When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. Hosea 13:1 Two conditions of Ephraim E. B. Pussy, D. D. "Spake trembling," i.e. , there was trembling. "Ephraim was once very awful," Bishop Hall says, "so as, while he spake, the rest of the tribes were ready to tremble." The prophet contrasts two conditions of Ephraim, of prosperity and destruction. His prosperity he owed to the undeserved mercy of God, who blessed him for Joseph's sake; his destruction, to his own sin. There is no period recorded when Ephraim spake tremblingly, i.e. , in humility. Pride was his characteristic, almost as soon as he had a separate existence as a tribe. Under Joshua, it could not be called out, for Ephraim gained honour, when Joshua, one of themselves. became the captain of the Lord's people. Under the judges, their pride appeared. Yet God tried them, by giving them their heart's desire. They longed to be exalted, and He satisfied them, if so be they would thus serve Him. They had the chief power, and were a terror to Judah. But he abused the goodness of his God; his sin followed as a consequence of God's goodness to him. God raised him, and he offended. The alliance with a king of Tyre and Sidon, which brought in the worship of Baal, was a part of the worldly policy of the kings of Israel. The twenty-two years of Ahab's reign established the worship. The prophets of Baal became 450, the prophets of the kindred idolatry of Ashtoreth, or Astarte, became 400; Baal had his one central temple, large and magnificent, a rival of that of God. The prophet Elijah thought the apostasy almost universal. ( E. B. Pussy, D. D. ) The responsibility of those having authority and influence Jeremiah Burroughs. When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. There was a time when Ephraim was very honourable among the tribes, when the very speaking of Ephraim had great power, and took great impression upon whomsoever he spoke to. 1. It is an honour to have respect from others when we speak, to have what we say received with reverence and respect, showing that it impresses the hearts of others, and is not cast out as a vain and worthless thing. Let children, servants, and all inferiors, learn to give due honour to those whom God has set above them. 2. Those who are in place of power over others account it their honour, not only that those under them should regard, but that they should tremble at what they say. Man greatly delights to lift himself above others, and to lord it imperiously over them. 3. The subjection of the hearts of men to those in authority is a work of God, and God is to have the glory of it. 4. The meaner the beginnings of men are, the more imperious they often prove when in power. 5. Sin will bring men's honour down. Let men take heed of trusting their former repute, for let them have done what they will heretofore, yet if they depart from God, their honour will depart too. ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) God's gifts dependent on man's mood W. R. Hutton, M. A. s: — Over and over again Hosea denounces Ephraim for their infatuated idolatry. All through the history idolatry, like a hideous disease, disfigured the national life, but yet in varying degree. With their faith went their strength, and in those days individual prophets or pious kings were powerless to stem the wave of destruction that overwhelmed the land. The lesson is for all time. "God matches His gifts to man's believing." They who tremble, acknowledge their guilt before Him, are made strong. They who go after idolatry are heavily punished or swept away. Idolatry has changed its symbols, but it has not changed its nature. What are our own temptations to idolatry in England at the end of the nineteenth century? One of our chief dangers is idolatry of the visible. The difficulty of believing that love means something besides ministry to the body and mind. But national benevolence and national progress will never make up for national apostasy. Once lose hold on the unseen, once rest satisfied with our good intentions, and we, as a nation, shall cease to carry on our mission. For a nation to be true to itself is for it to be true to its best. The national faith is the first thing to preserve. ( W. R. Hutton, M. A. ) They sin more and more. Hosea 13:2 Steps in apostasy Jeremiah Burroughs. There is no stop in apostasy. Let men once apostatise from God, there is no stop then; they cannot tell whither they may go, when once they begin to roll down. Steps in an apostate's departure from God are — 1. Some slight sin against knowledge, though never so little, for sin of mere infirmity I cannot call apostasy; but if it be ever so little a sin against knowledge, it breaks the bond of obedience. When you will venture to do that which you know is against God, this bond of obedience being broken, no marvel though you fall, and "sin more and more." 2. Every act of sin tends to increase the habit. Corruption grows by acting; as with grace, every act of grace extends grace in the heart of a man; and the way to grow in grace is to act grace much; so that when you are acting your grace, you do not only that which is your duty, but you are growing in grace: so when you are acting of corruption, you are, not only doing that which is evil, but you are increasing the tendency to it; and therefore every sin that causes us to decline from God, makes us to go more and more from God. 3. Every sin against conscience weakens the work of conscience. The authority of conscience will quickly be weakened when it is once broken; break but off the yoke of conscience, and conscience will be weaker than it was before. The first time a man sins against conscience, his conscience, having a great deal of strength in it, mightily troubles him; but having had a flaw, as it were, it grows weaker. Every sin does somewhat weaken conscience, and therefore one that falls off from God will "sin more and more." 4. A man loses his comfort in God according to the degree of his departure from Him. 5. When one has sinned against God, holy duties become very unsuitable to his soul. It is a more difficult thing to engage his heart in them than before, and so he comes to neglect duties, and by neglecting them his corruption grows. 6. The presence of God is terrible to an apostate. He cannot think of God without some terror; before he would often think and speak of God, but now he puts off the thoughts of God. It must needs be that he must wander up and down even more and more, be as a Cain wandering away from the presence of God. 7. The thoughts of whatsoever might turn an apostate's heart to God are grievous to him. 8. One sin cannot be maintained without another. As now, you find when one man has done wrong to another, he knows not how to carry it out but by doing him more wrong, to crush him if he can. And so there are many sins that have other sins depending upon them. If a man be engaged in a business that is sinful, in order that he may carry it on successfully, he must commit a great many other sins, and so fall off more and more. 9. The pride of men's hearts is such that they will attempt to justify transgression. Men love to justify what they have done; when they have sinned, they will grow more resolute and violent, that all people might think that their hearts recoil not in the least. 