Holy Bible

Come, and let us return unto the Lord. Hosea 6:1 The characteristic marks of true penitence Skeletons of Sermons. These words are the expressions of that penitence which was excited in the Israelites by God's departure from them, and by His grace that accompanied the affliction. I. THE CHARACTERISTIC MARKS OF TRUE PENITENCE. It will always be attended by — 1. A sense of our departure from God. With unregenerate men the thought of being at a distance from God never distresses. As soon as the grace of repentance is given, men see that they are as sheep gone astray. 2. An acknowledgment of affliction as a just chastisement for sin. The impenitent heart murmurs and rebels under the Divine chastisements: the penitent "hears the rod, and Him that appointed it." 3. A determination to return to God. When a man is once thoroughly awakened to a sense of his lost condition, he can no longer be contented with a formal round of duties. To hear of Christ, to seek Him, are from henceforth his chief desire, his supreme delight. 4. A desire that others should return to Him also. This is insisted on as characteristic of the great work that shall be accomplished in the latter day ( Isaiah 2:3 ). The penitent feels it incumbent on him to labour for the salvation of others. II. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH A PENITENT MAY TAKE ENCOURAGEMENT TO RETURN TO GOD. 1. From a general view of God's readiness to heal us. 2. From that particular discovery of it which we have in the wounds He has inflicted on us.Apply — 1. To those who have deserted God. 2. To those who are deserted by God. ( Skeletons of Sermons. ) Man's highest social action Homilist. The prophet calls on those who had been smitten, or sent into exile, to put away all confidence in an arm of flesh, to renounce all idolatries. I. THAT SOCIETY IS AWAY FROM GOD. Not locally, of course: for the Great Spirit is with all and in all, but morally. Society is away from Him in its thoughts; away from Him in its sympathies; away from Him in its pursuits. II. THAT ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL ITS TRIALS. Because the prodigal left his father's home he got reduced to the utmost infamy and wretchedness. Moral separation from God is ruin. Cut the branch from the root and it withers; the river from its source, and it dries up; the planet from the sun, and it rushes into ruin. Nothing will remove the evils under which society is groaning but a return unto God. Legislation, commerce, science, literature, art, none of these will help it much so long as it continues away from Him. III. THAT RETURN TO HIM IS A POSSIBLE WORK. ( Homilist. ) Luxury and ease W. P. Lockhart. I. THE FACT OF BACKSLIDING. Had there been no wandering from the Lord, there would have been no need of a return to Him. From passages in the histories of Solomon and David, as shewing how luxury and ease conduce to backsliding. Solomon would be now caned a child of God. He did start well. But the history of Solomon shows us that no amount of experience is in itself a safeguard. Whether young or old in the faith, we need the preserving grace of God from moment to moment. In Solomon's case the affinity with Pharaoh, and marriage with his daughter, are like the first links in a long chain of backsliding. Is it not often the case that believers, even when apparently walking in the fear of the Lord, may be cherishing some secret sin or indulgence, which, like a seed concealed in the earth, finally germinates and blossoms forth into open backsliding! Solomon fell through self-indulgence. And the Christian who is self-indulgent, who makes the means entrusted to him by God minister to his love of luxury and desire for worldly pomp, is on the high road to idolatry. God did not leave Solomon undisturbed in his idolatry and self-indulgence. The record of David's fall is given in 2 Samuel 11 . Idleness is the parent of vice. Lurking lusts, encouraged by the quiet, creep out of their hiding-places, hold converse with the heart, and seek to drag him into all manner of sin. David fell before temptation, and set himself to commit further sin, in the hope of covering that already committed. This is almost invariably the case with the backslider. II. God's dealings with the backslider. "He hath torn — He hath smitten." It is in mercy, and not in wrath, that God deals with His backsliding children. Punishment has for its object, the vindication of the authority of God as the moral Ruler. It is judicial as well as remedial. But its chief purpose is the backslider's restoration. III. A GLIMMER OF FAITH ON THE PART OF THE BACKSLIDER. "He will heal us — He will bind us up." In the heart of the backslider there lies hidden the germ of a God-given faith, like seeds in a mummy case. IV. THE GOODLY RESOLVE. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord." Some seek to heal their backslidings without dealing with God Himself. How are we to return? Through Jesus, the once crucified, the now risen and exalted One. ( W. P. Lockhart. ) Signs of true penitence George Hutcheson. I. WHEREVER THERE IS TRUE REPENTANCE, THERE WILL BE A RETURNING UNTO THE LORD. 1. A true penitent will be sensible, not only of straying from God, which hath made a distance between God and him, but that his straying hath begotten an averseness, and turned his back upon God, so that he needs to return. 2. A penitent will have a deep sense, that all other courses he has essayed in his straying from God, are but vanity. II. THE ORDINARY FORERUNNER OF A TIME OF MERCY, IS THE LORD'S STIRRING UP HIS PEOPLE TO SEEK HIM. Here they are excited, and excite one another to this duty. "Come, and let us return," and this is their temper in a time of love. ( George Hutcheson. ) For He hath torn, and He will heal us He hath torn, and He will heal us J. Baldwin Brown, B. A. The philosophy of the Divine judgments is here most explicitly expounded. The motive of every Divine judgment, within the limits of this life, is mercy. We see but dimly what may lie beyond this life. Here, at any rate, the one constant patient aim of God, by every means of influence which He wields, is to bring men unto Himself. It is important to remember, what some schools of Christian thought have strangely forgotten, that God's righteousness is not a righteousness which would be satisfied equally by the conversion, or by. the punishment of a sinner. We cannot abstract the righteousness from the living person who is also the Father of that sinner; and who loves him with such tenderness that He is capable of even an infinite sacrifice, that that child may not die but live. God's righteousness, God's justice, God's holiness, yearn for the restoration of the sinner to righteousness, quite as much as His mercy and His love. And through life they are spending all their arts and efforts to take him captive, and to bring him home. It is beginning to be fully recognised, in the physical sphere, that judgments are but rich blessings in disguise. There are indeed some dark passages of Scripture history which seem to contradict this principle: e.g ., Pharaoh of the hardened heart. This cannot be fully explained, but it makes this terrible suggestion — what must be the doom of a heart that is hardened even against the Divine love? There is a growing hardness where the will is in it. The blow that is sent in mercy, if it fails to open the heart's sealed portals, strikes down. The heart hardened against God, hardens itself further. And this is His law, and part of the solemn conditions of our life. But there,, is nothing on earth irreparable while "we can repent and turn unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He win heal us." There is absolutely nothing in the experience of the sinner, the sufferer, which God cannot transmute into joy. No calamity can long oppress the spirit which He wills to draw to the shield of His strength, and to rest on the bosom of His love. Or is the sorrow a remembrance of sin? With the word of forgiveness, the bitterness of the sorrow passes. God can forgive the iniquity of the sill IS it temptation? Believe that temptation is God's benignant ordinance for the trial and assay of spirits. God has not left you untroubled. ( J. Baldwin Brown, B. A. ) God's time for mercy Jeremiah Burroughs. 