と塩と焼けているのを見るとき。そこには種も蒔かれず、実も結ばず、そこには何の草も生えない。主がその怒りと憤りとのうちに覆されたソドム、ゴモラ、アデマ、ツェボイムの覆いのように」Deuteronomy 29:22-23。これこそ、彼らのすべての罪が目指した終わりであり、神が彼らに差し示しておられた終わりであった。しかし、神の「強い同情が燃え立った」のである。
bản gốc tiếng anh
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? - o: "God is infinitely just and infinitely merciful. The two attributes are so united in Him, yea, so one in Him who is always one, and in whose counsels "there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning," that the one doth not ever thwart the proceeding of the other. Yet, in order to shew that our ills are from our own ill-deserts, not from any pleasure of His in inflicting ill, and that what mercy He sheweth, is from His own goodness, not from any in us, God is represented in this empassioned expression as in doubt, and (so to say) divided between justice and mercy, the one pleading against the other. At the last, God so determines, that both should have their share in the issue, and that Israel should be both justly punished and mercifully spared and relieved."
God pronounces on the evil deserts of Israel, even while He mitigates His sentence. The depth of the sinner's guilt reflects the more vividly the depth of God's mercy. In saying, "how shall I make thee as Admah?" how "shall I set thee as Zeboim?" He says, in fact, that they were, for their sins, worthy to be utterly destroyed, with no trace, no memorial, save that eternal desolation like the five "cities of the plain," of which were Sodom and Gomorrah, which God "hath set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" Jde 1:7. Such was their desert. But God says, with inexpressible tenderness, "Mine heart is turned within Me" literally, "upon Me or against Me," so as to be a burden to Him; as we say of the heart, that it is "heavy." God deigneth to speak as if His love was heavy, or a weight upon Him, while He thought of the punishment which their sins deserved.
My heart is turned - o: "As soon as I had spoken evil against thee, mercy prevailed, tenderness touched Me; the tenderness of the Father overcame the austerity of the Judge."
My repentings are kindled together, - or My strong compassions are kindled. i. e., with the heat and glow of love; as the disciples say, "Did not our hearts burn within us?" Luke 24:32, and as it is said of Joseph "his bowels did yearn Genesis 43:30 (literally, were hot) toward his brother;" and of the true mother before Solomon, "her bowels yearned 1 Kings 3:26 (English margin, were hot) upon her son."
"Admah" and "Zeboim" were cities in the same plain with Sodom and Gomorrah, and each had their petty king Genesis 14:2. In the history of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, they are not named, but are included in the general title "those cities and all the plain" (Genesis 19:25). The more then would Hosea's hearers think of that place in Moses where he does mention them, and where he threatens them with the like end; "when the stranger shall see, that the whole land thereof is brimstone and salt and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath" Deuteronomy 29:22-23. Such was the end, at which all their sins aimed; such the end, which God had held out to them; but His "strong compassions were kindled."
9
Hosea 11:9
日本語
「わたしは激しい怒りを行わない」――それは「裁きを喜ぶ憐れみ」の声である。神においては、その正義の厳格さに憐れみが勝る。神は彼らを完全に無罰のままにはしておかれないが、しかし刑罰を軽減し、彼らを完全に滅ぼし尽くしはされないのである。
「立ち返ってエフライムを滅ぼすことはない」――神は、人がするように、何も残さないために繰り返しくまなく、いわばエフライムの落ち穂ひろいをすることはない、と言われる。エレミヤにあるとおりである。「彼らはぶどうの木のように、イスラエルの残りの者をすっかり拾い集める。ぶどう取りの者が、かごに向かって手を返すように」Jeremiah 6:9。また、「もし、ぶどう取りの者たちがあなたのところに来ても、残りのぶどうを残さないだろうか。しかし、わたしはエサウを裸にした」Jeremiah 49:9-10。
「わたしは神であって、人間ではないから」――「人の情念に動かされることなく、そのただ中にあって憐れみを覚えるほどに怒りを和らげ、罪ある子どもたちの不義を罰しながら、同時に、その先祖たちに立てられた恵みの約束を果たされる方である」。「人は滅ぼすために罰する。神は正すために打たれる」。
