H
O S E A
CHAP. VIII.
This
chapter, as that before, divides itself into the sins and punishments of Israel; every verse almost declares both, and all to
bring them to repentance. When they saw the malignant nature of their sin, in
the descriptions of that, they could not but be convinced now much it was
their duty to repent of what was so bad in itself; and when they saw the
mischievous consequences of their sin, in the predictions of them, they could
not but see how much it was their interest to repent for the preventing of
them. I. The sin of
Israel
is here set forth, 1. In many general
expressions, ver. 1, 3, 12, 14. 2. In many particular instances; setting up
kings without God (ver. 4), setting up idols against God (ver. 4-6, 11), and
courting alliances with the neighbouring nations,, ver. 8-10. 3. In this
aggravation of it, that they still kept up a profession of religion and
relation to God, ver. 2, 13, 14. II. The punishment of Israel is here set
forth as answering to the sin. God would bring an enemy upon them, ver. 1, 3.
All their projects should be blasted, ver. 7. Their confidence both in their
idols and in their foreign alliances should disappoint them, ver. 6, 8, 10.
Their strength at home should fail them, ver. 14. Their sacrifices should have
no reckoning made of them, and their sins should have a reckoning made for
them, ver. 13.
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Sin
and Punishment of Israel; Crimes Charged against Israel; Sottish
Idolatry
of Israel.
B. C. 745.
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1 Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He
shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD,
because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my
law. 2 Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.
3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue
him. 4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made
princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they
made them idols, that they may be cut off. 5 Thy calf, O Samaria,
hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will
it be ere they attain to innocency? 6 For from Israel was
it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of
Samaria shall be broken in pieces. 7 For they have sown the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no
meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
The reproofs and threatenings here are introduced with an order to the prophet
to set the trumpet to his mouth (v. 1), thus to call a solemn
assembly, that all might take notice of what he had to deliver and take
warning by it. He must sound an alarm, must, in God's name, proclaim war with
this rebellious nation. An enemy is coming with speed and fury to seize their
land, and he must awaken them to expect it. Thus the prophet must do the part
of a watchman, that was by sound of trumpet to call the besieged to stand to
their arms, when he saw the besiegers making their attack, Ezek. xxxiii. 3.
The prophet must lift up his voice like a trumpet (Isa. lviii. 1), and
the people must hearken to the sound of the trumpet, Jer. vi. 17. Now,
I. Here is a general charge drawn up against them as sinners, as rebels and
traitors against their sovereign Lord. 1. They have transgressed my
covenant, v. 1. They have not only transgressed the command (every
sin does that), but they have transgressed the covenant; they have been
guilty of such sins as break the original contract; they have revolted from
their allegiance, and violated the marriage-covenant by their spiritual
whoredom; they have, in effect, declared that they will be no longer God's
people, nor take him for their God; that is transgressing the covenant.
They have not only done foolishly, but have dealt deceitfully. 2. They have trespassed
against my law in many particular instances. God's law is the rule by
which we are to walk; and this is the malignity of sin, that it trespasses
upon the bounds set us by that law. 3. They have cast off the thing that is
good. They have put away and rejected good, that is, God
himself; so some understand it, and very fitly. He is good, and does good, and
is our goodness. There is none good but one, that is God, the fountain
of all good. They have cast him off, as not desiring to have any thing
more to do with him. God was abandoning them to ruin, and here gives the
reason for it. Note, God never casts off any till they first cast him off. Or,
as we read it, They have cast off the thing that is good; they have
cast off the service and worship of God, which is, in effect, casting God
off. They have cast off that which denominates men good; they have cast
off the fear of God, and the regard of man, and all sense of virtue and
honesty. Observe, They have transgressed my covenant; it has come to
this at last; for they trespassed against my law. Breaking the command
made way for breaking the covenant; and they did that, for they cast off
that which was good; there it began first. They left off to be wise and
to do good, and then they went all to naught, Ps. xxxvi. 3. See the method
of apostasy; men first cast off that which is good; then those omissions make
way for commissions; and frequent actual transgressions of God's law bring men
at length to an habitual renunciation of his covenant. When men cast off
praying, and hearing, and sabbath-sanctification, and other things that are
good, they are in the high road to a total forsaking of God.
II. Here are general threatenings of wrath and ruin for their sin: The
enemy shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, and (v.
