Matthew Henry Commentary Hosea 9
Matthew Henry Commentary
Hosea 9
Matthew Henry Commentary
Hosea 9
"Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, [departing] from thy God; thou hast loved hire upon every grain-floor. The threshing-floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her. They shall not dwell in Jehovah`s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. They shall not pour out wine-offerings to Jehovah, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah. What will ye do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Jehovah? For, lo, they are gone away from destruction; [yet] Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents." — Hosea 9:1-6 (ASV)
Israel gave rewards to their idols, in the offerings presented to them. It is common for those who are stingy in religion, to be lavish in indulging their lusts. Those are considered idolaters, who love a reward from the threshing floor more than a reward in God's favor and in eternal life. They are full of the joy of harvest, and have no disposition to mourn for sin.
When we make the world, and the things in it, our idol and our portion, it is just for God to show us our folly, and correct us. No one can expect to dwell in the Lord's land, who is unwilling to be subject to the Lord's laws or to be influenced by his love. When we enjoy the means of grace, we should consider what we will do, if they should be taken from us.
While the pleasures of communion with God are beyond the reach of change, the pleasant places purchased with silver, or in which people deposit silver, are liable to be laid in ruins. No famine is as dreadful as a famine of the soul.
"The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great. Ephraim [was] a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a fowler`s snare is in all his ways, [and] enmity in the house of his God. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins. I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season: but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved." — Hosea 9:7-10 (ASV)
There was a time when the spiritual watchmen of Israel were with the Lord, but now they were like the snare of a fowler to entangle people to their ruin. The people had become as corrupt as those of Gibeah (Judges 19); and their crimes would be punished in the same way. At first, God had found Israel pleasing to Him as grapes to a traveler in the wilderness. He saw them with pleasure as the first ripe figs. This shows the delight God took in them; yet they pursued idolatry.
Hosea 9:11–17. God departs from a people, or from a person, when He withdraws His goodness and mercy from them. And when the Lord has departed, what can the creature do? Even though, for the present, good things seem to remain, the blessing is gone if God is gone. Even the children would perish with the parents. The divine wrath dries up the root and withers the fruit of all comforts; and the scattered Jews daily warn us to beware, lest we neglect or abuse the gospel. Yet every smiting is not a drying up of the root. It may be that God intends only to smite so that the sap may be returned to the root, so that there may be more root graces: more humility, patience, faith, and self-denial. It is very just that God brings judgments on those who slight His offered mercy.
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