NOTES for Hos 12:1-14

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¹Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

²The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

³He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:

⁴Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;

⁵Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.

⁶Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

⁷He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

⁸And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.

⁹And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

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

¹¹Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

¹²And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

¹³And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

¹⁴Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.

All the old sins are remembered against the people, including those that until now did not even seem to be charged as guilt. After all, in the relevant places the Bible speaks about the ancient deeds of the ancestors calmly, as if from a distance. But now the moment has come when even such long-ago, childish deeds must be answered for.

The point is that the people have grown older, and the demand made of them has become stricter. If the people, having matured, had outgrown their former sins, as mature people outgrow childish misbehavior, those sins would have been wiped away and no longer recalled. But now the people have fallen into more serious sins, and this means that the uncleanness must be uprooted from the very beginning, from the first sins that, because of the many years that have passed, seem insignificant. On favorable soil any small seed can produce a large harvest. And the people worked and fertilized the soil vigorously... The people once chosen by God have become like a Canaanite, a pagan deprived of his land for his sins. But now the Lord can turn away from this people as well.

He can, but He does not intend to. Again and again He calls out to sinners with a summons to repentance...

Other notes

For Hos 12:1-14

¹Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

²The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

³He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:

⁴Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;

⁵Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.

⁶Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

⁷He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

⁸And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.

⁹And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

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

¹¹Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

¹²And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

¹³And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

¹⁴Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.

Speaking through the prophet Hosea, God sets His own faithfulness against the people's self-reliance and unfaithfulness... Read more

Speaking through the prophet Hosea, God sets His own faithfulness against the people's self-reliance and unfaithfulness on the paths by which He delivers Israel. A person (or an entire people) thinks in vain that he has achieved everything himself. No, it was the Lord who saved him from slavery and led him into the festive booths; it is the Lord who sends teachers and protectors. To see this, one must turn back, turn toward God, and encounter His mercy and judgment—and then a new hope will flare up in the heart.

For Hos 12:5-6

⁵Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.

⁶Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

At first, little is clear to us in this verse. But gradually it becomes clear that Sabaoth is not a beautiful but incomprehensible surname, but... Read more

At first, little is clear to us in this verse. But gradually it becomes clear that Sabaoth is not a beautiful but incomprehensible surname, but a word meaning lordship over all the powers in the world. The name Yahweh (Jehovah) is revealed as "I am the One Who Is." It turns out that in every person, even one brought up on the relativity of everything around him, there lives a soul that thirsts for the Absolute, the unshakable and unconditional. And so God is the One who exists unconditionally, who is not limited by the bounds of space and time of this world and the powers acting within it. But are our relationships with Him then possible? Verse 6 speaks about this: with Him are mercy and judgment; with us is trust.

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