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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Hosea 12:7 - 12:14
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Another Serious Reproach
v. 7. He is a merchant, rather, "Canaan," the name here applied to the northern kingdom, since, like a dishonest merchant, he sought greatness by deceit and oppression, the balances of deceit are in his hand; he loveth to oppress, so that the inhabitants practiced the very opposite of what was enjoined in the preceding verse.
v. 8. And Ephraim said, in refusing to heed the Lord's admonitions through His prophets, Yet I am become rich, thus trying to excuse his dishonest ways, I have found me out substance, becoming prosperous as a result of doubtful cleverness; in all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin, or, "all my gains shall find no transgression in me which would be sin. " This blindness toward their own guilt and the culpability of their sin was the big misfortune of the Israelites, for it hindered them from feeling sorry for their transgressions.
v. 9. And I that am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt, where He first revealed the greatness of His mercy toward Israel, will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the solemn feast, the allusion doubtless being to the Feast of Tabernacles, which not only commemorated the privations of the wilderness journey, but also brought to the attention of the Israelites the blessings with which the Lord so richly supplied them in the Land of Promise.
v. 10. I have also spoken by the prophets, so that He had always been in close touch with His chosen people, and I have multiplied visions and used similitudes, making known His will by parables, by the ministry of the prophets. All this surely showed the interest which the Lord had in His people and should be an inducement to them to return to Him with a repentant heart.
v. 11. Is there iniquity in Gilead? Surely they are vanity, or, "If Gilead," representing the eastern half of the northern kingdom, "is worthlessness and iniquity," if it has reached the depths of moral ruin, then physical annihilation will certainly follow. They sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal, which represents the western part of the kingdom, with its idolatrous practices; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields, the altars being demolished and their stones scattered over the fields.
v. 12. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep, the purpose of this reference being to remind Israel of the labor and misery which their forefather endured in comparison with the blessings which the Lord was pouring out over his descendants.
v. 13. And, this being noted by way of contrast, by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, Num_12:6-8; Deu_18:15, and by a prophet was he preserved, for it was the intercession of Moses which saved Israel from being destroyed by the Lord.
v. 14. Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly, in spite of all the blessings which God had showered upon His people; therefore shall He, the Lord, leave his blood upon him, leave Israel in his blood-guiltiness, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him, so that it would be charged to his account and kept there. When men refuse to repent and scorn all the efforts of the Lord aiming at their deliverance from sin and guilt, the Lord leaves them to their fate and to the punishment which they invited upon themselves.