1. When God's time of mercy is come, He puts a mighty spirit of seeking into men. 2. A joint turning to God is very honourable to god. "Come, and let us return." 3. Times of mercy are times of union. 4. True penitent hearts seek to get others to join with them. 5. In times of the greatest sufferings a truly penitent heart retains good thoughts of God. 6. a penitent heart is not a discouraged heart. 7. A repenting heart is not a discouraged, but a sustained heart. But we must not falsely encourage ourselves. Our hope is in God. ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) He hath smitten, and He will bind us up Hope for a bleeding Church T. Vasey. The text may be considered as the language of a Church. I. SMARTING UNDER RECENT CHASTISEMENTS. 1. Shew the sufferings of such a Church. 2. These sufferings are to be received as from the hand of God. 3. And regarded as chastisements of God for the sins of the Church. II. HOPING FOR A SPEEDY REVIVAL. That hope rests on the following grounds. 1. On the mingled exercises of mercy and judgment which characterise God's government of His Church. 2. On the regard which God has to the honour of His name, and the success of His cause in the earth. 3. On the ground of the mediatorial prerogatives of the Son of God. 4. On the promised power and grace of the Holy Spirit. III. RESOLVING UPON IMMEDIATE REFORMATION. Let us give up the language of complaint and mutual recrimination, and substitute for it the voice of prayer. ( T. Vasey. ) Hope in God's mercy The reason here given, why the Israelites could return safely and with sure confidence to God is, that they would acknowledge it as His office to heal after He has smitten, and to bring a remedy for the wounds which He has inflicted. The prophet means that God does not so punish men as to pour forth His wrath on them for their destruction; but that He intends, on the contrary, to promote their salvation, when He is severe in punishing their sins. The beginning of repentance is a sense of God's mercy; when men are persuaded that God is ready to give pardon, they then begin to gather courage to repent; otherwise perverseness will ever increase in them. ( John Calvin . ) After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Hosea 6:2 Death the gate of life F. B. Meyer, B. A. Let us look, not on the dying side, but on the living side. Each shadow has its light; each valley its height; each night its dawn; each wound of the oyster-shell its pearl; each kind of death its counterpart of life. To have the one is to have both. It is, therefore, a mistake to be ever thinking of what you must give up. Think rather of what you must take in. Follow hard after Christ, to be with Him, for Him, like Him. Let your intimacy with Him be like those closely pointed stones in the old buildings of Thebes, between which it is impossible to insert even a sheet of writing-paper. Obey Him up to the hilt. So will ever new blessings disclose themselves to you; and as you climb to them you will be insensibly drawn away from things that fascinated and injured you. Preaching out after a fuller measure of life, you will hardly realise the cost by which alone you can enter upon its enjoyment. The wrench of death will be less perceptible amid the joy which sheds its light on your face, and the warm glow into your heart. 1. Above all, trust the lead of Jesus. "He will revive us; He will raise us up; and we shall live in His sight." He knows every step of the way through the dark valley; because, as the Captain of salvation, He has been obliged to traverse it with each son whom He has brought to glory. He is with you, feeling for you infinitely, though you cannot see Him. It is impossible for Him to take one false step, or inflict one needless stab of pain. Out of your suffering He is going to bring glory to Himself and blessedness to you. He sometimes seems to tarry. His stages of redemption are so slow; but His love is dealing more wisely with thee in its delays, impetuous spirit, than it could in haste! It is hard to wait when heart and flesh are failing; but thy God will be the strength of thy life, and thy portion for ever. He knows the nearest path that will lead thee to it. Trust His hand and purpose running through the circumstances of thy life. 2. And out of all this will come the more abundant life. Suffering at first isolates us;: but afterwards it links us in the closest bonds with all who are sitting on the hard benches of the school of sorrow. We learn to comfort them with the comfort with which we have ourselves been comforted of God. The water streams from the smitten rock. The flower springs from the dead seed. The crystal river flows from the melting glacier. The bright gold emerges from the dark mine and the cleansing fires. When you are sure that Jesus asks aught of you, yield up your will to Him; ask Him to come, and take it and blend it with His own. Be willing to be made willing. Wait for Him. Trust Him. Do not be afraid. He will gently open the door of life, through which you will pass out of the vale of death into wider and more abundant blessedness. And, in the end, when the lesson is fully mastered, we shall find that His going forth has been prepared as the morning; and He will come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain, unto the earth. Abraham shall take his Isaac from off the altar and lead him home; Joseph shall weep tears of welcome on his father's neck; Job shall have more prosperity than before his trial; the young confessors shall emerge from the fire without their bonds; flowers shall grow where the black cinders lay; and where the body was buried in the sepulchre amid tears of hopeless sorrow, there shall be a joyous resurrection. We shall live again, and shall know the Lord as never before. Wait to see the end of the Lord; He is very pitiful; He is human in His tenderness. ( F. B. Meyer, B. A. ) Christ and His people W. Watters, M. A. I. THE CONNECTION OF CHRIST WITH HIS PEOPLE. The head and the members. "We are made alive in Christ." His victory over death is ours. He who had life in Himself quickens whom He will. 1. The power manifested on the third day was a type of the power to be manifested at the general resurrection. 