Hosea 7:10

9 Yet I exterminated the Amorite before their face, Whose tallness was like the tallness of cedars, And who was strong like the oak; And I destroyed his fruit above and his root beneath; 10 And I brought you up from the land of Egypt, And led you in the desert forty years, That you might possess the land of the Amorite; 11 And I raised up Prophets from your sons, And from your youths, Nazarites;-- Have I not done all this, O children of Israel, saith Jehovah: 12 But to the Nazarites have ye quaffed wine; And on my Prophets have ye laid a command, Saying, "Ye shall not prophesy." 13 Behold, I am fast bound under you, As a wagon is bound, which is full of sheaves.-- 14 Perish shall flight from the swift, And the valiant shall not confirm his strength, And the strong shall not deliver his life, 15 And the holder of the bow shall not stand, And the swift on foot shall not escape, Nor shall he who mounts a horse save his life; 16 Yea, the strong of heart, among the valiant, Shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah. Chapter 3 1 Hear ye this word which Jehovah pronounces Against you, children of Israel--against the whole family, Which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,-- 2 "Only you have I known of all the families of the earth, "I will therefore visit on you all your iniquities." 3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed? 4 Will a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Will a young lion roar in his den, when nothing is taken?

7:8-16 Israel was as a cake not turned, half burnt and half dough, none of it fit for use; a mixture of idolatry and of the worship of Jehovah. There were tokens of approaching ruin, as grey hairs are of old age, but they noticed them not. The pride which leads to break the law of God leads to self-flattery. The mercy and grace of God are the only refuge to which obstinate sinners never think of fleeing. Though they may howl forth their terrors in the form of prayers, they seldom cry to God with their hearts. Even their prayers for earthly mercies only seek fuel for their lusts. Their turning from one sect, sentiment, form, or vice, to another, still leaves them far short of Christ and holiness. Such are we by nature. And such shall we prove if left to ourselves. Create in us a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within us.

And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face,.... See Gill on Hosea 5:5 ; notwithstanding their weak and declining state, they were proud and haughty; entertained a high conceit of themselves, and of their good and safe condition; and behaved insolently towards God, and were not humbled before him for their sins. Their pride was notorious, which they themselves could not deny; they were self-convicted, and self-condemned: and they do not return to the Lord their God; by acknowledgment of their sins, repentance for them, and reformation from them; and by attendance on his worship, from which they had revolted; so the Targum, "they return not to the worship of the Lord their God:'' nor seek him for all this; though they are in this wasting, declining, condition, and just upon the brink of ruin, yet they seek not the face and favour of the Lord; they do not ask help of him, or implore his mercy; and though they have been so long in these circumstances, and have been gradually consuming for many years, yet in all this time they have made no application to the Lord, that he would be favourable, and raise their sinking state, and restore them to their former glory.

The pride of Israel testifieth to his face: see Hosea 5:5 . Their proud contempt of God and his threats, of the prophets and their warnings, is notorious. They do not return to the Lord; they persist in sin without repentance, run away from God rather than return to him. Of this phrase, return, see Hosea 6:1 . Their God; who was theirs of old, who still would be theirs on fair terms, of whom they talk and boast. Nor seek him; see this phrase Hosea 5:15 ; they pray not, repent not, nor rely on God. For all this; though so greatly, continually, and severely punished, though almost eaten up.

10 . And the pride of Israel …] Repeated from Hosea 5:5 , just as Hosea 12:9 a is repeated in Hosea 13:4 a . It is not the prophet who speaks condemning a bad quality in his people, but Jehovah, Israel’s true Pride, and the source of Israel’s prosperity, who utters a solemn word of warning translated into act. How much more suitable this explanation is in such a context than either of the alternatives mentioned on Hosea 5:5 . for all this ] i.e. in spite of all this chastisement, comp. Isaiah 9:12 ; Isaiah 9:17 ; Isaiah 9:21 .

And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face - His pride convicted him. All the afflictions of God humbled him not; yea, they but brought out his pride, which "kept him from acknowledging and repenting of the sins which had brought those evils upon him, and from "turning to God and seeking to Him" for remedy" . People complain of their "fortune" or "fate" or "stars," and go on the more obstinately, to build up what God destroys, to prop up by human means or human aid what, by God's providence, is failing; they venture more desperately, in order to recover past losses, until the crash at last becomes hopeless and final. Nor seek Him for all this - God had exhausted all the treasures of His severity, as, before, of His love. He Himself marvels at His incorrigible and contumacious servant, as He says in Isaiah, "Why should ye be stricken anymore? Ye will revolt more and more" Isaiah 1:5. How is this? It follows, because they have "no heart."

Verse 10. - And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this ( amid all this ). If with Keil and others (1) we understand "the pride of Israel" to mean Jehovah the glory of Israel, and take the verb in the sense of "testify," the meaning will be that Jehovah bore witness to the face of Israel by the weakening and wasting of their kingdom, as portrayed in the preceding verse. We prefer (2) to understand "the pride of Israel" in the souse of "the haughtiness" of Israel, and the verb in the sense of "being humbled," as at Hosea 5:5 . The real meaning, then, is expressed in the following rendering: And the haughtiness of Israel shall be humbled to his face . This humiliation is the effect of the wasting mentioned in the preceding verse; while the evidence of their humiliation is specified in the succeeding verse by their resorting to Egypt and repairing to Assyria from a consciousness of their helplessness. This rendering is countenanced by the LXX., both here and at Hosea 5:5 ; while Rashi says, "The verb עגה has the meaning of "humiliation." For all this . This emphasizes the obstinate blindness and perverseness of Ephraim, when, amid all the calamities and miseries of the kingdom both within and without, they turned not to Jehovah to solicit help and deliverance, but concluded treaties or made alliances with foreign nations in hope of being lifted up out of their national impotence.

"And the pride of Israel beareth witness to his face, and they are not converted to Jehovah their God, and for all this they seek Him not." The first clause is repeated from Hosea 5:5 . The testimony which the pride of Israel, i.e., Jehovah, bore to its face, consisted in the weakening and wasting away of the kingdom as described in Hosea 7:9 . But with all this, they do not turn to the Lord who could save them, but seek help from their natural foes.