3) shall pursue him. If by the house of the Lord we understand
the temple at Jerusalem, by the eagle that comes against it we must suppose to
be meant either Sennacherib, who had taken all the fenced cities of Judah,
laid siege to Jerusalem (and, no doubt, aimed at the house of the Lord, to lay
that waste, as he had done the temples of the gods of other nations), or
Nebuchadnezzar, who burnt the temple and made a prey of the vessels of the
temple. But, if we make it to point at the destruction of the kingdom of the
ten tribes by the king of Assyria, we must reckon it is the body of that
people which as Israelites, to whom pertained the adoption, the glory, and
the covenants, is here called the house of the Lord. They thought
their being so would be their protection; but the prophet is directed to tell
them that now they had lost the life and spirit of their religion, though they
still retained the name and form of it, they were but as a carcase to which
the eagles and other birds of prey should be gathered together. The enemy
shall pursue them as an eagle, so swiftly, so strongly, so furiously.
Note, Those who break their covenant of friendship with God expose themselves
to the enmity of all about them, to whom they make themselves a cheap and easy
prey; and their having been the house of the Lord, and his living
temples, will be no excuse nor refuge to them. See Amos iii. 2.
III. Here is the people's hypocritical claim of relation to God, when they
were in trouble and distress (v. 2): Israel shall cry unto me;
when either they are threatened with these judgments, and would plead an
exemption, or when the judgments are inflicted on them and they apply to God
for relief, pouring out a prayer when God's chastening is upon them,
they will plead that among them God is known and his name is great
(Ps. lxxvi. 1) and in their distress will pretend to that knowledge of God's
ways which in their prosperity they desired not, but despised.
They will then cry unto God, will call him their God, and (as impudent
beggars) will tell him they are well acquainted with him, and have known him
long. Note, There are many who in works deny God, and disown him, yet, to
serve a turn, will profess that they know him, that they know more of
him than some of their neighbours do. But what stead will it stand a man in to
be able to say, My God, I know thee, when he cannot say, "My God,
I love thee," and "My God, I serve thee, and cleave to thee
only?"
IV. Here is the prophet's expostulation with them, in God's name (v.
5): How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? It is not meant
of absolute innocency (that is what the guilty can never attain to); but how
long will it be ere they repent and reform, ere they become innocent in this
matter, and free from the sin of idolatry? They are wedded to their idols; how
long will it be ere they are weaned from them, ere they are able to get
clear of them? so it might be rendered. This intimates that custom in sin
makes it very difficult for men to part with it. It is hard to cleanse from
that filthiness, either of flesh or spirit, which has been long wallowed in.
But God speaks as if he thought the time long till sinners cast away their
iniquities and come to live a new life. He complains of their obstinacy; it is
that which keeps his anger against them burning, which would soon be turned
away if they did but attain to innocency from those sins that kindled
it. They in trouble cry, How long will it be ere God return to us in a
way of mercy? but they do not hear him ask, How long will it be ere
they return to God in a way of duty?
V. Here are some particular sins which they are charged with, are convicted of
the folly of, and warned of the fatal consequences of, and for which God's anger
is kindled against them.
1. In their civil affairs. They set up kings without God, and in
contempt of him, v. 4. So they did when they rejected Samuel, in whom
the Lord was their king, and chose Saul, that they might be like the
nations. So they did when they revolted from their allegiance to the house
of David, and set up Jeroboam, wherein, though they fulfilled God's secret
counsel, yet they aimed not at his glory, nor consulted his oracle, nor
applied to him by prayer for direction, nor had any regard to his providence,
but were led by their own humour and hurried on by the impetus of their own
passions. So they did now about the time when Hosea prophesied, when it seems
to have grown fashionable to set up kings, and depose them again,
according as the contenders for the crown could make an interest, 2 Kings xv.
8, &c. Note, We cannot expect comfort and success in our affairs when we
go about them, and go on in them, without consulting God and acknowledge not
him in all our ways: "They set up kings, and I knew it not,
that is, I did not know it from them, they did not ask counsel at my mouth,
whether they might lawfully do it or whether it would be best for them to do
it, though they had prophets and oracles with whom they might have
advised." They looked not to the Holy One of Israel, Isa. xxxi. 1.
Nor did the princes do as Jephthah, who, before he took upon him the
government, uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh, Judg. xi.
11. Note, Those that are entrusted with public concerns, and particularly with
the election and nomination of magistrates, ought to take God along with them
therein, by desiring his direction and designing his honour.