10. When men have gone far in sin, they grow desperate. They little hope ever to recover themselves, and therefore "sin more and more." 11. God in His just judgment withdraws Himself from apostates. 12. God gives up apostates to their corruptions, and to the power of the devil. Oh, stand with all your might against the beginning of sin; tremble, and stop on the threshold! ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) Sinning more and more G. Brooks. 1. The start in life is fair and promising. 2. There is a wish to be a man before the age of manhood has been reached. 3. There is an aversion to religion, and an appetite for what is evil. 4. There is indulgence in vicious habits. 5. There is the silencing of all the remonstrances of conscience. 6. There is the defiance of irreligion and immorality. ( G. Brooks. ) And have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsman. Idols wholly human productions Joseph Parker, D. D. The emphasis is where you would not expect it to be; it is upon the words "all of it." There is not one sacred spot in any idol; there is not one faint signature of the living God upon anything that man has made with his own hands to worship; it is as if eyes of fire had searched the idols through and through, and as if the hands of critics had written their record, and reported in these words: The idol is all base, all dross, all material; all of it is the work of the hands of craftsmen. Men cannot step from the finite to the infinite. A finite creature cannot make an infinite idol. Whatever is made is less than the maker. If a man has made a god, he is greater than the god he has made. To have genius and power to make it is to have another genius and power equal to condemn it. Men get tired of what they halve made. Ambition may arise and say, Make a better; then comes the displacement of the former god, amid every sign and token of contempt. These words should be cried out poignantly, bitterly, sarcastically. A man is standing before the idol, and he has gone through it atom by atom, so to speak, lineament by lineament, and he says at the end — "all of it" there is not one speck of heavenly gold in all. this handful. of earthly rubbish. "They say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves." It was said in Israel concerning the calves, "These be thy gods, O Israel." To kiss was in the ancient times a sign of homage, either human or Divine. Men kissed their gods. When they could not kiss their gods, as, for example, in the instance of the heavenly bodies, they kissed their fingers, and waved their kissed hands to the objects of worship. The Divine Being does not hesitate to accept this action, and give it its highest meaning, hence in the Second Psalm there is one who says, "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way." That man should have descended to kiss a god of his own making is the consummation of weakness, and the very climax of ignorance and blasphemy. All this happened in ancient times. That is true, but all this happens letter for letter to-day. Man cannot get beyond the tether of his race. It is man that is tethered; not a man, some man, a particular and dying man, but humanity. We are all in one condemnation; the act of homage has not ceased, the object of desire may have changed. Men live in circumstances, and are lost in details, and therefore it is probable that they may imagine if they have substituted some other object for the calves of Israel, therefore they have left the old idolatry. That is not so. If a man be trusting to his own right arm, he is as great an idolater as any that ever lived in Israel. Whoso says he has money enough to keep out the difficulties of time, the slaves of want, and therefore he need not concern himself with providence in any spiritual or metaphysical sense, is as much an idolater as he who in uncivilised lands bows down to stock or stone, or lifts eyes of wondering ignorance to the blue heavens that he may fix them upon something of which he will make the image of a god. Yet all these heathen practices admit of the highest applications. Let no man reject nature, it is God's handiwork; no craftsman made the sun; no hireling servant set the stars in their places. If any poor heart, iii at ease, should pick out some fair-faced star and say, Be thou god to me, it might be the beginning of a higher religion, the truer and nobler faith. These are mysteries, and are not to be spoken about scornfully. He does not know the human heart who says to men who know no better, that idolatry is a sin. It was a sin in Israel, because it involved backsliding from the true God; but find a man in a savage land who has never heard of God or Christ, and to whom the words, father, mother, brother, sister, carry no dew of blessing, no colour of poetry, no suggestion of wider and eternal fellowships — find a man there clinging to but a handful of mud in the expectation that there is something in it that can help him, and it is no sin: it should be the business of those who know better to, teach him better: let what he has seized be the alphabet out of which to make words, and music, and wisdom. ( Joseph Parker, D. D. ) The gold god A. Banks, D. D. I was travelling recently with an old Jewish merchant, who had commenced his career in a Western city fifty years ago, and who has been accumulating money all these years until he is now a millionaire, though as hot in the chase for the dollars as in his younger years. His whole thought and being seemed absorbed in the matter of getting money. He told me his wife was very different from himself; she was fond of music and books and art. "She came to me the other day," said he, "with a book on astronomy in her hands, and said: 'Jacob, there is going to be a new star; let me read to you about, it'" "But," said the old man, "I answered her by lifting both hands and exclaiming: 'Don't bother me, Rebecca! I care more about the price of overalls than about all the stars in the sky.'" It seemed to me a striking illustration of the power of the moneygetting instinct when given full sway in a man's life to drown out all desire for higher things. ( A. Banks, D. D. ) Y As the morning cloud...early dew... as the chaff... as the smoke out of the chimney. Hosea 13:3 The life of the wicked Homilist. I. IT IS DECEPTIVE. "Like the morning cloud." In Palestine and countries of the same latitude, dense clouds often appear in the morning, cover the heavens, and promise fertilising showers that never come. A life without moral goodness is necessarily deceptive. It deceives itself and deceives others. How many lives seem full of promise! But they result in nothing but