2. Christ's resurrection not only a type of a physical but of a spiritual resurrection. The soul is quickened together with Christ. II. THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST REALISED BY HIS PEOPLE. The risen life is spent in the sight of the Lord. Before the crucifixion the apostles had the bodily presence of the Lord, subject to time and place, e.g. , Christ was not with the dying Lazarus, because He was in Peroea. After the resurrection they lived in His presence as they had never lived before. Stephen saw Him standing in the ready attitude of help. He stood by St. Paul; His eye was on His faithful martyr, Antipas. All the disciples went about with a constant sense of Christ's oversight, working under the King's eye. The soul risen with Christ believes that it lives in His sight. Faith in this promised presence will be a source of strength and patience. Remember how Christ's eye is on His servants at their work, in their sufferings, and during their worship. ( W. Watters, M. A. ) The third day E. B. Pusey, D. D. In shadow, the prophecy was never fulfilled to Israel at all. The Ten Tribes were never restored. Unto the Two Tribes what a mere shadow was the restoration from Babylon, that it should be spoken of as the gift of life, or of resurrection! The strictest explanation is the truest. The "two days" and the "third day" have nothing in history to correspond with them, except that in which they were fulfilled, when Christ, "rising on the third day from the grave, raised with Him the whole human race." ( E. B. Pusey, D. D. ) Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. Hosea 6:3 Follow on R. Berry. In the context, the deliverance of God's Church out of her troubles is foretold. In the same words our salvation in Christ is figured forth. "Knowledge" here includes the whole of experimental and practical godliness; for in religion we only know what we feel and do. In making progress in the life of godliness, the two words of our text are — a condition, a rule, and a spur. I. THE RECOMMENDATION OF OUR TEXT IMPLIES — 1. That the pursuit is worthy. 2. That there is a leader whom we are to follow. 3. That the pursuit is begun. Regeneration has been experienced, pardon has been conferred, spiritual life is possessed. 4. That there is danger of stopping short. There are difficulties without, and foes within. II. SPECIAL REASONS FOR OBEYING THE TEXT. 1. Only so can the genuineness of our religion be proved. 2. Only so can our mission be fulfilled. 3. Only so can our characters be developed. 4. Only so can heaven be reached. How much there is enfolded in that ward "overcometh." Uncoil it by Divine help in your lives. III. ENCOURAGEMENTS TO CHEER AND STIMULATE. 1. Bread is provided for the hungry. 2. A staff of promises for the weak. 3. Repose for the Weary. 4. Complete success is guaranteed. ( R. Berry. ) Knowing the Lord John Shoolbraid. Ignorance is a lamentable evil. It unfits persons for acting their part with propriety in civil life, and it is far more injurious to them in the concerns of eternity. I. WHAT IS MEANT BY KNOWING THE LORD. 1. It is to be scripturally acquainted with His character. No correct knowledge can be acquired concerning God and salvation, but through the instrumentality of the Word. In the volumes of nature and providence there is much to be learned concerning the existence and goodness of God. Only from the volume of inspiration we learn what God is, not only as our Creator and Preserver, but also as our Redeemer. 2. It is to give Him the homage which is due unto His name. There is the necessity of acknowledging Him — returning unto Him in new allegiance, by repentance unto life, and giving Him an unreserved reverence, in obedience to all His laws, ordinances, and commandments. Knowledge without a corresponding practice would only add to our condemnation. II. EXPLAIN THE PROPOSAL OF FOLLOWING ON TO KNOW THE LORD. 1. It is to persevere in cultivating intercourse and acquaintance with Him. In so far as it has pleased God to reveal Himself unto us in His Word, it is our duty to learn what He hath revealed. We may, however, learn all that is to be theoretically known regarding God, and yet remain spiritually ignorant of His gracious character. His perfections will be best understood by a practical reliance upon them, and on acting agreeably to their nature. 2. Following on to know the Lord shall be crowned with success. Exertion in this Divine pursuit shall be successful. Disappointment is impossible. We shall know all the blessings of the New Covenant, whether pertaining to justification, adoption, or sanctification. We shall know and understand the law of our God, believingly feel its importance, and sincerely practise its requirements. III. THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO FOLLOW ON TO KNOW THE LORD. This blessing of our Saviour's coming is — 1. Progressive and certain. "Prepared as the morning." A knowledge of Divine things cannot be obtained but by a Divine teacher. The going forth of God the Saviour to enlighten and cherish His people, when they seek after Him, is as certain as the outgoings of the morning, which are a settled and regular constitution of nature. 2. Pleasant and desirable. "His going forth is prepared as the morning." It is ever comfortable to know that in the midst of difficulties there is One prepared to give us relief. Christ, our Almighty Saviour and Friend, is so prepared. As the morning air and light are agreeable to the watchman who has been marching his weary rounds in the dark — to the weather-beaten mariner who has been tempest-tested through the night — so agreeable, and unspeakably more so is the coming of God our Saviour to enlighten and relieve them that are cast down and overwhelmed with the sense of sin, to help and comfort them that are ready to perish. 3. Quickening and salutary. "He shall come unto us as the rain." Rain is not less necessary than heat for the production of vegetable life. It is like the circulation of the blood in the human body, that which keeps the whole system alive. 4. Invigorating and satisfying. "As the latter and former rain unto the earth." The expression, latter and former rain, has reference to the two periodical rains that fell in the land of Canaan. As necessary as these rains are the showers of grace in the Church to water the seed of the Word, that it may spring up in our hearts unto everlasting life, to encourage its growth, and to perfect its fruits of holiness and meetness for the heavenly world. From this subject we may see ground for cherishing large expectations. God is gracious, His promise is large, and His Word is unimpeachable. God is able to carry you on to perfection; trust in Him then for all needful supplies, and you will not be disappointed. From this subject all may see the importance of being possessed by saving knowledge. ( John Shoolbraid. ) The fuller knowledge of God Some give this rendering, "We shall know, and shall pursue on to know Jehovah," and they explain the passage thus, — that the Israelites had derived no such benefit from the law of Moses, but that they still expected the fuller doctrine which Christ brought at His coming. They then think that this is a prophecy respecting that doctrine, which is now by the Gospel set forth to us in its full brightness, because God has manifested Himself in His Son as in a living image. But this is too refined an exposition; and it is enough for us to keep close to the design of the prophet. ( John Calvin . ) Need of perseverance in seeking the knowledge of God W. Mayers, A. M. All Scripture writers bear witness to the faithfulness of God; and call upon us, by patient continuance in well-doing, to seek for glory, honour, and immortality. I. THE IMPORTANT OBJECT OF THE BELIEVER'S PURSUIT. Of true believers it may be said, " they follow on to know the Lord." In what does this knowledge consist; and in what way is it communicated to the mind? It is not a mere knowledge of such a Being as God, as Creator and Upholder; nor is it such an idea of God as is conceived" by those who exalt one attribute to the exclusion of another, who make Him all mercy, forgetful of His perfect justice. We cannot know the Lord to our comfort, till we know Him as our God and Father in Jesus Christ. By nature, we stand at an immeasurable distance from God; and the more correct are our notions of His power, His holiness, and His glory, the more discouraging will they be if they are unconnected with the Redeemer as our Mediator with the Father. This knowledge is implanted in the soul by the Holy Ghost. II. THE CERTAINTY OF ITS FINAL SUCCESS. He who "follows on" shall not fail of the grace of God. This truth is plainly declared, and figuratively exhibited. The figures are the morning and the rain. Learn — 1. How needful is this knowledge. 