Hosea 10:3-15

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hosea 10:1-8

Observe, I. What the sins are which are here laid to Israel's charge, the national sins which bring down national judgment. The prophet deals plainly with them; for what good would it do them to be flattered? 1. They were not fruitful in the fruits of righteousness to the glory of God. Here all their other wickedness began (Hos. 10:1): Israel is an empty vine. The church of God is fitly compared to a vine, weak, and of an unpromising outside, yet spreading and fruitful; believers are branches... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hosea 10:9-15

Here, I. They are put in mind of the sins of their fathers and predecessors, for which God would now reckon with them. It was told them (Hos. 9:9) that they had corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah, and here (Hos. 10:9), O Israel! thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah. Not only the wickedness that was committed in that age is revived in this, and reacted, a copy from that original, but the wickedness that was committed in that age has been continued in a constant series and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:3

For now they shall say, we have no king ,.... This they would say, either when they had one; but by their conduct and behaviour said they had none; because they had no regard unto him, no affection for him, and reverence of him; but everyone did what was right in his own eyes: or during the interregnum, between the murder of Pekah, which was in the twentieth year of Jotham, and the settlement of Hoshea, which was in the twelfth of Ahaz; see 2 Kings 15:30 ; or when the land of Israel was... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:4

They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant ,.... Those are other crimes they were guilty of, for which the wrath of God could not be awarded from them by a king, if they had one, or by any other. They had used vain and idle words in their common talk and conversation; and lying and deceitful ones to one another in trade and commerce, in contracts and promises; and so had deceived and overreached one another: they had belched out many "oaths of vanity" F21 אלות שוא ... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:5

The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven ,.... Or, "the cow calves" F23 לעגלות "vaccas, V. L. "ad. vitulas", Pagninus, Montanus; "propter vitulas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "ob vitulas, Cocceius. , as in the original; so called by way of derision, and to denote their weakness and inability to help their worshippers; and so Bethel, where one of these calves was, is here, as elsewhere, called Bethaven; that is, the house of iniquity, or of an... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:6

It shall also be carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jareb ,.... Or, "he himself" F26 גם אותו "etiam ipsemet", Pagninus, Montanus; "etiam ipse", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "etiam ille", Cocceius; "etiam ille ipse", Schmidt. ; not the people of Samaria, or of Bethaven, or of the calf, but the calf itself; which, being all of gold, was sent a present to the king of Assyria, here called Jareb; either Assyria, or the king of it; See Gill on Hosea 5:13 ; this was done... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:7

As for Samaria ,.... The metropolis of the ten tribes of Israel, and here put for the whole kingdom: her king is cut off ; which some understand of Pekah, who was killed by Hoshea; others of several of their kings cut off one after another, very suddenly and quickly, as the metaphor after used shows; or rather Hoshea the last king is meant, who was cut off by the king of Assyria; the present tense is used for the future, to denote the certainty of it. Aben Ezra thinks the verb "cut... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:8

The high places also of Aven ,.... Bethel, which is not only as before called Bethaven, the house of iniquity; but Aven, iniquity itself; the high places of it were the temple and altars built there for idolatrous service, which were usually set on hills and mountains: the sin of Israel shall be destroyed ; that is, which high places are the sin of Israel, the occasion of sin unto them; and where they committed sin, the sin of idolatry, in worshipping the calves; these should be thrown... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:9

O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah ,.... This has no respect, as the Targum, and others, to Gibeah of Saul, of which place he was, and the choosing him to be king; but to the affair of the Levite and his concubine at Gibeah in the days of the judges, and what followed upon it, Judges 19:1 ; suggesting, that the sins of Israel were not new ones; they were the same with what were committed formerly, as early as the history referred to, and had been continued ever since; the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 10:10

It is in my desire that I should chastise them ,.... Or, "bind them" F1 ואסרם "et, vel ut vinciam eos", Junius & Tremellius, Drusius, Grotius; "colligabo eos", Cocceius. , and carry them captive; and by so doing correct them for their sins they have so long continued in: this the Lord had in his heart to do, and was determined upon it, and would do it with pleasure, for the glorifying of his justice, since they had so long and so much abused his clemency and goodness: and... read more

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