Hosea 1:5

1:1-7 Israel was prosperous, yet then Hosea boldly tells them of their sins, and foretells their destruction. Men are not to be flattered in sinful ways because they prosper in the world; nor will it last long if they go on still in their trespasses. The prophet must show Israel their sin; show it to be exceedingly hateful. Their idolatry is the sin they are here charged with. Giving that glory to any creature which is due to God alone, is an injury and affront to God; such as for a wife to take a stranger, is to her husband. The Lord, doubtless, had good reasons for giving such a command to the prophet; it would form an affecting picture of the Lord's unmerited goodness and unwearied patience, and of the perverseness and ingratitude of Israel. We should be broken and wearied with half that perverseness from others, with which we try the patience and grieve the Spirit of our God. Let us also be ready to bear any cross the Lord appoints. The prophet must show the ruin of the people, in the names given to his children. He foretells the fall of the royal family in the name of his first child: call his name Jezreel, which signifies dispersion. He foretells God's abandoning the nation in the name of the second child; Lo-ruhamah, not beloved, or not having obtained mercy. God showed great mercy, but Israel abused his favours. Sin turns away the mercy of God, even from Israel, his own professing people. If pardoning mercy is denied, no other mercy can be expected.

Hosea 1:5 . And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break, &c. — This entire abolition of the kingdom of the ten tribes shall take effect at the time when I break the bow, &c. Here the breaking of the bow in the valley of Jezreel is the event that marks the date; and to that date, so marked, the threatened excision of the kingdom of the ten tribes is referred. And it was of moment to give the people warning, that the advantages, which the enemy would gain over them in that part of the country, would end in the utter subversion of the kingdom. For had this timely warning produced repentance and reformation, the judgment, no doubt, would have been averted. St. Jerome says, the Israelites were overthrown by the Assyrians, in a pitched battle, in the plain of Jezreel. But of any such battle we have no mention in history, sacred or profane. But Tiglath-pileser took several of the principal cities in that plain, in the reign of Pekah. And afterward in the reign of Hoshea, Samaria was taken by Shalmaneser, after a siege of three years; and this put an end to the kingdom of the ten tribes. And the taking of these cities successively, and, at last, of the capital itself, was a breaking of the bow of Israel, a demolition of the whole military strength of the kingdom, in the valley of Jezreel, where all those cities were situated.

For the breaking of a bow was a natural image for the overthrow of military strength in general, at a time when the bow was one of the principal weapons. “Although the valley of Jezreel is here to be understood literally of the tract of country so named, yet perhaps there is an indirect allusion to the mystical import of the name. This being the finest spot of the whole land of promise, the name, the vale of Jezreel, describes it as the property of the holy seed, by whom it is at last to be possessed. So that, in the very terms of the denunciation against the kingdom of Israel, an oblique promise is contained, of the restoration of the converted Israelites. The Israel which possessed it, in the time of this prophecy, were not the rightful owners of the soil. It is part of the domain of the Jezreel, the seed of God, for whom it is reserved.” — Bishop Horsley.

It shall come to pass; most certainly this shall be effected. At that day; when my vengeance hath overtaken the house of Jehu, when his great-great-grandson shall be slain. I will break; weaken, and by degrees quite break, i.e. by the conspiracies, seditions, and civil wars which will arise among themselves. The bow: this was a warlike weapon they much used and were skilful in; this one weapon put for all their warlike provision, power, and skill; possibly it may allude to the bow of Jehu, who slew Joram with an arrow, and usurped his throne, but now the bow of the house of Jehu and of Israel shall be broken. Of Israel: see Hosea 1:4 . In the valley of Jezreel: next to Samaria, Jezreel was chief city of the ten tribes, a very strong and fortified town, and both situated in the large and pleasant valley that hath from Joshua’s time been known by this name, valley of Jezreel, Joshua 17:16 . In this valley it is probable the bloodiest battles in the civil wars were fought, between Zachariah and Shallum, 2 Kings 15:10 , and between Shallum and Menahem, 2 Kings 15:14 ; between Pekahiah and Pekah, 2 Kings 15:25 , and Pekah and Hoshea; the reason whereof probably might be this, because whoever carried the victory in this place were soon masters of Samaria and Jezreel, and consequently carried the kingdom too.

