Chapter 2

9:9. They have sinned deeply, as in the days of Gabaa: he will remember their iniquity, and will visit their sin.

9:10. I found Israel like grapes in the desert, I saw their fathers like the firstfruits of the fig tree in the top thereof: but they went in to Beelphegor, and alienated themselves to that confusion, and became abominable, as those things were, which they loved.

9:11. As for Ephraim, their glory hath flown away like bird from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

9:12. And though they should bring up their children, I will make them without children among men: yea, and woe to them, when I shall depart from them.

9:13. Ephraim, as I saw, was a Tyre, founded in beauty: and Ephraim shall bring out his children to the murderer.

9:14. Give them, O Lord. What wilt thou give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts.

9:15. All their wickedness is in Galgal, for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their devices I will cast them forth out of my house: I will love them no more, all their princes are revolters.

9:16. Ephraim is struck, their root is dried up, they shall yield no fruit. And if they should have issue, I will slay the best beloved fruit of their womb.

9:17. My God will cast them away, because they hearkened not to him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Osee Chapter 10

After many benefits, great affliction shall fall upon the ten tribes, for their ingratitude to God.

10:1. Israel a vine full of branches, the fruit is agreeable to it: according to the multitude of his fruit, he hath multiplied altars, according to the plenty of his land he hath abounded with idols.

10:2. Their heart is divided: now they shall perish: he shall break down their idols, he shall destroy their altars.

10:3. For now they shall say: We have no king: because we fear not the Lord: and what shall a king do to us?

10:4. You speak words of an unprofitable vision, and you shall make a covenant: and judgment shall spring up as bitterness in the furrows of the field.

10:5. The inhabitants of Samaria have worshipped the kine of Bethaven: for the people thereof have mourned over it, and the wardens of its temple that rejoiced over it in its glory because it is departed from it.

The kine of Bethaven... The golden calves of Jeroboam.

10:6. For itself also is carried into Assyria, a present to the avenging king: shame shall fall upon Ephraim, and Israel shall be confounded in his own will.

Itself also is carried, etc... One of the golden calves was given by king Manahem, to Phul, king of the Assyrians, to engage him to stand by him.

10:7. Samaria hath made her king to pass as froth upon the face of the water.

10:8. And the high places of the idol, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed: the bur and the thistle shall grow up over their altars: and they shall say to the mountains Cover us; and to the hills: Fall upon us.

10:9. From the days of Gabaa, Israel hath sinned, there they stood: the battle in Gabaa against the children of iniquity shall not overtake them.

10:10. According to my desire, I will chastise them: and the nations shall be gathered together against them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.

Their two iniquities... Their two calves.

10:11. Ephraim is a heifer taught to love to tread out corn, but I passed over upon the beauty of her neck: I will ride upon Ephraim, Juda shall plough, Jacob shall break the furrows for himself.

10:12. Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy, break up your fallow ground: but the time to seek the Lord is, when he shall come that shall teach you justice.

10:13. You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lying: because thou hast trusted in thy ways, in the multitude of thy strong ones.

10:14. A tumult shall arise among thy people: and all thy fortresses shall be destroyed as Salmana was destroyed, by the house of him that judged Baal in the day of battle, the mother being dashed in pieces upon her children.

As Salmana, king of the Midianites, was destroyed by the house, that is, by the followers of him that judged Baal; that is, of Gideon, who threw down the altar of Baal; and was therefore called Jerubaal. See Judges 6 and 8.

10:15. So hath Bethel done to you, because of the evil of your iniquities.

Osee Chapter 11

God proceeds in threatening Israel for their ingratitude: yet he will not utterly destroy them.

11:1. As the morning passeth, so hath the king of Israel passed away. Because Israel was a child, and I loved him: and I called my son out of Egypt.

I called my son... Viz., Israel. But as the calling of Israel out of Egypt, was a figure of the calling of Christ from thence; therefore this text is also applicable to Christ, as we learn from Matthew 2.15.

11:2. As they called them, they went away from before their face: they offered victims to Baalim, and sacrificed to idols.

They called... Viz., Moses and Aaron called; but they went away after other gods and would not hear.

11:3. And I was like a foster father to Ephraim, I carried them in my arms: and they knew not that I healed them.

11:4. I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love: and I will be to them as one that taketh off the yoke on their jaws: and I put his meat to him that he might eat.

11:5. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king: because they would not be converted.

11:6. The sword hath begun in his cities, and it shall consume his chosen men, and shall devour their heads.

11:7. And my people shall long for my return: but a yoke shall be put upon them together, which shall not be taken off.