disappointment. II. IT IS EVANESCENT. "The early dew that passeth away." In such latitudes too, the copious dews that sparkle on the hedges and the fields soon evaporate and disappear. The millions that make up this generation are only as dewdrops, sparkling for an hour and then lost and gone. III. IT IS WORTHLESS. Like chaff stowed away from the threshing-floor. Chaff, empty, dead, destined to rot. How empty the life of an ungodly man! IV. IT IS OFFENSIVE. "As the smoke out of the chimney." The ancient houses of Palestine were without chimneys: the smoke filled the houses, and smoke is a nuisance. A corrupt life is evermore offensive to the moral sense of mankind. To what conscience is falsehood, selfishness, carnality, meanness and such elements that make up the character of the wicked at all pleasing? To none. ( Homilist. ) I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. Hosea 13:5-9 Wilderness-knowledge Joseph Parker, D. D. God knows His people where nobody else will take any notice of them. You do not know a man until you know him in the wilderness. There is but little revelation of character in laughter. So long as a man is living in rioting and wantonness, in great abundance and prosperity, having only to lift his hand to command a regiment of servants, you cannot really tell what his true quality is. Men show themselves in the darkness; men cry out of their hearts when they are in distress; it is in the nighttime of life's bitter sorrows that men's true quality is revealed. God never forsakes His people in wilderness and in desert places; He is more God and Father to them there than ever. No man knows God who only knows Him theologically. It is impossible to read much about God; you must read the writing in your own heart The world is within you; you carry the universe in your own bosom. Unless you have the faculty and genius of introspection, and the power to read the small print that is being daily typed upon your inmost life, you can never be scholars in the sanctuary of Christ, you can never attain to high degrees of wisdom in the school of heaven. Men seek God in the wilderness. The wilderness is the school of discipline. In the Bible there lies one great desert land, and it is called "that great and terrible wilderness." There could not be two such in any globe; there could not be a duplicate experience in any life. Some things can be done only once; no man can be twice in Gethsemane; no man can be twice crucified. There are acts in life which, having been accomplished, enable the sufferer to say, The bitterness of death is passed; come what will now, it is but a day's march into heaven. ( Joseph Parker, D. D. ) Known in time of distress Jeremiah Burroughs. God knew Israel in the wilderness — (1) In respect of their sin, which He visited. (2) In regard of their wants, which He provided for.Observe — 1. Man's wickedness strangely contrasts with God's goodness; God knew their sin and yet destroyed them not; they receive mercies, and yet sin. 2. It is a great mercy for God to know a man in time of distress. This is God's way. Men know in prosperity; but let us make God our friend, He will be a friend otherwise than men win he. 3. We should not be dejected in times of trouble; that is the time for God to know thee: be willing to follow God in any estate. 4. God's knowing us in distress is a mighty engagement. Let us look back to the times when we were in trouble. 5. Let us know God's cause when it suffers, and know our brethren in their sufferings. 6. God's knowledge is operative and working; it does us good. Our knowledge of God should be so too. To sin against our know. ledge of God is evil, but to sin against God's knowledge of us is worse. ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) God present with His people in the wilderness T. Hannam. I. THE LOW AND WILDERNESS STATE OF GOD'S PEOPLE. 1. It refers to their spiritual wants, weaknesses, and troubles. In their first convictions of sin. In their first, beginning to walk in the ways of the Lord. In after temptations. In seasons of dejection. 2. To their temporal wants, weaknesses, and troubles. In poverty and want; in pain and sickness; in the dangers of life. II. WHAT KIND OF KNOWLEDGE OR NOTICE IS IT THAT GOD TAKES OF HIS PEOPLE IN THAT STATE? 1. It is with pity and compassion. 2. So as to manifest His love to them. 3. So as to bestow His comforts on them. 4. He grants His presence to them. 5. He affords them help. III. LAY DOWN THE PROOF AND EVIDENCE OF THIS. 1. The Word of the Lord often declares it. 2. God's dealings with His people in all ages further confirm it, e.g ., Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Jonah, Hezekiah, ancient Israel.Application — 1. Let us be concerned to have this God for our God. 2. When in a wilderness state, let us trust in our God. 3. Remember God's kindness in appearing for you. 4. Despise not those who are in a wilderness state, but "weep with those who weep," etc. ( T. Hannam. ) According to their pasture, so were they filled... therefore have they forgotten Me. Hosea 13:6 The conjunction of secular prosperity and spiritual perversity Homilist. Here are men in good physical circumstances, in rich pastures well fed, getting thereby proud in heart and forgetful of their God. I. It is a COMMON CONJUNCTION. Wealth in the sinful heart tends — 1. To promote self-indulgence- the pampering of appetites and the gratification of sinful lusts. 2. To foster indolence. It weakens and generally destroys the motive to industry. II. It is an INCONGRUOUS CONJUNCTION. Secular prosperity ought to lead to spiritual devotion. 1. The more temporal good we have, the more means we have for the promotion of spiritual excellence. Property puts us in possession of a power to procure books, leisure, teachers, and all other aids to spiritual improvement. 2. The more temporal good we have, the more motives we have for the cultivation of spiritual excellence. The Bible urges the mercies of God as an incentive to holy life: "We beseech you by the mercies of God," etc. 3. The more temporal good we have, the more obligations we have for the cultivation of spiritual improvement. Thus the incongruity of the conjunction. III. It is a SINFUL CONJUNCTION. The curse of heaven is on it. It is sinful — 1. Because it is an abuse of God's blessings. 