H
O S E A
CHAP. IV.
Prophets
were sent to be reprovers, to tell people of their faults, and to warn them of
the judgments of God, to which by sin they exposed themselves; so the prophet
is employed in this and the following chapters. He is here, as counsel for the
King of kings, opening an indictment against the people of
Israel, and labouring to convince them of sin, and of
their misery and danger because of sin, that he might prevail with them to
repent and reform. I. He shows them what were the grounds of God's controversy
with them, a general prevalency of vice and profaneness (ver. 1, 2), ignorance
and forgetfulness of God (ver. 6, 7), the worldly-mindedness of the priests
(ver. 8), drunkenness and uncleanness (ver. 11), using divination and
witchcraft (ver. 12), offering sacrifice in the high places (ver. 13),
whoredoms (ver. 14, 18), and bribery among magistrates, ver. 18. II. He shows
them what would be the consequences of God's controversy. God would punish
them for these things, ver. 9. The whole land should be laid waste (ver. 3),
all sorts of people cut off (ver. 5), their honour lost (ver. 7), their
creature-comforts unsatisfying (ver. 10), and themselves made ashamed, ver.
19. And, which is several times mentioned here as the sorest judgment of all,
they should be let alone in their sins (ver. 17), they shall not reprove one
another (ver. 4), God will not punish them (ver. 14), nay, he will let them
prosper, ver. 16. III. He gives warning to Judah not to tread in the steps of
Israel, because they saw their steps went down to hell, ver. 15.
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The
Sinfulness of Israel.
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B.
C. 758.
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1 Hear the word of the LORD,
ye children of Israel: for the LORD
hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is
no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 2 By
swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they
break out, and blood toucheth blood. 3 Therefore shall the land
mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of
the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall
be taken away. 4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for
thy people are as they that strive with the priest. 5
Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with
thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
Here is, I. The court set, and both attendance and attention demanded: "Hear
the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for to you is the word of
this conviction sent, whether you will hear or whether you will forbear."
Whom may God expect to give him a fair hearing, and take from him a fair
warning, but the children of Israel, his own professing people? Yea, they will
be ready enough to hear when God speaks comfortably to them; but are they
willing to hear when he has a controversy with them? Yes, they must hear him
when he pleads against them, when he has something to lay to their charge: The
Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, of this land, of
this holy land. Note, Sin is the great mischief-maker; it sows discord between
God and Israel. God sees sin in his own people, and a good action he has
against them for it. Some more particular actions lie against his own people,
which do not lie against other sinners. He has a controversy with them for
breaking covenant with him, for bringing a reproach upon him, and for an
ungrateful return to him for his favours. God's controversy will be pleaded,
pleaded by the judgments of his mouth before they are pleaded by the judgments
of his hand, that he may be justified in all he does and may make it appear
that he desires not the death of sinners; and God's pleadings ought to be
attended to, for, sooner or later, they shall have a hearing.
II. The indictment read, by which the whole nation stands charged with crimes
of a heinous nature, by which God is highly provoked. 1. They are charged with
national omissions of the most important duties: There is no truth nor
mercy, neither justice nor charity, these most weighty matters of the
law, as our Saviour accounts them (Matt. xxiii. 23), judgment, mercy,
and faith. The generality of the people seemed to have no sense at all of
the thing called honesty; they made no conscience of what they said and did,
though ever so contrary to the truth and injurious to their neighbour. Much
less had they any sense of mercy, or any obligation they were under to pity
and help the poor. And it is not strange that there is no truth and mercy when
there is no knowledge of God in the land. What good can be expected
where there is no knowledge of God? It was the privilege of that land that in
Israel God was made known, and his name was great,
which was an aggravation of their sin, that they did not know him, Ps.
