Chapter Note Matthew Henry Commentary (Complete)
H O S E A.
CHAP. IV.
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 Hosea 4:1 ; Hosea 4:2 ), ignorance and forgetfulness of God Hosea 4:6 ; Hosea 4:7 ), the worldly-mindedness of the priests Hosea 4:8 ), drunkenness and uncleanness Hosea 4:11 ), using divination and witchcraft Hosea 4:12 ), offering sacrifice in the high places Hosea 4:13 ), whoredoms Hosea 4:14 ; Hosea 4:18 ), and bribery among magistrates, Hosea 4:18 . II. He shows them what would be the consequences of God's controversy. God would punish them for these things, Hosea 4:9 . The whole land should be laid waste Hosea 4:3 ), all sorts of people cut off Hosea 4:5 ), their honour lost Hosea 4:7 ), their creature-comforts unsatisfying Hosea 4:10 ), and themselves made ashamed, Hosea 4:19 . And, which is several times mentioned here as the sorest judgment of all, they should be let alone in their sins Hosea 4:17 ), they shall not reprove one another Hosea 4:4 ), God will not punish them Hosea 4:14 ), nay, he will let them prosper, Hosea 4:16 . III. He gives warning to Judah not to tread in the steps of Israel, because they saw their steps went down to hell, Hosea 4:15 .
Book Note Matthew Henry Commentary (Complete)
AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N S,
OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET
H O S E A.
I. W E have now before us the twelve minor prophets, which some of the ancients, in reckoning up the books of the Old Testament, put all together, and reckon but as one book. They are called the minor prophets, not because their writings are of any less authority or usefulness than those of the greater prophets, or as if these prophets were less in God's account or might be so in ours than the other, but only because they are shorter, and less in bulk, than the other. We have reason to think that these prophets preached as much as the others, but that they did not write so much, nor is so much of their preaching kept upon record. Many excellent prophets wrote nothing, and others but little, who yet were very useful in their day. And so in the Christian church there have been many burning and shining lights, who are not known to posterity by their writings, and yet were no way inferior in gifts, and graces, and serviceableness to their own generation, than those who are; and some who have left but little behind them, and make no great figure among authors, were yet as valuable men as the more voluminous writers. These twelve small prophets, Josephus says, were put into one volume by the men of the great synagogue in Ezra's time, of which learned and pious body of men the last three of these twelve prophets are supposed to have been themselves members. These are what remained of the scattered pieces of inspired writing. Antiquaries value the fragmenta veterum--the fragments of antiquity; these are the fragments of prophecy, which are carefully gathered up by the divine Providence and the care of the church, that nothing might be lost, as St. Paul's short epistles after his long ones. The son of Sirach speaks of these twelve prophets with honour, as men that strengthened Jacob, Ecclus. xlix. 10 . Nine of these prophets prophesied before the captivity, and the last three after the return of the Jews to their own land. Some difference there is in the order of these books. We place them as the ancient Hebrew did; and all agree to put Hosea first; but the ancient thing is not material. And, if we covet to place them according to their seniority, as to some of them we shall find no certainty.
II. We have before us the prophecy of Hosea, who was the first of all the writing prophets, being raised up somewhat before the time of Isaiah. The ancients say, He was of Bethshemesh, and of the tribe of Issachar. He continued very long a prophet; the Jews reckoned that he prophesied nearly fourscore and ten years; so that, as Jerome observes, he prophesied of the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes when it was at a great distance, and lived himself to see and lament it, and to improve it when it was over, for warning to its sister kingdom. The scope of his prophecy is to discover sin, and to denounce the judgments of God against a people that would not be reformed. The style is very concise and sententious, above any of the prophets; and in some places it seems to be like the book of Proverbs, without connexion, and rather to be called Hosea's sayings than Hosea's sermons. And a weighty adage may sometimes do more service than a laboured discourse. Huetius observes that many passages in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel seem to refer to, and to be borrowed from, the prophet Hosea, who wrote a good while before them. As Jeremiah 7:34 ; Jeremiah 16:9 ; Ezekiel 26:13 , speak the same with Hosea 2:11 ; so Ezekiel 16:16 , c., is taken from Hosea 2:8 . And that promise of serving the Lord their God, and David their king,Jeremiah 30:8Jeremiah 30:9 . Ezekiel 34:23 , Hosea had before, Hosea 3:5Hosea 3:5 . And Ezekiel 19:12 is taken from Hosea 13:15 . Thus one prophet confirms and corroborates another; and all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit.