2. It involves an infraction of God's laws.He has commanded us in everything, by prayer and supplication, to make known our requests unto Him. ( Homilist. ) Poisoned pastures The grazing land was beautifully green, and appeared most desirable for flocks and herds. A farmer turned his sheep into the meadow, but after a short time some of them fell sick, and eventually all of them were affected. No one could understand the reason, until it was discovered that a flock of diseased sheep had previously occupied the field, the grass of which had become tainted and the pasture poisoned. How careful all should be of the books they read, the companionships they form, and the amusements in which they indulge! Do they taint the mind and poison the soul? For according to their pasture so is their life. O Israel thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help. Hosea 13:9 Man the self-destroyer, and God the Saviour W. W. Champneys, M. A. I. THE LOST STATE OF MAN, BOTH BY NATURE AND BY PRACTICE. Observe to whom the words were spoken. Of His ancient people, the Lord, by His prophet, declares that "they had destroyed themselves." He had warned them, but they had despised His warnings; He had threatened them, but they had made light of His threatenings; He had reproved them, but they would have none of His reproof. Is it not so now with God's Israel, His Christian Church? Who is there whose account of sin is summed up in birth-sin only? Who is there that is guilty of imputed guilt only? Who is there that has only sinned in having the inclination to sin — the disposition to break God's commandments — the capability of doing wrong? We are sinners not only by nature, but by practice. We have sinned in our thoughts. The very principle of mind being corrupt, whatever arises therefrom must be corrupt also. And what have our words been? Often insincere, flattering, proud, corrupt, empty. Words lead on to actions. He cannot act aright who does not first think aright. II. THE MEANS OF HIS RECOVERY AND RESTORATION. Can we save ourselves? Let any man try of himself, and by his own unassisted strength, to think but one good and holy thought, and he will find the question answered. Is there no hope? In Me is thy help — in Me, the Almighty Father, the eternal Son, the Holy Spirit, the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier, the Just, the Merciful, the Holy God. ( W. W. Champneys, M. A. ) The sinner his own destroyer H. Kollock, D. D. Our text gives the decision of God, who cannot be deceived, and who cannot deceive. Men do not believe His declarations. They cast the blame of their destruction from themselves upon God. Sometimes it is His decree which constrains them: sometimes it is the withholding of His grace which excuses them; sometimes it is the force of temptation and their own inability which exempts them from blame. The destruction of impenitent sinners is procured by themselves. I. ESTABLISH THIS TRUTH BY ARGUMENTS. 1. Drawn from the attributes of God. Where would His justice, His mercy, His veracity be, if He were the procuring cause of man's destruction? 2. Drawn from the Word of God. What terms does it use when it speaks of the nature of God? If God be to blame for the sinner's perdition, all these tender expostulations must be only a pompous display of unreal feelings. God gives many unequivocal assurances that He would "have all men to be saved." If God is to blame, these assurances must be untrue. 3. Drawn from the conduct of God. Observe the way in which He has acted towards our race in general, or toward each one of us in particular, and we must be convinced that if we are lost, the blame of our perdition must rest entirely on ourselves. 4. The sentiments of all believers establish this same truth. 5. The testimony of believers is corroborated by the confessions of sinners them selves. Nevertheless, sinners object to this truth. II. ANSWER THE OBJECTIONS. 1. From the decrees of God. This objection is drawn from a subject of which we have very inadequate conceptions, and in which we soon get beyond our depth. 2. The principle on which this objection is founded is not a just one. It is that when two doctrines are affirmed in the Scripture, which to our limited capacity appear irreconcileable, we are authorised to embrace the one and reject the other. Show why this principle is unjust. 3. From the inability of man. It is said that God requires of men certain duties which they cannot perform. But inability is of two kinds, natural and moral. Natural inability consists in a defect of rational faculties, bodily powers, or external advantages. Moral inability consists only in the want of a proper disposition of heart to use our natural ability aright. And this is the essence of sin. If the sinner lies under the first inability, he is excusable; but if under the second, he is inexcusable. Moral inability is viciousness of heart, and depravity of disposition. By reason of wilfully cherishing this moral inability, you are inexcusable, you "destroy yourselves." ( H. Kollock, D. D. ) The sinner's self-destruction and only remedy J. M. Sherwood, D. D. I. HIS SELF-DESTRUCTION. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." 1. That the ground of condemnation is personal character. The Bible puts it nowhere else. " If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had sin." "Ye will not come to Me that ye may have eternal life." 2. God governs every man as a free agent. He is left to choose between good and evil. But God will not force his choice, not even to save him. 3. The provision of grace is ample for all who will accept it. None are excluded from its scope. "Christ tasted death for every man." 4. Life is tendered to you and urged upon you; the means of enlightenment, of conversion and training for heaven are all in your hands. II. THE ONLY REMEDY — the only way to escape the eternal doom of the self-destroyer. "In Me is thine help." The sinner can destroy himself, but he cannot save himself. Salvation from sin and death is all of grace. It is a supernatural provision outside of and independent of human device and human merit. ( J. M. Sherwood, D. D. ) The cause of the destruction of impenitent sinners James Saurin. Others cannot destroy us unless we contribute by our own negligence to our own destruction. The Israelites ought to blame none but themselves if judgments from heaven should overwhelm them, giving them up to the Assyrians in this life, and to punishment after death. Here God condescends to exonerate His conduct in regard to sinners by declaring that they ought to take the whole blame of their oval destruction upon themselves. The difficulties of this subject proceed either from our notion of the nature of God; or of the nature of religion; or of the nature of man. I. THE NATURE OF GOD. As Creator and Author of every being that exists, and of everything that results from their existence, God seems the only cause of the miseries of His creatures. There are two ways in which we may satisfy ourselves on this subject. One is, to obtain a complete idea of the decrees of God, and to compare them so exactly with the dispositions of sinners, as to make it evident by this comparison that sinners are not under a necessity of committing such crimes, as cause their eternal destruction. The other is, to refer the subject to the determination of a being of the most unsuspected knowledge and veracity, whose testimony we may persuade ourselves is unexceptionable, and whose declaration is an infallible oracle. The first of these ways is impracticable, and always must remain so. Who can boast of knowing the whole arrangement, all the extent and all the combinations, of the decrees of God? Try the second. The question is whether, allowing the decrees of God, God doth any violence to sinners, compelling them to commit sin? God Himself declares that none of His decrees offer violence to His creatures; and their destruction can proceed from none but themselves. He has given this answer in those pathetic expostulations, in those powerful applications, and in those exhortations which He employs to redeem the greatest sinners. He has given the answer by tender complaints concerning the depravity of mankind; by express assurances that He would have all men to be saved; and by such passages as the text, that there are no difficulties insurmountable in our salvation, except such as we choose to seek there. II. THE NATURE OF RELIGION. 