11:8. How shall I deal with thee, O Ephraim, shall I protect thee, O Israel? how shall I make thee as Adama, shall I set thee as Seboim? my heart is turned within me, my repentance is stirred up.

Adama, etc... Adama and Seboim were two cities in the neighborhood of Sodom: and underwent the like destruction.

11:9. I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath: I will not return to destroy Ephraim: because I am God, and not man: the holy one in the midst of thee, and I will not enter into the city.

11:10. They shall walk after the Lord, he shall roar as a lion: because he shall roar, and the children of the sea shall fear.

11:11. And they shall fly away like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of the Assyrians: and I will place them in their own houses, saith the Lord.

11:12. Ephraim hath compassed me about with denials, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Juda went down as a witness with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Osee Chapter 12

Israel is reproved for sin. God's favours to them.

12:1. Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth the burning heat: all the day long he multiplied lies and desolation: and he hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt.

12:2. Therefore there is a judgment of the Lord with Juda, and a visitation for Jacob: he will render to him according to his ways, and according to his devices.

12:3. In the womb he supplanted his brother: and by his strength he had success with an angel.

12:4. And he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us.

12:5. Even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial.

12:6. Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God always.

12:7. He is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he hath loved oppression.

12:8. And Ephraim said: But yet I am become rich, I have found me an idol: all my labours shall not find me the iniquity that I have committed.

12:9. And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, will yet cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the feast.

12:10. And I have spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and I have used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.

12:11. If Galaad be an idol, then in vain were they in Galgal offering sacrifices with bullocks: for their altars also are as heaps in the furrows of the field.

If Galaad be an idol, etc... That is, if Galaad with all its idols and sacrifices be like a mere idol itself, being brought to nothing by Theglathphalasar: how vain is it to expect, that the idols worshipped in Galgal shall be of any service to the tribes that remain.

12:12. Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and was a keeper for a wife.

12:13. But the Lord by a prophet brought Israel out of Egypt: and he was preserved by a prophet.

12:14. Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath with his bitterness, and his blood shall come upon him, and his Lord will render his reproach unto him.

Osee Chapter 13

The judgments of God upon Israel for their sins. Christ shall one day redeem them.

13:1. When Ephraim spoke, a horror seized Israel: and he sinned in Baal, and died.

13:2. And now they have sinned more and more: and they have made to themselves a molten thing of their silver as the likeness of idols: the whole is the work of craftsmen: to these that say: Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves.

13:3. Therefore they shall be as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the dust that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

13:4. But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt know no God but me, and there is no saviour beside me.

13:5. I knew thee in the desert, in the land of the wilderness.

13:6. According to their pastures they were filled, and were made full: and they lifted up their heart, and have forgotten me.

13:7. And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians.

13:8. I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: and I will devour them there as a lion, the beast of the field shall tear them.

13:9. Destruction is thy own, O Israel: thy help is only in me.

13:10. Where is thy king? now especially let him save thee in all thy cities: and thy judges, of whom thou saidst: Give me kings and princes.

13:11. I will give thee a king in my wrath, and will take him away in my indignation.

13:12. The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hidden.

13:13. The sorrows of a woman in labour shall come upon him, he is an unwise son: for now he shall not stand in the breach of the children.

13:14. I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes.

13:15. Because he shall make a separation between brothers: the Lord will bring a burning wind that shall rise from the desert, and it shall dry up his springs, and shall make his fountain desolate, and he shall carry off the treasure of every desirable vessel.

Osee Chapter 14

Samaria shall be destroyed. An exhortation to repentance: God's favour through Christ to the penitent.

14:1. Let Samaria perish, becsuse she hath stirred up her God to bitterness: let them perish by the sword, let their little ones be dashed, and let the women with child be ripped up.

Perish, because she hath stirred up her God to bitterness... It is not a curse or imprecation, but a prophecy of what should come to pass.

14:2. Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God: for thou hast fallen down by thy iniquity.

14:3. Take with you words, and return to the Lord, and say to him: Take away all iniquity, and receive the good: and we will render the calves of our lips.

14:4. Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more: The works of our hands are our gods: for thou wilt have mercy on the fatherless that is in thee.

14:5. I will heal their breaches, I will love them freely: for my wrath is turned away from them.

14:6. I will be as the dew, Israel shall spring as the lily, and his root shall shoot forth as that of Libanus.

14:7. His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree: and his smell as that of Libanus.

14:8. They shall be converted that sit under his shadow: they shall live upon wheat, and they shall blossom as a vine: his memorial shall be as the wine of Libanus.

14:9. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I will hear him, and I will make him flourish like a green fir tree: from me is thy fruit found.

14:10. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know these things? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall in them.