2. In their religious matters they did much worse; for they set up calves
against God, in competition with him and contradiction to him. "Of their
silver and their gold which God gave them, and multiplied to
them, that they might serve and honour him with them, they have made them
idols." They called them gods (1 Kings xii. 28, Behold thy
gods, O Israel!) but God calls them idols; the word signifies griefs,
or troubles, because they are offensive to God and will be ruining to
those that worship them. Their silver and their gold they have made to them
idols; so the words are, referring primarily to the images of their gods,
which they made of gold and silver, especially the golden calves at Dan and
Bethel. Idolaters spare no cost in worshipping their idols. But they are very
applicable to the spiritual idolatry of the covetous: Their silver and
their gold are the gods they place their happiness in, set their hearts
upon, to which they pay their homage, and in which they put their confidence.
Now, to show them the folly of their idolatry, he tells them,
(1.) Whence their gods came. Trace them to their original, and they will be
found the creatures of their own fancies and the work of their own hands, v.
6. The calf they worshipped is here called the calf of Samaria, because
it is probable that when Samaria, in Ahab's time, became the metropolis of the
kingdom, a calf was set up there to be near the court, besides those at Dan
and Bethel, or perhaps one of those was removed thither; for those that are
for new gods will still be for newer. Now let them consider what this god of
theirs owed its rise and being to. [1.] To their own invention and
institution: From Israel was it also, not from the God of Israel (he
expressly forbade it), but from Israel; it was a device of their own (some
think), not borrowed from any of their neighbours, no, not from the Egyptians,
for, though they worshipped Apis in a living cow, they never worshipped a golden
calf; that was from Israel; it was their own iniquity. Now could
that be worthy of their worship which was a contrivance of their own? It was from
Israel, that is, the gold and silver of which it was made were collected
from the people of Israel by a brief: it was a poor god that was framed by
contribution. [2.] It was owing to the skill and labour of the craftsman,
Deut. xxvii. 15. The workmen made it, therefore it is not God, v.
6. This is a very cogent conclusive argument, and the inference so very plain
that one would think their own thoughts should have suggested it to them, so
as to make them ashamed of their idolatry. What can be more absurd than for
men to worship that as a god, giving being and good to them, which they
themselves gave being to (both matter and form), but could not give life to? A
made god is no God. This is a self-evident truth; and yet St. Paul was accused
as a criminal for preaching that those are no gods which are made with
hands, Acts xix. 26. And, here, this which should have turned them from
their idols comes in as a reason why they were inseparably wedded to them;
therefore they could not attain to innocency because it was from
themselves; they were willing to have gods of their own to do what they
pleased with, that they themselves might do what they pleased.
(2.) What their gods would come to. If they are not gods, they will not last;
nay, if they pretend to be gods, they will be reckoned with: The calf of
Samaria shall be broken to pieces, and those that would not yield to the
force of the former argument shall be convinced by this that it is not God,
but an unprofitable idol, as the Chaldee calls it. It shall be broken
to shivers, like a potter's vessel, though it be a golden calf. It shall
be chips or saw-dust; it shall be a spider's web; so St.
Jerome. It seems to allude to Moses's grinding to powder the golden calf that
was in his time. This shall be served as that was. Sennacherib boasted what he
had done to Samaria and her idols, Isa. x. 11. Note, Deifying any
creature makes way for the destruction of it. If they had made vessels and
ornaments for themselves of their silver and gold, they might have remained;
but, if they make gods of them, they shall be broken to pieces.
(3.) What their gods would bring them to. The breaking of them to pieces would
be a disappointment to those who trusted in them. But that was not all: They
have made to themselves idols, that they may be cut off (v.
4), that their gold and silver, which they so abused, may be cut off (so some
take it), nay, that they may themselves be cut off from God, from their own
land, from the land of the living. Their idolatry will as certainly end in
their extirpation as if they had purposely designed it. And, when this proves
to be the effect of their sin, what relief will they have from the gods
wherein they trusted? None at all: "Thy calf, O Samaria! has cast thee
off; it cannot give thee any help in thy distress, and the pleasure thou
now takest in it will vanish, and be no pleasure to thee." Those that
were justly sent to the gods whom they had chosen found them miserable
comforters, Judg. x. 14. If men will not quit the love and service of sin,
yet they shall certainly lose all the delights and profits of it. If Samaria
had continued firm and faithful to the God of Israel, he would have been a
present powerful help to her; but the calf she preferred before him was a
broken reed. The case will be the same with those that make their silver and
their gold their god. It will cast them off, and not profit them in
the day of wrath, Ezek. vii. 12. Note, Those that suffer themselves to be
deceived into any idolatries will certainly find themselves deceived in them.