2. The reason why those who have attained some knowledge of Christ do not attain to more enlarged and experimental acquaintance with spiritual things. Be patient in hope, and persevering in prayer. ( W. Mayers, A. M. ) The duty and happiness of progressive spiritual knowledge Thomas Ridley, M. A. The works of God in nature are here employed to describe His moral government, His ways with His Church, His dealings with His people for their spiritual discipline and sanctification. The enlightening and comforting influences of the Holy Ghost shall as surely be vouchsafed to the soul longing for salvation, as the rain, the former and the latter, refreshes and fertilises the earth. The laws and operations of nature are net more certain than the fulfilment, in the revelation of grace, of God's exceeding great and precious promises. The Divine promises and threatenings rest on the same foundation — the immovable foundation of His everlasting unehangeableness, His perfect faithfulness, His universal presence, His almighty power. The text contains a duty and a promise. Our duty is to "follow on to know the Lord," and to its performance we are incited by a gracious promise. "Then we shall know him."; for His going forth, His care and condescension to meet us in mercy is prepared — is as predetermined and customary as those successive changes and established operations of His visible works which we so beneficially and continually experience. According to the text, the safety and happiness of knowing the Lord, and of following on to know Him, are consequent upon returning to the Lord with penitent acknowledgment and lively compunction on account of apostasy and disobedience. Suffering and wretchedness, in this world or in the next, or in both, are necessarily the results of sin. Alienation from God is likewise spiritual insensibility, a moral death. It is also a condition of ignorance. The way of transgressors is hard. Consider what it is to know the Lord. How incomparably great is the excellence of this knowledge! The knowledge of the Lord comprehends the experience of the Divine goodness and loving-kindness, together with the fruits of faith and obedience to His commandments. Saving knowledge is communicated through the offices of the one Mediator, and the agency of the Holy Ghost, imparting an efficacious blessing upon prayer, the Word, and the ministrations of the Church. It consists in veneration and love towards the Lord — a meek but firm affiance in His promises and mercy, and in persevering obedience to Him. Let us make it our first and supreme concern to attain to the knowledge of God as our reconciled Father in Christ Jesus. Having attained this, your salvation is begun. While this knowledge implies and cherishes an approval of God s ways and will, and is accompanied with love to Him and delight in Him, it likewise implies justice and mercy and charity to our fellow-creatures. ( Thomas Ridley, M. A. ) The progressive character of the Christian life L. O. Thompson. Christian life is not a house, but a plant. It is not complete, but grows. 1. It is growth in faith. Its beginning is, or may be, as small as a grain of mustard-seed. The least bit will do to begin with. Act upon what you now believe to be true and right as relates to our duties to God, to our fellows and ourselves. With God's help I will under take every known duty. Sin is to be eradicated, and holiness is to increase. in such a spirit the seed will germinate, the tree will grow, and strength will come, and what before was impossible will now be easy. 2. In knowledge: acquaint thyself with God. Ascend the mountain. There are ever new disclosures in creation, providence, and redemption. 3. In experience: here faith is verified. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine. Faith alone blesses our life; unbelief is destructive. It works ruin to all our highest interests to live without faith — in government, in society, and in the family. Principles which cannot with safety to all dearest concerns be followed are necessarily false. Faith is confirmed in life and assured in death: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." 4. In good works: religion is also practical. The tree bears good fruit, and bears it perennially. The Christian will improve in the quantity and quality of the good he does. Like the palm-tree, he will be fruitful to the end of life. ( L. O. Thompson. ) Divine knowledge, and the means of acquiring it Thomas Rowe. It is a universal law that nothing great can be achieved without perseverance. For want of considering this, many who commence a religious course with zeal and joy run well for a season, but meeting with unex pected difficulties, grow weary and give up the race. I. DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. 1. To know the Lord implies a general knowledge of His being, nature, and attributes, 2. It signifies a more particular and experimental knowledge of God, especially of His justice and mercy, these being the two great attributes exercised in the stupendous work of human redemption. The true believer is happily possessed of an experimental knowledge of the Divine mercy. 3. A more peculiar knowledge of God, especially of His goodness and love, is obtained by the sincere and pure in heart who "follow on to know" Him. 4. To know the Lord includes also, profound veneration; ardent love; humble confidence; and sincere and uniform obedience. II. THE MEANS OF ACQUIRING DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. 1. God could, no doubt, communicate a perfect knowledge of Himself instantaneously. But in doing so He must work a miracle, and this without answering any valuable end. The gradual operations of God in providence and grace are accommodated to our finite capacities, enabling us, step by step, to trace Him in His wondrous works. 2. To illustrate this Hosea uses two beautiful figures — the "morning" and the "rain." 3. That this is the mode of the Divine manifestations evidently appears —(1) From the media through which they are communicated; His works, His Word, and His Spirit.(2) From the gradual manner in which God has revealed His will unto man by successive dispensations.(3) This appears in the rise and progress of religion in the soul. The understanding is enlightened; the judgment convinced; the heart affected; and the will subdued. Hence contrition, repentance, faith, and prayer. Justification follows, and, in full, sanctification.