「あなたのただ中におられる聖なる方」――神の聖さは、神が不義を罰せられる根拠であると同時に、罪の最大限度まで罰せられない根拠でもある。真実と誠実とは神の聖さの一部である。先祖たちとの契約のゆえに彼らの「ただ中に」おられた聖なる方は、立てられた契約を守り、先祖たちのゆえに彼らを完全に断ち切られることはない。しかし神の聖さには、もう一つの面もある。それゆえに、聖くない者は、全き聖なる方の約束から益を得ることができないのである。キュリロスは言い換える。「わたしは混じりけのない怒りを用いない。これほど悪くなったエフライムを、完全な滅びに引き渡しはしない。なぜか。彼らはそれに値しないのか。値する。しかし」と神は言われる、「わたしは神であって、人間ではない」。すなわち、善なる方であって、怒りの動きに打ち勝たれることを許さない。それは人の情念だからである。「それならなぜ、怒りに打ち勝たれず、むしろ本質的な優しさに従っておられる神でありながら、なおも罰せられるのか」。わたしが罰するのは、神として善いだけでなく、聖くもあって、不義を憎み、汚れた者を退け、神を憎む者から顔を背け、罪人を回心させ、不純な者を清め、彼が再びわたしに結ばれるようにするためである、と神は言われる。それゆえ私たちは、神と共にいることを大切にするなら、すべての力をもって罪から逃れ、神が言われたことを覚えなければならない。「あなたがたは聖なる者となりなさい。わたしが聖なる者であるから」。
「まちに入らない」――どこにいます神は、裁きまたは憐れみのわざにおいてその臨在を示されるとき、ご自身が私たちに臨在しておられるものとして語られる。神はエジプトでご自身の民を訪れて彼らを救い出し、ソドムとゴモラを裁き主として訪れ、その極端な悪を私たちに知らされた。神は、彼らを救うために、「まちに入らない」と言われる。平野の町々を覆されたときのように。裁き主として、神は、罪から目をそらしておられるかのように振る舞われる。まちが悪で満ちているのを見て、罰することを余儀なくされないために。「わたしは、人が怒って罪を犯したまちに押し入り、すべてを滅ぼすように、無差別に打ちはしない」。この意味で、使徒は言う。「神はご自身の民を捨ててしまわれたのですか。決してそんなことはありません。私もイスラエル人で、アブラハムの子孫、ベニヤミン族の者です。神は、あらかじめ知っておられたご自身の民を捨てておられません。エリヤへの神の答えは何ですか。『わたしは、バアルにひざをかがめなかった七千人を、自分のために残しておいた』。それと同じように、今の時にも、恵みの選びによって残された者がいるのです」Romans 11:1-2, Romans 11:4-5。それゆえ神は、ご自身の民にではなく、不信仰に怒っておられた。神の民の残りの者が立ち返るなら、受け入れないというほどの仕方で怒っておられたのではないからである。それゆえ、ユダヤ民族がキリストを拒んだからといって、ユダヤ人が退けられているのではない。ユダヤ人であれ異邦人であれ、キリストを拒む者は、その人自身が、自らの身をもって、自分自身を退けているのである。
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I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger - It is the voice of "mercy, rejoicing over judgment." mercy prevails in God over the rigor of His justice, that though He will not suffer them to go utterly unpunished, yet He will abate of it, and not utterly consume them.
I will not return to destroy Ephraim - God saith that He will not, as it were, glean Ephraim, going over it again, as man doth, in order to leave nothing over. As it is in Jeremiah, "They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel, as a vine. Turn back thine hand, as a grapegatherer into the baskets" Jeremiah 6:9; and, "If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning-grapes? but I have made Esau bare" Jeremiah 49:9-10.
For I am God and not man - o: "not swayed by human passions, but so tempering His wrath, as, in the midst of it, to remember mercy; so punishing the iniquity of the sinful children, as at once to make good His gracious promises which He made to their forefathers." : "Man punishes, to destroy; God smites, to amend."
The Holy One in the midst of thee - The holiness of God is at once a ground why He punishes iniquity, and yet does not punish to the full extent of the sin. Truth and faithfulness are part of the holiness of God. He, the Holy One who was "in the midst" of them, by virtue of His covenant with their fathers, would keep the covenant which He had made, and for their father's sakes would not wholly cut them off. Yet the holiness of God hath another aspect too, in virtue of which the unholy cannot profit by the promises of the All-Holy. "I will not," paraphrases Cyril, "use unmingled wrath. I will not "give" over Ephraim, wicked as he has become, to entire destruction. Why? Do they not deserve it? Yes, He saith, but "I am God and not man," i. e., Good, and not suffering the motions of anger to overcome Me. For that is a human passion. Why then dost Thou yet punish, seeing Thou art God, not overcome with anger, but rather following Thine essential gentleness? I punish, He saith, because I am not only Good, as God, but holy also, hating iniquity, rejecting the polluted, turning away from God-haters, converting the sinner, purifying the impure, that he may again be joined to Me. We, then, if we prize the being with God, must, with all our might, fly from sin, and remember what He said. "Be ye holy, for I am holy."