Cardinal Wolsey owned that if he had served his God as faithfully as he had
served his prince he would not have cast him off, as his prince did, in
his old age. Their disappointment in their idols is illustrated (v. 7)
by a similitude which intimates both that and the destruction which God
brought upon them for their idolatry. [1.] They got no good to themselves by
worshipping idols: They have sown the wind. They have put themselves to
a great deal of trouble and expense to make and worship their idols, have made
a business of it as much as the husbandman does of sowing his corn, in
expectation of reaping some mighty advantage from it, and that they should be
as prosperous and victorious as the neighbouring nations were, that worshipped
idols. But it is all a cheat; it is like sowing the wind, which can
yield no increase; they labour in vain, labour for the wind, Eccl. v.
16. They take great pains to no purpose, and weary themselves for very
vanity, Hab. ii. 13. Those that make an idol of this world do so; they set
their eyes on that which is not, which, like the wind, makes a great
noise, but has nothing substantial in it. [2.] They brought ruin upon
themselves by it: They shall reap the whirlwind, a great whirlwind
(so the word signifies), which shall hurry them away and dash them to pieces.
They not only have not their false gods for them but they set the true God
against them; their favour will stand them in no more stead than the wind, but
his wrath will do them more mischief than a whirlwind. As a man sows, so shall
he reap. "If it may be supposed that a man should sow the wind, and cover
it with earth, or keep it there for a while penned up, what could he expect
but that it should be forced by its being shut up, and the accession of what
might increase its strength, to break forth again in greater quantities with
greater violence?" So Dr. Pocock. They promise themselves plenty, peace,
and victory, by worshipping idols, but their expectations come to nothing.
What they sow never comes up; it has no stalk, no blade, or, if it
have, the bud shall yield no meal; it shall be as the thin ears in
Pharaoh's dream, that were blasted with the east wind, and there was
nothing in them. Or if it yield, if they do prosper for a while in
their idolatrous courses, the strangers shall swallow it up; it shall
be so far from doing them any service that it shall be but as a bait to invite
strangers to invade them, and as a spoil to enrich those strangers and enable
them to do so much the more mischief. Note, The service of idols is an
unprofitable service, and the works of darkness are unfruitful; nay, in the
end they will be pernicious. Rom. vi. 21, The end of those things is death.
Those that sow iniquity reap vanity: nay, those that sow to
the flesh, reap corruption. The hopes of sinners will be cheats, and their
gains will be snares.
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The
Sins of Israel; The Crimes of the People.
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B.
C. 745.
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8 Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be
among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. 9
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath
hired lovers. 10 Yea, though they have hired among the nations,
now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the
king of princes. 11 Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin,
altars shall be unto him to sin. 12 I have written to him the
great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.
13 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it;
but the LORD
accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins:
they shall return to Egypt. 14 For Israel hath forgotten his
Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I
will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
It was the honour and happiness of Israel that they had but one God to trust
to and he all-sufficient in every strait, and but one God to serve, and he
well worthy of all their devotions. But it was their sin, and folly, and
shame, that they knew not when they were well off, that they forsook their own
mercies for lying vanities; for,
I. They multiplied their alliances (v. 9): They have hired lovers,
or (as the margin reads it) they have hired loves. They were at great
expense to purchase the friendship of the nations about them, that otherwise
had no value nor affection at all for them, nor cared for having any thing to
do with them but only upon the Shechemites' principles--Shall not their
cattle and their substance be ours? Gen. xxxiv. 23. Had Israel maintained
the honour of their peculiarity, the surrounding nations would have continued
to admire them as a wise and understanding people; but, when they
profaned their own crown, their neighbours despised them, and they had no
interest in them further than they paid dearly for it. But those surely have
behaved ill among their neighbours who have no loves, no lovers, but what they
hire. See here, 1. The contempt that Israel lay under among the nations (v.
