Hosea 12

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 12:9

Verse 9 In the first clause God reproaches the Israelites for having forgotten the benefit of his redemption, the memory of which ought ever to have prevailed and flourished among them. I yet, he says, am thy God from the land of Egypt; that is, “It is strange that you are so forgetful that your redemption does not come to your mind, which yet ought to be well known, and be ever, as it were, before your eyes.” That was, as we know, a memorable instance of God’s kindness. But when he says that... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 12:10

Verse 10 The Prophet amplifies the sin of the people in having always obstinately opposed God, so that they were without any pretext of ignorance: for men, we know, evade God’s dreadful judgement as long as they can plead either ignorance or thoughtlessness. The Prophet denies that the people had fallen through want of information, for they had been often, nay, continually warned by the Prophets. It then appears that this people were become, as it were, wilfully rebellious against God; for they... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 12:11

Verse 11 It is an ironical question, when the Prophet says, Is there iniquity in Gilead ? and he laughs to scorn their madness who delighted themselves in vices so gross, when their worship was wholly spurious and degenerated. When they knew that they were perfidious towards God, and followed a worship alienated from his law, they yet were so perverse, that they proudly refused all admonitions. Since then they were blinded in their vices, the Prophet asks them ironically, Is there iniquity in... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 12:12

Verse 12 The Prophet now employs another kind of reproof, — that the Israelites did not consider from what source they had proceeded, and were forgetful of their origin. And the Prophet designedly touches on this point; for we know how boldly and proudly the people boasted of their own eminence. For as a heathen gloried that he was an Athenian, so also the Jews think that all we are brute animals, and imagine that they have a different origin from the rest of mankind, because they are the... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 12:13

Verse 13 And God, he says, brought you up by a Prophet from Egypt, and by a Prophet you have been preserved This was, as it were, their second nativity. Some think that the comparison is between their first origin and their deliverance; as though Hosea had said, “Though you were born of a very poor and ignoble man, yet God has favoured you with singular privilege; for he gave Moses to be the minister of your liberation.” But in my judgement the Prophet speaks in a more simple way; for, first,... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 12:14

Verse 14 The Prophet says first, that Ephraim had provoked God by his high places Some, however, take the word תמרורים, tamerurim, for bitternesses. Then it is, “Israel or Ephraim have provoked God to bitterness.” But since this word in other places as in the thirty-first of Jeremiah, is taken for high places and as it clearly appears that the Prophet here inveighs avowedly against Israel and their vicious worship, I doubt not but that he points out these high places in which the Israelites... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 12:1

EXPOSITION In Hosea 12:1-6 God continues his complaint against Ephraim, charging them specially with the pursuit of vain and futile courses to their great detriment. Instead of repairing to the true and everlasting source of safety and salvation, they had recourse to foreign alliances to support and strengthen their decaying state and sinking interests. And yet the only staying power was Jehovah. The controversy now embraces Judah also; and thus Jacob—both Israel and Judah—is... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 12:1

Feeding on wind. The conduct of Ephraim is in many respects very instructive to all readers of Scripture. There is nothing in that conduct upon which Hosea lays greater stress than the extreme folly, unreasonableness, fatuity of sin. This is a forcible image which the prophet here employs to describe the vanity of a course of life distinguished by forgetfulness of God and rebellion against God, by a constantly recurring though constantly disappointing endeavor to find satisfaction in the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 12:1

Worthless soul-food. "Ephraim feedeth on wind." Delitzsch renders this clause, "Ephraim grazeth wind." The idea is that it sought for support and satisfaction in those things that were utterly unsubstantial and worthless—"wind.: I. SENSUAL INDULGENCES are worthless soul-food. Men seek happiness in the gratification of their senses, in the free indulgence of their appetites: but all this is nothing but "wind;" it leaves the soul more hungry than ever. Souls die with hunger in the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 12:1-6

Reproof, retrospect, and exhortation. Ephraim is reproved for the pursuit of empty and vain courses, and courses detrimental to their best and real interests. Judah is included in the threatening which follows. They are exhorted to follow the example of the patriarch which is proposed for their imitation, with implied promise of similar success. The unchangeableness of God, who not only accepted Jacob, but blessed and prospered him, is held out to the descendants of Jacob as a guarantee of... read more

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