Notes from Hosea 8

This chapter, as that before, divides itself into the sins and punishments of Israel; every verse almost declares both, and all to bring them to repentance. When they saw the malignant nature of their sin, in the descriptions of that, they could not but be convinced now much it was their duty to repent of what was so bad in itself; and when they saw the mischievous consequences of their sin, in the predictions of them, they could not but see how much it was their interest to repent for the preventing of them.

• I. The sin of Israel is here set forth,
  • 1. In many general expressions (v. 1, 3, 12, 14).
  • 2. In many particular instances; setting up kings without God (v. 4), setting up idols against God (v. 4-6, 11), and courting alliances with the neighbouring nations, (v. 8-10).
  • 3. In this aggravation of it, that they still kept up a profession of religion and relation to God (v. 2, 13, 14).
• II. The punishment of Israel is here set forth as answering to the sin. God would bring an enemy upon them (v. 1, 3). All their projects should be blasted (v. 7). Their confidence both in their idols and in their foreign alliances should disappoint them (v. 6, 8, 10). Their strength at home should fail them (v. 14). Their sacrifices should have no reckoning made of them, and their sins should have a reckoning made for them (v. 13).

Notes from Hosea 7

In this chapter we have,

• I. A general charge drawn up against Israel for those high crimes and misdemeanors by which they had obstructed the course of God's favours to them (v. 1, 2).
• II. A particular accusation,
  • 1. Of the court-the king, princes, and judges (v. 3-7).
  • 2. Of the country. Ephraim is here charged with conforming to the nations (v. 8), senselessness and stupidity under the judgments of God (v. 9-11), ingratitude to God for his mercies (v. 13), incorrigibleness under his judgments (v. 14), contempt of God (v. 15), and hypocrisy in their pretences to return to him (v. 16). They are also threatened with a severe chastisement, which shall humble them (v. 12), and, if that prevail not, then with an utter destruction (v. 13), particularly their princes (v. 16).

Notes from Hosea 6

The closing words of the foregoing chapter gave us some hopes that God and his Israel, notwithstanding their sins and his wrath, might yet be happily brought together again, that they would seek him and he would be found of them; now this chapter carries that matter further, and some join the beginning of this chapter with the end of that, "They will seek me early,' saying, "Come and let us return.' But God doth again complain of the wickedness of this people; for, though some did repent and reform, the greater part continued obstinate. Observe,

• I. Their resolution to return to God, and the comforts wherewith they encourage themselves in their return (v. 1-3).
• II. The instability of many of them in their professions and promises of repentance, and the severe course which God therefore took with them (v. 4, 5).
• III. The covenant God made with them, and his expectations from them (v. 6); their violation of that covenant and frustrating those expectations (v. 7-11).

Notes from Hosea 5

The scope of this chapter is the same with that of the foregoing chapter, to discover the sin both of Israel and Judah, and to denounce the judgments of God against them.

• I. They are called to hearken to the charge (v. 1, 8).
• II. They are accused of many sins, which are here aggravated.
  • 1. Persecution (v. 1, 2).
  • 2. Spiritual whoredom (v. 3, 4).
  • 3. Pride (v. 5).
  • 4. Apostasy from God (v. 7).
  • 5. The tyranny of the princes, and the tameness of the people in submitting to it (v. 10, 11).
• III. They are threatened with God's displeasure for their sins; he knows all their wickedness (v. 3) and makes known his wrath against them for it (v. 9).
  • 1. They shall fall in their iniquity (v. 5).
  • 2. God will forsake them (v. 6).
  • 3. Their portions shall be devoured (v. 7).
  • 4. God will rebuke them, and pour out his wrath upon them (v. 9, 10).
  • 5. They shall be oppressed (v. 11).
  • 6. God will be as a moth to them in secret judgments (v. 12) and as a lion in public judgments (v. 14).
• IV. They are blamed for the wrong course they took under their afflictions (v. 13).
• V. It is intimated that they shall at length take a right course (v. 15).

The more generally these things are expressed of so much the more general use they are for our learning, and particularly for our admonition.

Notes from Hosea 4

Prophets were sent to be reprovers, to tell people of their faults, and to warn them of the judgments of God, to which by sin they exposed themselves; so the prophet is employed in this and the following chapters. He is here, as counsel for the King of kings, opening an indictment against the people of Israel, and labouring to convince them of sin, and of their misery and danger because of sin, that he might prevail with them to repent and reform.

• I. He shows them what were the grounds of God's controversy with them, a general prevalency of vice and profaneness (v. 1, 2), ignorance and forgetfulness of God (v. 6, 7), the worldly-mindedness of the priests (v. 8), drunkenness and uncleanness (v. 11), using divination and witchcraft (v. 12), offering sacrifice in the high places (v. 13), whoredoms (v. 14, 18), and bribery among magistrates (v. 18).
• II. He shows them what would be the consequences of God's controversy. God would punish them for these things (v. 9). The whole land should be laid waste (v. 3), all sorts of people cut off (v. 5), their honour lost (v. 7), their creature-comforts unsatisfying (v. 10), and themselves made ashamed (v. 19). And, which is several times mentioned here as the sorest judgment of all, they should be let alone in their sins (v. 17), they shall not reprove one another (v. 4), God will not punish them (v. 14), nay, he will let them prosper (v. 16).
• III. He gives warning to Judah not to tread in the steps of Israel, because they saw their steps went down to hell (v. 15).

Notes from Hosea 3

God is still by the prophet inculcating the same thing upon this careless people, and much in the same manner as before, by a type or sign, that of the dealings of a husband with an adulterous wife. In this chapter we have,

• I. The bad character which the people of Israel now had; they were, as is said of the Athenians (Acts 17:16), "wholly given to idolatry,' (v. 1).
• II. The low condition which they should be reduced to by their captivity, and the other instances of God's controversy with them (v. 2-4).
• III. The blessed reformation that should at length be wrought upon them in the latter days (v. 5).

Notes from Hosea 2

The scope of this chapter seems to be much the same with that of the foregoing chapter, and to point at the same events, and the causes of them. As there, so here,

• I. God, by the prophet, discovers sin to them, and charges it home upon them, the sin of their idolatry, their spiritual whoredom, their serving idols and forgetting God and their obligations to him (v. 1, 2, 5, 8).
• II. He threatens to take away from them that plenty of all good things with which they had served their idols, and to abandon them to ruin without remedy (v. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9-13).
• III. Yet he promises at last to return in ways of mercy to them for his own sake (v. 14), to restore them to their former plenty (v. 15), to cure them of their inclination to idolatry (v. 16, 17), to renew his covenant with them (v. 18-20), and to bless them with all good things (v. 21-23).