Hosea 7:15-16

15, 16. Neither judgment nor the divine mercy produced repentance or loyalty to Jehovah.

Bound Better, R.V., “taught” (Isaiah 28:26; Proverbs 31:1); margin, “chastened.” The object, their arms, in Hebrew goes with both verbs; chasten, therefore, gives no suitable sense, “taught” or “trained” is better; perhaps a reference to divine help in war (2 Kings 14:27; compare Psalms 18:34); or perhaps only a figurative expression for restoration of prosperity. By such help Jehovah expected to win the hearts of the people, but he failed. Symmachus, an early Greek translator, gives a different sense to the passage by reading after the first verb the pronoun, “I chastened them,” that is, by the judgment implied in Hosea 7:14; he understands only the second verb as calling attention to the giving of prosperity. Whether Jehovah sent calamity or prosperity the people persisted in rebellion. LXX. omits the first verb; it makes Hosea 7:14 refer, by implication, to one method of God’s dealings, chastisement; Hosea 7:15 to the other, lovingkindness. In any case the thought expressed remains the same, the complete failure of Jehovah to win the affections of the people.

I Emphatic in the original: “Though it was I that taught…”

They imagine R.V., “devise.”

Mischief against me Not an accurate reproduction of the original. “With regard to me they think,” or, even better, “they keep thinking evil.” Hosea 7:13 implies that the people had false conceptions of Jehovah; here the same complaint finds expression. No matter what Jehovah does, the people fail to understand him, they continue to think evil of him. The strongest evidence of the truth of this accusation is their disregard for Jehovah while they appeal to Assyria and Egypt.

They return Better, turn. While not recognizing fully the hopelessness of their condition, they see enough to be persuaded that they need help; to secure it they turn hither and thither; where they finally decide to seek it is stated in Hosea 7:11.

Not to the most High R.V., “not to him that is on high,” that is, Jehovah (Hosea 7:10; compare Hosea 11:7). The Hebrew is obscure; a more literal rendering, upward, would express practically the same thought. LXX. and Peshitto apparently transpose two words and read “unto not” that is, unto that which is not, namely, idols which would be a good continuation of Hosea 7:15. Concerning Jehovah they think evil, therefore to the idols the Baalim they turn (compare especially chapter ii). Unto not, which is a peculiar expression, is thought by some to be an intentional substitution for “unto Baal” or “unto Baals” (see on Hosea 2:16), which is considered original.

They are like a deceitful bow A bow which is expected to shoot in one direction but disappoints by sending the arrow in another, and thus fails to accomplish its purpose (Psalms 78:57). Israel has proved a painful disappointment to Jehovah (compare Isaiah 5:1-7). 16b is more closely connected with Hosea 8:1-3.