Hosea 12

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Hosea 12:11

Is there iniquity in Gilead? - The prophet asks the question, in order to answer it the more peremptorily. He raises the doubt, in order to crush it the more impressively. Is there “iniquity” in “Gilead?” Alas, there was nothing else. “Surely they are vanity,” or, strictly, “they have become merely vanity.” As he said before, “they become abominations like their love.” “For such as men make their idols, or conceive their God to be, such they become themselves. As then he who worships God with a... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Hosea 12:12

And Jacob fled into the country of Syria - Jacob chose poverty and servitude rather than marry an idotatress of Canaan. He knew not from where, except from God’s bounty and providence, he should have “bread to eat, or raiment to put on” Genesis 28:20; “with his staff alone he passed over Jordan” Genesis 32:10. His voluntary poverty, bearing even unjust losses Genesis 31:39, and “repaying the things which he never took,” reproved their dishonest traffic; his trustfulness in God, their mistrust;... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Hosea 12:13

By a prophet was he preserved - Or “kept.” Jacob “kept sheep” out of love of God, sooner than unite himself with one, alien from God; his posterity “was kept” like a sheep by God, as the Psalmist said, “He led His people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron” Psalms 77:20. They were “kept” from all evil and want and danger, by the direct power of God; “kept” from all the might of Pharaoh in Egypt and the Red Sea , “not through any power of their own, but by the ministry of a single prophet;... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Hosea 12:14

Ephraim provoked - the Lord most bitterly Literally, “with bitternesses,” i. e., with most heinous sins, such as are most grievously displeasing to God, and were a most bitter requital of all His goodness. “Wherefore He shall leave” (or, “cast”) “his blood” (literally, “bloods”) “upon him.” The plural “bloods” expresses the manifoldness of the bloodshed . It is not used in Holy Scripture of mere guilt. Ephraim had shed blood profusely, so that it ran like water in the land (see the notes above... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 12

A.M. 3279. B.C. 725. In this chapter, (1,) God reproves Ephraim and Judah for their sins, particularly their covenanting with the Assyrians, and declares his resolution to punish them, Hosea 12:1 , Hosea 12:2 . (2,) By his former mercies he exhorts them to repentance, Hosea 12:3-6 . (3,) He charges Ephraim with the sin of fraud, injustice, and ingratitude, as particularly provoking to God, and calling for wrath and punishment, Hosea 12:7-14 . read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 12:1-2

Hosea 12:1-2. Ephraim feedeth on wind Flatters himself with vain, delusive hopes, of receiving effectual support from the alliances which he forms. It is a proverbial expression to signify labour in vain, or pursuing such measures as will bring damage rather than benefit. And followeth the east wind Pernicious, destructive counsels and courses. The east wind was peculiarly parching and noxious, blasting the fruits of the earth; thence it denotes desolation and destruction. He daily... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 12:3

Hosea 12:3 . He took his brother by the heel in the womb From the mentioning of Jacob in the foregoing verse, the prophet takes occasion to put his posterity in mind of the particular favours God had bestowed upon him; partly with a view to encourage them to imitate him in endeavouring to obtain the like blessings, and partly to convince them of their ingratitude and degeneracy from him. His taking his brother by the heel, signified his striving, by a divine instinct, for the birthright... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 12:4-5

Hosea 12:4-5 . He had power over the angel Called God, Hosea 12:3, and Jehovah, God of hosts, Hosea 12:5, namely, God by nature and essence, and an angel by office and voluntary undertaking. He wept and made supplication unto him He prayed with tears from a sense of his own unworthiness, and with earnestness for the mercy he desired. Jacob’s wrestling with the angel was, as has been just intimated, not only a corporal conflict, but likewise a spiritual one; from bodily wrestling he betook... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 12:6

Hosea 12:6. Therefore turn thou to thy God “Thou therefore, O Israel, encouraged by the memory of God’s love to thy progenitor, and by the example which thou hast in him, of the efficacy of weeping and supplication, turn to thy God in penitence and prayer, and in the [practice of] works of righteousness.” Horsley. Leave your idolatries and all your sins. Jacob worshipped God alone, do you so; he cast all idols out of his family, do you so too; be Jacob’s children herein. Keep mercy and ... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Hosea 12:7-8

Hosea 12:7-8. He is a merchant, &c. Bishop Horsley renders this verse thus: Canaan the trafficker! The cheating balances in his hand! He has set his heart upon over-reaching! On which the bishop observes, “God says to the prophet, Instead of turning to me, and keeping to works of charity and justice, he is a mere heathen huckster. Thou hast miscalled him Jacob: he is Canaan. Not Jacob the god1y, the heir of the promise: Canaan the cheat, the son of the curse.” The Hebrew word כנען... read more

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