8): Israel is swallowed up, devoured by strangers, their land eaten up
(v. 7), and themselves too, and, being impoverished, they have quite
lost their credit and reputation, like a merchant that has become a bankrupt,
so that they are among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure,
a vessel of dishonour (2 Tim. ii. 20), a despised broken vessel,
Jer. xxii. 28. None of their neighbours have any value for them, nor care to
have any thing to do with them. Note, Those that have professed religion, if
they degenerate and grow profane, are of all men the most contemptible. If
the salt have lost its savour, it is fit for nothing but to be trodden
under foot of men. Or it denotes their dispersion and captivity among
the Gentiles; they shall be among them poor and prisoners; and who has
pleasure in such? 2. The court that Israel made to the nations notwithstanding
(v. 9): They have gone to Assyria, to engage the king of Assyria
to help them; and herein they are as a wild ass alone by himself,
foolish, headstrong, and unruly; they will have their way, and nothing shall hold
them in, no, not the bridle of God's laws, nothing shall turn them
back, no, not the sword of God's wrath. They take a course by themselves,
and the effect will be that, like a wild ass by himself, they will be
the easier and surer prey to the lion. See Job xi. 12; Jer. ii. 24. Note, Man
is in nothing more like the wild ass's colt than in seeking for that succour
and that satisfaction in the creature which are to be had in God only. 3. The
crosses that they were likely to meet with in their alliances with the
neighbouring nations (v. 10): Though they have hired among the
nations, and hoped thereby to prevent their own ruin, yet now will I
gather them, as the sheaves in the floor (Mic. iv. 12); so that
what they provided for their own safety shall but make them the easier prey to
their enemies. Note, There is no fence against the judgments of God, when they
come with commission; nay, that which men hire for their own preservation
often contributes to their own destruction. See Isa. vii. 20. The king of
Assyria, whose friendship they courted, called himself a king of princes,
Isa. x. 8. Are not my princes altogether kings? He laid burdens
upon Israel, levied taxes upon them, 2 Kings xv. 19, 20. And for these they
shall sorrow a little; this shall be but a little burden to them in
comparison of what they may further expect; or they will be but little
sensible of this grievance, will not lay it to heart, and therefore may expect
heavier judgments. They have begun to be diminished (so some read it), by
the burden of the king of princes; but this is only the beginning of
sorrows (Matt. xxiv. 8), the beginning of revenges, Deut. xxxii.
42. Note, God often comes gradually with his judgments upon a provoking
people, that he may show how slow he is to wrath, and may awaken them to
repentance; but those that are made to sorrow a little, if they are not
thereby brought to sorrow after a godly sort, will, another day, be made to
sorrow a great deal, to sorrow everlastingly.
II. They multiplied their altars and temples. Observe,
1. How they denied the power of godliness, and wholly cast that off (v.
12): I have written to him the great things of my law; this intimates
the privilege they enjoyed, as having God's statutes and judgments made known
to them, and being entrusted with the lively oracles. Note, (1.) The things of
God's law are magnalia Dei--the great things of God. They are things
that proclaim the greatness of the Law-maker, and things of great use and
great importance to us; they are our life, and our eternal welfare depends
upon our observance of them and obedience to them; they will make us great if
we make a right use of them; and they are things which God will magnify and
make honourable. (2.) It is a great privilege to have the things of God's law
written; thus they are reduced to a greater certainty, spread the further, and
last the longer, with much less danger of being embezzled and corrupted than
if they were transmitted by word of mouth only. (3.) The things of God's law
are of his own writing; for Moses and the prophets were his amanuenses, and
holy men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (4.) It is the advantage
of those that are members of the visible church that these great things are
written to them, are intended for their direction, and so they must
receive them; what things were written in former ages were written for our
learning, and are profitable for us. And, if those were happy who had the great
things of God's law written to them, how much happier are we who have the
gospel written to us! But see how this privilege was slighted; these great
things of the law were counted as a strange thing, as unintelligible
and unreasonable (which might therefore be slighted, because not to be
fathomed, not to be accounted for), or as foreign, and things of no
concernment to them, things that they had nothing to do with nor were to be
governed by; they used those things as strangers, which they were shy of, and
knew not how to bid welcome. We desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
Note, [1.] God having written to us the great things of his law, we ought to
make them familiar to us, as our nearest relations (Prov. vii. 3, 4); for therefore
we have them written, that they may talk with us, Prov. vi. 22. [2.] We
make nothing of the things of God's law if we make strange of them, as if they
did not affect us and therefore we need not be affected with them.
2. How they kept up the form of godliness notwithstanding, and to what little
purpose they did so.