lxxvi. 1. 2. Hence follows national commissions of the most enormous sins
against both the first and second table, for they had no regard at all to
either. Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing,
and committing adultery, against the third, ninth, sixth, eighth, and
seventh commandments, were to be found in all corners of the land, and among
all orders and degrees of men among them, v. 2. The corruption was
universal; what good people there were among them were either lost or hid, or
they hid themselves. By these they break out, that is, they transgress
all bounds of reason and conscience, and the divine law; they have exceeded
(Job xxxvi. 9); they have been overmuch wicked (Eccl. vii. 17); they
suffer their corruptions to break out; they themselves break over, and break
through, all that stands in their way and would stop them in their sinful
career, as water overflows the banks. Note, Sin is a violent thing and its
power exorbitant; when men's hearts are fully set in them to do evil
(Eccl. viii. 11) what will be restrained from them? Gen. xi. 6. When
they break out thus blood touches blood, that is, abundance of murders
are committed in all parts of the country, and, as it were, in a constant
series and succession. Cædes aliæ aliis sunt contiguæ--Murders touch
murders; a stream of blood runs down among them, even royal blood. It was
about this time that there was so much blood shed in grasping at the crown;
Shallum slew Zechariah, and Menahem slew Shallum, Pekah slew Pekahiah, and
Hoshea slew Pekah; and the like bloody work, it is likely, there was among
other contenders, so that the land was polluted with blood (Ps. cvi.
38); it was filled with blood from one end to the other, 2 Kings xxi.
16.
III. Sentence passed upon this guilty and polluted land, v. 3. It shall
be utterly destroyed and laid waste. The whole land is infected with sin, and
therefore the whole land shall mourn under God's sore judgments, shall
sit in mourning, being stripped of all its wealth and beauty. As the valleys
are said to shout for joy, and sing, when there are plenty and peace,
so here they are said to mourn when by war and famine they are made
desolate. The whole land shall be brimstone, and salt, and burning, was
as threatened in the law, Deut. xxix. 33. They had broken all God's
commandments, and now God threatens to take away all their comforts. The land
mourns when there is neither grass for the cattle nor herbs for the
service of man; and then every one that dwells therein shall languish
for want of nice food to support a wasting life, and fret for want of the
usual dainties for delight. The beasts of the field will languish, Jer.
xiv. 5, 6. Nay, the destruction of the fruits of the earth shall be so great
that there shall not be picking for the fowls of the air, to keep them
alive; they shall suffer with man, and their dying, or growing lean, will be a
punishment to those who used to have their tables replenished with wild-fowl.
Nay, the fishes of the sea shall be taken away, or gathered
together, that they may go away in shoals to some other coast, and then
the fishing trade will be worth nothing. This desolation shall be in that
respect more general than that by Noah's flood, for that did not affect the
fishes of the sea, but this shall. It was part of one of the plagues of Egypt
that he slew their fish (Ps. cv. 29); when the waters are dried the fish
die, Isa. l. 2; Zeph. i. 2, 3. Note, When man becomes disobedient to God,
it is just that the inferior creatures should be made unserviceable to man. Oh
what reason have we to admire God's patience and mercy to our land, that
though there is in it so much swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing,
and adultery, yet there is plenty of flesh, and fish, and fowl, on our tables!
IV. An order of court that no pains should be taken with the condemned
criminal to bring him to repentance, with the reason for that order. Observe,
1. The order itself (v. 4): Yet let no man strive nor reprove
another; let no means be used to reduce and reclaim them; let their
physicians give them up as desperate and past cure. It intimates that as long
as there is any hope we ought to reprove sinners for their sins; it is a duty
we owe to one another to give and to take reproofs; it was one of the laws of
Moses (Lev. xix. 17), Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour; it
is an instance of brotherly love. Sometimes there is need to rebuke sharply,
not only to reprove, but to strive, so loth are men to part with their sins.
But it is a sign that persons and people are abandoned to ruin when God says, Let
them not be reproved. Yet this is to be understood as God's commands
sometimes to the prophets not to pray for them, notwithstanding which
they did pray for them; but the meaning is, They are so hardened in sin, and
so ripened for ruin, that it will be to little purpose either to deal with
them or to deal with God for them. Note, It bodes ill to a people when
reprovers are silenced, and when those who should witness against the sins of
the times, retire into a corner, and give up the cause. See 2 Chron. xxv. 16.
2. The reasons of this order. Let them not reprove one another; for, (1.) They
are determined to go on in sin, and no reproofs will cure them of that:
Thy people are as those that strive with the priests; they have grown
so very impudent in sin, so very insolent, and impatient of reproof, that they
will fly in the face even of a priest himself if he should but give them the
least check, without any regard to his character and office; and how then can
it be thought that they should take a reproof from a private person? Note,
Those sinners have their hearts wickedly hardened who quarrel with their
ministers for dealing faithfully with them; and those who rebel against
ministerial reproof, which is an ordinance of God for their reformation, have
forfeited the benefit of brotherly reproof too. Perhaps this may refer to the
late wickedness of Joash king of Judah, and his people, who stoned Zechariah,
the son of Jehoiada, for delivering them a message from God, 2 Chron. xxiv.
