John Gill Commentary Hosea 1

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea
Whose name is Hosea 1:2

The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea Or "in Hosea" ^F9 ; which was internally revealed to him, and was inspired into him, by the Holy Ghost, who first spoke in him, and then by him; not that Hosea was the first of the prophets to whom the word of the Lord came; for there were Moses, Samuel, David, and others, before him; nor the first of the minor prophets, for Jonah, Joel, and Amos; are by some thought to be before him; nor the first of those contemporary with him, as the Jewish writers interpret it, which is not certain, at least not all of them; but the meaning is, that what follows is the first part of his prophecy, or what it began with; by which it appears he was put upon hard service at first, to prophesy against Israel, an idolatrous people, and to do it in such a manner as must be disagreeable to a young man:

and the Lord said to Hosea, go, take you a wife of whoredoms andchildren of whoredoms ;

a woman given to whoredom, a notorious strumpet, one taken out of the stews, and children that were spurious and illegitimate, not born in lawful wedlock. Some think this was really done; that the prophet took a whore, and cohabited with her, or married her which, though forbidden a high priest, was not forbidden to a prophet; and had it been against a law, yet the Lord commanding it made it lawful, as in the cases of Abraham's slaying his son, and the Israelites borrowing jewels of the Egyptians; but this seems not likely, since it would not only look like countenancing whoredom, which is contrary to the holy law of God; but must be very dishonourable to the prophet, and render him contemptible to the people; and, besides, would not answer the end proposed, to reprove the spiritual adultery or idolatry of Israel, but rather serve to confirm in it; for how should that appear criminal and abominable to them, which was commanded the prophet by the Lord? others think that the woman he is bid to marry, though before marriage a harlot, was afterwards reformed; but this is directly contrary to (Hosea 3:1) and besides, the children born of her, whether reformed or not, yet in lawful wedlock could not be called children of whoredom;

nor would the above end be answered by it, since such a person would be no fit representative of Israel committing spiritual adultery or idolatry, and continuing in it; and moreover, whether this or the former was the case, the prophecy must be many years delivering; it must be near a year before the first child was born, and the same space must be between the birth of each; so that here must be a long and frequent interruption of the prophecy, which does not seem likely: nor is it probable that he took his own wife, which is the opinion of others, and gave her the character of a whore, and his children with her, and called them children of whoredom, in order to represent and reprove the idolatry of Israel. What Maimonides ^F11 , and the Jewish writers in general, give into, is more agreeable, that this was all done in the vision of prophecy; that it so seemed to the prophet in vision to be really done, and so he related it to the people. But this is liable to objection, that such an impure scene of things should be represented to the mind of the prophet by the Holy Spirit of God; nor can the relation of it be thought to have any good effect upon the people, who would be ready to mock at him, and reproach him for it.

It seems best therefore to understand the whole as a parable, and that the prophet, in a parabolical way, is bid to represent the treachery, unfaithfulness, and spiritual adultery of the people of Israel, under the feigned name of an unchaste woman, and of children begotten in fornication; and to show unto them that their case was as if he had taken a woman out of the stews, and her bastards with her; or as if a wife married by him had defiled his bed, and brought him a spurious brood of children.

So the Targum interprets it, ``go, prophesy a prophecy against the inhabitants of the idolatrous city, who add to sin:''

for the land has committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord ;
or ``for the inhabitants of the land erring, erred from the worship of the Lord,'' as the Targum; that is, the inhabitants of the land of Israel have committed idolatry, which is often in Scripture signified by adultery and whoredom; as an adulterous woman deals treacherously with her husband, so these people had dealt with God, who stood in such a relation to them; see (Jeremiah 3:1Jeremiah 3:6Jeremiah 3:9) (Ezekiel 16:17Ezekiel 16:26Ezekiel 16:28Ezekiel 16:29) , this interprets the parable, and shows the reason of using the following symbols and emblems.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (evwhb) (en wshe) , Sept.; in Hosea, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius, Tarnovius.
• F11: Moreh Nevochim, par. 2. 46. Aben Ezra & Kimchi in loc.