And I will not enter the city - God, who is everywhere, speaks of Himself, as present to us, when He shows that presence in acts of judgment or of mercy. He visited His people in Egypt, to deliver them; He visited Sodom and Gomorrah as a Judge, making known to us that He took cognizance of their extreme wickedness. God says, that He would "not enter the city," as He did "the cities of the plain," when He overthrew them, because He willed to save them. As a Judge, He acts as though He looked away from their sin, lest, seeing their city to be full of wickedness, He should be compelled to punish it. : "I will not smite indiscriminately, as man doth, who when wroth, bursts into an offending city, and destroys all. In this sense, the Apostle says, "Hath God cast away His people? God forbid! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not east away His people, whom He foreknew. What saith the answer of God to Elias! I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Bard. Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace" Romans 11:1-2, Romans 11:4-5. God then was wroth, not with His people, but with unbelief. For He was not angered in such wise, as not to receive the remnant of His people, if they were converted. No Jew is therefore repelled, because the Jewish nation denied Christ; but whoso, whether Jew or Gentile, denieth Christ, he himself, in his own person, repels himself."
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Hosea 11:10
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They shall walk after the Lord - Not only would God not destroy them all, but a remnant of them should "walk after the Lord," i. e., they shall believe in Christ. The Jews of old understood this of Christ. One of them saith , "this pointeth to the time of their redemption." And another , "Although I will withdraw from the midst of them My divine presence for their iniquity, and remove them out of their own land, yet shall there be a long time in which they shall seek after the Lord and find Him." This is what Hosea has said before, that they should "abide many days without a king and without a prince, and without a sacrifice; afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king" Hosea 3:4-5. : "Whereas now they "fled from" God, and "walked after other gods after the imagination of their evil hearts, after their own devices" Hosea 7:13; Jeremiah 7:9; Jeremiah 3:17; Jeremiah 18:12, then he promises, they shall "walk after God the Lord," following the will, the mind, the commandments, the example of Almighty God. As God says of David, He "kept My commandments, and walked after Me with all his heart" 1 Kings 14:8; and Micah foretells that "many nations shall say, we will walk in His paths" Micah 4:2. They shall "follow after" Him, whose infinite perfections none can reach; yet they shall "follow after," never standing still, but reaching on to that which is unattainable by His grace, attaining the more by imitating what is inimitable, and stopping short of no perfection, until, in His presence, they be perfected in Him.
He shall roar like a lion - Christ is called "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" Revelation 5:5. His "roaring" is His loud call to repentance, by Himself and by His Apostles. The voice of God to sinners, although full of love, must be full of awe too. He calls them, not only to flee to His mercy, but to "flee from the wrath to come." He shall call to them with a voice of Majesty command.
When He shall roar, the children shall tremble from the West - that is, they shall come in haste and fear to God. "His word is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow" Hebrews 4:12. Whence those whose hearts were pricked at the preaching of Peter, said to him with trembling, "Men and brethren what shall we do?" Acts 2:37. So did the preaching of judgment to come terrify the world, that from all places some did come out of the captivity of the world and did fly to Christ" . He says, "from the West;" for "from the West" have most come in to the Gospel. Yet the Jews were then about to be carried to the East, not to the West; and of the West the prophets had no human knowledge. But the ten tribes, although carried to the East into Assyria, did not all remain there, since before the final dispersion, we find Jews in Italy, Greece, Asia Minor; where those who had been restored to their own land, would not have anew exiled themselves. In these, whenever they were converted, this prophecy was fulfilled.
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Hosea 11:11
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They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt - The West denoted Europe; Egypt and Assyria stand, each for all the lands beyond them, and so for Africa and Asia; all together comprise the three quarters of the world, from where converts have chiefly come to Christ. These are likened to birds, chiefly for the swiftness with which they shall then haste to the call of God, who now turned away the more, the more they were called. The dove, especially, was a bird of Palestine, proverbial for the swiftness of its flight, easily aftrighted, and flying the more rapidly, the more it was frightened, and returning to its cot from any distance where it might be carried; from where Isaiah also says of the converts, "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" Isaiah 60:8. "The Hebrews," says Jerome, "refer this to the coming of the Christ, who, they hope, will come; we shew that it hath taken place already. For both from Egypt and Aasyria, i. e., from East and West, from North and South, have they come, and daily do they come, who sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
And I will place them in their houses - "Their houses" may be their own particular Churches, in the one Church or "House of God" 1 Timothy 3:15. In this house, God says, that He will make them to dwell, not again to be removed from it, nor shaken in it, but in a secure dwelling-place here until they be suited to be removed to everlasting habitations. : "In their houses, i. e., in the mansions prepared for them. For from the beginning of the world, when He created our first parents, and blessed them and said, "Increase and multiply and replenish the earth," He prepared for them everlasting houses or mansions. Whereof He said, just before His Death, "In My father's house are many mansions," and in the Last Day, He will say, "Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
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Hosea 11:12
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Ephraim compasseth Me about with lies - Having spoken of future repentance, conversion, restoration, he turns back to those around him, and declares why they can have no share in that restoration. Nothing about them was true. If ever they approached God, it was "with lies." : "God, being infinite, cannot really be "compassed about." The prophet so speaks, to describe the "great multitude of those who thus lied to God, and the multitude and manifoldness of their lies. Wherever God looked, in all parts of their kingdom, in all their doings, all which He could see was lying to Himself." All was, as it were, one throng of lies, heaped on one another, jostling with one another. Such is the world now. "Their sin was especially a lie, because they sinned, not through ignorance, but through malice." Their chief lie was the setting up of the worship of the calves, with a worldly end, yet with pretence of religion toward God; denying Him, the One true God, in that they joined idols with Him, yet professing to serve Him. And so all their worship of God, their repentance, their prayers, their sacrifices were all one lie. For one lie underlay all, penetrated all, corrupted all. All half-belief is unbelief; all half-repentance is unrepentance, all half-worship is unworship; and, in that each and all give themselves out for that divine whole, whereof they are but the counterfeit, each and all are "lies," wherewith men, on all sides, encompass God. From these wrong thoughts of God all their other deceits flowed, while yet, "they deceived, not Him but themselves, in that they thought that they could deceive Him, who cannot be deceived." When Christ came, the house of Israel surrounded Him with lies, the scribes and lawyers, the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians, vying with one another, "how they might entangle Him in His talk" Matthew 22:15.
But Judah yet ruleth with God - Ephraim had cast off the rule of God, the kings and priests whom He had appointed, so that his whole kingdom and polity was without God and against Him. In contrast with this, Judah, amid all His sins, was outwardly faithful. He adhered to the line of kings, from whom was to spring the Christ, David's Son but David's Lord. He worshiped with the priests whom God had appointed to offer the typical sacrifices, until "He" should come, "the high priest forever, after the order of Melchisedek," who should end those sacrifices by the Sacrifice of Himself. Thus far Judah "ruled with God;" he was on the side of God, maintained the worship of God, was upheld by God. So Abijah said to Jeroboam, "The Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him, and the priests which minister unto the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business. For we keep the charge of the Lord our God, but ye have forsaken Him, and behold God is with us for our Captain, ..." 2 Chronicles 13:10-12.
And is faithful with the saints - Or (better perhaps, with the E. M) "with the All-Holy." The same plural is used of God elsewhere (Joshua 24:19; and in Proverbs 30:3); and its use, like that of the ordinary name of God, is founded on the mystery of the Trinity. It does not teach it, but neither can it be accounted for in any other way. This faithfulness of Judah was outward only, (as the upbraiding of the prophet to Judah testifies,) yet did it much favor inward holiness. "The body without the soul is dead;" yet the life, even when seeming to be dying out, might be brought back, when the body was there; not, when it too was dissolved. Hence, Judah had many good kings, Israel none. Yet, in that he says, "yet ruleth with God," he shows that a time was coming when Judah too would be, not "with God" but against Him, and also would be cast off.
