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Hos_4:14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people [that] doth not understand shall fall.
Ver. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom] q.d. I will not once foul my fingers with them, or be at pains to correct them but they shall take their swing in sin for me &c. Origen in a certain homily, quoting this Scripture, saith, Vis indignantis Dei terribilem vocem audire, &c. (Hom. 8 in Exo_20:1-26): Will you hear the terrible voice of a provoked God; hear it here, I will not punish, &c. You shall be without chastisement, for an argument that you are bastards, and not sons. Never was Jerusalem’s condition so desperate as the time when God said unto her, "My fury shall depart from thee, I will be quiet and no more angry," Eze_16:42. Feri, Domine, feri, cried Luther, Strike, Lord, strike, and spare not.
“ Ferre minora volo, ne graviora feram. ”
There is not a greater plague can befall a man than to prosper in sinful practices. Bernard calleth it misericordiam omni indignatione crudeliorem, a killing courtesy. Eze_3:20, I will lay a stumbling block before him: that is, saith Vatablus, I will prosper him in all things, and not by affliction restrain him from sin. Job surely counts it for a great favour to sorry man, that God accounts him worth melting, though it be every morning; and trying, though it be every moment, Job_7:17-18. And Jeremiah calleth for correction as a thing that he could not well be without: "Correct me, O Lord," &c.
For themselves are separated with whores] God seemeth to speak this to others by change of person: Ac si puderet ipsum cum putidis hircis verba facere, as if he were ashamed to speak any longer to such stinking goats (Rivet). Separates they were, but of the worst sort. They separated themselves with harlots, they got into byways, far from company (especially of those that know them), that they might more freely act filthiness (Auson.). But what could the heathen say, Turpe quid acturus, Te sine teste time. Shameful what he will do, fear you without witness. Conscience is a thousand witnesses: and men must not think long to lie hidden; for God will be a "swift witness against the adulterers," Mal_3:5, {See Trapp on "Mal_3:5"} and, it may be, "bring them into all evil, in the midst of the congregation and assembly," Pro_5:14. {See Trapp on "Pro_5:14"} Some render it, they beget bastards, such as the mule is (which also hath his name pered, from this root, yithparedu). Or they shall be unfruitful as the mule. Wantonness is commonly punished with want of children. {See Trapp on "Hos_4:10"} Those children that they had took after them, it appeareth here, they were naught by kind, as being an adulterous generation, a seed of evildoers, a race of rebels; and therefore it was no matter how little they multiplied. Let those that have children, and others under their charge, keep home as much as may be; and not be separate from their families (with whores especially), lest their daughters meanwhile commit whoredom (counted but a trick of youth, a sin that that slippery age may easily slip into, and not easily be descried, Pro_30:19), and their spouses commit adultery, by occasion of their lewd absence, and to cry quittance with them at home. Let them also make Nebuchadnezzar’s law, that none under their roof say or do aught "against the God of heaven," Dan_3:29; and themselves be first in the practice of it, as so many living laws, walking statutes; so may they hope to keep their houses chaste and honest, and provide for the credit and comfort both of themselves and of theirs.
And they sacrifice with harlots] Heb. Holy harlots, sacrificing harlots, such as Solomon speaketh of, Pro_7:14, and as those wicked women that lay with Eli’s sons at the door of the tabernacle, 1Sa_2:22. Or as King Edward IV’s holy whore, as he used to call her, that came to him out of a nunnery, when he wished to send for her (Speed). His kinsman, Louis XI of France (knowing his disposition), invited him to the court, promising him his choice of beauties there, and adhibebimus tibi Cardinalem Burbonium, then shall Cardinal Bourbon impose penance on you, and absolve you of all your misdoings (Comin.) It is well enough known what foul work the heathens made at their sacra Eleusinia, Bacchanalia, Lupercalia, Priapdia (the same with the sacrificing to Baal Peor, as Jerome holds). And to these this text may seem to refer; and this people too have separated themselves to that shame.
Therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall] Heb. shall be beaten, as some render it, shall be perplexed, and troubled, so as they know not what to do, or how to help themselves, as Aben Ezra from the Arabic. The Chaldee interprets it collidetur, shall be dashed in pieces. Ignorance is much instanced and threatened in this chapter, three or four different times at least. Not because men sin only by ignorance, as the Platonists think, Omnis peccans est ignorans; but, 1. To aggravate the hatefulness of this: sin, which men use so to excuse and extenuate; 2. To taunt and abase the rebellious nature of man, who now is set in gross ignorance, and ready to pitch headlong into hell, as the just reward of his aspiring and reaching after forbidden knowledge; 3. Because ignorance (affected especially) is the source of many sins, and a main support of Satan’s kingdom. {See Trapp on "Hos_4:1"} {See Trapp on "Hos_4:6"} &c.