There were tokens of approaching ruin, as grey hairs are of old age, but they noticed them not. Hosea 1:6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. Or as those in Nahum, Nahum 3:13, Their "men shall be as women," Aχηιδες ουκετ Aχαιοι, (a) timorous and cowardly, like Issachar’s ass, Genesis 49:14 (whose lot fell in Galilee, Joshua 19:18), or those fugitives of Ephraim, 12:4, that therefore bare a brand of dishonour, because they would not rather die bravely than live basely. “I will no more show mercy to the house of Israel, Will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.” No material force can deliver the soul from its spiritual difficulties and perils. Verse 3. There is a time for the decree to come forth against a kingdom; a time when, though Noah, Job, and Daniel should stand before Him, yet He will not be entreated; though they cry, cry early, cry aloud, cry with tears, cry with fasting, yet God will not be entreated. Hosea 1:7. However one seeks to wrestle a word of good news from these two excerpts from Hosea one cannot escape the end of the narrative for Israel expressed in 2 Kings 17:6 (“The king of Assyria captured Samaria; he carried the Israelites away to Assyria”). Hosea 1:6. Certain it is that we have hitherto subsisted by a miracle of his mercy, and by a prop of his extraordinary patience. I am satisfied with the meaning, to take, but I understand it in the sense of taking away. The Chaldean paraphraser wholly departs from this meaning, for he renders the clause, “By sparing, I will spare them.” There is no reason for this; for God, as the context clearly shows, does not yet promise pardon to them; this meaning, then, cannot stand. Thus it hath been through the long series of two thousand four hundred years and more. The Prophet shows in this verse that things were become worse and worse in the kingdom of Israel, that they sinned, keeping within no limits, that they rushed headlong into the extremes of impiety. And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. Hosea began service as a prophet about 750 B.C. Vade frater in cellam et dic, Miserere mei Deus, Brother, go into thy cell, and say, Lord, have mercy upon me, said Crantzius to Luther, when he began to declaim against the pope, for he looked upon him as an undone man, and yet he was not (Scaltet. Learn more. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great b … Chapter 4. Israel, as a kingdom, was never restored from Assyria, as Judah was from Babylon after 70 years. Ye are then the offspring of debauchery.” But he now goes farther and says, that as time advanced, they had ever been falling into a worse state; for this word, Loruchamah, is a more disgraceful name than Jezreel: and the Lord also denounces here his vengeance more openly, when he says. Commentary on Hosea 6:1-6; 11:1-9 . Calvin's To the Reader. After some time Gomer bore Hosea a daughter. God’s mercy goes often times in Scripture bounded by his truth: and as the same fire hath burning heat and cheerful light, so hath God plagues for the obstinate and mercy for the penitent. Some have considered this an unimportant variation, pointing to the economy of words in the narrative and the obvious purpose of focusing attention upon the symbolical names of the children; but the very names given by the Lord to the last two children certainly raise the question of their true father, especially in connection with the fact that "children of whoredom" were prophesied from the very first. “The eldest,” says Bishop Horsley, “I think, was the prophet’s son; but the last two were both bastards. I will no more have mercy] Heb., I will add no more to show mercy: but my so often abused mercy shall turn into fury. (1b) The times Hosea lived in. Chapter 7. 2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. That last letter in God’s name had need to be well remembered, Exodus 34:7, "He will by no means clear the guilty." , as some render it, and remember them no more, till the fulness of time comes: or, "through pardoning I have pardoned", or "spared them"F25"Quamvis omnino condonaverim eis", Piscator; "quamvis haetenus condonando condonaverim eis", so some in Drusius.