21. He was a priest; with him they strove when he was
officiating between the temple and the altar; and Dr. Lightfoot thinks
the prophet had an eye to his case when he spoke (v. 2) of blood
touching blood; the blood of the sacrificer was mingled with the blood
of the sacrifice, That, says he, was the apex of their
wickedness--thence their ruin was to be dated (Matt. xxiii. 35), as this
is of their incorrigibleness, that they are as those who strive with
the priest, therefore let no man reprove them; for, (2.) God also is
determined to proceed in their ruin (v. 5): "Therefore,
because thou wilt take no reproof, no advice, thou shalt fall, and it
is in vain for any to think of preventing it, for the decree has gone
forth. Thou shalt stumble and fall in the day, and the prophet,
the false prophet that flattered and seduced thee, shall fall with thee in
the night; both thou and thy prophet shall fall night and day,
shall be continually falling into one calamity or other; the darkness of the
night shall not help to cover thee from trouble nor the light of the day help
thee to flee from it." The prophets are blind leaders and the people
blind followers; and to the blind day and night are alike, so that whether it
be day or night both shall fall together into the ditch. "Thou
shalt fall in the day, when thy fall is least feared by thyself and
thou art very secure; and in the day, when it will be seen and
observed by others, and turn most to thy shame; and the prophet shall fall
in the night, when to himself it will be most terrible." Note, The
ruin of those who have helped to ruin others will, in a special manner, be
intolerable. And did the children think that when they were in danger of
falling their mother would help them? It shall be in vain to expect it, for I
will destroy thy mother, Samaria, the mother-city, the whole state,
or kingdom, which is as a mother to every part. It shall all be made
silent. Note, When all are involved in guilt nothing less can be expected
than that all should be involved in ruin.
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Grounds
of God's Controversy with Israel; The Sins of the Priests and People.
B. C. 758.
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6 My people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that
thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy children. 7 As they were increased, so they
sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into
shame. 8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their
heart on their iniquity. 9 And there shall be, like people, like
priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their
doings. 10 For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall
commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take
heed to the LORD.
11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
God is here proceeding in his controversy both with the priests and with the
people. The people were as those that strove with the priests (v.
4) when they had priests that did their duty; but the generality of them lived
in the neglect of their duty, and here is a word for those priests, and for
the people that love to have it so, Jer. v. 31. And it is observable here how
the punishment answers to the sin, and how, for the justifying of his own
proceedings, God sets the one over-against the other.
I. The people strove with the priests that should have taught them the
knowledge of God; justly therefore were they destroyed for lack of
knowledge, v. 6. Note, Those that rebel against the light can
expect no other than to perish in the dark. Or it is a charge upon the
priests, who should have been still teaching the people knowledge
(Eccl. xii. 9), but they did not, or did it in such a manner that it was as if
they had not done it at all, so there was no knowledge of God in the land;
and because there was no vision, or none to any purpose, the people perished,
Prov. xxix. 18. Note, Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion
that it is the mother of destruction; lack of knowledge is ruining to any
person or people. They are my people that are thus destroyed;
their relation to God as his people aggravates both their sin in not taking
pains to get the knowledge of that God whose command they were under and with
whom they were taken into covenant, and likewise the sin of those who should
have taught them; God set his children to school to them, and they never
minded them nor took any pains with them.
II. Both priests and people rejected knowledge; and justly therefore will God reject
them. The reason why the people did not learn, and the priests did not
teach, was not because they had not the light, but because they hated it--not
because they had not ways of coming to the knowledge of God and of
communicating it, but because they had no heart to it; they rejected
it. They desired not the knowledge of God's ways, but put it from them,
and shut their eyes against the light; and therefore "I will also
reject thee; I will refuse to take cognizance of thee and to own thee; you
will not know me, but bid me depart; I will therefore say, Depart
from me, I know you not. Thou shalt be no priest to me." 1.
The priests shall be no longer admitted to the privileges, or employed in the
services, of the priesthood, nor shall they ever be received again, as we
find, Ezek. xliv. 13. Note, Ministers that reject knowledge, that are grossly
ignorant and scandalous, ought not to be owned as ministers; but that which
they seem to have should be taken away, Luke viii. 18. 2. The
people shall be no longer as they have been, a kingdom of priests, a
royal priesthood, Exod. xix. 6. God's people, by rejecting knowledge, forfeit
their honour and profane their own crown.