(1.) They multiplied their altars (v. 11): Ephraim made many altars
to sin. God appointed that there should be but one altar for sacrifice
(Deut. xii. 3, 5); but the ten tribes, having forsaken that, would still be
thought very devout, and zealous for the honour of God, and, as if they would
make amends for the affront they put on God's altar, they made many altars,
dedicated to the God of Israel, whom hereby they intended, or at least
pretended, to give glory to; but that would not justify their violation of
God's express command, nor would the example of the patriarchs, who before the
law of Moses had many altars. No, they made many altars to sin (that
is, they did that which turned into sin to them), and therefore these altars
shall be unto them to sin, that is, God will charge it upon them as
a heinous sin, and put that upon the score of their crimes which they designed
to be for the expiation of their crimes. Or they shall be to them an occasion
of further sin. Their multiplying of altars dedicated to the God of Israel
would introduce altars dedicated to other gods. Note, It is a great sin to
corrupt the worship of God, and it will be charged as sin upon those that do
it, how plausible soever their pretensions may be. And the way of this, as
other sins, is down-hill; those that once deviate from the fixed rule of God's
commands will wander endlessly.
(2.) They multiplied their sacrifices, v. 13. Their altars were smoking
altars: They sacrificed flesh for the sacrifices of God's offerings,
and they celebrated their feasts upon their sacrifices; they were at a great
expense upon their devotions, and (as those commonly are who set up their own
inventions in the room of divine institutions) were very zealous in their way;
as if they hoped by their impositions on themselves to atone for the contempt
of the great atonement, and by their observing a ceremonial law of their own
to excuse themselves from the obligation of all God's moral precepts. But how
did they speed? [1.] God makes no reckoning of their services: The Lord
accepts them not. How should he, when they did not offer their sacrifice
upon that altar which alone sanctified the gift, and when they only
sacrificed flesh, but not the spiritual sacrifice of a penitent believing
heart? Note, Those services only are acceptable to God which are performed
according to the rule of his word, and through Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. ii.
5. [2.] He takes that occasion to reckon with them for their sins; now will
he, instead of pardoning their iniquity and blotting out their sins, as they
expected, remember their iniquity and visit their sins. Such an abomination
to the Lord are the sacrifices of the wicked that they provoke him
to call them to an account for all their other abominations. When they think
by their sacrifices to bribe the Judge of heaven and earth into a connivance
at their wickedness he will resent that as the highest affront they can put
upon him, and it shall be the measure-filling sin. Note, A petition for leave
to sin amounts to an imprecation of the curse for sin, and so it shall be
answered, according to the multitude of the idols. "I will punish
their sins, for they shall return to Egypt;" they shall be carried
captive into Assyria, which shall be to them a house of bondage, as Egypt was
to their fathers. Or it refers to Deut. xxviii. 68, where returning to Egypt
is made to close and complete the miseries of that sinful nation.
(3.) They multiplied their temples, and these also in honour of the true God,
as they pretended, but really in contempt of the choice he had made of
Jerusalem
to put his name there. Israel has forgotten his Maker, v. 14.
They pretended to know him, and yet forgot him, for they liked not to
retain God in their knowledge, when the remembrance of him would give
check to their lusts. It was an aggravation of their sin in forgetting God
that he was their Maker (Deut. xxxii. 15, 18; Job xxxv. 10), as nothing
obliges us more to remember him than that he is our Creator, Eccl. xii.
1. "He has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples; he seems by
the temples he builds to me mindful of his Maker, and to be desirous still to
keep him in mind, and yet really he has forgotten him, because he has cast off
the fear of him." Some by temples here understand palaces, for so
the word sometimes signifies. "He has forgotten his Maker, and yet
is so secure and haughty that he sets his judgments at defiance, as
Nebuchadnezzar did when he said, Is not this great Babylon that I have
built?" Judah is likewise charged with multiplying fenced cities,
and trusting in them for safety, when the judgments of God were abroad. To
fortify their cities in subjection and subordination to God was well enough;
but to fortify them in opposition to God, and without any regard to him or his
providence (Isa. xxii. 11), shows their hearts to be desperately hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin. But none ever hardened his heart
against God and prospered, nor shall they. God will send a fire upon
his cities, upon the cities both of Judah and Israel, not only the
head-cities of Jerusalem and Samaria, but all the other cities of those two
kingdoms, and it shall devour not only the cottages, but the palaces
thereof; though ever so strong, the fire shall master them; though ever so
stately and sumptuous, the fire shall not spare them. This was fulfilled when
all the cities of Israel were laid in ashes by the king of Assyria, and all
the cities of Judah by the king of Babylon. The fires they both kindled were
of his sending; and when he judges he will overcome.
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