(4) We see, therefore, the necessity of following on to know the Lord, pressing on as after a guide through a crowd, as after a light in a dark place. When fully sanctified, there is as much necessity as ever for following on. The fountains of Divine knowledge are perennial. There are yet unexplored heights, and lengths, and depths, and breadths of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. ( Thomas Rowe. ) Perseverance in attaining the knowledge of God Hugh Stowell, A. M. I. TO KNOW GOD REQUIRES THAT MEN SHOULD SEEK TO KNOW HIM. The know ledge clothe Most High is not instinctive and intuitive. Now, the world by wisdom knoweth not God. How strange that men should think to know God and religion without diligence, whilst they think not to know any human science or profession without application, and diligence, and exertion! Would to God that men were as wise for eternity as they are for time. It is, however, not merely necessary to give diligence in order to know God, we must "follow on" to know Him. The crowning grace of the Christian is constant perseverance. To him that overcometh, the promise of eternal life is made. II. THE ENCOURAGEMENT AS IT IS HERE SO VIVIDLY PORTRAYED. "Then shall we know." God who cannot lie hath spoken this. The prophet adds two beautiful figures. The morning of the day is sure to come. The former and the latter rain will return in their seasons. ( Hugh Stowell, A. M. ) Following on to know E. B. Pusey, D. D. In Christ, the prophet promises, they should have inward knowledge of Him, ever growing, because the grace, through which it is given, ever grows. We know, in order to follow; we follow, in order to know. Light prepares the way for love. Love opens the mind for new love. The gifts of God are interwoven. They multiply and reproduce each other, until we come to the perfect state of eternity. Through eternity we shall follow on to know more of God. ( E. B. Pusey, D. D. ) Divine knowledge William Jay. We may consider this in two ways. 1. As an address of good men to themselves, being a kind of soliloquy, or self-admonition and encouragement. 2. As addressed to the godly from each other. The language is an expression of holy confidence. This admits of various degrees, but without some degree of it we shall never seek the Lord; shall never cleave to Him with full purpose of heart. Between this holy confidence and presumption there is no resemblance. I. AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT — Divine knowledge. To be destitute of this knowledge is to be in a perilous and even a perishing condition. Knowledge is the same to the soul as the window is to the building, or the eye to the body. Knowledge is essential to right conduct. It is from ignorance that a disregard to the Saviour springs. It is from ignorance that legality springs. Nothing can be truly religious or moral that is done in ignorance, because then there would be no motive or principle, and to these the Lord looks in all our actions; all righteous conduct is begun and carried on in the renewal of the mind. God's empire is fou

Benson Commentary Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. Hosea 6:1 . Come, let us return, &c. — Bishop Horsley considers the prophet as speaking here in his own person, to the end of the 3d verse, and taking occasion, from the intimation of pardon to the penitent, given in the conclusion of the preceding chapter, to address his countrymen in words of mild, pathetic persuasion, and to exhort them to return to the worship and service of God. But many other commentators rather think these are to be considered as the words of the repenting and returning Jews and Israelites in their exile, who, it is said, in the last clause of the foregoing chapter, would in their affliction seek God, which they are here represented as encouraging one another to do, saying, Come, &c. — Not only the LXX., but, according to Houbigant, the Arabic, Syriac, and Chaldee, supply the word saying, before this verse. Whether they did this as interpreters, which, says Archbishop Newcome, is my opinion, or whether they read in their copy of the Hebrew text, ???? , ( saying, ) is uncertain. Let us return unto the Lord, &c. — He it is who hath brought us into this estate under which we groan; and he is able, if he think fit, to deliver us from it in a short time: nothing is difficult to him. Full of mercy as he is, he will not permit us to continue long in captivity and oppression, wherein we are buried like the dead in the tomb. He hath torn, and he will heal us, &c. — The same God that punisheth us can only remove his judgments, and show us mercy. The expression, He hath torn, relates to what was said Hosea 5:14 . Hosea 6:2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Hosea 6:2 . After two days he will revive us — A deliverance from miseries or calamities, from which men had despaired of a recovery, is often represented as restoring them to life after death: see Psalm 30:3 ; Psalm 71:20 ; Psalm 86:13 ; particularly the restoration of the Jewish nation is often described, as if it were a resurrection from the dead: see note on Ezekiel 37:11 . Two, or three, in Scripture, denote a small number. Two are put for a few, 1 Kings 17:12 . One and two for a few, Isaiah 7:21 ; Jeremiah 3:14 . Two or three for a few, Isaiah 17:6 . Accordingly, here the expression signifies a short space of time. Compare Luke 13:32-33 . The primary and obvious sense, therefore, of this verse, taking it in reference to the others, is, that they expected God would, in a short time after they should repent and turn to him, free them from their captivity, which might be looked upon as a state of death; and would return again to them, and exhibit the signs of his presence among them, his chosen people: so that, being converted and restored, they should live in his sight, and should attain to that true knowledge of God which they had not possessed before. Added to this, Bishop Horsley thinks these days denote three distinct periods of the Jewish people. His view of the subject he explains as follows: “The first day is the captivity of the ten tribes by the Assyrians, and of the other two under the Babylonians, considered as one judgment upon the nation; beginning with the captivity of the ten, and completed in that of the two. The second day is the whole period of the present condition of the Jews, beginning with the dispersion of the nation by the Romans. The third day is the period yet to come, beginning with their restoration, to the second advent. R. Tanchum, as he is quoted by Dr. Pocock, was not far, I think, from the true meaning of the place. ‘The prophet,’ he says, ‘points out two things — and these are, the first captivity, and a second. After which shall follow a third, [time,] redemption: after which shall be no depression or servitude.’ And this I take to be the sense of the prophecy, in immediate application to the Jews. Nevertheless, whoever is well acquainted with the allegorical style of prophecy, when he recollects that our Lord’s sufferings and death” were endured for our sakes, “and that he, rising on the third day, raised us to the hope of life and immortality, will easily perceive no very obscure, though but an oblique, allusion to our Lord’s resurrection on the third day; since every believer may speak of our Lord’s death and resurrection, as a common death and resurrection of all mankind.” Hosea 6:3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Hosea 6:3 . Then shall we know, if we follow on, &c. — Hebrew, ????? ????? ???? , And we shall know, we shall follow on to know the Lord. Then, when we have returned unto the Lord, Hosea 6:1 , in sincerity and truth; when he hath torn and healed us, hath smitten and bound us up, hath convinced us of and humbled us for our sins, and converted us to himself, and created us anew; when he hath revived us, raised us up, and made us live; then shall we experimentally know the Lord, as merciful to our unrighteousness, Jeremiah 31:34 ; we shall taste and see that he is good; we shall not only be raised out of deep afflictions, wherein we lay as in a state of death, but we shall live in his sight, a life of union and communion with him, a life of faith, love, and obedience; we shall know Him whom to know is life eternal. And we shall prosecute that knowledge; we shall follow on to know him, not content with any measures of the knowledge of him already attained. We shall proceed therein, and make progress, as the morning light doth to the perfect day. For, his going forth to visit, deliver, and comfort his people, to manifest himself to them, to refresh and save them; or, his going forth before his people, in his gracious, faithful, holy, just, and wise providence, for their benefit and comfort, is prepared as the morning — As sure, beautiful, grateful, reviving, and clear, with a continually increasing light, which proclaims his own approach and progress. And he shall come unto us as the rain unto the earth — Which refreshes it, renders it fruitful, beautifies it, and gives it a new and smiling face. As the latter and former rain — Or, as the words should rather be rendered, the harvest rain, and the rain of seed-time: see notes on Deuteronomy 11:14 , and Proverbs 16:15 . For, as Bishop Horsley justly observes, the Hebrew words here used have nothing of latter or former implied in their meaning. And these expressions convey a notion just the reverse of the truth to the English reader. For what our translation here terms the latter rain, ?????? , is literally, as the bishop terms it, the crop rain, which fell just before the season of the harvest, to plump the grain before it was severed: that is, it fell in what we term the spring, and consider as the former part of the year; for the harvest in Judea began about the middle of our March, according to the old style. The other, ???? , which we term the former rain, and which is literally the springing rain, or the rain which makes to spring, fell upon the seed newly sown, and caused the green blade to shoot up out of the ground: that is, it fell about the end, or middle, of our October, which we consider as the latter end of the year. These rains, of seed-time and harvest, are the ????? ??????? ??? ?????? , the early and latter rain, of St. James 5:7 . But the apostle’s epithets have reference to the order of the husbandman’s expectations, not to the civil division of the year. Hosea 6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. Hosea 6:4 . O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? — Or rather, what shall I do for thee? Here the Lord takes up the discourse again in his own person, and gives an answer to the prayer, or promises, of Judah and Israel: as if he had said, How can I give either of you, O Israel and Judah, any tokens of my favour, since there is no sincerity or stability to be found in you? Such is the essential beneficence of God, that he delights to bestow favours on all his creatures; and here, and elsewhere in the Scriptures, represents himself as it were concerned, whenever their conduct is such that it becomes inconsistent with his attributes, as the all-righteous governor of the universe, to bestow his blessings upon them. Thus we find Christ lamenting over Jerusalem, Matthew 23:37 ; and Isaiah 59:1-2 representing men’s iniquities as the sole cause of God’s hiding his face from them, and not hearing their prayers: see also Deuteronomy 5:29 . Your goodness is as a morning cloud, &c. — Your goodness is of a short continuance, and gives way to every temptation, like as the cloud of the morning, and the dew, are dispersed at the first approach of the sun. Hosea 6:5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. Hosea 6:5 . Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets — Severely reproved and threatened them; or cut them off, as the word, ????? , may be properly rendered: that is, I have denounced against them great destruction. The prophets, and God by the prophets, are said to do those things which they foretel, or denounce: see notes on Jeremiah 1:10 ; Jeremiah 5:14 . I have slain them by the words of my mouth — that is, I have declared, or denounced, the slaughter of them. God’s word is described as sharper than a two-edged sword, because his judgments, denounced by his messengers, are like the sentence of a judge, which shall certainly be followed with execution. And thy judgments are as the light when it goeth forth — These may be considered as the words of the prophet addressing God, and signifying that his judgments against the people were, though gradually, yet as certainly approaching as the morning light; and that the justice of them would appear as clear as the light of the rising sun. Or they may be considered as addressed to Israel, and then the meaning of them must be, The punishment which shall come upon thee, O Israel, will clearly appear to be perfectly just; nor shall any thing happen to thee, but what thou hast been fully and repeatedly warned of. Bishop Horsley, however, connecting these words with the following, gives them a different sense. Taking the word ????????? , here rendered thy judgments, to signify thy precepts, he renders the clause, And the precepts given thee (namely, given to the people) were as the onward-going light, &c., “that is, as light, of which it is the nature and property to go forth, to propagate itself infinitely, and in all directions; a most expressive image of the clearness of the practical lessons of the prophets.” The word, adds he, in his Critical Notes, “signifies a fixed principle, or rule, in any thing, to which principle and rule can be applied. Here I take it for the practical rules of a moral and godly life, as delivered by the prophets; and so Calvin expounds it: ‘ Judicia tua, hoc est, ratio piè vivendi,’ Thy judgments, that is, the method of living piously. Significat hic Deus se regulam piè et sancte vivendi monstrâsse Israelitis, God here signifies that he had shown to the Israelites the rule of a pious and holy life.” Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6 . For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice — That is, rather than sacrifice, this being spoken comparatively. I am better pleased with true goodness than with the most exact observance of the external duties of religion: see Micah 6:6-8 . The Jews use to express comparison by negatives, or rejecting the thing less worthy: so we are to understand that expression of the Prophet Joel 2:13 , Rend your heart, and not your garments; and those words of Christ, John 6:27 , Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life: that is, for this rather than the former. By mercy is here meant, not only all that is due from man to man, considered as fellow-creatures, and members of civil society; but also those acts of benevolence, which, though not claimable on principles of justice, yet must be performed by us, as we have opportunity, if we would be the children of our Father who is in heaven: see Matthew 5:45 . Indeed, the word ??? , here used, and rendered mercy, includes piety toward God, as well as benevolence to man; or the performance of all the duties of the moral law. “I can find no single word,” says Bishop Horsley, “to answer to it, but charity; for charity, in the evangelical sense, is the love of man, founded upon the love of God, and arising out of it.” And the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings — Namely, that knowledge of God, which is his super natural gift, through the influence of his enlightening Spirit, Ephesians 1:17 ; and which is always productive of a filial confidence in him, love to him, and obedience to his commandments; (see Psalm 9:10 ; 1 John 2:3-4 ; 1 John 4:7-8 ;) and which is always attended with a true, sincere, internal, spiritual worship of him, and reverence for him. This is infinitely more pleasing to God, and more essential to true religion, than any ceremonial observances whatever; yea, than all sacrifices and burnt-offerings. Hosea 6:7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. Hosea 6:7 . But they like men have transgressed the covenant — That is, as all corrupt men are prone to do; and as other men, who are not under such strong obligations to keep covenant with me, use to do. In the Hebrew it is, like Adam: and it would have been better, it seems, to have rendered it so; the sense appearing to be, that their transgression of the covenant God had made with them, or of the commandments which he had given them, was very similar to the transgression of Adam in paradise. “As Adam transgressed a plain command, so the Israelites transgressed the plainest and the easiest precepts. As Adam’s crime was not to be excused by any necessity or want, so the Israelites, secure under the protection of Jehovah, had they continued faithful to him, had no excuse in seeking other aids. Adam revolted from God to Satan; so the Israelites forsook God to worship devils. Adam broke that one command, on which the justification of himself and his posterity depended; so the Israelites broke the one precept of charity,” on their observing which depended their continuance in the divine favour, and their right to the blessings of the Mosaic covenant: see Horsley. There have they dealt treacherously against me — There, even in that very delightful and plentiful land, which I gave them to encourage them to obedience, a land like unto Eden itself, they have transgressed my law, as Adam did in paradise, and have behaved themselves falsely and ungratefully toward me; and that even with all the advantages of the prophetic teaching, and in spite of all admonition and all warning. Hosea 6:8 Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. Hosea 6:8-9 . Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, &c. — Archbishop Newcome translates these two verses very literally thus: Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity: she is marked with footsteps of blood. And as bands wait for a man, a company of priests murder in the way to Shechem. “If Gilead be put here for Ramoth-gilead, (and I know not,” says Bishop Horsley, “what other city can be meant,) it was a city of refuge, Deuteronomy 4:43 ; and such also was Shechem, or Sichem, Joshua 20:7 ; both, therefore, inhabited by priests and Levites. By describing the first of these two cities as polluted with blood, and the high-road to the other as beset with knots of priests, like robbers, intent on blood, and murdering on the whole length of the way, up to the very walls of the town, the prophet means to represent the priests as seducers of the people to that idolatry which proved the ruin of the nation. Insomuch that, like a man who should be murdered in a place of religious retreat, or upon his way to it, the people, under the influence of such guides, met their destruction in the quarter where, by God’s appointment, they were to seek their safety.” The word ????? , rendered by consent, in Hosea 6:9 , signifies toward Shechem. For they commit lewdness — Hebrew, ??? ???? , they work enormity, or that which is wicked and abominable. Hosea 6:9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness. Hosea 6:10 I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. Hosea 6:10-11 . I have seen a horrible thing — Such an apostacy from God as cannot be mentioned without horror. There is the whoredom of Ephraim — Or rather, there, namely, in the house of Israel, BY the whoredom of Ephraim, that is, by the idolatry of Jeroboam, who was of that tribe, and first began the worship of the golden calves; Israel is defiled — The whole ten tribes are corrupted: for they soon all followed the example of Jeroboam in this idolatrous worship. Also, O Judah, he — That is, Ephraim; hath set a harvest for thee — For Ephraim, or Israel, had corrupted Judah by leading them into idolatry, and into the vices connected therewith, in consequence of which they were made ripe for destruction: for that the harvest is often a type of judgment is evident, among many other passages that might be adduced, from those quoted in the margin. When I returned the captivity of my people — Or rather, the Hebrew being in the future tense, when I shall turn, &c., (so the Vulgate,) or, more literally, and as the Seventy render it, in my turning the captivity of my people. According to this interpretation, the phrase of turning the captivity of God’s people is not to be taken in the sense in which the same phrase is generally understood in the Scriptures, namely, for bringing them out of captivity; punishment, and not a blessing, being supposed to be predicted: but the sense of the expression will be, When I shall return to make captives of my people; or, as Archbishop Newcome proposes rendering it, When I lead away the captivity of my people; that is, after I have again caused the Israelites to be carried into captivity. Tiglath-pileser first carried a part of them into captivity; then Shalmaneser carried away the remainder; and after this came Sennacherib, who wasted Judea, and laid siege to Jerusalem. Some eminent commentators, however, are of opinion, that not a judgment, but a blessing, is predicted to be conferred on Judah in this passage. They therefore translate the verse thus: But for thee, O Judah, a harvest is prepared; then when I shall bring back the captivity of my people: see Houbigant and Horsley. Mr. S. Clark’s note on the verse takes in both interpretations, thus: “And as Israel has been drawn to idolatry by Jeroboam, ( Hosea 6:10 ,) so hast thou, Judah, too: and therefore God has prepared a harvest of sorrow and sufferings for thee too, by sending thee into captivity; which yet afterward shall be turned into a harvest of joy, when thou shalt be returned out of captivity again.” Hosea 6:11 Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. THE THICK NIGHT OF ISRAEL Hosea 4:1-19 ; Hosea 5:1-15 ; Hosea 6:1-11 ; Hosea 7:1-16 ; Hosea 8:1-14 ; Hosea 9:1-17 ; Hosea 10:1-15 ; Hosea 11:1-12 ; Hosea 12:1-14 ; Hosea 13:1-16 ; Hosea 14:1-9 It was indeed a "thick night" into which this Arthur of Israel stepped from his shattered home. The mists drive across Hosea’s long agony with his people, and what we see, we see blurred and broken. There are stumbling and clashing; crowds in drift; confused rallies; gangs