III. They forgot the law of God, neither desired nor endeavoured to
retain it in mind, nor to transmit the remembrance of it to their posterity,
and therefore justly will God forget them and their children,
the people's children; they did not educate them, as they ought to have done,
in the knowledge of God and their duty to him, and therefore God will disown
them, as not in covenant with him. Note, If parents do not teach their
children, when they are young, to remember their Creator, they cannot
expect that their Creator should remember them. Or it may be meant of the
priests' children; they shall not succeed them in the priests' office, but
shall be reduced to poverty, as is threatened against Eli's house, 1 Sam. ii.
20.
IV. They dishonoured God with that which was their honour, and justly
therefore will God strip them of it, v. 7. It was their honour that
they were increased in number, wealth, power, and dignity. The beginning of
their nation was small, but in process of time it greatly increased,
and grew very considerable; the family of the priests increased wonderfully.
But, as they were increased, so they sinned against God. The more
populous the nation grew, the more sin was committed and the more profane they
were; their wealth, honour, and power, did but make them the more daring in
sin. Therefore, says God, will I change their glory into shame. Are
their numbers their glory? God will diminish them and make them few. Is their
wealth their glory? God will impoverish them and bring them low; so that they
shall themselves be ashamed of that which they gloried in. Their priests shall
be made contemptible and base, Mal. ii. 9. Note, That which is our
honour, if we dishonour God with it, will sooner or later be turned into shame
to us: for those that despise God shall be lightly esteemed, 1 Sam. ii.
30.
V. The priests ate up the sin of God's people, and therefore they shall eat
and not have enough. 1. They abused the maintenance that was allowed to
the priests, to the priests of the house of Aaron, by the law of God, and to
the mock-priests of the calves by their constitution (v. 8): They
eat up the sin of my people, that is, their sin-offerings. If it be meant
of the priests of the calves, it intimates their seizing that which they had
no right to; they usurped the revenues of the priests, though they were no
priests. If it be meant of those who were legal priests, it intimates their
greediness of the profits and perquisites of their office, when they took no
care at all to do the duty of it. They feasted upon their part of the
offerings of the Lord, but forgot the work for which they were so well paid.
They set their heart upon the people's iniquities; they lifted
up their soul to them, that is, they were glad then people did commit
iniquity, that they might be obliged to bring an offering to make atonement
for it, which they should have their share of; the more sins the more
sacrifices, and therefore they cared not how much sin people were guilty of.
Instead of warning the people against sin, from the consideration of the
sacrifices, which showed them what an offence sin was to God, since it needed
such an expiation, they emboldened and encouraged the people to sin, since an
atonement might be made at so small an expense. Thus they glutted themselves
upon the sins of the people, and helped to keep up that which they should have
beaten down. Note, It is a very wicked thing to be well pleased with the sins
of others because, in some way or other, they may turn to our advantage. 2.
God will therefore deny them his blessing upon their maintenance (v.
10): They shall eat and not have enough. Though they have great plenty
by the abundance of offerings that are brought in, yet they shall have no
satisfaction in it. Either their food shall yield no good nourishment or their
greedy appetites shall not be satisfied with it. Note, What is unlawfully
gained cannot be comfortably used; no, nor that which is inordinately coveted;
it is just that the desires which are insatiable should always be unsatisfied,
and that those should never have enough who never know when they have enough.
See Mic. vi. 14; Hag. i. 6.
VI. The more they increased the more they sinned (v. 7), and therefore
though they commit whoredom, though they take the most wicked methods
to multiply their people, yet they shall not increase. Though they have
many wives and concubines, as Solomon had, yet they shall not have their
families built up thereby in a numerous progeny, any more than he had. Note,
Those that hope any way to increase by unlawful means will be disappointed.
And therefore God will thus blast all their projects because they have left
off to take heed to the Lord; time was when they had some regard to God,
and to his authority over them and interest in them, but they have left it
off; they take no heed to his word nor to his providences; they do not eye
him in either. They forsake him, so as not to take heed to him; they
have apostatized to such a degree that they have no manner of regard to God,
but are perfectly without God in the world. Note, Those that leave off
to take heed to the Lord leave off all good, and can expect no other than that
all good should leave them.