1. As to evangelical morality — how clearly it is revealed. Heresy may attack our religious mysteries, but propositions that concern moral virtues are placed in a light so clear that nothing can diminish its brightness. Religion clearly requires a magistrate to be equitable, and a subject obedient; a father tender, and a son dutiful; a husband affectionate, and a wife faithful; a master gentle, and a servant diligent; a pastor vigilant, and a flock teachable. Religion clearly requires us to exercise moderation in prosperity and patience in adversity. Our moral relations are regulated in a manner so clear, distinct, and intelligible that we not only cannot invent any difficulties, but nobody hath ever pre tended to invent any. 2. The next character of Christian morality is dignity of principle. Why did God give us laws? Because He loves us, and would have us love Him. How pleasant it is to submit to bonds which the love of God imposes on us. 3. Another character is the justice of its dominions. All its claims are founded on justice and equity. 4. Another feature is a character of proportion. 5. Power of motive is another. III. THE NATURE OF MAN. There are implied four vague and erroneous notions of human depravity. 1. When we speak of our natural impotence to practise virtue we confound it with an insurmountable necessity to commit the greatest crimes. 2. We confound the sure virtue that religion inspires with other virtues, which constitution, education, and motives of worldly honour are sufficient to enable us to practise. 3. We confound the natural depravity of a man born a pagan, and with only the light of reason, with that of a Christian born and educated among Christians, and amidst all the advantages of revelation. 4. We confound the condition of a man, to whom God hath given only exterior revelation, with the conditions of him to whom God offers supernatural aid to assist him against his natural frailty. ( James Saurin. ) Pandora's box; or, the cause of all evils and miseries D. Featley, D. D. I should tremble to rehearse the text in your ears, if there were not comfort in it as well as terror. You may discern in it a double glass; in the one we may see our hurt, in the other our help. Israel is destroyed. Who hath destroyed Israel? Why is Israel destroyed? I. THE ACCIDENT TO THE SUBJECT. "Destruction." Destruction is opposed to construction, as corruption to generation. In the text destruction is the pulling down of the state, and downfall of the kingdom of Israel. All politic bodies are in some sort subject to the condition of natural bodies. As these, so they, have their beginning or birth, growth, perfection, state, decay, and dissolution. If the state of kingdoms and monarchies is so fickle, what folly, or rather madness, is it for any private man to dream of perpetuities and certainties! To compose the seeming difference between God's promises to Israel and His threats against Israel, we must distinguish divers kinds of promises made to Israel, and divers Israels to whom the promises may appertain. II. THE SUBJECT OF THIS ACCIDENT. Israel may signify, properly, either the whole posterity of Jacob, or the Ten Tribes which were sent from Rehoboam; figuratively the spiritual kingdom of Christ over the elect. There is a threefold Israel. 1. According to the flesh only. 2. According to the spirit only. 3. According to the flesh and spirit.Some of the promises are absolute, some conditional, some temporal, some spiritual. III. THE CAUSE OF THIS ACCIDENT IN THIS SUBJECT. Praise God, O Israel, for thy former prosperity, but now thank thyself for thy imminent desolation. Are not all mixed bodies corrupted on the disagreement of elements, and the elements themselves by the strife of contrary qualities within them Are not all metals defaced with their own rust? God is the cause of our woe, and we are the cause of our woe. God punisheth us, and

Benson Commentary Hosea 13:1 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. Hosea 13:1 . When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself — While he behaved himself submissively and obediently, and humbled himself before God, he was reckoned among the principal tribes of Israel. Here Ephraim is spoken of as distinct from the other tribes: in other places of this prophecy he is put for the whole kingdom of the ten tribes. But when he offended in Baal, he died — When he gave himself to idolatry, his strength immediately declined, and had manifest symptoms of ruin and destruction. Bishop Horsley’s version of the verse is, When Ephraim spake there was dread: he was exalted in Israel. But he offended in Baal and died — “The former part of the verse describes the consequence and pre-eminence of Ephraim in his own country, and among the neighbouring nations; the latter part, his diminution and loss of consequence by his idolatry.” The word Baal is here taken in a general sense for all false gods or idolatrous ways of worship, so as to comprehend the worship of the golden calves, though they were designed for symbolical representations of the true God. Hosea 13:2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Hosea 13:2 . And now they sin more and more — They did not content themselves with worshipping the golden calves only, which they made to be symbols of Jehovah the true God, but made themselves images of various idols after the manner of the heathen nations; which were nothing more than merely pieces of handicraft work. They at first worshipped Jehovah under the images of the golden calves, but at last they came to worship the mere images themselves. Thus do men sink deeper and deeper into vice, folly, and ignorance, whenever they depart from the right way! Instead of, according to their own understanding, Bishop Horsley reads, In their great wisdom they made themselves images, &c., considering the words as spoken ironically. They say of them — Of the idols; Let the men that sacrifice, kiss the calves — Let all that bring their offerings to these idols worship and adore, and show they do so by kissing the calves. Among the ancient idolaters, to kiss the idol was an act of the most solemn adoration. Thus we read, 1 Kings 19:18 , of all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. And so Job describes the adoration which the idolaters of his time paid to the heavenly bodies, Job 31:27 . Tully mentions a brazen statue of Hercules at Agrigentum, in which the workmanship of the mouth was sensibly worn by the frequent kisses of the worshippers. And, in allusion to this rite, the holy psalmist, calling upon the apostate faction to avert the wrath of the incarnate God, by a full acknowledgment of his divinity, bids them kiss the Son, that is, worship him. Hosea 13:3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Hosea 13:3-5 . Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, &c. — All the comparisons in this verse are intended to express a quick destruction, or that they should soon come to nothing. Yet I am the Lord thy God, &c. — Notwithstanding thy recourse to idols, I am the Lord thy God, who delivered thee out of the bondage of Egypt. And thou shalt know — That is, thou oughtest to acknowledge; no god but me — For thou hast never yet proved, and thou never wilt prove by experience, the power and protection of any other. Those whom thou callest thy gods will be able to do nothing for thee; for there is no saviour besides me — No one who can deliver, or preserve thee from evil as I have done. I did know thee in the wilderness, &c. — That is, I acknowledged thee as my peculiar people, by my watchful care of thee. I was attentive to thee, protecting thee in all dangers, and supplying all thy wants. Hosea 13:4 Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me. Hosea 13:5 I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. Hosea 13:6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me. Hosea 13:6-8 . According to their pasture, &c. — As I was their shepherd, and provided pasture for them, so they were fully fed; they had an abundant plenty of all things. And their heart was exalted — The consequence of their having this plenty was, that from thence they grew proud and high-minded. Therefore they have forgotten me — They so abused my kindness to them, as to make it the occasion of their ingratitude; “for in the pride of their heart, which the miraculous supply of their wants for so long a time produced in them, they forgot their benefactor.” Therefore I will be unto them as a lion — That suddenly seizes upon and tears his prey: that is, I will utterly consume them from being a nation, and give them up into the hands of such enemies as will show them no mercy; as a leopard by the way — That lies in wait by the way; will I observe them — Watch for them, that I may be sure to take them, or watch all opportunities to destroy them. I will meet them as a bear, &c. — In the greatest fury imaginable; bereaved of her whelps — A circumstance which adds a particular degree of fierceness. “They never venture to fire upon a young bear when the mother is near: for if the cub drop, she becomes enraged to a degree little short of madness; and if she get a sight of the enemy, will only quit her revenge with her life.” — Cook’s Voyage, vol. 3. page 307. And will rend the caul of their heart — The seat of the blood, with which wild beasts love to glut themselves. The wild beast shall tear them — The Assyrian shall prove as a wild beast to them. The word ????? , here used, signifies, shall cleave them, or rip them. Bishop Horsley renders it, shall tear them limb from limb; observing, “The verb expresses a violent distraction and severing of united parts in any manner: and is to be differently rendered with regard to the particular agent and patient. When the agent is a wild beast, and the patient the beast’s prey, it must be tearing limb from limb: tearing, by itself, is inadequate.” Hosea 13:7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them : Hosea 13:8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps , and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them. Hosea 13:9 O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. Hosea 13:9 . O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself — Thy sins have brought down destruction upon thee, and it is from me only thou canst expect any help, which I will in due time afford thee. The Hebrew of this verse is capable of different versions. That of the Vulgate, Destruction is thy own, O Israel: only in me is thy help, seems one of the most literal; unless, taking ?????? for a verb, we prefer rendering the first clause, It has destroyed thee, O Israel; that is, all that sin and folly of thine, with which thou hast been before charged. As thy own wickedness has many a time corrected thee, so it has now at length destroyed thee. Observe, reader, wilful sinners are self-destroyers; obstinate impenitence is the grossest self- murder. Those that are destroyed of the destroyer, have their blood upon their own heads: they have destroyed themselves. Observe, also, that the case of such is not yet desperate: God will be their help if they will make application to him. This is a plank thrown out after shipwreck; and greatly magnifies not only the power of God, that he can help when things are at the worst, can help those that cannot help themselves; but the riches of his grace, that he will help those who have destroyed themselves, and therefore might justly be left to perish, and even those that had long refused his help. Dr. Pocock reads this verse, O Israel, this has destroyed thee, that in me is thy help. And R. Tanchum interprets it to the same effect. They understand the sentiment to be, “that the cause of the destruction of Israel was, his presuming upon God’s readiness to help him. They hardened themselves in their corrupt practices, in the confidence that God would never give them up; that, notwithstanding the severity of his threatenings, he would interpose, as upon so many occasions he before had done, to rescue them from their enemies when things came to an extremity. The passage, thus understood is a cool reflection upon the fatal effects of God’s kindness upon the perverse minds of the Israelites.” — Horsley. Hosea 13:10 I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? Hosea 13:10-11 . I will be thy king — I would have been thy king to save and govern thee, but thou refusedst me in both respects: yet I will be thy king to judge me and punish thee. The LXX. and all the ancient versions interpret the clause differently, and give the interrogative, Where? Where is thy king now, that he may serve thee? They seem to have taken the word ??? , I will be, for ??? , where, by a transposition of letters, as the same word is used again, Hosea 13:14 . Bishop Horsley understands the words in the same sense, and reads, Where is thy king? Where now is he? To save thee forsooth in all thy cities — and thy judges? — “This vehement, re-doubled interrogation,” says he, “seems to suppose a denial, on the part of the Israelites, of the helpless, ruined state, asserted in the former verse, as the consequence of God’s withdrawing his protection. Do you deny this? Do you pretend that you have still