Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Hosea 13:1 - 13:8

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Hosea 13:1 - 13:8


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God's Benefits Scorned by Israel

v. 1. When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel, rather, "When Ephraim," as the mightiest of the northern tribes, "spoke, there was trembling"; for the other tribes were so much weaker that they could not hold out against the leading tribe; he exalted himself in Israel, assuming the leadership and enforcing his will; but when he offended in Baal, when he transgressed through his idolatry in serving Baal, he died, his destruction was determined upon.

v. 2. And now,
after idolatry had thus been introduced, they sin more and more, multiplying their transgressions, and have made them molten images of their silver and idols according to their own understanding, making use of their ideas of art in constructing these statues, all of it the work of the craftsmen; they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves, literally, "to them they are speaking, men who sacrifice: they kiss the calves"; that is, the foolish idolaters speak with the very work of their hands and pray to them; they even kiss these pictures of calves, as though they were on a level with human, beings. The reproof is purposely couched in words of cutting irony.

v. 3. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud,
the vapor which arises at dawn, and as the early dew that passeth away, Cf Hos_6:4, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, being carried away from the threshing-floor by every passing breeze, and as the smoke out of the chimney, rather, like smoke from a window; for chimneys were not in general use in the Orient.

v. 4. Yet,
over against the faithlessness of an apostate people, I am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt, since the days when He delivered His people from the house of bondage, and thou shalt know no god but Me, there being no deliverer like the true God; for there is no savior beside Me.

v. 5. I did know thee,
with true love and compassion, in the wilderness, even during the desert journey, in the land of great drought, where the land and its inhabitants languished with thirst.

v. 6. According to their pasture, so were they filled,
their enjoyment of the goodness of God causing them to become proud in their own conceit; they were filled, and their heart was exalted, at the very time when they should have bowed down before the Lord with the greatest feeling of humility; therefore have they forgotten Me. Cf Deu_6:11-12.

v. 7. Therefore I will be unto them as a lion; as a leopard by the way will I observe them,
lurking by the path ready to pounce upon his victims;

v. 8. I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps,
which is known for her fierceness, and will rend the caul of their heart, the pericardium or membrane enclosing the heart, and there will I devour them. like a lion; the wild beast shall tear them. The punishment of the apostate people is represented as a rending and devouring of a herd, which has grown fat with a rich pasture, by wild beasts. In the midst of His most serious rebukes the Lord still inserts a pleading cry admonishing men to turn to their only Savior with a repentant heart.