VII. The people and the priests did harden one another in sin; and therefore
justly shall they be sharers in the punishment (v. 9): There shall
be, like people, like priest. So they were in character; people and priest
were both alike ignorant and profane, regardless of God and their duty, and
addicted to idolatry: and so they shall be in condition; God will bring
judgments upon them, that shall be the destruction both of priest and people;
the famine that deprives the people of their meat shall deprive the priests of
their meat-offerings, Joel i. 9. It is part of the description of a
universal desolation that it shall be as with the people, so with the
priest, Isa. xxiv. 2. God's judgments, when they come with commission,
will make no difference. Note, Sharers in sin must expect to be sharers in
ruin. Thus God will punish them both for their ways, and reward
them for their doings. God will cause their doings to return upon them
(so the word is); when a sin is committed the sinner thinks it is gone
and he shall hear no more of it, but he shall find it called over again,
and made to return, either to his humiliation or to his condemnation.
VIII. They indulged themselves in the delights of sense, to hold up their
hearts; but they shall find that they take away their hearts (v.
11): Whoredom, and wine, and new wine take away the heart. Some join
this with the foregoing words. They have forsaken the Lord, to take
heed to whoredom, and wine, and new wine. Or, Because these have
taken away their heart. Their sensual pleasures have taken them off from
their devotions and drowned all that is good in them. Or we may take it as a
distinct sentence, containing a great truth which we see confirmed by every
day's experience, that drunkenness and uncleanness are sins which besot and
infatuate men, weaken and enfeeble them. They take away both the understanding
and the courage.
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The
Sins of the Priests and the People; Warning to Judah.
B. C. 758.
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12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and
their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them
to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. 13 They
sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills,
under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good:
therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit
adultery. 14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit
whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are
separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that
doth not understand shall fall. 15 Though thou, Israel, play the
harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither
go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The LORD
liveth. 16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now
the LORD
will feed them as a lamb in a large place. 17 Ephraim is
joined to idols: let him alone. 18 Their drink is sour: they have
committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give
ye. 19 The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be
ashamed because of their sacrifices.
In these verses we have, as before,
I. The sins charged upon the people of Israel, for which God had a controversy
with them, and they are,
1. Spiritual whoredom, or idolatry. They have in them a spirit of whoredoms,
a strong inclination to that sin; the bent and bias of their hearts are that
way; it is their own iniquity; they are carried out towards it with an
unaccountable violence, and this causes them to err. Note, The errors
and mistakes of the judgment are commonly owing to the corrupt affections; men
therefore have a good opinion of sin, because they have a disposition
towards it. And having such erroneous notions of idols, and such passionate
motions towards them, no marvel that with such a head and such a heart they
have gone a whoring from under their God, v. 12. They ought to
have been in subjection to him as their head and husband, to have been under
his guidance and command, but they revolted from their allegiance, and put
themselves under the guidance and protection of false gods. So (v. 15)
Israel has played the harlot; their conduct in the worship of their
idols was like that of a harlot, wanton and impudent. And (v. 16), Israel
slideth back as a backsliding heifer, as an untamed heifer (so
some), or as a perverse or refractory one (so others), as a
heifer that is turned loose runs madly about the pasture, or, if put under the
yoke (which seems rather to be alluded to here), will draw back instead of
going forward, will struggle to get her neck out of the yoke and her feet out
of the furrow. Thus unruly, ungovernable, untractable, were the people of
Israel. They had begun to draw in the yoke of God's ordinances, but they drew
back, as children of Belial, that will not endure the yoke; and when
the prophets were sent with the goads of reproof, to put them forward, they kicked
against the pricks, and ran backwards. The sum of all is (v. 17), Ephraim
is joined to idols, is perfectly wedded to them; his affections are glued
to them, and his heart is upon them. There are two instances given of their
spiritual whoredom, in both which they gave that honour to their idols which
is due to God only:-- (1.) They consulted them as oracles, and used those arts
of divination which they had learned from their idolatrous priests (v.