イスラエルが子であったとき、わたしは彼を愛した——神は、イスラエルがみずからを腐敗させる前に、ご自身がこれを形造られたように、これを愛された。神は父祖たち、アブラハム、イサク、ヤコブのゆえにこれを愛された。「わたしはヤコブを愛し、エサウを憎んだ」(Malachi 1:2)と言われるように。そして、イスラエルが弱く、無力で、エジプト人に虐げられ、苦しめられ、何も持たなかったとき、神は彼を愛し、彼を顧み、虐げから彼を救い出し、エジプトから彼を召し出された。「神はいつイスラエルを愛されたのか。神の導きによってイスラエルが自由を取り戻し、その敵が滅ぼされ、『天からの食物』をもって養われ、神の声を聞き、神から律法を受けたときである。彼はエジプトにおいては未成形であった。それから律法の規則によって形づけられ、そこで成熟するようにされた。彼はあの広大な荒野では子であった。固い食物ではなく、乳によって、すなわち敬虔と義の初歩によって養われた。それによって彼は次第に成人の力に達するためであった。それゆえ律法は養育係であり、子としての訓練によってイスラエルを子として保ち、天の賜物を軽んじないすべての者が子とされる御霊を受ける時が来るまでそうした。それゆえ預言者は、イスラエルの極めて重大な罪責を示すために、『イスラエルが子であったとき』——荒野において。神の律法に従うことを自分に課したとき、彼は生まれたのであり、まだ成熟していなかった——『わたしは彼を愛した』、すなわち、わたしは彼に律法、祭司職、さばき、戒め、教訓を与え、最も豊かな益をもって彼を負わせ、わたしの主要な嗣業、特別な所有物として、彼の上に多くの注意深い配慮と苦労を費やした、と言うのである」。
わたしはわたしの子をエジプトから呼び出した——神がパロに言われたように、「イスラエルはわたしの子、わたしの初子である。わたしの子を行かせて、わたしに仕えさせよ」(Exodus 4:22-23)。神はすべての国々の中から彼を選び、ご自身の特別な民とされた。しかしまた神は、彼自身のためにではなく、ご自身的子であるキリストが「肉により」彼から生まれることを御旨とされたために彼を選ばれた。子のため、子の中にあって、神はその民を「わたしの子」と呼ばれたのである。「イスラエルの民は、選ばれた者たちにかかわる限りで子と呼ばれた。しかしそれは、ただ、生まれたのであって造られたのではないひとり子、『肉により』その民から生まれることになっていた方のためだけであった。その方が、ご自身の受難を通して、多くの子らを栄光に導き入れ、彼らを兄弟また共同相続人とすることを卑しめられなかったためである。もし来られるべき方、神の愛される子が来られなかったなら、イスラエルもまた、ほかの国々と同様に、これほど大きな父の子と呼ばれることは決してできなかったであろう。その民の出である使徒自身が言うように、「私たちは生れながらにはのろいの子らであり、ほかの人々と同様であった」(Ephesians 2:3)。
しかし、これらの言葉は文字どおりのイスラエル、モーセを通して神が導き出された民に関係しているのであれば、幼子イエスがエジプトから連れ戻されたとき、マタイが私たちに教えるとおり、これらの言葉はどのようにして成就したのか(Matthew 2:15)。イスラエル自身がキリストの型であり、イスラエルの種から生まれることのであった方のゆえにこそ、神はイスラエルを「わたしの子」と呼ばれたからであり、その方のゆえにのみ、神は彼を救い出されたからである。ユダヤの民全体の救出と、かしらなるキリストの救出という二つの救出は、神の経綸の中で同じ位置を占めていた。神は、ご自身の子と呼ばれたイスラエルを、その幼く未熟な状態において、一つの民としての存在のまさに初めのときに救い出された。本性上のまことの子である我らの主キリストを、神はその幼年において、ご自身がキリストにおいて私たちへのあわれみを示し始められたときに育て上げられた。両者とも、神の任命によってエジプトに避難し、両者とも、藪の中のモーセへの、夢の中のヨセフへの奇跡的な呼びかけによって、そこから呼び戻された。マタイはこれらの言葉を、何かを証明するためではなく、神の以前のみわざと後のみわざとの関係、始めと終わり、からだにかかわるものとかしらにかかわるものとを指し示すために引用しているようである。マタイは、前者の救出がキリストにおいてその完成を持ったこと、キリストの救出においてイスラエルの救出の完全で確固とした完成があったこと、そしてそのときはじめて、「エジプトからわたしはわたしの子を呼び出した」と、その最も完全な満ち満ちたさをもって言われ得たことを、私たちに告げるのである。
イスラエルがエジプトから導き出されたとき、型が起こった。キリストが呼ばれたとき、現実が成就した。神の側における行為そのものが、預言的であった。神がイスラエルを救い出し、彼をご自身的初子と呼ばれたとき、神は時の経過の中で、ご自身のひとり子をエジプトから連れ上げることを御心とされたのである。これらの言葉は預言的である。それらが語る出来事が預言的であったからである。「これらの言葉は、イスラエルを一つの集合的なからだとして、いわば一人の人格として語る。神によって『わたしの子』と、すなわち子とされることによって呼ばれ、なお無垢の年頃にあり、神に愛され、モーセを通して神によりエジプトから呼び出された者として。イエスが、そのまことの子として、御使いによって呼び出されたのと同じように」。以下の諸節は預言的ではない。その中で預言者はもはやイスラエルを一つとしてではなく、その中の多くの罪ある個人から成るものとして語っているからである。イスラエルは、神ご自身に向かうこの経綸にかかわる限りにおいて預言的な民であった。その反逆と罪にかかわってではない。