@Ho 13:1-16. EPHRAIM'S SINFUL INGRATITUDE TO GOD, AND ITS FATAL CONSEQUENCE; GOD'S PROMISE AT LAST.
This chapter and the fourteenth chapter probably belong to the troubled times that followed Pekah's murder by Hoshea (compare @Ho 13:11 2Ki 15:30). The subject is the idolatry of Ephraim, notwithstanding God's past benefits, destined to be his ruin.
1. When Ephraim spake trembling--rather, "When Ephraim (the tribe
most powerful among the twelve in Israel's early history) spake
(authoritatively) there was trembling"; all reverentially feared him
[JEROME], (compare @Job 29:8,9,21).
offended in Baal--that is, in respect to Baal, by worshipping him
(@1Ki 16:31), under Ahab; a more heinous offense than even the calves.
Therefore it is at this climax of guilt that Ephraim "died." Sin has, in
the sight of God, within itself the germ of death, though that death may
not visibly take effect till long after. Compare @Ro 7:9, "Sin revived,
and I died." So Adam in the day of his sin was to die, though the
sentence was not visibly executed till long after (@Ge 2:17 5:5).
Israel is similarly represented as politically dead in @Eze 37:1-28.
2. according to their own understanding--that is, their arbitrary
devising. Compare "will-worship," @Col 2:23. Men are not to be "wise
above that which is written," or to follow their own understanding, but
God's command in worship.
kiss the calves--an act of adoration to the golden calves (compare
@1Ki 19:18 Job 31:27 Ps 2:12).
3. they shall be as the morning cloud . . . dew--(@Ho 6:4). As
their "goodness" soon vanished like the morning cloud and dew, so they
shall perish like them.
the floor--the threshing-floor, generally an open area, on a height,
exposed to the winds.
chimney--generally in the East an orifice in the wall, at once
admitting the light, and giving egress to the smoke.
4. (@Ho 12:9 Isa 43:11).
no saviour--temporal as well as spiritual.
besides me--(@Isa 45:21).
5. I did know thee--did acknowledge thee as Mine, and so took care
of thee (@Ps 144:3 Am 3:2). As I knew thee as Mine, so thou shouldest know no God but Me (@Ho 13:4
).
in . . . land of . . . drought--(@De 8:15).
6. Image from cattle, waxing wanton in abundant pasture (compare
@Ho 2:5,8 De 32:13-15). In proportion as I fed them to the full,
they were so satiated that "their heart was exalted"; a sad contrast to
the time when, by God's blessing, Ephraim truly "exalted himself in
Israel" (@Ho 13:1).
therefore have they forgotten me--the very reason why men should
remember God (namely, prosperity, which comes from Him) is the cause
often of their forgetting Him. God had warned them of this danger
(@De 6:11,12).
7. (@Ho 5:14 La 3:10).
leopard--The Hebrew comes from a root meaning "spotted" (compare
@Jer 13:23). Leopards lurk in thickets and thence spring on their
victims.
observe--that is, lie in wait for them. Several manuscripts, the
Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic read, by a slight change
of the Hebrew vowel pointing, "by the way of Assyria," a region
abounding in leopards and lions. English Version is better.
8. "Writers on the natures of beasts say that none is more savage than
a she bear, when bereaved of her whelps"
[JEROME].
caul of . . . heart--the membrane enclosing it: the pericardium.
there--"by the way" (@Ho 13:7).
9. thou . . . in me--in contrast.
hast destroyed thyself--that is, thy destruction is of thyself
(@Pr 6:32 8:36).
in me is thine help--literally, "in thine help" (compare
@De 33:26). Hadst thou rested thy hope in Me, I would have been
always ready at hand for thy help [GROTIUS].
10. I will be thy king; where--rather, as the Margin and the
Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, "Where now is thy king?"
[MAURER].
English Version is, however, favored both by the Hebrew, by the
antithesis between Israel's self-chosen and perishing kings, and God,
Israel's abiding King (compare @Ho 3:4,5).
where . . . Give me a king--Where now is the king whom ye substituted
in My stead? Neither Saul, whom the whole nation begged for, not
contented with Me their true king (@1Sa 8:5,7,19,20 10:19), nor
Jeroboam, whom subsequently the ten tribes chose instead of the line of
David My anointed, can save thee now. They had expected from their kings
what is the prerogative of God alone, namely, the power of saving them.
judges--including all civil authorities under the king (compare
@Am 2:3).
11. I gave . . . king in . . . anger . . . took . . . away in . . . wrath--true both of Saul (@1Sa 15:22,23 16:1) and of Jeroboam's line (@2Ki 15:30). Pekah was taken away through Hoshea, as he himself took away Pekahiah; and as Hoshea was soon to be taken away by the Assyrian king.
12. bound up . . . hid--Treasures, meant to be kept, are bound up and hidden; that is, do not flatter yourselves, because of the delay, that I have forgotten your sin. Nay (@Ho 9:9), Ephraim's iniquity is kept as it were safely sealed up, until the due time comes for bringing it forth for punishment (@De 32:34 Job 14:17 21:19; compare @Ro 2:5). Opposed to "blotting out the handwriting against" the sinner (@Col 2:14).
13. sorrows of a travailing woman--calamities sudden and agonizing
(@Jer 30:6).
unwise--in not foreseeing the impending judgment, and averting it by
penitence (@Pr 22:3).
he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of
children--When Israel might deliver himself from calamity by the pangs
of penitence, he brings ruin on himself by so long deferring a new birth
unto repentance, like a child whose mother has not strength to bring it
forth, and which therefore remains so long in the passage from the womb
as to run the risk of death (@2Ki 19:3 Isa 37:3 66:9).
14. Applying primarily to God's restoration of Israel from Assyria
partially, and, in times yet future, fully from all the lands of their
present long-continued dispersion, and political death (compare
@Ho 6:2 Isa 25:8 26:19 Eze 37:12). God's power and grace are
magnified in quickening what to the eye of flesh seems dead and hopeless
(@Ro 4:17,19). As Israel's history, past and future, has a
representative character in relation to the Church, this verse is
expressed in language alluding to Messiah's (who is the ideal Israel)
grand victory over the grave and death, the first-fruits of His own
resurrection, the full harvest to come at the general resurrection;
hence the similarity between this verse and Paul's language as to the
latter (@1Co 15:55). That similarity becomes more obvious by
translating as the Septuagint, from which Paul plainly quotes;
and as the same Hebrew word is translated in @Ho 13:10, "O
death, where are thy plagues
(paraphrased by the Septuagint, 'thy victory')?
O grave, where is thy destruction (rendered by the
Septuagint, 'thy sting')?" The question is that of one triumphing
over a foe, once a cruel tyrant, but now robbed of all power to hurt.
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes--that is, I will not change My
purpose of fulfilling My promise by delivering Israel, on the condition
of their return to Me (compare @Ho 14:2-8 Nu 23:19 Ro 11:29).
15. fruitful--referring to the meaning of "Ephraim," from a Hebrew root, "to be fruitful" (@Ge 41:52). It was long the most numerous
and flourishing of the tribes (@Ge 48:19).
wind of the Lord--that is, sent by the Lord (compare @Isa 40:7),
who has His instruments of punishment always ready. The Assyrian,
Shalmaneser, &c., is meant (@Jer 4:11 18:17 Eze 19:12).
from the wilderness--that is, the desert part of Syria
(@1Ki 19:15), the route from Assyria into Israel.
he--the Assyrian invader. Shalmaneser began the siege of Samaria
in 723 B.C. Its close was in 721
B.C., the first year of Sargon, who
seems to have usurped the throne of Assyria while Shalmaneser was at
the siege of Samaria. Hence, while @2Ki 17:6 states, "the
king of Assyria took Samaria," @2Ki 18:10 says, "at the end of
three years they took it." In Sargon's magnificent palace at
Khorsabad, inscriptions mention the number--27,280--of Israelites
carried captive from Samaria and other places of Israel by the founder
of the palace [G. V. SMITH].
16. This verse and @Ho 13:15 foretell the calamities about to
befall Israel before her restoration (@Ho 13:14), owing to her
impenitence.
her God--the greatest aggravation of her rebellion, that it was
against her God (@Ho 13:4).
infants . . . dashed in pieces, &c.--(@2Ki 8:12 15:16 Am 1:13).