Hosea 6:5

Hosea 6:5. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets Severely reproved and threatened them; or cut them off, as the word, חצבתי , may be properly rendered: that is, I have denounced against them great destruction. The prophets, and God by the prophets, are said to do those things which they foretel, or denounce: see notes on Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 5:14. I have slain them by the words of my mouth that is, I have declared, or denounced, the slaughter of them. God’s word is described as sharper than a two-edged sword, because his judgments, denounced by his messengers, are like the sentence of a judge, which shall certainly be followed with execution. And thy judgments are as the light when it goeth forth These may be considered as the words of the prophet addressing God, and signifying that his judgments against the people were, though gradually, yet as certainly approaching as the morning light; and that the justice of them would appear as clear as the light of the rising sun. Or they may be considered as addressed to Israel, and then the meaning of them must be, The punishment which shall come upon thee, O Israel, will clearly appear to be perfectly just; nor shall any thing happen to thee, but what thou hast been fully and repeatedly warned of. Bishop Horsley, however, connecting these words with the following, gives them a different sense. Taking the word משׁפשׂיךְ , here rendered thy judgments, to signify thy precepts, he renders the clause, And the precepts given thee (namely, given to the people) were as the onward-going light, &c., “that is, as light, of which it is the nature and property to go forth, to propagate itself infinitely, and in all directions; a most expressive image of the clearness of the practical lessons of the prophets.” The word, adds he, in his Critical Notes, “signifies a fixed principle, or rule, in any thing, to which principle and rule can be applied. Here I take it for the practical rules of a moral and godly life, as delivered by the prophets; and so Calvin expounds it: ‘ Judicia tua, hoc est, ratio piè vivendi,’ Thy judgments, that is, the method of living piously. Significat hic Deus se regulam piè et sancte vivendi monstrâsse Israelitis, God here signifies that he had shown to the Israelites the rule of a pious and holy life.”