of assassins breaking across the highways; doors opening upon lurid interiors full of drunken riot. Voices, which other voices mock, cry for a dawn that never comes. God Himself is Laughter, Lightning, a Lion, a Gnawing Worm. Only one clear note breaks over the confusion-the trumpet summoning to war. Take courage, O great heart! Not thus shall it always be! There wait thee, before the end, of open Visions at least two-one of Memory and one of Hope, one of Childhood and one of Spring. Past this night, past the swamp and jungle of these fetid years, thou shalt see thy land in her beauty, and God shall look on the face of His Bride. Chapters 4-14 are almost indivisible. The two Visions just mentioned, chapters 11 and Hosea 14:3-9 , may be detached by virtue of contributing the only strains of gospel which rise victorious above the Lord’s controversy with His people and the troubled story of their sins. All the rest is the noise of a nation falling to pieces, the crumbling of a splendid past. And as decay has no climax and ruin no rhythm, so we may understand why it is impossible to divide with any certainty Hosea’s record of Israel’s fall. Some arrangement we must attempt, but it is more or less artificial, and to be undertaken for the sake of our own minds, that cannot grasp so great a collapse all at once. Chapter 4 has a certain unity, and is followed by a new exordium, but as it forms only the theme of which the subsequent chapters are variations, we may take it with them as far as Hosea 7:7 ; after which there is a slight transition from the moral signs of Israel’s dissolution to the political-although Hoses still combines the religious offences of idolatry with the anarchy of the land. These form the chief interest to the end of chapter 10. Then breaks the bright Vision of the Past, chapter 11, the temporary victory of the Gospel of the Prophet over his Curse. In chapters 12-14:2 we are plunged into the latter once more, and reach in Hosea 14:3 if. the second bright vision, the Vision of the Future. To each of these phases of Israel’s Thick Night-we can hardly call them Sections-we may devote a chapter of simple exposition, adding three chapters more of detailed examination of the main doctrines we shall have encountered on our way-the Knowledge of God, Repentance, and the Sin against Love. A PEOPLE IN DECAY: 1 MORALLY Hosea 4:1-19 - Hosea 7:7 PURSUING the plan laid down in the last chapter, we now take the section of Hosea’s discourse which lies between chapter 4 and Hosea 7:7 . Chapter 4 is the only really separable bit of it; but there are also slight breaks at Hosea 5:15 and Hosea 7:2 . So we may attempt a division into four periods: 1. Chapter 4, which states God’s general charge against the people; 2 Hosea 5:1-14 , which discusses the priests and princes; 3 Hosea 5:15 - Hosea 7:2 , which abjures the people’s attempts at repentance; and 4 Hosea 7:3-7 , which is a lurid spectacle of the drunken and profligate court. All these give symptoms of the moral decay of the people, -the family destroyed by impurity, and society by theft and murder; the corruption of the spiritual guides of the people; the debauchery of the nobles; the sympathy of the throne with evil, -with the despairing judgment that such a people are incapable even of repentance. The keynotes are these: "No truth, nor real love, nor knowledge of God in the land. Priest and Prophet stumble. Ephraim and Judah stumble. I am as the moth to Ephraim. What can I make of thee, Ephraim? When I would heal them, their guilt is only the more exposed." Morally, Israel is rotten. The prophet, of course, cannot help adding signs of their political incoherence. But these he deals with more especially in the part of his discourse which follows chapter 7:7. elete_me Hosea 6:1-11 3. REPENTANCE FALLS Hosea 5:15 - Hosea 7:2 Seeing that their leaders are so helpless, and feeling their wounds, the people may themselves turn to God for healing, but that will be with a repentance so shallow as also to be futile. They have no conviction of sin, nor appreciation of how deeply their evils have eaten. This too facile repentance is expressed in a prayer which the Christian Church has paraphrased into one of its most beautiful hymns of conversion. Yet the introduction to this prayer, and its own easy assurance of how soon God will heal the wounds He has made, as well as the impatience with which God receives it, oblige us to take the prayer in another sense than the hymn which has been derived from it. It offers but one more symptom of the optimism of this light-hearted people, whom no discipline and no judgment can impress with the reality of their incurable decay. They said of themselves, "The bricks are fallen, let us build with stones," and now they say just as easily and airily of their God, "He hath torn" only "that He may heal: "we are fallen, but" He will raise us up again in a day or two." At first it is still God who speaks. "I am going My way, I am returning to My own place, until they feel their guilt and seek My face. When trouble comes upon them, they will soon enough seek Me, saying":- "Come and let us return to Jehovah; For He hath rent, that He may heal us, And hath wounded, that He may bind us up. He will bring us to life in a couple of days; On the third day He will raise us up again, That we may live in His presence." "Let us know, let us follow up to know, Jehovah: As soon as we seek Him, we shall find Him And He shall come to us like the winter-rain, Like the spring-rain, pouring on the land!" But how is this fair prayer received by God? With incredulity, with impatience. What can I make of thee, Ephraim? what can I make of thee, Judah? since your love is like the morning cloud and like the dew so early gone. Their shallow hearts need deepening. Have they not been deepened enough? "Wherefore I have hewn" them "by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgment goeth forth like the lightning. For real love have I desired, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings." That the discourse comes back to the ritual is very intelligible. For what could make repentance stem so easy as the belief that forgiveness can be won by simply offering sacrifices? Then the prophet leaps upon what each new year of that anarchy revealed afresh-the profound sinfulness of the people. "But they in human fashion have transgressed the covenant! There"-he will now point out the very spots-"have they betrayed Me! Gilead is a city of evil-doers: stamped with the bloody footprints; assassins in troops; a gang of priests murder on the way to Shechem. Yea, crime have they done. In the house of Israel I have seen horrors: there Ephraim hath played the harlot: Israel is defiled-Judah as well." Truly the sinfulness of Israel is endless. Every effort to redeem them only discovers more of it. "When I would turn, when I would heal Israel, then the guilt of Ephraim displays itself and the evils of Samaria," these namely: "that they work fraud and the thief cometh in"-evidently a technical term for housebreaking -" while abroad a crew" of highwaymen foray. And they never think in their hearts that all their evil is recorded by Me. Now have their deeds encompassed them: they are constantly before Evidently real repentance on the part of such a people is impossible. As Hosea said before, "Their deeds will not let them return." { Hosea 5:4 } The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.