12): My people ask counsel at their stocks, their wooden gods; they
apply to them for advice and direction in what they should do and for
information concerning the event. They say to a stock, Thou art my father
(Jer. ii. 27); and, if it were indeed a father, it were worthy of this honour;
but it was a great affront to God, who was indeed their Father, and whose
lively oracles they had among them, with which they had liberty to consult at
any time, thus to ask counsel at their stocks. And they expect that
their staff should declare to them what course they should take
and what the event should be. It is probable that this refers to some wicked
methods of divination used among the Gentiles, and which the Jews learned from
them, by a piece of wood, or by a staff, like Nebuchadnezzar's
divining by his arrows, Ezek. xxi. 21. Note, Those who forsake the
oracles of God, to take their measures from the world and the flesh, do in
effect but consult with their stocks and their staves. (2.) They offered
sacrifice to them as gods, whose favour they wanted and whose wrath they
dreaded and deprecated (v. 13): They sacrifice to them, to atone
and pacify them, and burn incense to them, to please and gratify them,
and hope by both to recommend themselves to them. God had pitched upon the
place where he would record his name; but they, having forsaken that, chose
places for their irreligious rites which pleased their own fancies; they
chose, [1.] High places, upon the tops of the mountains and upon the
hills, foolishly imagining that the height of the ground gave them some
advantage in their approaches towards heaven. [2.] Shady places, under
oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is pleasant to
them, especially in those hot countries, and therefore they thought it was
pleasing to their gods; or they fancied that a thick shade befriends
contemplation, possesses the mind with something of awe, and therefore is
proper for devotion.
2. Corporal whoredom is another crime here charged upon them: They have
committed whoredom continually, v. 18. They drove a trade of
uncleanness; it was not a single act now and then, but their constant
practice, as it is of many that have eyes full of adultery and which
cannot cease from that sin, 2 Pet. ii. 14. Now the abominable
filthiness and lewdness that was found in Israel is here spoken of, (1.) As a
concomitant of their idolatry; their false gods drew them to it; for the devil
whom they worshipped, though a spirit, is an unclean spirit. Those that
worshipped idols were separated with harlots, and they sacrificed
with harlots; for because they liked not to retain God in their
knowledge, but dishonoured him, therefore God gave them up to vile
affections, by the indulging of which they dishonoured themselves,
Rom. i. 24, 28. (2.) As a punishment of it. The men that worshipped
idols were separated with harlots that attended the idolatrous rites,
as in the worship of Baal-peor, Num. xxv. 1, 2. To punish them for that
God gave up their wives and daughters to the like vile affections: They committed
whoredom and adultery (v. 13), which could not but be a great grief
and reproach to their husbands and parents; for those that are not chaste
themselves desire to have their wives and daughters so. But thus they might
read their sin in their punishment, as David's adultery was punished in the
debauching of his concubines by his own son, 2 Sam. xii. 11. Note, When the
same sin in others is made men's grief and affliction which they have
themselves been guilty of they must own that the Lord is righteous.
3. The perverting of justice, v. 18. Their rulers (be it spoken
to their shame) do love, Give ye, that is, they love bribes, and have
it continually in their mouths, Give, give. They are given to filthy
lucre; every one that has any business with them must expect to be asked,
What will you give? Though, as rulers, they are bound by office to do justice,
yet none can have justice done them without a fee; and you may be sure that
for a fee they will do injustice. Note, The love of money is the ruin of
equity and the root of all iniquity. But of all men it is a shame for rulers
(who should be men fearing God and hating covetousness) to love Give
ye. Perhaps this is intended in that part of the charge here, Their
drink is sour; it is dead; it is gone. Justice, duly
administered, is refreshing, like drink to the thirsty, but when it is
perverted, and rulers take rewards either to acquit the guilty or to condemn
the innocent, the drink is sour; they turn judgment into wormwood,
Amos v. 7. Or it may refer in general to the depraved morals of the whole
nation; they had lost all their life and spirit, and were as offensive to God
as dead and sour drink is to us. See Deut. xxxi. 32, 33.
II. The tokens of God's wrath against them for their sins. 1. Their wives and
daughters should not be punished for the injury and disgrace they did to their
families (v. 14): I will not punish your daughters; and, not
being punished for their sin, they would go on in it. Note, The impunity of
one sinner is sometimes made the punishment of another. Or, "I will
not punish them as I will punish you; for you must own, as Judah did
concerning his daughter-in-law, that they are more righteous than you,"
Gen. xxxviii. 26. 2. They themselves should prosper for a while, but their
prosperity should help to destroy them. It comes in as a token of God's wrath
(v. 16): The Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place;
they shall have a fat pasture, and a large one, in which they shall be fed to
the full, and fed of the best, but it shall be only to prepare them for the
slaughter, as a lamb is that is so fed. If they wax fat and kick, they
do but wax fat for the butcher. But others make them feed as a lamb on the
common, a large place indeed, but where it has short grass and lies
exposed. The Shepherd of Israel will turn them both out of his pastures and
out of his protection. 3. No means should be used to bring them to repentance
(v. 17): "Ephraim is joined to idols, is in love with them
and addicted to them, and therefore let him alone, as v. 4, Let
no man reprove him. Let him be given up to his own heart's lusts,
and walk in his own counsel; we would have healed him, and he would
not be healed, therefore forsake him," See what their end
will be, Deut. xxxii. 20. Note, It is a sad and sore judgment for any man
to be let alone in sin, for God to say concerning a sinner, "He is joined
to his idols, the world and the flesh; he is incurably proud, covetous, or
profane, an incurable drunkard or adulterer; let him alone; conscience,
let him alone; minister, let him alone; providences, let him alone. Let
nothing awaken him till the flames of hell do it." The father corrects
not the rebellious son any more when he determines to disinherit him.
