Hosea 13

Text

Textual witnesses

Verse 1

• "When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel": This rendering is supported by the Syriac version: "When Ephraim spake trembling, then he was, and was great in Israel." Rashi has a similar rendering of the word retheth, which is not found elsewhere, referring it to Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim, Rashi explains as follows: "When Jeroboam, zealous for God, spoke against Solomon's hard words, and with terror, Solomon was a great king." Pococke's exposition, in harmony with the Authorized Version, is: "When Ephraim spake with fear and trembling, he exalted himself in Israel." But the rendering adopted by most moderns, is decidedly preferable, as agreeing better with the context and with tribal characteristics of Ephraim. The phrase can also be rendered as: "When Ephraim spake, there was trembling; he, even he, exalted himself in Israel." The word reheth has a cognate root in Aramaic, with the meaning here assigned to it; for רתת is "to fear, shudder, tremble"; there is also, in Jeremiah 49:24, the word רֶטֶט, equivalent to "fear," similar in both sense and sound. The Chaldee supports this rendering; its paraphrase is: "When one of the house of Ephraim spake, trembling seized the peoples." Also Aben Ezra and Kimchi. The LXX renders reheth by δικαιώματα, thus: "According to the word of Ephraim, be adopted ordinances for himself in Israel," that is, "when Ephraim spoke, the rest of the Israelites assented to his ordinances and rights, reverencing his authority", so that the general sense differs little from the Chaldee. Rosenmüller constructs and explains differently; his exposition runs somehow thus: "When Ephraim spake, instituting that horrible worship of the calves, he himself bore the sin of that horrible dictum, i.e. was guilty of, and bore its punishment." This explanation of נשא is farfetched and unnatural. We have no hesitation in preferring "lifted up," i.e. his head, or exalted himself, for, though it is usually the Hithp. that is employed in this sense, examples also occur in which Qal is so used, for example Psalm 89:10 and Nahum 1:5. Kimchi supplies rosho.
• "Offended in Baal": that is, "in respect to Baal, by worshipping him", under Ahab; a more heinous offense than even the calves. Therefore, it is at this climax of guilt that Ephraim "died." Sin has, in the sight of God, within itself the germ of death, though that death may not visibly take effect till long after. Compare Romans 7:9, "Sin revived, and I died." So Adam in the day of his sin was to die, though the sentence was not visibly executed till long after. Israel is similarly represented as politically dead in Eze 37:1-28. Ephraim was the tribe most powerful among the twelve in Israel's early history; it's glory vanisheth by reason of idolatry.

  Verse 4

• "And thou shalt - know no God but Me": for there is not a Saviour but me "To be God and Lord and Saviour are incommunicable properties of God. Wherefore God often claimed these titles to Himself, from the time He revealed Himself to Israel. In the song of Moses, which they were commanded to rehearse, He says, "See now that I, I am He, and there is no God with Me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand" Deuteronomy 32:39. Isaiah repeats this same, "Is there a God besides Me? yea there is no God; I know not any" Isaiah 44:8; and "There is no God else besides Me, a just God and a Saviour; there is none else. Look unto Me and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else" Isaiah 45:21, Isaiah 45:2; and, "I am the Lord, that is My Name; and My glory will I not give to another; neither My praise to graven images" Isaiah 42:8. : "That God and Saviour is Christ; God, because He created; Saviour, because, being made Man, He saved. Whence He willed to be called Jesus, i. e., Saviour. Truly "beside" Him, "there is no Saviour; neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved" Acts 4:12. "It is not enough to recognize in God this quality of a Saviour. It must not be shared with "any other." Whoso associates with God any power whatever to decide on man's salvation makes an idol, and introduces a new God."

  Verse 9

• "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself": Though the Lord was a lion, a leopard, and a bear to them, yet their destruction was not owing to him, but to themselves; he was not chargeable with it, but they only; the fault and blame was theirs; their own sins brought it on them, and provoked him to such righteous wrath and vengeance before expressed: this is said to clear the Lord from any imputation of this kind, and to lay it where it should be It may be rendered, "it hath destroyed thee"; either the calf, as Kimchi, and the worshipping of that, their idolatry; or their king, as others, taking it from the following verse by way of anticipation; or rather it may refer to all their sins before observed, their idolatry, luxury, and ingratitude. Gussetius thinks the word has the signification of "burning", as in Isaiah 3:24; and renders it, "burning in me hath destroyed thee, even in him who is thy help"; that is, by their sins they had made God their enemy, who is a consuming fire, and whose burning wrath destroyed them, in whom otherwise they would have had help.

  Verse 14

Verse 15

Verse 16

• Numbered as Hosea 14:1 in Masoretic text

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• Christian