means of defence, hope of deliverance? You rely upon the policy or prowess of your monarch. Where is he, this wise and mighty king? Tell me in what quarter? Your judges, your provincial rulers, where are they? Let us see what deliverance this king and these rulers can effect.” The words seem to be spoken with a reference to the Israelites desiring a king to be set over them, instead of continuing under the theocracy, or the immediate government of God, who raised them up from time to time, as he saw most fit for them, defenders and protectors, and endued them with extraordinary abilities for the purpose. But the Israelites foolishly thought they should thrive better under a kingly government, such as the rest of the nations around them were under, which is expressed in the latter part of this verse, Of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes — That is, a king and such principal officers as he shall appoint. This is what is meant by the word judges in this verse. I gave thee a king in mine anger — Being angry at your sins and provocations, I gave you a king at first, and have since suffered you, by seditions and conspiracies, to change your kings according as you pleased, whereby your state hath received more and more damage, and now I will take away your present king by the hand of the Assyrians. Hosea 13:11 I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. Hosea 13:12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid. Hosea 13:12-13 . The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up — This verse may be better rendered, The iniquity of Ephraim is treasured up, his sin is laid up — That is, laid up in my memory, as that which ought to be punished at a proper time. The sentence is manifestly equivalent to that expression in Job 14:17 , My transgression is sealed up in a bag; that is, thou keepest an exact account of it, as men do of money which they seal up in a bag, to be forthcoming on a proper occasion. To the same purpose are those words, Deuteronomy 32:34 , Is not this laid up in store for me, and sealed among my treasures? To me belongs vengeance, &c. The sorrows of a travailing woman — Grievous sorrows, or pains, shall come upon him — Great calamities are often compared to the pains of child- bearing. He is an unwise son: for he should not — Or rather, else he would not, stay long, &c. — As a child, if it could be supposed to have understanding, would deliver itself out of the womb, and not tarry there to the manifest danger of itself and the mother; so if Ephraim or Israel had acted wisely, they would have prevented their approaching destruction by a speedy reformation. Horsley’s version is, He is of the thoughtless race, for it is the critical moment, when he ought not to stand still; the children are in the aperture: Hebrew, in the breach. “They are actually passing through the opening of the parts distended by the throes of labour. It is the very moment when the pains must terminate in the delivery or the death of the woman. A proverbial expression, for a crisis of extreme danger and doubtful catastrophe: see Isaiah 37:3 . At such a moment as this, thoughtless Ephraim is supine and unconcerned.” Hosea 13:13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. Hosea 13:14 . I will ransom them from the power of the grave — If we apply this promise to Ephraim, or the Israelites spoken of before, it may signify, that though they should be in never so desperate a condition, God would in due time deliver them out of it: see the like expressions, Psalm 30:3 ; Psalm 71:20 ; Psalm 86:13 . But there is a more sublime and spiritual sense contained in the words, as appears by the following clause. O death, I will be thy plagues — It is usual for the prophets, when they foretel temporal deliverances, to be carried away by the influence of the prophetic spirit, to predict the greater mercies and deliverances which belong to the gospel state: so here the prophet takes occasion, from foretelling temporal mercies, to enlarge his views, and set forth that great and final deliverance of the faithful from the power of sin and death, which shall be completed by Christ, when he shall swallow up death in victory, 1 Corinthians 15:54 . That St. Paul understood the words in this sense appears from the next verse of the same chapter, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? which is almost an exact quotation of the Septuagint translation of this passage of the prophet. For the word ??? , which we translate, I will be, is rendered by them, where, as it also signifies, Hosea 13:10 th of this chapter. The apostle, indeed, seems to have quoted the text from his memory, and therefore rather gives the sense than keeps exactly close to the letter of it. Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes — I will never alter my purpose concerning these mercies prepared for my people. Hosea 13:15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. Hosea 13:15 . Though he be fruitful among his brethren — The name Ephraim denotes fruitfulness, and this tribe answered its name, being the most numerous of all the ten tribes. An east wind shall come — The east wind was often pestilent and destructive in Judea and the countries about it; therefore this expressed that destruction was coming upon Ephraim and likewise pointed out the quarter from whence it was to come, namely, from Assyria, which lay eastward of Judea. It is called the wind of the Lord, in the next words, because the destruction which the king of Assyria was to make of Ephraim was to be brought about by the divine will and providence. It is said to come up from the wilderness, because the way of the Assyrian army to Samaria lay through the desert part of Syria. His spring shall become dry, &c. The Assyrian king being spoken of as an east wind, which in those countries is very hot and drying; therefore the destruction, or desolation he was to make, is described by drying up the springs and fountains. He shall spoil the treasure — The same enemy shall plunder all their treasures and take away their rich and costly furniture, as the word ??? is translated, Nahum 2:9 . Hosea 13:16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. Hosea 13:16 . Samaria shall become desolate, for she hath rebelled, &c. — The prophet foretels the final destruction of Samaria, for her idolatry and other impieties, by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria. Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, &c. — These were the barbarous practices of conquerors when they took cities by storm, or put all to the sword without distinction of age or sex: see the margin. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Hosea 13:1 When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. THE FINAL ARGUMENT Hosea 12:1-14 - Hosea 14:1 THE impassioned call with which the last chapter closed was by no means an assurance of salvation: "How am I to give thee, up, Ephraim? how am I to let thee go, Israel? On the contrary, it was the anguish of Love, when it hovers over its own on the brink of the destruction to which their willfulness has led them, and before relinquishing them would seek, if possible, some last way to redeem. Surely that fatal morrow and the people’s mad leap into it are not inevitable! At least, before they take the leap, let the prophet go back once more upon the moral situation of today, go back once more upon the past of the people, and see if he can find anything else to explain that bias to apostasy { Hosea 11:7 } which has brought them to this fatal brink-anything else which may move them to repentance even there. So in chapters 12 and 13 Hosea turns upon the now familiar trail of his argument, full of the Divine jealousy, determined to give the people one other chance to turn; but if they will not, he at least will justify God’s relinquishment of them. The chapters throw even a brighter light upon the temper and habits of that generation. They again explore Israel’s ancient history for causes of the present decline; and, in especial, they cite the spiritual experience of the Father of the Nation, as if to show that what of repentance was possible for him is possible for his posterity also. But once more all hope is seen to be in vain; and Hosea’s last travail with his obstinate people closes in a doom even more awful than its predecessors." The division into chapters is probably correct; but while chapter 13 is well ordered and clear, the arrangement, and, in parts, the meaning of chapter 12 are very obscure. 2. THE LAST JUDGMENT Hosea 13:1-16 - Hosea 14:1 The crisis draws on. On the one hand Israel’s sin, accumulating, bulks ripe for judgment. On the other the times grow more fatal, or the prophet more than ever feels them so. He will gather once again the old truths on the old lines-the great past when Jehovah was God alone, the descent to the idols and the mushroom monarchs of today, the people, who once had been strong, sapped by luxury, forgetful, stupid, not to be roused. The discourse has every mark of being Hosea’s latest. There are clearness and definiteness beyond anything since chapter 4. There are ease and lightness of treatment, a playful sarcasm, as if the themes were now familiar both to the prophet and his audience. But, chiefly, there is the passion-so suitable to last words-of how different it all might have been, if to this crisis Israel had come with store of strength instead of guilt. How these years, with their opening into the great history of the world, might have meant a birth for the nation, which instead was lying upon them like a miscarried child in the mouth of the womb! It was a fatality God Himself could not help in. Only death and hell remained. Let them, then, have their way! Samaria must expiate her guilt in the worst horrors of war. Instead of with one definite historical event, this last effort of Hosea opens more naturally with a summary of all Ephraim’s previous history. The tribe had been the first in Israel till they took to idols. "Whenever Ephraim spake there was trembling. Prince was he in Israel; but he fell into guilt through the Ba’al, and so-died. Even now they continue to sin and make them a smelting of their silver, idols after their own modelsmith’s work all of it. To them"-to such things-"they speak! Sacrificing men kiss calves!" In such unreason have they sunk. They cannot endure. "Therefore shall they be like the morning cloud and like the dew that early vanisheth, like chaff which whirleth up from the floor and like smoke from the window. And I was thy God from the land of Egypt; and god besides Me thou knowest not, nor savior has there been any but Myself. I shepherded thee in the wilderness, in the land of droughts"-long before they came among the gods of fertile Canaan. But once they came hither, "the more pasture they had, the more they ate themselves full, and the more they ate themselves full, the more was their heart uplifted, so they forgat Me. So that I must be to them like a lion, like a leopard in the way I must leap. I will fall on them like a bear robbed of its young, and will tear the caul of their hearts, and will devour them like a lion-wild beasts shall rend them." When "He hath destroyed thee, O Israel-who then may help thee? Where is thy king now? that he may save thee, or all thy princes? that they may rule thee; those of whom thou hast said, Give me a king and princes." Aye, "I give thee a king in Mine anger, and I take him away in My wrath!" Fit summary of the short and bloody reigns of these last years. "Gathered is Ephraim’s guilt, stored up is his sin." The nation is pregnant - but with guilt! "Birth pangs seize him but"-the figure changes, with Hosea’s own swiftness, from mother to child-"he is an impracticable son; for this is no time to stand in the mouth of the womb." The years that might have been the nation’s birth are by their own folly to prove their death. Israel lies in the way of its own redemption-how truly this has been forced home upon them in one chapter after another! Shall God then step in and work a deliverance on the brink of death? "From the hand of Sheol shall I deliver them? from death shall I redeem them?" Nay, let death and Sheol have their way. "Where are thy plagues, O death? where thy destruction, Sheol?" Here with them. Compassion is hid from Mine eyes. This great verse has been variously rendered. Some have taken it as a promise: "I will deliver. I will redeem" So the Septuagint translated, and St. Paul borrowed, not the whole Greek verse, but its spirit and one or two of its terms, for his triumphant challenge to death in the power of the Resurrection of Christ. As it stands in Hosea, however, the verse must be a threat. The last clause unambiguously abjures mercy, and the statement that His people will not be saved, for God cannot save them, is one in thorough harmony with all Hosea’s teaching. An appendix follows with the illustration of the exact form which doom shall take. As so frequently with Hosea, it opens with a play upon the people’s name, which at the same time faintly echoes the opening of the chapter. "Although he among his brethren is the fruit-bearer"- yaphri’ , he Ephraim-"there shall come an east wind, a wind of Jehovah rising from the wilderness, so that his fountain dry up and his spring be parched." He -" himself," not the Assyrian, but Menahem, who had to send gold to the Assyrian-"shall strip the treasury of all its precious jewels. Samaria must bear her guilt: for she hath rebelled against her God." To this simple issue has the impenitence of the people finally reduced the many possibilities of those momentous years; and their last prophet leaves them looking forward to the crash which came some dozen years later in the invasion and captivity of the land. "They shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child ripped up." Horrible details, but at that period certain to follow every defeat in war. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.