"Those that are not disturbed in their sin will be destroyed for their
sin." 4. They should be hurried away with a swift and shameful
destruction (v. 19): The wind has bound her up in her wings, to
carry her away into captivity, suddenly, violently, and irresistibly; he shall
take them away as with a whirlwind, Ps. lviii. 9. And then they
shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices, ashamed of their sin in
offering sacrifice to idols, ashamed of their folly in putting themselves to
such an expense upon gods that have no power to help them, and thereby making
that God their enemy who has almighty power to destroy them. Note, There are
sacrifices that men will one day be ashamed of. Those that have sacrificed
their time, strength, honour, and all their comforts, to the world and the
flesh, will shortly be ashamed of it. Yea, and those that bring to God blind,
and lame, and heartless sacrifices, will be ashamed of them too.
III. The warning given to Judah not to sin after the similitude of Israel's
transgression. It is said in the close of v. 14, Those that do not
understand shall fall; those must needs fall that do not understand how to
avoid, or get over, the stumbling-blocks they meet with (and therefore let
him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall), particularly the two
tribes (v. 15): Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not
Judah offend. Though Israel be given to idolatry, yet let not Judah take
the infection. Now, 1. This was a very needful caution. The men of Israel were
brethren, and near neighbours, to the men of Judah; Israel was more numerous,
and at this time in a prosperous condition, and therefore there was danger
lest the men of Judah should learn their way and get a snare to their souls.
Note, The nearer we are to the infection of sin the more need we have to stand
upon our guard. 2. It was a very rational caution: "Let Israel play
the harlot, yet let not Judah do so; for Judah has greater means of
knowledge than Israel, has the temple and priesthood, and a king of the house
of David; from Judah Shiloh is to come; and for Judah God has reserved great
blessings in store; therefore let not Judah offend, for more is
expected from them than from Israel, they will have more to answer for if they
do offend, and from them God will take it more unkindly. If Israel play the
harlot, let not Judah do so too, for then God will have no professing
people in the world." God bespeaks Judah here, as Christ does the twelve,
when many turned their backs upon him, Will you also go away? John vi.
67. Note, Those that have hitherto kept their integrity should, for that
reason, still hold it fast, even in times of general apostasy. Now, to
preserve Judah from offending as Israel had done, two rules are here given:--
(1.) That they might not be guilty of idolatry they must keep at a distance
from the places of idolatry: Come not you unto Gilgal, where all
their wickedness was (ch. ix. 15; xii. 11); there they multiplied
transgression (Amos iv. 4); and perhaps they contracted a veneration for
that place because there it was said to Joshua, The place where thou
standest is holy ground (Josh. v. 15); therefore they are forbidden to enter
into Gilgal, Amos v. 5. And for the same reason they must not go up to
Bethel, here called the house of vanity, for so Bethaven
signifies, not the house of God, as Bethel signifies. Note,
Those that would be kept from sin, and not fall into the devil's hands, must
studiously avoid the occasions of sin and not come upon the devil's ground.
(2.) That they might not be guilty of idolatry they must take heed of
profaneness, and not swear, The Lord liveth. They are commanded to
swear, The Lord liveth in truth and righteousness (Jer. iv. 2); and
therefore that which is here forbidden is swearing so in untruth and
unrighteousness, swearing rashly and lightly, or falsely and with deceit, or
swearing by the Lord and the idol, Zeph. i. 5. Note, Those that would be
steady in their adherence to God must possess themselves with an awe and
reverence of God, and always speak of him with solemnity and seriousness; for
those that can make a jest of the true God will make a god of any thing.
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