For I have kept the ways of the Lord
Not those which the Lord himself walks in, his ways of providence, or of grace; though these are and should be taken notice of and observed by good men, as the word ^F25 used will bear to be rendered; but the ways which he has prescribed and directed men to walk in, the ways of his commandments, in which they should go; these were, in some measure, kept by David, who often, in the hundred nineteenth psalm speaks of his keeping the testimonies and statutes, and commandments of the Lord; as they are by good men, with some degree of pleasure, they take delight to walk in them; and with some degree of constancy, they keep walking in them, without turning to the right hand or the left, though solicited to it; but yet not perfectly, for they have many a slip and fall in them; therefore this cannot be a reason of their being rewarded according to their righteousness:

in strict justice, the words better agree with Christ, who kept the law of God perfectly, did his will completely; he came from heaven to do it; it was his meat and drink to accomplish it; and he always did the things which pleased his father, therefore he rewarded him;

and have not wickedly departed from my God ;
which was, in some sense, true of David; not as by disbelieving the power and providence, the promises, truth, and faithfulness of God, and his covenant interest in him; which to do would have been a wicked departure from God; see (Hebrews 3:12) ; nor by forsaking the house and worship of God; though he was driven from thence by wicked men, yet sore against his will, and which during his exile he frequently laments and complains of; nor by sinning wilfully and presumptuously, only through error, inadvertency, infirmity, and temptation: but when it is observed, how much unbelief, which is a partial departing from the living God, and how many there are that neglect private and public worship, and what a proneness there is to sin and wickedness, and how much there is of the will in sinful actions, in the best of men; it is right and best to understand this of Christ, who never was guilty of sin, nor committed any wickedness in departing from God in the least: as man, God was his God, and he always believed his interest in him, and claimed it even when he forsook him on the cross; nor did he quit his service, desert his cause, nor depart from the work and business he enjoined him, till it was finished.

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (ytrmv) "observaveram", Tigurine version, Vatablus; "observo", Junius & Tremellius; "observavi", Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim
In the course of prophesying he made mention of this person, who was a notorious common strumpet; and suggested hereby that they were just like her; or these were fictitious names he used to represent their case by Gomer signifies both "consummation" and "consumption" ^F12 ; and this harlot is so called, because of her consummate beauty, and her being completely mistress of all the tricks of one; or, being consummately wicked, a perfect whore, common to all; and because her ruin and destruction, persisting in such practices, were inevitable, and so a fit emblem of the present and future condition of Israel.

Diblaim may be considered either as the name of a man, a word of the same form with Ephraim; or of a woman, the mother of Gomer; or else of a place, the wilderness of Diblath, (Ezekiel 6:14) and signifies "a cake of dried figs" ^F13 ; which, in that country, was reckoned delicious eating; and so denotes, either that both the sin and ruin of this people were owing to their luxury, or indulging themselves in carnal pleasures, through the great affluence they were possessed of; or that their original was from a wilderness, and for their sins should be reduced to a desolate state again:

which conceived and bore him a son ;
whose name, and what he was an emblem of, are declared in the following verse. The Targum is,

FOOTNOTES:

• F12: A rad. (rmg) "perfecit, desiit", Gussetius.
• F13: Vox (Mylbd) "significat massas ficuum compressarum et siccatarum", Rivetus, Tarnovius.

And the Lord said to him, call his name Jezreel. Which some interpret the "seed of God", as Jerom; or "arm of God", as others; and Kimchi applies it to Jeroboam the son of Joash, who was strong, and prospered in his kingdom.

But it rather signifies "God will sow", or "scatter" ^F14 ; denoting either their dissension among themselves; or their dispersion among the nations, which afterwards came to pass; and so the Targum, "call their name scattered".

And alluding also to the city of Jezreel, where some of the idolatrous kings of Israel lived, and where much blood had been shed, which should be avenged, as follows:

for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the
house of Jehu ;
not the blood of Naboth the Jezreelite, that was shed by Ahab; but the blood of Joram the son of Ahab, and seventy other sons of his, and all his great men, kinsfolks and priests, shed by Jehu in this place; and though this was done according to the will of God, and for which he received the kingdom, and it was continued in his family to the fourth generation; yet, inasmuch as this was not done by him from a pure and hearty zeal for the Lord and his worship, and with a sincere view to his glory, but in order to gain the kingdom, increase his power, and satiate his tyranny and lust; and because, though he destroyed one species of idolatry, the worship of Baal, yet he continued another, the worshipping of the calves at Dan and Bethel, and regarded not the law of the Lord, and so his successors after him; and were the means of causing many to sin, and so consequently of the ruin of many souls, whose blood would be required of them, which some take to be the meaning here; this is threatened; see (2 Kings 9:24 2 Kings 9:25) (2 Kings 10:1–7 2 Kings 10:11 2 Kings 10:16 2 Kings 10:28–31) .

