СНАР. 11.

SAY ye unto your brethren, § MY-PEOPLE; And unto your sisters, || HAVING-OBTAINED-MERCY. Plead ye with your mother, plead :

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2

For she is not my wife,

Neither am I her husband:

.

*

And let her put away her fornications from her,
And her many adulteries from † her breasts:

3

Lest I strip her naked,

And set her as in the day when she was born;
And make her as the desert,

And set her as a land of drought,

And kill her with thirst;

In Hebr. Ammi. Ruhamah. * from before. † from between.

1. Say ye-] To avert my judgments, threatened c. i. 6, 9. exhort each other to be worthy of appellations opposite to those prophetic ones before denounced against the sons and daughters of Israel, c. i. 6, 9. So act, that ye may truly say unto &c. "Although the Israelites in the days of Hosea were in general corrupt, and addicted to idolatry, yet there were among them, in the worst times, some who had not bowed the knee to Baal. These were always Ammi and Ruhamah; God's Own People, and a darling Daughter. God commissions these faithful few to admonish the inhabitants of the land in general, of the dreadful judgments that would be brought upon them by the gross idolatry of the Jewish Church and Nation." Horsley.

2. Plead-] Enter, as it were, into a forensic contest with your mother, the house of Israel; disavow her proceedings, and publicly protest against them.

-many adulteries] The original word may be considered as a frequentative one.

Lest

3. Lest I-] See Bishop Lowth's note on Isai. iii. 17. I cause her to be exposed to such ignominy as brutal conquerors sometimes inflict: Ex. xvi, 39. xxiii. 26: and lest I reduce her to the most extreme want. More than fifty MSS. or editions It is observable that the punishment of an adulteress among the Germans is thus described by Tacitus: Accisis crinibus nudatam coram propinquis expellit domo mariTac. de mor. Germ. §. 18. 19.

.ושתה for ושתיה read

tus.

-as the desert] 6. MS, Al. and Pachom. have w

Neither have mercy on her sons,

Because they are the sons of fornications.
For their mother hath committed fornication;
She that conceived them hath caused shame:
For she hath said, I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my food and my water,
My wool and my flax, mine oil and my strong drink.
Therefore behold I will hedge up her way with
thorns,

And I will close up her enclosure;

That she shall not find her paths.

And she shall follow after her lovers, but shall not overtake them;

5. strong drink] So Doctor Wheeler. See Ps. cii. 9. Seven MSS. read ". The word may come from appetere. See Houbigant. Or from its Hiphil form pun redundare: mine abundance. All my sustenance, Chald. Whatever I require or want. 6. Ar. Syr.

6. -her way] Read with 6. A. and Houbigant. “ her ways, so Syr." Horsley.

66

-with thorns] See Prov. xv. 19. and the note on Mic. vii. 4. -her enclosure] 7, the being understood as a pronoun. A stone fence. "77 is properly maceria. A low wall of loose stones, laid one upon another, without any cement or mortar. Such enclosures are very common at this day in Gloucestershire, and other parts of this island, where quarries of the stone, fit for the purpose, abound." Horsley

-shall not find] This refers to the Assyrian captivity.

-her paths] "are paths worn by the feet, often passing and repassing upon the same line. I think that here the word signifies gaps in a bramble hedge, or stone fence, made by clambering over repeatedly at the same place. The text alludes to a double enclosure, an inner fence of loose stones, a bramble hedge on the outside: both damaged and broken in many places. The hedge is to be made: the stone fence repaired; the gaps in both closed; and all made so firm and strong, that it will be impracticable to find any way out. This enclosure is an admirable image of national difficulty, and distress, from which no human policy, or force, can extricate." Horsley,

7. -follow after] in her mind. For some time she shall remain addicted to her Egyptian and Syrian idols, and to all her

P

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9

And she shall seek them, but shall not find them.
Then shall she say:

I will go again to my former husband,
For then was it better with me than now.
And she knew not

That I gave unto her

§ Corn, and choice wine, and oil:

And the silver which I multiplied unto her,
And the gold, they offered unto Baal.
Therefore will I turn, and take away

My corn in its time, and my choice wine in its

season:

And I will take away my wool and my flax,

That it may not cover her nakedness.

Hebr. and return,

The coin, and the choice wine, and the oil,

former idolatrous and immoral practices: but without carrying her evil wishes into execution.

8. -choice wine] So called because it possesses, or inebriates. It was the first expressed juice of the grapes; or that which ran off of itself, from the weight of the clusters laid on each other. See Cast. lex.

-they offered] "Confer 2 Chron. xxiv. 7." Secker. ó. Ar. read y or nwy: She offered, or consecrated: but the number may be changed, as it often is.

--Baal] A name which, according to Servius, the Tyrians gave both to Saturn and to the Sun. Boch. Geogr. 663. It signifies lord; and may be a general term for false gods and lords. See v. 13.

Dr. Wheeler renders:

And that I multiplied to her the silver

And the gold, which they wrought for Baal.
Therefore will I again take away &c.

".sed aurum habent omnes interpretes : ובהם Forte וזהב

Secker.
9. not cover] I read with 6. Arab. and Houbigant
"I think this 9th verse speaks of calamities already begun, and
the 10th describes the progress and increase of them. It appears
from all the prophets, and particularly from Amos and Joel,
that the beginning of judgment upon the refractory, rebellious
people was in unfruitful seasons, and noxious vermin, producing
a failure of the crops, dearth, murrain of the cattle, famine,
and pestilential discases." Horsley.

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12

HOSEA. II.

U

LIBRARE

VERSITY

CALIFORNIA

And now I will disclose her vileness in the sight
of her lovers;

And none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
And I will cause all her joy to cease;

Her feast, her new-moon, and her sabbath, and
all her solemn assemblies.

And I will destroy her vine and her figtree;

Of which she said, These are mine hire
Which my lovers have given me:

And I will make them a forest:

And the beasts of the field shall eat them.

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14

And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim,
Wherein she burnt incense unto them;

And decked herself with her ear-rings, and her
† jewels,

And went after her lovers,

And forgat me; saith Jehovah.

Notwithstanding, behold, I will allure her,
And will lead her to the desert,

12. her vine] " I cannot but think the words and sn are used here, by a synecdoche, for plantations of vines and fig-trees. Certainly it cannot be said of a single tree, that it is laid waste or made a forest." Horsley.

mine hire] Israel attributed her fruitful seasons to her false gods.

13. Baalim] There were different idols worshipped under the name of Baal: as Baal-berith, Baal-zebub, Baal-peor.

-ear-rings] An ornament either for the ear or nose. The latter was worn in the left nostril. See the figure of the Ganges in Dow's history of Indostan. v. i. p. lxxvii. 4to.

-jewels] The original word is from Arab. ornavit monilibus. See Cast. lex.

14. Notwithstanding] See Noldius §. 6. and Pocock in loc. -allure her] Or persuade her. Though the word commonly signifies, to inveigle, to deceive; it may be used, by an easy metaphor, in a good sense.

-to the desert] From the distant countries, to which she was led captive, I will safely conduct her home through the

desert.

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And will speak ‡ kindly to her.

And from thence will I give her her vineyards,
And the valley of Achor for a door of hope:
And there shall she sing as in the days of her youth,
And as in the day when she came up from the
land of Egypt.

And it shall come to pass in that day,

Saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me, § MINE

HUSBAND

And thou shalt no more call me || MY BAAL, [or,

Lord,]

For I will take the names of Baalim out of her

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mouth;

Hebr. to her heart.

§ Ishi.

Baali.

*Or. Baals.

15. thence] Sc. From the desert.

-valley of Achor] This most fertile valley lay to the north of Jericho, not far from Gilgal; and the restoration of it was an earnest of future blessings. Compare Isai. lxv. 9, 10, "The Vale of Achor, though a scene of trouble and distress, was a door of hope to the Israelites under Joshua; for there, immediately after the execution of Achan, God said to Joshua, "Fear not, neither be thou dismayed' (chap. viii. 1.); and promised to support him against Ai, her king and her people. And from this time Joshua drove on his conquests with uninterrupted success. In like manner the tribulations of the Jews, in their present dispersion, shall open to them the door of hope.---and there' i. e. in the wilderness, and in the vale of tribulation, under those circumstances of present difficulty mixed with cheering hope.” Horsley.

-sing] Literally, answer in the song, sing alternately. See Præl. Hebr. xix. 66, p. 236. Azongintai. Theod." Secker. 16. thou shalt call me] Two MSS. read pn. The versions read she shall call me, twice.

-MY BAAL.] The very name, though capable of a good sense, as it signifies husband, or lord, should be avoided by them; because it was also the name of false gods. They should scrupulously avoid idolatry. And this was the fact immediately after their return from Babylon; and it has continued to this day. "Ishi, My Husband, is an appellation of Love; Baali, My Lord, of Subjection and Fear. God hath not given us the spirit of Fear, but of Power and of Love, and of a sound mind. 2 Tim, i. 7. See Jer. xxiii. 27." Horsley.