5 . the bow of Israel ] The bow, the symbol of power ( Genesis 49:24 ; Jeremiah 49:35 ). in the valley of Jezreel ] It seemed fitting that this ‘battlefield of Palestine’ (as the valley of Jezreel had already become, see on Jdg 6:33 ) should be the scene of so momentous an event, fitting also that where Jehu had sinned, Jehu’s house should be punished. There would have been a ‘poetical justice’ in such an arrangement, had such been the will of Providence. But there can be no doubt that Hosea had an accurate knowledge of the Assyrians as the destined instruments of Israel’s overthrow (see on Hosea 8:10 ).

I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel - The valley of Jezreel is a beautiful and a broad valley or plain, stretching, from West to East, from Mount Carmel and the sea to the Jordan, which it reaches through two arms, between the Mountains of Gilboa, little Hermon, and Tabor; and from South to North from the Mountains of Ephraim to those of Galilee. Nazareth lay on its northern side. It is called "the great plain" (1 Macc. 12:49), "the great plain of Esdraelon" (Judith 1:8). There God had signally executed His judgments against the enemies of His people, or on His people, when they became His enemies. There He gave the great victories over the invading hosts of Sisera ( Judges 4:4 ff), and of Midian, with the children of the East. Judges 6:33 . There also He ended the life and kingdom of Saul 1 Samuel 29:1 ; 1 Samuel 31:1 , 1 Samuel 31:7 , 1 Samuel 31:10 , visiting upon him, when his measure of iniquity was full, his years of contumacy, and his persecution of David, whom God had chosen. Jezreel became a royal residence of the house of Ahab 1 Kings 18:46 ; 1 Kings 21:1-3 ; 2 Kings 9:10 , 2 Kings 9:25 , 2 Kings 9:30 ; 2 Kings 10:1 , 2 Kings 10:11 .

There, in the scenes of Ahab's wickedness and of Jehu's hypocritical zeal; there, where he drave furiously, to avenge, as he alleged, on the house of Ahab, the innocent blood which Ahab had shed in Jezreel, Hosea foretells that the kingdom of Israel should be broken In the same plain, at the battle with Shalmaneser, near Betharbel (see the note at Hosea 10:14 ), Hosea 54 ed to see his prophecy fulfilled. The strength of the kingdom was there finally broken; the sufferings there endured were one last warning before the capture of Samaria (see the note at Hosea 10:15 ). The name of Jezreel blends the sins with the punishment. It resembles, in form and in sound, the name of Israel, and contains a reversal of the promise contained in the name of Israel, in which they trusted. "Yisrael" (as their name was originally pronounced) signifies, "he is a prince with God; Yidsreel, God shall scatter." They who, while they followed the faith, for which their forefather Jacob received from God the name of Israel, had been truly Israel, i. e., "princes with God," should now be "Yidsreel," "scattered by God."

Verse 5. - And it shall some to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel . Here we have a prediction of a most momentous event, with express statement of the place where it should occur, as also the time of its occurrence. The event itself was more than the downfall of a dynasty; it was the destruction of a kingdom. The date of that destruction is defined simply as the period when God would punish the sins of both the princes and people of Israel The close of Jehu's dynasty was at once the preparation for and the commencement of the cessation of the kingdom of Israel. The place of this calamity was the Valley of Jezreel. This famous valley was the cockpit of Palestine. There Israel conquered the host of King Jabin; there Gideon overthrew the Midianites; there Saul was defeated by the Philistines, when driven up the slopes of Gilbea " the beauty of Israel was slain in thy high places;" there a defeat equally sorrowful and not less disastrous was aggravated by the death of good King Josiah, and proved fatal to the kingdom of Judah; there, too, in later times, the last conflict took place between the Crusaders and the Moslems, in which victory crowned the arms of Saladin; there, also, was fought the battle, as we learn from this passage, which decided the fate of the kingdom of Israel. The situation of this valley was admirably suited for such scenes.