Hosea 7:4

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hosea 7:1-7

Some take away the last words of the foregoing chapter, and make them the beginning of this: ?When I returned, or would have returned, the captivity of my people, when I was about to come towards them in ways of mercy, even when I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim (the country and common people) was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, the court and the chief city.? Now, in these verses, we may observe, I. A general idea given of the present state of Israel, Hos.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hosea 7:4

They are all adulterers ,.... King, princes, priests, and people, both in a spiritual and corporeal sense; they were all idolaters, given to idols try, eager of it, and constant in it, as the following metaphors show; and they were addicted to corporeal adultery; this was a prevailing vice among all ranks and degrees of men. So the Targum, "they all desire to lie with their neighbours' wives;' see Jeremiah 5:7 ; as an oven heated by the baker ; which, if understood of spiritual... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 7:4

As an oven heated by the baker - Calmet's paraphrase on this and the following verses expresses pretty nearly the sense: Hosea makes a twofold comparison of the Israelites; to an oven, and to dough. Jeroboam set fire to his own oven - his kingdom - and put the leaven in his dough; and afterwards went to rest, that the fire might have time to heat his oven, and the leaven to raise his dough, that the false principles which he introduced might infect the whole population. This prince,... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Hosea 7:4

Verse 4 The Prophet pursues the same subject in this verse: he says that they were all adulterers. This similitude has already been often explained. He speaks not here of common fornication, but calls them adulterers, because they had violated their faith pledged to God, because they gave themselves up to filthy superstitions, and also, because they had wholly corrupted themselves, for faith and sincerity of heart constitute spiritual chastity before God. When men become corrupt in their whole... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 7:1-7

Crimes charged on Israel; people and princes. It was a time of great corruption and of atrocious crimes. Nor were those crimes committed only by persons "of the baser sort;" people and princes alike, rulers and ruled, had their share in them; the country and the capital, Ephraim and Samaria; the chief tribe and the chief city, with the common people as well as elite , in the former, and members of the court in the latter. All classes contributed their portion to the national tins, and... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 7:1-7

Sins of court and country. The reproofs contained in this chapter lay special emphasis upon the sins of the upper classes. But the prophet brands the whole nation also for its irreligion and immorality, and (in the second part of the chapter) for its political corruption. I. THE EXPOSURE OF ISRAEL 'S SIN . The wickedness of the people is portrayed, both as regards principles and individual acts. It may be described as: 1. Gold-blooded in its principles . ( Hosea 7:1-3 ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 7:3-7

The oven and the baker. High and low united in the wickedness which has been described, and is to be described. The example of the king and court gave the key-note to the subjects, and they in turn pleased the king and his princes by a hearty imitation of their vices. "They made the king glad with their wickedness"—themselves living lives of debauchery and ungodliness; "and the princes with their lies"—offering them flattery, and siding with them in ridicule of the prophet's teachings A new... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 7:4

The difficulty of the section including Hosea 7:4-7 has occasioned considerable difference of exposition; it may not, therefore, be amiss to supplement the foregoing observations. 1. Aben Ezra accounts for בערה being accented as milel 2. The word מֵעִיר , which Ewald and others take, properly we think, 3. More important still is the interpretation of the verse. There is read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Hosea 7:4-7

Hosea 7:4 , Hosea 7:6 , and Hosea 7:7 are linked together by the figure of an "oven," common to them; while 4 and 6 have also in common the figure of a "baker." Further, we are helped to the literal meaning of the metaphorical language of Hosea 7:4 and Hosea 7:6 by Hosea 7:5 and Hosea 7:7 respectively. They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker. Whether the sin indicated was idolatry, which is often represented as spiritual adultery, or adultery in the literal... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Hosea 7:4

They are all adulterers - The prophet continues to picture the corruption of all kinds and degrees of people. “All of them,” king, princes, people; all were given to adultery, both spiritual, in departing from God, and actual, (for both sorts of sins went together,) in defiling themselves and others. “All of them” were, (so the word means,) habitual “adulterers.” One only pause there was in their sin, the preparation to complete it. He likens their hearts, inflamed with lawless lusts, to the... read more

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