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They return; they sometimes have given some signs of returning, as when Jehu destroyed Baal, or Hoshea gave liberty to Israel to go up to Jerusalem (if it be true which some affirm of him); and if I were sure Hoshea did this, I should think the prophet aimed at it; in this they return,
but not to the Most High; Jehu fell off to the calves, and Hoshea’s reign was wicked too much, though the reigns of other kings were more wicked; what show soever of repentance among them, yet they never thoroughly repented, never fully embraced the law of God.
They are like a deceitful bow; all was done (as the similitude elegantly sets it forth) in mere hypocrisy; though they seemed bent for and aiming at the mark, yet, like a weak bow, they carried not the arrow home, and, like a false bow, they never carried it straight toward the mark. Their princes; the royal family, principal nobles and magistrates, their brave commanders and leaders.
Shall fall by the sword; be slain by either sword of base, false, and bloody traitors at home, or by sword of foreigners, as the Assyrian.
The rage of their tongue, against God, his prophets and providence, which to decry with scorners was their usual diversion, Hos_7:5. This, this sad end,
shall be their derision, shall be upbraided to them, in the land of Egypt; among their allies and seeming friends.