It may be observed, that God sometimes punishes the instruments he makes use of in doing his work; they either over doing it, exercising too much cruelty; and not doing it upon right principles, and with right views, as the kings of Assyria and Babylon, (Isaiah 10:5Isaiah 10:7) (Zechariah 1:15) .

It is here said to be but a little while before this vengeance would be taken, it being at the latter end of Jeroboam's reign when this prophecy was delivered out; and his son Zachariah, in whom the kingdom as in his family ceased, reigned but six months, being conspired against and slain by Shallum, who reigned in his stead, (2 Kings 15:8–10) .

The Targum is,

``for yet a little while I will avenge the blood of those that worship idols which Jehu shed in Jezreel, whom he slew because they served Baal; but they turned to err after the calves which were in Bethel; therefore I will reckon that innocent blood upon the house of Jehu:''

and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel ;
that is, in the family of Jehu; Zachariah the son of the then reigning prince being the last, and his reign only the short reign of six months; unless this has reference to the utter cessation of this kingdom as such in the times of Hoshea by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, (2 Kings 17:6–23) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F14: A rad. (erz) "seminavit, disseminavit", Schmidt.

And it shall come to pass at that day
When the Lord shall take vengeance on the family of Jehu, and deprive them of the kingdom of Israel, and shall punish the idolatrous kings that succeed:

that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel ;
of which valley see (Joshua 17:16) (Judges 6:33) . It is now called the plain of Esdraelon; as it is in the Apocrypha:

``And to those among the nations that were of Carmel, and Galaad, and the higher Galilee, and the great plain of Esdrelom,''

the great plain of Esdraelon; according to Adrichomius, ^F15 it is two miles broad, and ten miles long; its soil exceeding rich and fruitful, and abounding with grain, wine, and oil; all travellers agree they never saw the like: one says ^F16 of this plain or valley, formerly the lot of the tribe of Issachar, this is the most fertile portion of the land of Canaan, where that tribe might well be supposed to have "rejoiced in their tents", (Deuteronomy 33:18) , at present, indeed, it is not manured, as another traveller ^F17 observes, and yet very fruitful; who says, it is of a vast extent, and very fertile, but uncultivated, only serving the Arabs for pasturage; and, according to the same writer, the ancient river Kishon runs through the middle of it.

From the largeness of it, it is frequently called by writers the great plain or valley; and sometimes, from the places near it, or on it, the great plain of Legio, the great plain of Samaria, the great plain or valley of Megiddo, (2 Chronicles 35:22) , and the great plain of Esdraelon, and here the valley of Jezreel; Jezreel or Esdraela being situated in this great plain or valley between Scythopolis and Legio, a very large village, as Jerom says ^F18 it was in his days; and also on this passage observes, that Jezreel, from which this valley had its name, is now near Maximianopolis, and was the metropolis of the kingdom of Samaria, near which were very large plains, and a valley of a very great length, extending more than ten miles: here Ahab had a palace in his days, near to which was Naboth's vineyard, and where God revenged his blood: this city is called by Josephus ^F19 Azare and Azarus, or Izarus; and in the times of Gulielmus Tyrius ^F20 it went by the name of Little Gerinum.

The "bow" is put for all instruments of war, and everything in which confidence was put, which was weakened or removed from them: this refers either to Menhchem's slaughter of Shallum, and wasting some parts of the land of Israel, (2 Kings 15:14 2 Kings 15:16) , or rather it may be to a battle fought between Hoshea king of Israel and Shalmaneser king of Assyria in this valley, which was not far from Samaria; in which the former was defeated, and the latter, having the victory, proceeded to Samaria, besieged and took it, (2 Kings 17:6) though of the action the Scripture is silent; but it is not improbable.

The Targum is,

``I will break the strength of the warriors of Israel in the valley of Jezreel;'' which seems to confirm the same conjecture. Some render it, "because of the valley of Jezreel" ^F21 ; that is, because of the idolatry, bloodshed, and other sins, committed there.

FOOTNOTES:

• F15: Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, p. 35, 37.
• F16: Dr. Shaw's Travels, tom. 2. c. 1. p. 275. Ed. 2.
• F17: Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo p. 57. Ed. 7.
• F18: De locis Hebraicis, fol. 92. I.
• F19: Antiqu. l. 8. c. 13. sect. 6, 8.
• F20: Tyr. Hist. l. 22. c. 26.
• F21: (laerzy qmeb) "propter vallem Jisreelis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator,